Are the outside areas flat? Hills?
A moat, a pool, rubble from some great struggle. When you
enter a certain area does the general architecture make
your imagination soar with possible defensive or offensive
strategies? At this point, the reviewer is merely roaming
around, trying to put himself in the mind of various classes
and style of players. From bland to exhuberant this score
attacks the foundation of the map.
Interior Architectural detail (5)
Have you ever found yourself being attacked
from a position you had never noticed before? When you
walk into the enemies lair, do you run in staring at the
floor, or do you find yourself abusing your mouse in order
to get your eyes to cover those damn problem areas?
From crates, pillars, support beams and steps
or recesses. The list of ways to add depth and ambience
to a room is endless. But the best details in Team Fortress
are those that can be used for more than just their pretty
looks. This score will reflect the uses and abuses of detail.
As with everything artistic, much is left to
the eye of the beholder and tastes vary. But this score
will initially just aim at determining if the mapmaker
has taken the time to properly align textures. As a
second objective, this score reflects the overall effect
of the textures used and their eye pleasing value.
Are we in a bright sunlight grove or in
a derelict spacecraft? Textures play an important part,
but proper lighting makes for interesting maps, and
gaming situations. A hidden enemy makes for a dangerous
enemy. Lights must be used to both offer and take away
the possibility for cover from sight. Depending on the
nature of the map, and general architecture, this score
reflects not our general preferences, but really the
ability to give depth to the architecture, details and
textures, by playing with shadows and highlights.
Beyond sight, we have sound, and sound in
TF is like salt or spice, if used in the proper ammount
can give an added and irreplaceable taste, or it can
distract and spoil.
Using various quake console commands,
we can determine which areas would slow a game down,
and see how the map maker has decided to build up his
level with brushes. These commands are R_speeds and
R_drawflat. Overall we can feel the speed of a level
and certain trouble areas are easily spotted without
these commands, but these make a more accurate accout.
Map creators should take into consideration
the speeds while building their levels, it also wouldn't
hurt to take more time but figure out the best approach
to building certain details.
One small example of effective building, would
be the use of crates. In many levels, while using
r_drawflat we will notice that stacked crates are made
of individual crates probably copied and pasted into
desired stacks. But during the mapmaking process, we can
avoid such behavoir, without destroying the effect.
<screen cap of crates in r_drawflat & in normal>
With increasingly complex goals and objectives.
It is the mapmaker's responsibility to explain in the
.txt which accompanies his creation, the various points
of interest and give new players as much help as possible.
There is no real template for .txt creation, but it
should contain usefull information such as
The information should try to avoid being
too long winded (us map makers tend to speak endlessly
of our creations), and should be aimed towards the newbie
questions that could arise.
Respawn position/construction (5)
Probably the MOST frequently used parts of any
map. We sometimes take for granted the really well
positioned and constructed respawns. Respawns could be
placed too far from the action, rendering them tedious to
slower classes, or too close to the action, making it too
easy for players to spam & camp at full health in traffic
spots. Depending on the sort of map and what can be
found in the respawn, it could easily unbalance a great
map and render it tiresome or tedious.
Item quantity and positions (5)
Items vary greatly from one map to another.
But the key is to offer all player classes a good
selection. Too much ammo & health can make support
classes such as Medic's and Engineer's less appealing.
What about discarding ammo? Seems most players don't
know what the DISCARD command does. It is very hard to
determine the perfect ratio, but I have seen some maps do
it just right, and others plainly missed the point.
Grenades are a very powerful weapon in TF.
Spamming has been seeing more and more popularity in
public servers. They should be made available, but
never easily.
Another thing I have been noticing a great
deal lately, is the inclusion of special items, such
as quads, ring of shadows, pentagrams..
Some people like this, some people don't.
If an item such as that, becomes the focus of the game,
then I think the mapmaker has made a mistake.
Gameflow & Class Specifics (5)
Do you sometimes first drop into a map and
realise that due to it's construction, it would prove
to be the perfect playground for one or two particular
classes? This can be good or bad, depending on the
map specifics. But it is best, if the map is destined to
be played by all classes, for the gameflow to be as
versatile as possible.
Should ramps be wide or narrow? The size and
shape of almost every aspect in a map can play a very
important role, either as an easy passage or bottleneck.
Ultimately a good map should be a balance of it all, in
order to leave as much room to improvisation and class
specific strategy open to the player.
Offense or defense should be immediately
visible to the starting player. The nitty gritty details
and pro strategies will come with time. There should be
room for both.
As I was always so fond of throwing in the faces
of those who tried to shove their thoughts down my throat:
'Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one.'
This score is a reflection of my overall
reaction to the map. I think I've tried as much as
possible to give all maps a fair chance, therefore basing
my scores on detailed method and giving my own opinion
the lesser reign.
This site and it's content is copyright F.C.O.
enr. 1998.
All original art and graphics are watermarked for authentication purposes.
The content submitted by contributors is copyright by the respectful owner.