I managed to get a working idea of a small map. Around 15-25 minutes long, and good for everyone to play. I'll give a detailed write-up once I finalize the map.
i drew this, maybe not a 'small' map, but it could be played with less than 10 per side link to gallery with other images of this map http://img204.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=55584528.png i was thinking cyber or flounder or grizzley have the city-making skills for this, just throwing it out there to see if anyone likes it.
Small maps are needed. Many times servers have a few players and then a huge map comes on and they leave. The only maps we have at this point for a few players are, district, money, crossroads and possibly urbanchaos. I put on district when there are a few players and it usually helps get the server populated. But if no more players join, having more small maps to vote for for nextmap would keep them in servers and eventually the servers would become more populated. Right now we usually have one or two servers with all the players, because the small group leaves to join the more popluated ones, because most of the maps are too big for just a few.
I suppose I could maybe cut out most of king and make it into a sort of linear capture map. A few people have suggested it to me. If we keep the three flags in the city, replace the centre refinery with a cappable radar (which would give you vehicle detection all along the city) and then re-add a trench system at either entrance, that gives you five flags total. I could block off the other exits and put a few buildings in the exterior area, or possibly keep the S bend in and put the base on the other side but that might be unneccesary. As I'm removing the rest of the map I can add more detail to the city, more cover etc and probably better visuals, some particle effects and whatnot specifically bespoke to that area, so you could probably have snow if you wanted. Seeing as it's mostly deletions t should be fairly easy to make, interest?
Even with the deletetions, that's a huge fucking map. You could create a district type of map with just the inside of that base.
It's three eights of the grid, the city is quite a bit smaller than district, it's just a bit more winding, but I think you'll find that if you have say sixteen people in there it will seem a lot smaller. Also bear in mind that the flags one and five will be entirely linear, there is only one exit from them and they will mostly be there to house the base structures, so most of the fighting will occur in one eighth of the grid, that's pretty tiny if you ask me. Of course there is a lot of terrain in that one eighth so the map would probably scale up quite nicely, I'd say it could hold up to fourty eight players at a stretch and still play OK because there's two fighting routes in the city. The main point is that there is not much actual ground to cover, you can get from one end to the other quite quickly, and there are no refs to build. I'll probably need to knock some holes in the walls to even the sides out a bit, and maybe to allow better access, but other than that it should be OK. Although, it does still have issues with it that I was going to fix for king 2, namely I think people find it hard to navigate because you never get a real sense of the overall layout, there's nowhere you can really see an overview from... I suppose I could make a completely new city map in the new style I was planning, should be easier to navigate. I think the main thing that a 'small map' needs is not so much size, but the lack of classic gameplay elements. A classic map needs at least five people working constantly just to maintain it, building refs, structures, walls, capping refs etc. A cap map, especially a linear cap map needs nobody really, because you spawn from one flag and attack the next. Simple. If you include vehicles the number of people also goes down a lot, because you can play one on one vehicle combat fairly easily, and three on three is almost normal empires vehicle combat, so if you include enough res for that you should be able to make any non-classic map a 'small map'. Trouble is, I kinda want to make a non-linear cap map, linear doesn't work with the layout I want to make, but non-linear would be really cool I think.
Largest issue I have with king is that it is very much brighter and more interesting in the city than anywhere else. It's hard to play a good game on king because 90% of people are in city. Other issue is that city in itself is, litterally and not so, it's own map. I think, going with what you have, make a more direct route to each base through that tunnel, with the lake thing being a flag directly between them. Also, it might be interesting to see if you can leave the commander in the map, but leave all areas untouchable by tanks as they are, forcing an enemy team to have to have a firm grip on the enemy to win. That way the map will almost be guaranteed to go down to tickets, as having resources makes no difference. Then city, set it up with flags in each corner of the entrances (Flag 2 with spawns and a flag north of that in the corner with spawns, then flag 4 with spawns and another east of that with spawns) and then flag 3 with spawns. If res isn't going to be a major motivator, make it a ticket based map, have both teams start off with around 10 tickets, then have each flag cap give a set ticket boost for the first cap. Possibly find a way to make flag 3 give a steady stream of tickets like res, like 1 every 3 seconds or something. problem is, I don't see king ever being a small map. Small map is really a bad term to use in describing what people are looking for here. I think "Simple" is much more appropriate.
It's complex due to the vertical combat. Not very many maps in empires have that third dimension to combat, particularly as freely as you've implemented it in your city.
I didn't think anyone used the vertical areas, I only added the catwalks because I thought the NF needed a way to get across the road without getting run over, seeing as the BE side has the direct access to the crate yard, and you can climb on the crates because I thought it would be dull without it, district has that sort of vertical combat.
Last I played it was very open up top, you could practically get across the whole area without touching the ground. District has very fixed high spots with only one point of entry.
You can move about the crate yard fairly easily by using the crates but there are limitations, not all the sections are bridged and I don't think it's possible to move all the way across in one go. There's nowhere else in the city that has elevated areas except for the two NF side buildings which are connected by a raised corridor and the roof of the headquarters building which you can climb on, all the rest is ground level. There are issues with the catwalks in the NF side buildings, they're hard to see people on and very high up, but other than that it should be fine. The main difference between it and district is that district is more linear, you can use the sewers but they cross with the main area and for some reason nobody really seems to use them as much as the upper area, king has two distinct routes which don't cross, this seems to melt the brains of some players although it is far less complex than something like an NS map for example.
NS would be unfair if it was linnear though. 1 marine start with direct routes to 3 hives, and the res in between. I'm suggesting taking a similar concept of having 1 route between your main base and their main base, and then having something important the other way, whether it be a bleeder flag or what have you. or have it be the only flag with spawn points other than the start, and make all subsequent flags bleed a little from the enemy, at a slow rate, and having all 3 will culminate into a greater rate. If you leave the commander in the game, that would make for some interesting fighting, as your team would have to decide between killing the enemy through their com or through their tickets. Also, not defending one way or the other would be suicidal.
