Another new indoor site

[Cannonfodder]

I just had this pop up on Google. Good news for anyone in the Huntingdon/Cambridgeshire area

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqvnq0j7q5xo.amp

[Jamsandwich]

Quote

Plans for a new "combat sport facility" where players would hit each other with plastic balls have been given the go-ahead.

 

Awesome opening paragraph

 

[Madhouse]

I enjoyed that too, keeps things sensible and doesn't provoke the opposers into shouting about people running around the streets with toy guns and turning the place into a war zone.

 

From my visits to RIFT they're well run too.

[Dan Robinson]

Might be an interesting site, although I await to see the internal layout...

 

25 minutes ago, Madhouse said:

From my visits to RIFT they're well run too

 

With the exception of the Barton site's rather precarious locating of the chrono area alongside the A600 I agree.

[Cannonfodder]

1 hour ago, Madhouse said:

From my visits to RIFT they're well run too.

Agreed. The few times I visited their sites I never had any issues.

 

A quick look on Google maps shows it's in the middle of an industrial estate so no neighbours to complain too.

 

The other part which piqued my interest was that they're going to be allowed to open till 10pm so I wonder (more like hope) if they'll be running mid week games in the evenings 

[DanBow]

2 hours ago, Cannonfodder said:

The other part which piqued my interest was that they're going to be allowed to open till 10pm so I wonder (more like hope) if they'll be running mid week games in the evenings 

 

I've not played a lot but the evening game I had on Monday was brilliant. Indoor, so not affected by weather,  long enough to build up a sweat but not too long that it ruins my old muscles(yes, i know I tapped out early but im still broken!). Just wish there was something closer than an hours drive.

[Cannonfodder]

Midweek games interest me because my shift pattern means I don't get that many weekends off and when I do half the time I've just finished a night shift

[Pseudotectonic]

Nice find, they got some floor plans from their planning application here...

 

Some observations:

 

• The game area is not really two stories, the middle part seems to be a double height space, and it is only towards the right hand side there is a mezzanine from that one flight of stairs near the top right corner. This is a very bad choke point from map design point of view. The mezzanine is a narrow and linear L shape overlooking the rest of the map which is obviously quite OP and difficult to integrate.
• The doors down the middle is another choke point splitting the map into two halves, again not very ideal.

• It is small. The game area is roughly 38.1 x 17.1 m which is ~650 m² (even with the mezzanine) which is an XS sized indoor field. It is really quite small so it will be very tight spaces CQB, and the layout topology will need to be rather minimalistic to make it work.
• I've always wondered what Use Classes are airsoft fields. This site had gone for Class E(d) which is "Indoor sport, recreation or fitness". The shopping mall map in another thread had gone for Sui Generis. So I suppose both of these classes are usable depending on your policy constraints on your particular site. I suppose if it is an outdoor site it could also be F2(c) "Areas or places for outdoor sport or recreation".

Edited May 1 by Pseudotectonic
god damn button placements

[Shamal]

It seems like whoever takes the mezzanine can basically dominate the game zone🤔

[Dan Robinson]

Looking at the building from street view - there is much more going upstairs - where I presume the safe zone is and possibly more game area?  Are there any other drawings?

 

Wonder what happened to Hughes Electrical?  Vaguely remember getting some of our kitchen appliances from them when we first did our house up.

 

 

*edit - I see they've just given up on the Cambridge area - can't say I blame them.  Too many cretins on push bikes.

Edited May 1 by Dan Robinson

[Galvatron]

47 minutes ago, Shamal said:

It seems like whoever takes the mezzanine can basically dominate the game zone🤔

Depending on what ground-level barricades are set up and their height or how well they're obscured from an elevated position.

 

A few pictures of the interior are available here.

 

https://www.movehut.co.uk/property/677431-1-blackstone-road-huntingdon-cambridgeshire/

 

As it stands, it's very open but you'd think some cover from the mezzanine level would be installed to deny/limit the high ground advantage.

[Pseudotectonic]

1 hour ago, Dan Robinson said:

Are there any other drawings?

 

There is also a first floor:

 

I guess they come in at the ground floor at the front sticking out bit, and go up the stairs to the safe zone / shop / reception.

 

 

[Cannonfodder]

The overall size isn't too much of a concern to me as I've been to some very well run sites that are small, for example Invicta's Black Site. Also it means a shorter walk to respawn. I agree that the mezzanine bit could cause some problems though.

 

2 hours ago, Dan Robinson said:

Too many cretins on push bikes.

I grew up just outside Cambridge and I know what you mean, especially as it's only gotten worse. People who say London isn't car friendly obviously have never tried to drive through Cambridge 

[Dan Robinson]

3 minutes ago, Cannonfodder said:

grew up just outside Cambridge and I know what you mean, especially as it's only gotten worse. People who say London isn't car friendly obviously have never tried to drive through Cambridge

 

London is a doddle to drive around as long as you're aware of the cameras designed to rinse the unaware of cash by going down randomly restricted roads.

 

Cambridge is like a game of Frogger.   Cyclists, students and those stupid scooters buzzing around with no thought to the rules of the road.  At least London hipsters have a passing sense of self preservation when they cross the road. 🤣....  oh and in London you might get the pleasure of camping that that Cycling Mikey.

1 hour ago, Pseudotectonic said:

 

There is also a first floor:

 

I guess they come in at the ground floor at the front sticking out bit, and go up the stairs to the safe zone / shop / reception.

 

 

Yep that's the entrance.   First floor layout make sense, so as long as those choke points are dealt with it looks promising. 

[Cannonfodder]

9 minutes ago, Dan Robinson said:

Cambridge is like a game of Frogger.   Cyclists, students and those stupid scooters buzzing around with no thought to the rules of the road.  At least London hipsters have a passing sense of self preservation when they cross the road

All not helped by the council pedestrianising so much of the city centre making any journey 4 times longer as you're stuck in traffic driving round in circles 

[Pseudotectonic]

Another napkin test to see if the field is viable...

 

 

Step 1 Topology initialisation

 

 

There is only two problems at the site, that is the middle doors forming a choke point, and the stairs to mezzanine being another.

We cannot remove these choke points so we can only loop around them.

 

 

Step 2 Primary lane forming

 

 

Because of the small size of the map and the middle choke point I am going for a simple symmetric layout of 3-4-2-4-3 lanes.

Shortcuts are added between them while trying to maintain symmetry. While the mezzanine loop is on an entirely different floor, topologically we can treat it as another shortcut for now.

 

 

Step 3 Topology fit test and basic distancing

 

 

Now I am stretching the lanes to make them more or less balanced in terms of distances.

We need to build a new stairs to complete the mezzanine loop. For safety reasons I am enclosing them with walls to control firefighting on the stairs.

Some walls are needed to split the choke point into two lanes.

 

 

Step 4 Partitioning and zoning

 

 

Walls are laid out using the lanes as a guide.

Due to their shapes they form different sorts of configurations that might lend to different types of environment. The left side is more organic hence we can label it a Market. The middle is more open and with the loading bay as backdrop we can call it the Depot. The right side is a bit more regular and so it can be a Mansion.

The mezzanine is now Upper Floor and for gameplay balance purposes I have enclosed the mezzanine entirely and only have 5 controlled windows as sniper spots.

 

 

Step 5 White boxing covers, checking distances, microadjustments

 

 

At this stage the covers are put in place as placeholders, now we are only concerned about gameplay and not worrying about the environmental art.

There are high and low covers to allow options of how you want to progress.

Here I am also checking the distances from spawn to the objectives and try to adjust the walls to balance.

If this is a real job you should also check the fire escape distances.

The sniper spots on the Upper Floor are further controlled with some covers as obstacles to prevent them from being too user-friendly, I try to limit the space around each pair of windows so you cannot have too many people there, and also making it harder to dodge the shots from below.

 

 

Step 6 Scenic design (not shown)

 

"Level design is not environmental art", therefore I am not going to venture into scenic design. For the purpose of this exercise which is just to see if the field is viable there is no need to get into scenic design.

 

 

Conclusions

 

It is possible that the field can be made into a viable map, but in my opinion you need at least a new stairs and some walling off at critical places.