It has been a little while since I last posted, but I have finally finished the Environmental Set-Dressing for my BioLab FPS for the time being. I may want to improve some areas in the future, but for now, my focus will be on Blueprinting. Below I will share pictures of the final Environments with annotations:
This is the Attacking Teams Spawn, where they will start the game and will respawn here when they die. Here they can also restock their ammo and restore their health.
Looking through the hole reveals numerous vehicles, explaining the number of Soldiers present, as well as a Tank, explaining the size of the hole in the wall.
Inside this Storage Room, it is clear the Soldiers have set up an impromptu logistical cache, allowing them to restock ammunition and tend to their injuries. In game terms, this allows the Players to heal and refill the ammo they have expended in that life.
From the outside of the Soldiers' Spawn, it is impossible to see the area where one would heal or refill ammo, improving on the concept displayed by Team Fortress 2, a game that helped inspire this project.
Again, the view into the Soldiers' Spawn is obstructed, as it is for the Defenders' Spawn. In future iterations, I hope to mimic TF2's idea of having doors on the Spawn Locations that only open for the respective Team; the obstructed view in also mitigates some of the grief-ing by Spawn Campers as often happens in the Spawns of Team Fortress 2's game modes.
Exiting from the Soldiers' Spawn from either side reveals numerous routes one could take to gain an edge over opposition and allows for tactical gameplay.
As there are many paths one could take, there are almost as many ambush spots. As the game goes on and Players spread across the map, Players will have to keep their wits about them as all it takes is one person being sneaky for one team to get the upper hand over the other.
From this large window there is a great view of a sprawling desert, complete with a downed plane and the Humvees that are investigating it. Does the Bio Lab play any part in this military plane crashing?
Going back to near the Soldiers' Spawn for a moment, we can see a large hole in the wall, and by looking at the top of the yellow shipping container, we can see that it has been created through the use of C4 plastic explosive and hastily stacked boxes and sheet metal has been set up to speed up access to the 1st floor.
Through the hole in the wall, we can see it leads to the 1st floor where the Soldiers have easy access to one of the Objectives (the yellow circle on the floor).
Back on the ground floor, beyond the large window, we see a long corridor that will be ideal for mid to long firefights and serves as a much more direct approach to the Centre Objective.
By going through door close to the Soldiers' Spawn, Players can sneak through to the Central Objective through an area that is designed more for short to mid-range engagements, although this leaves the possibility of ambushes from around blind corners. The solution; this Server Room in red.
With the only way in being a large open window, Players can make use of the locked door's window to gather some limited intelligence as to the safety of the room beyond, as they can see through into the rest of the Central Lab. Additionally, Players can use the limited visibility through the window from the other side of the door to use the Server as cover for ambushing other Players who pass by the window.
The ground floor of the Central Lab has some stretches more suited to mid-range firefights, but is broken up by numerous areas of cover as well as places designed to conceal to allow for ambushes.
Monitors, consoles and desks provide cover from windows and also switch the balance of power in the favour of those with close quarter offensive capabilities such as Players with shotguns or submachine guns, incentivising ambush tactics in some areas.
Though designed to serve as concealment or as some cover, the rooms have been set up to seem as realistic as possible to add to the believability of the spaces despite the limited assets at my disposal.
Ah, office cubicles. What better place to hide in wait to surprise an unwary opponent.
By creating a room to break up the space, I have made the Central Lab a more versatile arena for gunfights as who has an upper hand is more dependant on Player skill as well as loadout choice. For example, although it is still possible to fight in this room, someone with a sniper rifle will have a harder time than a Player with a shotgun in a room like this, but when the loadout choice is similar, Player reaction time and individual skill comes to the forefront.
Allowing for a sneakier and less direct approach to the Central Objective, by cutting through these otherwise strategically-unnecessary rooms, Players can use their windows for gaining intelligence as to who is at the Central Objective, fire upon enemies that are there as well as use them as a means to get to the Central Objective to support their team.
With its gentle colours elsewhere in the facility painting a more innocent façade, this ominous Operating Room suggests a darker side to the Bio Lab that is otherwise hidden below the surface. What is the lab working on that requires surgery?
From the other side of the Soldiers' Spawn, we can see plenty of large Sci-Fi shipping containers that provide lots of cover for Players who want to gain some ground and allows for some flanking opportunities for those who want to play strategically.
Back to Soldier's Spawn again and we can see that the stairs above the large window not only leads to the upper floor of the Central Lab, the same place the hole in the wall leads to, but also provides a great view down the corridor from earlier, providing an opportunity for Players to provide overwatch for advancing teammates with sniper rifles.
Going through the door leads to the Soldiers' closest Objective and, to the immediate left from the door, Players can find a large Conference Room/Office with one of the world's biggest clocks. This room provides a sneaky means to rush from the door to the area overlooking the Central Objective in relative safety, but also creates a chokepoint as Players would need to wait their turn as the door ahead is locked, so they would have to hop through the window in single-file and would be very exposed upon exiting.
A door to the right of the Central Lab's Objective that is closest to the Soldiers' Spawn leads to a Laboratory, which is designed for realism and provides an interesting opportunity for short to mid range engagements as well as flanking opportunities.
On the desks in the Laboratory is flasks filled with mysterious chemicals. Who knows what they are for? Probably nothing good.
A bullet-proof window in the Lab allows Players to see out in the direction enemies would likely be coming from if they were attacking the Soldiers' Objective.
Lab equipment litters the desks, alongside the aforementioned chemicals. This gives the appearance of an active lab that has until recently been in operation, breathing a sense of life into the spaces and providing a sense of liminality that I had been experimenting with in my other, more Horror-orientated projects such as 'The Pleasant Hotel' project which I intend to return to in the future.
Two innocuous windows at the end of the room, only they provide a means of ingress/egress as well as a means to attack people on the bridge or ambush Players down below.
Each area in the Lab has been put together with much consideration as to how to make them feel believable, with many areas throughout the map taking several hours to complete in an attempt to achieve this goal and create the spaces I had envisioned when designing the map's floor plan.
The far side of the Central Lab's 1st floor is fairly open, and has 'Hydroponics' spelled out in large concrete letters. There is also another work station which provides a small amount of cover.
The Hydroponic tubes themselves, though not particularly great cover, do break up the shapes at a distance, meaning Players could hide amongst them to gain an advantage whilst contesting the Central Objective from the high ground.
Shipping containers piled up beside the Central Lab provides both a means down to the Central Objective for the Soldiers, but also provides the defending team, the Security, a means to climb up to contest the Central Lab Objective.
From on top of a container, we can see there are views across the battlefield, showing the advantage high ground affords, only not all approaches are clearly visible and the advantage comes at a cost; the more easily you can see your opponents, the easier it is for them to see you.
Going back to the windows in the Central Lab's upper floor laboratory for a moment reveals an overlook across the gap between the two upper floors as well as a view over the bridges. From this position, a Player can suppress opponents in the windows, support teammates crossing the bridge and surprise unwary enemies caught in the open down below.
Entering through the door, the thick columns and large shelving obstructs the view onto the Objective and leaves Players open to a potential ambush, but also provides them with some cover and allows for three different routes to the Objective.
The shelves themselves, lined with boxes and mysterious canisters as they are, provide inconsistent cover, but a suitably sneaky Player could hide themselves just well enough to lie in wait for enemies attempting to take the Objective or sneak through towards the Objective, using the cover to hide their advance, allowing for a surprise attack on those holding the Objective.
The Objective itself provides some cover, but due to its size, it is easy to contest, meaning strategic-play and teamwork will be the name of the game for pushing defenders off it or holding back attackers. Additionally, those crates stacked in the far corner provide an excellent position for a sneaky ambush.
The door and window are not the only means of entering the area of the Storage Room Objective, as there are two more approaches. One of which is this side door which is closest to the Security's Spawn, which means defenders of this Objective need to be wary of attack from all sides; an excellent method of generating tension through gameplay.
Want to cross the bridge and get to one of the upper floors quickly, but don't want to go the long way around? Well good news. These crates and forklift allow Players to parkour there way up to the bridge.
From the bridge we can see there are side rooms to this upper floor. Not being an Objective themselves, what could the gameplay purpose of these be?
From the bridge, we have yet another view across the map towards the Central Objective, but lingering out in the open on the bridge for too long will certainly draw enemy attention... and fire.
Entering the door on the bridge leads to the Storage Room Lab, which itself consists of two large rooms.
Immediately through the door, we can see a sneaky spot by one of the windows which could provide an excellent position to fire from.
Further into the Storage Room Lab, we encounter the first of the two rooms. This one has a small area where Players could lurk to fend off foes as well as a door (obscured by the blue monitor) that leads out to some stairs back down to ground level.
The path between the consoles is quite tight, restricting movement and there is no real reason to be here unless wanting to get the jump on an opponent, but this spot provides an excellent view of the door opposite, which will prove to be very useful, as we will see soon.
The aforementioned door leads into the second of the Storage Room Lab's two rooms.
This Lab also provides areas of cover as well as a second window to fire through, but it is this little room through the doorway that makes this room important.
This little office/supply cupboard of a room is very important as it provides the final means of approach to the Storage Room Objective.
From this window, a distant tank and troop transport continues furthering the world-building.
The hole in the floor, as we can see, provides an excellent flank route into the Storage Room Objective's room, allowing Players to literally get the drop on opposition.
As Players can come from both the hole in the floor as well as the door and window, defending this Objective is no easy-feat despite the abundant cover.
Back on the second floor of the Storage Room Lab, we can see that coming through the door from the bridge, tucked behind these two cabinets is another door.
This door leads to a maintenance area lit in red and dominated by two colossal pillars,
From this maintenance area, Players can access a lift that can take them to a vantage point, but we will return to this later, where we can see the view it provides.
As well as accessing the maintenance area from the Storage Room Lab, Players can also use an open shipping container as a ramp and use crates to scale up to it. Again, this spot provides an excellent view across the Central Objective.
Across the large area that comprises the Central Objective, many regular and Sci-Fi shipping containers come together with barrels and crates to make a man-made gauntlet of cover and hiding places.
Though the Objective itself is on the ground level, the sheer number of obstacles provide a massive amount of verticality as well as a staggering number of possible approaches to the Central Objective.
One such approach is through the Observatory, which has three entries/exits.
A gargantuan room that makes the Players feel tiny, the Observatory is filled with various areas of cover and creates another area in which Players can contest the control of the Central Objective.
As we can see, from the Player's perspective, the Observatory's telescope is colossal. With that being said, with well timed jumps, a savvy Player can scale the lower parts and hide on the platform of the opening from which the telescope protrudes. talk about a sneaky spot!
A red glow from an open shipping container that requires some parkour to reach hides a secret Easter Egg, because all good FPS maps have secrets for the investigative Player.
The Central Objective. Limited cover and wide open space makes this the hardest Objective to maintain control over, especially for the Soldiers as the Security's Spawn is not too far away.
With such a large area making up the Central Objective and how fierce the competition for hold over it should be, it wouldn't be too hard for Players to take advantage of a distracted enemy team to utilise flank routes into other Objectives.
To the right of the hole in the wall pictured two images above (the one with the forklift) and opposite the corridor shown directly above, is a door.
Entering through the door reveals a dark and ominous corridor lit from above by spotlights as well as another entrance into the Bio Lab Objective.
At both ends of the corridor, a spotlight reveals a stationary defensive turret. Fortunately they are not operational, otherwise getting down the corridor would be impossible. The question is, are they to keep intruders out... or something else in.
Going back to the hole in the wall, we see that this too reveals another method into the Bio Lab Objective as Players can scale the metal sheets and crates onto the shipping containers to drop down into it. Additionally, just past the porta-potties on the left and around the corner of the large rectangular corridor, we can see some crates. By those crates is another entrance into the Bio Lab Objective/
This is the view into the Bio Lab Objective from the breach in the wall, where we can see giant specimen capsules holding the monsters the Bio Lab has been secretly creating.
This is the view from the door from the dark corridor. This approach into the Bio Lab Objective gives the entering Player the best view of the room as the angle enables them to have a better line of sight on any enemies holding the Objective as there is less cover for them to hide behind. Alternatively, the entering Player is also without cover, making it high risk/reward as an approach.
At the far wall of the Bio Lab Objective there is a red glass enclosure containing strange creatures. This enclosure gives an unclear view into the Holding Cells room as well as a view into the dark corridor. This allows Players with good observation skills the ability to gain knowledge as to enemy Player positions by looking through the bullet-proof glass.
This could be taken advantage of by both sides as, for example, a Player in the dark corridor on the Security team could see into the Holding Cells room to see how many of their teammates are coming from that direction to back them up as well as how many enemies are currently contesting the Bio Lab Objective and how many fellow teammates are currently engaging the enemy there.
The aptly named Holding Cells is lit in an ominous green and vivid red that renders it somewhat darker than previous areas in the Bio Lab, with most of the white light coming in through the red glass of the weird grub-things' enclosure.
The room itself is littered with large containers with meshed fronts; presumably the equivalent of cat-carriers... only for monstrous Bio-Weapons. These cages create great obstacles that force Players to stalk each other in the near-darkness, as if they themselves were monsters.
In the Holding Cells, there is blue light creeping out from apertures in the wall.
These apertures are in fact the Holding Cells for which the room derives its name, and are indeed holding something. Monsters.
Combining with the sickly green light, the brilliant blue and harsh red light creates a juxtaposition whilst simultaneously blending together, creating a disconcerting environment all the better to heighten tension in an already tense situation.
Similar to the logic of the Soldiers' Spawn, the Security's Spawn has two entrances, each provided with cover to discourage Spawn Campers and prevent them from having an angle on Players within.
The Security's Spawn is obviously the security room for the Bio Lab. As such it has a number of gun cabinets and large monitors, one of which is showing a warning screen.
From the spot from which Players spawn/respawn, it is clearly visible that a piercing white light cuts through the sea of red. This is to deliberately draw the Players' attention to the Security's armoury.
The Security too has a weapons and ammo cache, allowing them to restock ammunition and heal their injuries. Interestingly, all of the weapons on display on the table and in the gun cabinet are all guns that the Players would be able to use in the full game.
Going all the way back to the vantage point mentioned earlier located in the maintenance area and accessed from the shipping container ramp or the Storage Room Lab, we can see a control panel as well as a steel platform where the lift will rest when it is called down.
Upon riding the lift up, Players will find they are both incredibly exposed, but have an amazing view. They also have another control panel to allow them to safely make their way back down.
I feel that the last few images speak for themselves as to how much of an advantage this vantage point offers, as the Player would have a view across nearly the entire map, yet at the same time, they would learn the hard way that as easy as it is for them to see the enemy, they are just as visible, if not more.
