Planning and greyboxing

The next stage was to start greyboxing the level. First though i needed to draw up some floor plans, and think about the layout of the map. A usefull article for this was Cliff Bleszinkis peice on rules and general tips to follow when thinking about creating a balanced map.

Ive selected a few of the most relevent and important things he says, and will breifly talk about them in relation to my project.

Misc. Design Tips

- Put more valuable weapons like the Flak and Rocket Launcher in higher risk areas. Try to space the weapons as evenly as possible; make sure the 'great' weapons are at opposite ends of the map so that players have to 'run the map' in order to control it. the same goes for powerups.
(I tried to make each end of the map offer the same amount of vamtage points and areas in which weapons pickups can be placed. When i come to decide upon the final weapon placements i will bear in mind the accessiblity to the more powerful weapons from both teams perscpectives and make sure it offers a balanced oppurtunity to grab the more powerful weapons.)

- There is a direct correlation between the sixe of an area and what weapons are effective in this area. Tighter aeas make the flak more valuable, more poen areas make the sniper rifle and minigun better.

(My map offers both of these types of areas. The atrium is a large open space, whereas there are many tight corridors running down both sides. To make sure that players dont feel enclosed in these corridors, i shall try to make sure that there are frequent escape routes back out into the atrium, so that the players dont feel too vulnerable once they decide to turn down one of the corridors. If a corridor is too long players will feel at risk of enclosure and easy death from enemies with Rocket Launchers in these areas. Conversely a player could abusee this advantage and 'camp' in the tight corridor areas waiting for people to venture down.)

- The location of playerstart, or spawn points should not be an obvious thing to players. This encourages spawn killing and Bleszinki admits it was a mistake he made in one of his early games 'Elsinore'. 

(Each 'base' will offer enough room to vary the spawn points. I will make sure that these spawns arnt in obvious places like in corners of rooms or in front of doorways. The more variation there is in spawn points, the harder it is for the poosing team to predict the spawning pattern and exploit it.) 

- Try to avoid 'room, corridor, room' syndrome. Try to make your rooms interlock nicely with one another. Remember a good map is always returning back into itself. Good DM levels have multiple entry and exit points to each room. Dead ends should be avoided. Good DM levels also have a lot of variation in height so your constantly above or below your opponent.

(In my map, the atrium offers a variation in height. To make the most of this height difference, as well as prevent the 'room, corridor, room' effect, i will try and make sure the player always has an access route back to this area not too far away, whether it be a balcony outlooking the atrium or a doorway, or a hole that has been blasted in a wall, providing the player with an unconventional route out of the room he is in. 

 I shall add the entire document soon. He also talks about Sound, Lighting and things to consider when creating a CTF map.