BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IT, THE RULES STATE YOU NEED AT LEAST 1 PICTURE OR VIDEO, I HAVE VIDEOS IN THE SPOILERS I have been working on this little project of mine since Summer 2009, and im finally releasing it! It may not look like much, but each thing about this game has gone through countless versions and tests. I would like to thank all the people that helped, but most importantly Nostradamic. (or pubitor as he goes by on Forgehub) He was there for at least 75% of the testing matches and has been helping since about August 2009. Both of us are very happy that this is finally coming to a close (as I write this im already overviewing the recent changes and wondering if there should be more, kinda doubt that this is ever going to be "finished" since im a perfectionist when it comes to gameplay lol) Anyway, I now present the Halo 3 Firefight: Heroic Map Pack! Note: Halo 3 Firefight has 1 honour rule, dont camp in the spawn rooms if you are infected, everyone will spawn as the same class and the game will be either easier or harder for one side! Table Of Contents 1. MAPS 2. GAMEPLAY 3. CLASSES 4. VISR MODE 5. LINKS MAPS Note: There was an update to the gametypes recently, the humans no longer have enemy waypoints on their heads, but the covenant now have 75m enhanced radar to make up for it, I think it plays alot better but if after awhile I realize its not better then the gametypes will be updated! Raptured/Raptured (Night) Spoiler YouTube- Halo 3 Firefight © Raptured (Night) Gameplay (ODST) YouTube- Halo 3 Firefight © Raptured (Night) Gameplay (Covenant) Raptured and Raptured (Night) are actually the same, with a few changes to each. The most notable change is that Raptured (Night) is obviously darker. The weapons switch locations on each map and on Raptured (Night) there are overshields that respawn in the grunt and jackal rooms every 30 seconds to replicate Engineers being out. To compinsate, Raptured does not have Engineers but it does have the Beam Rifle in the Jackal spawn, which Raptured (Night) lacks. Raptured and Raptured (Night) are both made for small parties. They work with any number like all the Firefight maps, but it is best played when you do not have a large party. On Raptured the Beam Rifle makes a big difference to how you must play. It can kill you very fast on higher difficulties so it is best to have a designated sniper on the lookout for Jackal Snipers! On Raptured (Night) the Engineer traits makes it so that Jackals and Grunts have the same amount of health as that of a Brute, this combined with the lighting will make you have to play more on the defensive side. Both maps have 1 Rocket Launcher, 1 Machine Gun Turret, and 1 Sniper Rifle. Raptured is best played with VISR mode off but Rapture (Night) is best played with VISR on. Lagoon Spoiler YouTube- Halo 3 Firefight © Lagoon Gameplay (ODST) YouTube- Halo 3 Firefight © Lagoon Gameplay (Covenant) Lagoon was made with medium sized parties in mind. It combines close range and long range combat which is why it is my favourite of the maps. Lagoon features 1 Ghost which will be accessed at a random time via teleporter. There is a small amount of effects on the map to make it that you must adjust you visr for certain areas. There is 1 Rocket, 1 Shotgun, and 1 Machine Gun Turret on the map. The map has a large variety of cover and in different quantaties. Certain areas are full of cover while others are completly open. This forces players to not be careless when moving around. Area 42 Spoiler YouTube- Halo 3 Firefight © Area 42 Gameplay (ODST) YouTube- Halo 3 Firefight © Area 42 Gameplay (Covenant) Area 42 is the largest of all the maps and as such has the most vehicular presence. There is 1 Banshee and 1 Chopper on the map that respawn rather frequently. The map features 1 Spartan Laser, 1 Machine Gun Turret, and 1 Sniper Rifle. There is a downside to getting the MGT and Sniper though. To get each you must enter the bases and open up the doors inside. This gives the covenant a new way in which means that the bases are even less usefull then they were to begin with. The map also features Jet Pack Brutes and is the only one in the map pack to do so! One of the high points gives an amazing view for snipers but it also has a reactor that blows up every 30 seconds so you are taking a big risk by going up there. The map is best played with VISR mode off. GAMEPLAY Halo 3 Firefight was intended to not only recreate Firefight the way I had wished it had been made, but also as a response to all the Firefight maps coming out around the time of its birth. It honestly pissed me off seeing maps where they would claim it to be the only real Halo 3:ODST Firefight experince when it had Elites, or did not have anything but chieftans, ect. I wanted to do Firefight right so I got down to thinking and made it to the best of my abilities. First off, there are 5 difficulty levels. EASY, NORMAL, HEROIC, LEGENDARY, and then theres MYTHIC. Easy is just that, easy, for the ODSTs. As a covenant you are most likely not going to have any fun, but I wanted to make sure that there was enough variety to appeal to everyone. Mythic is similar to easy in the sense that one side wont be having much fun. The 3 modes that tend to be the most played are NORMAL, HEROIC, and LEGENDARY because they are fun for both sides. The way Halo 3 Firefight works is there are 4 actualy rounds, and then there are more rounds in each round. That sounds confusing but it really isnt. Just think of it like this: 1 Minute= 1 wave 5 Minutes= 1 Round 15 Minutes = 1 Set So there are 4 actual game rounds, but then there are rounds in each round that help keep track of how far you have gotten. Each game round is 60 minutes, now I know what your thinking, but Firefight is not meant to end, so this is simply there so that you can see how far you have gotten while it still being (almost) impossible to acutally win! There is no amount of lives like ODSTs Firefight, its basically one life for ODSTs, infinite lives for Covenant. 3 waves the power weapons on the map are replenished but every minute the SMGs, Magnums, and Frag Grenades respawn. On each map there is a waiting time of 20 seconds before the covenant attack, during that time the ODSTs can prepare. Covenant can NOT pick up human weapons, this is because they can only pick up weapons for 10 seconds, the chances of them actually getting an ODST weapons are incredibly low! The final thing about the gametypes that people should know is that ODST can NOT drive vehicles, this is because someone would just jack a banshee and then fly on top of the spawn area, or try and block teleporters with them, it just has more cons then pros... CLASSES Halo 3 Firefight features almost all the classes of real firefight, with the exception of the drone (no one likes the bugs anyway ...) Covenant Starting Weapons: Plasma Pistol Spoiler Grunt Spoiler Wepons: Plasma Grenade, Needler, Fuel Rod Cannon. Equipment/Powerup: Overshields (Raptured (Night) only!) Rarrity: * Jackal Spoiler Weapons: Covenant Carbine, Needler, Beam Rifle. Equipment/Powerup: Deployable Cover (Jackal shield) Overshield (Raptured (Night) only!) Rarrity: ** Brute Spoiler Weapons: Plasma Rifle, Spiker, Spike Grenade, Brute Shot, Covenant Carbine. Equipment/Powerup: Overshield, Bubble Shield, Flare, Grav Lift (Area 42 only!) Rarity: *** Brute Stalker Spoiler Weapons: Mauler, Spiker, Firebomb Grenade. Equipment/Powerup: Active Camo, Radar Jammer. Rarrity: **** Hunter Spoiler Weapons: Fuel Rod Cannon. Equipment/Powerup: Custom Powerup. Rarrity: ***** Chieftan Spoiler Weapons: Gravity Hammer, Fuel Rod Cannon, Plasma Turret. Equipment/Powerup: Custom Powerup, Regenerator (Invicibility) Rarrity: ****** ODST Starting Weapons: SMG, Magnum. VISR MODE This is probably going to be one of the stupidist things you have ever read, but in Halo 3 Firefight I wanted to force you to use some sort of VISR on some maps, by making those maps darker. Raptured (Night) for example is much more challenging with VISR off. Now if you havent figured it out yet, you turn on VISR by pressing start, settings, screen settings, then you turn up your brightness. As stupid as it may sound its actually very usefull, not only in Firefight but in any game where there is darker areas or overall darkness. On the other hand you could turn it down to make it look more like ODST, or just leave it the way it is for a more challenging match. In some casses turn on VISR mode will actually have a negative effect. On Lagoon VISR is usefull for the back areas of the map, but by the dock having VISR on can get kind of annoying. Its something to keep in mind... LINKS Gametypes: EASY NORMAL<<Recomended HEROIC<<Recomended LEGENDARY<<Recomended MYTHIC(Legendary damage and 2x the health for covenant? Good luck my friend, good luck!) Maps: Raptured Raptured (Night) Lagoon Area 42 Other: Official Halo 3 Firefight © Group at Bungie.net Official Halo 3 Firefight Youtube channel Those that join the Halo 3 Firefight © group at Bungie.net will get access to new content before others and will be able to work on the Halo 3 Firefight: Custom Map Pack which is made by the community and overviewed by me to make sure spawns are correct and all that! Check out the Halo 3 Firefight Youtube channel every once and awhile for new content!
Gameplay looks superb. I already made a Lost Platoon one and its gameplay wasn't half of this ones caliber.
You should put pictures as well... I find that they are easier to explain and show a map with. Videos are for gameplay. Anyways, I distinctly remember playing the Area 42 a while ago, I was completely confused as to what I was supposed to do, and everybody lagged out after. lol. The night rapture one intrigues me(I'm a sucker for darker infection maps : D) it looks a lot like New Mombossa, so I'll download that along with the heroic difficulty, and if I really enjoy it, the legendary one as well.
One question. Wouldn't it be better to have more covenant, but have them only respawn in waves? i think it's possible to configure it so that all covenant respawns together after a minute.
The game isnt meant to actually end, unless your playing on easy I dont think its even possible because your eventually going to mess up. The time limit is simply there to track what wave, round, and set your on. While I am happy about the reply, its considered spam. In the future try to say a little bit more about the map or you may end up getting a visit from one of the mods. Pictures dont do maps justice when they are made for gameplay, I mean its pretty obvious that these maps are not for aestetics lol. Bottom line is the videos give a feel for what your going to be doing and I kinda doubt anyone wants me to go into details about the amazing fence box that I merged into the ground on standoff xD. It can be kind of a challenge to figure out what is going on, after about 2 rounds everyone understands exactly what to do though. Although I dont understand why you did not get it since Asset uses similar spawn mechanics. Make sure that if your playing Heroic everyone understands what there doing or the ODSTs are going to have a tough time. That would be terribly boring for the covenant team, imagine spawning as a little grunt, getting shot down with a magnum, and having to wait 1 minute to spawn as a jackal...It would not work at all. Trust me after working on this since July 09 I can safely say until Reach comes out, this is as good as it gets...
Exactly to make a great Firefight gametype the covenant must be able to come consistently as all sorts of classes. Jello i want to play this with you some time, seeing as how you helped test our variant. It seems like the gametype and spawn system is flawless, perhaps making more aesthetic maps is all thats needed to make this epic.
lol unfortunatly that exactly where I fail, hopefully when I return to this game when Reach comes out there will be better resources and a better map editor overall. Ill send you a FR later so that you can try it out.
Hey Jellofish! Im so glad you finally posted these. This is a great gametype and it should be since you have worked on it for almost a year. And I have to say, this is the best "FireFight" Halo 3 has right now. This is well put together, but I was wanting a bit more asethetics, which you never asked me to do. Im pretty good at them but anyway, very nice map. Though your map needs more Hentai.
Indeed it does! If I end up making this again when Reach comes out I will be sure to ask of your help, at the time though they were all done, I just needed to test each at least 10 times after each little change lol...
Ya, I definetly want to help in Reach. Well tata for now. WIZZZOOH!!!! *dissapears in a cloud of smoke*
It'd only be boring for the people who died, their fault really. The rest of the covenant would have an exciting time keeping themselves alive whilst pushing an offensive. Maybe it would be more sensible if custom classes like brutes, hunters and jackals had to wait, whilst grunts had the power to respawn indefinitely? It'd certainly add tactics and depth, and unless you have too many odsts to start, it'd be balanced too. With larger parties of course.
You have not tinkered around with the Infection settings much have you? What your suggesting is impossible to do and even if it was possible it would most likely require so many items that it would end up making the maps really bland because all of them would be on either foundry or sandbox...Sorry I like a little variety personally.
Not necessarily Jello, you played our variant, and although rare we had it (iv updated again) to where stalker, chieftain, and hunter class appear later in the game. For Jackals etc its impossible or like you said would require too much items. But using vip or slayer and just setting weapons and powerups to spawn at certain times its actually quite easy.
This map pack, having played all 3, when I saw we were going on Longshore and Standoff, I considered leaving party, but when gameplay began, the gameplay was slightly slow to start with, but when the action kicked in, man did it kick in. My personal favourite bizzarely is the one I thought I would dislike the most: Area 42. A fantastic map which actually gives Standoff a reason to feel awesome (Aka not omgwtfbbqantifatkidskycastleomnomnomnomn), definitely one of the best gameplay I've ever had on Standoff. Keep up the excellent work! T.G.
I wanted mine to be as random as real Firefight, you shouldnt know when a hunter will show up or a wraith, it all depends on the teleporters and the spawns. Chieftans are the only one that isnt random in real Firefight but I couldnt really make it that 2-3 chieftans spawned every 4 minutes now could I, and once again if I could there wouldnt be enough items left to use a map like Standoff.
by reviewing your videos, i have constructed some feedback. i have yet to get a full house ingame however, so i'll base my review on most of your videos first of all, your class based system is indeed, one of the best i've seen. however, your system does have some flaws, but it is merely the limitations of the halo 3 engine. still, its one of the best i've seen and played. VIP could be a possible canidate for a new game type however. the maps however, could use some sprucing up, although most are pretty good
VIP is out of the question becuase I want the humans to have a life limit so that they dont waste it, if I use VIP then the infected have a life limit as well which would be a problem. Since I have worked on this for so long I can safely say that this is as close as it gets until Reach comes out. Also I do realize the maps dont have a whole lot going on but after doing things that are neccasary for each map (class system, spawn room, ect.) there just isnt enough items left to make maps such as Standoff all that interesting. Like said in other replys I wanted a large amount of variety for scenery and location. This means that some of the maps are not all that interesting. In the case of Raptured/Raptured (Night), while it is on Sandbox it was intended as a small map, if I end up making a second map pack before Reach I can guarantee the Sandbox map that would be with it would have much better forging.
I see my dinosaur in the preview for the area 42 map. I really enjoyed this gametype and the maps that went along with it. The aesthetics were dropped in favour of smooth gameplay, and it really does show. It was fun playing as both ODST and covenant, but ODSTs just tipped the scales because of the teamwork aspect necessary. Also, hunters are terrifying....
Wow these maps are amazing having downloaded them and played them i have to say these are some of the best maps i have ever seen, played, or heard about. I like Raptured (night) best. Aswell I like how the teams are fairer than actual firefight even though it may not be what it is trying to be. P.S. Would these gametypes work with normal infection maps, or do they have to be made in a certain way?