[article] NPC and Item Placement Theory

This is a discussion topic for the article "NPC and Item Placement Theory" by Hugh which can be found here

Article description:

Some pointers on NPC and item placement

A very simple yet nice, helpful tutorial.
It certainly reminded me about making good maps!

I will rate this 9 / 10 because it would be more interesting if had a picture or two of the rocket in the corridor and the enemies taking cover etc.

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Also you could add something about music in maps because maps can get boring unless you have music playing in a boss battle etc

Gotta say, pictures wouldn't really help at all. This is a theory

Great ideas, though. Why WOULD a rocket launcher be sitting in that bathtub?

Nicely written, and good theory about NPCs and weapon placement.

Short and simple, but it covers some important topics and will no doubt make newcomers to level design give a little more thought to NPC and item placement.

Nice introductory tutorial. Could be more advanced, but that's not where it's aimed

Awsome stuff!

Cool I think the noobs will like this

I liked it on VERC and I like it here

Just as a little side note: In Half Life 2 There is an entity called "dynamic resupply" (or something along those lines) and this enity will read how much ammo you have and then give you (spawn) a ammo piece that you need most. This can be helpful in some cases where you don't know what to give the player. Maybe you would like to edit the tutorial and add it in (just a thought, its still good with out it)

I thought this tutorial was very well organized and written. It clearly conveyed some very important ideas that all mappers should keep in mind.

I particularly liked this point: "Allies should be used sparingly. If you have access to them at any given time, they become taken for granted and used entirely too often for things they weren't intended to be used for, such as cannon fodder." A sure sign of immersion in a singleplayer level is if the player actually cares about the friendly NPCs. Well articulated.

Although you described how to prevent camping (by scattering health, weapons, and ammo smartly and sparingly), and even briefly glossed over this idea in the conclusion, I think you should have emphasized the importance items have on flow and gameplay in multiplayer maps. It seems to me that while actual construction of the level is important, the item placement can break an otherwise strong map, and save an otherwise average map. Perhaps this warrents its own section for emphasis?

Omegaslayer: Good idea, I'll try to research that one a bit and add it.

Morphine Addict: It probably does warrant its own section, but that implies that I'd know what I was talking about.

It would help if you showed an example map which explains where items/weps should be placed. This would give a visual representation of the theory you just wrote