Map making, analyzing and reading maps with Bruce, A must read for all future/Current map makers out there Options

[(USA)Bruce]

Hello there future and current map makers!

Im here as an active pvp player to tell you how to do your job!

Nah Im kidding, Its jus that alot of maps have love and care put into them.God knows what keeps you guys going with your passion of making such great zone for us to play on.

Now some disclaimers;

This guide will be for PVP only for the time being, later on I might add some PVE suggestions and tips but for now I'll stick to pvp because we are having issues with them the most at the momment.
Flaws shown in the maps given in the examples are not ment to be disrespectfull or hatefull but morely valid points to how they react and act to our lovely mod of Reds.People may take the tips and make a newer version of the maps to share if they like, I wouldnt mind as god knows how many versions of TD's I have from my shockwave days.

Little update:

Legend:
Orange lines= Range/Ability to attack that area
Red lines: Inability to attack that area or not having that range.
Maroon Brush: Impassible terrain
Yellow line: Max Range for one side
Pink Brush: Passible terrain that could be added
Blue: Player movements and methods of delivary.
Green Circles; Areas of Intrest,
X marks for Impossible and a correct sign means possible.
Arrows are for guidence

Now lets start with the elephant in the room:

1v1 Maps

Now first of all, before I begin I'd like to mention some good maps before I stat to analyze them all one by one and show the small flaws in them too

Natural threats
Bitter winter
Lagoon
Homeland rocks

Lets start with the community favorite;

Lagoon

Lagoon is a map thats used alot in zero hour and enjoyed in rise of the reds because of well put garrisons and tech buildings,
But it does have its flaws....

If we look at the left/middle of the map there are a few supply crates guarded by a few garrisons to be contested, none of the garrisons are full hp
(This is good in a mod where we have wallhacking MD's and extra garrison bonus enjoying ECA Infantry



Looking at this Image its clear that the mapper had good intentions but didnt playtest it enough.Or perhaps its possible that Its just outdated in ROTR terms.

The Orange lines show where each garrison can fire, the red ones to the ones that cant.
Clearly the mapper has overlooked the fireport? Fireside? Basicly he window that the small whitegarrison cant fire back at the building infront of it while it can recive fire.

Likewise only the garrison on the south side is far enough to attack the oil, for testing results I used rangers.However the top one is further away from the map.

The other glaring issue is that the top side will have a harder time to deploy its supply center as the circle stated with an X is an area where you cannot put any structures of that size there.The same cannot be said for the bottom side.Even if this doesnt matter in my tests with USA the travel distance between the unmarked circle and the one the bottom for trucks and workers can have a major impact in the collection rate.


Now for Image Number two;


As you can see the Avenger here can harras the osprey here with ease.The garrison there cannot fend off the harrasment when the collector is flying based.

Two things you need to remember when using crates, elevation and supply docks.Any other faction but USA can benefit greatly from multiple crates, but every supply docks are equal to players in how they benefit it.(Some could argue that US and GLA benefits least due to locomotors and the que of supply collecting but Im not THAT Nitpicky....YET) However when it comes to terrain, ospreys/flying collectors benefit from the lack of traversing over terrain and enjoy a faster collection speed.Such as the natural expansion and supply dock in bitter winter that is easier to defend in the back for almost no penaltys.We will get into later when we look into bitter winter.

Now the garrison here can defend attacks coming on the right hand side.However given how slow projectiles move and the range of some missle units some fast moving units or units in general and sneak through the side without taking damage.This is without counting the arty platform mind you.

What is truely tastefull is the middle garrison here thats a tower type structure, being nearly equal to the minaret on the east part of the map.Its able to fire on a wide range, covering the middle of the map and giving good vision.

Even having range to cover one supply crate in the middle and enough range to hit the second supply center and given that US can choose the SND battleplan I'd say thats a justified advantage.


Moving onto the other important issues:

-The two bunkers:

Now theese two bunkers served a unique purpase in Zero Hour, they were added there to cover that flank for some sneeky tecnicals drving by the corner and leaving a worker in the corner of the map, far away from the vision of your collectors.Given the minor elevation boost and the positioning its clear that this bunker was put in a way that your foe would have a harder time taking and using agaisnt you but you could use it and access it easier then them.Alongside this it was added there for the sake of having a safe and easy way to hit the barrels and the oil derrick.Incase you wanted to deny it entirely to your foe.However, because you are mapping for ROTR and not just recyling known maps with a [ROTR] tag on them, you should know that oils are rebuildable.Thus moving this garrison abit to the side would be warrented.As currently It can only fire in the aoe shown, which is equal to its vision range.

Now If it was able to be moved to where I suggested that flank would have been exposed completely while the bunker would be more suited on defending the same base.While at the same time enjoying a more chokepointy area of influence due to the natural elevation barriers thats impassible, not to mention being easier/faster to put in a anti-tank infantry unit to attack with garrison bonus damage.

This would in the end leave an area open and the secondary supply of both players more exposed and easier to harras by land units.

-The Arty Platform;

Now theres two thinngs that need to adressed about this;
One Is the faction/player preffrence that needs to be put into perspective.

Now generally not all players want to spend 500-1000-1500 dollars on a overgrown firebase with no Infantry ports.But the right flank is one where players have more crates, hence factions aside from USA for example can benefit from faster collection rates or the US player can actually build a supply center near the arty platform to secure the building, leaving only the collector in risk of harrasment by land units, as the platform itself can contest and damage the garrison if the foe takes it.


What Im getting at is that the right flank should be the option of going for an expansion that doesnt rely on capture building, this would be a less risky and more stable way of growing your income.As the left side aside from its scatterd and near equal supplies to the right, which is an issue all togeter as the were added with the assumptions that the left side would be irrelevant if a quick rockvee would destroy the near dead oils with explosive barrels near them.

So there could be two ways to fix this;

One would be to change the Impassive terrain on the elevation so there could only be one way to enter the hill and that would be from the area of controll of the garrison.This would completely remove the right side entirely for flanking attacks and given the arty platform the means to stand on its own rather then having any unit with a decent speed rush up to it and kill it in its minumum range.See the blue arrows for that.

As I was getting at another tip for mappers; Dont force capture building by putting maps that favor it, not all factions are created equal.On paper an ECA player could gain an advantage of 2000 plus the Income gained per minute while a player who wants to take the right side would spend 1000 dollars on something that has a slow projectile and a minumum range.So the second option would be to put in garrisonable tech buildings, what they are would be up to you.Personally expanding the area, Increasing the amount of tottal supplies and adding four MG guns (two for east and west) and a given number of AA guns should it be needed.



Final thoughts and nitpicks;
-The barrels near tech buildings are a wellcome sight however the explosive barrels near the minaret and the middle tower, however out of range to deal any real damage to the structure itself on the middle tower and only on the south side.While the one near the minaret makes you question why its there as the minaret barely controlls half of the area it can due to it being on the corner of the map and not contesting any resources or stratigic interests.
-The small crates near each primary supply is irrelevant and should be removed and the amount of supplies on the right side should be reduced or a ratio between left and right should be settled.
-The small pool in between the garrisons in the middle should be accompanied by other prop objects that would be preferbly invunrable.Mappers should remember to put ECA/defences that can fire over and through structures.Defences that can attack every building and a zone around it is fustrating to fight agaisnt.
-The lack of civilian cars, as we do not have car bomb ability for terrorists a change of colour/shape and size could be nice.Would let our bombtrucks/radarvans/battlebusses move around in style.
-The reasoning behind the small pond there is morely cosmetic Im guessing, Its size could be changed to further make the supplies harder/Impossible to harras from the other side or increase the Importance of the nearby garrisons role.
-Something for thoose perfectionist mappers; Try to have all of the garrisons In an area like the one in the right side have the same amount of tottal and starting HP alongside garrison capability.

Update/Ending of post one:
Now I've writing this while pulling an all nighter and I cant be bothered to check for typos now.But I'll be submitting more tips, key movements and tricks for both players and mappers on theese favorite maps untill I get to the ideal map setting subject.Leave any suggestions, objections down bellow as I will write another chapter on this post and leave a bump in the upcoming days.
Quick edit: The first Image, the red line pointing at the white little house means that attacks are only one sided that way.

This post has been edited by (USA)Bruce: 10 Jul 2017, 13:19