Does map symmetry equal balance?
As of late I’ve been trying to teach myself how to use the Official Supreme Commander Map Editor. I spent a few hours messing around with it the other weekend and basically tweaked one of the existing maps that ships with the game.
One thing all this got me thinking about was balance in games today and does symmetry equal balance with regard to actual strategy?
I gave google the two keywords “symmetry” and “balance” and he showed me the following site:
Art 104: Design and Composition class at Palomar College
This mentions the various types of symmetry but the one that interested me most is the Biaxial symmetry. This is the type that occurs in games such as Supreme Commander. It is common that many of the 4+ player maps are using biaxial symmetry.
Biaxial symmetry uses two axes of symmetry — vertical and horizontal. These guarantee balance: top and bottom as well as left and right.
In order to allow all players to start from an unbiased standpoint the maps are mirror on two axes. In other words, the terrain in the upper left quarter is exactly the same as the upper right, lower left and lower right - the only difference is that it has been flipped and mirrored.
Doodles
I’ve been doodling some basic map ideas on loads of scrap pieces of paper. Nothing fancy as you’ll see, just basic geometric shapes with enough detail to define land and water. I cannot believe the small number of maps that exists in the Supreme Commander. Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few maps but they do not cater for that many eventualities. You have a handful of maps for the good old 1v1 battles. There are the a ton of maps suited for 4 players (2 on 2 is probably the most common arrangement). There is then 1 map suited for 5 players, a handful of 6 player maps and a good number of 8 player maps. Again this is fine for the most part but in our clan there is usually 5 players on at a time. 2 vs 3 is never a fair battle although me and jof have thrashed the other 3 player on numerous occasions now ;). I just wish there were more 5 player maps out there, as all we have is that starfish-shaped map. I’d like to remake this map without the water. That would be nice for a fre-for-all with 5 players ;)
It’s very easy to come up with some nice looking maps on paper. They look very basic but the problem will lie in making them interesting to play or look at. Building the heightmaps themselves is a long enough process and the you have to build up all the the differing layers (strata). Adding spawn points (teams) and mass points should probably be done as soon as you have a basic heightmap up and textured so you can test the model for any dodgy collision. Once all this is done you can add some more polish by using decals to bring it up to professional standards.
Perhaps if I show jof how to use the editor I can build the heightmaps while he textures them? That will certainly save time…
A game like Supcom I think needs a certain degree of symmetry in order to make the game balanced and fun. Variety is interesting but as I mentioned above can often be biased. I’ll post more of my sketches and screenshots from within the editor when I get some free time.
