Basic guide on map design
Aug 24, 2016 15:41:07 GMT -8
Phan Thanh Huy, aditya22082002, and 1 more like this
Post by blackwave on Aug 24, 2016 15:41:07 GMT -8
Hi guys
I'm blackwave and here I bring some map design ideas and concepts.
AEII team has a set of official map which is not really good at balancing and gameplay. Here I give some criteria to comment a map.
Minimum qualification of a fair map:
1 vs 1 map must be symmetry in tiles(exclude bases)
1 vs 1 map must have even number base, and should not have any conflict in castle.
A map must not have any question during capturing phase
, for each single base, the team which can reach or capture the base should be fixed.
What feature should a good map include:
A map should have proper income
A map should have good conflict point
A map should avoid being too plain or too choky
A map should have proper decoration
Some map design terms:
First turn advantage and Second turn advantage
Half turn balance
Fund chain
Supply line
Explanation
1. First turn advantage (FTA)
The player’s advantage because this player moves first. It is usually a first capture or a first attack.
Example: Battleground (Symmetry version)
Obviously the blue player has an advantage in capturing.
Simulation:
Turn 1:
Turn 2:
Turn 3:
As we can see the blue team get all conflict bases. Therefore this map has a huge FTA unbalance.
Second turn advantage (STA)
STA simply means the opposite idea where the second player gets the advantage.
2. Half turn balance
Since we cannot let the map be FTA or STA, we make a half turn balance.
Example: Battleground edition 1
I have make a little bit change on this map. The blue commander is one turn backward. Therefore we can see blue team in Area IV is one turn faster than red team in Area II, while the blue team is Area III is one turn slower than Area I. Therefore in left up corner, the red team has an advantage, while in right bottom corner the blue team gets an advantage. And we noticed that after the blue team moves, blue team got a half turn advantage in right bottom corner, while after the red team moves, red team got a half turn advantage in left top corner. Therefore each team got a half turn advantage after its move. So we call it half turn advantage.
Simulation
Turn 1:
Turn 2:
Turn 3:
Turn 4:
Here we can see both team get half of the bases, and our balancing mechanism works.
3. Fund Chain:
It seems that we got a perfect balance on the map. But we haven’t consider fund yet.
In above case, the blue team will definitely build more soldiers to capture the both middle villages.
And we also find that the first turn has more fund than the second turn. It doesn’t meet the half turn advantage principle.
Fund count:
Turn 1 Blue 600
Turn 2 Red 600
Turn 3 Blue 850
Turn 4 Red 950
Turn 5 Blue 1300
Turn 6 Red 1450
First we reduce the start fund to 200 to prevent team blue from building three soldiers, then we add some red village to make fund balance:.
Noted that the villages added to team red is not permanent. It will be captured by team blue during the capturing phase.
Simulation:
Turn 1: Blue 350
Turn 2: Red 450
Turn 3: Blue 600
Turn 4: Red 800
Turn 5: Blue 1050
Turn 6: Red 1300
Finally, we make the income increase smoothly and make it a fair map.
Blue 350
Red 450
Blue 600
Red 800
Blue 1050
Red 1300
4. Supply Line
Supply line basically means the line from the castle to the front line. The shorter your supply line you have, the more advantage you get.
Example:
We can see in the picture it is extremely hard for blue team to get the village in blue circle, since it is too close to the red base, and for red team it is easier to get the village in red circle.
An army with short supply line has more time or fund to counter the attack and get a huge second turn advantage by making the units against the attacker. Therefore should avoid putting the castle in the front line and we can also make conflict point with different supply line.
Bad map example:
Liberty port (Official map)
Rate: 2.00 / 10
We can see that the both team need 5 turns to capture the castle. Therefore the Blue team has an advantage to take the middle castle. Moreover, since that castle is in the middle of the map, the team which captures the castle will have a huge advantage and the other team can hardly fight back.
Swamp land (Official map)
Rate: 3.00/10
This map also have a big FTA since the blue team can get both villages in the middle. But the red team still get some chance by capturing the corner.
Peak Island (Official map)
Rate: 4.5 / 10
This map has a little FTA since the blue team goes first. The blue team gets a choice to attack the red team on turn 5 before the red team finish capturing while the red team cannot do that. It leads to a conflict in capturing phase.
The map also has an unfair fund chain.
Turn 3:
Turn 4:
Morning Star (Official map)
Rate 6.00 / 10
This map is a real fair map in official maps. There will not be any conflict in capturing face, although it has an unfair fund chain.
The only problem it is really hard for any team to capture an enemy village. Game on this map will go to farming with dragons, ice element and catapult.
Some featured map
Rainy:
We can see team blue will capture the village in blue circle while the red team can get the one in red circle. However, team blue has a better terrain and it is easier to conquer the village in red circle, and the blue team can easily take the village in blue village. Therefore this map makes a point of conflict because both team will have a hardship think about the defense of villages in the circle.
Atlas:
This map contains three front lines split by mountains, which require players to think about assign troops to each line. Moving troops from one line to each other to break balance and defeat your enemy.
I'm blackwave and here I bring some map design ideas and concepts.
AEII team has a set of official map which is not really good at balancing and gameplay. Here I give some criteria to comment a map.
Minimum qualification of a fair map:
1 vs 1 map must be symmetry in tiles(exclude bases)
1 vs 1 map must have even number base, and should not have any conflict in castle.
A map must not have any question during capturing phase
, for each single base, the team which can reach or capture the base should be fixed.
What feature should a good map include:
A map should have proper income
A map should have good conflict point
A map should avoid being too plain or too choky
A map should have proper decoration
Some map design terms:
First turn advantage and Second turn advantage
Half turn balance
Fund chain
Supply line
Explanation
1. First turn advantage (FTA)
The player’s advantage because this player moves first. It is usually a first capture or a first attack.
Example: Battleground (Symmetry version)
Obviously the blue player has an advantage in capturing.
Simulation:
Turn 1:
Turn 2:
Turn 3:
As we can see the blue team get all conflict bases. Therefore this map has a huge FTA unbalance.
Second turn advantage (STA)
STA simply means the opposite idea where the second player gets the advantage.
2. Half turn balance
Since we cannot let the map be FTA or STA, we make a half turn balance.
Example: Battleground edition 1
I have make a little bit change on this map. The blue commander is one turn backward. Therefore we can see blue team in Area IV is one turn faster than red team in Area II, while the blue team is Area III is one turn slower than Area I. Therefore in left up corner, the red team has an advantage, while in right bottom corner the blue team gets an advantage. And we noticed that after the blue team moves, blue team got a half turn advantage in right bottom corner, while after the red team moves, red team got a half turn advantage in left top corner. Therefore each team got a half turn advantage after its move. So we call it half turn advantage.
Simulation
Turn 1:
Turn 2:
Turn 3:
Turn 4:
Here we can see both team get half of the bases, and our balancing mechanism works.
3. Fund Chain:
It seems that we got a perfect balance on the map. But we haven’t consider fund yet.
In above case, the blue team will definitely build more soldiers to capture the both middle villages.
And we also find that the first turn has more fund than the second turn. It doesn’t meet the half turn advantage principle.
Fund count:
Turn 1 Blue 600
Turn 2 Red 600
Turn 3 Blue 850
Turn 4 Red 950
Turn 5 Blue 1300
Turn 6 Red 1450
First we reduce the start fund to 200 to prevent team blue from building three soldiers, then we add some red village to make fund balance:.
Noted that the villages added to team red is not permanent. It will be captured by team blue during the capturing phase.
Simulation:
Turn 1: Blue 350
Turn 2: Red 450
Turn 3: Blue 600
Turn 4: Red 800
Turn 5: Blue 1050
Turn 6: Red 1300
Finally, we make the income increase smoothly and make it a fair map.
Blue 350
Red 450
Blue 600
Red 800
Blue 1050
Red 1300
4. Supply Line
Supply line basically means the line from the castle to the front line. The shorter your supply line you have, the more advantage you get.
Example:
We can see in the picture it is extremely hard for blue team to get the village in blue circle, since it is too close to the red base, and for red team it is easier to get the village in red circle.
An army with short supply line has more time or fund to counter the attack and get a huge second turn advantage by making the units against the attacker. Therefore should avoid putting the castle in the front line and we can also make conflict point with different supply line.
Bad map example:
Liberty port (Official map)
Rate: 2.00 / 10
We can see that the both team need 5 turns to capture the castle. Therefore the Blue team has an advantage to take the middle castle. Moreover, since that castle is in the middle of the map, the team which captures the castle will have a huge advantage and the other team can hardly fight back.
Swamp land (Official map)
Rate: 3.00/10
This map also have a big FTA since the blue team can get both villages in the middle. But the red team still get some chance by capturing the corner.
Peak Island (Official map)
Rate: 4.5 / 10
This map has a little FTA since the blue team goes first. The blue team gets a choice to attack the red team on turn 5 before the red team finish capturing while the red team cannot do that. It leads to a conflict in capturing phase.
The map also has an unfair fund chain.
Turn 3:
Turn 4:
Morning Star (Official map)
Rate 6.00 / 10
This map is a real fair map in official maps. There will not be any conflict in capturing face, although it has an unfair fund chain.
The only problem it is really hard for any team to capture an enemy village. Game on this map will go to farming with dragons, ice element and catapult.
Some featured map
Rainy:
We can see team blue will capture the village in blue circle while the red team can get the one in red circle. However, team blue has a better terrain and it is easier to conquer the village in red circle, and the blue team can easily take the village in blue village. Therefore this map makes a point of conflict because both team will have a hardship think about the defense of villages in the circle.
Atlas:
This map contains three front lines split by mountains, which require players to think about assign troops to each line. Moving troops from one line to each other to break balance and defeat your enemy.