Un jour où je me faisais chier, j'ai décidé d'écrire un bouquin sur ma passion, le Level Design. Pour les néophytes, le Level Design c'est la création de niveaux pour des jeux vidéos, tels que Unreal, Half-Life ou autres.
Pour encore plus me compliquer la vie, j'ai décidé de l'ecrire en anglais, comme ça, ça m'entraîne un peu à l'écrit et l'anglais a, selon moi, beaucoup plus d'impact que le français.
C'est donc en exclu, que, moi, je vous file un chapitre entier, intitulé : Balancing a level ! \o/
Bonne lecture !
1.3) How to balance a map, Weapon and / or Power-Up placement.
1.3.1) Multiplayer in general.
Another big deal in the map making is to balance your map when you place the weapons and the power-ups (i.e. for Quake / Unreal / some HL mods / or whatever game with weapons you can grab and power-ups).
The mapper must seek a way to balance all these things. Z-Axis, connectivity and finally balance, if you succeed in mixing them together, then your map will be a killer for sure.
But, balancing a map is extra hard.
First, you absolutely need to dispatch strong weapons / weak weapons. Placing a Rocket Launcher in front of a player isn't the best solution, but placing a weak weapon near spawns is a good way to the players to try fragging other players. Keep in mind that if players don't find weapons near them, the map will be not very played. So, when you place a Rocket Launcher for your Unreal map, or another game using another strong weapon (i.e. Warsow, Half-Life, Quake), the strongest weapon must be the most exposed. Placing for example a Rocket Launcher in a small enclosed room with only a way to go to is a very bad idea. The player can camp here and splat all the opponnents in the corridor.
But placing a Rocket Launcher for example on top of an exposed balcony with some other aerial passages in front or on side is good. The player who takes the weapon is in jeopardy when he's near or if he took the weapon, he has a good chance to be blasted in the second.
The same thing is possible with the powerups, for example the Damage Amplifier or the Armor. Placing an exposed Red Armor (Quake) in a room with Z-Axis is better than placing a Red Armor in a small flat room.
Also, it depends for games, but try to adapt the room where the weapon is to the weapon itself. For example, if you place the Razorjack (Unreal), try to make long corridors, so the razor blades can bounce against the walls and decapitate the enemies more easily.
For example if you place a Damage Amp, you can place it very exposed or in a trap area, so the player who takes the powerup is in constant danger. It adds a bit of suspense in the game, and with experienced players, it could become an absolute killer game !
It's for this that the Beta Test is really important. I'll talk about this later in the book, but Beta Testing your maps with friends / good players is for sure a way to improve for your future levels.
1.3.2) Single Player games.
Balancing a map in Single Player mode is tough too, the mapper has to deal with health placement, monster spawns, Z-Axis, connectivity. Make sure your level doesn't have too much monsters in a small enclosed room, it's overall pretty boring and annoying. (for example, don't put 15 Strogg soldiers in a small room in Quake 4). Health and ammo placement is also important. How frustrating is it when your last save was in front of a boss' door and you only had 4 hit-points with no health and no ammo around when you saved ?
The second schema in-game is more epic than the first. Considering in the first you only have a weak weapon (Blaster / Pistol or something else), 100 hit-points and the room is all flat, you will be killed without having the time of doing anything... The second one is way better, considering you have the same weapon, Z-Axis room and 100 hit-points too and a health pack in the room with only two enemies. When the player will try to kill them, they will surely hurt him, it's not a bad idea placing a health pack in the room or in the next room (or previous). Remember that, even in Single Player, the connectivity is really important.
The same can be made with cooperative game. The mapper can chose placing two or more enemies, or enhance them with better weapons. But, even in cooperation, the first schema is bad.
If you look at balanced Single Player maps, when you're making your map and you need support, you can look for example at Kell's Contract Revoked maps for Quake, when you'll play these maps, you'll see that you always have enough ammo / health.
There are also tons of vertical fights in all the maps of Contract Revoked, and monster placement is pure awesomeness. There are a lot of monsters, tough monsters especially, but they're so nicely placed, and you always have some things to fight with, that it's extremely challenging and meanwhile ultra balanced. These levels are a really good example. If you still have Quake, take a look at Kell's website and download Contract Revoked, it will help you in making a good Single Player map if you're making one.
This map also uses a revelant knowledge of Quake's engine, with tricks, you can go here and here more easily.
1.3.3) Cooperative / Team based games.
1.3.3.1) Against the A.I.
Overall the same as Single Player, but with other players. When you're making a level for cooperation against the A.I, you must think Single Player and Multi Player at once. Your map needs to be a little more difficult than a Single Player map, but needs to be enough balanced for an enjoyable play.
I've tried once to do a balanced cooperative map for Half-Life's famous mod, Sven Co-op. Persian Fortress mixes Z-Axis and tough passages in the streets by night, with a lot of well placed soldiers to fight against. I placed the monsters so maliciously that it's long and hard to finish the map, even if you're sixor or plus players in the level at the same time. I put additional weapons and items for the players to grab lately in the map, the weapons are adapted to the topography of where they are (i.e. Sniper Rifle for long distances, Shotgun for indoors). The same is for monsters too, they got short-range weapons in the indoors, and long-range weapons in large outdoors, it adds more difficulty to the game.
Even if it was my first try, the map was a total success (I was the first impressed by all the good critics), and the map still remains in the "Best of Map Showcase" board in Sven Co-op forums.
I've tried another cooperative map for Sven Co-op, It has Leaks, my favourite of the two, but it seems that the last one isn't as good as Persian Fortress, although there're a lot of Z-Axis and secrets to find.
1.3.3.2) In case of another team based game, like Counter-Strike.
When you're making a level for Counter-Strike, the map needs to be balanced. But, it musn't be symmetrical, otherwise your map will suck, if both sides are bad.
There are some non-symmetrical maps with perfect balance, like de_dust for Counter-Strike, or dod_donner for Day of Defeat.
Breaking the symmetry is a good way to improve balancing your map. You must also remember that floorplan is a necessary here, if you forgot the Z-Axis dimension of the map, you will be doomed for ever !!
Personally, I only use symmetry in team based games for Capture the Flag maps, for any game using this game type, such as Unreal Tournament or Team Fortress.
Voilà bon, c'est pas tout à fait fini, mais voilà à peu près ce que j'ai fait :
- General ideas, thinking your level on paper : 0%
- Get started. Which programs will we use ? What kind of things we're going to see ? : 0%
- Audiovisual : 100%
- Gameplay in maps : 60 %
- Engines critics : 5 %
- To sum up : 0%
