Height Variation

Height variation is simply any difference in elevation between two spots on a map. It's an easy thing to overlook, because nothing is easier than using the Coliseum's vast flat floor as the base of your map, but it makes all the difference in the world to how your map feels.

Height Variation and Gunplay
Height Variation is very important for making gunfights more interesting on a map. By varying the heights of two floors, a strafing player moves not just horizontally but vertically as well on the screen of the player he is fighting. This is especially true on things like ramps, natural terrain, or other slopes.

It is not something the average player consciously notices when testing a new map. All too often the player will instead say nothing about the map. Even when a map designer incorporates excellent height variations both extreme and slight, it still might not come across verbally in map feedback, but players do appreciate the added Z element to their gunplay.

Power Positions
One of the more obvious uses of height variation is to create power positions. The more extreme the height advantage, the more advantageous for the player on the high ground. Players up high have easy hits with rockets and grenades, and are frequently protected from retaliation by those same weapons. They also tend to have long lines of sight, especially over players approaching the high point. Very high positions can even provide cover from gunfire from height alone, even if the designer incorporates no other railings or cover on the position.

The key thing to remember when building a high power position is that the position's power and height only matter relative to the other positions it can interact with. In other words, it doesn't matter if your power position is 10 units higher than the opposite corner of the map as long as it is only 2 units higher than the surrounding area that it holds power over. If there is no line of sight between two locations, their power should not be measured directly against one another, but against their respective fields of vision.

When balancing a map, adding height to an area is perhaps the easiest way to strengthen it. Designers need to be careful that steep ramps or long lifts don't hurt their map's flow and that the power position is balanced either by another power position that can challenge it or by some other built in weakness such as lack of weapons that forces teams to do more than simply hold the high ground and rain bullets on those below.

Slight Height Variation
Height variation need not, and should not be exclusively between power positions and the rest of the map. Simpler things like varying the height of the ground floor can be the difference between a good design and a great gameplay experience. Smaller elevated sections of less than one unit can be used to break up long lines of sight from one end of a map to the other without building walls that restrict a player's movement. Players on either side of such a plateau wouldn't see each other without jumping or standing on something, forcing at least one player to approach the middle and fight at shorter ranges.

Even smaller height variations are excellent for gunplay as well. As a rule of thumb, it is a good idea to vary the height between different planes of the map. If you have two platforms facing each other across a divide, raising or lowering one of them adds the Z axis element to gunfights between them, thus improving the experience. Large flat sections should similarly be broken up into separate planes.