I've played a lot of TTT over the 2 years I've owned gmod. It's one of the most interesting and creative game modes available. Every round in interesting and different. And one of the most important parts of making the game fun is the maps. There are many maps on the server which are interesting, like dolls, and then there are some really solid and balanced maps like 67th or innocentmotel. As a person who likes to be more hands-on and involved with content, and not just a casual player, I have plans to build a map of my own with the help of the SeriousTTT community. You guys are probably the most mature and active TTT community I've ever been a part of, so I want to include you guys in this and have you help me make this map as good as it can be. The first order of business is to pose the question: What makes a good TTT map? What does the map need to make the gameplay more fun, interactive, and balanced? Here are a few things I've thought of from my own experience playing (Note: This is my own personal preference and may not reflect you own): A T-room designed to discourage camping Minimal narrow halls to avoid cluttered and annoying situations Minimal amount of dangerous ladders to avoid death by source engine A good even mixture of close-quarters combat areas and sniping If you have any more suggestions to add to the list, please reply so we can discuss them.
Acceptable FPS. No Map-exclusive weapons or material that can cause RDM. No glitches/exploits. Balence for both teams. Just to name a few.
In my opinion, The best things a map should have are mostly three things, 1. A lot of space. 2. Traps. 3. Non-linear. Allow me to explain real quick. 1. When I say I want a lot of space, this does not mean "Big map for snipers" it means, open the map up in some spots but leave it closed in others. Take dolls for instance, Yes it has a lot of open areas for snipers (Good for snipers), but it also has a lot of spaces that aren't open, (Good for players who don't like sniping) and it blends them both together quite well. I dislike having a map that is nothing but close quarters. This basically means, I hate little hallways that you can really only fit one person in, I think a hallway is good if it can have at least 3 people side by side. 2. Traps aren't the world for a map, but they definitely give a balance of power between innocents and traitors. I like having a part of the map that is essential (a T tester) blocked by a trap. This makes it so people can't just get to the tester easily. Take for example 67th way, Not all the time are you able to simply just get to the tester without getting caught in the water trap. 3. THIS IS THE BIGGEST! I hate maps that have one way of getting to a specific area. I hate that. Take whitehouse for example, a map to which has no alternative pathways. To get to the meeting room you can only take 1 corridor. To get downstairs, you can only go down the elevator. I dislike this, rather I like multiple ways to get to the same area. For instance, take innocent motel for example, with it's multiple corridors to get to the same place. If I wanted to go downstairs in innocent motel, I can take either one of the elevators, I could get their through a T room or I could just go down the stairs. My opinions. Don't hurt me plz.
Kills that are recorded to the player that kills someone using a T-trap or map trap. Take minecraft_b5 for example where dropping someone in the tester tells you who pressed the button. Makes it easier to determine and deal with RDM
For me I enjoy maps with: - Open areas and closed areas - Different levels of the map that play differently, for example like having a large area for sniping with narrow corridors below for close range combat - A unique atmosphere like: Infini, datmap, Amsterville, chaser - If you make a T room have some way to punish for using it (Like Scavenge where you can actually snipe them out of it, or make it toss them out after a certain amount of time, or you could just kill them.) - Preferably no secret knife (but if you are to have one please don't play loud music the rest of the round afterwards) - Unique traitor traps - Traitor traps that have elements of counterplay (67thway with the ability to teleport/easily avoid the water trap, Lost Temple's unique spike trap that you can do parkour to save someone from) - Medium Sized (While I love bigger maps they always have FPS issues which makes me a sad panda) - Secrets/Easter eggs (always fun to find, gives innos something to do if it's a multi-step process, can just be neat little rooms with no other purpose than for fun) This is by far my favorite TTT map: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=133138700 I haven't actually been able to find a server that runs it but there are so many unique elements, textures, easter eggs, and different rooms that makes it really cool and would be awesome to be able to see in action. Unfortunately it is way too big and laggy to ever be considered but I hope it inspires someone in some way.
A lot of people have hit the main points that I would consider make a good map, but I'd like to add just one small detail: No traitor tester OR a breakable one (think 67thway). With the server's size it's difficult to use these things to actually find the traitors, and you can't KOS based on refusal anyways; but, it still sucks to have something that could potentially out you as a traitor especially if you've done nothing in the round yet.
1: A general sense of creativity that sets it apart from other maps. Perhaps one or two main ideas/themes that haven't currently been conceived by other maps of the same genre (a reason to play it, basically). 2: Small options here and there to entertain yourself in weird ways. Props, for one, have a lot of uses for entertainment value, and bring a whole new layer to TTT as a gamemode. Those layers are important for a map, and I find myself extremely bored on maps that have nothing of the sort; however, those kinds of layers can also turn out horrible (diamond sword, water poisoning on mythic). It's important to find a way to give life of some sort to your map, something to do that either gives the player some means for creativity/expression, or just steps out of the normal game mechanic for a breath of fresh air for a second. Perhaps this is just me, but staying 100% combat focussed is boring, and if I find out all the nooks and crannies and possibilities to a map too soon, I usually don't want to play it (minecraft b_5 remains my favorite because even after 2 years of it, I'm still finding new things to do on it every month). 3: (blah blah change of scenery from other maps summer/winter desert/forest night/day blah blah)
I think being conservative with T traps would be good. Implement some, but don't go overboard and don't make them overpowered.
Ammo and lots of it As someone who can only play on Vanilla(because who needs good internet AT&T?) there have been like 4 maps that have no ammo. First one is Haven, it's got the boat but if you're looking for ammo about 3 minutes into the game, you won't find any. Frozen was one but that's gone. mcTipsky or whatever it is has like no ammo at all. The one map with the trees has more ammo than Haven and McTipsky, but it isn't in a set place, making it hard to find. Maps that do it right: Minecraft city, it's in a set location and there's enough in the chests and in the dungeon for all the players on. Nether, it literally rains ammo in the beginning.
