Mapping Ideas

It's also possible to make certain doors open and close if it's a 1v1, 2v2, or 4v4. Make the door triggered so that if the map detects less than 10 players, the door will remained closed. Useful so that a certain map disallows RPGs in a 1v1 but allows it for 5v5s.

Great ideas guys.

Imma have to think about it, see if I can remember any ideas I had. Anyone else got cool ideas they want to share?

I have several new and old-but-true flavors being added into my king_air to make it delicious.

You can make special floors I like to call "water floors", which I will implement in king_air. Basically, it's a floor with the texture playerclip and water beneath it. If the water's deep enough, any explosion that takes place in the water will not harm you at all. This means RPGs and SMG nades won't hurt you at all if they hit the water instead of hitting you directly or a nearby wall/solid surface. It's a great thing to use on choke points but kinda makes the map look unrealistic. You'll also want to add a func_illusionary with a texture like the Combine Web to make it look like you're not levitating on the water.

Jump pads will be a fundamental tool in king_air.

"Skating rinks", as I like to call them in ctf_revolution, will be back for king_air. Basically, they're a one-way lane that increases your speed as you keep jumping on them, allowing for even 1000 velocity if long enough. Of course, these should be reserved for relatively large maps or otherwise be quite small, but they're quite fun and practical if positioned correctly. Basically, it's a floor with a very small trigger_push laid down on them. If used in conjunction with the water floor, it could look quite awesome and basically be a speed booster immune to explosives.

Speed pipes, also from ctf_revolution, are being put into consideration but will not likely come back in king_air. These are pipes that push you into a teleporter, then push you out to another pipe. If used in conjunction with bunny hopping and such, you can reach insane velocities like 800.

Ramp jumping is a hardly used technique since most maps don't quite aim for that. Player-clipping stairs into maps makes for smoother movement and allows ramp jumping. You could reach heights you normally can not with a crouch-jump. For example, you could place a 64-height platform next to a ramp so that pro jumpers can quickly get on it faster than others. The problem is that this creates a disadvantage to spacebar bunny hoppers (I seriously don't get how they do it), so you may want to take that into consideration. Don't overdo it either because it's not always consistent.

Make environments for every weapon to shine in (except for the Pistol and maybe melee weapons, the first being a lost cause). An abundance of props help the Gravity Gun but limits movement as you add more. If you don't have too many props, you better add a few darn useful ones like in most CTF maps, which have the versatile radiators and explosive barrels scattered around. Adding fences and grates negate RPGs, orbs, and explosives, as seen in ctf_revolution. Of course, if you add a little space underneath, RPGs and orbs can still pass but will require to crouch and aim a bit more, adding more skill to these otherwise spam-happy weapons. Having glass windows with space under them, like in the middle of ctf_revolution, disables most hit-scan weapons but allows for XBow bouncing and Grav Nading. Confined spaces will allow orbs to shine, but open out-door environments make them almost useless, although their ability to track and go extremely fast proves deadly if you ricochet them off a nearby wall to an unsuspecting player. The RPG is nullified if there's a lot of aerial gameplay, which is key to king_air with it's multiple speed boosters and jump pads. Magnum shines in all ranges, really. Shotguns love confined spaces that limit your enemy's movement. SLAMs, eh, they work anywhere that makes you feel claustrophobic.

Map balancing is most important. It's all made by structure, careful weapon placement, spawn points, item/health distribution methods and places (chargers or items), and other such things. Of course, adding too many "high-skilled" things into your map may scare some noobs away, so you might want to balance not only gameplay, but accessibility as well. If your map is gonna have tons of whacky bunny hop improvers and jump pads, include some basic terrain where just pure footwork will serve you well and a few paths for these guys unless you don't really mind noobs not enjoying your map.

Scar and Tuna can vouch for me on these things.

Charles wrote:It's also possible to make certain doors open and close if it's a 1v1, 2v2, or 4v4. Make the door triggered so that if the map detects less than 10 players, the door will remained closed. Useful so that a certain map disallows RPGs in a 1v1 but allows it for 5v5s.

Now that would be cool, kinda of similar to the crow bar pit on dm_babylon_sanctuary where if 2 people stand in the centre square at the same time they fall through the floor and end up in a room together with only a crow bar to defend them selfs..........actually it's not really that similar

Charles' idea about closed areas with player limits sounds pretty cool. It would actually work if done right too.

@Holy:

The whole lockdown railing thing is being implemented in my map already making for faster paced play and more precision in movement. Things like that single rail on lockdown that can be bounced off of into the charger room is pretty much luck. Not one person that i know of can do it consistently and when it does happen its usuaully when you dont want it to. Also, planning such things can make maps a disaster cause no one will understand how to play the map. Lockdown was one of those maps that just happened to be fucking amazing for hl2 competitive play. All the xbow bounces...not planned. That map was just halls and corners to valve. I personally would like to see more maps kinda designed around such things, but you have to leave room for the noobs too.

I've seen a few maps where surfing was implemented into the map. One of them being dm_tigcrik_r2. Whether it was done on purpose or not, I do think ko-tao smoothed a wall out to surf on. How worthy it would be, not much but i think it would be cool if people could start including such things to make maps more interesting/fun to play. Like Ko-Tao once told me: "This game has a large learning curve, but a low ceiling." So, I think that mappers could increase that ceiling by including much more advanced techniques in their maps but also leave room for the nubbly-wubblys too.

Hmm, surfing.

=/

or at least fix them xD here you go

Some Random Good Player wrote:(Talking to aXon.|Punk) Everyone looks terrible on aim arena compared to Bad Influence

Ko-Tao wrote:(Talking about making aim arena CAL map) yes, ill just click my h33ls together 3 times and say, theres no place like aim and omfg, map complete!

Thanks.

xD

badinfluence wrote:Hmm, surfing.

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Was it not you that wanted to have a 24/7 surf server? hahaha