In the 1.10 update we are adding a new encounter map to the game. The map named ‘Colmar Hamlet’ takes place in a hamlet where opposing forces meet and fight over a handful of buildings.
Colmar Hamlet
Situated with open farmland to one side and a shallow creek, at the edge of a forest, on the other, the ‘Colmar Hamlet’ map gives you a fight where aiming and moving from cover to cover wins the day. One side deploys in the forest by the shallow waters ready to cross, either using the bridge or by running/driving through the shallows. Their enemy deploys in the farmland to the other side of the hamlet with the option of approaching on the road or through the fields.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM0rLZ8heg8
Map Design Philosophy
The map should be easy to navigate with a focus on aim and fire. For new players facing bots this helps them learn aiming and for the veterans it is a pure skill check on aiming over range.
Design Goals
The goals of the map is two-fold, new players should be able to enjoy playing with an easy-to-understand layout and experienced players should have fun with a map that has a rather different gameplay experience than the existing encounter map.
Design Ideas
Engage the enemy at medium range, for new players playing against bots that lets them see enemy movement from a distance, for experienced players they better bring their A-game in aiming. The availability of chest-high cover that you can crouch behind gives you the ability to pop in and out of cover.
The flanking options are, on purpose, simple and obvious to make it easier for the map to be understood with no prior knowledge of the layout.
The layout is built on 3 main lanes plus a cross with difficult lane changes. See the gameflow design sketch below.
A wide deploy-zone makes suppressing it a lot more difficult and gives more of a front-line feel to the fighting.
By creating large scale navigational color identifiers in the terrain, with the yellow field and green forest, we help the player orient himself better.
What makes it a unique H&G experience?
The map focuses more on 2D horizontal gameplay and not so much a vertical challenge, making it a different experience than the other maps.
More maps?
As reto.desji also touches upon in the video above, we are working on new assets for different types of maps, and we are working on more maps as well, so this is just the beginning!