Goonhub
04-15-2019, 02:07 PM
You asked for a roast, so i'm pulling no punches here. Hope you'll forgive me eventually.
Here's my (a clown asshole's) advice.
Stop thinking so much about your hallways and your sec layout and all that- You're trying to run and buddy, you're gonna need to crawl first.
Lookin at these screenshots, what really stands out to me is the complete lack of
- APCs
- Wires
- Atmospherics
- Disposals pipes
That's the vast majority of the time you're gonna spend on a project, and you gotta get those down first, if not in tandem with the rest of it. Let them branch organically as you build rooms around the infrastructure.
Secondly, this layout is not really playable, imho. I suggested back on discord that you make an exercise of running from each department's inner core to sec, then back, then to medbay, etc - to get a feel for it. Either you didn't, or you have the patience of a saint when it comes to long narrow featureless windowless corridors punctuated by mandatory shifts from the W key to the A and D, as exciting as those may seem.
Third, and this one is the most immediately striking, as an artiste - Atmospherically, thematically, this is not going in a direction I like.
You mentioned a backstory that describes it as an "old but reliable" installation (as much of a mary-sue as that is), but this feels quite the opposite. It doesn't feel worn-in, old in any sense of the term, not serviceable, not simple either - it reminds me of Ikea flatpack furniture laid out between cardboard dividers in a school gym. Something about it looks like it's an endless sea of grey tile upon which you've just kinda drawn rectangles and zigzags. It looks brand-new and contracted to the lowest bidder, but not in a charming way. Stop and take the time to study a map, to the detail, to the attention afforded to each and every room.
More square footage does not equal more interesting.
4th, now i'm getting into actual design issues, the podbays being out at the end of once again featureless corridors, not great. "Maintenance" tunnels? I don't see any at all?? (unless those 1-tile-wide hallways are maint, in which case don't tile them, that defeats the purpose of being able to access the infrastructure). Security is laid out 100% not to allow, but to cause, frequent breakouts with no way to prevent them. Sec will absolutely just weld people into lockers. The entire arrivals delta, with the bar and catering nd all the rest - is going to end up pretty barren and empty. Other than new players showing up (who actually need to LEAVE the main hallway to get into somewhere interesting) - theres no reason for traffic to go north.
The gigantic army barracks and double enormous bathrooms (gendered?? why??) are also absolutely baffling.
Now i need to address the actual design GOALS you've set out, because I take issue even with the ones you managed to hit.
- Arteries are the backbone of the map, not the departments. Everything should be modeled around the placed arteries.
This is bad. Nobody goes into a hallway in order to see the hallway. Halls serve as ingress and egress to places that need transit, not the other way around. Halls-first-departments-after is lazy patchwork at best and a fundamental misunderstanding of the game at worst.
- All major departments should be surrounded (or at least have most walls covered) by outer maintenance tunnels or arteries.
Again, this is so so so weird. Lends more to the flat-pack cardboard atmosphere. Where am I in the station? oh i've got gray hall to the south, gray hall to the north, gray hall to the west and - OH! to the east is a slightly narrower, but still gray, hall.
- Navigability is nice. Making the main arteries snake around in weird contortions creates an environment that is more difficult to learn and navigate effectively.
This one is actually the #1 complaint we recieve about new maps. Don't actively try to make it shitty. Bad design is the worst antagonist.
There's more but I really think it's worth completely reconsiddering your goals here. Start by making a single, functionning, isolated room with power, doors, lighting, and disposals. Show us in-game screenshots. Work on a design aesthetic that fits one room, make it look realistic. Then maybe make a second room.
A Hall of Hallways is a bad carnival trick.
Here's my (a clown asshole's) advice.
Stop thinking so much about your hallways and your sec layout and all that- You're trying to run and buddy, you're gonna need to crawl first.
Lookin at these screenshots, what really stands out to me is the complete lack of
- APCs
- Wires
- Atmospherics
- Disposals pipes
That's the vast majority of the time you're gonna spend on a project, and you gotta get those down first, if not in tandem with the rest of it. Let them branch organically as you build rooms around the infrastructure.
Secondly, this layout is not really playable, imho. I suggested back on discord that you make an exercise of running from each department's inner core to sec, then back, then to medbay, etc - to get a feel for it. Either you didn't, or you have the patience of a saint when it comes to long narrow featureless windowless corridors punctuated by mandatory shifts from the W key to the A and D, as exciting as those may seem.
Third, and this one is the most immediately striking, as an artiste - Atmospherically, thematically, this is not going in a direction I like.
You mentioned a backstory that describes it as an "old but reliable" installation (as much of a mary-sue as that is), but this feels quite the opposite. It doesn't feel worn-in, old in any sense of the term, not serviceable, not simple either - it reminds me of Ikea flatpack furniture laid out between cardboard dividers in a school gym. Something about it looks like it's an endless sea of grey tile upon which you've just kinda drawn rectangles and zigzags. It looks brand-new and contracted to the lowest bidder, but not in a charming way. Stop and take the time to study a map, to the detail, to the attention afforded to each and every room.
More square footage does not equal more interesting.
4th, now i'm getting into actual design issues, the podbays being out at the end of once again featureless corridors, not great. "Maintenance" tunnels? I don't see any at all?? (unless those 1-tile-wide hallways are maint, in which case don't tile them, that defeats the purpose of being able to access the infrastructure). Security is laid out 100% not to allow, but to cause, frequent breakouts with no way to prevent them. Sec will absolutely just weld people into lockers. The entire arrivals delta, with the bar and catering nd all the rest - is going to end up pretty barren and empty. Other than new players showing up (who actually need to LEAVE the main hallway to get into somewhere interesting) - theres no reason for traffic to go north.
The gigantic army barracks and double enormous bathrooms (gendered?? why??) are also absolutely baffling.
Now i need to address the actual design GOALS you've set out, because I take issue even with the ones you managed to hit.
- Arteries are the backbone of the map, not the departments. Everything should be modeled around the placed arteries.
This is bad. Nobody goes into a hallway in order to see the hallway. Halls serve as ingress and egress to places that need transit, not the other way around. Halls-first-departments-after is lazy patchwork at best and a fundamental misunderstanding of the game at worst.
- All major departments should be surrounded (or at least have most walls covered) by outer maintenance tunnels or arteries.
Again, this is so so so weird. Lends more to the flat-pack cardboard atmosphere. Where am I in the station? oh i've got gray hall to the south, gray hall to the north, gray hall to the west and - OH! to the east is a slightly narrower, but still gray, hall.
- Navigability is nice. Making the main arteries snake around in weird contortions creates an environment that is more difficult to learn and navigate effectively.
This one is actually the #1 complaint we recieve about new maps. Don't actively try to make it shitty. Bad design is the worst antagonist.
There's more but I really think it's worth completely reconsiddering your goals here. Start by making a single, functionning, isolated room with power, doors, lighting, and disposals. Show us in-game screenshots. Work on a design aesthetic that fits one room, make it look realistic. Then maybe make a second room.
A Hall of Hallways is a bad carnival trick.