Unit Blocks map

[The Purple Panzer]

Because BZFlag reminds me a little of toy tanks and toy blocks, I thought I'd do a map with components similar to unit blocks (lengths, widths, heights all multiples of a given unit). This does give the map a certain pleasing predictability, although I didn't adhere to this rule completely.

I've also noticed that the Spirals map gets a lot of play, but I've never found it quite fits my playing style - too open, and with lots of people death occurs very quickly. However, I thought if that appeals to a lot a people, I'd construct a map which is quite sparse (at least on the ground level). I added a bit more structure in various "forts" which are up in the air a little - kind of like what a kid might build with blocks, but on stilts (so to speak).

I tried one thing which is *not* in the map, as an experiment - I put one of a pair of teleporters outside of the playable map area. When you go through the other teleporter, you're taken outside of the map - I wanted to see what happened. Turns out you get kicked off the server immediately! This is probably a little rude to use in any real map, unless one could make flat teleporters (that is, in the XY plane), so when somebody (say) fell down a shaft through one, they were punted from the server. Still rude, but it might have a place sometime.

On occasion I've tried to create vertical dihedrals with pyramids, so that shots reflect off of one pyramid straight up, then off an inverted pyramid to hit the shooter (or somebody behind the shooter). I stayed away from that here, but you might find some accidental instances of it under the main fort, particularly. Some of the pyramids have angles that will let you get people at upper levels.

Another idea I was going to use but didn't is that of registration points for the insane pool-table kind of shots with multiple banks (reflections). I mention it here in case anyone wants to try it in another map: you figure out where you have to shoot from to get a multiply-reflected shot where you want it to go (say, to a given doorway); then you put a registration mark there, so that you know when you're at the correct position to fire. (A simple way to insert a registration mark is to put a small cube up in the air over the spot, so that you can see it on radar).

To figure out where the spot is, it's easiest to shoot along the reverse path, that is to shoot from where you want the shot to end up, and see where it goes - initially put the registration cube on the ground, and fiddle with it until it gets hit by the test shots. Presumably if the physics is correct the reverse path will be identical (unless, perhaps, we have some sort of non-conservation of parity or time reversal built into the game).

I didn't put it in this map (I thought about it) because it seemed like a sort of insider knowledge that only some would have, at least at first. But it might be fun to create a map with sets of mutual registration points (starts and ends), in such a way that they're the *only* way to get at particular enemies.

Sorry for the digressions: this map is fairly small, not too many blocks, and should offer a lot of interesting tactical situations, while also being fairly wide-open.

[The Purple Panzer]

There's also a version of Stonehenge in the map, as true as I could reasonably make it to the current condition of the site.

[ducatiwannabe]

wow cool map panzer, I'll put it up when/if I get my server!

[The Purple Panzer]

I've attached the same map with a small modification - in one place where you were supposed to be able to jump up a set of surfaces, the last height was too high.