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The Concept of Making a Balanced Map

Discussion in 'Capture the Flag' started by Lewka, Jul 6, 2016.

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  1. Lewka

    Lewka Well-Known Member

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    There are numerous maps on CTF, some of them are more class biased than others. It is evident that a map such as Platforms is very good for archer unlike for other classes, whilst maps like Airlock (even though it's not in rotation) is better for classes such as Chemist and Ninja rather than soldier. However, one map that seems to be balanced out fairly well, which has a high popularity and has 2 popular reskins is so far the most balanced map in CTF, which is ironic considering that the map is 4-5 years old and CTF has gone through so many changes. The map i'm talking about of course is Blackout.

    There is something about blackout that just seems to go with every class. Soldier is good, archer is good, chemist is good, pyro is good, engineer is good, etc. Whilst sometimes it may seem like archer is incredibly OP in the map, there are several paths which can be used to avoid archers most of the time. Soldier is incredibly good but not too amazing for the simple reason it can wallclimb above spawn, the tree in front of spawn and the middle. Yet another thing that is quite interesting is that blackout's flagroom is quite decently balanced. It is small consisting of 4 entrances/exits, yet seems to still be good for defense.

    On the other hand, if we take a look at a map such as Dragon Valley, there are almost no high structures, there is the flagroom which although has multiple exits is quite difficult to get out of in a heavy defense, and archer is the leading class in the map. It should also be taken into consideration that the map is rectangular in shape, not square. In fact, most maps are quite rectangular, and those that are square are larger than blackout (by a long shot). I don't know about the rest of the community, but to me it seems like a game in blackout never gets old unlike a map in kill creek, which is a class biased map.

    Basically to conclude, my idea of making a balanced map such as blackout could possibly consider factors such as square map shape, small in size, cover but enough area to be headshottable, small but good flagroom with multiple exits.

    What are your guys' thoughts on the factors that should be taken into consideration to making a balanced map?
     
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    #1 Lewka, Jul 6, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2016
  2. Birdgirl

    Birdgirl Well-Known Member

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    Something interesting to note are the other CTF maps xxxxdead created and how terrible for gameplay they were. Islands, Castle, Citadel, Halo, Lighthouse, and Waterfall. All those maps have been removed (okay, halo has a remake in rotation, but that's beside the point).

    It's strange that his other maps would be so terrible, yet blackout has been one of the most popular maps for years.
     
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    #2 Birdgirl, Jul 6, 2016
  3. Lewka

    Lewka Well-Known Member

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    I guess it's just the fact that they don't have things that balances out blackout such as size, dimensions and placing of structures
     
    #3 Lewka, Jul 6, 2016
  4. Xelasi

    Xelasi Well-Known Member

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    Here, @Doubtfully, I typed up a detailed guide breaking down map elements and how they factor into gameplay and class OPness.

    https://www.brawl.com/threads/57018/

    Individual maps have their individual problems, which are often fixed in reworks (example: the original Halo only having one central path for traffic to cross through.) I think Blackout got lucky in the way that the elements worked together well the first time.

    The things that make Blackout work are:
    a) It's really easy to navigate and understand
    b) It's a multilevel map with the tops of the walls and center structure providing both paths for players and archer cover
    c) It has a decent variety of options for getting across the map.
    d) It's not overcomplicated.
    e) The ease at which a player can steal the flag is countered by the ease at which players can recover a flag.

    Sometimes it seems mysterious as to why some maps work and some maps don't... but I've spent a very long time trying to break it down so my future map builds turn out well.
     
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    #4 Xelasi, Jul 6, 2016
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2016
  5. BAWSS5

    BAWSS5 Well-Known Member

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    Airballoons best map
     
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    #5 BAWSS5, Jul 6, 2016
  6. SoCool21

    SoCool21 Bans Reports & Appeals Admin | McPvPer for Life <3

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    I think with Blackout, the reason why its balanced is because of how much it disregards balancing. The map has tall walls so soldier is OP, its very small so its ninja OP (you can still instacap here for gods sake), its very open so its archer OP, its for CTF so its engineer OP .ect. Each individual class is OP for this map, so every single class is balanced.
     
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    #6 SoCool21, Jul 6, 2016
  7. EmperorTrump45

    EmperorTrump45 Dank Memer

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    [​IMG]

    lol
     
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    #7 EmperorTrump45, Jul 6, 2016
  8. Proterozoic

    Proterozoic Wiki Team is a Semi-Staff Rank

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    the best CTF map is clearly ship battle. Ship battle is the map all maps should aspire to be like
     
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    #8 Proterozoic, Jul 6, 2016
  9. Lewka

    Lewka Well-Known Member

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    Your ideology is the reason we can't have nice things in CTF :stuck_out_tongue:
     
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    #9 Lewka, Jul 6, 2016
  10. Avivox

    Avivox Well-Known Member

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    Canadian Fort is best imo
     
    #10 Avivox, Jul 6, 2016
  11. Daveeeeeeeee

    Daveeeeeeeee Well-Known Member

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    Good for you that I made a new map with a similar gameplay and aesthetic style, posting it tomorrow.
     
    #11 Daveeeeeeeee, Jul 6, 2016
  12. Avivox

    Avivox Well-Known Member

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    cant wait to see it!
     
    #12 Avivox, Jul 6, 2016
  13. ExtremeEvoboost

    ExtremeEvoboost CTF Media Man

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    Why can't we focus more on gameplay like blackout always has and not aesthetic ****e like Treeland (canadafort) or swampthing, or tuscan raider. This isn't art class this is CTF lol
     
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    #13 ExtremeEvoboost, Jul 6, 2016
  14. iMuffles

    iMuffles Well-Known Member

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    this exactly. if we release a plain-looking map with high gameplay potential (like blackout) i have doubts that it'll even be accepted into the rotation because it isn't pretty enough.
     
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    #14 iMuffles, Jul 6, 2016
  15. Exploud

    Exploud Member

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    This is it, pretty much. Blackout's flagroom is crap, it's incredibly biased towards offense, and it would make any other map awful. The only reason this isn't the case is because there's nowhere in Blackout for a flag carrier to hide.
     
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    #15 Exploud, Jul 7, 2016
  16. sp00ky101

    sp00ky101 Well-Known Member

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    @Exploud Except for good players who move from waterfall to waterfall blocking and popular players who always seem to have 6 medics and other random classes orbiting around them like planets to a sun.

    Sorry about that rant. I'll just leave the forums for another month :stuck_out_tongue:
     
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    #16 sp00ky101, Jul 8, 2016
  17. TheMaelstromsEye

    TheMaelstromsEye Well-Known Member

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    Im in the process of making a map of my own, I can safely say that structure placement and map design are key factors to gameplay. It would be encouraging for map creators to run through their map each time in the mindset of a class. do what that class would do, I helped sportyman with an archer issue on his new cove map.
     
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    #17 TheMaelstromsEye, Jul 8, 2016
  18. EmperorTrump45

    EmperorTrump45 Dank Memer

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    dank memes
    Fixed it for you!
     
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    #18 EmperorTrump45, Jul 8, 2016
  19. TheMaelstromsEye

    TheMaelstromsEye Well-Known Member

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    I'm serious, ill happily show ya if you come online. Anywho, what did you fix?
     
    #19 TheMaelstromsEye, Jul 8, 2016
  20. sulfuratus

    sulfuratus Well-Known Member

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    “I can safely say that
    [dank memes]
    are key factors to gameplay.”
     
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    #20 sulfuratus, Jul 9, 2016
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