*please use Matchmaking variant of CTF with Flag at home to score off. Blockade Created By: chrstphrbrnnn & Shad0w Viper Some of you may remember back in October when Shad0w and I released Penance, we stated that we were working on a Penance map pack which would consist of three maps based off of the original Penance design. While the three maps weren't released together like was originally planned for a short time, Blockade would be technically the second map of said map pack. Way back, before Penance was released, we started another version. This version was Penance mirrored with the line of reflection being the back of the tower. From this point, we referred to that map as Penance arena. As we worked more and more on making the map it's own, we came up with a bold idea. What if we took what is probably the best competitive map in Halo and fused it with our Penance design? Thus we gave birth to Pittance, which was a Penance arena style map infused with the design philosophy of the Pit. As we began testing, more and more changes underwent on Pittance, even before the original Penance had been released. Then, throughout two months of testing, refining and rebuilding we came to have the map we have today; Blockade. Those familiar with the Pit will feel right at home on Blockade. Weapons are in very notable locations, call outs are very similar to what you all should remember and most of all, set ups are just as they were in the Pit. However, bear in mind that Blockade is not a Pit remake. There are some hefty differences. Sniper tower does not exist in Blockade, the objective zone is quite different and gameplay along needle hall towards Shotgun is much more prominent. WEAPONS: What you'll be killing with: 1xRocket Launcher 1xEnergy Sword 2xSniper Rifle 2xShotgun 2xNeedler 2xPlasma Pistol 2xMagnum 6xDMR 6xPlasma Grenade 4xFrag Grenade 4xHealth Pack PICTURES The only important part of the post SPECIAL THANKS: Kissing ass for download counts Thanks first and foremost to rusty eagle, Adelyss, X5 and TransactionZero for their advice throughout development. Thanks to all the various testers who have come in for one or more tests. Your feedback was all greatly appreciated. DOWNLOAD In case you missed it
My Personal Review of Blockade Initial interpretations...: Spoiler Just looking through this map and sadly I can only post a comment so far on initial interpretations from the pictures. It looks like an amazing re-imagining of The Pit though. As it was an amazing classic in Halo 3, it will definately require gameplay adjusting factors for it to suit Reach's different playstyle. I can see you've effectively utillised some of the aesthetic features and placed them as "jumps" to get to higher levels which is great. I've already got this downloaded and will get a game on it tonight whilst playing a Testing Session for the TG. Good job Chrs! AND SHADOW!! \o/ [br][/br]MY REVIEW BlockadeGames Played: Team Slayer, Multi-Flag. Enjoyment: Where do I honestly begin? As Blockade is heavily inspired by the ultimate Halo 3 classic The Pit; this map clearly hits the peak of ‘Skull Mountain’ and is definitely in no hurry to come tumbling back down. With what typically starts off with the ‘Pit Rocket Rush’, ends ultimately with Team DMR shots landing all around. As a lot of us were new to the map (with a few experienced players re-visiting) we all found the map extremely easy to navigate. The layout somewhat resembles The Pit but also has its own unique twists and turns that make it clearly stand out from a direct remake. Overall, from the games we played; we had no complaints what-so-ever and that’s saying something considering Blue Team absolutely destroyed Red Team in the first game. The single issue I had in regards to Enjoyable gameplay was the DMR locations weren’t entirely obvious with the new layout. I somewhat found myself searching for a DMR a little too often. This was only a minor mishap, but a little DMR relocation could be a good call for new players. However after Team Slayer, the session really kicked off with an amazing game of Multi-Flag with the two teams hitting a “Flag-Return Stalemate” for a staggering 7 minutes of Gameplay! Both teams defended exceptionally well and utilised different strategies to do so. The map employs flexible and tactical routes to migrate between the two halves, but overall the pathways are a little too close together for all round comfortable gameplay. All in all, a hole lot a fun 8/10 Balance: Blockade is a symmetrical map that utilises conflict weapons, spawn systems and line of sight perfectly. At no point did anyone in the game have a ‘Bad-Spawn’ or spawn in the wrong location or near the enemy objective. This helped the gameplay flow smoothly and kept the enjoyment high throughout both games. In regards to weaponry, there were a few points raised about the rockets respawning too quickly. To say most action occurred down the Rocket Hall, there was a good few times when Blue Team acquired the Rocket Launcher completely undetected due to an unexpected Respawn. As far as the other weapons go, I think these were set to adequate respawn times. The sword spawned frequently enough to create some close quarter madness and the Sniper’s didn’t spawn too often for it to become a Long Range scoping session. As mentioned previously, I felt the DMR’s were a little unorthodox in regards to placement, but with time and further experience on the map these spawn locations will become more noticeable. The maps layout and design is something unbelievable. Many people have tried to remake The Pit and have failed miserably. Blockade; however, incorporates a lovely cross breed design from Penance as well as the Halo 3 classic. This in turn creates a wonderful new atmosphere tailored perfectly for Reach’s new spin on things; Armour Abilities. Quite often you will find a map that will have one armour ability in particular that dominates the others; (Most of you will automatically think ARMOUR LOCK!) this map does not. As some players had Armour Lock, others had Sprint and some even had Jetpack. All of these were completely balanced, which I find rather shocking… Maybe Halo 3 remakes would be ideal for Reach gameplay…? The only issue I found in regards to the layout and design is the ramps leading up to sword spawn. I wanted to be able to sprint jump from (what would be) 'Training' to the Sword spawn room, but I always just fell a little bit short. This area was also a little bit of a dead end area, as I had to essentially back track to get on the ramp and walk round which made the whole thing take even longer. An even 8/10 Durability: This map is entirely unbreakable as it is completely encased inside an ‘Arena’; rendering the use for kill boundaries pointless. However, the map itself isn't entirely exploit free. After receiving feedback from Review Hub members, they stated I had to have missed something... So I went back and watched the films of the games played and checked around the map in custom games when I noticed the thing I missed, was extremely obvious... The objective location. We had an unbelievably long stalemate lasting 7 minutes; which never happened in Halo 3, and shouldn't particularly happen in Reach. I didn't really understand why this was happening from my point of view. I just thought the two teams were defending exceptionally well, and failing to launch an effective assault. It wasn't until I went into free-cam in theatre and watched Blue Team's defending strategy as they left the flag next to the their scoring point... out in the open. Now to me, this is an extremely risky strategy. You're on a constant timer to have to touch the flag over and over... and if you touch it there, you're out in the open yourself and are open to being sniped/naded/shot at. I followed the game closely, and identified why they were doing this. Everytime we killed one of their team mates. They respawned at Sniper... Directly in the Line of Sight of the objective. So as soon as Red Team killed all of Blue Team and advanced to recover the flag, they were bombarded with nades and gunfire before even getting close to recovering the flag. Because Blue Team were being out-slayed and were killing Red from Spawn, they had no time to launch an effective counter attack, thus creating the 7 minute stalemate. To fix this, I'd recommend moving the objective back into the med-kit area so it isn't in direct line of sight from all areas and provides both attacking and defending players opportunities to recover / capture the flag. 8/10 Aesthetics: The aesthetics are very subtle in this map. I do personally LOVE the doorways though. They don’t just provide cover for players, but they make the map look unique in terms of the layout and design. There are other certain features of the map though that let it down just a little, like the random strut in the central hallway and the (now extremely common) rock gardens. However, they all serve a good purpose in regards to gameplay as potential cover and quick jumps to locations. For that alone, I’ll give you both the extra point deserved for utilising the aesthetics well in terms of gameplay. Furthermore; After looking through the map on my own, I found myself thinking... why have I given you guys such a low score of 7 when you both clearly deserve more? After looking around for about 5 minutes or so, I realised you'd put a lot more effort into your aesthetics than meets the eye. All of which, contribute to gameplay. I find this extremely difficult to do in any circumstances for a map, and each of you have managed to pull this off in a recognised environment and have them subtly disappear as if they were always a part of the original The Pit from Halo 3. I find myself extremely envious of your joint talents for decoration and have extend your points for this section. Gameplay > Aesthetics… 9/10 Originality: Last but not least… The originality of this map isn’t anything above great. As previously mentioned above; there has been a lot of The Pit remakes been released and although hardly any of them play anywhere near as well as this map… it still doesn’t make it entirely Unique. However, taking into account the Unique Aesthetic doorways, the fact that it’s a cross breed of Penance, and the map itself creates almost perfectly balanced Reach gameplay; I can whole-heartedly say this is THE most original Pit remake Re-Imagining to date. 7/10 Enjoyment: 8/10 Balance: 8/10 Durability: 8/10 Aesthetics: 7/10 9/10 Originality: 7/10 Final Score: 8.0/10 An extremely solid map; the gameplay is 100% there and the enjoyment factor hits the roof. The only let downs were really minor issues that I had problems with and I felt that they should have lived upto their ancestors name a little better... The map itself also isn't entirely original with it being a remake, but you've pulled it off extremely well. I can’t help but feel I’ve been a little too critical, but I still hope you both appreciate my personal review... Thanks, this ones earned a space on my hard drive.
. What ^ said. I was going to post a few concerns but um Stevo there got all of them. Just wanted to add it is a tad bumpy by the rocket launcher. (Not bad enough to affect movement noticeably but enough that it's worth mentioning). Doors are beautiful. I loved the weapon placement and thought the sight lines were great for whatever weapon you wanted to use. There were some good base to base sight lines for the sniper rifle. Some mid range sight lines for DMR battles. And even some close quarter areas that would benefit the shotgun and sword. I did get a very "pit" like feeling moving around the map. I haven't had the chance to play test this yet but just doing a single walk through I could tell there would be a battle to get to the rocket hall way or the yellow base's sword. Good job chris + shadow viper.
Having made a “Pit” Remake myself. After downloading I give it an 8/10. Aesthetics are clean, flow is great, and this personally is my favorite remake yet. Good job ^_^
You do realize that this map is a co-forge right? lol. I thought my days of being ignored in a co-forge were over On the subject of CTF I must ask if you were using the same gametype that is currently being used in matchmaking? This map was originally designed for the forgetacular contest and was built to utilize matchmaking settings, not default. As for the rockets they can't come up any slower, 180 is the max unless you've found some hax i don't know about. Other then that thanks for the review.
Sooooorrrrrrrrryyyyy Shadowww... I didn't notice at first... but afterwards I did, so I went back and amended bits to just 'you' instead of chrs LOL Umm no we used default game for CTF, but matchmaking Team Slayer. And yeah, I figured it would be on 180s but for some reason, it kept coming up more frequently Anyway, it originally scored 8.4 before I had to amend durability, and I dunno if the "Flag must be at home" rule is disabled for matchmaking games but still it should work with all CTF gametypes right? I really enjoyed playing your map though, so epic thumbs up p.s. I changed some of the "you"s to "you both" etc...
It is indeed disabled and not necessarily. Not all maps play every gametype well, though it is our fault for not specifying the terms in which CTF will work best on our map.
Yeah as Shad0w said, we intended for Matchmaking flag, which has flag at home turned off. Personally, I feel flag at home is horrible on all competitive (non MLG) maps, as the long returns turn the game into a "hold the enemy's flag until time runs out" and it becomes insanely boring. The flag was actually moved outward onto to the plat to make it easier to grab, it was originally in the objective area. MM Flag plays much, much better than default..seriously. But thank you very much for the detailed review, it's always great to hear what people think
This map went through so many changes since you started it I don't even know how many different versions there were. The map plays solid just like the Pit did in Halo 3 which is great because Halo Reach doesn't have enough of these styled maps to offer. Team setup is really important when it comes to winning any game on here, because of the maps layout there are a few ways to set up that allow you to control the map but each set up can be countered and broken if the other team works together.
Excellent re-imagination! I do have some criticisms though: Stevo had mentioned the standstill in CTF and I have some more suggestions as to why this might occur. The sniper room is fairly closed off and seems very campable; have you considered putting some fusion coils in there away from the spawns or perhaps making the sniper rifle spawn more in the open and outside of that room? I have a similar qualm with the sword area. I know the sword room in the pit was very campable but this one seems even more so. Unless you have a jetpack there is only that one ramp to get into it, which is extremely defensible from behind the large braces, especially with the sword. The back wall through the side windows are too far back to really allow for grenades to reach this spot where the sword camper might wait. Maybe you could add thin ramps or grav lifts into the windows on the sides. Or perhaps this or other plain areas of the map might be more player-movement promoting if populated with a fusion coil here and there. I do like how the rocket hall is now shorter and less grenade spammy, although it still has that column block added for cover which is a nice touch. My favorite part is probably the underground pathway similar to the os spawn in the pit. Props to you both on this one!
Thanks for the feedback, I'm glad you enjoyed it. As we stated above, we designed the map for Forgetacular originally (until we found out we couldn't enter it because I'm Canadian..stupid rule), so it was intended with Matchmaking flag that doesn't have flag at home to score. Trust me, it's substantially better. We hated flag at home to score flag. However, we have heard a few people say that they'd like to be able to sprint jump to sword cuts, so it's definitely something we will look into adding if we have enough reason to do a v2. But in regards to sniper, I personally find you get trapped in there more so than camp, and so I feel fusion coils would frustrate those spawning in sniper.
Truly incredible. Within seconds of playing, I could instantly recognize unique structures and a Pit inspired feel. The gameplay ran smoothly, aside from CTF, but that was our fault (didn't change flag at home to score off). Slayer was a truly enjoyable experience. Every area was uniquely designed and instantly rememorable. Great job Chrs and Shad0w!
This is definitely a solid map, I give it a 8/10. I especially prefer the change in flow this map has over the pit, as I found that shooting lanes were constantly blocked by walkways in the pit. The overall size is condensed which means more action which is a plus. The only problems I had were some occasional rendering problems when looking towards the yellow area with the sword but they were few and didn't distract from the overall gameplay. I especially like the semicircle rock gardens, they add a nice aesthetic touch that slightly seperates the map from those which are only silver/gray.
Kind of a late bump but I only just recently played this map and I really enjoyed it, my whole group really enjoyed it. Normally we never do any repeats when we roll through a new set of forge maps but I ended up loading this up a second time during the night just because I liked it so much. It's just very open and intuitive. I never got a solid feel for the layout of the map but no matter where I was it was easy to plan a course of action. Like if I wanted to flank behind my enemy I would just look around to see where an alternate hallway might be, go there, and my guess would be right. It's hard to describe but form fits function really well in this map. It's just so open that you can easily look around and see where you want to go. I love love love the huge doorways. After awhile all these forge maps start to blend together but the doorways give this thing a really unique feel. They're so big and open and they've got more character than most of the professional aesthetics done by Bungie. I'm not exaggerating, I love the old school arena flavor it gives the map. The Pit influence is very noticeable, we were calling it the Pit map even though I had never read your map description until just now. But it does feel like its own map, the similarities are there but the map is definitely it's own thing. It felt as different from the Pit as Guardian felt from Lockout. So this is one of my favorite maps now and more enjoyable than the majority of what was released with Reach. Cheers.
Sorry, I meant to respond earlier and ask you, but where specifically was the rendering issue? We were worried about adding a light...but we weren't able to notice anything. Was it splitscreen? Thanks man, we appreciate that you enjoyed it. The doorways were actually something we kept from Penance. They were an attempt to recreate the arches from Halo 3 haha.
I believe it was only when I turned quickly towards the sword spawn. But I loaded up the map again and there wasn't any issues so I think it was just a fluke or something. Once again great map dude. Keep up the good work.
I've tried downloading this map, but the download link is broken. Is there a resubmitted thread somewhere? Sorry for the notification. Please re-upload your file. Edit: I apologize for the post. I downloaded from the featured maps thread this time.