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.