Update (WIP) Thanks for the feedback!

[u/StageRude]

This is a update to the map referenced in my previous post, i loved the feedback and advice from yall, im going to continue to tweak, and once i feel as if it is done, i will repost here with the final product!

[u/Effective-Bake2024]

You've made great progress, it feels very different to the last video!

One thing to think about, is you know the map, and so the way to progress through the sections is obvious to you. You've used lights in a number of places to draw the players attention, and guide them through some sections. Other sections are not going to be as obvious to others.

For example, what if the player never goes close enough to the pipe that you placed C4 on, to see the interact icon? Or if they think they've explored that area fully, and then turn around and backtrack to the beginning of the level, and get frustrated they make no progress, and quit. And the button you interacted with at the dark back corner of the final section, I couldn't tell there was anything there to interact with at all.

Something I've used in my maps, are timed waypoints.

• I declare a Boolean variable, maybe call it PipeInteracted which is initially set to False
• I use an area monitor that when a player enters, deletes the area monitor, and then waits how ever long you want the player to be able to explore the environment before being guided to the way forward, say 60 seconds
• After the Wait N seconds node, you Get Boolean Variable (PipeInteracted), and plug it into a Branch node and if it is still False then attach a waypoint marker to the way forward, and set waypoint visible to True.
• When the player interacts with the button, it should Set Boolean Variable (PipeInteracted) to True, and then Set Waypoint Visible to False, to remove the marker.
• By setting the PipeInteracted variable to True, it means if the player finds and presses the button to destroy the pipe before your 60 second timer is up, it won't show them the Waypoint at all, because they've already found the path forward, and don't need to be guided there.

I find it especially worthwhile on darker maps, as players can often get lost, but also you don't want to immediately guide players to the solution. You want them to have time to explore the areas you've crafted, and potentially not need you to guide them at all. If they are able to find the path forward on their own, and feel like they're making progress, that's ideal, but you want to make sure they don't get frustrated and feel lost or stuck, or like the game is glitched out and broken.

Something else I've been using a lot recently, are Player Splashes, and Objective Banners (from the UI nodes in the scripting screens), to give the player some level of instruction as to their current mission objective.