This is more for me and other mappers. Just writing out my thoughts, since I've wanted to do this for a while. This essay delves into the design aspects of a map, rather than the technical aspects. For the technical aspects, I will post up Anthem's mapping tutorial found on GamerHaus (formerly Goon Haven).
Mapping for Competition
Mapping for competitive CTF is a huge give and take of Offensive Features versus Defensive Features. Maps should always be slightly tilted towards O- slanted towards D will make for slow maps. The O are the ones that make things happen. It's still nice to throw a "challenge" at O now and then, but always at the cost of something else in D being removed (add a turret and remove a sensor, etc.) There's no exact measurement of this give and take, it's something you feel out, and it is really an art.
Do not be discouraged if people do not take to your map right away. People in competition can be picky and whiny, and a map almost always play bad on the first run since people are exploring the map and getting used to it more than playing a serious competitive game. It can often take 2 or 3 runs on a map to get a real sense of how the map plays.
Fog/Visible Distance: Starts at roughly 600 meters. This value drops when terrain is wide open, or low, or if there are not many obstructions (buildings, rocks) in the midfield.
Bases: Generally, no more than 2 or 3 rooms away from entrance to gen room. The simpler the base, the better.
Small Bases: At least 2 entrances.
Medium Bases: At least 3 entrances.
Large Bases: No. Do not make them (or if you do, make them wide open).
Smaller entrances create choke points, make for easier turtles, avoid.
Some maps have turtles that are better than others because of these factors. Ex: Pandemonium is much better than No Shelter because Pande has 2 entrances to a 1-room base.
Keep in mind the placement of inventories and gens that are close to entrances. Having outdoor inv mortar spam is bad but passable. Outdoor gen spam is bad, in most cases. If a base is going to have inv spam, consider having invs self-powered (or powered by more than 1 gen) to balance this factor out.
Terrains: Hand-made terrains can take a while. For procedural generated terrains, Multi-ridged Fractal and Voronoi/Worley noise are very good for Tribes gameplay due to their tendency to create bowls and ridges to ski along and change direction. You usually want a hierarchy of detail (big features, little features, small features). Hills that encompass OOB borders are generally desired by the community (Feign, Damnation, Opus).
Flag: Give and take very big here- many things to tradeoff, but always keep slanted to O.
You want at least 2 cap routes available (side to side, back to front). Front to back nice to have. Flag stands that are approachable from multiple angles is considered a plus for O.
Flag stands should be concave. If you make a flag stand convex, consider using higher hills/more fog in the map, but generally do not do it. Flat flag stands can sometimes work, but generally will cause deadstops. There should almost always be spawns near the flagstand (I aim for roughly 50% of my spawns near the flagstand). Do not put spawns ON THE FLAG.
Work with the terrain features to pick an ideal place for the flagstand. The last "uphill" that cappers touch before touching flag on fast cap routes will roughly start 150m away from flag. The hills cappers start out on on set-up routes will be roughly 300m away from flag. Keep this in mind when picking location for flag on procedurally generated terrain, or make sure to build these features in.
List of Gives/Takes for Balancing Offense and Defense
If you add one from the D list, add one from the O list too. But generally keep things slightly O-tipped.
Good for Offense:
- Smooth Terrain
- More Fog
- Inv Spam
- Gen Spam
- Self-Powered Bunker
- Open Flagstand
- Big Enterances
- Lack of Plasma on Base Turret (one extra step for D...)
- Campable Gen Rooms
Good For Defense:
- Sentry Turret
- Limited Enterances
- Multiple Sensors
- Multiple Base Turrets
- Limited Routes
- Jutting Pieces on Flagstand
- Lava/Water around Flagstand
- Less Fog
- Multiple Bases/Multiple Power Sources
- Plasma Turret Default on Base Turret
Use the lists as just a guideline. As I said before, this is not exact science, it's something you must feel out.
