PR Mapping Guidelines

[fuzzhead]

PR Mapping Guidelines
Updated: May 2, 2018 by Outlawz7

General PR Map Design Considerations

• Realistic Settings, try to find a place in real life and plan your map around that.
  
  
• If your an experienced mapper and have the time, aim for large maps (preferably 4km sized maps). Project Reality is heading towards larger maps, if you are creating a 1KM or 2KM map, don't be surprised if it's not accepted. That being said, creating a small map is a good way to start out mapping.
  
  
• Create the map first, dont think too much about gameplay objects in the early stages, you only really want to think about the types of vehicles you want, dont get bogged down into specifics like how many and what vehicles exactly you want on the map. You can consider if you want Tanks, APCs, Choppers, Jets etc, but remember that the final outcome may be quite different depending on the needs of the mod.
  
  
• Having a simple clear picture in your head of what kind of assets you want in the map can certainly help you develop the map better to suit these assets but you do not want to loose sight of the more important things by going down the path of how many of what assets you want. Your number one priority is your landscape and your statics, putting in vehicles and other gameplay objects should only be a real concern to you in the very final stages of the maps production.
  
  
• A good map should use most if not all of the map space available.
  
  
• When thinking about objectives, remember that PR requires large CP Radius (100-300m) for area control, not flag capture.
  
  
• Remember that PR has random CP locations (more on this later). Don't put all the interesting scenery and detail into one dense area. There should be interesting locales all over the map, utilizing the full scale of the map.
  
  
• Small dips, rises, ditches, trenches go a LONG way to making realistic terrain on a map and making infantry fighting interesting. Avoid having smooth surfaces as it gives little cover and is not realistic as most places in nature have tons of small subtle variations in terrain height - it doesn't have to be hills everywhere but places to hide and fight from are greatly encouraged.
  
  
• KEEP DESTROYABLE OBJECT COUNT BELOW 350! Only place destroyable objects that will have a meaningful impact on gameplay, do not place destroyables like that chinese porcelan, destroyable wood crates, etc. Rather, try to put things that affect gameplay like destroyable doors, bridges, etc. Large destroyable object counts is a major contributor to server crashes. If you submit a map with higher than 350 destroyable count, you will be asked to reduce this to <350.
  
  
• Remember the only fixed spawn locations should be at the main bases, and these main bases should be out of play (no combat around them and a dome of death surrounding it). Plan the map accordingly - Main Bases should be rear areas of reinforcement, on the far edges of the map.

Map Sizes

1KM maps:
- View distance should be at 400 meter minimum, 600 meter preferred.
- Skirmish 16 Game Mode only.
- No Vehicles.
- These maps are least likely to be added to PR. 1KM maps are considered "warmup" or "seeder", these maps are not conductive to the scale of PR. Submitting a 1KM map, it would need to be of exceptional quality in order to be considered.

2KM maps
- View distance should be at 600 meter minimum, 800 meter preferred.
- No Fighter or Attack Jets
- Heavy Attack Helicopters are discouraged, Light Attack Helicopters prefered for the 2km.
- These maps are considerably better than 1km, but still not ideal for PR, the scale and pacing is not as ideal as 4KM. Submitting a 2KM map, the map needs to be of high quality in order to be considered.

4KM maps:
- View distance should be at 800 meter minimum, 1000 meter preferred.
- This is the ideal map size that PR is looking for. It offers a large-scale battlefield with many options and near infinite re-playability. Creating a 4KM map has the biggest chance of inclusion into PR.



Kit Request Spawner Set-up

You will need to add line of code into the init.con file. Without them your map will crash on load, and you will not be able to request kits etc if it did load.

The best way to do this is to open the init.con of a current map that uses the factions that you wish to use.

Example (see red text):

rem *** Generated by BF2Editor ***
if v_arg1 == BF2Editor

run Heightdata.con
LevelSettings.InitWorld
run Terrain.con BF2Editor
run StaticObjects.con BF2Editor
run Sounds.con
run Sky.con BF2Editor
run Editor/GamePlayObjects.con host
UndergrowthEditable.create
Undergrowth.load Levels\yourmapname\
run Overgrowth/Overgrowth.con
Overgrowth.editorEnable 1
run AmbientObjects.con BF2Editor
run Water.con
run TriggerableTemplates.con BF2Editor

else

run Heightdata.con
run Terrain.con v_arg2
run Sky.con v_arg2
run CompiledRoads.con
run Sounds.con
run tmp.con v_arg1
Undergrowth.load Levels\yourmapname\
run Overgrowth/Overgrowth.con
run Overgrowth/OvergrowthCollision.con
run AmbientObjects.con
run Water.con
run TriggerableTemplates.con
run Fields.con

endIf

rem ------------------------------- LevelSettings -------------------------------
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

run ../../Factions/faction_init.con 1 "gb"
run ../../Factions/faction_init.con 2 "ch"

rem -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

gameLogic.setBeforeSpawnCamera -728/24/-1075 -124.292/-2.23791/0

if v_arg1 == BF2Editor
LevelSettings.CustomTextureSuffix "Woodland"
else
texturemanager.customTextureSuffix "Woodland"
endIf
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

GameLogic.MaximumLevelViewDistance 800

rem -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 16 1 50
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 16 2 50
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 32 1 250
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 32 2 250
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 64 1 300
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 64 2 300
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 128 1 50
gameLogic.setDefaultNumberOfTicketsEx 128 2 50
gameLogic.setDefaultTimeToNextAIWave 8
gameLogic.setTicketLossAtEndPerMin 1000
gameLogic.setTicketLossPerMin 1 20
gameLogic.setTicketLossPerMin 2 20

Important note: Editor will overwrite your init.con kit set-up each time you save your map, so once you've made the change above using a text editor, write protect the init.con file (i.e. make it read-only).

All possible faction inits can be found in *your PR installation*\mods\pr\content\factions_server.zip\ faction_init.con


Case SenSitiVitY
Before final submission of your map, you need to fix any case sensitivity issues. This is so the maps are compatible with Unix and Windows servers. Specifically you need to:
- rename the "Info" folder to "info"
- rename the Hookers_And_Blow.desc file to "hookers_and_blow.desc"
- ensure that your server.zip and client.zip archives are all using lower case; eg: not Server.zip, this needs to be "server.zip"
- ensure that your map folder name is all lower case.


Including the Editor folder
Please provide us with the Editor folder. This must be placed in a zip. We require this because mappers come and go, but PR is an evolving beast and we will probably at some point in the future, need to make changes to the map that require regenerating lightmaps.


PR Map Checklist
Before submitting your map:
1. check that you have done your CP names correctly
2. you have cleaned out the .desc file and the Game Modes folder of BFEditor "lint"
3. you have resized your minimap to 1024x1024
4. your map is packaged and ready to play, tested for any CTD issues
5. you have checked that everything noted is using lower case
6. you have included an editor.zip file of your Editor folder


The PR Team encourages all potential PR mappers to follow these guidelines, the closer you follow these guidelines the greater your map will be considered for release in the next version of Project Reality.