Map idea, thoughts?

[Cat1981England]

Hello boys and girls.

I've got an idea in my head for an ONS map which i intend to work on over the next few months. I've never made a map for UT (or even a 3D map) so I'd appreciate any advice, ideas etc anyone could offer.

Basicly it's a small map of Europe.



Reds would start in Russia and Blues probably in Spain which would obviously hint to Nato and the Warsaw pact. Nodes would be placed on the location of a handful of major cities, depending on map balance, with a miniature icon from that city near the node. So a small Eiffel tower if there's a node near Paris for example.

I would like to make use of the European landscape so two sides to have different advantages and disadvantages. The flat East European Plain would be fast and open with a few boost jumps and or translocator to help players on foot while the vehicles would predominately/all be Scorpions and Mantas. Western Europe would have slow rolling hills, no boost jumps or translocators but the nodes would be closer together. The vehicles would predominately/all be Hellbenders and Tanks. I would like to have an area which promotes a bit of DM and Italy with the Alps to it's north and the Dinarides to the east plus a forested Scandinavia seem like the perfect locations. Both would give the players the only access to certain weapons such as shock rifle, sniper rifle and mines on the map. The key area of the map would be Germany with two nodes representing East and West Germany. This wouldn't be a choke point but certainly a busy area. Although I'm not keen on the idea of having Raptors on this map, as it would get people off the ground and away from the map, having one or two here would give teams a tactical advantage.

I'll be making this map for CEONSS so there will be a max of 32 player min of 12, with around 20 most nights, so I'm thinking it would be slightly smaller then say, Dria. Fog would be quite heavy so everyone can play it regardless of their system specs. What i would like in the end is a map which has some relevance to the real world, has two distinct teams but is still balanced (i realise this will be hard), tests players DM and vehicle skills on one map, is tactical and promotes teamwork. Basically the best team wins rather then the best team of individuals.

Thanks for reading. Any tips, advice, ideas welcome.

[lilalurl]

That's an interesting idea. It sure would bring a different gameplay (asymetrical and quite different sides + heavy fog).


If you have time and will, you can watch the 3D Buzz videos about UT2004 level creation (I hope the link will work. Otherwise go to Game Dev/Unreal/UT2k3/2k4):
http://www.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/sv_videon ... e94cba15ce

Otherwise, there are some written tutorials scattered on the Internet (I'll try to find some links if you are interested. Hoping they are still online). Angel Mapper's tuts are quite good for getting the grips of UnrealEd:
http://www.angelmapper.com/gamedev/tuto ... orials.htm

As you expect, good balance might be hard to obtain but that an be done through various revisions.

IMO (based on what I understand from your post) most of your time will be spent editing the terrain to try and make it look like actual Europe, so pay special attention to the tutorials on that matter.
As you have predefined shape for the terrain, perhaps creating the terrain from a height map texture might the best option ( http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Cre ... ap_Texture ). However, you should first learn the basics of terrain editing so that you can make any modification when needed.


Have you a precise idea about what "cities" would be? Just a node? Or several buildings? Depending on the choice it will give different gameplay and performance.
Also you will need to make some choices for things like the Alps. Will these be some "hills" (you can walk on, even if you take some time) or "mountains" (you need to make a detour because they are too steep to walk/jump on).

Things can be altered at will, but if you can get most of the details ironed out before starting the actual work in the editor things should be far more easier for you (contrary to doing some work, then get stuck because of something you had not planned, resuming work, getting stuck again etc....).


Finally, if you ever have questions despite the tutorials and nobody here can help, the best place today to receive some help (seeing how many mappers are currently active) is the Epic forums, level editing section:
http://forums.epicgames.com/forums/249- ... -2003-2004

[Cat1981England]

Hey Lil, thanks for all the links and info

It will take time just to learn how to map properly, so i plan to watch and read a few tutorials then try and build a few basic maps before i start the actual map itself. The plan in my head is to build the landscape first so that it looks like Europe, then start to place the nodes and begin balancing the map. Once that is done i will start to make it look pretty, then some final tweaking.

The cities would be just a node plus one building to indicate where it is. So if the Blue main node is roughly where Madrid is, i would have Royal Palace of Madrid and thats it near the node etc. The Alps would be too steep for a manta to get up to create a DM area. Boost jumps at the base of the mountains would allow people to get into Italy and give players sniper spots over looking Germany. Scandinavia is the same idea but with trees.

[7homasito]

really like the idea cat!

but don't forget about the water and fjords in scandinavia... the mountains also look totally different compared to the alps - they are cliffs with lots of vertical drops.
an oilrig at norway standing for the country could also be nice....

what a don't like that much is that you only want to put one building next to the nodes... at least include some ruins as well for cover!
but if I think of spain, I think of towns with small streets and even smaller backstreets...

in italy for example, just screw the geographical correctness and put the tower of pisa next to the colosseum.

what about a tunnel that connects western germany with the GDR?



just some ideas... there will be some time left I guess

good luck and don't lose the motivation in between! this map could become epic

[borgqueenx]

Hello boys and girls.

I've got an idea in my head for an ONS map which i intend to work on over the next few months. I've never made a map for UT (or even a 3D map) so I'd appreciate any advice, ideas etc anyone could offer.

Basicly it's a small map of Europe.



Reds would start in Russia and Blues probably in Spain which would obviously hint to Nato and the Warsaw pact. Nodes would be placed on the location of a handful of major cities, depending on map balance, with a miniature icon from that city near the node. So a small Eiffel tower if there's a node near Paris for example.

I would like to make use of the European landscape so two sides to have different advantages and disadvantages. The flat East European Plain would be fast and open with a few boost jumps and or translocator to help players on foot while the vehicles would predominately/all be Scorpions and Mantas. Western Europe would have slow rolling hills, no boost jumps or translocators but the nodes would be closer together. The vehicles would predominately/all be Hellbenders and Tanks. I would like to have an area which promotes a bit of DM and Italy with the Alps to it's north and the Dinarides to the east plus a forested Scandinavia seem like the perfect locations. Both would give the players the only access to certain weapons such as shock rifle, sniper rifle and mines on the map. The key area of the map would be Germany with two nodes representing East and West Germany. This wouldn't be a choke point but certainly a busy area. Although I'm not keen on the idea of having Raptors on this map, as it would get people off the ground and away from the map, having one or two here would give teams a tactical advantage.

I'll be making this map for CEONSS so there will be a max of 32 player min of 12, with around 20 most nights, so I'm thinking it would be slightly smaller then say, Dria. Fog would be quite heavy so everyone can play it regardless of their system specs. What i would like in the end is a map which has some relevance to the real world, has two distinct teams but is still balanced (i realise this will be hard), tests players DM and vehicle skills on one map, is tactical and promotes teamwork. Basically the best team wins rather then the best team of individuals.

Thanks for reading. Any tips, advice, ideas welcome.

Europe? Meh, then you would fly over a country with a manta in max 10 secs.. Dont do it i say. Rather make something else creative as a map
Imo, you cant get it done nicely that it actually gives the feeling that you fly and fight in europe.

[RottenToTheCore]

what about a tunnel that connects western germany with the GDR?

:greengrin:

/agree

[Ilblog]

The Office map could be great for UT2004. Of course to have some fun, the players would be midets like in the MAster Bathroom.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/25/video- ... ource-map/

[Crusha K. Rool]

I have been thinking about the Europe map you mentioned long time ago already, when I was starting to get into mapping. Do it!