Lava Pit 2 and Sacrifice 2 The original Lava Pit was created by the talented “Predator5791,” probably best known for his amazing forge screenshots. I fell in love with Predator’s simple design way back when it was on “Bungie Favorites,” and my friends and I have thoroughly enjoyed it as a great casual map in between more competitive sessions. But I’ve always felt it could use a facelift and some minor gameplay alterations to make it even better. If you’ve never had the pleasure of playing Lava Pit (it’s been downloaded nearly 300,000 times), the concept is very simple: players spawn on a large square platform with an open pit in the center and attempt to push each other off using a variety of vehicles within 10 short two-minute rounds. It’s basically bumper cars meets Halo. As fun as this can be, unfortunately there are several nagging issues that I feel need addressed. 1. First, scoring is inconsistent and confusing. With the provided gametype, Sacrifice, players score as you might expect: by not dying. However, the victorious player is not rewarded with any points. Rather, everyone else receives negative points for dying. Oftentimes players are killed by the Guardians, though, and thus do not receive a negative. Obviously this presents a major flaw in the gametype. In my version, Sacrifice 2, scoring is much more straightforward. I used a King of the Hill variant that only allocates one point per round to the last player alive who is within the hill’s parameters. 2. Secondly, once you die you have to wait out the remainder of the round in death-cam mode until there is only one player remaining. This can be especially annoying in a big party or when you die first. In my version, I have kept Predator’s one-life per round model, but I also allow the recently deceased to spawn outside of the hill, in an inescapable platform overlooking the play area (think Bungie’s “Sumo Grande”). Inside this temporary prison are two spike grenades and a brute shot that appears 60 seconds into the round. With these weapons at his disposal, a respawned player can still interact with the main floor and help his team win the round or just cause mayhem for those below. 3. And finally, Lava Pit looks decent enough but the texture flicker (z-fighting) can be very distracting. To remedy this, I completely remade the entire platform (with similar dimensions) and smoothed out the floor in the process. These aren’t the only changes I’ve made, either. I took the liberty of adding additional vehicles and several equipment items that can really shake things up. Near the center of the map on each side is an item: a trip mine, grav lift, flare and most notably a custom powerup. This powerup grants the user 10 brief seconds of a higher damage modifier, 150% speed and normal gravity, allowing for one quick kill of an unsuspecting foe. However, the user is also weaker and thus more susceptible to being splattered. It may not sound like much, but a seasoned player can put it to great use. Also, 2 Prowlers appear 30 seconds into the game and 2 choppers appear 90 seconds in. So long story short, I took Predator’s basic design and remade it from the ground up in my own slightly altered adaptation featuring a new game variant. If your one of many who have enjoyed Lava Pit at all, then I think you’ll like Lava Pit 2, the unnecessary sequel. [bungievid]118346354[/bungievid] Download Lava Pit 2 and Sacrifice 2
I think that they're too many vehicles. Also, people will leave their vehicle for the trip mine, custom powerup, gravlift. This kind of takes away the purpose of staying in your vehicle. It also looks breakable, according to your video (tripmine leading to the top of the building.) The only solution I really have is expanding the field. Great idea though
I'm downloading this, but at 1:58 in your video, the guy is leaving the little jail place and in your post you said no one could, you said that it was 'inescapable' and 2:40 was EPIC. I'm downloading this and playing it with all my friends!
Honestly, this hasn't really ever been a problem in testing. In fact, after about a minute into the game, there are usually very few vehicles left on the platform to choose from. The mongooses don't really serve any other purpose than speed: getting you to a warthog on the opposite corner, for example. And the Prowlers and Choppers do not spawn until late into the round (which is only 2 minutes long). D'oh! I forgot to mention that everyone's base player traits include significantly increased gravity and much shorter speed. This kind of negates the likelihood of everyone abandoning their vehicles when a boost from a ghost can easily end your hopes of victory. Sure, people will still do it, but as the video should demonstrate, they typically don't last very long. As for the "breakable" portion of the video, I included that particular segment because it had never happened before and was so hilarious at the time. And as you can see, I didn't win the round even though I had never died. With the gravity adjusted, there was no feasible way for me to reenter the arena. Trust me when I say that this map and gametype have been tested extensively. I'm confident that there is no real way of "breaking" the map, fingers crossed. Thanks for commenting! --- That was something early on I was concerned about, but the adjusted gravity prevents those trying to escape from ever reaching the arena. Thanks for the kind words.
No bullshit, but I'm currently playing the v1 right nao. Anyways, these are great updates because OMG it's such a coincidence that this map would be posted up right as was thinking about a there being a better version out there.
Sorry, but since Predator5791 never gave you permission to use his map, this map is considered stolen. While your map does look like an improved version of the original, stealing maps is against the rules.
I wouldn't consider this map stolen. Even though the geometry is unchanged, since he redid the floor to eliminate z-fighting and made significant updates to the items and gametype I think this is a new map. Plus, he credited the original author. It still might have been a good idea to ask permission, but Predator is probably flooded with XBL messages, so w/e. As for the map, I think the KotH update is smart. It definitely seems like it should fix the scoring problems. I'm also ok with the increased number of vehicles, it just gives players more options. Sumo Grande always ends too quickly for my tastes. Overall, it's a nice update.
He didnt steal it....he improved the map aesthetically and gameplay wise and then gave credit to the original author for what he did. With your logic you could consider every single icecream man game stolen because im fairly certain no one ever asked permission from the original creator of that map or gametype. However since i did have a recent issue of someone taking my map's name i understand were your coming from. my map was rust 72% and someone posted a map named rust 82%. The main problem with this is that if I or Predator, for example, did decide to realease a second version of our map the name would already be taken. so really the only thing i think he shouldnt have done is take it's name without permission. You should have named it "Lava Pit Gravitas" or something along those lines so that this name would still be open to predator if he made a second version.
The very first thing I did after I had posted Lava Pit 2 on bungie was to PM Predator, letting him know that I really enjoyed the original and that I hoped he could peruse my version. He seemed cool with it and told me that it looked "interesting" and that he would check it out. And, if it turns out he does not appreciate my "homage" to the original, then I will immediatley remove it from my file share. But with the enormous popularity of Lava Pit 1, I thought fans would embrace an updated version.
im sure he will be fine with it. All it does is improve on the old map, you didnt take anything away from the original.
Overall, it seems like a version of Lava Pit meant for more players. However, the thing that I loved the most about Lava Pit was the fact that it worked well with just about any number of players. The extra vehicles and equipment seem unnecessary, and the custom powerup just clutters it up even more. The hill idea is cool, but it kinda ruins those fun moments where the last 2 remaining players get launched off the map and both pray that the other falls first that made the original so much fun. Perhaps you could make hill wider, so that if both players fall off then the last one to hit the barrier still wins. And correct me if I'm wrong, but say you launch someone's vehicle using a trip mine. If they leave the hill but stay in the air for a few sconds, couldn't you rack up some serious points? And while the spectator boxes seem cool, I personally preferred using the built-in spectator camera. And the brute shot seems kinda cheap. And the waypoints; hiding behind a warthog while standing on an active trip mine was a blast. Once again, something from the original that I loved but is now gone. Overall, I dunno. It seems like you have too many ideas crammed into one small space, but I guess I'll have to dl it and see how it plays.
In testing, we've had success with anywhere from 2 to 8 players. I'm pretty sure the only additional vehicles I added to the original are four mongooses and two prowlers that appear later into the game. The mongoose is obviously worthless for ramming other vehicles, and is really only meant for a quick getaway. And personally, I love the prowler on this map. It's difficult to control, but in the right hands it can really dominate the other vehicles. This is still possible in Lava Pit 2, and actually happens quite frequently. Not only do airborne players have to avoid falling to their death, but they also must stay in the hill for a few milliseconds more than their opponent. I'm not 100% sure what you mean here, but I'll try and answer anyway. I created the hill's parameters to expand as high as they possibly could. So regardless of how vertical a player gets, if they are still within the hill, they're not going to lose anything. Players are limited to only 2 lives per round, so if you really prefer the death cam instead of some amount of interaction, then simply kill yourself once you spawn in the spectator box. Or, better yet, just reduce the lives per round back to 1. And, yes, the brute shot is very cheap. But it does not appear until 60 seconds into the round. I don't know about your experience, but we rarely even make it to 1 minute. It's intended more as a way for players to continue to interact with the main floor instead of merely waiting for the round to end, and also to accelerate an otherwise slow final minute. When the announcer declares, "One minute remaining," everyone still on the main floor knows the crap is about to hit the fan. There are few things more hilarious to watch than your buddy trying to maintain equilibrium in his vehicle while he's being pelted from every direction with brute shot. All of the changes you mentioned were specifically designed to add some variety and more importantly to improve the balance of the original map. To each his own, but I think it's fair to say that overall, testers prefer the new variations.