Far Cry 2 Map Editing Guide

Wow - two posts in a row about books that I contributed to - albiet this one is only indirectly as I didn't actually write anything for it.

A few months ago, Ubisoft announced that they would be facilitating the creation of a map editing guide to be written entirely by the Far Cry 2 map editing community.

It's done (age gated). I finally got my hands on a copy of the finished product yesterday, and I think it's pretty cool. Published by Charles River Media, the guide is hefty and acts mostly as a super-robust handbook for the (already awesome) editor. It discusses all the different classes and game modes and weapons, and breaks out all the different biomes that the game supports, as well as providing a lot of interesting discussion on the design implications of different topolgies, terrains and environments. It touches on the classic pillars of multiplayer map design and even provides detailed indexes of the object libraries (which is very helpful - particularly for the console mapper).

Since most of my readers here are developers, I'll be honest and say I don't think the book would be of much help to a pro (though it's not just for designers, a lot of programmers on our team played with it and were very happy with the results - I would recommend any programmer, animator, or producer who has never been hands on with a level editor give it a try just to see what they can do). Mostly though, for an amateur or hobbyist, or - perhaps more importantly - someone looking for a way to hone level design skills for a resume, I think the book is a really valuable contribution.

I'll also say I'm really impressed by a fan community who can organize themselves around the considerable and daunting task of seeing a collaborative book project all the way through from conception to completion in such a short time.

To see this kind of commitment coming from fans of the game makes me even more proud of it.

Available from Amazon here.

Comments

[steve]

I played with the editor a bit and was really impressed. Realtime level editors are just a joy to use.

What kept you guys from including a singleplayer editing suite? I'm sure that supporting user-created objectives would be tough, but even just being able to add scenery objects and enemy spawners to the shipped worldmaps would be fun-- set up a nice enemy compound and storm it. I'm thinking maybe it would be more feasible on PC than console, and you guys didn't want editor disparity between platforms?

[Ben Abraham]

I'm with Steve - I would trade my first born child for a Single Player level editor/creation tool for FC2 - and even then I would still think I was getting a bargain.

[Clint]

the most basic reason had to do with generation of navmesh for AI, which is time consuming, bloats memory, and required a lot of skilled designer tweaking to enable properly. There were lots of ancillary reasons, but from what I was aware of, this sounded like a feature that would have dumped a huge, abstract technical burden on users. Better, IMO, to get the core right and leave them asking for more - instead of fuck that crucial feature up and have them never come back. But I agree - I would love the feature too and it would add tremendous value for players and really drive the community. Combined with even simple scripting tools, it would be a revolution.

[Simon Griffee]

Clint,

Far Cry 2 is one of if not the most immersive computer game I've played, especially when playing at the infamous difficulty setting and letting the game 'take' you and your imagination.

The art direction, the landscapes, the sound, the technical quality and smooth running despite the amazing visuals—excellent. I've read Conrad's Heart of Darkness and appreciate your efforts to make the game an experience that you think about in relation to real, difficult human themes. I realize how hard this must have been to do with a shooter.

I too would have loved to see a single-player editor and creation tool for this game. I hope Ubisoft considers paying the team to polish such a tool and release it in the future, or in a sequel.

One technical question: can the flare guns really be used to attract attention to a position? It hasn't been the case in my experience.

Thank you for this fantastic game. A big congratulations to you and your colleagues!

Simon

[Gerrit-Jan Sonke]

Hi Clint,

I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I hope you can spare a few minutes to check out an email I want to send you.

I hear there is a new Far Cry coming and that it too is based in Africa. As an African myself, and an artist too, I have many suggestions and offers.

May I send you my email? and where?

Kind regards
Gj Sonke

[bigchump]

It was a major league mistake to not allow single player map creation in the editor.
How many millions did this cost Ubi and others?