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recent articles
NPC and Item Placement Theory
17/03/05 11:35pm PST
Non-Player Character (NPC) and item placement can influence both the gameflow and immersion of a level. This article aims to give some pointers on how to properly place them.
- Hugh 'Hugh' Lloyd
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Got Props?
13/03/05 08:32am PST
A common problem in HL2 mapping is props not showing up in game. This article explains why and offers solutions.
- Jeff 'Yesukai' Pritchard
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Simulating Randomness
18/12/04 11:29pm PST
This article focuses on how to properly simulate random events that should occur at a certain average frequency, or within a certain probability per period of time.
- Skyler 'Zipster' York
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Your world in HL2
06/12/04 12:17am PST
This article gives tips and advice to anyone wanting to make custom photorealistic textures to be used in Half-Life 2.
- Oksid
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Hiding in Shadow
21/08/04 01:11pm PDT
Describes how to create a function that has monsters disregard you if you are hiding in a certain level of "darkness," which can be set from within map properties.
- Anders [Wolf] Jenbo (NoBody)
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Bump Mapping in Half-Life
08/08/04 11:58am PDT
Details a method of achieving real-time bump mapping in Half-Life, and provides an implementation of the algorithm.
- Francis 'DeathWish' Woodhouse
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Real-Time "TRON 2.0" Glow For Low-Spec Hardware
19/06/04 02:06pm PDT
A sequel to the original "Real-Time 'TRON 2.0' Glow" article, this describes how to implement real-time glow that works on low-spec graphics cards.
- Francis 'DeathWish' Woodhouse
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Hitboxes and Code
05/06/04 06:25pm PDT
How do I make only one part of a monster take damage? Learn about the relationship between model hitboxes and what you can do with them in a characters code.
- Jonathan 'Teh_Freak' Smith
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Introduction
Non-Player Character (NPC) and item placement has a direct correlation with the amount of immersion a map conveys. Let's assume you've designed a beautiful hospital and, for some indiscernable reason, you've placed a rocket launcher in the middle of a hallway. Even though it will still look like a hospital, it won't feel like a hospital anymore, and the player's level of immersion will be reduced significantly. If you replace that rocket launcher with a friendly doctor, it seems more real (because doctors are regularly found in hospitals) and thus the player's level of immersion will be increased.
NPC and item placement also has an effect on gameflow; if the player is given a choice between a hallway with a few strong enemies and another full of weak enemies, he has to decide which poses a bigger threat. Similarly, the player might prefer a room with some enemies and ammunition to one that has neither.
NPCs and items aren't the only factor in either of these situations, of course, but they're a large enough factor to merit some tips on how to properly place them.
NPCs (Allies and Enemies)
Allies should be used sparingly. If you have access to them at any given time, they become taken for granted and used entirely too often for things they weren't intended to be used for, such as cannon fodder.
NPCs should be placed in situations where they can be used toward their full potential; for example, a sniper is relatively useless if placed in a tight corridor. Alternatively, an alien with a powerful close-range attack will fight more effectively if it's placed in close quarters. However, most NPCs (with the exception of melee attackers) perform best in larger areas with plenty of cover.
Some semblance of balance between numbers and power is necessary; that is, if one side has more powerful units, the other side should have more units (and remember that if you base your balance purely on allies and enemies, it would end up unbalanced as the player is his own strongest ally).
Items (Weapons, Ammunition, Health, and Armor)
As was mentioned previously, weapons should be placed in environments suited for them; a rocket launcher shouldn't be found in a situation where a rocket launcher isn't useful or expected, such as an otherwise empty hallway.
Try to deny the player access to powerful weaponry unless he has to struggle for them. In singleplayer, this can be accomplished by placing the weaponry in an area populated with enemies. In multiplayer, you could place them in a hazardous (radioactive, for example) environment so he's forced to move quickly and carefully to get what he wants without getting too injured.
Ammunition should be spread around in amount, type, and location; 5000 bullets in one spot isn't helping anyone if they can't carry more than 200 bullets and what they really need is shotgun shells.
Health and armor should be placed sparingly and rarely together, especially in multiplayer (because pillboxes just aren't fun).
If mapping for multiplayer, try matching stronger weapons with incompatible ammunition so the player has to travel around to get what he wants (because pillboxes still aren't fun).
Note: If you're just starting with level design, it may be wise to start by making multiplayer maps so you don't have to worry about NPCs; later, once you're more comfortable with the entities, you can always make the shift towards singleplayer mapping. |
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Conclusion
Placing NPCs and items throughout a map to create cohesion in gameplay and atmosphere is one of the more subtle practices of level design, but one that can make all the difference in the world. A well placed weapon or health kit can change the entire pace and flow of a map, directing action and allowing for player strategies that will add depth and make your level more fun. Hopefully these tips can help you in creating more balanced and enjoyable creations. |
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article created on Sat Jan 22, 2005 / 01:54am PST
this item has been viewed 11469 times
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[general / mapping]
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Only registered users can post comments. Have you registered yet?
36 results, 2 pages, viewing page 1. prev [ 1 2 ] next
user comments
displaying comments of normal or higher rating
1. |
Steven 'SEThorian' van de Graaf
Sat Mar 19, 2005 / 06:09pm PST
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An addition to this point:
• Try to deny the player access to powerful weaponry unless he has to struggle for them. In singleplayer, this can be accomplished by placing the weaponry in an area populated with enemies. In multiplayer, you could place them in a hazardous (radioactive, for example) environment so he's forced to move quickly and carefully to get what he wants without getting too injured. You can also give the player the weapon before a struggle, when he's really going to need it. This is applied a lot in both HL1 and HL2 where, for instance, the RPG, Tau Cannon, Gluon Gun and Gravity Gun were all given before major battle segments.
There's also another note on the Gluon gun: That one was actually given too soon but it still made sense. This was because you can't expect to find a new human experimental weapon on the borderworld for no apparant reason. Thus giving it in the lambda labs made sense. The only downside was that the player dragged about a weapon which he probably didn't use until the final fight. (Well me, anyhow.)
So when placing your weapons in singleplayer, keep in mind both what use the weapons are going to be and well as the environment in which they're given is practical / logical.
Edit: Heh, I forgot: Good article Hugh! |
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Hugh 'Hugh' Lloyd
Sat Mar 19, 2005 / 10:12pm PST
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I suppose either before or after (or during) major battles makes sense in singleplayer, actually, and I hope I didn't imply that you had to force the player to destroy an alien platoon to get them. |
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Angry Beaver
Sun Mar 20, 2005 / 12:00am PST
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the gluon? ehehehehe i had fun taking down gargs with that, what do you mean only for the last fight but your point is a good one and tis a solid article for an outline.
want to add a note to multiplayer, keep players moving a good way to do this is by giving something like the combine second shot right next to the shotgun. they get it and realize its power so they move out for the combine rifle. but you don't want to go overboard, say i pick up the pistol and I've only got 1 clip im gonna smack you upside the ehad because that isn't nearly enough ammo. |
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4. |
Steven 'SEThorian' van de Graaf
Sun Mar 20, 2005 / 06:30am PST
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to force the player to destroy an alien platoon to get them Not that it is a bad this per se..
Harhar..
Edit: I actually found the gluon pretty useless. Partially because I spared both the Tau and the Gluon on Xen until I really needed them but also because it was just so powerful. To me the creature had to be something huge to deserve the gluon. I took out most gargantua's with the RPG and other explosives or simply ran.. On the Gronarch I used the Tau cannon. comment modified on Sun Mar 20, 2005 / 06:32am PST |
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5. |
Aleksandr Molcanov
Sun Mar 20, 2005 / 06:31am PST
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This really is common sense. A good example of weapon/item placement are the Metal Gear series. The weapons arent just lying around. They are taken from bosses, found in weapon storages. Pre-Last fight loadouts, like the Armoury in the last Halo1 level, that is fun. You get to choose your favourites before the ultimate struggle. Fun to use guns shouldnt be placed everywhere too. Make the player solve a puzzle first, something involving rocket jumping and gravity gun first. Then you get the RPG.
Giving the player a sniper rifle on a good sniping spot is bad. Just give him limited ammo, so he cant take the WHOLE enemy army out with it. Also, this is taken from Halo/Halo2.
An extreme mass of enemies isnt that fun to encounter. Playing on the edge is great. But its even greater to cooperate. An other example from Halo2: the Scarab sequence. a huge walking enemy tank in an earth city. You can see a squad of marines trying to take it down, but its up to you to kill it. THAT was fun. |
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6. |
Steven 'SEThorian' van de Graaf
Sun Mar 20, 2005 / 06:39am PST
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This really is common sense. Well yes and no. To me (and you, obviously) this is common sense but I've played loads of map packs and mods where these simple rules were totally discarded. In fact, I reckon I played more mods with lousy weapon and NPC placement than mods with proper placement.
something involving rocket jumping Eep! No!
Rocket jumping is a specialised technique that only a few skilled players can do or even think of. It's just like tripminejumping, really. It's a sometimes useful skill but only a few people have mastered or even know it. You wouldn't want to exclude the general audience that'll be playing your maps so you'll have to rely on techniques that everybody knows of. Your own example of solving puzzles is excellent, just minus the specialised skills.
Personally, I gave the player a .357 as a present if he managed to solve a nasty tripmine puzzle*. Though it involved a lot of jumping, anyone who has finished HL1 (and thus the various jumping excercises) would have the ability to get it. (This by the way was applied in Issues.) This would obviously be a large amount of the target audience. (Afterall, mostly HL fans will play HL mods.)
An extreme mass of enemies isnt that fun to encounter.
&
You can see a squad of marines trying to take it down, but its up to you to kill it. THAT was fun. Amen to that!
*) For the record: He wasn't supposed to jump on tripmines. He has to avoid them as you did in "Surface Tension". (The warehouse full of tripmines and with the nukes.) This just for the record, as I wouldn't want to seem as if I would be contradicting myself. comment modified on Sun Mar 20, 2005 / 06:41am PST |
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7. |
Darrell 'Me2' Noice
Sun Mar 20, 2005 / 11:50am PST
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Yeah... but wasn't it soo much fun when you got hit by the swarms of manhacks is HL2? bouncing around all the time shooting them at each other with the gravity gun. That was fun. |
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9. |
Steven 'SEThorian' van de Graaf
Sun Mar 20, 2005 / 03:16pm PST
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Me2: It was sortof fun once you had the grav gun..
Taking those down with a crowbar was just a pest.. |
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10. |
Patrick 'ComCray' Kanne
Mon Mar 21, 2005 / 07:31am PST
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Yeah, good article, seriously..
Though some points..
Guns for Clues, When giving the player a new heavy weapon or a stack of health/armor/ammunition it shouldn't work as a clue. Often I find when I encounter one of these I can surely expect to be thrown in some kindof peril involving me having to blast my way through. Some games/mods have this so strongly (RtCW for instance) that it totally kills the surprise effect a good ambush could have.. In that light I found that HL1 and SS2 have about the best weapons-placement I ever encountered..
Weapon caches, I do not totally agree with the notion you shouldn't place loads of ammo/weapons on one spot. Especially in SP games. When this is worked out well (ammo storage, weapons lockers etc) it adds more to the immersion then placing 20 bullits in an air shaft. Making the place initially hard to reach (locks/obstacles) adds even more to it. I, personally, found that smart placed weapons caches do more for me then finding ammo all over the place or in the most obscure places..
NPC's what I found brilliant in HL1 is that most usable NPC's were in hiding places. This was/is a brilliant tactic since the chances are indeed when you're alone in a bad situation you'll either be hiding or you are the player. In that light I found the Barney which you encountered just before "on a rail" was about the worst thinkable example: just around his corner was a war going on (garg vs griunts) and he was just standing there playing gatekeeper as if nothing happened.. So, the message of this bit is: when placing a NPC try to think like that person and see what you (as a person: not as player) would do were you in his/her shoes at that particular moment.
lastly: "Make the player solve a puzzle first, something involving rocket jumping and gravity gun first. Then you get the RPG."
So, first I have to rocket jump before I get the RPG.. That's just cruel! comment modified on Mon Mar 21, 2005 / 07:35am PST |
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11. |
Steven 'SEThorian' van de Graaf
Mon Mar 21, 2005 / 07:46am PST
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Barney which you encountered just before "on a rail" was about the worst thinkable example: just around his corner was a war going on (garg vs griunts) and he was just standing there playing gatekeeper as if nothing happened.. He was hiding behind about 20 blocks of concrete. I'd say that's a pretty good hiding spot.. |
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12. |
Tom
Tue Mar 29, 2005 / 10:43am PST
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Hi does any one know if its possible to make npc_metropolice or any combine ai to respawn for a single player map?? |
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13. |
pepper
Fri Apr 01, 2005 / 01:15am PST
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something involving rocket jumping
Eep! No!
Rocket jumping is a specialised technique that only a few skilled players can do or even think of. It's just like tripminejumping, really. It's a sometimes useful skill but only a few people have mastered or even know it. You wouldn't want to exclude the general audience that'll be playing your maps so you'll have to rely on techniques that everybody knows of. Your own example of solving puzzles is excellent, just minus the specialised skills.
Its not that hard, if you have played a lot of tfc then you will realize that most soldiers are abel to rocket jump in a decent way. |
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15. |
Mike "Prometheus" Valentine
Fri Apr 15, 2005 / 03:10pm PDT
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Tom, youve gotta make em into Template NPC's then use the template spawner entity (template_maker? something to that effect) to create more of them.
As for weapon placement, I've always found it is important and can add to the immersion. I liked the Combine AR's would always be found on weapon racks in combine controlled areas, that was good. Also in Doom3, in the early missions you find an audio message noting a BFG delivery to someones office (which you wont reach until much later) but the security had to change a number in the code. This left me at least hungrily searching for information on the rest of the code and how to recover said BFG. Puzzles like that (or maybe just giving the player a tantalizing glimpse of some large armory through a locked door) can be very good for gameplay. |
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16. |
Marc 'Delete_Me' Henry
Sat Apr 23, 2005 / 08:09pm PDT
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I never really made multiplayer maps (well, I did to 15mm once or twice). I think both kinds of maps, multi- and singleplayer, have a set paradigm and intricacies of construction. In a multiplayer map, one must think of flow, challenge, balanced weapon placement, etc. In single player, the designer has to concentrate on atmosphere, believability, and monster (refering to all characters) placement. I never liked this attitude that new people should start by trying to make multiplayer maps - if you plan on mapping for multiplayer most of the time, start learning on that, if not, then just fool around in the single player mode.
Personally, I learned much of the things I know by compiling a box room and just playing with a particular entity or func_ I've never toyed with. From what I hear, Source lets this go even further, so I'll just repeat my motto once again: Make simple test maps for whatever sector of mapping your interested in, be it a design for a hallway, an entity setup, a martyred soda machine, whatever- toy around and see what catches your eye, looks cool, or gives you a 'wow'
(sorry for the old timer reference, if anyone gets it) |
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17. |
Adam "Volmarias" Vollmer
Tue Apr 26, 2005 / 12:56am PDT
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I don't think it can be stressed enough how important it is to have weapons be in appropriate places. One of the things that really gets me in some games is how weapons will magically appear just when you need them in the middle of nowhere, or even better yet, in the magical crates that you're relegated to destroying for your dose of equipment. Weapons on or near dead NPCs always feel natural, as just one example of where it's very appropriate to put them.
Personally, as far as weapon placement goes, I've noticed that when you pick up a stronger weapon while still fighting the same enemies, you get a bit of satisfaction at being able to dispatch them more quickly. Two or three minutes down the line is the perfect time to add new enemies. The converse is occasionally true; if you're fighting monster A, and then monster B comes along with much better equipment, let the player sweat it out for a minute or two before giving him better weapons, or better yet, have him pick up better weapons from monster B. |
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18. |
Eric Reuter
Tue May 10, 2005 / 03:55pm PDT
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Hugh,
Excellent points all around. Proper flow and pace relies so heavily on good ammo/wep/NPC placement that it can't be understated. I've played many gorgeous levels that were killed by bad placement, amount, or consideration for plausibility. Immersion is important, but far more-so in single-player than multi, IMHO. A good multiplayer level needs balance more than anything else. The cardinal sin of multiplayer hell is to have an area with a weapon or cache of weapons/ammo that allows for one person (usually near a spawn point) to dominate or worse, to spawn-kill at will. Seen that way too many times. Another is to create an area that is too easily defensible or able to be sniped from with impunity.
Maybe it's just me (old-school DOOM/QuakeWorld geek), but having to find a code to open a locker/door in DOOM3 drives me nuts. I don't want a PDA. I want a damn gun, and something to kill. If I wanted to frustrate myself any more than that, I would build a level filled with crates I had to climb and jump to and from. :-)
HL2's implementation of single-player is astounding. I never feel frustrated or bored, never wander aimlessly looking for something. The care that was taken in crafting this game is incredible. I never feel like I'm being led around on a leash, but the designers have done an incredible job of leading you without you realizing it. Amazing job.
Regards, -Eric Reuter |
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19. |
[ICR]
Sun May 15, 2005 / 12:30pm PDT
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I know it's probably pretty obvious, but gamestyle needs to be taken into account. Both of the level/mod overall, and of that specific area. As people have said, Half-Life 2 did a great job of weapon placement. But then, Serious Sam, I think, also did an excellent job for the gametype. The tension was created in knowing that you had a huge battle just after given all of these weapons, but what exactly is going to be in it? Thinking of my best weapon placement, dead bodies are always a good way to give ammunition and weapons. A group of aliens have been, had a fight with some humans, and gone through. There are alot of dead people, and thus ammo and weapons for you to pick up before going and getting them. This creates tension in a similar fashion to Serious Sam, whereby you know a big firefight is coming, but this time not because you have been tooled up, but because you have seen the carnage. The extra weapons are just a lucky side-effect of that. But the firefight is not immediate. You spend a while following in these guys devistating footsteps, before suddenly, BAM! There they are. You've build up the players expectations, inverted it, then made them shat their pants. Also, don't be affraid to starve players. I find it irritating that I always seem to have just enough ammo for all my weapons. It has to be very carefully and skillfully done, but sometimes it is good to leave players with very little ammo (but situations where they can also get through without ammo, i.e. run) to give that extra sense of panic. With regards to NPC's, try to make them stick with you a while. Alot of the NPC's in HL had little speeches, which give you an emotional attatchment to them. This means alot less of them get used as cannon fodder. |
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20. |
Mark Heuckeroth
Mon May 23, 2005 / 03:46am PDT
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Pretty useless article. I'm about 99,99% sure that it did not add to anyone's view towards placing monsters or items in their levels. And of course, placing npc/items/events in your map that are against your personal feelings with it, would be pretty dumb.
Particulary funny, as i regard it, are the mappers who think they can actually "get better". One's sense for design and atmosphere won't be affected by the article of someone who wants to show: 0h l00k I f0und T3h 0pti0n!!111~~ Things thought over and over by people who want to make good maps themselves. What do you think people do, make a map first and add monsters later?. HMM where should i put the rocketlauncher. Oh thats simple, it has to make sense.. ..so i put a dead soldier next to it.
The point im trying to make, is that the next step in creating levels, is not just to show people how good you would like to overthink npc/item placement, but to have a general idea, a well sketched and overthougt map, and actually a story, before you even start to map. I am sure that the feeling with item and monster placement and with that, the feeling for total atmosphere can't be given to someone. It's yours, or not.
gamedesiging is leaving its hobby state, and is getting an art. respect that. and save us these articles, in which you imply that serious mappers who visit these sites should be given advice about how to place monsters in their maps. we all knew that one, sonny. |
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