Remake High Ground

This is a remake of one of my favorite halo 3 maps, High Ground. I realize it may not look as nice and colorful as the original, but it plays a lot like it. If you see High Ground with rose- (dirt-?) colored glasses like I do, then it still looks just fine. I know the spacing and scale are slightly off in a few areas, especially the rooms in the base. On to the pics:
























Weapons:

6x DMR, 30 secs, 2 spare clips
8x Needle Rifle, 30 secs, 2 spare clips
1x Sniper Rifle, 90 secs, 2 spare clips
1x Shotgun, 120 secs, 1 spare clips
1x Rocket Launcher, 120 secs, 1 spare clip
1x Grenade Launcher, 120 secs, 2 spare shells
1x Concussion Launcher, 120 secs, 1 spare clip
2x Plasma Pistol, 60 secs
6x Spiker, 30 secs, 2 spare clips
1x Needler, 30 secs, 2 spare clips
1x Plasma Rifle, 30 secs
2x Plasma Repeater, 30 secs
---
11x Plasma Grenades, 30 secs
5x Frag Grenades, 30 secs
4x Med kits, 30 secs
3x Mongoose, 60 secs
2x Ghost, 120 secs
1x Overshield 180 secs
1x Active Camo 180 secs


I laid and re-laid the walls of the map several times trying to adapt it to different areas of the forge world landscape to make it resemble the slopes in the original map. Since I could not get it to be accurate enough, and I wanted to retain sanity, I gave up with the natural high ground (for now?). I decided to build the map out of artificial pieces to preserve as much of the original geometry as possible. Like my remake of isolation, I decided I’d rather have a more accurate gray remake than an inaccurate natural one.

Of course, other things are missing from the original aside from the dirt: equipment, maulers, etc., but overall the map is very accurate and I think it still really captures the spirit of the map. More differences include the new weapons added (/switched out for weapons not brought back) and the obvious game-changing mechanics of the load outs, which I think are awesome on this map. The diminished jumping in Reach has also resulted in my changing the dimensions and adding a few pieces in some areas to allow for certain jumps from the original. There are also a few new jumps.

This map was both fun and frustrating to make, in part due to the strange angles that structure the map. Whenever I realized I had an angle or distance wrong I had to reposition a huge number of pieces, and this happened several times. All that aside, it was quite rewarding each time a familiar structure was completed.


Shortcomings and changes from the original:

• If I were to extend the depth of the power drain and brute shot rooms, they would be closer to the flag room as they should be, but at this point I do not have the useful pieces or the desire to increase the risk of frame rate issues (since that area of the base uses enough objects as is).
• Barely able to jump from power drain to flag area (not as close as it should be).
• Pipe room oversimplified: pipe no longer has a kink in it in the back of the pipe room (it doesn’t affect game play too much, just reduces camping under/behind the pipe).
• In order to make elites fit in the pipe, it had to be so large that the Spartan no longer has to crouch to pass through it.
• Also in order for the elites to fit under the machine gun turret roof, Spartans can no longer jump directly on top of it without walking up the railings (no big deal).
• Area behind bunker too high (shouldn’t be that much higher than the ground level at the gate).
• Bumpy rock ledge up to overshield.
• Problematic camo and overshield in Reach.
• Can't long jump up to top of the flag base anymore, but still can from the lip above the carbine (needle rifle) spawn.
• Slightly decreased mobility with ghost (particularly in back of base).
• Shotgun respawn time upped to 120 (no more maulers to counter it).
• Added column in front of laser nest in order to help with the jump coming from on top of the turret bunker.
• Closed off view of ocean to avoid rendering the background scenery.
• Maulers became plasma repeaters, a plasma rifle, and a pistol.
• Brute shots became a concussion rifle and a grenade launcher.
• Spike grenades became plasmas (mostly?).
• Main gate and hatch permanently open (tried to make a working hatch but it didn’t happen).
• Decided to omit the fence in the back of the base (as opposed to using a shield door or a frame of railings).
• Fewer rocks and trees.
• Places with two fusion coils were reduced to one (they seem a bit more powerful in reach anyway).

I considered putting armor abilities on the map (in part due to problems with active camo and overshield in reach) but decided that having initial loadouts would be more fun (and so I kept the camo and os).

Do not try to fly out of the map: the hard kill zones have been placed in a merciless fashion.

Constructive criticism is welcomed. Thanks and enjoy.
Thanks to my various testers!

Download High Ground

4000 downloads in the first week: Personal best! Thank you, positive feedback loop that is bungie's most downloaded. And thanks to everyone who downloaded!

 

Yeah, I wish there were forgeable trees too. The landscape on tempest could have been good for this map but I'm not sure there's enough space. Plus I had already finished construction by the time the map pack came out anyway. They really should have made the boundaries of the tempest wider and taller for forging, it really constrains what you can build there.

Thanks. I originally had more details on the map such as more camping stools, fusion coils and cones but there was a bit of flickering. I have slimmed down the objects enough now to the point where lag is not much of a problem. There is very minor frame rate drop looking up from the bottom of the beach and from the back of the base by the missile launcher (unfortunately where the two teams spawn and make their first impressions of the map), but it is not significant. It didn't hinder game play in the least in my opinion.

Thanks for the comments. I tried putting it several places on the landscape but it just wouldn't have come out as accurately as if I just made the ground at the angle I needed. There was one really nice spot on the open side of the island but I decided against it because in order to make the top of the hill and the bunker underground I would have had to make artificial ground pieces jut out of natural ground and it just looked too weird. If you're a big fan of the original like I am, let me know your opinions once you get some games on it too.

 

@kdavis73: thanks. After seeing some of the other previous remakes of high ground I understand why there wasn't one that made it into your collection before, but I'm grateful mine did. Previous attempts made a decent effort using the real landscape as the ground but the maps themselves just were accurate enough which is why I went "all-artificial".

@DWeight: I'll look into what you said about tempest but I think if I did make one there it would be a total re-imagining. I have too many ideas on my plate to want to totally remake my remake at this point, lol. I agree with you about the skins, I'd probably pay more than $60 for that (hint hint bungie!).

@Gazzaverage: thanks for the feedback. I've heard a lot of mixed opinions about the trees and I agree they don't look very good but I felt they were integral to the cover dynamics of the map and couldn't come up with a fitting replacement for them (e.g. antennae). I will consider releasing another version without them and without a few other details to reduce the minor framerate problem (as kdavis had done with Citadel) but I'm not sure when that will be.

Thanks again for the feedback everyone, I really appreciate it.

 

Yeah I learned about this recently but I had already finished forging the map before tempest was released. Breaking the boundaries wouldn't have helped for high ground anyways since I would want to build it into the beach. What really prevents an accurate remake from being built into the ground on tempest is that the topography of the map is so different. That, and in order to complete the upper part of the hill it would have to be extended with artificial pieces and it just looks weird. Thanks for the comment though.

 

I used three shield doors on top of one another. You have to use the vertical stripe side to really make it look like it's flowing downward. That and they have to be just close enough to the wall that they shimmer. Thanks, I'm glad someone appreciates the waterfall. It doesn't match the exact color of the real water below but it breaks up the monotony of the gray walls.

Yeah I've seen several that try to use the beach area in the gulch and for some reason they all use a really massive scale for the bases. I know mine is a bit too small in a few rooms but I'd like to think I was more rigorous in that department than other remakes. Also as a result, the lines of sight are almost all the same as the original.

 

Thanks a lot. I was really hoping I captured the basic essence and game play of the map despite the aesthetic overhaul.

Advanced in what sense? Did you mean technologically advanced or advanced as in complex? Either way, thanks.