Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...
Igor9

How much health to add in a map?

Recommended Posts

Hi, would like to ask the experienced mappers out there if they go by some sort of rule of thumb for putting medikits (or ammo) in a map so as to balance the difficulty of the map properly.

Share this post


Link to post

I'm not too experienced, but in my opinion you should try the map out yourself with varying degrees of health. Lik,e if you wnat a cyber fight, try fighting him yourself under the conditions you made and see what health would be absolutely necessary. For the map I'm making for Lizard's LEgacy I'm going to put health as like a last priority, then play the map and see when I will start needing health and whatnot. Maybe not the best idea, but I'm new at this stuff too.

Share this post


Link to post

For my own maps i've made a list of ammo, health and armor the player needs for every monster. it works well on a medium skill level.

Trooper: 1 Ammo, 1 Health, no Armor
Seargent: no Ammo, 1 H, 1 A
Imp: 1,5 Shells, 1 H, 1 A
Demon: 2 Shells, 2 H, 0 A
Spectre: 2 Shells, 2 H, 1 A
Chaingunner: 3 Ammo, 8 H, 5 A
Cacodemon: 4 Shells, 1 Rocket, 10 H, 8 A
Hell Knight: 6 Shells, 10 H, 10 A
Lost Soul: 2 Shells, 2 Ammo, 5 H, 5 A
Revenant: 3 Shells, 15 Ammo, 15 H, 10 A
Pain Elemental: 80 Cells, 20 H, 10 A
Mancubus: 4 Rockets, 20 H, 20 A
Arachnotron: 2 Shells, 1 Rocket, 20 H, 15 A
Baron of Hell: 3 Rockets, 50 Cells, 20 H, 20 A
Archvile: 5 Rockets, 100 Cells, 30 H, 25 A
SpiderMasterMind: 250 Cells, 15 Rockets, 60 H, 60 A
Cyberdemon 400 Cells, 100 H, 100 A

If there are difficult sectors, like slime pools or corners where monsters are hard to catch, I put some extra health into the sector.

Marky.

Share this post


Link to post
Fredrik said:

There's no rule of thumb as far as I know. Just use your intuition and test the map a lot.

with god mode of course.

Share this post


Link to post

There's a program called tcount that computes the stuff like that. BTW, anybody got the source/binary for my zcount?

Share this post


Link to post
boris said:

There's a program called tcount that computes the stuff like that. BTW, anybody got the source/binary for my zcount?

I'll look when I get home. Have you lost stuff in a crash or something?

Share this post


Link to post
Ultraviolet said:

I'll look when I get home. Have you lost stuff in a crash or something?

I'm not sure when I lost it, it's just gone. Unfortunately Wildman (who I wrote it for back in the days) doesn't have the source either.

Igor9 said:

What does zcount do?

It's just like tcount, but also works with ZDoom (Hexen format) wads.

Share this post


Link to post

I usually put just enough to get people by on UV. Of course, I also give people on UV a little help by adding in extra ammo, and maybe the occaisonal power up or two.

Share this post


Link to post

Personally I think a lot of contemporary mappers are too tight on health (and ammo). As has been said already, I would just go with yout intuition. If you go through the map a few times you should be able to see where you need to add or remove some bonuses. Once you get it to a reasonable level for yourself, I would then add just a little bit more (as the level author is always going to be more familiar with a map than those playing it for the first time). And I wouldn't include secrets in your calculations, they're meant to be added bounses after all.

Share this post


Link to post
Cyb said:

test the map... if you die a lot, then you need more health

Or more skill.

Share this post


Link to post
Grimm said:

I usually put just enough to get people by on UV. Of course, I also give people on UV a little help by adding in extra ammo, and maybe the occaisonal power up or two.

I do the same except that powerups and armor are usually in secrets.

Share this post


Link to post

Dude, heres my rule...

each enemy has a class that it goes into

Zombies, imps and demons go into class A
Chainguners, lost souls go into class B
Cacos, bonies, hell nights, and pain elementals go into C
Barons, Archviles and aracnitrons go into D
Spider and cyber go into E

now you got a cluster of 3 rooms (2 rooms and a halway)
Count the number of monsters (say 10 class A monsters)
Take into account the skill level: (I'm too young to die)
What weapons the player (should) have upto this point (SSG)

Now the distance between enemy encounters (a personal thing, but it helps)

I would put 3 stim packs... down.. and a 4 set of shells.

Skill: Im too young to die = 5 HP + 1 set of ammo
add 10% for each level after that.

Class monsters are worth 1-25hp per class (Tottaly upto you)
Distance between encounters (Varries, the more open space the less health, it is assumed the player has the intelligence to take advantage of cover)

Weapon: Personal Prefrence but if the player wouldnt have the BFG he probably should get more ammo/health for the Shotgun he has.

so there are my rules of thumb :)

Share this post


Link to post

Sounds like you put a lot of work into that. Personally I spend all my time on detail and I'm too lazy to calculate the monsters and ammo, so I just play it a few times until I can refrain from dying and have enough ammo to kill everything. =P

Share this post


Link to post

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×