Skittlemeister0's Guide to Vehicle Placement - Vehicles

Skittlemeister · 07-14-2008

Skittlemeister0's
Guide to Effective Vehicle Placement.

Lately there have been an onslaught of maps, most of which are not good, some of which are OK, and a few of which are spectacular. Those few maps that are spectacular have all of the right attributes placed into them, such as a specific placement of weapons, goals, vehicles, power-ups, switches, forging, etc. Well, there have been three Guides so far, now it's my turn.

This is for very big team matches and/or maps, so if your next idea is to make one of those, listen carefully. It is important that you do, or your map will smack itself in the face, somehow.

Vehicle Placement is super-important. You cannot have one vehicle too close to another vehicle of the same - or even close to - power strength on your map for people on the same team, such as having a Scorpion Tank spawn nearby or even next to a Covenant Wraith, or a UNSC Hornet by a Covenant Banshee (unless it resides on maps that take place in big bases on Avalanche, Standoff, Sandtrap, or Valhalla). There are some exceptions to this. Take for example, WetBeaver's spin-off mini-game,
Duck Hunt, where two "shooters" spawn in a cage, and have two Gauss Warthog's to shoot down the zombies flying across the map.

When placing a vehicle somewhere, you must think to yourself, "How do I want this to effect gameplay? Do I want it to be for transport across the map, Do I want it to run over my enemies? Or do I want it for the regular purpose, to help out a team in scoring?" You should have the answer easier than blinking: You want the vehicle to perfectly help out the map. Do whatever you think will help, but keep in mind, four tanks and a troop of Hogs is not going to want to be played against by the team with a sniper rifle and a shotgun (nothing on your guides, linubidix).

You must know before making the vehicle active, also, "Is my map too small for a vehicle?" It could be, but sometimes not, such as in Draw The Line's new cramped multi-game map, Gridlocked, where each team has two Hogs, and the map itself is a teency bit cramped for them, being made up of close, upright double boxes representing buildings. A good example again for this is Reflex, made by Forgehub's own Matty. This houses a ghost, but the map design itself is also a little too small for the Ghost on it to the naked eye, but when played, it works out perfectly.

In mini-games, sometimes vehicles aren't needed, yet people use them overmuch. You dont need a Tank to take down zombies, only a well-placed shot, so don't go placing those strewn across your brand-new Avalanche map where zombies come charging at you. Change that design up. In other maps, vehicles are a fun addition, taking back in Duck Hunt, and Splat, made by Gobbles. This map incorporates Ghosts to try and ram the Humans while the Zombies use them. Always think before placing those Hornets down. It might be funner to use Mongooses, instead of those flying devils.

In Capture the Flag, Assault, and occasionally Territories, vehicles help a lot more than thought. If playing on a big map, why place a teleporter back to your base when you can have fun flying the carrier back and trying to dodge those pesky Spartan Laser shots? Or grab a goose and speed your way back to base along the ground. In an old game, which is one of my favorites, called Tunnels , there are four different kinds of vehicles to capture the Territories along Rat's Nest main road (Gauss and Chain Hogs, Mongeese, and a Ghost), in this creative Big Team Conquest map.

When making vehicles available in Team Slayer, or regular Free-For-All, take into consideration this vehicle will be used for slaughter, and occasionally cannot be stopped, as there isn't a weapon powerful enough to take it down. Instead of making a Warthog, which needs more than one grenade or Rocket, make a Ghost, which only needs one, or make a Mongoose, which is more versatile and can have two riders. But when making KoTH or Oddball or Juggernaut or any other casual gametype, these vehicles will not be relied on with kills, but with transport. Remember that, and your maps will work out great.

I hope this little guide Helped you at all, and give me feedback if I missed anything or if it needs touching up. Thank you for listening and have a Forgetacular day!

Tex · 07-14-2008