Design Goal
The design goal for FC5 Arcade Outpost was to create a level utilizing an existing map editor in a prominent game franchise. Not just any level but a level that draw parallels in design, gameplay and aesthetic to a staple feature found in the campaign. The biggest challenges in this project came down to understanding what makes a combat environment in Far Cry 5 and understanding the tools, resources and constraints of the Far Cry 5 Arcade Map Editor.
What is a (FC5) Outpost?
Far Cry 5’s campaign takes place in Hope County, Montana, which was taken over by a Doomsday cult called Project at Eden’s Gate, led by Joseph Seed. Players take control of a deputy sheriff who must liberate the county from its cult trappings by doing story missions and side quests. Many side quests involve the player taking over outposts, small sections of the map occupied by enemy forces and the player liberate them by killing or neutralizing the enemy presence. Because outposts exist in the open world of Hope County, players can tackle them from any angle, whether through stealth or loud and abrasive.
While outposts are largely open ended in how players tackle them, the game’s campaign missions are more structured with a definite starting and ending point, strategically placing players in an area of the map and designing the mission so that players experience the main beats sequentially.
How the Map Editor’s Limitations Influenced the Overall Design
Far Cry 5’s map editor allows a lot of room for creative and interesting level design within reason. That reason being within the footprint of the actual map and within the memory budget which accounts for many variables such as A.I, painted textures, placed assets, among other things. Being limited to one player spawn point and (relatively) small foot room, I create a focused outpost experience, one that trims the fat of the open world in favor of an isolated, lean, stealth-action experience, simply dubbed, The Outpost.
First thing you are presented when opening the Far Cry 5 Arcade (Map) Editor
The Design
After choosing one of five loadouts, each accommodating a certain play-style, players are dropped on a forest hilltop with the outpost in front of them. What’s immediately known to the player is what’s in front of them and how many guards are currently posted (15 w/ no alarm). Its extremely easy to enter as there is a road that leads right through the front gates. However, even from this starting position there are important things to note such as:
A sniper’s nest right above the main gate with a sniper perched up in there.
A machine gun nest at the heart of the base where the road into the military outpost leads to.
Two alarms, one in the front and one in the back of the base.
In Far Cry 5, alarms are more dangerous than any single enemy in the game. Alarms are tripped when one of three conditions are met:
A player is spotted by an enemy.
Gunfire or explosion is heard
A dead body or destroyed alarm is spotted by an enemy.
When an alarm is tripped, enemy reinforcements spawn in and any enemy in the vicinity is put in an alert state (There are 15 enemy guards by default with the contingency of 8 more if an alarm is tripped for a total of 23). Its for these reason that most players destroy the alarms before doing anything else since with no alarm system, no new enemies can spawn in the area. In my Outpost, the first alarm is easy to destroy, you can do it from the spawn point. However if the player cannot get to the second alarm, then the enemy guards will be alerted by the destruction of the first alarm and go ahead and signal the second. Luckily there are many ways to get to the second alarm and it starts with the many ways to get into the actual base undetected. See below:
There are many ways to get into the base besides going through the front. Smartly utilizing these entry points can help players get to the second alarm to avoid being alerted.
Much like the outposts founded in Far Cry 5’s campaign, The Outpost accommodates both a stealth and loud playstyle. This accommodation starts with the load-outs:
With the exception of Vietnam Vet, all the load-outs have one or more suppressed weapons. Because suppressors have no adverse effect on weapon stats, its common for most players to have them on their weapons. With this in mind, there are still certain trade-offs to consider when picking one load-out over another.
Assault has the most firepower with a versatile assault rifle and a shotgun. The trade off for having these is the suppressed weapon being relegated to a pistol. Because all the enemies on the map have armor, it takes 2-3 shots to the chest to kill, making it vital to get head shots to remain undetected.
Rambo has a bow and a suppressed pistol. Ammo is limited for the bow but its generally a one shot kill to the upper chest and you can retrieve arrows.
Stealth has short ranged weapons with an SMG and pistol. But this load out has a slingshot which can be used to detract, bait or whack enemies in the head.
Even if you stick to the ground, there are many ways to navigate the base to create some opportunistic flanking moments.
More important than the load-outs in accommodating stealth/action play-styles is the outpost layout. The player is capable of many types of movement from running to sliding, jumping and climbing; they very much embody the characteristics of the parkour discipline. All these movement abilities are used in conjunction with firearms and melee and it was important to create an environment where players can utilize these abilities to their fullest potential. An example of this is nearly every structure was designed to be climbable and there are certain context clues that would help establish this. Below you can see a zip-line that leads from the top of the middle structure to the ground, meaning its possible to zip-line from that rooftop. And sure enough, there are two places in which the player can ‘parkour’ their way to that roof on either side of that large structure.
