I am very happy that people are making new scenes, thank you!
Its refreshing and fun to be surprised by new content.
I did not find any sticky or recent post with ideas concerning what makes a scene fun and playable, so I wrote this up to maybe trigger some more discussion.
I have no experience with creating scenes, but I have played alot of them.
Below I have written an incoherent wall-of-text where i address some aspects I believe makes a scene good and fun.
I have played mostly as dedicated archer, so there is a focus/bias on some aspects.
This is meant as encouragement to make more scenes and not as criticism of existing scenes.
I hope this is useful for some of the great scenemakers out there.
Spawns:
-Spacious enough for a large crowd to spawn without getting stuck. Less bumping,teamwounding,TKing by mistake,less frustration.
-No line of sight of enemy spawn. Makes tactical surprises possible and enemy ranged cannot fire directly into the the tightly packed spawning group.
-Some obstacles and landscape that slows down/makes it harder to manoeuvre a horse in. Makes early cavrush on spawn abit harder, giving slowspawners, or defenseless units a chance to prepare/move before facing multiple cav in the open.
-Has some clues that points/funnels the players towards the enemy. So that players do not run the wrong way and hit mapedge.
Buildings:
Roofs that are intended to be used for play should be accessible from the groundlevel. Avoid access via trickjumping,including mounted player jumping with horse.
If one wishes to make an archersnest, make the way up very exposed,slow or easy to defend.
If buildings are not intended to be used for play, try to block off access. roofcamping causes alot of frustration. And slows down the game.
The ladders players bring with them are IMO a tool to bypass walls,rivers,etc... for surprise and speedy movement.
An alternative to doors and gates is the oneway drop. A place to get out that is low enough to not take damage going out/down, but too high to jump back in on foot or mounted.
Openings in windows,ladders,fences may confuse, its not always easy to know if it is possible to use a ranged weapon thru the opening. Or if the fence/ladder will provide cover.
Landscape:
Small hills and ridges can be used to flank,ambush,move unseen. With a few vantagepoints here and there that has a good overview.
Elevation in the landscape makes ranged fighting harder, more precise aim and timing is required to hit targets. it can also reduce the number of potential targets, depending on the view.
Elevation also makes it easier to get a clear shot , avoiding hitting friendly units at the "front" and friendly players running into the missiles path.
Rocks,barrels,stubs,ruins and angled surfaces are priced by ranged players because they can provide elevation and cover for feet/lowerbody.
Making them a smaller target and harder to spot by other ranged players.
They also provide some protection from cav since cav are weary of running into objects that makes the horse rear/stop.
Bushes,foliage and hay can be used to obscure line of sight but not passage.
Some like to hide in the bushes/hay, but often it is not a practical place to aim from as the view is semiblocked.
Alot of hidingplaces draws out the game, as there is always a player that believes the game is hide&seek instead of mount&blade.
Low hanging foliage, vertical beams,stairs can sometimes block the bannertag above a friendly player.
Since crpg allows for mixes of all kinds of gear, and no clear uniforms this leads to tks and teamwounding from time to time.
I like maps that funnels the players towards eachother by one or several funnels.
Without funnels the battle often become marathon running, as groups of players just run in circles and do not meet. Especially in dense cities.
Some vantagepoints could lessen the circlerunning, makes it possible to locate eachother.
Landmarks and referencepoints like bridges,churches, tower, walls, barns and such are good, as it makes it easier to plan and coordinate actions.
If there are many of the same type, why not differentiate them abit, varying them in size/material/color
Scenes with distinct strongpoints and weakpoints.
Strongpoints are places on the map where you have in varying degree :
-view of what is happening around you
-Partial cover from ranged
-Can use ranged on enemies.
-Able to attack enemies selectivly. (Run down on the left side of the hill/building/ruin to attack 2 archers or right side to engage 3 shielders?)
-Able to reinforce/help several groups of allies depending on where it is needed.
-little chance to get backstabbed/surprised by cav or flankers.
-If high up, high enough that it will do some fall damage, but not kill you if you have above half life left. Useful for escaping large groups of enemies rushing you.
Weakpoints
-Area where you have little battleawarenes, limited sight of surroundings, approaching cav,gangs and backstabbing.
-In range and exposed to archers and crossbows from many angles. Other strongpoints.
-Little or no cover/obstacles.
The various points can be arranged so that they are weak from one direction, and strong from another.
I would love to see some creative use of fallingdamage traps in fortifications. Obvious from one side, camoflaged/illusion from the other.
Or create fight or fly situations ,think Sparta 300 well or cliffscene
.
Narrow bridges and ledgers without railing. where a fall will kill you.
Could be used to increase the time it takes for a whole group to get into position, limit scavenging bolts/arrows from dead players.
Or gaps only jumpable on horseback.
Just make sure people do not get stuck.
/great-wall-of-text
