DM-Nightwatch WIP 3

Today I added in another route to the Shock Rifle in the form of these stairs. I put it in because getting to the gun felt long winded if you spawned on the ground floor. Having another route to it makes it quicker to get to and it means that more players can be moving on their own towards at the same time, so that the gun is more in play.

The route made to feel quite secretive by using the small orange lights of the corridors and by putting in a double jump at end, so that a little bit of skill and risk is needed.

Having this new bit means there is increased risk in getting the rocket launcher, as it can be used as a sniping spot, with a direct view of the launcher. It doesn't end up feeling exploitive though, as your view from there is pretty limited.

I also made a change to this area.

Originally you could jump from the balcony in the main open area to the platform to collect the Rocket Launcher there. It was a one way route, with the idea that a player who has walked up on to the balcony can decide if they want to go for the Shock Rifle, or spend more of their time to get the Rocket Launcher. The Rocker Launcher was usually ignored in favor of the Shock Rifle, simply because you could get to it quicker.

If changed the jump so that it is a two way route, so that a player who has collected the Launcher can hop onto the balcony and use its height advantage.

I'm starting to feel happy with the layout now. After more testing I'm going to start placing down UDK art assets. I may also decide to call it finished.

DM-Nightwatch WIP 2

Today I carried on with the map by adding lighting and by assigning materials to the bsps.

What I had in mind for the lighting was to emphasise the contrast between the open, more exposed areas and the tighter, claustrophobic corridors. Open areas were lit with large and bright white lights:

Whereas the corridors and tighter areas were lit with smaller orange lights:

The idea for the visuals is that they'll be based on the Victorian period, or at least something along those lines. So in-keeping with that idea I wanted the players to feel like they were somewhat hidden when in the orange lit corridors, as if they were skulking around the alleys of a 19th Century London, and then feel exposed when out in the brightly lit open areas.

The first attempt didn't go brilliantly. I was too fixed on making the map ‘moody’, ‘atmospheric’ and a bunch of other buzzwords. I ended up forgoting something important.

The player needs to be able to see.

The spiral staircase for instance was practically pitch black, which would give those new to the map a rough, frustrating time when they try to work out what exactly they're trying to traverse.

I brightened it up a bit by putting in a dim, non-shadow casting light in the middle of the room, as a kind of local skylight.

Last post I decided to add in another area to the map, in order to get people fighting in the corridor areas.

It didn't work. Me and the Bots still ended up fighting in the same chokepoints as last time. Rarely would a player go for the UDamage positioned at the end of the area.

Because it was so far away from where the fighting was taking place, going for it seemed pointless, as by the time you've gotten back to a place where some action was happening, it had run down significantly. It also made the map felt too big. Before, matches had high action with short lulls, but now those lulls had grown.

I've made the area half the size, and made it feel quicker to collect the UDamage by placing it lower to ground level.

Playtesting this layout has shown that the bots go for the UDamage more and that the fighting has migrated more to the centre corridor rather than the corridors on either side of the map. 

I'm now in the process of tweaking some of the item placement, and I may change the layout slightly to make the Shock Rifle more accessible, as it is becoming too much of an advantage to players who spawn on the 1^st floor.

DM-Nightwatch - WIP

DM-Nightwatch in a 2-4 player deathmatch map in UDK. Due to UDKs limited item set, I kept the map small and made the power ups available (a Shield Belt and a UDamage) objectives for the players to fight over.

Something I wanted to concentrate on when making it was making sure the players come into contact with one another regularly. The map is made up of a couple of different looping routes running against one another with meet up at the above open area. Both route take players past a weapon, health pickups and a power-up.

Items are placed in a way to guide players into these loops. This Shock Rifle is here to encourage people to go down the nearby corridor.

The power-ups have been placed in enclosed alcoves to make them riskier to collect. There's less space to move about and make a larger target for a player wielding a rocket launcher.

The pillars around the outside and the fountain in the middle make sure that the players in the main area keep their distance from one another. Having lots of small pieces of cover means players will be constantly moving around trying to escape their opponents line of sight.

During the small amount of playtesting with bots I’ve done, most of the fighting took place around the chokepoints of the main area, with the corridors behind them and the staircases apparently reserved for backing away from confrontation. Personally, I would prefer the whole map to be used for fighting. I’ll try to do this by adding another open space behind the middle stair case (pictured), and move the maps UDamage to there. But this might change how the loops flow, and discourage people from climbing up the staircase to collect the Shock Rifle.

Path node placement still needs work done to it, as the bots look incapable of ascending the spiral staircase.

The next step for the map is adding the new room, and after seeing if it is a success or not, I’ll begin on the art. I'll use UDK assets to start with and if I have time I’ll do some custom textures and models.