Design

EMBM: Feedback and changes

When creating the team bagman (similar to capture the flag) level Everyone's Mortal But Me for Kingpin, the map underwent a few changes due to community feedback.

The core loop of the level for players is this:

1. Start in a room at the bottom of a tower
2. Get to the top of the tower
3. Use the enemy jump pad to launch themselves into the enemy bag room, which gives them the bag and drops them back to floor level
4. Again get to the top of the tower
5. Use the friendly jump pad to launch themselves into their own bag room to capture the objective

Originally, the bag rooms were unblocked, which players said made it too easy to raid the bag rooms, so it was too hard to play defense.

The first solution I tried to improve defense was a switch at ground level that activated a flame trap in the bag room. This was indicated to players via a bright line connecting the switch to the room, and a series of lights that showed how long the flame trap would remain active so they knew when they could safely jump into the room.

However, this solution presented more problems that the players surfaced and that I observed from their testing:

1. It wasn't clear to defending players what the switch did, despite the bright line connecting it to the door
2. It wasn't clear to offense players why the flame trap was happening
3. It was too punishing for offense players to be killed instantly by something outside of their control
4. It was hard for defending players to use the trap strategically (because the switch was so far away, it was mostly random whether they stopped an enemy or killed their own teammate with it)

So my second revision landed on the solution we use today: a large flashing button is directly above the door and connected to it with a small bright line to further establish the connection between them. When this button is shot, a lot of sparks shoot out of it (to establish that their shot caused it and improve visibility of the button state) and the button turns grey (to visibly establish the button's "off" state), and this causes a pair of doors to slam shut that block the bag room. This causes players who launch to the bag room to hit the door and then drop back to the ground level to try again. With extremely precise timing, you can squish a player with these doors, but if your shot is too late, you'll miss the opportunity to block.

This solved the 4 issues players were experiencing:

1. It's clearer to defending players what the switch does: The big flashing button and its close proximity to the room piques player curiousity and invites them to shoot it. They see the effects fire and the doors under it slam shut, which teaches the player what it does.
2. It's clearer to offense players why they were blocked: The effects, button proximity to the door, and their own prior experience with the button informed them.
3. It's less punishing and more fair to offense players: Usually they will only be delayed from entering the room and will be given a chance to try again. Offense players can also clear out nearby enemies to ensure they can't shoot the button before attempting their jump.
4. It's much easier for defending players to use the trap strategically, but not too easy: defense has about a second to react to a jumping enemy by shooting the button, and with skilled timing they can even kill the enemy with the door. However, if they shoot too early, the button's cooldown is longer than the door's cooldown and they give the enemy a free pass into the room. If they shoot too late (attempting a door kill), they fail to block the enemy.