First of all I would like to thank ALL custom mappers for their contributions to the community…
That being said I would like to say that mappers need to stop making large maps if they are intended for small player counts. Special care needs to be taken to balance a 64 player map.
Take tank for examle…large but not too large. Tank still is screwed though because of spawn placement, spawn point count, and routes to allied obj are wayyyyy too small and limited. It is a fun map for 30 players and under but now that everyone knows the map, and it is full all the time, the allies win 98%+ of the time.
I was gonna post something like what Shitkicker (owner of the happy penguin 64 player servers)posted on his site…but I will just copy it cause he says it best…
http://oregano.zianet.com/wolfenstein/
So if you have a large map in the works or are thinking about changing your current map to a REAL 64 player format please read the following:
I decided to type up this list of things that I look for in a map before I will put them on the servers because I see map after map come out that would be would be great maps except they are always missing something. If a map author would like to have what I think makes a successful map they should note the following. Take into note that my thoughts on a good map come from a perspective of a 64 player server. I do not list these in any particular order.
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Map should be dual objective. This is essential for large servers because it forces the players to spread out across the level with some being on offence and some being on defence instead of an entire team being clustered on defence at the objective. Plus dual objective allows for some nice long games. It equally gives the players a choice in what they want to do in the game, whether it be just hang out at their objective and defend or throw themeselves in the frenzy of offence. There are very well designed maps out there that I will not leave on the server for any great length of time simply because they are single objective. Maps like Operation Twilight and Interception.
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Map should be big enough. The map should be large enough to accomodate 64 players but not so big it takes 10 minutes to get across the level(Keep the Faith). If you want to get a idea for the scale look at maps like Tank, or Normandy Breakout.
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Map should have enough spawn points. I can’t tell you the number of maps that have I have been totally been put off by a map because I spawn in a stack of 20 teamates and it takes 30 seconds just to get unraveled. This is stupid and is easily fixed by just adding more points.
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Map should have spawns a reasonable distance from their own objectives. This is one of the things that I don’t like about maps like Tank. The allies spawn right outside the document room and it is difficult to get in and out of there without ending up in a pack of newly spawned allies. Create spawn points a good sprints worth distance away.
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Map should have multiple paths to objectives.
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Map should be light enough. Nothing sucks worse then not being able to see where you are going or who you are shooting. Maps can still be created with some areas darker then others but there should be a balance.
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Map should have a variety of locations. A map should have some stategic locations for specific classes. Example: Some wide open outside space for snipers, some close inside spaces for the flame throwers. Don’t make a map that just totally favors one class over the other. Maps like Marketgarden are way to open and the lieutenants just clean up with airstrikes.
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Maps should be resistant to blockers. Make multiple doors out of spawn areas and make them large enought to fit two people through. I would also like to see maps that have some resistance to spawn killing. Make it so the enemy doesn’t have a clear shot into the spawn and the enemy can’t ever actually get into their spawn. Though I don’t care about spawn killing that much it should take some work for the enemy to do it.
Well thats all I can think of at the moment but if I think of anything else I will add it to the list.
P.s If anyone knows Bad Idea the author of Tank we are trying to get a hold of him. We want to convince him to make, or let us make a SE version of tank.
Cheers :drink: