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Player types
With multiple paths through the location, there is something for frontal attackers, stealth enthusiasts, and snipers.
Mission
The mission is to extract information from a lieutenant in the building in the back of the location. As the target will flee if the alarm is sounding, players can avoid detection or ambush him when he flees.
Reference game
To recreate the feeling of a location from Ghost Recon Wildland, I wanted to replicate the way missions and locations in the original were structured.
This is a location based of the Santa Blanca cartel in Ghost Recon Wildlands, where the player must extract information from a lieutenant. With multiple entry and exit points there are lots of ways to plan the mission.
About Cartel Depo
Level designer
8 days
Tactical Shooter
1 developers
About
Mission
Mission overview
Players are given a waypoint to a mission objective where they need to interrogate a Santa Blanca lieutenant to get information about the local Buchon, and that he's pretty jumpy, so they should avoid getting spotted.
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The location is a small town overrun with Santa Blanca sicarios.
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The lieutenant will flee if the alarms sound or enemies around him are alerted.
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As the game is an open world, the location allows players to approach from multiple locations.
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Additional information and collectibles can be found in the location.
The mission is set in the desert region of Koani so the environment is mostly empty and dry, giving players good sightlines to the location with nothing but cacti and small trees in their way.
Sightlines
Vantage points
There are vantage points for the enemy snipers throughout the level, where they can zone the player until they're killed. These positions are also advantageous for the player to take, as they give an overview of the area and allows players to plan their movement or shots.
I wanted to focus on creating interesting vantage points where different parts of the level would be visible at different points, and with enemies moving in and out of sight, to force the player to time their shots. Some enemies are not visible until the player enters the location to avoid players clearing the enemies before going closer.
Two alarms, that players can shoot to disable them, are placed such that the player only can see one from outside the location and isn't safe until they get find the other inside.
Enemy patrolling
Enemies patrol throughout the level, creating moments of opportunity for the players to take out enemies where another enemy won't spot them. This makes players slow down and learn the patrol paths before taking out the enemies.
Some enemies move in pairs which would force players to use the AI companions, that Ghost Recon Wildlands has, to take both out at once, or avoid them.
The enemies have been spread out throughout the level to envelop the player if combat is triggered. Cover changes throughout the level with the start and end having more cover and the road betweeon being a dangerous spot for the player to push through.
Player types
Sniper
To avoid snipers being a dominant strategy I used covers, patrols and enemy placements to make it impossible to see all enemies at once, and having enemies walk in and out of line-of-sight. This forces the player to look at the patrols and plan when to shoot the enemies, with some targets being easier than others.
There are multiple vantage points throughout the location, with one at the cliff outside giving the player an overview of the base and take out the snipers and one of the alarms. Other vantage points include the top of the warehouse and balconies of the upper buildings.
Close Quarter Stealth
I created the location to have a lot of overlapping routes to the target to better allow for players to move through undetected and picking their own path. The stealth focuses on timing and using the enemy patrols to get past or perform takedowns.
Most of the level is at some point guarded to force players to interact with the enemies, either directly or indirectly. Giving the player too much information at once can overwhelm the player, so in most spaces they only see the immedietly important enemies or routes with other enemies' line-of-sight being blocked.
Guns Blazing
Players attempting stealth can often be spotted leading to a firefight, so the location also has be built with combat in mind. Cover, bottlenecks, and enemy locations create spaces where player's can fight, and spaces where they'll need to retreat or push the enemies.
Running in guns blazing is the fastest way to approach the target, but can be risky with alarms triggering, the target fleeing or the player being surrounded, giving a risk/reward incentive.
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