Level Design Defend The House - Map Interest Check

[Dragontear]

Hello world, hello forum.
...Hi Zeds.

Been messing around with the Editor for a bit now, and a spur-of-the-moment-shenanigans, decided to throw together a old log-cabin style building, and thought to myself whether or not making a map that focused on a relatively small, dense area where players are tasked with holding a single building during the Attack phase and scavenging outside in the Trading phase.

Wanting to know if people may be interested in this as a idea, as such, seeking constructive/general feedback, ideas, suggestions, free hugs, etc.

Alrighty, using a Red-Yellow-Green light system for safety's sake.
Red; The Main doors, and thus main entrance points.
Yellow; Wide Windows, Specimens/Zeds/Party Crashers can enter here.
Green; Thin Windows that Zeds cannot enter, but can be fired through - by both human and non-humans with ranged attacks.

Notes:
1] I intend to make this a moon-light, fairly dark map, only the House will have good lighting, and may be linked to a Generator outside.
2] The External Double-Doors will be fairly strong and made of metal.
3] Internal Double-Doors are wooden.
4] Internal Single-Doors are weaker-wooden.
5] Trader Pod may be located inside one of the rooms inside the house, or outside in a damaged 'out house' to pull people around.
6] I do intend to place down structures around this house, but they will be intentionally open to attack from all angles - don't be there.

Some questions I'd like to put to the mappers with the know-how;
1] Would it be possible to create some form of weaker 'barricade' in the form of a static mesh or a group of small meshes, functionally they can be doors without the 'use' function, may/may not be welded, that is attacked and destroyed by Zeds, I would like to use them on the Wider Windows.

2] How would I go about increasing or decreasing the priority given to certain path-nodes? I'd like to have the Zeds go for the doors first, then the Wide Windows.

3] How would I go about linking the lights/electrical systems to a Generator mesh, so that if the Generator is damaged, all electrical systems fail, i.e the lights, etc. Would it be possible to have the Generator/lights flicker and weaken randomly?

I'll think of some more asap, but hoping this does gather some interest, thank you for reading this far. ^^

 

[Blockyz]

It does sound like a very interesting idea and would be cool to see how it would play out with killing floor specimens rather than generic zombies.

I do have a few questions:
1. How far can a player go outside the cabin? Will it be very free to move out but very dark?
2. With the wide windows are they going to be initially barricaded or will they be open for zeds to come through at all times? I'm assuming that they're barricaded if you want them to go for the doors first
3. It's quite a small building so I'm curious what your thoughts on ammo boxes would be. Would you have it so if a player does run out of ammo then the punishment is to traverse outside?
4. Seeing as how this a more objective focused map of defending do you have any plans of keeping the player focused on it? Rather than say, a berserker ignoring your objective and just running around willy nilly?
5. Assuming the windows are barricaded, there's a lot of boards on that cabin floor, is there any plans for making it possible to re-barricade the windows?

As for suggestions I don't really want to throw too much at you because I would like to see where you're going with this. But as for the generator, are you planning to have to start at 100% and as soon as it's gone then it's completely gone?
What I think would be interesting (though I am not sure how you would implement it) is to have it where you can weld the generator to repair it and maybe even have the welding line (that blue thing that appears on doors) build up next to the generator as if some sort of indication.

What you have so far seems pretty solid, would be nice to see a normal perspective rather than completely birds eye, but keep at it!

 

[Mundgodt]

Hello world, hello forum.
...Hi Zeds.

Been messing around with the Editor for a bit now, and a spur-of-the-moment-shenanigans, decided to throw together a old log-cabin style building, and thought to myself whether or not making a map that focused on a relatively small, dense area where players are tasked with holding a single building during the Attack phase and scavenging outside in the Trading phase.

Wanting to know if people may be interested in this as a idea, as such, seeking constructive/general feedback, ideas, suggestions, free hugs, etc.

*snip*

Alrighty, using a Red-Yellow-Green light system for safety's sake.
Red; The Main doors, and thus main entrance points.
Yellow; Wide Windows, Specimens/Zeds/Party Crashers can enter here.
Green; Thin Windows that Zeds cannot enter, but can be fired through - by both human and non-humans with ranged attacks.

Notes:
1] I intend to make this a moon-light, fairly dark map, only the House will have good lighting, and may be linked to a Generator outside.
2] The External Double-Doors will be fairly strong and made of metal.
3] Internal Double-Doors are wooden.
4] Internal Single-Doors are weaker-wooden.
5] Trader Pod may be located inside one of the rooms inside the house, or outside in a damaged 'out house' to pull people around.
6] I do intend to place down structures around this house, but they will be intentionally open to attack from all angles - don't be there.

Some questions I'd like to put to the mappers with the know-how;
1] Would it be possible to create some form of weaker 'barricade' in the form of a static mesh or a group of small meshes, functionally they can be doors without the 'use' function, may/may not be welded, that is attacked and destroyed by Zeds, I would like to use them on the Wider Windows.

2] How would I go about increasing or decreasing the priority given to certain path-nodes? I'd like to have the Zeds go for the doors first, then the Wide Windows.

3] How would I go about linking the lights/electrical systems to a Generator mesh, so that if the Generator is damaged, all electrical systems fail, i.e the lights, etc. Would it be possible to have the Generator/lights flicker and weaken randomly?

I'll think of some more asap, but hoping this does gather some interest, thank you for reading this far. ^^

Afaik, its a yes to all your questions.

1. You can place doors in the windows and change the material to whatever you like, and disable the open/close function.

2. Pretty sure the "Extra Cost" of path nodes are priority. Not 100% though.

3. Like destructible lights, you just have a destructible actor with a generator mesh linked to the lights instead.

I can give you some screens and stuff if you need it

 

[Dragontear]

@Blockyz
Thank'ee!

1] Part of me was tempted to try and force the players to remain inside the building at all times, using blocking zones, but even to me that feels a tad too constricting, especially with KF2's small emphasis on more mobility. I think I'll have a surrounding area with buildings both accessible and blocked up, and then have volumes that combine blocking and significant fog increases, as seen in KF-Howling Woods/Howling Forest. I think the time will be at evening or late night with thick, rolling fog - dark and limited visibility.

2] I'd like to try and have destroy-able barricades placed over the wide-windows, to give the defenders some security, and doors will be high-priority for the Zeds.

3] Regarding ammo and equipment inside the house, thinking of either two ways to go about it; first is to have little usable stuff inside, making an incentive for players to go outside and take what they can, or to have quite a lot of stuff inside the house... that either doesn't re-spawn again, or takes much longer than usual. Probably over-thinking this as usual, but meh.

4] Good question... Well, if the area/structures surrounding the house are absolutely within boundaries, then I'm happy for people to go outside. The fact the house is the only place with reliable lighting and security, should be an incentive to stay there. If a Zerker wants to run out into the cold, misty darkness? Let them, most if not all Zerker-class weapons appear to lack a flashlight, most may not opt to take night-vision over the other skill. To be honest I'm happy to let somebody run out of the house and get themselves killed, and given how clear I am that this is specifically a one-building hold-out idea, meta-wise, if somebody doesn't wish to participate in this scenario, there's plenty of other spiffing maps to play. ^^

5] I don't really know about that... I did lump the wooden planks about as decoration, mostly to show the less than stellar condition of the house in the first place - bit decrepit and all. If it's possible to repair the barricades using kismet, I could try, but no promises on that front, I get lost easily with using the functions, events, etc.

Regarding the possible generator, I was thinking of having a sort of... [n%] chance of it faltering, causing the lights to dim or flicker haphazardly and a smaller [n%] chance actually shutting down altogether. As for restarting the generator... maybe a single use-action - flicking a switch - as I don't know how to plug in the necessary coding/kismet to make an event where a welder can be used to (quickly) restart the generator. Same thing for the welder-line, would be a nice-touch to have the welder-line meshes appear on exposed wiring in the house to show that yes, the electrics are working, and then become hidden when the generator buggers up or damage is done to the actual lights.

Speaking of screenshots, I'll have a few in first-person-perspective, given the current 'version', if you will, nothing mind-blowing (unless you really, reaaallly like cabins without roofs, then absolutely.) I have been messing around with the house's layout, changing things and adding detail, working on the surrounding structures, storage building, a small house-ish building, a large-ish cabin.


@Mundgodt

Hello there!

TBH, and at the risk of seeming newbie-ish with the more technical aspects, gonna answer 'will try it when/as I learn' should apply to all five points, and screens/stuff/more stuff would be terribly helpful, I'd appreciate the assistance!

 

[Dragontear]

Righto, working on the map and got some screenshots, realizing how photo-unfriendly the place is, ah well.

Layout 2
Front of house
Front right room
Living room

Will add more to the house, though trying to keep larger meshes to the sides of the rooms and lesser in number, without having them get in the way all the time. Needs doors, lights and something better for the wider windows, as I can't physically get through them - the wooden window mesh, even when broken up, seems to block movement, hm.

Got layouts and some furnishing for about four other cabins, long storage structure, and a doctors.

Two ideas come to mind for this if it goes further - should I just have the house alone in a smallish clearing in the woods, or should it be part of a small village, being consumed by the surrounding forest?

Partly from emulating the lonely, isolating feel of a 'Night of the Dead' scenario, and partly from realizing you could in theory have buildings and the forest make for convincing barriers by having them merge - the wall-vines seem good for making a structure seem older and slowly being overtaken by nature.

Alas, still seeking interest from people, feedback, ideas, suggestions, and help with the above points regarding barricades and generator-related matters. Happy to brainstorm too, helps me a lot and I'd appreciate it.