What makes a good Tactical Gamer map?
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[edit] What Makes A Good Tactical Gamer Map?
[edit] Balance
- Equal number of UCBs
One team having a UCB gives this team a huge advantage. Not only do they not have to provide a hard defense on at this UCB, but due to TG's UCB rules, they have protected vehicles and spawn points. - Map / terrain layout
One team having better control over choke points or a quicker route to capture key CPs / choke points can give a team a huge advantage over the other. - Vehicles
For the most part, each side having the same vehicle make-up (i.e. same number of tanks, APCs, etc.) should be counted as balanced. However we've found that the USMC blackhawk / seahawk is very overpowering and can turn the tides in the USMC's favor very quickly. The OpFor team should probably be provided with a blackhawk / seahawk or additional anti-air measures to properly defend against.- Counter-Measures
Providing enough counter measures for vehicles are key. If a map has a ton of aircraft but no means to take them down (i.e. AA guns) then the map can quickly turn sour and players will lose interest from being bombed with no way to counter. The same goes for armor. Properly placed fixed anti-tank missiles are needed.
- Counter-Measures
[edit] Overall Map / Terrain Layout
A map should contain varying degrees of elevation and limited access routes to flags (i.e. choke points).
- Choke points
If a map were to have six CPs that are easily accessible from any point on the map, the map can easily lose strategic value.- Bridges
Bridges can add to the overall strategy of a map. Providing easily accessible secondary routes (i.e. land bridges) makes an actual bridge pointless. A map may not want to limit access routes to bridges only, but they should make the alternative routes more difficult to traverse or further away to cross.
- Bridges
- Commander Assets
The placement of assets can affect the strategy of a map. Placing assets within UCBs, CPs, in the open are all possibilities.
[edit] Vehicles
- Number of Vehicles
Good maps do not require all types of vehicles / aircraft. Having some of each provides many players the chance to use the vehicles they like. Having too many vehicles or too many of a certain type of vehicle can turn off players however. - Vehicle Spawn Time
A short vehicle spawn time makes the value of a vehicle decrease. There is no reason to worry about keeping the vehicle repaired if you can easily pick it up again after a short respawn. Increasing vehicle spawn times make them more valuable. - Team Vehicle Spawn
A vehicle will spawn based on who's controlling the flag. It's possible to make a vehicle spawn at a CP for only one team. This can greatly affect the map strategy if certain CPs provide vehicles and others do not.
[edit] CP Layout
Each capture point should add variety to the map. If every CP could only be captured by infantry units, then vehicles may become obsolete. On the other hand, if all CPs can be rolled into and captured with armor, then many of the great infantry battles may be lost.
- Air CPs
Some of the old BF1942/DC maps had CPs that could only be captured by aircraft. Some of these were great CPs, but many were more of an annoyance. - Sea CPs
BF2 removed much of the naval aspect that we saw in BF1942. Having some sea CPs that were captured by destroyers, battleships, etc. made for some great naval battles. While this can't be done in BF2 to the extent that it was in BF1942, some great sea CPs could be created. - Think Defense
When creating a capture point, thinking about how a squad may defend a flag can help. Having some completely open CPs is nice, but many players do take pride and have fun trying to defend a flag. A CP can have it's own choke points too.
[edit] Campaign Level Maps
A map on it's own is great, but setting several maps up that could be managed as a campaign would ge awesome. Granted a mod would be needed to manage the maps on it's own, but that shouldn't stop maps being created with this in mind.
[edit] Ticket Bleed
Tactical Gamer has never been a community for the fraggers out there. A map tha makes it near impossible to cause ticket bleed for the enemy just becomes a frag fest. Maps don't all have to be 50%+1 for bleed however. Some CPs can have more value/weight than other CPs.
