There are actually two maps for the Ultimate Survivor Live gamemode!, but we're only gonna talk about one as it includes all the most important features of the gamemode's gameplay. Here are two different game sessions, the first played by development team and the second by new players in order to better understand the following points:
- Neon City (2018) -
The gameplay of the gamemode being inspired by Old-School FPS (Doom , Quake , Unreal Tournament etc.), one of the most fundamental aspects of the level-design is verticality. So we decided to make a level set on the rooftops of a retro-futuristic city on which the players will have to move carefully so they don't fall.
Most buildings, however, have ledges and lower platforms on which to is possible to catch up at the last moment in case of falling. It is therefore very important for the players to stay in the high levels of the map as much as possible.
Indeed, by the use of mechanics such as the stomp, a better use of the weapons and an improved field of view, having the high ground is a great way to take advantage over your opponents.
Example of verticality on a building
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The central tower is a building with a unique color and emits a beam in the sky visible throughout the entire map. (in yellow on the diagram)
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Row #1 is the closest to the center and is the playing area when there are 3 to 6 players connected. It is the smallest row. (in blue on the diagram)
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Row #2 is located farther from the center than row #1 and is the playing area when there are 7 to 11 players connected. This is the area where most of the game's actions take place. (in green on the diagram)
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Row #3 is furthest from the center and is the playing area when there are 12 or more players connected. Players don't usually spend a lot of time in this area as most of them head to the center to collect more resources. (in red on the diagram)
The game type being inspired by the Battle Royale genre, the map is divided into building rows on which the players and resources spawn according to the number of players connected to the server (for a maximum of 16):
All the game areas of Neon City
If players take too long to kill each other, walls will appear and deal damage to players that are behind them. The purpose of this is to gradually limit the size of the playing area to push the players to find and kill each other faster. Once there are only two players remaining, they are teleported to the Dueling Arena. It is a small symmetrical arena (each side being in a different color) that keeps the idea of verticality from the main playing area.
Third row walls activated
Dueling arena
The environment is made up of a multitude of buildings each with an indoor and outdoor space. The indoor spaces are the places where you can generally finds most of the resources and are made for close combat. The outdoor spaces generally have fewer resources but are made for moving from one building to another and combat at medium and long range.
However, in order to limit the effectiveness of long-range weapons and avoid the players to stay still too much in order to maintain a dynamic gameplay, the outdoor spaces have many elements which act as covers.
Finally, in order to have a gameplay as dynamic as possible, we gave the players the ability to carry 2 weapons. This way, we don't limit the gameplay of the players to just one type at a time, allowing them to cope with many different situations during the whole game. The key to success in Ultimate Survivor Live! is then: adaptation.
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