The Defiant Map Pack

I'm pretty sure Forgehub doesn't allow leaks to be posted on it's forums. Something about their relationship with Bungie.

 

millions of forgers who named their map "Condemned" will not be pleased of this news.

 

Hmm... saw a video of Condemned and it seems zero-g is making a return. Either that or the guy was playing on modified settings. Yay or neigh?

 

Yeah, discussion is allowed just no links

 

The visual backdrops of Condemned and Training Preserve/Highlands are absolutely stunning. Condemned has a frigate orbiting what looks like to be a sun, and Highlands has a Covenant cruiser glassing a human-controlled planet in the distance. Unearthed's menu screen image reminds me of the last campaign mission.

 

Is it just me or does the gravity in the low-G area of Condemned look closer to regular gravity than is true of Zealot/A9? It seems like they're really pushing this low-G idea, though I suppose at the very least they seem to be working on refining it. Idk though, are we ever going to see a new inside 4v4 size map without low-G? It's a novel idea, and whilst it works much better on A9 than it did on Zealot, I'd still like to see some classic room-based combat without it muscling in on every map pack.

New BTB map looks good. Can't say much more since it's really hard to gauge layout, let alone potential balance, from quick flythroughs of larger maps, but I felt that they nailed it well with Breakpoint. If they can follow up large scale outdoor combat in a similar vein then I'm sold.

Really couldn't care less about another FF map tbh and would really rather not pay for one. Though I get that others will appreciate it and tbh I'm gonna buy this map pack either way so it's not a biggie overall.

 

Sad to find out that one of the three is a FF map..but it doesn't look awful.

The BTB maps actually looks great both in aesthetic and for gameplay. Nice to see a BTB building to building map and the aesthetic is like the Canadian wilderness so it's pretty cool.

Condemned, the 4v4, looks beautiful but is complicated as **** and has an unnecessary low-G area. Probably gonna be crap but a little hard to tell from the video. Wish he hadda showed the forge pallet on the BTB map though.

Apparently there is rumors of a new armor ability to combat Armor lock and a Covie Forge World, but that is to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

You would say that . But agreed tbh, building to building is lacking in Reach BTB, and tbh BTB scale overall. Ideally another one or two past this would make things right, but at least this will help the frankly struggling playlist compliment.

Agreed again, but then I thought that the A9 bases looked complex and confusing when I first saw a vid. I'll hold judgement on that for now since getting a feel for layout in room-based maps from video is incredibly difficult, you inherently can't pan up for an overview. Plus Bungie have shown their prowess with balancing complexity of room-based maps with ease of understanding once you get to know it, do you remember how incredibly baffling Countdown felt the first time you loaded it up compared to how it felt after even a week of play?

Double agreed. I was keeping an eye out for large open spaces with plenty of height clearance for floating map potential (I'd assume Bungie will give us at least something to work with in terms of structural items, a la Tempest) but it's kinda hard to tell. The soft kill looked worryingly low for hope on that front, though. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

I call bullshit on both tbh. New AA seems out of the blue and more of a 'I think we need something to counter AL so I'm gonna assume Bungie is doing it' thing, we all know how common that kind of prediction is in the Halo community. As for the Covie FW, I just can't see it. The Covie aesthetic is inherently rounded, which would be a nightmare for making forge objects with, and even if it does happen it'll be with a future map pack imo. I can't see Bungie deviating from the 3 map setup when there's little reason to, even with the FF map inclusion, and if it's there then why didn't we see it in that video which even went as far as showing the map selection list? It's pretty clear that someone at S7 got hold of the download early using a Jtag or something, same as with the original Reach leak, why would Bungie compile a downloadable version but leave out one of the maps?

Perhaps we'll see it as a standalone item, maybe even a free one like Cold Storage. Seems pretty hopeful/farfetched I know, but it's the only way I can think of this new FW rumour having any basis in something that exists/is being worked on rather than also falling in to the 'I want so I'll assume it exists' category.

If we assume that it's not in the works now, I do think we'll probably get another full canvas before DLC for Reach stops, but I just think map pack number 2 is a bit sooner than is reasonable to expect. In H3 it was pack number 1 (because the game didn't ship with one) and pack number 3. I'd assume that if we do get another canvas, it'll follow suit and come with the 3rd map pack whenever that happens. On the one hand it could be argued that some wouldn't want to pay for a forge map, but then I (like most people I know tbh) don't really care for FF, or at least not enough to want one of 3 paid maps to be another FF map, yet this pack has one, so that gives me more hope in terms of expecting Bungie to cater to us at some point down the line.

 

I will agree that it sounds incredibly far-fetched but I should have probably elaborated the rumor a bit.

The armor ability I personally don't believe..just seems weird. I wouldn't completely throw it out the window though..there is a slight chance. The map is much more believable I think though.

The quote about the two of those came from the guy who has the Flickr pics of the maps. I don't know if it's the same guy as the S7 dude because I haven't been to the flickr account. However, the S7 dude responded to comments on the youtube vid (or at least the guy who posted the youtube vid) and said that he was a part of beta testing and that a Covie Forge World was shown but not meant to be included in this map pack. He mentioned the possibility due to the FF map inclusion but as of now it wasn't.

Now, I can see this. Bungie may want to do something different (like they did with the original FW) and give us a pallet we've never seen. This pallet would also make maps aesthetic better and geometrically more interesting without causing a need for an overuse of items like in FW.

However, my fears (like you stated) are that the pallet would be nearly impossible to use in an "outside the box" manner. Meaning that every piece we placed would have to have been pre-thought of in all scenario's by Bungie because obviously, circular and rounded objects don't interlock well together. Thus, we'd be stunted hugely in creativity and be forced to create maps that look exactly like what Bungie wants.

Now maybe I'm giving them too little of credit and maybe they've managed to work in some flatter and more square pieces. Or maybe this was just a ripped download from a JTAG like you said and Forge World Covie is a pipe dream. Who knows.

Personally, I think the likelihood is there for another Forge World. It's not 100% because Bungie doesn't like to admit mistakes and giving us one too early is saying FW is inadequate essentially. However, there is a small window of time since Bungie will likely be moving on from Reach within the year (that's just my opinion).

The Firefight map really hurts this maps chances for a purchase from me honestly. Two legit maps in an extremely lacking game is not enough for me to drop the money on them. The first pack gets very little play from me and I really don't want to pay for essentially one BTB map that I'll never get to play. However, a Forge World is an assured purchase.

 

Low G area looks to be smack in the middle of the map. So annoying. We all know that the real reason it sucked on Zealot was the shield doors cutting off that area from the rest of the map, but fighting in low G is inherently worse than normal due to jumping making you a really easy target.

As for a covie FW, I could see it happening. Lots of rounded decoratives and such, but lots of squares with covie patterns to build the majority of the map structure with. I just hope to god they fix the frame rate issues.

 

Yeah, I noticed that it seems totally central too. What do you reckon to the low-grav being less extreme than A9/Zealot, though? Maybe I'm just imagining things, but the jump seems less extreme from that vid snippet.

This. If the main push with a new FW isn't a framerate issue reduction, there's little to no point imo, a new aesthetic would be nice but meh overall.

@ chrs: all good points. I too am a little hesitant to completely dismiss things said by the person leaking the material, but an AA just seems really far fetched. As I said, I can completely believe in a new FW, and you make good counters, as does Ladnil, to my scepticism over a Covie them. I can also believe it's being developed, but I remain about as sure as it's possible to be right now that it won't be in this pack. If it's being developed on its own then that gives a tiny bit more hope to a standalone release, I'd really love that tbh.

 

I have to say, if one of the maps is indeed a FF map, then I'm highly disappointed. I never play FF, ever. So I would basically be paying for 2 multiplayer maps. Like chrst said, a forge map would make the purchase worth while, but I'm not holding my breath.

And like pretty much everyone else, I hate the random zero g in these maps. Haaaate.

The maps do look pretty nice, we'll probably hear about the map pack from bungie soon.

 

Dude, you're missing out on an incredibly fun gametype if you're not playing firefight. Anyway, having 1 map out of the 6 DLC maps isn't that bad of a ratio for a gametype that you don't play (Firefight is technically a multiplayer gametype, btw). It sucks beyond belief that Microsoft is still continuing their protracted, incredibly stingy map packs that never become free, but it is what it is.

...and the idea of a Covenant-themed Forge World makes me a little moist, ain't gonna lie.

 

We've never seen it before, so it would be sexy. Although I'd kind of like to see a human pallet first, but meh.

 

I'd rather have a human pallet too. Covie seems too crazy. And how would team coloring work with everything being so purple. I'd see bungie giving us objects with more of a neutral color like FW's.

FF being in the map pack kinda makes me mad and might not get it if it doesn't have a new fw

 

Honestly, Firefight should have it's own set of map packs.

 

Well if Bungie had allowed FF to be a forge able gametype then we wouldn't be having this problem. That's also highly unreasonable to think that would be possible.

With regards to the map pack itself. Bleh. I'm pretty much done with Bungie telling me how I should play their maps. Most of the default maps in reach do a great job of selling out to the casual player.

 

I hope these will bring ssome refreshing Scenery that may encourage people to Forge on it. I'm sick of Forge World.