Assignment 6 - What is MVM?

This might well classify as initial research, although the certainty is not one hundred percent. None the less, I shall write now.

Having decided to focus on creating a map for Team Fortress 2's Mann vs Machine mode, and getting the idea of using a middle of nowhere road setting, I've taken a step back in order to take a closer look at how the three existing maps function. To roughly explain what Mann vs Machine IS, the game mode is about a team of 6 players defending a point from several waves of enemy robots that are trying to transport a bomb to the player's point. Although what kind of robots will be appearing will show up at the top of the screen, they still have something of a run up to give the player time to see which robots they will be encountering (They are invincible at this point to stop players killing them before they've made it into the map.). Essentially, each Mann vs Machine map offers branching paths that the robots may take in any wave, and not all of them will necessarily take the same one. These paths also offer opportunities for the player team to defend and halt the robots progress. Some maps also offer trap holes that the bomb can be forced into, forcing a new one to appear at the robot's spawn point.

To show this, I made a rough top down illustration of the map Decoy with the coloured lines showing the possible routes that the robots can take.

So with any map I try to design, I will need to bear in mind that the robots must have enough branching paths to go down without also overwhelming players, and provide vantage points for said players to be able to make a stand. I will also have to be concious that I need to consider suitable spots for Engineers to build sentries and for Snipers to... snipe from.


As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm working towards a gas station theme, which I've been doodling on loose paper and my magic pocket book.

I'm going to try and work out ideas along the way, I only know so far that I have a gas station and junk yard idea (a 50's/60's style gas station would look pretty neat) and a road. Along with some hills for the robots to run down during waves. I'm currently considering how to make the paths branch and make sure that the player can't wander out of the playing area. I might have to build the area up some more.

Edit - A little further internet scraping has yielded http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Example which is quite literally an example Mann vs Machine map. I might go into the source engine or Gmod and have a look through.