---
# System prepended metadata

title: 'Catwalk Station, Multi-Z.'

---

# Catwalk Station, Multi-Z.
![](https://i.imgur.com/RJdmWEY.png)
The labyrinth of corridoors and catwalks.

Catwalk Station has one goal: To get the most out of Multi-Z.

The station's main attraction and defining feature are the catwalks, a series of platforms a Z-level away from the hallways from where assistants and antagonists can roam.


## Layer Switch
Currently, all the Multi-Z maps put their extra levels below the station. Catwalk station instead puts a Z-level on top of the main level, just like Donutstation did long ago. 
Stations like Icebox or Tram suffer in that whenever the floor was destroyed, like in a medbay bombing, the affected would fall into the Z-level below, where they'd be much less likely to be revived. With Catwalk, nuking the main floor would expose it to space like in any other station, keeping the bodies on the Z-level.

![](https://i.imgur.com/GSD8S70.png)
Watch your back.

## Goals
1. Make a station entirely around Multi-Z
2. Introduce new ways of attacking and breaking into rooms
3. Give more weight to sabotaging the Gravity Generator
4. Not deviate significantly from Meta/Delta besides the Multi-Z.

### Non-Goals

1. Have the Multi-Z or the catwalks disrupt the general flow of the round.
2. Make drop-down attacks be uncounterable and without risks
3. Use Multi-Z in a superficial way
4. Trivialize breaking into rooms

## How The Stations Achieves its Goals
### Goals
1. Instead of the departments being on top of eachother, every department will have 2 floors to it, encouraging players to move between Z-levels during their regular work rather than just when entering or exiting.
2. With the top floor, you can use a crowbar to break into rooms below you. Furthermore, with the catwalks, you can drop down to perform a surprise attack or throw a grenade into the hall.
3. When the Gravity Generator is down, the Go Up a Z-Level verb is available to everyone on-station on top of being able to cross gaps. The station is designed so that previously restricted rooms like the heads' quarters or medbay's storage become all-access when the grav gen is down.
4. Despite the Multi-Z, the layout will still distinctly be Meta/Delta; Sec on the north, Arrivals on the left, Departures on the south, etc. There are some modifications, however it's still distinctly Meta-like.

### Non-Goals
1. In other Multi-Z maps, their gimmicks can often disrupt someone's round, be it by being hit by the tram or stuck in the icy underground. The catwalks are much less prone to disrupting by their nature, in addition to the Z-Level being on top rather than below.
2. Jumping from above or throwing grenades becomes a viable strategy in Catwalk. However, due to how the station is set up the attacks are only viable in the coridoors, not in the departments themselves. Furthermore the AI has cameras on the top Z-Level, allowing them to see both the coridoors and the catwalks at the same time.
3. The sense of verticality is of uttermost importance to Catwalk Station. You can throw a medkit from the medical storage into the table below, on the treatment room, for example. Being able to see the floor below and other interactions like that are extremely prioritized.
4. A crowbar and a wirecutter combined means you can break into any room you're above of. To counteract this, most of the high-security areas are in the top floor, not the bottom one, and the ones that are in the bottom floor are directly under other hard-to-access areas, difficulting their access.

## Closing Words

Catwalk pushes Multi-Z to a level no other station has so far. It takes the tried-and-true formula stabilished by Meta & Delta while pushing it to a new direction: Up. 

With hope and some tinkering, Catwalk will become the gold standard on how to do Multi-Z right. Everything in it, from the room layouts to the very name of the station, is made to accentuate Multi-Z and help provide the sense of depth, essential to take the most out of the system.

Long live Catwalk Station!