I want to make a MP map, but I do not understand the MP meta

[zastels]

Kinda a weird chicken and egg problem. I want to make a map for BM MP for my own enjoyment, however I’m not really sure how the MP is supposed to be played or the direction the dev team is taking it. So far the existing MP maps are beautiful works of art, but nobody is playing them. . at all.

Is there an overview for the direction MP is heading? Any tips for blocking out a map gameplay wise?

I am an experience mapper, check out my work at zastels.wordpress.com and maybe we can teamup and make a Black Mesa map together.

[Dmx6]

Big point in Deathmatch Maps is vertical gameplay.

There are different Types of Half-Life 1 Maps: Open wide like Bounce and Bootcamp with many Space for Rockets and Gaussjumps and tiny littler Maps with close Rooms and corridors like rapidcore and datacore.

Weapon placement is important, dont place many strong weapons and health/battery together in a close area, you create a honeypot, a player can dominate just from this place.

[TextFAMGUY1]

There isn’t much of a strict “design ethic” in BMS outside of a few basic principles. It doesn’t have a complex “meta” like CS does, or anything like that. You run around, get good weapons, and shoot stuff. Though I hate to always be plugging myself - I would suggest checking out my Gasworks blog - it provides some useful insights into beginner mistakes for mapping for BMS specifically.

It’s quite basic, at least from a gameplay perspective. Avoid dead ends with very few exceptions. Incorporate verticality in interesting ways, don’t just have it there as a token design thing. Our game is significantly more fun when verticality is involved. Make sure every space serves a purpose and adds to the map; ruthlessly cut anywhere which doesn’t. Make sure there are no ultra strong spaces on the map which see too much play, or if there are and you like that - incorporate them into the design in interesting and unique ways (like the RPG fort on Gasworks, is a good example). Don’t give the player too many options in terms of routes/room entrances/spaces, etc (this is something a lot of custom maps are guilty of) - it creates overtly chaotic and un-fun gameplay. Don’t limit the player too much - it makes the map boring and unvaried. You have to strike a balance, something I think our stock maps generally do very well.

Then you have to consider weapon placement and map flow. Players are drawn to the powerful weapons (Tau, Crossbow, Gluon). Don’t put them (generally) in spots where they are really powerful. Try and put them in places players may otherwise not wish to venture, but creates interesting encounters and mechanics when they do. A really good example of this are the Gluons on Undertow/Bounce, in my opinion. It should never be too hard to acquire a weapon (otherwise it becomes a Glock and Nade spam fest), but it also should never be too easy. Our maps tend towards it being a little too easy, but that’s because we’d rather things were a bit too chaotic than too boring - though obviously a perfect balance is preferable. Also be careful about how players can move between powerups. In some of our early tests for MP, players were finding some really strong routes they’d just run laps around to become super godly. We had to eliminate those.

Players should be encouraged to move around the map a lot, but take stops while doing so. Too much movement, and you get a chaotic and jumbled map where players don’t really have an aim or know where they’re going. Too much camping, and the map is boring.

Basically, just keep the map well balanced. And if you do take it out of balance, think of ways you can do so which keep it interesting.

[fury]

My tips are the following:

• try to give your map an appealing look by adding not too many details… overdetailed maps are often exhausting to look at: try to use as few models as possible, try to make lightning clear and shadows not too dark
• try to give your map a clear layout: place weapons with care and don’t place too many of them. Have 2 tau-cannons and 2 LJs at max. I would place egon only on big maps or on maps with few uranium. A good MP map is often not too complex to understand and it should be easy to call out enemies positions to your teammates. for example “enemy at RPG truck”… something like that.
• try to place not too many spawnpoints. in my opinion it’s good to have predictable spawns… this encourages players to practise a map, learn possible enemy respawns and find good positions with important ammo pickups, weapons or good overview over multiple spawns.
• imho you should not try to eliminate all dead ends in your map. On crossfire you have quite a lot dead ends and it’s a very very good map. dead ends offer advantaged players the possibility to squeeze their enemies. Which is sometimes importnant (for example if you have many weapons but low HP… you can spam rockets and grenades towards a chokepoint and pin your enemy into that position… this will give you the option to pass by and reach some health.)
• wait until BM gameplay is more polished
  -don’t build death gaps like on DM-stack… In my opinion they feel unlogic in a game where you have only 10 falldamage… death-gaps in general are frustrating and should not be overused. I would recommend to use toxic waste pools, water pools (which decrease players ability to fight and limit movement) or plain empty pits with bouncers or ladders instead. This way there is less frustration, but it’s also a big disadvantage for a player to enter that position…
  -personally I like maps where I can get weapons easily. If you think about crossfire or boot_camp, pretty much all the weapons are out in the open and you can pick them up pretty fast. On stalkyard it’s a different story, but stalkyard is a rather special map. stalkyard offers many ambush possibilities, many wallgauss-spots, many routes to bhop, spawnkilling on stalkyard is harder than on most other maps, because the spawnrotation is rather messy on that map. it forces the in-control player to cycle through the map (and maybe spend less time to pick up all items in an area) and hunt his enemy quickly)… Sometimes it’s cool to have an item out in the open to cover it with a crossbow… or place an item near some edge or other wallgauss spot…
• you can add potential shortcuts to reach an item faster (using tau-jump, longjump, bhop, slopejump/slide/surf or crossbow-jump - advanced stuff that is not finalised/implemented in BM)

atm I am not really motivated to build maps for BM… Because I’m not sure if it will be worth it… I would really enjoy to play all the classic HL maps with nicer lightning, nicer textures and nicer shaders… But I really don’t need to invest that huge amount of work if gameplay mechanics won’t be HL-like in final BM. By now I know how to build great HL maps… But for Black Mesa most of my experience is useless because of their new respawn system, spawnprotection, different item balance, lack of wallgauss and unfaithful movement. I might make more maps in future, but it largely depends on how faithful the gameplay will be the final version of BMDM.

If you are a great mapper and you want to build a map, why not rebuild a known map… for example agony, vengeance, lost_village2 or havoc? These maps are both classic and require good mapping skills to get acceptable results.