Design Goals
Elsewhere is a published Assault and Team Deathmatch map made in Far Cry 5.
Design a level that works well with Team Deathmatch and single player Assault variants.
Pay homage to Rundown from CoD: MW2 while adding many of my own adjustments.
Create a natural flow around the perimeter of the level, and from each piece of cover.
Implement leading lines and architectural cues to guide player movement.
Provide combat areas for both long- and short-range engagements.
Reference Image
Short-term / long-term goal analysis
During initial blockout, I made it a point to design any open areas of the map with multiple points of interest to encourage players to keep moving throughout the level. The above image is a great example, as it provides the player with a sort of short/long term goal for traversing the environment. The left arrows point to a set of shipping crates with the leftmost crate set at a wider angle than the others. This angle is designed to “invite” the player to enter the area, as the negative space is inviting to the eye and allows players with a less aggressive play style continue along the perimeter of the map. The right set of arrows and blue square show a different path into a cluster of buildings with a set of windows directly in the player’s view. This could be more appealing to aggressive play styles, as there is likely to be more action in and around clusters of buildings, and the open set of windows allow for mid/long range engagements from players on either side.
Both paths can take the player to the same “long-term” goal, (the shack in the yellow square) whether or not they ever reach it. This point of interest provides the player with a destination and multiple paths to reach it, with a chance for varying gameplay from each path. Most long-term goals in a multiplayer map end up being temporary, as the player might engage in a firefight and lose, or adapt their path based on influence from other players. Regardless, points of interest make players feel less helpless in open spaces, as they should always have an interesting destination in mind while moving throughout the level.