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| Map Making Discuss everything related to creating new levels here. |
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#1
07-12-2010, 08:48 AM
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The new and improved ball_doodle!!
Hey everyone,
After taking in a lot of constructive criticism for ball_sketchpad and the earlier versions of ball_doodle, I completed reconstructed the map to fix some of its glaring (as well as not so glaring) flaws. Let's begin with pretty pictures!! Update!: My girlfriend called me out and said the goals didn't match the crayon look, so I overlayed them. They turned out well. I think this is a first for ball maps actually, but it should be standard imo.  As you can see, I've made many changes. To explain them, I'll enumerate the issues the map had in earlier versions, and then explain the changes made to correct these issues. 1.) The map is too damn tight! / whales are OP / things just tend to clusterf*** at the bottom of the map. - This was a huge problem. To solve it, I increased the size of the map (stroke of genius!). The original map was 4000x1333, this map is 4500x1500. The super tight passages are about 100px taller, and the map is muchhhh more open horizontally. This also solved the issues with the spawns having too much line of sight through the middle of the map. Although the map size was increased, the size of the objects is the same or smaller, maximizing the new openness. 2.) The background is too bright / the foreground colors are too bright / Christ on a bike!! MY EYESSSSS!!! - Although I have made the map darker in the past, this was the most drastic change overall. I have dimmed the background to what I feel is a reasonable degree, and also muted all of the foreground colors to more reasonable levels. These changes can be made more pronounced if needed, just holler below. 3.) The bottom route is too straight / the bottom route is too dominant. - In previous versions, the game was almost entirely played in the bottom half of the map. A few changes were made to compensate for this. For one, the map is now more open, making it harder to just cluster up down there and have the ball get stuck. For two, I have added jutting points to make it much more difficult to just lob the ball straight on through to the goal area. These new bumps can be quite useful though, they are at nearly 45 degrees, so a player can pass a ball into them while flying horizontally and launch it vertically to an ally, or vice versa. Also, I made the other routes stronger, which I will address in... 4.) The top route is too tight / the top route is too weak / the mid area is mostly worthless / the mid geoms are far too close together - My greatest failure with the map was not making the mid and top portions of the map more usable, and this change should help fix that. To strengthen the top route, I have moved it further from the spawns and out of direct spawn-spam line of sight, as well as added a power up. It should be much easier to use this space in a push move, as well as much easier to pass from the top down to other levels. - As far as the mid is concerned, I altered things greatly by overhauling some geoms (and in the process made my map less like core! +1 for individuality shurikens!!). The previous vertical bars were flawed on two levels: They created an extremely tight passage that was hard to fight through and they created a purely vertical element which strongly favored defending spawns (going down) over attacking planes (going up). The new geometry opens up this space greatly. There is still good cover from new spawns, and it is now very easy to pass up to other allies who are on a run. These shurikens may need to be altered (might make the space too open, allow for too long of shots, etc), but I think they are drastically better than what existed in the past. 5.) Once you're in a corner, you're f***ed - I felt this was just a slight issue, mostly akin to the straight path issue mentioned before. To compensate, instead of having triangles in the corners, there are now bars which allow planes holding the ball in the corners to take better cover. Also, the new jutting triangles should help give some cover from spawn and general enemy fire. 6.) Good lord, that file size is ridiculous!! - Agreed, it was. Little did I know, I could hack and slash at jpeg and alpha quality without hurting the actual appearance of the map. Live and learn, but his map now comes in at a slim 1.51MB. If anyone thinks the background is too fuzzy, or that the quality of the images in general is low, let me know. I can easily bump this map up to 2 or 2.5MB territory if needed. Overall, I think this is a much better map that will suit more competitive play. It's more open, the planes are more balanced, and there are more meaningful pass opportunities. Download the map here: http://www.mediafire.com/?jymdk0i1m2m Oh, and tell me what you think! = ] Last edited by NastyManatee; 07-13-2010 at 08:21 AM. Reason: Blame Dio 
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#3
07-12-2010, 07:15 PM
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Thanks for the re-up lam = ]
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#7
07-23-2010, 11:29 AM
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Quote:
All in all, impressive job I must say and it's interesting to hear the reasoning behind your changes. Thanks for listening to feedback, even as secondary as file size  The previous brightness was good for me so now it feels a little dark but nothing unplayable. I'm still not too sure about the green arrows in front of each goals but I'll have to play it more. Also, I love the purple stars and I'm ready to assume whatever it says about me.
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#8
07-23-2010, 11:44 AM
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About the map, I like it. The top route is now very much in use. Is not easy for a whale to defend, as it must keep moving a lot trough open areas because of the map size and all the possible attacking routes. Last edited by mlopes; 07-23-2010 at 11:51 AM.
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#9
07-24-2010, 09:18 AM
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wow
sorry for trying to help wont make that mistake again, apparently the 'altitude community' cant handle it Last edited by ModernArcher; 07-26-2010 at 01:35 AM.
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#10
07-25-2010, 07:11 AM
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Modernarcher, just think of all electrons you inconvenienced to post that ridiculously large and unnecessary image of the map.
Please remove the picture from the post, or attempt to muster up some kind of worthwhile contribution to this thread to accompany that thoughtless image post.
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#12
07-25-2010, 07:58 AM
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Quote:
 
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#14
07-28-2010, 06:13 PM
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I actually think the foreground pieces are a bit intense, even though they are pretty 'dark' at the moment. I had the same problem when working on my tetris map, turning the saturation down on the pieces will give them a faded appearance but be easier on the eyes, though I don't know if that will go well with the crayon theme?
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#15
08-04-2010, 01:06 PM
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Played this one a lot on ladder. I kinda like it. Still have to say most of the action is at the bottom half but thats mostly due to the players not the map. FOr a user made map this is one of the better out there. YOu made a good map in general with enough acces lines and points. And some intresting features. Well done! (personally i feel that the map is a bit 2 big, not as bad thing but as my prefferences i like a bit smaller maps, such as snow. This maps sometimes feels huge).
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Linear Mode
