I've had this idea for a while but didn't have the means to initiate it in Halo 3 as well as I would have liked to. Seeing as how I started FPS with Aliens vs Predator 2, and how it's gameplay and maps still stand to be some of the best I've played, I've decided to remake some of the levels, complete with different races. I'll be releasing them in an AVP map pack complete with it's own gametype. So far, including this one, there's 4. But I might add more depending on how comfortable I feel with the limit Reach gives me with resources. Predators = Green Team, spawning in natural territory Their arsenal, of course, remains the largest. They spawn with: Invisibility x4 Jetpacks x2 (simulating their ability to high-jump) Sprint x1 (obvious speed advantage) Plasma Repeaters x4 (simulating shoulder cannon) Spikers x4 Needle Rifles x2 (simulating spear gun) Beam Rifle x1 Plasma Launcher x1 (simulating plasma caster, doesn't have much ammo) Aliens = Red Team, spawning in a Hive Being nothing but creatures, they obviously won't have a large arsenal of weapons. They spawn with: Sprint x2 (simulate speed) Evade x2 (simulate agility) Energy Sword x4 (simulating tail/claws) Plasma Pistol x4 (simulating acid spit) Humans = Blue Team, spawning in a frigate. Humans spawn with the second best arsenal, close to the Predators. They spawn with: Hologram x1 Armor Lock x1 Drop Shield x1 Sprint x1 The reason they spawn with a different variety is because I would like for the humans to use their separate abilities and work together. The other to races have their advantages, and teamwork on the humans part is definitely a big advantage with their different perks. Assault Rifle x4 Pistol x4 DMR x2 Grenade Launcher x1 (more than 3 rounds) Shotgun x1 Sniper Rifle x1 Better view of human spawn area: Humans, Predators, and Aliens spawn in completely different areas, then enter the main level via teleporter. More regarding that later on. Right side of level: Left side of level: View of building: View of arm of building: View of ramp leading to tunnel: Tunnel entrance area: Tunnel: Other side of level viewed from the arm of the building: View of garage/very front entrance inside building: Ramp going to the upper level of the building: Mid-level hallway in the building: Top level of building: There's also a a video showing the comparison between my Halo Reach version, and the original. It will shed light on how the level's supposed to work. I suggest you watch it, it's not long. YouTube - Outpost 4 I used pretty much every resource to make this level, and I realize it's not 100% accurate, but I did the absolute best I could with the resources given. I would have loved to put more detail into everything, but the limit prevented me from doing so. For those who have played AVP2, I promise the feel and mechanics are pretty much the same. I do need help with one thing, however. My current system is to have the players enter the level via teleporter. I've put up one-way barriers so no one can really camp too much, but I do feel like it's still camp-able to an extent. They can still attack people coming out of the barriers. That, and I'm having a hard time feeling right about assigning certain areas to each species. Is anyone aware of a more random system in which I could have players enter the arena, while still keeping the teleporting system? I can't have them spawn directly into the level because that would disrupt the false-class system I've put into it. I was thinking maybe multiple teleporters.. How does everyone feel about that? Also, if you have anything to say about the weapons and abilities they spawn with, please speak up. I want to keep everything within a reasonable limit. It's not close to being done, but if anyone wants to help me test it out in the future, I'd appreciate the help.
I like the idea of this whole AVP stuff, I only have a three recommendations. 1. Consider switching the plasma pistol with a Plasma Rifle. I know it's not cannon, but I wouldn't be caught dead with a combo like that. That's a personel opinion though. 2. Have both teams have two teleporters. This way when the player goes through the teleporter and discovers that somebody is camping there, he can simply go back to the spawn zone and go through the other teleporter. 3.Can you make a regular version of this map? The AVP thing sounds great, but I'm just wondering what this would be like for good'ol Halo style gametypes. Again another personnel recommendation. The map looks very nice, and I hope to see more from it in the future.
Thanks for the feedback! 1. I'll try doing that. I was just trying to prevent the aliens from being overpowered by having a sword and anything stronger than a plasma pistol. I'll try out both and see which one works better, but you're probably right. 2. Sounds like a good idea. I'll fly around and add a few more teleporters. 3. Yeah, I was actually going to but forgot to add it to my post. I was trying to keep it as short as I could lol. Yeah, each map I make will have a classic version with regular spawns and weapons. As far as gametypes, it's not concrete on which one's I'll put in there. Team Slayer and slayer is all I have planned out so far. It all depends on how well I think other gametypes will play on these maps. Thanks again for the feedback. I'll be posting more on the other maps as soon as they're complete enough to show. As of now I'm still just planning them out.
The level looks pretty good. Make sure there's a good mix of open areas/close quarters, since each species has the advantage at a different distance. As for the gametype, you might consider just having normal slayer with three loadouts, one for each species. Humans would have sprint, and the AR and shotgun or DMR, Predetors would have active camo, and plasma repeaters or spikers and the needle rifle, and Aliens would get evade, the energy sword, and plasma pistol and plasma grenades. A pseudo-class system works as well, but if you haven't used all your budget, consider creating spawn rooms rather than just having an array of weapons. That way you can control the percentage of each species who have each weapon, instead of relying on the players to share.
My sugestion is if your gonna make it , make it as perfect to AVP game play as possible and perfect map measurements and instead of spawning rooms just have Human assault rifle/pistol (cant remember how many grenades you spawn with )(not run because then they can to easly out run a predator) Alien Evade/Sword Predator Camo/sword And put weapons where they are on the map where they would be like shoulder cannon put spartan laser etc.
This may be a dumb question, but can all the diff players pick up weapons. I would guess they would since they start off picking up their starting weapons. Would this present a problem with Aliens wielding a Plasma Caster/Sword combo? To me, it would be more awesome and make more sense that each "race" start with their weapons and are bound to only picking up their weapons or getting to their own ammo caches. Does this make sense? But I dunno if this is possible, I am very intrigued with this gametype though
The Judge brings up a good point. If you want to avoid letting them pick up other weapons, go into "Respawn Settings," enable them, set the desired length of time, then set Weapon Pickup to Enabled. Then disable it in the main gametype. They won't be able to pick things up on the initial spawn, so consider placing initial spawns inside of a killball.
That's actually a cool idea. But do you think I should add one of each weapon, or have different weapons for different spawn areas? Example would be, should a human spawn with an assault rifle, pistol, dmr, shotgun, grenade launcher, and sniper? Technically that would be more correct to AVP2 since you could choose whatever depending on your class, but I dunno if that would throw off the balance? As for the close and long distance, that's why I chose to make this one first. There are long stretches in the map, but it's also got a perfect balance of close quarters thrown in with it. On AVP2 it was a pretty crazy map, I'm hoping it plays well on Halo. I was planning on it initially, but I don't know if I trust people to follow that. There's always that one idiot on your friends list that you invite who messes with the flow of the game and picks up a weapon he's not supposed to be using. I want it to be pretty much self explanatory without the host having to explain it for 10 minutes. But I would love for that system to be more reliable for sure, that way I wouldn't have to make separate spawn areas. Predators can use predator weapons, aliens use alien weapons, and humans use human weapons. You've got it, yeah I'll have to do that, thanks for the tip! Also, I have a more difinitive list of the maps I'm doing for sure, and a maps I'm considering messing with to see if I have enough resources. The maps I'm doing for sure are: Outpost 4 Compound (really open map with some close quarters elements, currently working on it) Reservoir (close quarters) Leadworks (looks like the area where they dump the led in Alien 3. Thin long tunnels, with an open upper level) Pod (great map for infection, it's a vertical map.) The maps that I'm going to try that will probably work are: Alesserfate Bunker Depot Lucifersfate And the maps I have no hope in actually being able to finish, but will try anyways are: Auriga Quarantine Verloc All of which are unfortunately the best maps. There's a gametype in AVP that works pretty much like Infection. Humans hide out and try to hold off the aliens and if they get killed by the aliens, they'll turn into one, so naturally I'm going to make these Infection compatible (with a couple differences), being that it was one of the best gametypes in the game. When I'm not working on Outpost 4, I'm working on another map, so I should have at least one more preview up in a week or so. Most likely will be Compound.
What you could do is have a hub area for the classes, with alternate spawns branching off. For example, in the human hub, you would have sprint, assault rifles, and magnums. Then you could have rooms connected by a one-way shield that each had a different power weapon; one room might contain the sniper, another the shotgun, etc. Let's say you have 5 power weapon rooms, and you want 50% of humans to spawn with one of the upgrades. You could place 5 human respawn points in the hub area, and then one in each of the power weapon rooms. This does, however, use a lot of budget, so it may not be the best option.
It seems to me that right now, Humans have a great advantage over the Aliens and Predators in terms of raw power. What I would recomend is that you not try and make this as close as possible to the original in terms of weaponry. Instead, try and capture what made AVP so great: The differences between each race. I don't care if I have a Plasma Repeater, Sword or DMR. The basic gameplay is going to boil down to the same thing: Shoot, Kill, Profit. What I would recomend is that you try and make each race as unique as possible, and not in the ways AVP portrayed them. Use everything you know about each race canon-wise to try and immerse the player in their shoes...or claws. My personal recomendations: Spoiler Have each race start off in their respective spawn rooms. Base Player Traits should be No Shields, with slightly altered Health. Spawn players with Plasma Pistols to promote picking up species weapons Aliens: Aliens by nature use no weapons. The Plasma Pistol does little damage to flesh. Therefore, players are more likely to use Swords to maximize damage. Have the aliens spawn on select rooftops, or at a vantage point. With no ranged weapons available, they will have to use surprise and ambushes to kill. Predators: Predators. The badass hunters who use advanced weaponry and patiance to kill prey. Think about adding "power" Armour Abilities for the Predators only. Jetpack, Armour Lock and Drop Shield are all ways to confuse, lure, and take advantage of enemies. Use those armour abilities, but with great care to ensure not every single Predator gets one. Active Camo would have extremely limited use as an Armour Ability, so use a Custom Powerup with poor camo. Just put this Powerup at the exit of their respective Teleporter to ensure they always get one. Humans: Now, Humans in realistic conditions require teamwork and range to succeed. "Movement" AAs make Humans feel self-confident and wander off from allies. "Power" AAs do this too, but also take Humans out of a realistic experiance. Give them nothing but some weaponry and possibly a few grenades set to a decent respawn. I'd personally recomend you use many Assault Rifles to ensure everyone has a decent weapon. A small amount of Magnums/DMRs with very limited clips can add variety. Be careful with any power weapons. Every Shotgun shell is equal to another dead Alien. Remember, this is about as basic as you can get. Try and work off of a system that embraces differences, regardless of whether it's anything like the one above. I wish you luck with this project, Prototape. If you can get this right, there will probably be an insane demand for your gametype. Just for the sake of repetition, I'm going to repeat what I've been saying this whole time. Take your time with every damned aspect of the map and gametype. Test out as many variations as possible, and find which combinations work best. Don't even think about the other maps you might make untill you're done with this one. Cheers, HarisSales.