Poll: One giant z-level or seperate, distinct districts?
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That age-old question (poll). Should my city be one giant z-level, perhaps with a teleporter system to get around quicker, or split up into seperate z-levels with teleporters taking you between them?
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60% (9)
20% (3)
20% (3)At the moment I have multiple 'themed' areas linked by teleporters - one for just shops, one for a few shops, houses and missions and one for Titan capture points, but I'd like to either have one massive map or mix them up a bit.
I'll probably enlarge the major areas and put more of the same in, particularly since I want to keep the Titan areas seperate from everything else, so random people don't get caught up in gunfights. I need to rethink Titan points as well, they change hands too easily. | |
I'm not entirely sure which category this would fall in, but I usually use 1 big "outside" map, which links all the small maps like dungeons, caves and the such.
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There aren't really any 'small maps' since most of the world is in one city, the only seperate areas are the apartmants and the arenas. 'One massive z-level' seems to be the favourite so far, although I'll have to have some way of splitting up districts, even if it's just signs or something.
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Depends on the type of the game, for my Harry Potter game, I have on huge Z level for the inside of the castle which makes adding in secret passage ways a lot easier.
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I think multiple Z levels (districts) would work best because everything is a lot more organized that way. You know precisely which teleporter to use to get to where you want to go.
Also, another neat thing you can do with multiple Z levels, is you can instance them. If no players are using certain districts, you can just offload them and reload them when a player is trying to access the area. | |
Hazman, I suggest the multiple z levels with different districts. Here is a basic outline I was making for a game:
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g201/arius82/subwaymap.jpg Now, in that pic you'll notice some districts have distinct shapes that break the square map, all districts have different sizes, ect. I suggest doing something similar to keep realism and be a little different from the average game. I achieved it while I was working on the game, which is on hold, by using client.edge_limit with creative mapping. Such as putting buildings and bodies of water near the corners that require people to go around. This way you can have the map appear to change shape by altering how far the eye will scroll, while not appearing to inhibit the players movement for no reason. Also, don't place it directly on the edge, if you give yourself a square between the edge of the eye and the edge of the map, you can make it look like people actually walk/drive/pogo-stick in and out of a district without magically disappearing. I had the roads lead into different areas and tried to keep perspective wherever you went. I layed out the roads to where they were exact with the other districts. Such as if you go from the East District to the Junk City, the road follows, to the exact tile, where it would go if it actually continued. It's a lot of work with very little pay off, especially if your game gets stuck in development hell. Here's for doing jumping jacks in an open kimono outside of your picture window. (10 points to anyone who knows the reference.) | |
Or there's always using multiple z-levels and taking note of what type of areas are on each z level and then programming it all in.