Game Flow of rooms?

[M&m&M]

Reading the mapping guide and the forum, I've got more questions than ideas.

For Tremulous:


1. Symmetrical is Bad?  (human bases and human-favored areas are completely different from aliens's ones).  So if I make a yin-yang flow path, my map will flop?

2. What would a S1-Humans favored map area look like?  (Other than "long, straight hallways, with some ledges, minimal Z-axis height)

3. S2-Humans?

4. S3-Humans?

5,6,7 same for the Aliens


What would a Basilisk-favored area look like?  (I'd think one with highly vaulted (two-story+), irregular ceilings

Marauders of course favor a Mario-esque  3D platform, and any arena more than 1 story tall.  Anything else?

Tyrants like what S1 humans like, but anything else?

Dragoons pretty much like everything, but favor twisting corridors?


Should a map have lots of secret highways for Aliens to reach everywhere, or more limited, secret alcoves?

Are humans's ideal bases tight alcoves and half-room height barricades, or can they build up on say on a pyramid or steep hill?

What would a completely neutral map area look like (one that didn't favor any side)?

and back to real Game flow,
 What is an idea number of rooms for say 5,10, 15, 20 players per side?

What would be a 'perfect' game flow?  Or what's your favorite game flow diagram?

[Plague Bringer]

1. Symmetrical is Bad?  (human bases and human-favored areas are completely different from aliens's ones).  So if I make a yin-yang flow path, my map will flop?

2. What would a S1-Humans favored map area look like?  (Other than "long, straight hallways, with some ledges, minimal Z-axis height)

3. S2-Humans?

4. S3-Humans?

5,6,7 same for the Aliens


What would a Basilisk-favored area look like?  (I'd think one with highly vaulted (two-story+), irregular ceilings

Marauders of course favor a Mario-esque  3D platform, and any arena more than 1 story tall.  Anything else?

Tyrants like what S1 humans like, but anything else?

Dragoons pretty much like everything, but favor twisting corridors?


Should a map have lots of secret highways for Aliens to reach everywhere, or more limited, secret alcoves?

Are humans's ideal bases tight alcoves and half-room height barricades, or can they build up on say on a pyramid or steep hill?

What would a completely neutral map area look like (one that didn't favor any side)?

1. Mirrored maps are, for the most part, dependant on the players to determine the win, not the bases, ATCS and UTCS, no matter how good the base is, it can go down if noone is there to scare off the attacker. Maps that arent mirrored tend to favor aliens, simpily because humans can get lost (think Marsbase) and humans are dependant on their base for everything, if you leave camp in Marsbase as a human (unless it's the search for the last alien) you might aswell not hope to make it back. The same goes for Ancient Remains, the small hallways are perfect for Tyrants to get around in.

2. Ever see a human base go up in the Four-Door Room of Niveus? It's impenetrable with four turrets and a tesla in the middle, the reactor is hidden away in a side room along with the DefCom, Armoury, and Telenodes, everything's out of sight. Humans need killzones for an effective base. Aliens dont know which of the four turrets to attack, and by the time they decide, they're near dead, also, only one alien can fit in at a time.

3. S2 humans want alot of movement in the Z-Axis, so much that they cant be pounced by a dragoon. A map that would truely favor S2 humans would be an open area where advanced dragoons have to pounce and then snipe to make a hit, but that would be unbalanced.

4. S3 humans want small halls where they can take down a running tyrant or dragoon without moving an inch, they also want small vents like in arachnid so they can retreat if their base gets eaten.

5. S1 aliens want smooth walls and ceilings with dretch wallpaper so they can camoflauge! Okay, seriously now. S1 aliens want to be able to sneak up on that human. Watching a demo of mine in theBunker (I hope you've played it so you'll know what I mean) I left the human base into the empty room with catwalks and a ladder in the corner. I got bitten while climbing the ladder. When i watched the demo, I saw a dretch sitting right there on the catwalk, I was completely oblivious to it in-game!

6. S2 aliens want Marauder friendly areas small halls that aren't too smalls and big halls that arent too big. Smooth ceilings with nothing to hit your head on and lots of places to retreat.

7. S3 aliens want Dragoon friendly areas, and Tyrant friendly areas. These collide, as dragoons want straight hallways with only Z-axis differences, and Tyrants want to zip around corners so that they cant be hit.

As a Basilisk (when I decide i'm ready to get pwnt in an attempt to train), I enjoy camping above a door or in a hidden vent in the ceiling, when I see a careless, lone human run by, I'll let go of my wall and kill him. Basilisk's do not like getting shot at, their hp goes down quicker than a Dretch's because of their size. There are no advanced Basilisk friendly areas. They're too big for normal sized vents, helmets make the Basilisk's gas attack obsolete, and helmeted humans know when there's a Basilisk camping a door.

I'll tell you what Marauders don't enjoy, bumping their heads on lights, falling into a pit and attempting to escape to an area that's difficult to walljump to.

For Tyrants and Dragoons, see 7.

[Lava Croft]

Look at the Alien base in Sokolov's Space for pure otherworldy ownage.

[Survivor]

1. Symmetrical is Bad?  (human bases and human-favored areas are completely different from aliens's ones).  So if I make a yin-yang flow path, my map will flop?

Symmetrical aren't necessarily bad, but they are hard to make good because of what you mentioned.
It is possible to make a good symmetrical map in which you incorporate advantage for both sides in all areas but due to this most maps remain small since it is hard to keep that balance.

2. What would a S1-Humans favored map area look like?  (Other than "long, straight hallways, with some ledges, minimal Z-axis height)

It mostly depends on the team. A pretty unexperienced team would prefer very long length and not wide while a more experienced team would go for a bit shorter and wider because they can dodge and dance around aliens in that way.

3. S2-Humans?

S2-Humans own any map really, they have jetpack, grenade, pulse and helmet. Unless aliens are really good they should have little problems in any location except in a heavily defended alien base or up against s3 aliens.

4. S3-Humans?

Base destroyers, They do not get any real advantage over S2 if you look towards maps. BS hate vents, that's the only thing I can say.

5,6,7 same for the Aliens

5. Turning hallways and spots to hide eggs on the ground with reasonably high ceilings but not so high that they are vulnerable to md fire when dropping from it. Also vents between areas for escaping humans.

6. Enough diagonal areas which provide good line of fire for trappers and some nice places up high which can't be shot from afar.

7. Big maps, they love to retreat in them and hide to get their hp up. An anti-example is atcs. There aliens are pretty predictable and easy to find. If the humans get the overhand they can go straight to alien base.

What would a Basilisk-favored area look like?  (I'd think one with highly vaulted (two-story+), irregular ceilings

The basilisk works best when coming from thus the ideal are for basilisks are intersections with hiding places. Small Example; B is basi, H is human.

Code: [Select]


     | B |
___| V |____
   <------H
__________


Marauders of course favor a Mario-esque  3D platform, and any arena more than 1 story tall.  Anything else?

They actually don't favor tight bends and turns that much, they lose a lot of momentum there, same with doors. Wide turns and walls they can jump over and human can't follow seem to be good for them

Tyrants like what S1 humans like, but anything else?

Good drops, like on niveus there is a drop going towards human base where tyrants sometimes surprise humans when they enter the door below by dropping behind them.

Dragoons pretty much like everything, but favor twisting corridors?

Dragoons prefer a turn around their target and 1 pounce length hallways to escape.

Should a map have lots of secret highways for Aliens to reach everywhere, or more limited, secret alcoves?

Not lots but there should be enough hiding places to regenerate or hide eggs without being too obvious and predictable.

Are humans's ideal bases tight alcoves and half-room height barricades, or can they build up on say on a pyramid or steep hill?

An ideal human base is a dead end u-turn with possible enough height difference to not allow tyrants to rush and not enough length for goons to snipe.

What would a completely neutral map area look like (one that didn't favor any side)?

It depends too much on teams so that is pretty much undefinable. Just make sure both teams have a reasonable chance of survivable during base defense.

and back to real Game flow,
 What is an idea number of rooms for say 5,10, 15, 20 players per side?

depends on the size of the rooms atcs is good for 5, niveus 5 to 10 while arachnid optimally supports 10. Transit is so large 10 to 20 is best.

What would be a 'perfect' game flow?  Or what's your favorite game flow diagram?

There is no perfect game flow, you can offer a lot of tactics but if the players don't use them your gameflow breaks down. As an effect you should try to give players reasons to use ALL areas of a map.

[Stof]

If possible, if the map isn't too small, include spots protected against the bigger aliens. Not talking about base spots mind you but about zones the bigger aliens cannot reach easily or cannot reach at all. Things like a broken door that only allows a crouching human but will force Tyrant and goons to walk the long way, small spots behind crates that humans can hide behind ( but not IN the alien base )

And on the other hand, avoid absolutly to place spots where aliens can hide perfectly from S1 humans for various reasons.

[DASPRiD]

And please, no areas for human bases where goons and tyrants cannot get in.

[Stof]

And please, no areas for human bases where goons and tyrants cannot get in.

Yeah, this is important : I wasn't talking about base spots at all before! No base spots should be protected both against Tyrants and against Adv Goons. Ever. Unless that base spot is weak againt basilisks of course

[Plague Bringer]

such as the vents above alien base in Arachnid, I joined a late game and the humans magaged to pull of a move into there with their last builder! we held off for a good 10-15 minutes but then a basilisk got in, took out our nodes, and the last builder got mauled it was a beautiful base too! AMAZING the amount of skill to get a reactor, node, armoury, and medi in there without the aliens noticing though!

[techhead]

Adv. Mara's can deal with one of those pretty effectively, as they can pretty much walk right through those vents.