An experiment with altering surroundings of the player, symmetry, tight spaces, and creating a sense of confusion. What is this place you are in? Why is it like the way it is? Questions like these and more don't need answers as long as you have ammo and there are zeds to shoot. Keep moving and don't stand in one spot for too long, I strongly encourage it.
#grindhouse
My take on creating another surreal/abstract map for Killing Floor 2. I want to make the map itself virtually symmetrical, rooms with somewhat tight movement about them, scenery/rooms/halls that change, and to use various methods to create some confusion and unease.
Key features of the map right now are:
- Symmetry in the two current rooms.
- Scenery swapping when players are not looking and/or inside the room.
- Destructible lighting and objects including walls, ceilings, and floors (you can, in a sense, kill floors now).
- Tight movement through the map while still leaving enough open air for distant kills.
- Literal portal spawns. Enemies will enter the playable area of the map through portals that open when in use (except vent spawns, they stay open after the first use).
Key features to be added in future updates:
- At least 6 total rooms to expand the map.
- Particle effects on more destructible objects.
- Visually changing hallways for future connecting rooms.
- Hidden item caches with better item spawns.
This is by no means the final product, but it is at a point that I feel comfortable releasing what I have done right now to have open for testing/feedback as I improve upon the map (hence only two rooms right now that are relatively close to finished instead of several rooms that are lacking detail).
Constructive feedback is greatly appreciated, I am constantly seeking to better my level design skills!
10/25/2015 Update: Particle effects added to all destructible walls and floor.
11/7/2015 Update: Third room added. Windows of buildings will be boarded up/unboarded at random intervals. Light shafts removed from map to improve optimization. I will look out for anything else that kill framerate heavily.
Edit: Ammo and item pickups added as well as boss spawns now in the map and also corrected the inside lighting of large portal spawns. Added chokepoint indicators for zeds navigating the blue portal/tunnel.
11/8/2015 Quick Update: Removed most blocking volumes around cars in the city room. Players can now get on top of these cars.
11/9/2015 Quick Update: Fixed a major bug where object swaps won't occur when the map is hosted on a server. Created a new method to swap objects/visuals around for it to be functional offline as well as online.
11/12/2015 Update: Improved performance with destructible objects when the map is played online (players would "skid" around really fast if walking up against walls, an issue with any destructible object you can collide with). City room also has destructible floors, walls, and ceilings like the first two rooms have. Will begin work on the fourth room.
12/4/2015 Update: Fourth room added and functional (complete with item pickups). Fixed the grass material that was broken in the center room. Will be working a little more on this new fourth room to display open doors easily (like a map up on a wall) and further detail.
12/7/2015 Update: Changes are as follows for the fourth room (flesh room): Fixed particle effects for portal spawns on outer walls, elevation variety added to the entire room, no walls will ever spawn in the two connecting halls leading to the trader pod (thus making it the fastest path to take every time and hopefully fixing AI pathing for this specific path).
12/8/2015 Quick Update: Slightly tweaked fire damage in the flesh room (does about 10 damage total if you run through it) and fixed a major oversight with the dynamically changing paths for enemy AI. I was an idiot and wasn't properly disabling these nodes when they should've been disabled. The only issue I see now is the time it takes for enemies to reach players in this room (which the room itself is semi maze-like) which I will look into tweaking. Also tweaked blocking volumes to prevent players getting on stuff they shouldn't be on.
12/8/2015 Update: Map is now a single file and should not require players joining a server to download the map content outside of the game.
The way the map evolves is really interesting and gory ! ;) I wonder if all this can be an issue for smaller configuration though. Also, not really convinced about the zed transformation thing in the top of the tower.
Oh by the way, played the map alone in normal to the end and volter didn't spawn for the boss wave. Not even the small cinematic.
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You want to drop the two files in the zip in steamapps /common /killingfloor2 /KFGame /BrewedPC /Maps
You can make a separate folder in Maps named Abstruse to put the files in if you want to keep organized. Also I'll quickly upload a fix for Hans, I just now realized there are no boss spawn volumes.
On top of that I have disabled lightshafts for optimization as well as discovered this has slight issues when played on a server (for me and a friend, at least).
As for the fake zeds it is more of a distraction since I can't make them attack or move in a believable fashion.
I mean the zed/object can be confusing. But well on the other hand it respect the theme of the map with the bloody walls and the upside down level.
I fixed the boss spawns and added pickups to the new room. Sorry about the oversight.
The map is unique and its visuals and style are very impressive.
Excited to see where it goes, makes me think of like a nightmare Alice in wonderland kinda setting and I love that.
My only complaint is the map flow, it seems like you can very very easily get trapped for trying to explore.
I've noticed it as well if you stay in place for too long. To an extent this is intentional and you should always keep moving around the current room (though the tight paths between each room are meant to deter you from using them when there are a lot of enemies).
I fixed a big problem with object swaps when the map is played online. It should work both offline and online now. The fake zeds won't disappear when shot at now, though (I may fix this later, for now this is an acceptable trade-off).
New update up. A fourth room is now added and will keep an eye out for any issues with it as I play-test and tweak it.
Updates since the new room was added: Elevation added, fixed a few effects mistakes, corrected the dynamic paths that enemies use (no more pacing enemies), and very slightly tweaked damage on the perimeter fire.
Players joining a server hosting the map no longer need to download the map content outside of the game (it is a single .kfm file now).
This map does not seem to work for me on a standard ranked server. You will spawn with no weapon and zeds will be invisible.
Could you take screenshots? I know I've run into an issue sometimes where upon first-load players can't seem to spawn in correctly (and thus the server needs to reload the map).
The effect where zeds turn into objects is, err, interesting :) The look is decent, teleporting is something different, but I got a an area where a fire was going around in circles (and it hurts) and I couldn't work out how to get out of it, and I was getting smashed so this became very frustrating. Credits for doing unique things and showing off what can be done. At the same time it's a novelty/gimmick to me, I prefer just normal maps without crazy things like that.
I guess I push limits more than I should. Part of me is aware of what I'm getting into when I make a map that isn't exactly standard and I appreciate the criticism. The "flesh" room was almost a spur-of-the-moment idea and in all honesty is the experiment I decided to add in with the intention of it being the most difficult as well as the most dangerous and unpredictable room (Killing Floor maps rarely have any form of environmental hazard aside from fall damage).
Too late contest-wise but I do want to work on it and make it as player-friendly and easy to figure it out as possible (using the internal hallways to avoid the fire as well as maybe a very simplified map to indicate which halls are open/closed on the outer walls).