by Nutduster & Requiem Fiasco Murder Manor is a fun competitive map that supports most game types, and is best played with teams of 3-6 players each. Aesthetically it resembles a rich estate home, with separate and distinctive rooms serving as the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, greenhouse, personal gym, garage, storage room, living room, closet, and attic. Structurally it is laid out in a style loosely based on Guardian and Lockout - there are four large play areas in a circle or square connected by an outer network of hallways, and a center area (the living room) that you can pass through; there's also a secondary level (in this case the attic) that can get you from place to place as well. Weapons - 1 concussion rifle - 1 golf club (grav hammer) - 1 needler - 1 plasma rifle - 1 plasma repeater - 1 needle rifle - 2 magnums - 2 assault rifles - 2 spikers - 8 DMRs (I think - forget exactly how many but it's a lot) - 2 plasma pistols - 6 frag grenades - a bunch of plasma grenades - 1 health station Unique Features - A sexy greenhouse - A sexier hot tub right in the master bedroom (couldn't manage that mirrored ceiling though, pervs) - Couple of one-way shield elevators to the attic - Non-functional but awesome-looking treadmill - Room breakdown: Master Bedroom (with bed and hot tub); Bathroom (with double sinks and faucets, toilet, toilet roll holder, and shower); Garage (with warthog, mongoose, shelf, and two cabinets); Kitchenette (with stove and refrigerator); Storage Room (with lots of shelves loaded with boxes and bags); Greenhouse (with, uh... plants); Gym (with rock-climbing wall, treadmill, shelves, and athletic equipment); Walk-In Closet (with shelf and mirror); Living Room (with sofa, table, big-screen TV, and fireplace); and Attic (mostly bare, but has a very scenic view and a couple fusion coils to make things lively). Screenshots and video tour YouTube - Murder Manor - Halo: Reach map preview
I DL'ed and looked around. I absolutely love the bathroom. The toilet paper holder was a nice touch to say the least.
Wow, the aesthetics with the bathroom fixtures are impressive, love the layout. Does it bother you that blue team seems to have much faster access to the attic? Is there any way to make those shield door elevators function more obvious? Arrows or something? Awesome map though, love the layout. Fireplace was a nice touch.
Thanks! My co-forger and interior designer Requiem Fiasco was entirely responsible for the bathroom, except for the shower. Basically I designed the geometry of the map and we worked together on the aesthetics of the rooms - although I fully expect when he gets into this thread, he'll claim credit for all of it. Because that's how he rolls. About those elevators, I actually had originally intended to merge tin cups in so that the flags were pointing up, but I ran out of budget (those things are way too expensive). There's still a small amount of money left but I had to delete a few things just to get to that point. I could still find a cheaper way to do it perhaps - maybe for rev 2. I didn't really notice a disparity in getting to the attic. There are two entrances in the garage and two in the gym. Those two rooms are supposed to be about equidistant from the two "bases" (which are the bedroom and the storeroom). The storeroom ended up being a bit off-center relative to the living room/bedroom axis - unavoidable because of where I wanted the greenhouse to go - but that shouldn't affect it too much. It should take a couple seconds longer for red team to reach the gym, but a couple seconds less to reach the garage, since they have a straight hallway to it and blue team has to go through the bathroom. To be fair I haven't sat down and timed it, but there shouldn't be a huge difference. Oh, also - anybody with a jetpack can fly up into the attic very near the starting spawns, which takes just a couple seconds to do. (Otherwise though, the jetpack is not super-helpful on this map - but you can use it to get to interesting places in the back of the gym and throughout the storeroom.)
Nice, I love those sinks the green house. I recommend making it mainly infection and adding the FX next gen and purple to make it look night time. But for only infection. I'll DL, good job especially on the details.
Wow, funny you should say that - I'm already working on an infection-specific variant with FX and some scenery/structure adjustments so the humans can defend themselves a little bit. The only reason it wasn't done in time for this thread is that I don't play much infection myself.
In answer to the question about access to the attic - actually it turns out red team has the slight advantage there, but only just. Without sprint, red team can make it to the attic in about 8 seconds (starting spawn to garage) or 13 seconds (starting spawn to gym). Blue team can make it in about 11 seconds using either location. So technically red team gets a leg up there. However it's a slim advantage, and it helps that blue team has slightly quicker access to the golf club, which is really the map's best weapon (concussion rifle is a not-too-close second).
Enjoyment: The opening central fight at the beginning of the game was filled with explosions and gunfire and made for a memorable experience. Indeed all the battles that took place in the central room involved a fair amount of explosives and dying. Even a soccer ball found its way in there as a moving cover. There was some good movement through the outer rooms as well, although there wasn't even between them just at the choke points. The narrow hallways worked well since players rarely, if ever, successfully camped there waiting for the lone bloke to wander by. The game play was much simpler with room to room fighting, but lacked a little in creating conflict between one area and another and very little confrontation between heights. It would've been enjoyable to play again, but it would get old fast. 7/10 Balance: The only over-powering weapon on the map would have to be the golf club. There are narrow corridors and some sharp corners where a wily fox could lie in wait. It didn't happen too often this time due to the nature of the narrow hallways. They were pretty much death traps which meant players stuck to roomier expanses. The upper middle had no solid footpath to get to it from and there wasn't any dynamic between the upper and lower middle. They are simply two separate floors punctuated on either end with lifts, a quick jump, and dropdown/jetpack route. So, multiple routes in and out, but there are no ways that allow for a consistent fighting stance. It has a questionable weapon choice, but it's counterbalanced by the narrow transitional hallways, but the detriment to the map as a whole is the lack of windows or ways to contest areas without entering them. 6/10 Durability: With the room to room style there are plenty of safe spawns and the map is well put together ensuring no map breaks or exploits. There weren't any other game breaking points in the map either. The map though again suffers without much conflict between two areas. This leads to exploitative behavior in objective play (people sitting around corners or forcing bad spawns). 8/10 Aesthetics: There are many fine and intricate details throughout the map. I enjoyed the subtle ones the most, although the rest showed great craftsmanship. The two highlights within the map are the garden and the bathroom. It has the most ingenious use of water, dirty water yet. The rest of the details in the map are well placed to make the illusion that the map is indeed a manor complete with grand rooms and furnishings. Some areas are a little sparse and leave more to the imagination, but the effort and effect of each piece is noticeable. 8/10 Originality: Without the glamorous effects of the aesthetics the layout wouldn't stand out on its own and certainly without long range and more mid-range conflict the game play doesn't stand out against the back drop of other room to room maps. The mansion style with central room and outlying areas has been seen before and will be seen again. What made the map standout in front of others were the aesthetics and narrow transitions, but without more memorable conflict between areas the map soon becomes a whisper in the symphony of mansions. 5/10 Overall: The aesthetics are nothing to scoff at and the conflict in each area was well rounded. The game play could be found similarly throughout the map. No one area stood out for any specific play style. 6.5/10 If you feel that the map didn't receive a fair and unbiased rating feel free to read the map rating criteria and send me a pm.
Haha... it's been two weeks and you haven't. I agree with others; the furniture is amazing. Other areas such as mere walls do seem a little uninteresting though. Over all, very intricate, and you've done well to emulate the atmosphere of a manor!
its about time you posted this duster!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the one problem i have with this map is that unless you have a jet pack there 1 or two ways of getting up to the top...the tops big and thatll cut out from the usage if jet packs arent avaliable
This has been up a couple weeks dude, where you been?? Yeah the attic is fairly limited. Technically there are four regular ways in (two grav lifts in the garage, two shield lifts in the gym) but they are fairly close to each other, so it's not quite like four distinct entrances. Of course jetpackers can fly in from either base as well. The reason it was done that way was because I wanted the attic to be a way to get into either of the "base" rooms, but not back out, unless you happened to have a jet pack. That does mean the attic doesn't get as much play and may be kind of easy to control, but that's why I put all the good weapons downstairs and why there are a couple of fusion coils up there. Hopefully it will be used more as an alternate way to get from place to place rather than an area people just sit in. I wanted it to be kind of like the lower level on Guardian, where you'd use it to move around but most of the action would be on the main level.