A Forerunner research station sits atop a lush peak. A fortified outpost with a formidable defence now becomes a battlefield... This is my first competitive Halo Reach map. It's set up for Slayer, both team and free for all. There's team spawns for all colours, but it's really for classic red vs blue 4-on-4. I've tried to balance the map with weaponry and spawn points. The key weapons are Rockets, Sword, Shotgun, Concussion and Sniper. From Red and Blue spawns there are quick routes to all weapons that are almost identical in their time-to-arrival (for all armour abilities), but are not symmetrical. For example, to get to the Rockets, red spawn can run towards the man cannon on the left and hit the top walkway. Blue must run through the teleport by the right slope on the covered entrance to the orange tower, which takes them up to the far end of the walkway. The rockets are inbetween where both players arrive... I've also used a lot of barrels, as I liked them so much in H3. Let me know if they affect balance. There are DMRs and Needle rifles too, plus grenade launcher, plasma pistols and extra pistols and ARs. We've playtested with multi team, ffa and regular slayer with DMR, pro, classic and regular. Not tried elite. I made it by downloading Atom from the Team Slayer playlist and then examining how it was put together. Then I deleted all the structures and made my own. This means Vanguard is based in the Quarry on Forge World. You can also see the braces that Atom has up on the walls - I left them as I liked them! The rest is all new. I'd appreciate feedback and comments. Thanks for looking.
This is a tight little map. Team Slayer is pretty frantic, but there are also plenty of places to get out of the way and kill from the shadows too. At first I was like "Why is that giant kill ball there for no reason? But then I realized that it helps in orientation - it's a landmark. That's cool.
i can tell this is your first map, but i can completely tell you have potential when it comes to forging. try to start using the coordinates feature. (idk if you did im just guesing you didnt ) but keep working at it!
Making an asymmetrical map for your first map was a risk that takes balls, nice job, I just shied out and made a symmetrical map for my first and only map posted here lol . Nice job making all of the weapon spawns balanced, that can be really hard to do. You might want to put some cover by the gravity lift, as that area looks a bit risky. Nice map.
Thanks for the feedback! I was reading some tips on orientation on Bungie.net, so that's why everything is coloured. The kill ball is there because I like maps to have a purpose and I thought a MASSIVE LASER WEAPON readying it's payload would be cool. Plus you've gotta stand out! @Antares777 - thanks dude, there's bits I'm not totally happy with, but I'm going to get better! I'll have a look at the grav lifts. It's weird, in forge they seem to propel you higher than in the game. Might be the angle. I'll have a look in the palette for some updates on the lifts cover wise, thanks for the recommendation. @Battleman36 - thanks for the tip, used it quite a lot on this map but not everywhere - which bits do you think are misaligned? Thanks again for looking!
We just had a good game on this map, and I really like it. Combat is fast and furious. There's only one minor tweak I'd suggest - more clips for the grenade launcher! It only spawns with 3 grenades - one in the chamber and 2 extras. Hardly worth it. I say go for 4 extra 'nades, that way you could do some damage. Also, two questions for you dirtySi: 1) How come you decided to make the rooftops out of bounds? 2) Is the teleporter 2-way? I can never seem to get through it. Maybe it doesn't like Elites?
Hey thanks for playing it! I thought I'd upped that, thanks for the tip off. Anticipation really - didn't want the sniper to gain too much advantage. Too restrictive? Recently added a bigger sniper tower (used to be a covered bunker) so should be more sight lines, wanted to take away some of the most advantageous ones - sort of copied what happened with the matchmaking version of Asylum. I'll keep an eye on it. Perhaps the zone on on the protruding satellite is too much. The TP is two way to the top of the walkway - not sure why it isn't letting through Elites - does it work in Forge mode for you? I'm not aware there's a player type restriction unless it's height? I'll have to look it up/test it. Thanks for playing!
I really like the look and layout of this map, and the flow is good. I also had some trouble getting the teleporter to work; sometimes it's fine, and other times it's a shimering dead end! I second Moxidas' comment that the Grenade Launcher needs more rounds - I'd suggest starting it with 4 spare clips rather than the default 2.
Just a quick suggestion: I would remove the kill ball/antenna thing. I know objectively it looks pretty cool and distinctive, but if you hang around here for long and look at a lot of maps, this exact aesthetic device pops up on way too many of them. I think people do it to stand out from the pack and unfortunately, the effect ends up being exactly the opposite. Try building something else in its place maybe - obviously that structure is not a big part of the map so it could easily be converted into something else. Even keeping the kill ball and ditching the antenna for a more involved/complex structure might help.
It's a piece of constructive criticism. I'm not looking for them, I just see them in a lot of map thumbnails and some time ago I just stopped clicking on those maps because I'm kind of tired of that. Yesterday I happened to notice there were three maps submitted all close to each other using that same thing. For me personally, it makes it hard to want to download because I think "If this aspect is unoriginal, what about the rest?" And I don't think that's fair to the map, which may be brilliant - but it's how I feel. I suspect a lot of other people might feel the same way, which will hurt the map's downloads and comments. So - I'm trying to help. The maker can feel free to disagree with or disregard my comment, but I'm making it anyway. As for "accept or GTFO," that isn't how criticism works. So... no.
I have been busy tweaking! In my fileshare is the latest Vanguard. I have changed the map a little bit after some comments on Forgehub and because of my own OCD. I have made the man cannons in the back of the map higher so that they always launch you high enough even if you hit jump as you reach them and miss the full force of the lift. I've added a ramp up to them and protected them with an inverted glass shield. Not only does it look cool it means that use in panic should give you an extra chance to escape from long range janitors (you know, the guys that mop you up with a single shot without having been in the fight? Janitors). I have upped the spawn time on all barrels to 1 minute. We like it when they go boom, but not all the time! I've given the Grenade launcher a full 5 clips (the maximum). I've changed the sniper spawn from 3 minutes to 2 minutes and 20. I've also re-engineered the teleporters. It turns out that the teleporter frame is too small to accommodate an elite general/zealot. This means that if you put a frame in to make your teleporter look nice you can't have elites on the map. This means 2 things, one my map couldn't support Elite Slayer, which was a massive shame and also Mox couldn't play as an elite in custom games and use the 'ports. So I experimented and found some structure that I think still looks good but that stops the 'ports being only usable by one species. I also removed the last bit of scenery that linked it to Atom, the map I learned from. So now it's all ME! Please let me know what you think of the changes, and if you get a chance to play it whether you think it is any good. It's playing well at work at lunchtimes, and I'd love to hear what other people think. Sincere thanks to all the commentators, hope it fixes some of the issues you've mentioned. Regarding changing the killball, I know it's popular - but it's my first map and the first time I've used it and at this stage I'm keen on finishing this one so I can create a new one. I'll bear it in mind though, if I'm looking to get people playing. I chose it as I really wanted my map to have a reason to exist in the world, which is why there are UNSC and Covenant emplacements - they're fighting over a research station with a big ass laser thing!
Good move on the teleporter frames. I was sure there was a good reason they weren't working. This is a small but significant mistake on Bungie's part - they should have made sure their Forge parts weren't rascist!