Playzones

From Mod Wiki
An Advanced Map
1. Introduction and goals of the tutorial
2. Necessary map declarations
3. Caulk hull
4. Creating a simple terrain
5. Adding an atmosphere
6. Adding player spawns
7. Adding base structures
8. Adding base vehicles
9. Creating a constructible Bridge
10. Adding an MCP escort objective
11. Adding a Shield Generator hack objective
12. Creating a destructible objective
13. Adding Objective spawns and vehicles
14. Info Objectives
15. Deployzones
16. Playzones
17. Masks
18. Barebones Map script
19. Creating a command map
20. Levelshot

Many aspects of the game (such as deploying and traveling before being warned of leaving the battlefield) take place in the main gameplay area of the map, a 32768 unit square. However, a typical ETQW map is larger due to an out of bounds area (oob), so actual bounds of a map are a 40960 unit square. Playzone brushes are used to specify the main gameplay bounds of a map. It is on these brushes that a mask is specified. It is the masks themselves which control where aspects of the game may take place.

In the example map there are the following playzone entities;

playzone_commandmap

There are two playzone_commandmap entities used. One for the main gameplay area, and one for the oob. They are used to specify a command map based on the players position. This is so that when the player enters the oob, their command map can change to one with a red border. The oob playzone covers the whole 40960 bounds of the map, whereas the regular playzone is 32768 units. Since the player is often under both playzone_commandmap brushes, the oob playzone_commandmap has a lower priority.

Entity keys

  • mtr_commandmap commandmaps/etqwmap
Material name of the command map to use when the player is under this playzone.
  • priority 0
If the player is under multiple playzones, the playzone with highest priority is used.

playzone_deploy

Used to specify where the following three masks should be taken into account;

  • Deploy mask (dm_default)
  • MCP Deploy mask (dm_mcp)
  • MCP Route mask (dm_mcp_route)

Entity keys

  • dm_default masks/etqwmap/default
Mask to used to specify where deployables may be deployed.
  • dm_mcp masks/etqwmap/mcp
Mask to used to specify where the MCP can be deployed.
  • dm_mcp_route masks/etqwmap/mcp_route
Mask to used to specify where the MCP may be driven before it is deemed off course.

playzone_path_and_heightmap

Used to generate heightmap data used by the magog sky crane, precipitation system and some other things.

Entity keys

  • hm_default masks/etqwmap/default
Where to write the heightmap image.

playzone_play

Used to specify the mask where players may travel around the map

Entity keys

  • dm_playzone masks/etqwmap/playzone
Mask where the player may travel.

See Also