Block out phase week 2

So last week I ended when I created a ramp on both ends that went to a second level, so this week I decided to only concentrate on finishing the bottom level so at least that way I could test something out in my level without waiting. The first thing I set about doing was to create snaking corridors from the ramps which entered into the centre of the room where majority of the fighting will commence due to the open area and high concentration of weapons  (which I will get too next) . I created snaking and tight corridors because if the player meets enemies in the corridors then the fighting will be fast paced and tense due to the small are this should add a nice new dynamic to the flow and the overall fell of gameplay.  

Once the outlines of the centre room was created I decided to put 4 weapon lockers down by going to actor classes in the content browser and dragging in weapon content factory from the menu, I then had to change the settings by double clicking the object then going to the option in the menu to add a weapon and I added shock rifles to all 4 weapon lockers and placed them in the corners of the room. The reason I put them in this place was to give the players a reason to enter the big centre room and fight for a better weapon, I also placed rocket launchers at the ends of the corridors on either end so the player would have to run into a dead end for the most powerful weapon thus risking death, I done this because I didn’t want to offer the most powerful weapon out easily without risk otherwise everyone would go for it, this way you only will go for it if you’re willing to risk your life to get more kills.

After adding in the weapons and pickups I then started to walk across my centre room and i started to realise t is really big when playing the game which I didn’t like because I thought it would slow down the pacing the game so I needed to add some way increasing the traversal speed, so I went on the VLE and found a tutorial for jump pads and I thought that could be quite interesting for travel so I decided to do it and I went into the actor classes in the content browser again and dragged in 4 jump pads  and placed in similar positions to the shock rifles and then began to create the landing spots for them  in front of the shock rifles in opposite corners, this way each jump pad threw you across the room in a arc to a shock rifle I thought this could bring in some fun gameplay due to enemies jumping overhead while shooting as well as the player doing this and at the same time increasing the gameplay speed for the room.

 

Block out phase week 1

In today’s lesson I began by touching up on my designs and making sure they were ready.  Once my initial designs were done I began with the building of the level, I done this in a blocked out form so that we can get the gameplay working in the game before we start to make it look good. The blocks were given to us in a map called ublock_map_01.

Once i got this map I decided to double the size of the map in length because I want symmetry for a capture the flag map I did this by selecting the builder brush and doubling the number on the x axis.

Once this was done I then used CSG subtract to remove the floor before adding the newly sized one in by pressing CSG add.

 Once my floor was the right  size I used the pieces already provided in the level to create a border around the edge this will stop any AI walking of the ends when testing and shows that the level will be closed off, Once my walls were in place I began by building one side of my level with a long corridor in the center and then duplicating it on the other side this is because I’m creating  a capture the flag map and it would be unfair to give one team access to something and the not the others, it also allows for a better team vs team gameplay flow by having both teams coming at each other from opposite ends.

Then when the corridors were built I then created two ramps either side of the corridor that joined in the middle and went up towards the center for a higher level of the map, again I duplicated this effect on the other side to keep symmetry. That’s all I completed this week but so far I’m enjoying the layout of the map and i will have to wait to see once more has been added before I try to make changes to improve it because as the level stands there’s not enough in it to test how it plays so far.