Map: Fifle Dunes

Gametype: Crash Events

Wide shot

The idea behind this map is to have suspenseful fights in an atmospheric environment. The map is pitch black, aside from the middle, which we've done everything we could think of to turn people away from, and four camps which are scattered around the large map. The camps hold an assortment of weapons and equipment, as well as defensive barricades.

Communications Camp (with Hornet Camp dimly in the background)

Hornet Camp (with Fortified Camp dimly in the background)

Fortified Camp

Excavation Site

Communications Camp and Hornet Camp -- the shortest distance between two camps.

The instinct of everyone playing, we assume, will be to flock to whichever camp is closest to them due to its wealth of supplies, and because you really cannot see anything when you are out in the middle of the dunes. The danger in this, though, is that once you get to the camp, you cannot see anything outside of the camp itself, whereas everyone outside the camp can see you. This does not make the camps suicidal, considering the size of the map and the low probability that anyone will be close enough to kill you at the exact moment which you enter the camp, but it would be dangerous to hang around in one for too long. For this reason, the majority of the fighting will likely be done in either the dunes, where the combatants will be blind and the pauses between fights very tense, or in the camps, when two or more combatants enter at the same time.

A third person view of me. The camera is fairly close to me, but I am only faintly visible. If I were to back up another foot, I would be invisible.

A first person view in the same spot.

Approaching Hornet Camp.

Approaching Communications Camp.

There are a few other sources of light in the level -- flares, fire grenades, and a flamethrower -- and there is a transport hornet, which we felt comfortable with including since the pilot is as blind as everyone else, and the missile pod in one of the camps does not need sight to be effective. There are two snipers, both with very little ammo, as the size of the map lends a huge advantage to long range weaponry, regardless of how well you can see.

As the middle is unavoidably bathed in light, we've done everything we could to push people away from it (we placed kill balls and fusion coils all around it), but it is still not really dangerous enough to stop everyone from just jumping into the middle and playing the whole game out in there, in a very boring and ordinary fashion. We could build a wall around it, but that would be a pain, so instead we'd just ask that you just don't go in it, except to take a shortcut or to temporarily seek cover behind the dunes which enclose the middle.

You'll need to be open-minded to like this map, as fights play out uniquely, and there is an entirely new element to cope with. We plan to make a series of maps with this theme -- that being, dark and in the dunes of Sandbox -- suited for different gametypes. As for the darkness of the map, in case anyone would like to make a dark map of their own: it was made by combining the "Pen and Ink" and "Juicy" effects.

I mentioned building a wall around the middle before. If anyone would like to do this, or make any other alterations to the map, feel free. If someone does make a wall, I'd like to be notified so I could download that version.

Map creators were Gargutoid and Arthur Poopenstein.