Design comments on the dynamic elements of Rust - Developers notes: Part 1.

This is the first of a few posts I'll be making about pl_rust and the design thought process I had, whilst making the map. Enjoy.

Rust was a map originally designed for TF2Maps.net Major Mapping competition #7: Payload - Dynamic Element. The contest was a twist on an older Payload only contest, but this time, mappers had to include dynamic elements as part of their design. For Rust, I decided to play it safe, and not be overly ambitious with what elements I included, as to help promote synergy of the dynamic elements into gameplay. The final dynamic elements ended up being a "timed element" in the form of a lift bridge and roll back hills.

The first dynamic element encountered is a "short" roll back hill which concludes at the first capture point. Originally this position was a vertical elevator that players would need to ride on to push the cart to the next level. The area around this though was a bit of a choke point, and I felt that a vertical element would cause too much of spam into the area and it would be too hard for attackers to push. I changed the area before the point to a simple roll back, so that there was still forward movement, moving any fire away from a single point on the track. (I also was having trouble properly getting the elevator to work on the technical side, but the given reason is a major factor in its removal).

fig 1. the "short" roll-back hill

The second dynamic element is the timed lift. Timed elements in payload are relatively new, the first being implemented in Thundermountain (Three Stage, Attack/Defend Payload) and then again used in Barnblitz (Single stage, Attack/Defend Payload). I wanted to give red time to set up a defense around control point 2, but did not want to extend the distance between CP 1's area, and CP2's area. The timed element fit into this area well, because not only did it allow Defenders to set up fortifications, but it also adjusted the routes in the area, so vary gameplay.

fig 2. the timed element, allowing red to set up defenses.

The final dynamic element is a "long" roll back hill. The third capture point is at the base of the hill and the final point at the top. I wanted to create a feeling of completion and reward for players who were attacking if they could successfully push the cart up both legs of the hill. This hill does consists of a flat "break" halfway up. This break made it so that a single push wasn't needed for the whole hill and that attackers didn't need to be extremely coordinated to successfully win.

fig 3. the final hill, marked "the hill of doom"

Hills in themselves are natural advantages to those who sit at the top; in this case, the defenders. Balancing the attackers power versus defenders power was tricky, but not impossible (something similar to this was done in plr_pipeline stage 3). To visualize my thought process for the final, think of each of levels as a different tier. Tier 1 is the base, Tier 2 the break, Tier 3 the finale. Red has automatic control of Tier 3; this is where they spawn, and this is where they have the best visibility on the battle below them. Tier 1 should automatically be Attackers. 

fig 4. overview of the final hill and visualization of tiers of the finale area.

Since they control the bottom point, they control that area (which is a building). Defenders have 3 routes from their safe structure, directly into Tier 1, Attackers also have 3. For attacking Tier 2, Defenders have 2 safe routes (and the main hill), and red still has 3. For attacking Tier 3, Defenders have 1 safe route and, again, the main hill. Attackers have 2 routes (includes the main hill) and a 1-way safe route. As you can see, progressing up the hill, Attackers get less and less room for error, while defenders have the same amount of routes for pushing. But, as attackers push and capture the tiers, defensive positions for sentries and sticky traps lower, so that by the final tier, all defenses are focused on one strong position. It wasn't easy to balance, but when I broke the area down into "tiers" and looked at combat on a tier-by-tier basis, the problem became easily solvable.

Rust has been entered in TF2Maps.net Major Mapping Contest #7, and is waiting judging results. For full documentation on development or to download the current version, you can view the Rust development thread at TF2Maps.net here.