8 réponses à ce sujet

[JumboWheat01]

So I was looking at my poll earlier (link in my sig.  No, not that one, that's to my crappy manifest.  The one next to it.)  Unsurprisingly, Reactor was one of the most hated maps.  Tied with it, though, was White.  Guess other people, like me, are sick of that map.

By the way, if you wish, vote in it.  I'm curious to see what everyone's thoughts are about the maps.

[Jos Hendriks]

This makes for good reading material, everyone. Seeing as I'm responsible for at least a few of your most hated levels (though some love them, too), would you mind elaborating a bit on reasons why you dislike certain levels so much for those who haven't?

[Jos Hendriks]

wirelesstkd wrote...

If you have the time, though, I'd love to ask you a question: would you be able to talk a little bit about how a map comes to be? Like - are there practical decisions made based on what would be fun to play, or are they generally just designed around the idea of creating a map in a specific locale (so, more asthetic decisions than gameplay ones). I'm honestly just curious to know how these different maps come to be.

I've been thinking what would be an interesting thing to write about for the BioWare blog sometime, perhaps the design process for multiplayer levels is an interesting topic. I'll see what I can do. 

[Jos Hendriks]

One of the common comments I see is that certain hack objectives (a lot of them set up by yours truly) are hard/unfair/difficult to hold down. Now, I'm admittedly a sucker for a bit of punishment on the player not necessarily being a bad thing. I feel that if a level has one or two (out of a good few more) objectives that could come up that is more difficult to complete, it adds a bit to the tension of what objective could be coming up, and succeeding feels a bit sweeter.
With that in mind, I'd like to ask:

Do you feel objectives that are harder than others/require more effort are detrimental to your experience overall?

[Jos Hendriks]

Thanks everyone so far for sharing your thoughts on the levels. It's great to see almost every level getting both praise and criticism.

BobWalt wrote...

And while we are talking about difficulty why is the difficulty delta between bronze and silver so much greater than the difficulty between silver and gold?  Oh and my comments are not based on God level gaming ability but rather average gaming ability.

I wish I could provide an answer but difficulty scaling between difficulty settings is not something I set up or know much about.

[Jos Hendriks]

DragonRacer wrote...

Jos,

I'd love to know what maps you created.

With the caveat that a lot of people work on each individual level, and on the design side some levels get worked on by several designers, I've had a majority stake in Hydra, Goddess, Jade, and London. I've also had a lesser part in all the other DLC MP levels.

[Jos Hendriks]

xx DJ ONE xx wrote...
*By the way, thank you (and the rest of the ME team) for your engagement with this community. It's rare that we gamers get a chance to share ideas with the people that create our cherished games & it's clear that you guys don't just think of us as a bunch of $$$$. 

You are more than welcome. At the end of the day, I'm also just a gamer like everyone here, and growing up interacting with developers while building levels as part of games communities has always been a great thing. That, and ultimately you are the people I'm catering my designs to, so it's good to know what people like and dislike! 

Chardonney wrote...
Then I will bow and say thank you for giving us Hydra and London. They are both awesome.[smilie]http://social.bioware.com/images/forum/emoticons/smile.png[/smilie]

 

Thank you kindly! I'm glad that you like them.

DragonRacer wrote...
Very cool, thank you for sharing that insight! I figured it was a team effort, but nice to know what ones you had a bigger hand in, so to speak.

 

You're welcome! 

BoomDynamite wrote...
You did my favorite map (FB Jade). I'd also like to ask you a question. Do you do any parts of maps other than objectives?

 

Not 100% sure on what specifically you're asking, but for the multiplayer levels I work on I usually take care of layout, AI pathing, objectives, ammo placement, and making sure the level performs alright on all platforms. 

[Jos Hendriks]

Star fury wrote...
Some hack/download objectives like Reactor center, Goddess hall, London center they're just not fair. Especially Thessia(old version) and London - absolutely no cover, enemy spawns right in front of you and you have to hold it without moving 2-5 minutes. It's not fair, it is cheap. Most times people just spam rockets and sometimes even that doesn't help. I don't see hard work from map designers - I can easily make hack spot in open spot without cover, and say that it's challenge for players and they have to enjoy it. 

Objectives never come about that way, though. Every objective placed gets tried out several times by different groups of people while in development, and objectives across the board have moved around a lot during a level's development. I don't simply throw in objectives for the heck of it, and try to think of a way I can screw over the players. Some objectives still end up being tough, and everyone will at some point run into a group of random people to play with who don't coordinate, which makes things harder. I'm also not telling you to enjoy anything. I just hope you do, and listen and adapt when you don't. 

Achire wrote...
London. Was any playtesting even done above Bronze for those hack points? Nobody likes infinitely respawning enemies. It's much worse when they spawn right on top of you like they do on London. Don't they point this stuff out in Game Design 101 or something? You're not making the game "difficult" in any satisfying manner. You're just wasting everyone's time.

Most definitely! Snarky Game Design 101 comment aside, we do test all objectives a lot, different groups with different people on all difficulties available. London specifically we tested extensively on Gold and Platinum, with some Silver games in there as well.
Funny story, at one point during development we tested London on Gold and we had no ammo crates to refill ammo at. We still had a full extraction without much trouble.

[Jos Hendriks]

Rokayt wrote...
You like making small grenade intensive maps with easy to turn corners.

My Drell vanguard approves approves.
(Its kinda easy on most of them to just run laps to the ammo boxes as him and pull a top score. Try making some harder corners to navigate. It would make your maps less cheat like for that class.)

Nope, I like making levels that do something that the others don't.  (at least, I would really not consider Hydra to be a small grenade intensive map)