10 replies to this topic

[Reign Death]

The Inner Sphere. A vast a amount of space with numerous planets to conquer and call your own in the name of ( insert faction preference here).

With so many planets to fight over there can't possibly be a battlefield that would look exactly the same right? Yet the Dev's can't create a map for every single planet to battle over, which means as mechwarriors we will play maps several times over again. Im not complaining and I am sure that there will be a varied amount of maps to play. How do you think the Dev's will release battle fields and where will they be placed in the Inner Sphere?

EDIT:

So i got really bored and counted all the planets/clusters on the IS map, heres what i came up with

• There are 2471 planets/clusters in the Inner Sphere
  
• Federated Common Wealth: 1287
  
• Free Rasalhague Republic: 84
  
• Capellen Confederation: 119
  
• Draconis Combine: 333
  
• Free Worlds League: 318
  
• Non-major factions: 331

That is a LOT of maps to "possibly" create. Thats pretty mind boggling....I got really bored.

Edited by Reign Death, 04 July 2012 - 07:57 PM.

[Fiachdubh]

I would be delighted to see airless moons, astroids and ice ships. Remember those atmospheric 'silent' missions in the low gravity vacume of the aforsaid settings?

[Bearcut]

I always hope for a random lvl generator based on terrain values, but this is asking alot; would be almost impossible to do well in an immersive 3d game.
There will probably be a set number of maps at launch that correspond to certain terrains:
Temperate Forest
Desert
Moonscape
City
Tundra
Jungle
Swamp

With eventually variations and combinations like
Desert + City Elements
Moonscape + Base

At least thats how I figure it will go down.
Over time we will have more and more maps and it will just get better and better

And an Airless Volcanic map would be sweet....

[NeonKnight]

Well, maps take a long long, loooooooooong time to make. I've played with map editors for things like BF2, and to ensure the maps look and feel right takes a lot of work. First you need to make the terrain (this is just the ups and downs, the hills the valleys, etc), then you need to paint the terrain, just the texture mind you, what will be sandy, what will be muddy, etc. THEN the grasses & trees, after some buildings if need be, ambient sounds, water etc. Then it needs to be playtested, and checked for possible exploits.

I.E., in a BF2 map I made there were some buildings that did not quite touch the ground in some areas (because of the hilly nature of the area) and character could crawl up inside a buildings mesh and exploit by shooting out but the mesh would prevent incoming fire.

Now in MWO Mechs can't crawl, but they may be able to clip into boulders for example.

So, maps take time. But it would be nice to have a standard staple to pull from:

And even nicer if some maps can be generic enough to be rehashed as different things.

Example, the Ice City map, swap out the building for non snowy city and change the snow to sand and suddenly it's a sandstorm deserted city for a desert world. BOOM 2 maps, and the second map took only 2 hours to make as opposed to the months of the first.

The forest map we see from all the videos on the media page...change terrain texture to snowy and add a winter effect to it and it doubles as an outdoor winter map.

Of course these would be nice, so what i am saying is...while unique maps are nice, I would prefer majority to be generic "insert DESERT MAP here" type affairs.

[Trickster Fox]

Silent maps are awesome, imagine your missles launching and no noise coming from them, or seeing your 4 autocannons barking on your jagermech and just seeing muzzle flash and fire but no sound... awesome!

[ermine]

I wish that the devs could introduce random variables to existing maps: altered gravity, temperature variations, fog, maybe even time of day.

Edited by ermine, 04 July 2012 - 04:12 PM.

[Reign Death]

That would definately mix up pre-existing maps.

[mrcarlton]

ermine, on 04 July 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

I wish that the devs could introduce random variables to existing maps: altered gravity, temperature variations, fog, maybe even time of day.

Well assuming they haven't changed the core engine too much, they are using cryengine so real-time day night is a do able thing.

As for actually making a map, its not just the brute work of 'building' and 'making-it-pretty' it, most of the time is going to spent doing planning and playtesting.

All maps follow a gray-box period where a game designer/level designer would map out a level with no visual elements, maybe 1-2 'key' landmarks if it is central to the map, but this is simply for the sake of testing the flow of the map. If maps aren't symmetrical this process gets even longer, as the map can't give huge advantages to any one team or play style. There's a lot of effort involved in making AAA maps for a video games. It could be months before the artists even touch the map. It could be months on top of that before we get anything in-game. The benefit is that this is a live game, so content would be getting added relatively regularly.

[BigJim]

mrcarlton, on 04 July 2012 - 04:27 PM, said:

As for actually making a map, its not just the brute work of 'building' and 'making-it-pretty' it, most of the time is going to spent doing planning and playtesting.

This. The leg-work of mapping can be done comparatively quickly, it's the testing, testing & more testing that takes time.
Finding exploits, dodgy collision volumes, then ensuring that it's balanced in the way you want to be, that kind of thing.

ermine, on 04 July 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

I wish that the devs could introduce random variables to existing maps: altered gravity, temperature variations, fog, maybe even time of day.

Probably easier than you think - gravity/physics volumes can be coded to produce a random value between 2 points with ease (if that's how CryEngine3 handles changes in physics), but again, testing the map thoroughly so that each & every possible variation plays well could take an age.

Let's say for the sake of argument you could only have 3 different "values" for gravity (and of course the possibility is there to add an almost infinite number);
That would take as long to test as 3 individual maps (more or less), so assuming you've got the guys & the assets (meshes, texes, etc.) to do it, you may as well create 3 unique maps in that same time.
And adding more variables to the mix just adds to the amount of variations you need to thoroughly test.


I agree with the overall point of this thread though, it is something I was thinking about myself the other day.

Edited by BigJim, 04 July 2012 - 04:52 PM.

[Bearcut]

ermine, on 04 July 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

I wish that the devs could introduce random variables to existing maps: altered gravity, temperature variations, fog, maybe even time of day.

These kinds of variables would really set the game apart;
Imagine a thunderstorm that plays havoc with sensors/radar... making scouts all the more necessary

[AztecD]

ermine, on 04 July 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

I wish that the devs could introduce random variables to existing maps: altered gravity, temperature variations, fog, maybe even time of day.

BT2025 had this, it was very cool, you would be droping on the same planet>type, but it would never be the same