Nex/Xon - powerful enough to make only one per map?

I've been reading the discussions about railguns, nex and railwhores, and I begun to wonder: Do I want more than one Nex on my map? Is it really as powerful as, say, BFG9000 or Quad Damage from OpenArena? Why not have some mapping guidelines about how to place Nex and is your map really worth it. For instance, on my 2nd map (min_ctf1 aka Starship Fear), there are three areas, where you teleport to and from, in order to advance. I chose to place Nex at the very top of the central/"yellow" area. Is it good placement? Or should I make 2 nexrifles, one for each team? Discuss.

Mike?

It depends. If there is a rifle (its calleed "rifle"?), place one or no nex. If there is no rifle, you could place some more nexguns, maybe more than two

Of course, the placing of rifle/nex or both depend on the style of map you make

I'd say there should be:
2 rifles or one nex! for a 4on4 map!

I'd say there should be:
2 rifles or one nex! for a 4on4 map!

This seems reasonable, given that the Nex balance will be addressed. Whichever path you go, try not to make them super-easy to obtain. Players should be exposed or forced to take some sort of risk to get to them. Geomonetary is a great example of this.

I'd say there should be:
2 rifles or one nex! for a 4on4 map!

This seems reasonable, given that the Nex balance will be addressed. Whichever path you go, try not to make them super-easy to obtain. Players should be exposed or forced to take some sort of risk to get to them. Geomonetary is a great example of this.

...so I guess I'll have to remove the teleport destinations from the nex platform and move them down to the bottom platform of the neutral area

I can't really say until you release some sketches or an initial PK3 for us to review. If those teleporters lead to the Nex but also open the teleporting player up to ambushes it probably wouldn't be too bad.

Mike?

Nope.

...Geomonetary is a great example of this...

Gasolinepowered (space elevator) is a even better example, though some how it still gets spammed. People like Trevor really ruin that map.

Anyway, another solution would be to give the nex a loading bar like the Quad Punish/Quad Protection or Jetpack.

@nowego4: I thought of gasolinepowered as well, but I think geomonetary is much better design-wise.

That brings up another point Minkovsky: don't make it so that flag carriers only have one route to get away, especially if that way is only via jumppads (like gasolinepowered). Prediction then becomes extremely easy, and the quick spawn time enables defenders to get fckills even if the offense is able to clear out the entire base before taking the flag. At that point capping is brute force, which is always torture to sit through.

Well, there's a CTF map called "delta" on OpenArena, done in the similar concept as min_ctf1/Starship Fear. The routes are not exactly linear and the player may choose either to go to the common area, or straight to the base to deliver the flag. The access on min_ctf1 is done mainly with jump-pads, but also teleports and multi-path access to the flagpost. I'll post a first WiP pk3 soon anyway.

Ive been saying that there should only be one xon rifle each map and it should be treated like a quad or shield power up. It should use different ammo, not plasma, and you can only get the rifle every couple minutes or so. this would make certain maps way better, like gasoline powered or go. Also it would give noobs a fighting chance and force nex whores like myself to get better with different weapons

As with all other items, it depends on your maps intended game mode, layout and target audience. Ex: a map full off narrow corners and no/few large open surfaces; rails aren't much use (compared to) large open maps; railguns/sniper guns dominate. The latter layout type id be restrictive; one or two long range weapons would be enough in most cases (and make sure to use their placement to create "hotspots" to fight over!). The first case it does not matter much; 0 to 10 amount to more or less the same thing in most cases. Team based modes (aside from tdm and keyhunt perhaps) are more sensitive then non team modes wrt to item balancing. When in doubt rather place one less or non then another.