What factors were considered when designing the FPS arenas, specifically in relation to the intended style and pace of the game. For example, games like CS or Call of Duty open force specific bottlenecks and experienced players learn to anticipate the most likely attack strategy; or will the design of Star Marine encourage for more free-form and unexpected strategies for both sides?asked by Plastix

It's a combination of both actually. I think choke points and focus for areas is important in map design. This is something where I really wish I was back in Denver so I could talk to Rodney about it because Rodney is our lead designer and he's very conscious of map design. One thing that's very important to him and important to us - we don't design maps that can be used for a multitude of game modes. So, in the most recent Call of Duty you might see... it's the same map but you can play all 10 game modes on it and there are some very light changes to it. But, we're really big on the idea of designing the entire flow of the map to support one specific game mode because there are a lot of little nuance things that you can change and adjust that maybe work for one game mode but don't work for another.So, for example, if I think about Gold Horizon - the two starting areas are opposing on another, this is pretty standard. There's about three, and then immediately four alternate routes that you can take to engage one another so it keeps too much of the bottleneck from happening and too much of the focus from happening. When you get into those next rooms there's a lot of verticality to them so you can go up, down, left, right, and it also makes it cool for zero-G because there is a gravity generator in there. There are a lot of options and a lot of open spaces but also narrow corridors, so what's fun is if you - for example - kit yourself out with a light marine with a light loadout but you're super quick, you can actually run down, go around, get into the main warehouse area on the bottom floor and usually get up before people who are in the heavier armour have gotten out from the base. So there's a lot of different - depending on who you are and how you kit yourself out and how you like to play and if you want to be stealthy or tanky - there's different routes that are more conducive to that style. You can do whatever you want, it's just interesting the way the different dynamics play. It's really a lot of fun to playtest... I honestly can't wait to release it for you guys so you can check it out and you don't have to ask these questions... you just play it for yourself!