14 replies to this topic

[Cion]

PGI is looking for a level designer!
https://piranhagames.../view.php?id=61

Pleeeeeease if you're good at making maps apply to this.

We need levels that:

• encourage tactical gameplay instead of deathballing
  
• do not have one center focus
  
• actual different lanes can be used
  
• take more advantage of cryengine

Maybe even you can influence some decisions like

• push for using the same levels for multiple game modes (CW to Solo and vice verse)
  
• speed up the level design pace
  
• use community designed maps

The possibilities are endless!

Also, Solaris!! (maybe even the Giant Skull level)

What would you guys like the level designer to do??

Edited by Cion, 11 March 2016 - 03:16 PM.

[Thunderbird Anthares]

make quality mid-large scale maps like MWLL has, so people have a reason to use tactics?

[Scout Derek]

Should probably throw this in Reddit. Lots of people might be interested if they fit the job. (Just saying, maybe another website as well?)

[Tarogato]

Cion, on 11 March 2016 - 03:15 PM, said:

We need levels that:

• encourage tactical gameplay instead of deathballing
  
• do not have one center focus
  
• actual different lanes can be used
  
• take more advantage of cryengine

Maybe even you can influence some decisions like

• push for using the same levels for multiple game modes (CW to Solo and vice verse)
  
• speed up the level design pace
  
• use community designed maps

The possibilities are endless!


Also, Solaris!! (maybe even the Giant Skull level)

What would you guys like the level designer to do??

PGI would be better off by making the above their required credentials.

[pwnface]

I just want to see destructible cover.

The "destructible terrain" we have currently amounts to a bunch of rocks and trees that you can knock over that never protect you from enemy fire to begin with.

[Felicitatem Parco]

pwnface, on 11 March 2016 - 03:42 PM, said:

I just want to see destructible cover.

The "destructible terrain" we have currently amounts to a bunch of rocks and trees that you can knock over that never protect you from enemy fire to begin with.

We do not have destructable terrain because those destructable features are not collidable in terms of affecting movement. What we have is destructable "environmental assets."

[Malleus011]

I'd like all of the OP's points, plus:

• Have built-in opportunities for Role Warfare (scouting, skirmishing, fire support)
  
• Have built-in secondary objectives to influence the battle (artillery firebase, forward observation point, airfield, etc)
  
• Are big enough to allow maneuver room
  
• Have variable spawn points to allow the map to be played from different directions
  
• Are scaled so that 'mechs feel like 'mechs, not robot infantrymen
  
• Have at least a few maps with semi-realistic environments, like farms, very large cities, spaceports, etc

The list could go on ...

[pwnface]

Prosperity Park, on 11 March 2016 - 03:47 PM, said:

We do not have destructable terrain because those destructable features are not collidable in terms of affecting movement. What we have is destructable "environmental assets."

OK sure.

My point is players should be able to burn down every goddamn tree in Viridian Bog if they wanted to. Dumping 5000 damage into a tree should probably destroy it at some point.

[Scout Derek]

pwnface, on 11 March 2016 - 03:54 PM, said:

OK sure.

My point is players should be able to burn down every goddamn tree in Viridian Bog if they wanted to. Dumping 5000 damage into a tree should probably destroy it at some point.

Or at least leave a considerable less amount of cover.

[Alardus]

Not all maps should be identical. Some maps should favor long range. Some should favor short.

This way people who boat screw themselves in the map pool. If boating becomes so punishing, then the LRM spam or the SRM spam goes down, because you either kill or die from random chance, and no one likes that.

[Xavori]

King Alen, on 11 March 2016 - 04:20 PM, said:

You want good maps? Switch to procedural generated maps.

Blech.

The sheer amount of programming necessary to use generated maps alone would make this a non-starter. When you start adding in all the potential pitfalls in designing your algorithms, it gets so much worse.

The games that use procedural generated maps are pretty much built from the group up for it because it's a whole lot of work, and often, it's the biggest part of the game for the developers. Contrast that with MWO where robot combat is supposed to be the focus, not the maps.

[Alardus]

Xavori, on 11 March 2016 - 04:31 PM, said:

Contrast that with MWO where robot combat is supposed to be the focus, not the maps.

But you can't really have one without the other. The former requires the latter for the former to even exist in the first place.

Edited by Alardus, 11 March 2016 - 04:32 PM.

[Xavori]

King Alen, on 11 March 2016 - 04:38 PM, said:

Just because something is hard does not mean it would not be better.

But you can design very good maps and then use scripting to create the effects y'all are looking for.

It's tons less work, and I suspect would require no new engine programming unless they want to add new effects to maps.

[Exilyth]

Procedural maps are easy as pie:

Just mix some fbm or perlin noise, see e.g. http://libnoise.sour...anet/index.html
Then randomly distribute assets like rocks, plants and trees using seeded poisson disk sampling, see e.g. http://devmag.org.za...-disk-sampling/
You can even use the terrain height/slope or other parameters (like more noise) to turn certain parts into different biomes or to create banding effects or just make flat places grassy and steep slopes rocky.

The problem is: This process is completely random, there is not much control over the generated level with regards to aesthetics and balance. Also, sanity checking is costly, e.g. you'd probably want to prevent placing five hospitals right next to each other on top of a hill with no way to get up there.

Though, procedural generation is great for assisting the creative process, e.g. many editors enable the user to draw a poygon on the map and fill it automagically with plant meshes.

Edited by Exilyth, 11 March 2016 - 05:08 PM.

[Alardus]

Imo it seems like the already use this kind of generation, since they make terrible hills that take forever to get up, there's random rocks that can stop your movement, and there's even places where a little 1/2 foot lip difference can completely stall out a stock urbie that doesn't use jump jets to get over it, like those platforms on mining colony right next to spawn.