Map Principles

## Basic Design Decisions

A good design is a delicate, yet flexible balance between a myriad of decisions. A good designer always looks ahead. To the degree that you can, make decisions at the beginning of your project about the following issues.

### Single-Player or Multiplayer

The first decision: Are you creating a single-player map or a multiplayer map?

Successful designs for single-player and multiplayer missions vary greatly. A well-designed single-player map applies escalating pressure on the player as the battle progresses, with satisfying results for conquering each challenge.

* When scripting behavior for single-player missions, remember that you are not creating a fair system. You are creating the perception of a fair system inside a satisfying user experience. The difference is critical; if you can create more interesting challenges by providing information to the CPU-controlled sides through scripting, do it.

Multiplayer maps are more open-ended. In a multiplayer map, you want each player to begin at relatively equal strength in terms of map position, tactical advantages, and available resources. Consequently, maps favoring an arena style of organization tend to create more interesting multiplayer missions.

### Drama vs. Realism

Before beginning to work on your map, take the time to make some essential decisions. Are you creating a realistic simulation of a location in the world, or are you creating a fantasy environment? A realistic map requires more detailed work in molding the terrain, choosing your textures, and placing objects. For example, while it can be a lot of fun to create battles in your hometown, you may find yourself spending significant time looking at offline maps and photographs.

If you prefer the dramatic approach, focus on creating the most interesting gameplay for all participants in your map.

The best maps blend drama and realism. It’s a good idea to have an impression of where your map fits along this spectrum.

### Think Space

Many user-created maps reflect the creator’s preferred style of play. For beginning users and designers, that style favors turtling up in a base to develop an overwhelming army to crush the opposition. To support this style of play, designs tend to have only one way in and out of a base and are filled with objects. Lacking open space and containing too many units, maps of this variety produce slow, drawn-out games that tend to follow a predictable slugfest pattern. Try to keep plenty of open space in your map. Openness means flexibility, and a good designer tries to accommodate multiple gaming styles.

**Note:** You cannot limit a start location to a particular army, so, for example, don’t design start areas only for faction-specific build mechanics.

* Don’t isolate bases from each other (unless it's expressly your intent to create a map in this style). Isolation inherently forces players to rely heavily on flying units, and limits the effectiveness of standard forces.
	+ In Red Alert 3, an isolated map (surrounded by a large body of water) will usually mean a heavy naval strategy, which allows for more naval freedom, but still limits the overall scope of gameplay on the map.

### Geographic Location and Time of Day

What time of day does the battle begin? Where is your map located? Is it a desert environment, or up in the mountains? How many trees do you want in your map?

Making decisions about the location, weather, and time of day at the beginning of development can impact your map design. For example, if you’re placing your map in wooded terrain, remember that trees are objects that can impact performance. After you have decided your map’s when, where, and what, spend some time in the object and texture libraries assessing which elements are going to work best.

### Degree of Difficulty

Particularly for single-player missions, the degree of difficulty is an important consideration and covers many aspects of design.

Do the challenges grow as the player expands his control towards CPU-controlled locations? Do you want the player to be able to have a different experience depending on the EASY, NORMAL, or HARD difficulty setting he selects in the game?

**TIP:** In general, the approach to difficulty ramping based on user-controlled settings is to create the map under either the easiest or the hardest setting. Then, scale up or back in units, structures, and behaviors for other settings.

Degree of difficulty also covers design elements having nothing to do with hostile opposition. For example, if the base area closest to a player’s start location is very small, then the player must fortify that location and expand into new territory early in the game. His forces are extended, making him more vulnerable.

#### Some Difficulty Factors

 **Are there bridges?** | A bridge in a well-designed map offers a tactical advantage for the team that can control it, yet the advantage should be counterbalanced by the difficulty of defending the bridge. Never let a bridge be the only path between two areas.

In multiplayer missions, the degree of difficulty is a factor, yet you should tend towards keeping the map open, even, and conducive to combat.

While you may not have answers to all of the questions in this section, it's important that you know what you don't know. It's reasonable to postpone resolution until you're actually shaping the map with the tools. However, you should be aware that making large-scale changes can take a long time when you are far into development.

**TIP:** If you have yet to resolve some of these fundamental issues, try to figure them out as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can regularly use the SAVE AS… feature to save copies of your map.

### Make a Sketch

Whether you do it by hand or in an art application, create a sketch of your map before you begin. While your final map is likely to change significantly from an initial sketch, it does give you a clearer view of the relative positions of large map features and the space you need to create them.

* On your sketch you should include major design decisions such as time of day, geographic location, mission objective, and story synopsis (if applicable).

**TIP:** When planning your map on paper, use graph paper. You can scale each cell to a number of Worldbuilder units, following the suggested map sizes.

## Map Design Issues

In very rough-cut form, plan your entire map before you begin. Keep in mind the following concerns:

* How big is the entire land plot on which the map sits?

**TIP:** Whatever you need to design a map, add 70 tiles (700 feet) in all directions. You can always trim back later. You can also reposition your map on the land plot.

* How does the map fit into the topography of the surrounding terrain? Is there a general slope? Does it have large terrain features?
* How are the base areas positioned throughout the map? How are they placed relative to each other? How big are they?
* Have you identified north on your map? In Worldbuilder, the north direction defaults to the top of the screen.
* What are the unique features, terrain or otherwise, of your map?

While you should develop your map on graph paper first, you may find it easier and faster to prototype in Worldbuilder. You can turn on the map grid to overlay a grid for alignment and measurement purposes.

## Game Balance: The Fun Factor

Whether you’re creating a single-player map or a multiplayer map, it’s important to make sure each army has a fair shot to win the game. When you’re developing maps, remember the following tips to ensure that you create a fun map for everyone.

* Each map requires significant playtesting to make it fun. No one gets it right the first time. Try to find a group of designers with whom you can share and playtest your designs. If you’re doing your own playtesting, try to check all base areas under all types of armies.
* In a multiplayer map, create open spaces between base areas where opposing sides can fight. Open spaces allow players to engage in battles of varying sizes. They are also hard to control, so an open area can switch hands several times during a game.
* Between base areas of a multiplayer map you can also create strategically significant areas, including towns, expansion bases, bridges, and resources such as creeps and settlements. It is critical to create combat zones in multiplayer maps.

### Accommodating Varying Styles of Play

In addition to soliciting feedback on bugs and overall quality, playtesting with others lets you see how your map might be played by players with different gaming styles. It’s important to avoid forcing players to win a game with only one playing style. You also do not want to allow players to win by relying on a single gaming style. The following is a short list of some of the more common playing styles and how they can be accommodated and limited in your maps.

 **The Guerillas** | Particularly for fans of the Empire, the strike-and-move method of attack is appealing. To assist the Guerilla types, you can create strategically advantageous positions from which to launch attacks. Buildings that can be garrisoned provide a great opportunity for a small force to effectively thwart a larger one. Also, units on higher terrain have a longer range of attack than the units on lower terrain, so it’s never a bad idea to have ridges overlooking base areas. Multiple entries and space at the back of a base area allow for Commandos to make their mark. Commandos, however, are vulnerable to air attack and can be easily defeated at choke points. You certainly want to reward players that find clever and sneaky ways to bring a small strike force to bear against a larger and more powerful enemy.

When you are planning your map, you may want to examine it from the perspective of all of these types of players. How would a Commando-style player approach each base area? Will a Road Grader enjoy this map? While it’s impossible to please every player and style, considering each style often illuminates mistakes and leads you to simpler and more effective ways to build a better map.

## Layout Dos and Don’ts

The previous section alludes to a number of the critical design considerations for any map. Similarly, use these executional Dos and Don’ts for any type of map.

*World Builder* is a deep and sophisticated tool that lets you create dynamic multiplayer maps. While our in-house designers have been using and perfecting this tool for years, you can begin right away to create exciting maps of your own by following the eighteen steps in this chapter.

### Cardinal Rules for Multiplayer Maps

* Space is key. Make as much space as possible between and in base areas. Siege weapons need room to advance on the walls.
* For each player, try to make at least two good expansion locations with plenty of building area.
* Maximum multiplayer map sizes. While it’s possible to exceed these map sizes, you should have good reasons to do so. For two-player maps, the max size should be 500 x 500 tiles. For four players, 600 x 600. Six player maps should probably not exceed 700 x 700. If you make a map larger than 600 x 600, you should have a clear reason for doing so.
* Keep 10 tiles (100 feet) of space beyond the map perimeter on each side of your map. This overflow area serves as a staging area and a workspace for terrain features flowing into the map.

### Eighteen Steps for Multiplayer Maps

#### 1. Decide The Map Layout

* Before you begin, have a good idea of what you’re trying to develop in your map.
	+ What will it look like?
	+ What is the basic topography?
	+ Are there any distinctive features?
	+ Is there a general slope to the map?
	+ Is it in an arid climate, or is there snow on the ground?
	+ What time of day will the battle take place?
	+ How many sides will participate?
* A design decision is a commitment and making more decisions at the beginning of development can streamline the process of finishing the map.
* You should have a good idea of the design unknowns, too. Try to resolve them as soon as you can during development. Use the **SAVE AS…** feature to experiment with those unknowns.
* You can change your map’s background texture by using the **Flood Fill** tool.

#### 2. Prototype Your Map

* When you’re deciding your layout, you may choose to sketch your ideas on paper. To flesh out your ideas, follow a top-down approach. Figure out the largest map features, such as lakes, mountain ranges, valleys, cities, and rivers. Also, you should have a basic idea of where you want the various sides to build their bases. Decide their location and begin using the tools in the order described in these eighteen steps.
	+ **TIP:** You can essentially create a graph paper overlay for your map. In the ***View menu***, turn ON **Show Wireframe 3D View** and **Show from Top Down View**. The displayed squares are 10 scaled feet on each side.
* Units coming to the edge of your map can, in some cases, exit the map. To prevent such occurrences, create impassable terrain on the perimeter or paint impassable textures to prevent passage.
* Build large areas for your bases. A main base can take up to 1000x1000 worldbuilder units, while expansion bases are generally confined to 300x300.

#### 3. Set Waypoints

* It’s a good idea to mark the locations of bases and resource depots early in the map development process. Since tall units should not move on uneven terrain, you should identify these locations as soon as you can.
* Add waypoints for important features such as bridges, settlements, roads, and creeps.
	+ To set a waypoint, click the **Waypoint** tool in the toolbar. In the ***Waypoint Options*** window, enter a name for your waypoint.
* **Note:** If you are creating waypoints to identify where players are going to begin in a multiplayer map, the names must follow a specific format. For example, “***PLAYER\_1\_START***” is always the starting location for Player 1. For each player in a multiplayer map, you must also create a player in the ***Player List***.
	+ The easiest way to do so is by pressing the **Add Skirmish Players** button, which will populate 4 players that can be modified or deleted as needed.

#### 4. Build The Basic Terrain

* The **Height Brush** tool lets you flatten areas to the same elevation. Using the **Mound** and **Dig** tools, you can shape the terrain. As you move the mouse back and forth over an area, you begin piling (or digging) more terrain on the map. At this point, you just want to create the basic features in their approximate locations at relative heights to each other.
* To view the underlying mesh of the terrain, select **SHOW WIREFRAME 3D VIEW** from the ***View menu***.
* To view the entire map, select **SHOW ALL OF 3D MAP** from the ***View menu***.
	+ **TIP:** The entrances and exits of each base area are very important for gameplay. Each base should have at least three entrances. Fewer entrances allow users to fortify their bases too easily. Also, don’t create choke points that are too tight or you may experience pathfinding problems for your units.
* If you’re going to add bodies of water, make sure you reserve space in your map for them.

#### 5. Check The Size

* Now that you have created the basic terrain and the locations of your major gameplay elements, make sure the map is big enough to contain everything. Remember that you have to add extra workspace to your map and should create impassable terrain at the edge. So, adjust your map size accordingly.
* To resize a map, select **RESIZE** under the ***File menu***.

#### 6. Build The Terrain In Detail

* You’re now ready to get the terrain just right. Use the **Mound** and **Dig** tools to raise and lower terrain to the heights you want. These tools can create rough-looking terrain, so use the **Smooth Height** tool to blend the peaks and valleys into a more natural appearance.
* To refine the brush used with each terrain tool, change the properties in the ***Terrain Brush Options*** window that appear when you select a tool.
* To see if a piece of terrain can be passed over by a unit, select **VIEW IMPASSABLE AREAS** in the ***View menu***. Use the **Smooth Height** tool to make these areas passable, if desired.

#### 7. Add A Perimeter To Your Map

* To create a more natural appearance, you should have a fringe of unplayable area around your map that is at least 10 tiles on each side. You should also have terrain on the edge of your map that units cannot cross. Terrain shapes that begin on the map can use this perimeter area as overflow so you avoid abrupt edges to your maps.
* To create a map perimeter, click the **Border Tool** in the toolbar. Then, click and drag any corner of the orange perimeter to resize the actual playable surface of your map.
* Make sure the orange and blue borders cover the same area.
* All maps are rectangular in shape, and the lower-left corner of your map perimeter is always fixed.
	+ **TIP:** If you don’t want to create a set of natural elements at the edge of your map to serve as impassable terrain, you can paint impassable textures along your perimeter. These textures should be unique and appear impassable. Do this at the end of your development process.

#### 8. Create Waterways

* Next, create the bodies of water on your map. Left-click on the **Lake/Ocean Tool** in the toolbar. Then, click and drag in the map to create the perimeter of the water polygon. Adjust the settings in the ***Water Tool Options*** window to set the height of the water and the density of control points in it.
* When shaping a water polygon, you do not need to fit it exactly to the shape. In fact, you can shape a water polygon around multiple lake beds or rivers. Create the polygon so it merely encloses the area.
	+ In most Command & Conquer maps, water areas generally consist of a single square polygon that covers the entire map.
	+ The water height is set to 200, and the first land elevation starts at 210.
	+ With a water polygon that covers the entire map, this makes islands out of the elevated terrain and fills in anything with height less than 200 as water.
* Set the seafloor in water areas at a height of at least 70 below the water plane height to allow submerged units to move without issue.
	+ **TIP:** When possible, use the default water plane in your map.
* To reshape your body of water, click and drag any control point.
* To identify the shape as a river, do the above using the **River** tool. Then, reshape adjust the flow of the water texture.
* While lakes have tides, river water textures have flowing currents.

#### 9. Paint Textures

* Now that all of your terrain shapes have been created, you can paint textures on them to create realistic map features. In the toolbar, select the **Large Tile** tool to begin. In the Terrain Material Options window, you can select the texture and define your texture brush.
* Textures are organized in folders based on appearance and geographical connections. All textures in the same folder should work well together.
* To select a texture from the map with which to paint, select the **Eyedropper** tool in the toolbar. Then, click the texture to use. That texture can now be painted with the other texturing tools.
* You can also fill a defined area with a single texture.
	+ **TIP:** When you select a new texture to paint, place a single-tile swatch of it outside your map perimeter. A texture palette simplifies the selection, tracking, and replacement of your map textures.

#### 10. Refine And Blend Textures

* After using the Large Tile and Flood Fill texturing tools to define the large texture areas, you can use the **Single Tile** tool to tweak the textures of individual cells. Additionally, you can blend textures together.
* To blend two textures together, click the **Auto Edge Out** texture tool in the toolbar. Then, select the texture you want to blend into the surrounding textures.
* **Note:** You can add some three-way blends between textures, but be careful. Don’t have more than 300 three-way blends on your map or you may experience performance problems in the game.
* To blend a single edge of a texture inward, use the **Blend Single Edge** tool.
* What about the funny textures on cliffs? When you apply textures to steep surfaces such as cliffs, the textures are stretched to cover the area. The results can be ugly. To smooth a cliffside texture, select **MAP CLIFF TEXTURES** from the Texture Sizing menu. Then, click the texture to map as a cliff.
* There is a second way to build cliffs in Red Alert 3:
	+ Cliff objects for every tileset exist in the objects list.
	+ These cliffs are placed on the higher elevation and “hang over” the Cliffside.
	+ Place the main object at the higher elevation.
	+ You may need to adjust the elevations on your map to coincide with the art piece cliff height, most of them are 70 units in height.
	+ After placing the cliff piece on the cliff, parts of the underlying geometry may stick through the cliff piece.
	+ Paint the cliff under the cliff piece with an invisible texture to make the cliff look like a natural wall.

#### 11. Place Combat And Civilian Objects

* Now that you’re satisfied with your map terrain and textures, you’re ready to place objects on the surface.
* Only place objects that exist at the beginning of the game. Objects that appear during the course of the game are created through scripts.
* To place an object on the map, click the **Place Object** tool in the toolbar. In the window, navigate the object library tree to find the object to place. Change its properties as needed. Click in the map to place the object.
* To move an object, click and drag it. To rotate it, click the edge of the icon and drag the object to a new angle. To delete an object from the map, click it and press **Delete**.
	+ **TIP:** For a multiplayer game, don’t have more than 3000 objects on the screen or users may experience performance problems.

#### 12. Roads

* Roads can be key tactical points on your maps and add color to your landscapes. These elements are specialized textures that are treated like objects and are placed on the map using a linear spline tool.

#### 13. Place Resources on Your Map

* Tiberium fields/Ore nodes and expansion bases are key elements in balancing gameplay. Place these items in equal quantity at equal distance from the starting points for each player.
* In the Object library tree, resource objects are located under Neutral.
	+ **TIP:** (Red Alert 3) A good guideline is to budget 5 total ore nodes per player, with at least 2 to start and the other arranged by a set expansion scheme.

#### 14. Create And Name Waypoints

* If you’re adding more waypoints for units to follow or as markers for the placement of other materials, do so now.
* To place a waypoint, select the Waypoint tool in the toolbar. Then click a location on the map to create the waypoint. In the ***Waypoint Options*** window, you can change the waypoint name.
* Sets of waypoints can be sequenced together into waypoint paths that units and teams can follow.

#### 15. What’s The Ambiance?

* Ambient sound can be added to your map to add life to the civilian structures on it. You can add the sounds of dogs, birds, markets, and ruins—among others.
* In the object library tree, ambient sounds are listed in *Neutral\Audio*.
	+ **TIP:** Don’t put more than three ambient sounds in any screen. Test ambient sounds in the game for appropriateness.

#### 16. Test In The Game

* When you have finished adding all of the elements to your multiplayer map, test the map in the game. Spend some time in the map as a single player, and test it with a couple of friends who are willing to help you find problems. No one gets it right on the first pass, so be patient. The simplest answer is usually the best one.
* To open a user-created map in the game, select **SOLO PLAY** from the Main menu. Then, select **SKIRMISH**. In the Skirmish Setup screen, click **SELECT MAP**. User-created maps are listed under Player-Made Maps. Select your map and click **ACCEPT**. In online multiplayer games, user-created maps are automatically transferred to all players who join the game.

#### 17. Optimize Tiles

* During development, you may have blended textures together in order to create subtler, more realistic effects. However, blended textures can be a burden on the game. Prior to releasing your map, attempt to optimize your texture tiles.
* To optimize textures, select **OPTIMIZE TILES AND BLEND TILES** from the ***Texture Sizing menu***.

#### 18. Ship It!

* When you are ready to distribute your multiplayer map, all of your gaming buddies must install it on their system. A completed map should be approximately 1MB and can be emailed as a set of attachments.
* When using multiplayer maps online, the creator of the map should host the game. The map is automatically transferred to all players who join. Single-player maps must be transferred via email, FTP, etc.
* To install a user-created map, save the map under ***C:\Users\USER NAME\AppData\GAME NAME\Maps***, or wherever your game data is stored. Give the directory the exact name of the map file, minus the filename extension. Place the map file, the .TGA preview file, and any other related files inside that directory. The map is then available through the Skirmish Setup screen in the game.

### A few extra steps for Skirmish Maps

Adding working skirmish AI to your map for use by a single player is as easy as hitting the Add Skirmish Players button on the Players list.

Good multiplayer maps always make great skirmish maps but be sure to test the map thoroughly to ensure that all of the available AI personalities can build and act appropriately on your map!

## How-to topics

* How to add extra AI to a map (That will build units and attack)
* How to make bridges
* How to add custom sounds and videos
* How to create rivers, lakes & oceans
* How to create mountains
* How to use Cliff objects
* How to create impassable terrain
* How to create unbuildable areas
* How to use the Ramp tool
* How to create Map overview art
* How to resize a map
* How to disable unit types
* How to disable upgrades/special powers
* How to create waypoints (and what they are good for)
* How to create trigger zones
* How to change the lighting
* How to create cinematics (camera contol/hiding UI)
* How to create texture palettes/map themes
* How to make vehicles Unmanned
* How to display text onscreen (+ how to create map.str file)
* How to play EVA events
* How to export/import scripts
* How to use scripts for exporting objects/waypoints
* How to create multiple map boundaries
* How to use Post Effects
* How to place/control/edit Ambient sounds