Making a combat layout for Apex Legends: design and implementation

Hello!

I am making this short post to provide an update on the combat layout that I am working on.

The design is as complete as it can be, especially considering that I cannot get players to test my level in engine. Of course, I got feedback from some kind friends. Thank you.

In addition to blocking out my level, I decided to take it a step further and delve into level art and lighting, which provided me with the opportunity to experiment with ray tracing too.

Design

The Crack is my fan made redesign for one of the most interesting and sadly less played locations of World's Edge S3.

Located in between Sorting Factory and The Dome, The Crack is roughly the same size as Slum Lakes from Kings Canyon, which is big enough to provide basic loot to 2 teams, but it is not going to be a preferred drop location for 3+ teams.

Design pillars

I was originally inspired by the caves placed in between Market and Bridges, but I wanted to have more verticality to fully utilize Apex Legends movement system. Honestly, I think that Apex features the best movement system ever implemented in a shooter and I definitely spent way too much time customizing key bindings to fit my needs. By the way, feel free to get my .cfg if you want to check my settings.

Caves are enclosed environments, which is a problem in a game with such a deep movement system. I really wanted to stay true to the original design, so I decided to design ten openings in order to preserve Apex's high mobility and provide enough tactical options. Two of them are accessible only using Pathfinder's zipline and the third one requires players to use a balloon placed on a very exposed bridge.

Respecting the game's creative vision is extremely important, but every new location needs to provide new visuals and new gameplay opportunities. I am going to show examples of both in the next section.

Implementation

While the blockout is totally done, I am still working on set dressing and lighting, but I would like to share some of what is currently beyond first pass.

South wall

The first section that I started to work on is the rocky wall facing south Sorting Factory, which is going lure players into the layout due to its clear exposure to other locations.

Both raised platforms will have vertical ziplines connecting them to the ground, but Pathfinders will be able to shoot a zipline towards the platforms to create even more direct routes.

Players using Octane and Loba will also have the option to jump or teleport from the top right platform to the lower left one.

Transitions between different light conditions and different levels of elevation are always challenging to work on, that's why I decided to use entrances to test my pipeline, which was also the perfect opportunity to stress my system using expensive lighting and reflections.

South wall - top right entrance

I used the new SkyAtmosphere actor to get a physically-based sky and atmosphere in order to emulate the coloration found by The Dome. This rendering technique was also very helpful to create a strong contrast between indoor and outdoor environments, and to help guide the player throughout the level.

I wanted players to notice the area by the entrance: the bright sunlight and volumetric fog were already pretty effective, but I wanted to highlight the underneath wall as well, which is the reason why I decided to make it look different from any other surfaces in the area.

I also tried to use reflections to improve navigation, cohesion, and help players to understand how rooms are connected with each other. For example, the squared reflection on the left side of the staircase comes from a doorway used to connect this area with the entrance that I am going to analyze next.

South wall - left entrance

With this entrance I wanted to create an interesting transition between outdoor and indoor environments, focusing on how players would approach a different level of elevation. Indoor, a raised platform is facing the entrance; immediately underneath, another floor is connected to the entrance by the staircase.

Players can drop from the platform on the staircase, but they will also have the opportunity to climb on the wall, rotate, and then use the railing to reach the hanging platform.

Tools

The first tool that I made (BP_layoutBuilder) is used to import 2D layouts in engine. It promotes the use of metrics and helps to implement block outs, because it's built using the same rules that I follow to design my levels in Photoshop.

BP_modularPlacement helps to deploy a lot of geometry in a short time, because it allows to quickly resize meshes using easy to understand metrics. Other than being used for block outs, this tool is also useful to set dress levels, thanks to different features that can be used to manage collisions, shadows, materials, decals, light channels, etc.

Finally, I made two editor utility widgets:

• The first widget loads different light settings to improve performances and make geometry way easier to see and work with
• The second one hides/shows all non-selected block out actors, in order to improve visibility and make easier to focus on specific sections of the level