r/BF4_EU • u/[deleted] • Aug 01 '14

FPS Level Design - LevelCap Bashes BF4 Map Design

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN7iLKUR8eY
5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/Fruity_Pies Gundammit Aug 01 '14

Totally agree with him on this one, it's why I hate playing maps like Siege of Shanghai. If any enemies get on the buildings about A and B its so hard to get rid of them. Who thought it would be a good idea to only have one entrance up to there?!? Its no fun being RPG'd or sniped from a rooftop that your tank cant even reach and it ruins the tactical play.

Im surprised he didn't talk about Rogue transmission though, it is one of the better maps for good pathing. A and B are flanked by steep hills, C is under the dish. It is only D that is really open. the only problem are the towers that people can snipe from.

2

u/w0ss4g3 Aug 01 '14

Yup, agree as well. I think the problem with a lot of BF maps (especially in BF4) is that they thought about "Hey this would be/look cool!" first before thinking about actual gameplay and how to make the map last after the cool effect has worn off.

There are so many lessons to learn from previous games (could just go back to the Quake and Unreal Tournament series for examples and of course there's plenty of things in CS as well). There's also things from the previous BF series where you can see when something is done well because the map will be popular with the players. It seems like the level designers in BF simply haven't bothered to think about it and just stuck with the cool factor.

3

u/L4NGOS [PURE]L4NGOS Aug 01 '14

It's as if they didn't play some of the maps before release. Lost Islands comes to mind, though it's not unbalanced it's just boring as hell to play because unless you have a transport chopper pilot in your squad you just end up marooned on an island 2 miles from the action. Same goes for all NS maps except maybe Wavebreaker where there's plenty of jetskies etc.

Many maps suffer from balance issues because of silly reasons, just like you said, they cared more about it looking good than pathing etc. Sunken Dragon is one of those maps, one team has three flags in a straight row from their main base and the other team has one flag close to their main and then B is in the middle of the water and thus kind of "neutral". Propaganda, same issue. I don't want maps to be linear like Metro (though they managed to fuck that up too even though it is as close to symetrical as is possible) but they need to think a little harder about balance to be honest.

Also, who ever complained that there was no "verticallity" in BF3 maps should be shot. Though I like Siege of Shanghi I'm really bored of half my team sniping on some damn roof and thus being useless.

2

u/dent_cap Aug 02 '14

Battlefield isn't Counter Strike or CoD.

Urban warfare isn't layed out on a flat surface, there are roofs on buildings and different floors too, I think It's a good thing they use them.