User:Takua108/Map design idea

This isn't another random "post your ideas here, lol!" thread, but rather a discussion for creating unique map designs to essentially modify the gameplay to make the game function differently than it was intended.

Here's one of my ideas.

Instead of creating a bunch of small maps, an entire "movie" (or at least a map that would take the time of 3-4 chapters to complete) could consist of one huge map. This map could be anything, such as a countryside or an entire airport or something, but what instantly comes to mind is a city. A city with lots of buildings, most of which have the interiors mapped out.

There could be, like, eight or ten different ways to complete the map, but only two or three would be available on a given playthrough due to some mad logic entity work.

The survivors would then have to wander through the city, searching for supplies, and a way out. The survivors could even start at spawnpoints that are somewhat far away from each other for an extra added challenge (or start in teams of two), and then they would have to "find" each other by following their glowing outlines. (Plot-wise: they just got off of a cell phone conversation with each other, or something.)

Players would still be able to hunt down and find safe rooms, but they too would work differently than in the main game. Firstly, once again using logic entities, their positions would be randomized. The mapper would create several rooms (obviously, since the majority of buildings should have the interiors mapped out), and then the logic entities would pick a few of these and make the doors have the "safe room door" model/skin instead of the regular one, and prevent infected from entering. These would be used for when players are low on health and ammunition, or otherwise need a break from the action.

One potential problem could be populating the streets with infected. Since there is currently no map of this size and layout, I can't say how well the Director will handle the long, open streets. Some trickery with "dummy infected" entities may need to occur in order to achieve the effect of "this town is overrun with the undead" instead of "this block that I'm conveniently at is overrun with undead."

Any comments, critiques, or your own map design ideas? This is, after all, why I bought the Steam version of the game rather than the Xbox 360 version. I'll have a few friends with the 360 version that I won't be able to play with, but, in the long run, being able to modify the game with user-created content like this is what truly makes Valve games awesome.

(Originally posted here.)