Yuku free message boards

New way to submit a map:

Login into Webinterface, go to my maps and upload one of your maps. We mapmods get to see your map immediately, may ad some comments, and once it's enough to our liking, it has good chances of getting in. Simple!

Ideatical tips:

When you get a new and cool idea, please check if it has already used. Count Zero's Map HQ is an exellent place to check for possible duplicates. Also, please check the existing map descriptions from the official map list you have access in.

Movies, books and games can be great places to find inspiration from. Just tinkering around with the map tools can also sometimes lead to an idea.


Esthetical tips:

Try to remember randomizing the general floor tiles (R button) whenever possible. This helps the large areas of same tiles to be more easier on the eye.

Whenever you have piles of boxes or barrels or such that just need to be there, try to make some randomisation on the piles/groups on their direction and height if possible. In the case of forests, use as much of the different tree types in random manner to make the shrubberies look nicer.

Please, be careful with those overlapping items trough walls. Sometimes the overlap can be prevented if an object is rotated, but if it can't be, try to hide it behind another wall or object. Sometimes it might just be the best idea to delete the object in question altogether. I know whe mapmods are rather harsh with unintentional overlaps that could be rather easily fixed. I know at least I am!

Overlapper legend:
Minor = This object has minor overlapping parts that are hard to spot even without cover. Mapmods will allow these trough the overlap filter.
Major = Be careful with these when setting them up next to wall. These guys might get you to go remodelling over and over and over again.
Rotate = If rotation is availible, rotating these objects can prevent them from overlapping quite many cases.

When using the black floor (right click when floor selected), remember that you are using a VERY hazardous substance. If you don't know what you're playing with, you can ruin the entire map and your brilliant idea! First of all, they are pretty much the same stuff as the EXTERIOR of the map. Unpassable, spreading the blackess around, still floor, and pure evil (includes all other odd properities you might encounter). If you decide to use it on your map, bear in mind that you very well might have to modify the map many many times afterwards, perhaps scrap the black tiles and change them to regular ones, or scrap the entire map. Best way to deal with them is to enclose such areas completely with metal walls, and make them completely and utterly unaccessible. It's also difficult to make them plausible looking due their dim nature.

Try to remember putting ALL the walls with correct facing. Nothing is more ugly than notice a brown piece of wall in the midts of white wall.

Try not to mix the military wall directly with ordinary wall. It's hard to make it look plausible, and it might look foolish afterwards when the games have proceeded on the map of yours.

After your map is done, re-check it completely and carefully with plan view just for the case of hidden mishaps of the floor tiles.

Remember that the first thing that we see from the map is the outer shell. After we have gotten trough it's looks, we only can get to the core and balancement. Sure way to get your map trashed into oblivion is to make it utterly repulsive in any manner that is possible. So listen this - Try to make a good first appereance with it!


Make sure you use the right floor tiles for the right job; it helps keep a consistent look and feel to all maps.

Road:

Use for roads, not as pavements or for inside buildings (note the rounded road/grass border tile - don't confuse it with the pavement/grass border).

Remember to use the random tool in the map editor (see LSN manual) to make large areas of road look more natural; and consider adding cracks and oil patches to make your road look more used.

Pavement:

Use for pavements, not as road or for inside buildings (note the rounded road/grass border tile - don't confuse it with the road/grass border).

Remember to use the random tool in the map editor to make large areas of pavement look more natural; and consider adding cracks and muddy patches to make your pavement look more used.

Industrial floor:

Use this for the inside of industrial (destroyable)
buildings.

Remember to use the random tool in the map editor; plus the 'hazard' lines (floor tiles with yellow/black strips) can make your map more insteresting.

Try to use the partly destroyed tiles sparingly - e.g. only if you are trying to create an area that looks already damaged.


Military floor:

Use this for the inside of military (indestructable) buildings.

Using it for the floor of an industrial building will look a bit silly when the building is destroyed but the floor is left spick and span.

Remember to use the random tool in the map editor.

Grass/mud:

For outside use. Use muddy patches to break up large areas of grass, and to make natural paths across grass.

Remember to use the random tool in the map editor.


Skilled map makers occasionally use the different floors to do different job than described above, but if you are making one of your first maps or are not completely sure about yourself othervice, I'd heavily recommend you staying in their regular uses.


Stradegical tips:

Try to create your map as equally balanced for both players as possible. However, try to keep from creating completely mirror maps, as they aren't so exiting and innoative as completely uniquely crafted maps.

Try to make your maps as race balanced as possible. Don't be a racist! The unbalancement with race is definately not so important as side balance, but it's always nice to have more options (so try not to be so harsh on those specialist league players ).
Remeber that: 1. Lots of metal usually favoures greys. 2. Lots of destructible walls usually favoures spawn. 3. Lots of openness favoures marines and mechs. These are only the general directions, so they aren't even nearly always case proof. All races are flexible and innoative to a certain extent, other races more, and other races less so.

Destroying door control opens a door. However destroying a forcefield control just makes it unable to change the state of that forcefield after that. Thing you should never forget.


Deployment considerations:

Clutter: Take care not to clutter deployment areas with objects which get in the way of large units and HQs. If you intend for the map to provide a player with a lot of deployment options be sure there are enough sensible HQ locations with ample space for units to move around them that do not require the HQ to be stuck in a window or easily spotted.

Movement and visibility: Consider the visibilty and freedom of movement available from deployment on both sides of the map. If player A can only deploy inside a bunker and the player B can deploy outside, player B often has better visibility, can advance quickly and op fire on the likely place player A will appear. Usually you would not want this.

Defensibility: Consider whether your deployment areas will resist missile, psyker, WG or a grenade spam attack in the early turns. It is usually better if they can. Consider whether your deplotment areas could resist all attacks from all sides forever. It is usually better if they can`t.


General stuff

Don`t overuse objects in trying to make your maps look less bland. The more cluttered the room, the less play area units have to move about and more bogged down game play will become.

Be very careful not to block a door or passage with an object unless it is very clear that the way is blocked.

Allow space in your maps. The more walls and buildings, the longer it takes to walk around them and the slower games will be. Don`t clutter fields, roads and "open" areas with too many trees, high objects, girders as these block LOS and are difficult to play. Often I feel trees work best in larger groups with clear paths between them, or just the odd one here or there, and not a random dense sprinking to make a map look pretty. Dont put lamposts where they are annoyingly in the way of corner dancing unless you want to, don`t put your one tree where it blocks the LOS from a window that you intended to create by putting the window there.

Don`t over do the metal walls. Bunkers can lead to negative game play. If both sides can deploy in a bunker, consider whether both bunkers are equally vunerable to missile and general attack or not. If one has a window and the other does not, or one has a rear wall and the other does not, then there may be an balance issue. Think about 2 guardians, warp gunners and psykers huddled around a regen ... are there enough places an attacker can stand to have a good chance of not being spammed to death?

Consider the range of grenades when designing the space and layout of your buildings and corridors. Don`t design a map where all the "useful" corners and places to hit are out of reach of a grenadier unless you want to make a map that does not favour marines.

Dead space. Look at where you might deploy, how you might advance and play the map. Avoid creating too many areas that a player is unlikey ever want to enter - either because they are too cluttered, have dense or military walls that take too long to run around, provide no LOS or exit in the direction of the enemy (dead end), or are too far out of the "combat zone" between opposing deployment zones.

Gas cannisters. Don`t always put explodey things where the first reaction of the player is to blow them up in the interests of safety.


Other tips:

Try to check on your maps every now and then if we've added any comments in there.

Once you make the suggested fixes, please mark in your designer comments what have you done and put a time stamp on it.

When/If you playtest the map yourself, feel free to upload the map in LSN Game Archive. This saves our troubles from playtesting the map, as we can see how it unfolds without extra playing. It makes accepting/declining/suggesting changes faster too. Make sure the uploaded game(s) is from the finished version.