Over in another thread ( http://www.bloomilk.com/Forums/default.aspx?g=posts&t=13493 ) I mentioned that I wanted to see a map of a vault, based in part on a scene from the novel Fatal Alliance (where the vault is in a Hutt's palace). I drew up what that sort of map might look like. Red squares and black lines are walls/obstacles. Green squares are low objects. Yellow objects are difficult terrain. Dashed lines are doors.



Two doors must be passed to enter the vault, and you don't enter gambit until you get past the first door. Combat will typically begin in the Antechamber and/or Security area before spilling into the Vault.

The top right corner of this map is street, the top left is a parking area, and the rest is interior. The openings at the top are designed to match up with the Business District of Map Pack 5's Capital City. The 'bank' on the Capital City maps is split between the Business District and the Residential District. The Residential District has the vault, security, and an office. This map has the same things, so it can replace the Residential District while being attached to the tellers on the Business District. Here, the bank here is far larger - taking up essentially the whole map. So if you attach this map to some tellers, the vault can be part of a very large bank. Or the map can stand alone and you can consider the vault to be in a large palace (since that was the original inspiration).

Regardless of whether it's a bank or part of a palace, there's a VIP area at the bottom right, including a private apartment for long-term guests.

For scenarios, the heist could start in the parking garage, coming in through security, off the street through the restricted entrance or the armory, or at the south entrance up the stairs (south of the stairs should be open at the edge of the map - there shouldn't be a wall there - oops). The double-thick row of black squares around vault indicates the extreme security measures taken. Note that this vault is huge - big enough to hold a starfighter if you could fly it in there.

Anyway, comments are welcome. Does it look playable/make sense? First time drawing up a map layout.

Gambit seems a little too easy in the vault area.

I mean it's to easy to get gambit. It's easy to hold a position in a room with one entrance like that.

Yeah that's true. Nothing other than that really.

Bump. I was thinking about this map again. Anyone else have comments/criticisms/suggestions?

Thanks for the comments, JC! What are the minor suggestions? Josh is ArmoredGear, right? Is he still checking here? I haven't seen him around. Do you have an email address for him?

I was thinking of blasting a hole in the south wall into the vault. That way there are two ways into the vault. A tile (?) could repair the hole. That would work just like the hole blasted in the holding cells on Christopher West's Boarding Action. I'd also make the approach on the north a bit shorter so that engagement could initiate either on the north or the south, or if one starts north and one south then engagement would go right through gambit. I'll make those changes and post them pretty soon.

Which book are you referring to?

Ah, okay. Maybe I'll look into that one. Sounds like the plot would fit this map.

I made a few changes:

I blew a hole into the vault in the south wall so there are two approaches to gambit.
I shortened the northern approaches to gambit so that each approach (north/south from either side) is 18-24 squares. I shifted the northern doors of the antechamber one square away from the center to restrict line of sight into gambit a little bit more.



Thoughts on the changes?

Another option would be to just shift the vault out of the way so that it's a scenario feature but not really prominent for normal skirmishes. It could go straight down out of the way or moved up against the right-hand edge so that one player has the option to start inside it.

Where is the Kessel map? I don't think I have seen that one. Or is that Asteroid Base from MP4?

Sweet!
With a blownup bunker/vault, we have before and after maps! Score!
It feels and plays somewhat like the most recent Wolfenstein: tight angles favoring small base minis and due to the confined spaces, I'd want to take units that don't have to be within 6 squares to be powered up heh. Playtests with missiles and grenades, or against *shudders* vong...
they were just too effective. Force wave WOULD have been effective too, had I not been picked off on the approach.

In other map references, this plays a lot like the Clone Strike Starter Map, or the RotS Starship Corridors map, but with more constrained angles and smaller spaces: grenades and Area of Effect weaponry is hyper effective here.

The Pre-Battle Damage vault is good for scenarios: capture/kill the VIP, secure the facility (if you put an elevator tile inside the vault, its the top layer to a larger facility): scenarios without gambit, where they have to capture the elevator really push the imagination. Friends, ex service woman actually, suggested being able to do the roman and sabotage your own objective if the situation was bleak...

I think this could also work as the topside part of a Fallout style vault. heh...

Thanks for sharing again, and hopefully the concrit was useful for you;
was there specific areas of feedback/of concern you were wondering about? Such as:
what playstyles happened most often?
What abilities were most often in play?
How do people intend to use the map: as standalone or as part of a larger campaign? If as part of a larger campaign: what other maps does this bunker/vault synergise with?
I can gather some more stats and metrics like the above if you'd prefer... just some mud map ones, back of the envelope stuff heh

Speaking of metrics, The Hutts, maybe he can playtest and get some solid metrics:
his analysis of powercreep demonstrates his willingness and ableness at metrics heh. (a good read too by the by: offers some tentative proof that VSets aren't too OP relative to the 'wotc' original sets, and suggests there's more inconsistency amongst the WotC sets than the interface between WotC and fanmade Vsets)