The theme of this map will be situated on a red rock planet with a twilight sky, and within the crevasse of the barren rock is a colony. I’ll actually build a section where a big window is able to reveal the outside world, and another section where the sky above is revealed. I’m going to get an artist I know to draw up a detailed skybox, including clouds that are being blown across the sky and a reddish orange moon. The atmosphere of this planet is not habitable, but you can walk around outside for a while, just that your health will slowly deteriorate. The area of map that has the outside environment exposed will have this problem.
The actual playable area will be the powerhouse of the colony, that facilitates the colony with main power. This however is powered down. The environment outside also reflects the state of the power, as well as internal structure. Some of these changes will be reflected in detail and lighting, others will be hazards, doors, and changed environment. An example of detail would be the ventilation system fans, the physical functional state of the power station’s equipment, any equipment and lights of the colony outside.
Now the powerhouse is by default off, but players can negotiate with the structure to bring the power back on. To reward the players for trying to bring power online, certain equipment can be unlocked to the players upon completion. There are several steps to bringing power on. This involves activating auxiliary power stations. To activate them however, the player must load a fuel rod into the generator, and the fuel rod is heavy, so it must be loaded in using a crane system. I have already worked out how I can build this with the simplest design with the best visual effect. It’s not a push button and all good. You need to navigate the crane on the horizontal plane, until it’s aligned with the generator, then push the button to make it lower the fuel rod. If it’s not aligned, the fuel rod will be lowered, bump into an object, then raise again.
I want a part of the map to be flooded. Down stairs needs to be drained. Thankfully the player does not need to worry about cooling systems too much, all that needs doing is making sure the flooding problem is dealt with. Once the problems are dealt with, the players can then interact with the core and make the powerhouse come alive. Again, as the equipment is interacted with, certain items are revealed to players for use in their battle.
What do I need as a mapper? The first step in this project that needs doing is the layout. For that we need to discuss what kind of battle this will be. Is this team deathmatch, or is it player versus player deathmatch?
For team deathmatch, I was thinking the spawns would have to be at their own respective locker positions at both ends of the map.
For player versus player deathmatch, I was thinking of little side rooms such as in the ceiling, ventilation, side storage area that is one way out. However such side spawn areas would allow 2 ways to exit.
Anyways, the layout I believe needs to follow a circular pattern in some form or shape. This means that players needs 2 navigational routes. Or the map can follow an 8 shape pattern. I was wanting to make the map into an upstairs and downstairs design. It will be important to consider where certain equipment needs to be placed for the power house, without the equipment impacting on the layout of walk paths and fighting zones. Decoration and equipment is simply a secondary. The walk paths and fighting zones need to be placed as a main priority. You can have the most gorgeous looking map ever made, but if the layout of the map is crap, your map is crap.
What do I need from the community to get started on this project. I need conceptual ideas and discussion. Need discussion on what is the most ideal type of layout for the map for game play. We have plenty of time to work on this before multiplayer comes out for Black Mesa Source. I want to get an early start on this.