MW2 - Cliffhanger and Outpost

I can't believe I never saw it until just today, but the MW3 multiplayer map Outpost is loosely based on MW2's campaign level Cliffhanger.

I tried two different tacks here, one with Outpost placed on the other side of the runway, but after finishing I realized that doesn't make much sense because if the runway is getting any kind of traffic people who may need to cross won't be able to (not that it would matter in-game, but since this is all my imagination anyway...).  So I also placed the two large hangers in Outpost on top of the ones in Cliffhanger.

I know it looks bad on paper, but I think that's just that the two maps have a different style.  I doubt it would take much to integrate Outpost into Cliffhangers design.  It doesn't add much to the total area, especially if you take into account the rest of the map that you only cover on the snowmobile, but it almost doubles the base's facilities.

Survival Stretegies: Carbon

I had gotten to wave 24 on Carbon a looonng time ago and didn't think much of the map so I never tried to really do well on it.  Wave 24 put me just under 40,000 on the leaderboards (out of a total of 950,000) which I decided yesterday wasn't high enough for me.  So here's the map:

I don't have much of a strategy for this map but after watching a couple of youtube videos on power spots I gave this a try:

The yellow-purple box is for normal waves, the red-blue box is for juggernaut waves, and the orange-green boxes are for helicopter waves.

Normal waves are pretty easy, just sit at the yellow-purple box crouched and all of the enemies funnel their way towards you.  You can place some C4 at the can's opening and get some good rampage/kill streak/quad kill bonuses.  Just remember that there are only 2 normal waves before you get another boss wave.  It's a good idea to pause the game (if playing solo/split-screen) when you have 1 enemy left at the end of a wave to take stock of your equipment levels and where you need to run to during the 30 second break.

Helicopter waves are somewhat difficult.  I found that in the early helo waves (6 and 15) the orange-green square at the bottom (in the picture the left side) of the map worked pretty well because all of the enemies came down the stairs to the right, none came around from the left and into the building from the side or front.

But during high helo waves I stayed up at the top of the map by the air support armory with a sentry gun and/or a riot shield squad.  During waves 24 and 30 I had a lot of money so I just bought an airstrike which took out some of the guys and one or two of the helicopters.

Juggernaut waves.  The first couple are easy, 9 and 12.  But for jugg waves 18, 21, 27 and 33 I got on top of the 2 cans side by side where the red-blue square is and if you lay down the enemies can't shoot you.  They cluster up by the cans and then just roam around them.  From there I knelt up and shot the dogs and the regular enemies first, and then got the juggernauts after.  This takes some care and you have to make sure to go prone to let your self recover from any hits you take before getting up again to take out more enemies.

This worked for me up to wave 33 where I died.  But wave 33 put me at 3167 on the leaderboards which is pretty good.  For standard maps I only rank higher on Mission and Fallen.

Carbon is a tier 2 map.

Helo waves: 6, 15, 24, 30, 36, 42

Jugg waves: 9, 12, 18, 21, 27, 33, 39

MW2 - Wolverines, Bailout and Exodus

I tried this one two ways, and I prefer the second way:

It was difficult to size the three maps right, but I gave it a shot based on the cars in all three.  The apartment buildings in Bailout are the same as the ones in Exodus, so I inserted them right on top.  There's so much else that could be opened up on here.

MW2 - No Russian and Terminal

Terminal almost slides right into the map No Russian.

And if the police line wasn't there the whole runway would be available.

MW2 - S.S.D.D.

This map doesn't combine with anything, but it could still be expanded for more extensive play.

MW2 - Takedown and The Hornet's Nest

Takedown and The Hornet's Nest are one right after the other, but the maps don't quite go together.  Takedown has a major road running right toward the bottom of the slums.

But that's nothing that can't be fixed.

MW2 - Team Player and Invasion

The multiplayer map Invasion matches up with Team Player pretty well, so I stuck those two together.

I'm not sure about the size of Invasion, but I think it's close.  Team Player already has a lot of the map developed that you drive through in the Humvee, but that isn't open to walk through.  Just open those areas up and the map gets a lot bigger.

Call of Duty 4 - The Bog and War Pig

Fill in the circled areas for a bigger more complete experience:

Call of Duty 4 - F.N.G. and Killhouse

I attempted to combine the map of F.N.G. with Killhouse and fill in the warehouses with the firing range and the cargo ship mock-up.

Now if they added some exits to the warehouses and opened up the outside training areas then this could be a medium sized multiplayer map.  Something like this (the red/blue indicating large doors for the warehouses):

Call of Duty 4 - All Ghilled Up and One Shot, One Kill

This is a combination of the maps for All Ghillied Up and One Shot, One Kill from CoD4.  The only map of All Ghilled Up that I could find was small so when I enlarged it to match I couldn't help the blurry-ness.

If there is a remake of Call of Duty 4 then I think they should combine the maps as much as possible, add the level of detail that we had in Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 2, and fill out the gaps indicated by the circled areas (the Z is approximately where Zakhaev is doing his nuke deal and they already sort of developed it for the MW3 Yuri cutscene):

Then make the map playable in multiplayer modes with bots.  I think it'd be pretty cool to play Rush or War on this kind of map.

Spec Ops Leveling and Unlock Guide

Modern Warfare 3 Special Ops Level XP Guide:

Modern Warfare 3 Special Ops Unlock Guide:

Here's the spreadsheet I used.

Glen Schofield on Developing MW3's Campaign

Glen Schofield of Sledgehammer Games gave a talk at the DICE conference on inspiration for games.  He talked about how the ideas came to him and the rest of the team before and during development of MW3.