Sounds good to me

Ok, thanks Rakurai!
Anyone else? You're welcome to just say no if you don't think that's something you'd use. I've got limited time anyway, so I don't want to spend time on anything that's not going to be used. If map makers might find it helpful though, then it'd definitely be worth it!

Would be great

Here are some thoughts from myself.

1. I think that every map in Zero G Aren needs a clearly center. Because players can easily lose their orientation if the fly around with no gravity. To fix that player should always know where the center of the map is.

2. Use Gravity not like a nice trick how is not necceasry to play the map. Use it like an important feature which you need to play a map correctly. Thats why i do not like the gameplay from my map museum, because you can play without using the zero gravity effect on the map and you can even win with that.

3. The next thing i noticed is, that on maps with team-gamemodes like Koth etc., you should always try to make the map ballanced from every direction. This is the main reason why is it so hard to create a balanced map for zga, because players can come from every direction. I noticed that on my map Inspiration, where an area was ballanced for both teams first, but asoon a player flyed to another location on the top of the map and was abel to shoot from another direction the whole fight becam unballanced the the other team got no chance to win.

4. And at the end you have to find a middel way between good gamplay and the visual design of the map. More visual detail means a better looking map but player can easier get themselfs easier stuck on things etc. . But a bad looking map whil be boring for the players eye after some time.

Ok, cool, well this is actually something I'd quite like to do as well, since I like discussing game design.

Oh man those are some great thoughts!
1)Yeah, that's a great idea! Players have said it's easy to get lost sometimes, with the changing perspective. If you can always see the centre of the map, that would help a lot. I think a lot of my maps have central focal points, although it wasn't for this reason. Something I was considering doing is giving each room a much stronger individual look, which could help in navigation.

2) Ah yes, at the very least it plays more to the game's selling points if the maps integrate the gravity mechanics more fully. That said, I thought museum plays really well anyway, and it's good to have some variety, but I see what you mean/

3) Yeah, that's a good point. Actually, I think designing ZGA maps is more complicated than for other games, due to it treating each dimension equally. In conventional shooters, the bulk of the map design is really only in 2 dimensions, with the exception of the occasional overhang or something.

4) Haha, yeah this is my most neglected area of map design without a doubt. My stance before was that I was going to worry about visuals later, so I didn't give it any thought in designing the maps. Now I'm working on the visuals of course though. I've actually been inspired a lot by what you've achieved visually in your maps with very little to work with.

I'll type up a broad overview of my theories on map design, just to see if you disagree before I make a video series or anything.

Yeahh when you give the rooms a stronger individual looks it is easier to navigate and if you want to play as a team it is easier to give calls. As an example "enemy ad the red wall" is better than "enemy above you", because in a white room with no gravity it is not always clear where above is. And more individual looks of the rooms and the hole map gives the map a better "background". Means that is it easier to distinguish between the different maps.

Haha, yeah exactly. Ideally you'd have sufficiently different rooms, but the map would still have a look of it's own overall.

Yeahh and to the second point. The Game is based on the idea of a fight where you can use the Zero Gravitiy as a tool to beat other players. But you should try to use the Zero Gravitiy tool clever and maybe try something new. As an example when you have a jedpack in a game and you have to use it to fly/jump over a car, that is in my eyes not a clever integration of the tool jetpack into the level design and gameplay. But if you have to many different ways to move over the map and to much different rooms etc. It becomes harder to have an overall oriantation.

Yeah, exactly. In fact following on from that, one of my core design philosophies is that the most effective way to play a game must ideally be the most fun way to play it. This isn't always the case with every game, and I think that causes a kind of dissonance when you've got to choose between winning and having fun, even if you decide to just not care about winning and just try and have fun.
So in ZGA I do try and gear the game so that it rewards use of the zero g mechanics, and clever positioning and all that, since what we don't want is for the optimal strategy to just be to strafe left and right on the spot and try and out-aim your opponent.

Ok, here's a rough list of some of my other core design philosophies. I've probably forgetten some things. You're welcome to say if this conflicts with your experience as a player, or whatever. Otherwise, I might make a video series explaining some of the ways I design maps to promote these things.
These are things that I try to promote with the other systems in ZGA too, but I think can be reinforced through map design.

Obviously making a level that promotes "good gameplay" is impossible to approach without breaking it down and making some assumptions.
This is something that I'm sure there are different ways to do, which is why I'd like to hear any input anyone has on this, but the way I'd break this down is:

• Promotes movement about the map. ZGA's special mechanics are essentially about movement. I try to design the maps in such a way that you can generally gain an advantage by moving to a different part of the map (either a completely different part, or just a different position in the current engagement). I also try to design the maps to "flow" and be fun to quickly move about using a combination of running, jumping and grappling. It's occurred to me more recently that the former only works if the player realises they have an advantage from repositioning, so may only be effective for higher levels of play. Possibly I need to come up with a strategy for encouraging movement at lower levels of play.
  
• Promotes "dynamics". This is very broad, but essentially, I think it's best for a match to have have variations in the goals of players and the overall "dynamic" over the course of a single match. I'm not sure if you'll get what I mean by this, so I'll provide some examples:
  
  • Crazy fast paced, full on fights are ultimately what ZGA's about, but I think individual fights will have more impact if there's some slight down time between them. For example, if there is enough limitation on line of sight then you won't always be in contact with an opponent. This means there's a period of looking for weapons and trying to find an opponent in between fights. Obviously if you go off looking for weapons or health, you're still going to want to move as quickly and efficiently as possible, which focuses on another aspect of the game, but still keeps it fast paced.
    
  • Following on from that, I like to give players a chance to fall back if they're loosing a fight. This changes the "dynamic" from a head to head aim and dodge battle, to a chase, where the player's movement skills are tested. If the retreating player's quick enough they can go and find health and try to re-engage under more favourable conditions for them. There are various ways you can design the map that either force a fight to the death, or make it easier for players to fall back.
    
  • Instead of completely falling back, I like to give a clever player ways to play defensively (while they're waiting for their shields to recharge, for instance). This can be done with choke points and the like. This will force the attacker to be creative in getting at them, without loosing the advantage.
    
  • There are all kinds of expansions on this theme, but let me know if you get what I mean overall. Basically, to me, even if crazy full on fights all the time is fun, it'll be more fun if they're split up by other kinds of gameplay.
• I want to allow and reward active decision making, and thinking over raw mechanical skill. For me, games are most fun when I'm actively thinking rather than just switching off and going into a trance just aiming and dodging or whatever. There are all kinds of ways to give players decisions to make. For example:
  
  • Having several paths from a section gives the player a decision over which one to take. I personally think 3 is a good number, although you can go higher (there probably is such a thing as too many though). There's no reason you can't have a room with just two paths, but then the player only has the decision to double back or keep going, and they're generally not going to enter a room just to double back, so it won't generally be much of a decision. Obviously the shape of the map will affect the number of paths you can have from each zone.
    
  • A common game design philosophy is that to give players an interesting decision, you can offer a reward with an associated risk. An example of a way you can do this in a ZGA map is putting a weapon pickup in a location that makes you vulnerable in trying to get to it. This can be done with various degrees of subtlety. Least subtle is probably on Temple, where you have to line yourself up with the grapple and float to the homergun pickup. If you try and do this with someone shooting at you, you will almost certainly die.

Wow thats a pretty good text.

And I noticed, that in 1vs1 situation you can differentiate between 3 parts of a fight.

1. You fly around the map and try to equip yourself with weapons. You try to spot the enemy. This part has no "real" action and you have two ways to play this part.
1. You wait in an area of the map for the enemy player
2. You fly around the map and try to spot the other player.
Both of them have not that much action but you have to be conzentartot to spot the enemy and equip yourself at the same time. This is pretty hard, because you dont have like in CsGo only one direction or 2 where the player can come from. The enemy is able to come from 4 directions. Thats why you need a fast reactiontime and you should know the map.

2. You find the enemy and try to follow him. You have to interpret where the enemy flys and you should know how to move fast through the map and postion yourself to be able to shoot against your enemy.

3. You fight against the enemy. This is the real action where you need to use the gameplay tools zero gravity etc. to defeat the enemy. At this point the player how flyed in the first part aroumd the map to equip himself and find the enemy has better equipment, but the camper often sees the enemy first, because it is easier to aim for 3 doors, than if you fly around. So the camper is able to sees you faster but you have the better equipment.

But the parts do not need to be on the same order lile above. It can also be

1 and than 3 when the player stands out of nowhere in front of yourself ...

Thanks!
Yeah, you're absolutely right, that's the kind of thing I mean by "dynamics". This is why duals are perhaps my favourite game mode, since free for all with lots of players can become a bit repetetive with just constant full on fighting. But I do try and encourage that kind of thing for other game modes where I can.
Anyway, do you or anyone else think a video series where I try and provide some examples of how to achieve those goals for a map might be of use? I suppose it depends on whether you agree with my goals for a map above.

Yeah that would be great. And i totaly agree with your goals.

Maybe you create a hole map in this video series? So players can later play the full map.

Cool! And yeah, making a new map and explaining the design decisions is something I've thought about doing. That would definitely be fun. And I still haven't made a new map using the new features facilitated by the new movement system, so that would be fun too!