Circuity & The Frontline

While playing the Crysis 2 Demo something dawned on me, an aspect of FPS game play that we take for granted but in ways define the potential outcome of a match, the point where combat takes place. In the demo combat was in essence one giant circle, sometimes I would be engaging someone in front and I find myself shot in the back and my killer shot by someone else on my team. This cycle of death and destruction has also occurred in the various installments of Call of Duty, Quake, and Unreal Tournament. Map design seems to fall into two disciplines, circuity and the frontline.

While circuity may create some entertaining gun play, it doesn't necessarily guarantee that you do get to take part in it. You may find yourself spawned on the other side of the map alone with no one to kill (or be killed by), running in *ahem* circles like headless chickens until you find your would be next target. Adding in a  focal point of combat that everyone can clearly identify creates larger and more hectic firefights at the least and a semblance of unity and teamwork at the most. A front line of sorts creates this definite point (or line) of contention among the two factions in a game. One example of this would be in Team Fortress 2 in a game mode call Attack and Defend Control Point. The objective of this game mode is for one team to capture control points and for the other to hold off the attackers until the timer runs out.

Now Team Fortress 2 is unique in a sense that the classes in it are completely distinct from each other. Now how does this factor into the frontline system you may wonder? In brief, one class in particular, the engineer is capable of defining the front line. His primary ability is to construct a powerful stationary turret as well as a dispenser which heals and resupplies allies. This is the focal point I've been talking about, anything within the turret's line of sight and range is vulnerable, its an area where you as the attacking team does not want enter because surely you're going to get ripped apart and it is an area where you as the defending team wants to stay in because you have the advantage in it. Now the sentry gun in Team Fortress 2 is somewhat similar to the one in Modern Warfare 2, it allows you to lock down an area with superior omni-directional firepower. However the importance of the sentry gun is much more evident in Team Fortress 2 because it can hold back more people because it isn't easily flanked as it would have been if the map was circuitous in design.

Sentry is circled, note how the players on BLU try to stay on their side to avoid being slaughtered by the sentry

Here in this particular example, the very design of the map and the nature of the sentry itself creates a rigidity in the boundaries of both sides which is made possible by how all the paths seem to funnel into this singular venue of combat. Even without the sentry there, the boundaries become obvious because of the doorways and ledges. Now some may say that this inherent funneling of players into areas detract from mobility centric gameplay like those found in the Quake games. I think otherwise, mobility gameplay is not about how fast you can get to this point in the map. Its more about positioning, evasion, and in some cases verticality like in (again) Quake. Multiple paths may mean multiple approaches but what matters in an arena is the available openness, cover, and its vertical spaces.

Space, always spacious. 

Enough of me glorifying map design channeling us to kill zones like sheep to the slaughter, lets take an example form Unreal Torunament. Here we see circuity at its finest because the primary advantage of a circuitous design system is that it lets players exploit their high mobility in Quake and Unreal Tournament. The basic elements are all there: Cover, Space, and Verticality. In the image, the low gravity environment provides some interesting changes to the usual formula of high mobility and low verticality. The wide hallways provide space for those who prefer to dodge, while pillars and corners give the cover for the less mobile players. While verticality is mixed up by the presence of low grav. I talk a lot about vertically because lets face it, we as humans don't really look up as much as we should. And if you're someone who's mastered exploiting the high ground and manage to rain death and destruction over everyone and everything as if it was bird crap.

Sure the things like openness, cover and verticality tend to have greater importance in circuitous map design and is overshadowed when people tend to congregate on a single point but this is where player mechanics start to come in. Both tenets of map design utilize the same things, just that in circuity it is a greater picture with particular areas being more advantageous to a certain aspect like tops of buildings in favela for verticality. The frontline, compacts everything into a singular arena where every style of play will have some sort of participation.