Mithridates VI
Krusual Covert Operators
Minmatar Republic
985
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Posted - 2013.04.27 02:02:00 -
[1] - Quote
Putting this here in case it's useful for people to nail down some terminology.
May 6th will bring us Uprising, the latest DUST 514 build. This build will see the introduction of the long-awaited planetary conquest mechanic... but many players are asking themselves (and CCP) "what else are we going to get?"
CCP sources have suggested that with the May 6th release they hope to bring a much-clamoured-for update to the number and quality of available maps or combat areas. Current indications are that with the release of the new build we could be looking at five new battlegrounds and a new terrain. We'll break down exactly what that means.
CCP's level design team talk about maps in terms of terrains, environment types, battlegrounds and moods.
A terrain is the basic shape of the planet's surface; the peaks and the valleys and the plateaus. You can see the entire thing by zooming out on the in-game map. The terrains are massive. Presently, there are two terrains in use in DUST 514 and all of the playable areas exist somewhere on one of these two terrains.
An environment type is a texture set applied to the terrain and all static objects. It's the difference between lush grassland and frozen peaks, and it changes the textures of other static objects to match... giving a coating of dust to buildings in sandy scenes and giving the impression that snow has fallen recently on static vehicles in the colder regions.
A battleground is an area of the terrain surrounded by a red zone. This is also referred to as the "burn zone". It's the area of the terrain which you are contractually obliged to remain in until the objectives are complete. If you fail to remain within this area, a killswitch terminates your clone. Presently, between ambush and skirmish game modes, we have access to 13 battlegrounds ( treating "Manus Peak ambush" as a separate battleground to "Manus Peak skirmish" and treating both of these as different to "Manus Peak ambush OMS", etc, because even in cases where the red line placement is identical, they are separate battlegrounds to a level designer because of the potential to uniquely place the red line).
Often, players will refer to "maps" such as Skim Junction, Manus Peak, Line Harvest and Ashland. Each of these "maps" is a different battleground. Some will further break this down by referring to variations on Skim Junction as Biomass (the one with trucks and crates in the street, three objectives in the outpost and two outside it), Communications (the one with lower buildings and a satellite dish on the roof of Bravo objective) and Skyfire/Orbital Artillery (the one with a cannon pointed at space at Bravo objective, surrounded by walls used as cover). Biomass, Communications and Orbital Artillery take place within the same battleground, but with different structures placed into them. These three central structures and combinations of structres are referred to as "outposts".
A mood is a configuration of weather and atmospheric effects as well as lighting based on day/night cycles. These are applied to maps to make more subtle changes to the environment. |