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Thread: TobiNerd - Developer Application (Mapper)

  1. #1
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    TobiNerd - Developer Application (Mapper)

    Developer Application
    Byond ID?
    TobiNerd

    Age?
    21

    Gender?
    Male

    How would you define yourself? (Coder, Mapper, Spriter):
    Mapper

    If Coder, what languages?
    Although I'm applying as a mapper, I'm quite good at JS and PHP. Plus HTML, CSS, C# and have practiced a bit with byond code. Should learn it pretty fast.

    Any previous experience developing with SS13?
    I've spent the past 5-6 weeks making an entire map intended to be used for CM, almost entirely on my own (forest did some of the tedious cable and door work for me, but I've done 85-90% of everything).

    I also did a bit of development on TGMC, such as layout changes to medbay.

    Proof of any previous or current work:
    As mentioned above, I made an entire map throughout the past 5-6 weeks almost entirely solo. Although it's far from finished. Up until just before writing this, the project was kept quite confidential, with only a few specifically chosen people knowing about it. By the time this was written, it was shown off for the first time for the purposes of feedback for the ongoing development. Having made so much content, I believe I have a good understanding of the object tree and working in dream maker.

    All the new sprites for the walls, floors, and windows (multiple colors). Even made custom area icons for the editor.

    Below I'll link to some screenshots of the station so far.
    (It's still very WIP, I'd say about 40% done, some areas are still empty, piping not done yet, and many other layouts still planned to change. Also bear in mind please, that I plan to make two versions of the map, a clean version for RP and post apocalyptic version for standard play. This is the clean version.)

    https://imgur.com/a/Fjrb5Et

    The map is a research station, but is designed to feel a lot more open compared to Prison Station. And it being a research station, there's a lot of interesting mechanics that can be implemented. Which I already have a lot planned.

    How well do you know Git?
    I've done a couple of PRs on TGMC and used it to track the progress for the map. I know the basics, but not an expert

    Your primary job is server development, not policing the server. You may be given Moderator-level of access but you should *not* be invoking any administrative actions unless there are no moderators or Admins online. Do you understand?
    Yes

    Anything else you'd like to add?
    I do understand that mappers shouldn't only focus on their own projects. I'm very open to, and very much looking forward to, working with the rest of the CM Dev team on improving and working on existing projects. Though I am more into making new concepts and original content.

    But a large part of what has driven me to make this application, is the continued development of this map. So I'd like to take care of developing and maintaining this mostly.

    Lastly, I'll write a bit about myself
    I'm currently a university student studying Digital Media and Design, and plan to start a taking a master's degree in Game Design next year.

    I'm a workaholic and perfectionist with a big passion for gaming. Specifically I like roleplaying and indie games the most, which is a large part of why SS13 has stuck with me so much. As I've played almost 1000 hours of CM within the past year, I thought I'd give a go at developing for the game I'm so addicted to. Previously I've also done modding for other games, such as Divinity Original Sin 2. Other projects I've done outside of games are mostly web design. I'm a designer, and typically does a lot of sketching and planning before doing any actual development. Although this would be the first time I'd develop within such a large team. But that just excites me!

  2. #2
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    Hi Tobi,
    Portfolio looks great, I spoke with your friend quite a lot about this map and it's design. Looks alright so far, though there's always some nitpickings to be made which we can get onto later. First of all, I want to make it clear that yes, we are currently looking for mappers to maintain existing maps, however I think the mapping team has expanded enough to allow for this sort of a situation you're asking for. Now this doesn't mean you'd be put in a corner, never to be spoken of again, in order to let you map away on your own project- We want you working with us as a team.
    You need to understand that introducing a full-blown level means a lot more than just releasing it- you have to playtest, respond to feedback, maintain it, and keep it up to date with other future feature changes. New maps are a lot of work, and if you can understand that then hopefully we're on the same page.
    That being said, I'm going to issue you the mapping test. I ask that you take your time with this and not rush anything. Our next dev meeting (where we discuss applications) is tomorrow, Saturday, and the next one will be in two weeks time. When you submit your results, please include a brief explanation to your map, and summarise what you considered with regards to gameplay design.

    Without further ado, here is your mapping test.

  3. #3
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    Of course, as I mentioned, I haven't worked in a large team before. I've done projects with 2-4 people, but that's nothing compared to working with a team like here. And doing so is actually something I look very much forward to. I won't dedicate 100% of my time on my own project, I will make sure to also cooperate with the rest of the team on existing projects.

    I definitely understand how much work is required to making a new map, even after releasing it and maintaining it. The cycle of planning, testing, improving, implementing and evaluating is a core part of my education as a designer.

    I will get to work with the mapping test and probably get it done throughout next week.
    Last edited by TobiNerd; 03-16-2019 at 09:59 PM.

  4. #4
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    Map Test Submission

    And here I am!
    Foreword
    First of all, finished this a lot later than what I originally anticipated, as seen in my previous message. I almost finished it the first week, but then I scrapped pretty much all of it and remade it. This is because I didn't find my first design to be quite space efficient enough. So I made the structure the second week and spent this last week polishing. Lucky for me, I heard that the dev meeting was pushed back and so, I hope I'm not too late for the dev meeting on saturday.

    Thoughts from before I started mapping
    When I started this test, I thought about what the purpose of the map should be. Because when designing, I find it much easier to make a quality product if I know what purpose I'm designing for (other than just responding to a test). This is not to say that I'm expecting the results of this test to actually be used in any way, but this design principle has helped me shape the map to reflect a specific gameplay purpose.

    Here's what I decided on the map's purpose:
    • The standalone map should be played in "Whiskey Outpost"-ish style. The base at the top, xenos spawning at the bottom of the map in the caves. But there won't be many existing defenses, so those have to be built (but more premade defenses could easily be implemented). There will be caves for xenos in my submission
    • The actual UPP base should be compact enough that it can be inserted into Ice Colony for events (such as UPPvsMARINES and used as the UPP HQ for the round)
    • The base should fit a number of personnel so that it would be viable for use in the above scenarios. And be designed so that the base would be efficient to use like so.


    Now onto the result

    Overview
    Below is seen the full standalone map. (Open image in a new tab to zoom in, the image is at 100% zoom). The base is titled "Hidden Husky" and is intended to be a secret UPP outpost located deep inside a crater, which the base is built into. South of the base snow falls into the crater and enters a cave system. I've used the UPP variants for everything that has one, but have used USCM placeholders for what didn't.

    Spoiler Spoiler:

    The base layout is O shaped, with medbay in the center, quarters at the sides, hangar on top and exit at the bottom. Other than these areas from the assignment, there's a small power station top left, a small officer quarters top right and a command room below medbay.

    The base can only be accessed from the south or via shuttle (of which one pad could be empty in a gameplay scenario). I had made considerations to connect the caves up and around to the small paths in the top right and top left to allow flanks. But decided not to due to the purpose of it being a defense map. And because I thought it would encourage players to fortify more outwards instead of internally. But once inside the base, none of the areas are particularly easy or hard to hold.

    Below is shown what the base is like if inserted into Ice Colony (TGMC version)
    Spoiler Spoiler:


    Hangar
    The hangar fits two UPP shuttles, for which I've added more seats. Because the base doesn't have a cargo bay, the hangar is also used for storage. The hangar has plenty of doors, so the many soldiers can quickly get in and out. Doors to the south for quick access to medbay right below. There's a shuttle control room on each side. This also makes the the hangar a hard to defend location on it's own, due to the many windows and doors on the wide south side. The hangar works a bit better as a defense location, if fortifications are placed outside on the paths leading to the hangar.

    The hangar does have a lot of open space, especially on the sides. That's because, space efficient or not, there needs to be space for personnel waiting to board the shuttles, and for traffic to move around them while landed. I believe I have made the hangar space efficient, but not so crammed that it hinders the function.

    Spoiler Spoiler:


    Medbay
    The medbay can be accessed from the top doors right below the hangar, or from the side doors closer to surgery. It's a fully equipped medbay, with a reception, cryotubes and chemistry. This is because it's intended to be able to compete with the marines in a HvH scenario. The surgery area in medbay is probably the most defensible location inside the base, due to there not being any exterior windows. With the downside being hard to protect walls from being melted from the south.

    The top right and left corners are the general patient areas. They have an autodoc, bodyscanner and dialysis sleeper each. Plus beds and chairs for waiting patients. Cryo is centered, and chemistry right below. The bottom half is the surgery area, where the medical storage is also located.

    Again just like the hangar, I believed I've made sure to use the space effectively. But a certain amount of open space is still needed to keep the functionality of an efficient medbay, where patients needs to go in and out without bumping into people. This is why there's a strait path from all the entrances to the surgery area. But I do admit that the hallway between the surgery theaters could've been more used.

    Spoiler Spoiler:


    Quarters
    The base have two quarters, to the west and east. They are mirrored of each other, have 8 dorm rooms with 4 beds each, adding up to a total of 64 beds. The quarters also have laundry space, toilets and gender separate baths. Plus a small area with food vendors, although there's no actual RnR area. The quarters have doors on one side including windows, plus one windows at north and south which could be used for flanks.

    Spoiler Spoiler:


    Now, I do know that UPP spawn pre-equiped with their gear. But I decided to use the quarters as a prep area with additional gear alternatives, that players could utilize. I also thought it made sense that the soldiers would have lockers to store their gear and clothes. As such, there's 4 green lockers in each dorm room with UPP clothes. Plus an equal amount of grey equipment lockers (since there's no UPP equipment vendors) containing a somewhat random set of UPP equipment, attachments and other random tools. Such as seen on the image below:

    Spoiler Spoiler:


    The rest
    The small powerstation have some general engineering tools and materials
    Spoiler Spoiler:


    The small officer quarters give the UPP leaders a little more luxury.
    Spoiler Spoiler:


    The command room is a place where operations can be planned and serves as a mini CIC. The desks at the bottom are placeholders for what could be UPP overwatch computers. This area could definitely be expanded.
    Spoiler Spoiler:


    My own reflections on the result
    Overall I'm generally happy with the outcome. I enjoyed doing the test and the extra restraints I put on myself in terms of the size limit. I did want to show a different mapping style that used more symmetry unlike what I put in my portfolio with the CORSAT map, which this certainly has. But I have considered if it's too much symmetry. Especially in case of the power station, which doesn't need to be larger, but the officer quarters could be. Working with the UPP assignment, which has the extra challenge of space efficiency has been interesting, but also hard to get around. Because it's hard to tell where the borders between open, space efficient and crammed are. So I used the minimum space needed for efficient gameplay as a base and worked from there. I know this result stretches a bit beyond the test, but I am more happy making something that looks like a more finished product.

    If I were to work more on this map, it would go into expanding more on the outside of the base. Such as adding watchtowers and adding more detail to the caves. And perhabs making the caves larger and giving more outside space. I had also considered flipping the quarters to be horizontal and give space for more areas such as RnR and cargo, but that would require a lot of work this late into the mapping.

    Feel free to PM me on discord if you have any questions.
    Last edited by TobiNerd; 04-04-2019 at 11:44 PM.

  5. #5
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    Congratulations! The team has, after probably more deliberation than we strictly needed, accepted your application.

    Please send me a PM on Discord with a link to your Gitlab profile and an email address you don't mind being visible to the team, and I'll get your permissions sorted and assign someone to help you settle in.

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