Xander Clauss
MMOFPS & Open World Level Design
Quartz Ridge Camp
The New Conglomerate Arsenal
These two outposts were part of our Spring '14 Amerish revamp, located in the northern central part of the continent. I felt these two came out well and were an example of how creative reuse of props can create unique and interesting playspaces without straining limited art resources.
Starting with Indar's Vanu Archives, each continent ended up with an outpost on it that bore the name of one of the three factions, which we noticed made that base more contentious when the notion of pre-existing ownership was added solely at the aesthetic level. On the initial launch of Amerish, I was given the task to build the NC Arsenal, which played well but didn't have the spectacle and size that the other faction's 'special' bases did. Now that there was a chance at a revamp, what would bring it up to snuff with the alien monastery and crashed biolab?
I opted for a big, flashy mountain hangar to reflect the budgets available to the New Conglomerate and their corporations. The defender spawn area, built around a crater lake in the intact half of the inactive volcano caldera, overlooks the main hanger shaft and three warehouses containing the Arsenal's capture points. Since the 3 warehouse capture points are concentrated at the end of 3 separate paths, the Arsenal's dynamic rewards defenders when they prevent themselves from being surrounded and punishes them when a warehouse is finally broken into.
The tunnel that runs under the center path further reinforced the punish condition, providing an unintended dynamic to the base that proved pretty fun. Originally placed to save time hoofing it to the vehicle terminal (which would be placed at the end of the tunnel currently, a 60 second walk), the facility owners can quickly get a vehicle at a terminal overlooking the main shaft and drive out of the facility. Attackers ultimately ended up using the tunnel as well for various reasons; sheltering their Sunderer spawn point from aircraft, pre-mining the entire tunnel and crippling enemy armor columns, creating distractions to break the defenders front lines, etc.
The Auger
The Auger was an idea that had been floating around awhile to kitbash a big laser drill out of some energy pipe props that I thought would fit the bill. I built the drill part of the Auger first and structured the rest of the level around it. The central area around the drill ultimately held the most interesting gameplay, with the negative space around the borehole and scaffolding contributing to a lot of crossfire and vertical ambushes.
