Hey all

This is the 4th revision of my map that ive done via pencil, paper and paint
Green is Hive spawns,Blue is marine.
I have not put in the vents yet or the resoucre points yet.(my other version have had them though)
I was wondering if you could let me know what you think and what i need to change.


One of my biggest worries is that its to big and 2 complex (btw im designing this with source in mind)
I have not made a ns map before.I love the game , so I know that there are specail ways to make the maps work correctly
Brown colour is low part of the map and blue is the high part.
Yellow is one of the lifts I have planned.



later ppl

Some pretty long corridors in there especially the one between the left hive and the bottom one. Not a problem if there is enough cover in them, but marines will still like those corridors more then aliens

Also keep in mind that some areas if they are detailed need visblockers (O shaped entrances) and bendy corridors(U or L shaped) so the engine doesn't render it all from another room.

Thx for the Advice m8

Ive redone the map again an added alot more information into it.
Im quite happy with the layout now.

Pink Stribes are Weldables
Dark Red is Ramp/Stairs/Lifts
Dark red/blue is a flooded ramp.
Brown is Vents.
Red spots are resource nodes.
Grey is a Lockable door

My suggestion would be to draw out the design of maps already out there. Especially ones you like.

Compare yours to theirs and i think you'll notice that yours has twice the complexity.

I was afraid of that I have already been doing that using Tannis overlay.

K then time to make the simplar so less room and passages I take it ?

very very too complex

LOl I get it

This is very very rough but I think its alot simpler,Ive done 2 varations of it.
I got some help with of them
Version 1:


Version 2:


Im leaning towards the first version myself.

The map design itself is simple, but the vents make it too complex (atleast in version 2). Make a simple map (don't forget the vents though!) and i think people will like it more. Atleast that's the reason I can't play ns_machina very well, it's too complicated for my little brain .

Don't forget that you want the running times to each hive and from marine start to each hive is correct (around 30 seconds i think). The top hive i think is too close to marine start and the left hive is too far.

BTW. I'm not a mapper, I've only roughly started my map, but I know a few things about mapping.


Besides those considerations, I think it's a good design. Reminds me of tanith and veil at the same time.

What im trying to do with the vent system is that when you climb into you can get around the whole map without getting out of the Vent.

What I will do is make a vent system that can do what I want it to do with out you needing a GPS,compass, local guide,map,panga,directions on the walls,and neon lights to point the way.

You got any screenies of Tanith and viel's overlays ?

K ive done some changes to the map not the best idea to do it @ 5am
Any other suggestions ?

Here's the map layouts for the maps you requested, they are the best I can find with a 5 min Google search

Veil (in version 3.1 or before):



Tanith (no idea what version ):


As for the idea of the vents connecting the whole map is a really good idea. It's unique (I dont think I've seen a map that has accomplished that) just make sure it's not too easy for the aliens. The mini map might be cluttered and the commander view may be a little restricted, but those aren't big concerns.
Most of this is my opinion, not any actual proof.

Nancy has a big system of vents but i dont like it very much... nancys vents all look the same and are boring. Your concept drawings are nice but you have to keep in mind, that a map looking exactly like that from top down ill be boring ingame - you need to make for example round corridors, not interestingly shaped rooms, cool looking apparatures etc.. Get a hammer and start working!

If you have all the vents like that you could do them two ways, either a grid system (off skew to avoid massive visibility issues) OR all the vents could run consistently throughout the map underneath the corridors, only occasionally opening up to offer entrances and alternate routes.

I realy bad at paint so im not bothering to put alot of detail into the overview itself ,but the vents wont look the same nor will the passages.
Also what do you mean buy a grid system ?

Well let me show you what I was fooling with as a possible idea for a passage then.
The texture lights are way too bright in this and still alot of work to be done.
Ill rexture it when ns2 comes out though

Ooo, nice looking pic of a hall there!

Personally, I would go with the vents being below the corridors, just because i dont understand "grid system" and it just seems simpler. What you could also do is make the vents go through the corridors, so you got to cross the corridor to get to the rest of the vent. Just put the vents high up and boom!

PS. My idea is just an idea, i was inspired by the map with the hives cargo bay foyer, viaduct and power silo (forgot its name, maybe ns_caged?) with the vent going between power silo and viaduct.

I know what you mean I've been killed Jumping from vent to vent across a passage.
Damn marines and there shotguns make life intersting

Ive Just had a very cool idea for a passage going to be a real pain in the rear to make it look good and function correctly but that makes it worth it

ns_nothing

I think it looks good in its more complex layout; the problem is that you can't put much detail into a map that big and complex. Which sucks.

Just stick with a slightly less complex layout and you'll be fine.

Also True Im hoping that due it being the hl2 engine it will enable to to alot more detail/bigger maps if you compare what they are doing in ut3 and the amount of detail they have in there.

Its also going to be a mp game so I cant see why we cant have a bit more detail than we were used to having using nearly a decade old engine.
I mean the hl engine is a highly modified q1 engine with q2 network code if I remember correctly ,things have move on a bit since then dont you think

Ill design the map and change it when we get the final specs but for now im going to stick to this design.

HL engine is a heavily modified version of the Q3 engine (now, dunno what the first release was). GoldSource is the name of the actual engine.

I don’t know if the changed the model system in ns to q3 but the game itself was based on the original half life engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-Life and that was based on the original quake engine.

Quake 2 came out in December 6, 1997 and hl came out in November 19, 1998.

If ns was based on the q3 engine we would a lot more organic type of objects ect maybe even a first attempt @ dynamic infestation also the q3 engine uses Q3radient as its editing tool to make maps ,I could be wrong but I do think I am right.

And thats how good my memory is, I can't even remember what i ate today

just to clear this up:

the Half-Life engine was built off the Quake 1 engine. It is very heavily modified, mostly in the areas of texturing, lighting and model handling/animation but the basic structure of the engine, including many of the bsp calculations, most of the rendering system and a bunch of comments from the id coders still remain.

In fact some of the very base algorithms for defining and navigating 3d space that were developed for Quake are still in use today in current and next-gen engines. Remember that Quake was coded to run on early Pentium processors (i ran it on a Pentium 133 for a while) so they had to be extremely efficient and very solid, yet still achieve the same basic goals that modern 3d engines do - draw & texture polygons, and translate them relative to the viewpoint.

even Source which Valve claims is entirely new, still retains some of the original Quake code for lighting, BSP tree handling and basic texturing which have remained through the Quake->Half-Life->Source transitions. Not that this reflects badly on Valve; they bought the Quake licence and therefore the rights to use the technology in the quake engine for as long as they please, and when you have an engine that good, why wouldn't you? Incidentally Half-Life 2 uses almost exactly the same AI code for the Combine as Half-Life used for the enemy soldiers.

Exactly right unfortuntally when you buy a ID engine you only get that engine and nothing else they make.

Which is why i like the Epic if you buy the complete package say with the unreal 2 engine and then while your making your new came epic comes up with unreal 3 engine you have full access to that engine and the upgrades for free

As Kaine said about the Marine Grunts/Combine Soilders there AI is still awesome to this day I can clearly rememeber catching more than one grenade with my teeth due to those damn guys

Just a quick question do all paths have to in the right time bracket between hives and marine spawn or just one ?

The shortest way from marine spawn to a hive should be 30 seconds. However i think this should not be considered too narrow minded since a short route that is a real pain to take (many hiding spots, narrow corridors with many turns etc) may not affect the balance in a bad way but 30 secs is the rule of thumb.