Accuracy and detail: the scourge of gameplay?

[BlackDragon]

I've been designing some levels based on locations in the films but have come up against a problem - the same problem that I know has been raised before when people have been showcasing levels in progress etc. It's do with accuracy, scale and, to a lesser extent, realism.

 

Put it this way, in trying to plan an FFA level based on a movie location, I realised that to build it as close as I could to the film, blueprints, BTS sketches etc, I'd lose something in gameplay. Providing all the detail that I could would decrease the speed of the level, detract from the flow and cause unnecessary obstacles. Levels based on vehicles (eg. the Falcon, AT-ATs etc) would lose connectivity because they've only got one entrance. And scale is another problem. Let me take Tems' current AT-AT duel level for example (only because these comments were raised in the thread). I always imagined AT-ATs to be quite cramped inside, especially when you look at the scale of them compared to people. But a cramped level, IMO, doesn't make for good gameplay.

 

So the question is this: should level designers stick to absolutely accurate details, layout and scale at the proabable expense of gameplay or concentrate on gameplay and simply make sure that the level is recognisable and has the feel of a genuine SW location?

[Tigris]

It really depends all on the author! Hey, it's your map- do it so YOU like it!

 

I have edited some smaller things in the cantina, just to make all the chairs accessable. If I had made them like they are in the production-paintings you couldn't "sit" on some, so I increased the distances between the chairs and the tables sometimes. For me, I like a very close reasseblement of the locations, but still I'm always trying to make it playable. There's no point in having the exact film-look if you can't move around in the level afterwards.

So far I'm really afraid how my cantina will do in a real fight, because I'm only walked alone through it yet.

About the ATAT: Most people don't know, but ATAT's actually have two levels in their bulk- one for (I think) 40 Stormys and another on for 2 Speeder Bikes. Actually sometimes it even is said that ATAT's actually could CARRY two AT-ST's in them, but I really don't know how they would do that (don't get me wrong: they are quite huge, but ATSTs aren't small either!) If you look at the scenes from ESB you see that (I think it's) Commander Veers is standing in the head of the ATAT, so the only problem about the inside is that you don't have two escape-routes in every room.