Xander Clauss
MMOFPS & Open World Level Design
Quartz Ridge Camp
An endless source of Schwarzenegger quotes during scrum, tech plant Tumas was one of my tasks for the Amerish continent revamp we launched in Spring '14. Tech plants were type of territory with a valueable ownership bonus, and unique in (for Amerish, at least) only having two lattice connections, making it a bit of a chokepoint that can be difficult to attack if defenders are dug in.
For Tumas proper, I added some cover north of the otherwise unchanged tech plant superstructure (center, bottom) to bring vehicle encounters in closer, as well as providing anyone hoofing it either way up or down the road a better shot at making it. Both satellites were completely redone and designed with a few points in mind: support the numbers that will be present at a desirable fight, add additional routes to foster vehicle combat and flanking, and tie the satellites better into the tech plant theme.
Tumas Skylance Battery
Designed as an open road checkpoint, Tumas Skylance Battery was inspired by two things: our awesome/underutilized Skylance prop I wrote a blurb about at launch, as well as the disappearing gun batteries at Fort Hancock in NJ. The static/defunct Skylance cannons are housed in large concrete buildings suspended on hydraulics, built around both the primary capture point as well as the attacker's sunderer garage.
As per the lore, the Skylance was a prototype anti-air weapon, intended to take out large dropships in one shot, but required a ridiculous amount of power to fire. This is reflected with the tech in the Skylance rooms, as well as nanite power pipes hooked into both other buildings and the ground. Finally, despite their fixed locations, the once-functioning state of the Skylances and their retractable roofs are hinted at through the variety of final resting positions they were left in.
Tumas Cargo Facility
Much like its counterpart satellite, Tumas Cargo was designed as a fairly open road checkpoint outpost, featuring alternate vehicle routes (as tunnels under the main platforms) and a massive anti-grav cargo lift. Attackers in the cargo bay can use this lift to quickly travel across the street onto the main cargo deck, near the facility's capture point.
Inside the warehouse, the capture area is present on second floor scaffolding, making it an extremely defensible position once dug in. For defenders that have pressed too far towards the attackers, a dropship dumping a squad onto the point can lose them the base.
