What do people want in a map?

[Dynadin]

I am by no means an experienced mapped but ... I am coming near to the end of my current map. So what about this: What do people want in a map? I need something I can dedicate myself to, to take up my time (lost my damned job, and there is only so much time I can spend tooking for a new one) So ... what do people want in a map? What theme? What hides? How much adrenaline and health and where? What size? Leave your views here and however it ends up I will attempt to make a map that is community based. I will collate the results into five top ideas and then put them on a poll to see which is the mosted voted. You have one week from now ... go!

Thanks for your time.

Dynadin

[Blood Asp]

On Theme structure anything is acceptable, its dependent on the mapper and what he is most compatible to in his design, i am a better high tech designer than ancient designer therefore i find it more efficient i design things on the high tech front. I Think a map should have a few dangers e.g. water zones that you can fall into, and other things like unbalanced terrain/floors so that you never quite know whats round the corner, gives that better form of being able to never know what will happen when you walk around :p Besides i am sure that monsters wouldnt invade a big white box that a bunch of people somehow entered.
Anyways i think a map should have unpredictability, e.g. monsters not spawning in obvious locations so you can near enough just spawnkill them, and plenty of things to go wrong whilst ur attacking things ;) makes it harder for those noob adrenalin masters who just invul all game *No offence "noob adrenalin masters" :P hehe

Anyways yea, i think a map should just be unpredictable and a good challenge without being impossible :)

Peace
RM

[DW_Ant]

Something worth looking at.

[Skyline]

Most of all I'd like to see new stuff being tried out. New maps nowadays are no different to maps which came out two years ago. It's a shame so many run to the same formula: basic architecture, lots of adren, stock pickups and weaponry, bland 'secrets'... perhaps it's time for something new?

[Anonymouse]

I'd like a challenging secret room (no button combos, but buttons to open certain places would be fun) with a minidamage, speedy adren, a custom weapon or 2, and secrets within secrets :sinlove:

[DW_WailofSuicide]

I want to be able to move around the level in interesting ways -- Lift jumps, wall dodges, dodge ramps. If I have to translocate everywhere in your map, if it's a wide open plain with no elevation changes, or if it's a box -- Probably boring. Being able to move around into different areas and not just having one "arena" is a lot more entertaining.

Don't place all the weapons in one spot. You should aim to have at least 3 different spots on the map that people have to travel to get all the weapons they want, IMO. This promotes movement through the map and is good. Putting MP5 in one spot, Flak in the next, Shock and Mines in the next is going to give you something to fight with that's pretty good, but you might have to risk moving around to get back to another weapon pickup.

Do not create "A" safe area. Try and make a couple different (2 minimum) locations where players can attack from without being totally exposed. At the same time, it really kind of sucks when players are locked in a room and monsters literally cannot get to them. There really should be a risk of monsters getting in and slaughtering everyone if you don't take down the right targets.
For an example of "safe but not totally safe" I would point to Aswan -- This map is a bit overloaded with adren, and the mine layer is probably inappropriate on such a small map. But in general, the locations where players fight from are protected but not entirely safe. That's a lot more interesting than say, TehLaboratory where you get people link chaining out of 2 windows designed to prevent monsters from being able to hit you.

[Seven_of_69]

... i am sure that monsters wouldnt invade a big white box that a bunch of people somehow entered.

Cube 2: Hypercube! How about that but Invasion style? :sgiggle:

As for adren pills, put in enough so that people have to get most of their adren from killing monsters, e.g. no more adren than maps like Deep Violet, Akbal, and Campgrounds. If people play a map and complain that there isn't enough adren, then that's the proper amount. :sbigsmile:

A secret room isn't necessary but if you want something different, then a secret room should reward the finder with a sign that says something like "Congratulations, you found the secret room! If you want loads of adrenaline, then go out and shoot some monsters!"

As for something completely different, how about making a translocator-less map? I don't know if it's even possible but it's probably never been done. A Z-axis map (i.e. lots of vertical movement) without a translocator would be interesting. First of all you'd need jump pads and lifts so all areas would be reachable. Not all the jump pads would need to be vertical. Something unheard of in MM maps are the diagonal jump pads which are often in Onslaught maps. Plus the flight boots and weapons, and maybe even the electromagnet, would allow all areas to be reached.

The map doesn't have to be super hard, otherwise it will rarely get played. It's too bad you can't build something into a map such that the more often it's won, the harder it will be the next time. :sevilgrin:

[Aravona]

Weeeelll. Theres lots of things that makes a map good. The layout of rooms, position of weapons and pick ups etc, secrets that are pretty hard to find (i.e some nice person has to show you or you find it by comeplete accident)

Theme, is choice. I like both futuristic and old style maps - so long as they're not to open, or not too clustered. There should be enough adren for people to grab some to top up - people who stand on it for the whole map are quite annoying, you get it faster by getting a multi-kill than waiting on a 30 second spawn. Even low levels should be able to get adren from killing, but they'd be the ones needing more at higher waves. (with 105 adren, 1 big adren pick up and I'm done lol). There should be a couple of health things about, but with good medics and boosters a couple really is a couple :P

I like Anonymouse's idea of custom weps. And scripted triggers to make the map more interesting is always good. Also agree with the ideas about not transing around a map. There is a flight weapon and a flight enchanment for a reason and they dont get used very much. (eg. in the Kitchen - with a force trans you can go from floor to roof in one click if you aim right... makes it a bit easy! on the other hand, Karma's diner... flight is essential ;) )