I thought I would add a few words on the subject of map design, specifically for PainKeep Arena. This is not a tutorial as such but more my muses and ramblings on the peculiarities of PKA and how it might affect a maps architecture.
Well the answer to that is nothing and everything. PKA is after all Quake3 with some of new toys. So surely what makes a good vanilla Quake 3 map will make a good PainKeep map, well not quite.
We are all familiar with trick jumps, rocket jumps etc that give an added dimension to the game play in a map. Some people enjoy these little touches, and others are obviously uninterested. Personally I like to do more than just run round a map fragging away (or in my case getting fragged, I need more practise). I like a map to offer challenges and goals beyond just simply fragging the enemy.
What PainKeep Arena offers is the ability to make, in my opinion more challenging and interesting (and potentially problematic) maps than vanilla quake 3. This is due to some of the key extra goodies available to the player that can and should affect the map design. Lets take a more detailed look at what I am talking about :).
PainKeep adds two very significant weapons, from a mapper’s point of view, to the player’s arsenal. Firstly we have the almighty Airfist. It repels rockets, grenades and generally blows things around - creating all sorts of havoc, especially when combined with the Quad damage. Significantly it also allows the players to move themselves around the map in a manner similar to a rocket jump. The key difference here is the Airfist does not injure the player and it allows for higher jumps in both the horizontal and vertical planes.
Then we have the Dragon, PainKeeps version of the grapple. Like the Airfist it allows the player to reach anywhere, high or low, within the map. The dragon also has the ability to pull items towards a player, and to launch certain weapons (such as the gravity well) across the map.
So how does this affect your map? It doesn't, unless you want it to. Well there are some small problems that should be taken into account. As mentioned, due to the enhanced mobility these weapons offer the player can get anywhere, especially the more skilled player.
The impact for the level designer is that without careful clipping the player may become stuck in some area where normally they can not reach, additionally it poses a problem for outdoor areas. Letting the player get too high can result in HOM being visible in the sky, making your map look less professional as well as destroy the illusion of being in some other place.
In most outdoor maps as you get higher up you loose this 'sense of place’; meaning that you can really see you are in, what is effectively, a box.
One solution might be to clip the sky lower so that the player does not see the boundaries of the world and so maintain the illusion. This does work nicely but creates problems of its own. Firstly, a vertically Airfisting player may well bang their head on the invisible clip brush, a possible annoyance. Airfisting straight up into the air and raining rocket death down upon your opponent is - well its immensely satisfying. Secondly, doing this will prevent players from using the 'skywell feature' of PainKeep Arena. More on that later.
These problems can be resolved by some pretty heavy clipping but that can have the unwanted side effect of taking away from the realism of the map. There is nothing more unnerving as a player than to be blocked by an ‘invisible’ wall.
Having tried many solutions to these problems I have come to the conclusion that it is best to go with the 'fun' aspect of level design rather than worrying if they can see the occasional HOM or loose the sense of place. Obviously the goal is to achieve both but it is just not always possible, and many players will probably not notice anyway. Just picky level designers ;).
So now we have the negative out the way lets look at the 'fun' aspect of the Airfist and Dragon. As mentioned the Airfist will move anything that isn't nailed down, players, you, ammo boxes, weapons etc, and the Dragon will pull the player to a location or pull an item towards the player. There are several things you might want to consider when designing PainKeep map (assuming you want to entertain players like myself that is :).
Placing items out of reach atop ledges, buildings etc. Personally I like to do this, especially with the more powerful weapons like the gravity well. The player must work for their goal. First they must collect the Airfist or Dragon and then use it to manoeuvre themselves to the desired location.
Vertical jumping. Lets face it, it is immensely satisfying to launch straight up into the air, switching to another weapon as you do so and nailing the player beneath you. As Ergodic puts it "I like a map with some flight time". So if possible consider allowing some height in at least one area your map.
The affect upon other players. What I mean by this is that not all weapons are appropriate in every map. For instance, a space map with an Airfist (unless perhaps difficult to get) might quickly become annoying as people punch each other into the void. Couple that with a Quad and you have a map that I would not want to play, particularly on a modem.
Another example might be a map with narrow bridges across large amounts of lava. Do you want players to be constantly dangling their toes in the lava? Depending upon the map this could be annoying. In pka10_30 there is an Airfist next to such a bridge, however the area is small enough that you may not be blown into the lava. Providing a Personal Teleporter in the map helps alleviate this problem. It gives the player that chance to get away which in turn leads to a good sense of satisfaction having got out of a sticky situation.
The dragon has the ability to pull items towards a player as well as to launch certain weapons such as the gravity well. The former can cause headaches if you want to place a particular item in a hard to reach location. If players can simply pull it towards them using the Dragon it takes away the challenge. One way to resolve this (it should work ;)) is to place a noimpact brush around the object, thus preventing the dragon from latching on the entity. Of course the player can still pull themselves towards the item by attaching to the surrounding geometry but that in itself will take time and might well be a tricky manoeuvre.
The dragon can also be used to deposit certain items across the map, and at great distances. This technique is often used in conjunction with the Gravity Well. Where it may affect your map design is in outside areas. If a player launches a Gravity Well directly into a sky brush the well will stick there. The affect of this is often devastating as the Gravity Well will suck up all beneath it, swirling the players round in circles before drawing them in to their almost certain demise. If your sky has been clipped this technique will not work, which is a shame because this is always good for a laugh and after all that’s what PainKeep is all about.
A skilled player, one familiar with PainKeep Arena, will use these weapons to quickly traverse the map. They will seek out and explore all the usually unreachable areas within a level. Take this into account when designing the level.
Give the players something to do, areas that perhaps can only be reached with the use of a grapple or skilled Airfist blasts.
If designing an area that you want a player to reach via a predetermined path remember that a skilled Dragon user will most likely bypass this path in favour of a more direct route. You will have to find creative ways of preventing this.
Think very carefully before NOT including these weapons in a level as they are key to PainKeeps appeal. Don't include them and you will most likely be asked ‘Why is there no Airfist/ Dragon in this map?’.
