Goin' Down to the Crossroads

UPDATED -

Frank: ask and ye shall receive

So - even though I am way too busy back at work to be spending my time doing it, I didn't want to leave it unfinished. I just completed my first X360 user map for Far Cry 2.

It is called FC2dev Crossroads and it is now published and available for download for anyone who might be playing FC2 online. It is a large map, supporting 12-16 players and all game types - DM, TDM Capture the Diamond and Uprising. I was only able to playtest it with groups of a few friends at a time. But thanks goes out to Magnum PY, gregvw, XL Burrito, and Final1Option for finding some last minute bugs for me to fix before publishing.

On the whole, I found make an 'urban environment' very tiring. It take much, MUCH longer to populate buildings and structures with furniture and destructible obejcts etc, than it does to make huge fields of terrain that look beautiful. I think if Imake another map with will be a small one. Either that or it will be a much more terrain and landscape focused level with more vehicles. Crossroads is all close quarters street fighting with no vehicles.

Anyway, if you get a chance to play it online, feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Comments

[Frank Lantz]

Screenshots?

[Simon Prefontaine]

Long time lurker, first time writer...

I haven't had a chance to play online yet, I just poked around in the editor. It's really cool, it's got an Old West main street feel to it. And the whole indoor-outdoor pupil dilation thing will make for some cool indoor ambushes.

[Nick]

The attention to detail is one of the things that separates the pros from the amateurs, and this thing definitely has alot of hours behind it's LOD. To be honest, these are the kind of maps I hope to find on FC2, but alot of times the most popular ones are rehashes of cod4 or halo, or they focus around novelties such as the Eiffel Tower.

But this map definitely seems like it would play well, with players busting out of rooms at spawn and then heading (ideally it seems, I could be wrong) toward the church tower. I say that because its the highest viewable point and center of the town, but the flow of the map could dictate otherwise. The scale and amount of available routes in this game reminds me of another one of my favorite MP games, Day of Defeat 1.6. The availability of various "plans of attack" (thats another good MP game btw, you should look that up) and passages around buildings and back allies never made the engagement predictable or boring, there was always a sense of uncertainty around the corner which I would say is a good thing. Again, I don't really have the resources to play this map appropriately on live, but I would hope that possibly this map could tap the same kind of flow from DOD 1.6. Then again, FC 2 is a much more slowly paced game than DOD, so that is another factor to consider. Over all, its a fairly well made map, very well crafted.

Unfortunately I can't tell you how it plays but it seems pretty solid. If you'd like to send me a friend request, I'd love to give it a spin, but I imagine you probably don't have that kind of time. I have a map called "Gravekeepers Valley" if you care to take a look as well. Otherwise, yeah, hope to hear what you think about my thoughts.

[Nick]

btw, took me a week, but I finally made it, right? =)