Because 2aw is a tactical game - there is no resource gathering and no building on the map - there needs to be some thing interesting on the map to make it relevant. We came up with putting control points throughout the maps. Control points gives you win points, after you have a 1000 more win points then your opponent you win the battle.Lets look at a standard 2aw map:
You can see spawn points in green and control points in orange.We can already see some of the strategies on capturing the points on the map:
Designing those maps you can think on how the players might play the map: Say at the start USN(gray) pushes on both 3 points while AISN(orange) pushes on just 2 points.
Because USN is spread on 3 fronts while AISN is spread in 2 AISN ends up winning. Maybe they also because of good counters to USN units.
Next AISN can advance to the USN points, those are virtually empty.
USN panics and instead of going after relatively empty points in the back and fighting AISN from their spawn points they decide to attack backwards.
Because defense is easier then offense, AISN wins again. Now all the AISN has to do is keep supplying that force out of their spawn point to keep the USN force at bay.
Now USN forces have to work to break out of AISN blockade. AISN might not have won this battle yet but they do have the advantage of holding the map for now.Other interesting map types i have been thinking about is the middle spawn map. Basically the spawn in the middle is capturable and it gives huge advantage to players to spawn in the middle of the map.
Another interesting dynamic is close spawn points where the spawn points are relatively close and ships have to fan out to capture the control points. Do you fight in the middle or do you capture the edges?
Or the map can be a ring where all spawn points are capturable. The last spawn points of a faction is never capturable. The factions might fight and change positions alot. In the picture we see a ring, but in 2aw it can also be a sphere map.
Many maps would be just empty space. But some maps can happen around or intertwined with stations:
This is a simple map with one side following a path to the other. It would be a huge and probably drawn out tug of war.If you have an idea for a interesting map please send it to me.Forum topic: Aff2aw.com
Wow, looks amazing, and sounds good! Lots of strategies here. Would control points be actual objects, or just areas of space?
In theory its just a space. But to make the map more interesting there would be probably some thing there.
control points = cp = area in space.
it can be a bit confusing ;)
well maybe u could add repair stations or any other supplie/support stations. or astroid fields so ships can hide there (like a forest in WiC).
Fair warning: Those gamers who are afflicted with deuteranopia(red/green colorblindness) cannot tell what is a 'spawn point' and what is a 'control point' on your maps.