Siege Mapping Tutorial

[Red Shifter]

As you may or may not know, the gameplay in Siege works like this: the Offense attacks the Defense, trying to get to the switch. Once you hit the switch or the time expires, the game switches sides and you must beat the time set in the first round in order to achieve victory.

(Please note that this tutorial assumes you know how to build CTF maps.)

Siege Map Design Basics
So, you've taken the first step of saying "Siege is awesome, and CTF is just silly with all those damned snipers about". But you have no idea where to start. So I'll give you a simple tutorial to get started.

The first thing you should do is set your timer to 999 minutes and RESTART THE MAP. The timer system in Siege is an oddity, and you'll probably have to restart if you come in with the timer at a low number.

The switch is a FlipFlop object. You should put it under Team2, but it can be put anywhere. By default, if the offensive team touches any switch, it is a capture, and no effect occurs if the defense touches the switch. The only way to change this is by scripting. (Don't touch the switch while mapping!)

The offensive team is team1. Always.
The defensive team is team2. Always.

Don't throw waypoints on your generators. You need to define a new field on the generator itself. Click the generator and hit (F3?) so that you can look at the data fields for the generator. Click on Dynamic Field Add.

The name of the field you want to add is needsObjectiveWaypoint. Set it to 1 and hit OK.

When you restart the map after saving, you'll be able to see the objective waypoint marked on the generator. (You can put needsObjectiveWaypoint on the switch, too.)
It is RED if it is an objective that you need to accomplish.
It is GREEN if it is an objective that you have completed.

nameTag is a very frustrating part of mapping today due to the way the field is treated after saving, and you may want to ignore it. Instead of ignoring it, you should go download the script in this thread. This script will make it so that you can change the nameTag field, save, and pretty much forget it. The reason I say this is because nameTag is CRUCIAL to Siege mapping. Marking a generator with an objective waypoint is good and all, but the players need to know what the objective is. Forcefield Generator? Equipment Generator? Switch Generator?

One of the major concepts of Siege is the ability to have multiple generators that serve different purposes. You may have thrown a generator into a team's simgroup without understanding exactly how the power system in the game works. You see, when a generator (or providesPower field) is in a simgroup, it will provide power to EVERYTHING IN THAT SIMGROUP. If you add a generator to team1 and there is a turrets simgroup in team1, that turrets simgroup will ALSO be powered by that generator. This is important to understand if you want your generators to power different equipment. A generator should not be thrown directly into the team2 simgroup unless you want it to provide power to EVERYTHING that the defense controls, including forcefields.

One last thing. Put a nameTag and needsObjectiveWaypoint on your switch. This will dynamically generate a waypoint, and it will be named around your switch. If you use a waypoint instead, that's fine too, but don't put needsObjectiveWaypoint without a nameTag. There is a freak glitch that sometimes occurs where the waypoint will become complete gibberish if it is unnamed (as expressed by teh RS: @$J(KV @)VHg2$$FI Jfw0af jf0 2-f 2 f2). A Control Point Switch is fine and maybe just a bit classical.

Siege Map Design Strategy
The technicals of Siege mapping are simple once you pick them up. However, making a GOOD Siege map takes more work. Many players are not experienced in making Siege maps and knowing how they will play, you need to test your maps.

Defensive Disruption
The first concept to understand is Defensive Disruption (also called Defensive Offense, Llamaing, and later the Vernsa maneuver). This is basically a measure of how easy it is for the defense to disrupt the offensive operations at the offensive base. In most maps, defensive disruption is something that should be minimized AT ALL COSTS.

Classic examples of Defensive Disruptions include Caldera and *shudders* Masada. In theory, these were good maps, but the Masada offensive base was originally far too close and you could MORTAR IT FROM THE DAMN DEFENSIVE BASE. The map singlehandedly caused Team Fusion to drop the OGL Siege ladder in 2001. What happens back then can also happen today. POOR MAP DESIGN WILL MAKE YOU HATE THE GAMETYPE.

You could use a script to stop this, but you could also go with good base design. Keep the offensive base away from the defensive base. Try to put the offensive base on the top of a hill, instead of in a valley. In addition, you need to be careful of how your base is set up. Generators should not be open to ANYONE (including the offense), and you should have Repair Packs near every cluster of inventory stations. You don't want a TK to go wreck the game.

Don't worry about repairing a Vehicle Station; those are invincible... which gets me to my next point about defensive disruption: DO NOT GIVE THE DEFENSE A VEHICLE STATION. If you really must do so for map design, you should not provide aerial vehicles unless you know exactly what you're doing. Shrikes are VERY OVERPOWERED against... EVERYTHING, and the offense should not have to try and defend their vehicle pad. If you must give out Shrikes, the map should probably have my Anti-Llama Script found here. Note that a defensive Vehicle Station is invincible; you should probably make it powered by nearby Solar Panels or Generators.

Quick-pass forcefields can help the offense get out their door quicker without having to deal with the defense as much, but quick-pass forcefield scripts should USED WITH CAUTION. Some of the older scripts are very unfriendly and can cause odd behavior on the server.

[Red Shifter]

Offense-Defense Balance
The second concept to understand is the balance between the Offense and Defense. You can usually sum it up between Offensive Proximity and Defensive Stronghold.

Offensive Proximity (also called pace or momentum) is what you change if the offense is too weak or strong. This is a measure of how quickly the offense can get to the playing field (the defensive stronghold). Transit times should NEVER be excessively long, but most reasonable maps should not try to make them too short. Offensive Proximity is a critical concept to any map.

Some classic examples of Offensive Proximity are Gauntlet and Ultima Thule. Gauntlet's offensive base is far from the defensive base, mostly to prevent disruption and force usage of vehicles in your attack. On the other hand, Ultima Thule's defensive base is just a quick ski down a hill from the offensive base (and it is easy to overshoot in Classic MOD).

Maps that put the bases 1000m from each other are boring as hell, while maps that put the bases in the same building are frantic as hell. The challenge of close proximity maps is in preventing disruption. If you want an outdoor map with vehicles, you would need at least a few hundred meters (do NOT go above 800m). If you want to do an indoor battle, then you should keep the distance between the bases to a minimum.

Defensive Stronghold is what you change if the defense is too weak or strong. This is a measure of how difficult it is for the defense to be defeated on a map with two equal teams. This is much more difficult to balance than Offensive Proximity. You need to understand how the defense operates, between deploying turrets, defending chokepoints, and so-called "Cowboy Defense" (by me; go ahead and call it a repairist if you want).

Deploying turrets is self-explanatory, but it should never be underestimated. Think about what rooms are practically begging for a brilliant turret setup, and try to minimize the value of turrets in other locations. Defending chokepoints is basically defending areas in the base where people need to go to hit the objectives. "Cowboy Defense" is basically a guy who goes and grabs a repair pack for the sole purpose of going around and repairing generators that the offense has left behind.

Some classic examples of poorly-used Defensive Stronghold usually include custom maps. Maps that have way too many generators are not likely to be capped, even with a weak defense. These maps often include terrible proximity problems. One example of this is PearlHarbor. With four generators to destroy to even enter the main base, and two generators to destroy to get there, it was pretty much impossible to capture without the offense being heavily organized. Yet, once the offense was organized, it was pretty much impossible to defend anything except the main base.

Classic examples of a well-implemented Defensive Stronghold includes upper-tier custom maps and most of the base Dynamix maps. Maps that have a lot of generators in about the same place, or maps that have few generators are more likely to be capped with a good offense. Proximity can be a major factor in this as well. Look at maps like Icebound, Ultima Thule, Solace, and Desert Wind.

Icebound has a very minimialist setup, with two generators right next to each other being the only obstacle to victory. This is a map that is more about denying access to the generator room than defending the generators themselves. "Cowboy Defense" is at a minimum in this map.

Ultima Thule has five generators; two in the North Forcefield Generator building and three in the main base. You need the forcefield generators down to hit the base. However, the defense cannot spawn at the forcefield building to bring those back online; they have to walk. Meanwhile, the three generators in the main base have close proximity to each other. A talented heavy against a weak defense could take all three down and capture, while a strong defense can focus their work primarily on the chokepoints and invincible areas. You could honestly write an essay on this map, but I'm not going to.

Solace has four generators; all in the same main base. You need to hit the Forcefield Generator to hit the Center and South generators, while the North generator is right next to the switch. There are many generators in the base and many inventory stations. This map is well-designed for both Cowboy Defense and deployable equipment. At the North Generator, deployables are often used alongside heavy/shield defense to keep the base from being captured when all the generators go down. At the Center/South Generators, Cowboy Defense is often used alongside defense primarily focused on killing people because heavies like to move between the two generators and hit both of them.

Desert Wind is a bit of an oddity as a Siege map. Made by alingis, it is a very difficult map to get into unless you are very experienced with Siege. The proximity of the offense base is very close, while being very difficult for the defense to cause a disruption. The forcefield generators sit outside, and the offense has to hit them to enter the main base. Once the main base is opened up, there are five (!) different generators in the main base. However, these generators do not have to be down at the same time; they help to open up the capture in the basement. In the basement, there is a very unorthodox forcefield setup that allows players to advance closer and closer to the switch based on what combination of generators are down at a single time. In addition, there is a secondary way to the switch (commonly called the "blue forcefield route", "layered defense", or "ordered fields" which has five different forcefields in order of the generator setups. Due to the nature of the map, the five generators are not as important as the ability of your team to hold their own in the basement. Cowboy Defense repairists can become a serious problem in this map as they can mostly go around and repair generators at will. Deployers like the basement because it is their path to victory, and because you honestly need to be a coordinated team to be willing to TK your own generators just to get at someone hiding in blue forcefields.

What is the right answer to making the defensive stronghold? There is no single right answer; if there was, then Siege would be boring as hell. Some people like to take a minimalist approach, while some like to throw generator after generator on a map. Obviously more is not always better, but less is not always better either. You seriously need experience in Siege to know how the map will operate. The rule of thumb is to use 2-4 generators based on offensive proximity and the proximity of the generators from each other. Requiring a team to split into 3-6 groups that must all be successful at their mission against overwhelming odds is not a good idea.

Even moreso than the generators, you need to worry about inventory stations too. Too many mappers insert 15-25 different stations into a single map all over the place without thinking of the consequences. If the stations are powered by all the generators on the map, then it will be almost impossible to deny the defense equipment. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes it is not. Also think about the repair packs and their proximity to generators. Every single object you place on a map is another thing that attributes to the balance.

(did anybody know there was a limit to how much you could post?)

[Cyborg_Boba_fet]

Nice Tutorial

[Jugger d]

I loved playing on the Pond server, sadly siege has lost its luster. I never did like the maps that would end in less than 30 secs. Where's the fun in that? If you are going to make a siege map, at least make destroying one generator a requirement. Ok, besides the rant, siege is just not there anymore