: I agree with you, but it's very hard to make a fun level with good gameplay
: elements also have realistic functionality and practicality. Maps tend to
: lean more on the fun, good-gameplay side than on realism. This is because
: it's far, far easier to make a fun map than a realistic map, and also
: because gameplay tends to be a higher priority than realism. Furthermore,
: the limits of the Marathon engine make it impossible to achieve very high
: degrees of realism, so one might as well focus on gameplay.
I find, when I am designing Marathon maps, that is is often much easier to make interesting alien levels than interesting human-built levels. This is because on the human levels, I am accustomed to thinking like a human, and designing things for a human player, so everything tends to go toward the fastest, most efficient design.
On human levels, I wind up having to invent story elements that disrupt this order in order to get any kind of difficult terrain or oddness to a map - a rampant AI fuxing with the doors (as Bungie used a lot), an explosion-damaged or lava-flooded area, etc. This allows me to to make an ordery area with efficient paths, that could be navigated linearly, and then block off the paths with obstacles or open new paths by blasting holes in walls, forcing the player to take a different route, and allowing me to channel them where I want them.
Alien levels are even easier, especially S'pht levels. On Pfhor levels, since Pfhor are bipeds like us, I usually wind up using the "damaged/malfunctioning ship" method, or the "overly complex setup due to stupid Pfhor beaurocracy" method. But S'pht levels are nice -the S'pht build big structures in the middle of otherwise wild, rocky lands, and they didn't have to take paths and easy mobility into account because they can just fly! So players have to find ways to get to places that the S'pht could just float up to, climbing rocks and jumping between ledges and going around giant rivers of lava and such. Another useful trick on S'pht levels is "F'lick'ta passages", certain places designed for easy biped movement so the S'pht can herd F'lick'ta out of certain areas they (or the player) could get stuck in.
Jjaro levels are the only once I really have trouble with, because we don't know what the Jjaro were like (or were like when they were corporeal, or are like now if they're still around and corporeal). So I usually just design Jjaro levels like Human levels.
