Submit New Map Ideas Here

[indigocylinder]

There was once such a map, i really loved.
One street in the middle with one bridge, left and right swampland with very high grass you coulnd't see through.
Wonder what has happend to it?

Here it is, along with six other good maps, made by a guy on the Australian server:

http://www.mbrepository.com/file.php?id=2292

[Kay of Sauvage]

First, I have some general suggestions about what I think makes for good maps.

1. No stand-alone towers/forts (archer camping grounds). If you want a high point where some archers would go to naturally, make it so that it is still pretty low to the ground, doesn't provide much cover, and it is still easily accessible for cavalry. The ruins maps with the old walls that have sunk into the ground are a great example of a balanced archer spot. Cavalry can run up the slope. Archer have to use the slope of the structure to get any cover from ranged attacks. But it's still safer than being on the ground.

2. Minimize high-wire trick locations for people to get to. I think it's pretty annoying when someone jumps around on some buildings or uses ladders to get on top of some skinny wall that wasn't meant for people, and the only way to get to them is taking the same long trek of jumping around, probably while being shot at by that person who went up there in the first place.

3. No "best" location, especially in the center of the map. Ideally, any particularly good spot to set up at should have a glaring weakness. If there's a fortification with great forward cover and is hard to access from the front (and thus easily defended), there should perhaps be another location to the flank of that location that exposes all the defenders (campers).

4. Any enclosed buildings should have multiple entrances that expose anyone who is camping a different entrance. So if there is a door on one side of a room and some guy is standing beside it with his sledgehammer raised and ready to attack anyone who enters, an archer should be able to go around to the other side and shoot in at him through a different entrance. That ice map that is all blue with just a castle in the middle is an example of a castle that is too easily camped.

5. Less is usually more. When you make choke points, people tend to stop at the choke point and defend it. If they go through it, it's like they are exposing themselves. Similarly, if there are good buildings, they stick to them. Narrow corridors bunch people together. But when it's rather wide open and any obstacles are pretty insignificant, you get a good sprawling battle (and it's less like a siege). So don't try to "direct traffic" so that players end up with really only 1 best path to take to maximize their safety. Make it more random, sparse, and unclear as to where to go. It's probably best that they decide where to go based on what they see happening on the battlefield rather than going where the battlefield terrain leads them.


Regarding specific suggestions for maps, I have one at the moment:

1. There's a map with a bunch of boats in the bay connected by docks, with the shoreline curving around the outside. The main battle happens on the boats/docks. I think that map would be better with the boats and everything moved closer to the midpoint of the shoreline. As it is now, the shore and the boats are like two very separate battlefields and you have to walk a very long dock to go between them. So each separate battlefield can't really be used to flank the other. But if the ships are pushed inland more, the shore becomes an extension of the battle on the boats and gives a worthwhile flanking option.

[Kong Ming]

Thanks for your input Kay, it's great to hear and I generally agree with what you have to say.  A few thoughts.  As far as structures go, mapping in M&B is unfortunately fairly limited by the models we have available for castles/ruins/houses/etc.  They were all essentially built for single-player with many dead-end and enclosed areas so the concerns you express about balance in structures isn't really part of their design.  If a map designer is clever though, hopefully they can combine/angle/scale a structure to compensate, but it's definitely a learning process.  On your point about focus, I know for my own part that I am still adjusting to the post past situation in cRPG which has vastly changed map design.  Before, focus was critical, since all players wanted from a map was an obvious place to jam together and earn gold/xp by being close to wherever the killing was taking place (with some minor exceptions of course).  Now that that is no longer important, I think the only concern in this regard is that maps are contained enough that players aren't wandering around looking for each other in the later stages of the round when most people are dead.  I like that current conditions allow maps to be a little more open an undetermined, but it is still important for players to understand immediately upon spawning, where the enemy generally is and what various options are available to them.

NOTE: I don't think anyone has yet claimed credit for the harbor map you described, hopefully whoever made it sees your thoughts.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Its an ATS map, based on all the banners at the dock.

[Kong Ming]

Yeah I think it says ATS in it's name, I just don't know which ATS since there are a few different members that have made maps for them.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Also, its easier to win a fight with a saber tooth tiger in a phone booth than contact an ATS guy on forums, unless that contact be trolling eachother

:/

AFAIK Airith and Mouse have made several, and I think there are some more who made maps as well.

[FF_GeorgeWashington]

Make a mines of moria map and make it almost pitch black dark except for some torches here and there

[Kong Ming]

Unfortunately, M&B engine doesn't really allow much lighting control, and the general ambient light is controlled server-side and can't be set in the map.

[Thranduil]

Make a mines of moria map and make it almost pitch black dark except for some torches here and there

Unfortunately, M&B engine doesn't really allow much lighting control, and the general ambient light is controlled server-side and can't be set in the map.

I think it could be done.  Just use solid arena walls for the walls and ceilings and it should block out all light...I think.  I'm not volunteering BTW.  Not enough time.

[Kong Ming]

It unfortunately doesn't work that way.  There is still a general ambient light on every map that goes everywhere.  Adding the "indoor" tag is the best you can do to reduce this.  Check out Nasturtiums caverns map if you want to see, it essentially is a mines of moria map and is as dark as it gets.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

Well as a side note, you can use the terrain color painter and use very dark terrain to make some parts of it dark, but its not possible to do that with the objects so...

[Kong Ming]

This is true.