Ravaged (rene43.bsp) - Serious Map Discussion Volume I

[peewee_RotA]

Hello. I wanted to start talking about what I really care about. Mapping. I would like to pick a map and discuss it in depth. This will be most often the new maps added to mutant server. I'm going to start of with Ravaged by Renegade. I'll give my observations from a mapper point of view and I welcome strategy and other comments from anyone else.

It's a relatively small map for about 2-6 players. There are only 4 literal rooms and 2 small hallways. There are also no traps or secrets. There seems to be only one exploitable glitch which is common to most single player maps. You can rocket jump into the sky light of the upper main room.

The Weapon placement is typical renegade. Only power weapons except for one machine gun. There's also no BFG. The item placement is pretty O.k.. I really like the railgun placement. You have to get up boxes to pick it up and that's a good way to limit it's access because after all it's a high priority weapon. The body armor however is right out in the open, very easy to get, and overlooks 2 spawn points and the SSG. This is campers heaven. This is also going to cause item shopping and single player domination.

The only functional solids are 2 elevators in the 2 small corridors leading to opposite ends of the 2 small hallways. One elevator gives you a chaingun and then the body armor. The other just a grenade launcher with only one grenade pickup and some slugs and rockets. This would have been nice except slugs and rockets are pretty plentiful in the map considering it's size. The chaingun/body armor elevator is going to be used the most, most likely. The grenade launcher eleveter does however have a nice little window to spam through on your way up or back down.

The Rocket launcher has very standard placement. In a pit. All roads lead to the pit. There's 2 rocket pickups next to it. There are some armor shards next to it to help quell off any kind of railgun camping or weapon-nazis. It's a nice little pit and most of the action should take place there.

Lastly the lighting is kind of wierd but it's a bright map which is standard and pretty much assumed in todays world. The vanity factor is pretty good. Renegade is always very slick at rounding off corners and maintaining themes. The only statues are 2 quad shapes on the wall opposite the railgun. The only visable glitch is one of the supports in the upper room in the corner closest to the body armor and the quad statues. The large pillars seem to be the main focus of the map. Most gameplay will involve dodging around them and up and down steps. This is celebrating the traditon of Quake 2 which no game has yet to repeat. Quake 2 is a very vertical aiming game. No other games focus on high angles the way Quake 2 does.

Overall an 8 out of 10. Can't wait to request it on mutant.