Disc Arena

[death_program]

Hi everybody! I'm new to ldso. I was recommended to this site by TronFAQ because on tron-sector I had a lot of map-making questions. I'm not l337 like all y'all, but maybe you guys could share a small portion of your l337ness with me
My first question: How do you put together a Disc Arena multiplayer level?

[TronFAQ]

Welcome, death-program! Glad to have you here. PDT_Armataz_01_34

I could answer your question, but I think I'll let another member like Xistence answer. They're a little more experienced with making Disc Arena maps than I am. But if they don't answer in a short amount of time, I'll take a shot at explaining the basics of making a DA map.

[Daddyo]

Welcome!

[zook_one]

All I can say really is take a good look at the Retail Disc Arena Level that was provided with the sample maps .Rez file.

you can open it via the Worlds Tab of Dedit: Worlds > RETAILMULTIPLAYER > DISCARENA > DISCARENA01

I would recommend starting with creating Death Match Arenas because scripting commands wise they are easier.

[xistence]

Welcome death_program to our board!

It is good to see there are still some more intrested in creating new maps, and whenever you have question, you're welcome to ask them here.
As Zook already said, first investigate the example map of the discarena, that's a good way to start. And you might want to test out making a deathmatch-map first as you don't have to follow so much rules in creating the map then with discarena.

Anyway, if you really want to start with a DA-Map here some important points:

-Make yourself a concept (always a good recommendation). You'll have to deal with several interactive elements, that need to be triggered in time, and you need to keep track of that. Without a good concept it is much harder. And with a concept you basically know the layout the map should have. Easier to build.
-Use 'ARENA-Objects. This is not optionally. You need them, otherwise your map will crash as soon you try to start it. What objects are and where to find, can be reread in the documentation, and it is not hard to find out. A Discarena always has 4 areans, so you need to place and setup four ARENA-objects.
-Use ARENASTARTPOINT-Objects. Also not optionally, you need them. At least minimum of 9 Points needed (but definitly not recommened, that would be confusing all starting at the same spot).
The standard is about 48 points (4 points each teammember and each arena = 4(points) * 2(teams) * 4(arena) = 32 + ( 4(points) * 4(each spectator watching one of the arenas) ) = 48 ). More points set means a random choose between those points.

The rest is more up to you, what kind of concept you have for you map. You want to create 5 separate rooms (4 arenas, 1 spectator), and you want to connect them via window, so spectators can see what happen inside the arenas. Do not connect the arenas or spectator area via corridors. That is confusion and mostly makes no sense at all.
There is plenty more to tell about right designing of the architecture, interactive objects, etc. But you can always ask some more questions here

X

[death_program]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!
A question: What exactly do the Arena Objects do? I never understood that. Like the AIRegion objects, they seem to have no purpose.

[TronFAQ]

Oh, both Arena objects and AIRegion objects serve a purpose.

Arena objects define which room in your map is which arena. If you want a certain room to be the first Arena that players spawn in, then you make sure that the first Arena object you create is in that room. In other words, they determine the order of the rooms that the players spawn in. It would be kind of strange if the first room the players spawned in was labelled Arena 3, wouldn't it. They also allow you to execute commands at the start and end of each match in that arena.

AIRegion objects serve as a way to link AIVolumes together. AIVolumes can only be boxes, right? Well, what if you want your AI characters to travel along a path that isn't shaped like a box? What if you want them to travel diagonally, or in a circle? That's where AIRegion objects come in. You create multiple AIVolumes and link them all together with the AIRegion to form one larger AIVolume. That way you create a lot of small boxes linked together, that can form an unusually shaped path.

I'm oversimplifying things a bit, but that's essentially the gist of what an AIRegion is used for.

[death_program]

Oh, cool, I see. Thanks!

[Daddyo]

Has anyone ever experimented with making a LC map that is set up to play like a single arena? I just want two people playing against each other at a time. I've done some experimenting combining arena/lc types of spawn points, figuring I might get lucky. I read above that you have to have 4 arenas though.

[TronFAQ]

You can't combine game types. Trust me, we've already tried.

The best you can do, is create single player-like or co-op type maps in Derez. If you try hard enough.

But combining LC and Disc Arena modes together, simply will not work. If you've ever played VMan's DMWorld map, that's about all you can do when it comes to combining LCs with a different game mode.

And you can't limit an LC map to two players, unless the server operator sets his server to only accept two players. If you only place two start points on a map and the server is set to 7 or 8 players, I don't think the result will be pretty.

The only way, maybe, that you can limit the map to two players, is by creating 8 start points and setting the Locked property on 6 of them to True. This might prevent more than two players from playing at once. But I don't know for sure. You'd have to try it.

[Daddyo]

The only way, maybe, that you can limit the map to two players, is by creating 8 start points and setting the Locked property on 6 of them to True. This might prevent more than two players from playing at once. But I don't know for sure. You'd have to try it.

I noticed that property, i'll give it a whirl. My gut tells me I'm making a map that will just require peoples cooporation (ya right!).
There sure seems to be alot that can be done effect wise that I haven't taken notice before on LC maps.