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------------------------Contested Zones--------------------------
--------------------------------------Community Highlights--------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------Development---------------------------------------------
About:
Contested Zones are a series of open-world dungeons spread across space stations in the Pyro Star System. Inspired by the extraction shooter genre of games, players journey into various lawless PvPvE areas deep in the interiors of the Pyro Reststop Stations where criminal gangs fight for control. These places are dotted with rare loot in the form of weapons, armour and ship components that players can fight over but also contain multiple rare Databoards labelled 1 through 7. When a player has collected one of each, they can turn these in to receive one of five ships.
All three Contested Zones (CZ's) are tied together by the search for the Databoards, but each of them offers a different mood and level of challenge that helps distinguish them from each other.
The zone I was responsible for mainly was Ghost Arena, a type of bloodsports arena located within the biggest of the Pyro space stations: Ruin Station. I created the layout under very strict limitations, as we lacked art support very early on since these were pitched by the LD lead and an LD senior. We first had to create a solid proof of concept before art support was diverted our way. They were assembled using cut modules, heavily modified with new pathways, cover and gameplay mechanics.
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Specifics:
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Development Time: ~6-7 months
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Responsibilities: Early prototyping. Assembling layouts with modified room modules. Combat balancing and cover itteration. Objectives. Gameplay functionality markup. Final AI implementation pass. Maintenace of live release. Assisting environmental art with propping and retooling of arted modules.
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Pre-Production and Early Development
Contested Zones were a late addition to the Pyro star system. Done over the course of five months, they were born out of the "Abandoned Sections" of the Pyro Reststop Stations, which were seen during the 2023 CitCon demo. These were meant to be a sort of "wilderness" where players could take on missions like creature eliminations and missing person cases but were deemed too uninteresting, mazelike and samey and were therefore exchanged for the Contested Zones. Because of the tight development span, most of the locales that we used were repurposed cut content.
All contested zones needed something unique that made them stick out; Ghost Arena's "something" was the PvP focus. The idea pitched to us was for a "bloodsport arena" where people can sign up for a chance to win great riches hidden in this old repurposed part of the station. Pyro is a lawless star system, and this fits in with the brutality of its inhabitants.
The goal for the player is to either get as much loot as they can before getting to an extraction point or try their luck and fight for the contents of the timed vault. There are multiple objectives the player has to complete in order to progress. Once they have entered through the one-way entrances, the only way out will be by searching the Central Hub for a fuse and opening the door to one of the three subsections: The Wasteland, The Crypt or The Last Resort. Each of these opens to a linear section containing loot containers, a reward room, and an extraction elevator, as well as a keycard printer. At this point players can choose to extract with what they have found or print that section's corresponding keycard and then return to the Central Hub for a chance at gaining access to the high-tier loot in The Vault.
The Layout
Immediately we had a few questions to solve:
How do we get the players into the arena safely?
Can we craft a sense of structure in an open-world dungeon?
Since there is no limit on how many or few can be in the arena at any one time, how can we ensure there is always a sufficient level of challenge for players?
The players are transported to the arena with elevators. These are a massive spawncamping hazard, and the only way we could solve that issue was through Armistice Zones. These are areas placed around cities and social spaces that prevent players from shooting each other. When standing in one, you cannot pull out your weapon, and people outside cannot hurt people inside. Before entering the Central Hub of the Arena, there is a small stretch after exiting the elevator leading up to a one-way airlock which funnels players out of the armistice zone and into the PvP zone. Each airlock has some cover placed in it in order to give players a fighting chance.
Ingame minimap overview with community made annotation, credited to:
Terada - https://x.com/cmd_Terada/status/1871215606890148245, https://starcitizen.tools/index.php?curid=67486
A player entering on the first floor, scouting for other players before heading down
Two players who have just exited their airlock and entered into the Central Hub from a covered position
The Central Hub
Built from a mall-themed module, the Central Hub is where the majority of action will take place. Within the space lies a complex PvP arena with various flanking routes, vents, balconies, ceiling ambush spots and a central structure with medium-tier loot to provide some extra rewards for a group that is able to lock down this area. There are four major doors located north, south, east and west. Three of these are blocked by electric doors, which require a fuse to open. Players can explore the Central Hub for these fuses or bring them in on their own.
The fourth door cannot be opened by the players. It is a timed door which opens on its own every twenty minutes and leads to an area called The Vault. Players will need to visit the subsections and get keys for the Vault if they want the highest tier of loot.
Overhead shot of the Hub
One of the siderooms; a second story arcade
A covered side entrance
Overhead shot of the Hub
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The Wasteland is the easiest of the three branches. It consists of an old garbage disposal room. Players enter on top of a massive garbage pile with a height advantage and must fight to the bottom in order to get to the reward room. It features tons of sidepaths the players can go through in order to find hidden extra loot.
Main dangers in this space are the many enemy AI soldiers that spawn in here.
The entrance to The Wasteland
A dramatically lit keycard printer
The entrance to The Wasteland
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The Crypt entrance
thecrypt
The Crypt entrance
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The Last Resort was the thematically weakest one. This was an area where the tight deadlines required us to really just call it "done" before we really had time to flesh it out. The centrepiece of this branch is a ventilation room which is preceded by a series of utilitarian corridors where combat takes place between human and creature AI.
With more time we would have loved to create gameplay centred around low/absent air levels, but we could not finish the setup to a stable level in time and erred on the safer side by cutting that idea.
The Crypt takes on the theme of delving into an "ancient tomb". Players have to be wary not only of Kopions but also tripmines that can easily ruin their day. The entire area has an abandoned feel, with flooded sections interspersed with frozen-over patches where the stations' heating systems have given out.
This section features many hidden rooms observant players can discover; however, for the goal-orientated, there is a very straightforwardpath to follow.
The Last Resort entrance
thelastresort
The Last Resort entrance
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The Vault Door
The Vault Door
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The Vault is where the highest-tier loot is located. Other than two or three hostile AI soldiers, there is no real challenge once inside. Players who have survived at least one of the branches and managed to successfully fight their way into the Vault will be rewarded with rare weapons, expensive ship components and a comfy freight elevator to stack their loot onto in order to send it off to their personal storage. The Databoard can also be acquired here.
Once the doors close on the vault, the only way out is by extracting through the elevator.
Ghost Arena: Final Thoughts
I feel like Contested Zones served as a good showcase of how design-driven content with a focus on a more "traditional" FPS experience can really help elevate the variety within the game, and I am overall happy with how Ghost Arena turned out. Despite the limitations of the project, we managed to come up with many creative solutions to our problems, which have since become standardised practices internally. Overall this was a very positive experience for both the game and the LD team as a whole, and the positive feedback from our community served as a well-needed morale boost. If there was anything I wish I would've done better personally, it would have been giving The Last Resort something more unique going for it. As it stands, it was partially formed from desperation, and with better planning from my end, some of the early missteps that snowballed into us needing to downscope The Last Resort could've been avoided.
Other Contested Zone Work
Orbituary Station features a more traditional, PvE focused dungeon experience. I was responsible for the layout and AI implementation of its Reward Room. The room takes the form of an old hangar that has been repurposed into a form of guarded warehouse by the Xenothreat Gang. Various makeshift guard structures, containers and hangout spots make up the cover and navigation of the space. It is designed and balanced around combat only, with three loosely defined "lanes" that players can choose from to tackle the room their preferred way. This area contains high-tier guns, ship components and, hidden in a back room, one of the Databoard Printers.
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