Hey there, I’m Campion an avid Severed Steel/Echo Point Nova mapper/player and I wanted to share some tips to making good EPN maps for the new Rogue mode. Of course nothing I express is gospel, but I think following at least some of these guidelines should make for a consistently good time for everyone no matter what kind of map you make!

Disclaimer: This guide does not cover basics and fundamentals of map construction. For that I recommend Ouro's Level Editor Guide!

When a player starts a rogue run they start unarmed and at level one. Place the spawn hidden and out of the way from preplaced enemies/turrets so the player has time to set up!

Health and Ammo drops are how players survive waves on your level! Without them the player could zip around the map hopelessly with 1 health and 0 ammo, and that's no fun!

You can get creative with interesting health/ammo placements, but an even simpler and lazier way is just stuffing resource creates everywhere! Both work fine! If you're planning a harder map, place less in riskier spots! Just placing any at all is the goal!

Also, placing a bunch of workshop orbs can make your island attractive to visit for leveling!

Cover is how players keep safe from bullets in a pinch, and you can make it out of any kind of structures and terrain you want. Buildings stuffed with goodies and wind jumps are also always good. You can also just have stuff like ramps and rocks floating around in the air or sticking out of the ground for players to grapple to. When you make buildings with interiors, it's good to give it a few random large cracks, windows and doors for the players to fly through when they want.

We want to create things like floors, buildings, walls and bridges with building modules specifically so players have a safe space to land for Earth is Lava mutator. How much you want the player in the air is up to you of course, but giving players some breathing room will make your level a lot more accessible.

This ones pretty simple - If you're making a straight forward scan map, just keep the chests close to the scan activation. Players will wanna finish your map, get their stuff and go! Having to bumble around with a scavenger hunt will just annoy them and break the momentum.

While we all have our favorite enemy types, it's recommended to not spam them all over the map! Too many of the same enemy type can get annoying and even overwhelm the player. Two examples are surfers and snipers who are particularly aggressive and hard to hit in packs.

Instead, use them more sparingly in smart positions. Shotgunners and gladiators work well for more enclosed spaces while surfers shine on arenas with lots of ramps and curves. Mechs work great with buildings and terrain to tear apart. You can even make dedicated islands/platforms for sappers and artillery. Sappers especially work well if they have a lot of space to run around and set up turrets with other units to distract.

Of course, nothing I'm saying here is law. Theming a level around an enemy type and experimenting can be really fun and surprising! Some workshop maps are themed around jetpackers and surfers for example, with appropriate level design to boot. As long as you avoid annoying and frustrating the player, that's all that really matters.

Also another note: If you're making an interior map, try to keep enemy spawn count much lower! Bullets are much harder to dodge in enclosed spaces. On the other side if you're making a huge map, populate it nicely with a big enemy cap!

All that being said...

Wait what?

Shooting tons of guys makes players feel badass and cool. While stronger enemies provide a challenge, wiping out a bunch of easier targets all over your map is what keeps those badass vibes flowing. Think about how fun it is to mow down imps and zombiemen in Doom, this is a similar feeling!

(Disclaimer: By "spam" we mean that grunts should be the primary enemy type, not literally hundreds of guys swarming your island)

On top of being easy to defeat, they're also important for dropping health and ammo. This is especially essential for perks like pinata and bullets pickup pickups!

Also important, Rogue mode uses grunt spawns for its "More (x) enemy" spawns. So this will make your map even more compatible with Rogue modes features!

Generally I recommend enabling Grunts on most spawns and making them at least one of the higher priorities.

Above everything: Make levels you want to play! Nothing written here is law!

For an example of a map that employs almost every tip here, check out my latest map Frost Craft.

I hope this guide has helped give some perspective, and I look forward to seeing what people make!