vote for your favorite Halo 4 Multiplayer Map! explain why it is your favorite map, also feel free to discus your least favorite map. Abandon Adrift Complex Exile Haven Longbow Meltdown Ragnarok Solace Vortex
It was either Exile or Longbow. Exile plays Dominion amazingly and better than Longbow, but I feel that Longbow is a bit more solid in BTB. If only I can pick 2.
Abandon. It has a good mix of short/long LoS, has multiple tiers with subtle overlap, fast pace, and it's asymmetrical.
as far as the large maps go, I like longbow the best, imo the most likely reason is the skewed voting system. 4 of these maps get the most play while the other 6 are rarely voted for. it always seems like they put the most popular maps against two maps that aren't as popular. in my experience Ragnarok and Haven get voted about 90% of the time, making them both my least favorite maps, its not that they are bad maps, but I have about 40+ hours into the multiplayer already the same map over and over again gets real old! my favorite small/midsize map would have to be adrift it is an absolute blast playing CTF!
BTB Slayer: Vortex Dominion: Exile 4 v 4 Slayer: Adrift FFA: Abandon Flag: N/A, flag moves across all maps so fast that I can't tell which maps would be good for it or not. Forge: Panic Station Biggest disappointment: Tie between Longbow and Ragnarok. Longbow for every game turning into a battle for top mid the whole game and Ragnarok for functioning so poorly with the DMR/ Light Rifle. Overall Vote: Exile. Plays a good game of slayer, Dominion, and Extraction while managing to be not super broken in Infinity Slayer. Not bad for Hogs.
Likes: Abandon (Slayer), Adrift (CTF), Exile (Dominion), and Haven Dislikes: Complex (stupid FRL ruining an otherwise interesting map), Meltdown (Reliance on lifts/teleporters), Ragnarok (just no.), Solace (glowing pillar of light). I don't know enough about Longbow or Vortex - I've gotten one game with negative impressions on the first, and can't seem to find the latter at all in matchmaking.. what playlists is it on? Overall, I like Haven and Abandon, but if I have to go with one, I'm for Haven for multiple gametype compatibility.
Exile. Solid BTB map with great holdout and vantage points as well as a beautiful mix of vehicle and infantry combat. I agree J4G3R, it does get annoying playing on a popular map that gets voted over and over again.
I feel like Abandon is too close quarters...It feels cramped, honestly. I kinda like Complex, but only for team snipers. Eh, I really only play team snipers, so I don't think my opinion on any of these maps really matters.
If it wasn't for the constant control of the highest center structure, I would have said Abandon. Still, I do think that map is a step above the others though. My favorite would have to be Haven followed by Adrift for objective gametypes.
I play a lot of Team Slayer and BTB, from my experience the most played maps are Ragnarok, Exile, Haven, and Complex. maps that I've rarely played are probably vortex and meltdown. Idk why but it seems like nobody likes vortex, maybe its just really unbalanced with the wraith. seems like whatever team gets the wraith first ends up winning.
Meltdown doesn't rely on lifts and teleporters, it just offers some of them. Its an 8 shaped map so its really a very generic, solid map design. I think you dislike how busy it is with the added tunnels, sidepaths, lifts, and teleporters, more than a supposed reliance on teleporters and lifts. I kind of dislike how busy they made it adding so many things in to the basic 8 shape, but I still like it because I like the Halo CE style designs like Meltdown and Exile have. And you actually like Abandon? I HATE that map lol! I think it is one of the least functional maps in all of the Halo games made actually. I can't ever tell where I'm at on the map when I spawn, because I either can't see anything due to being surrounded by walls/ rocks that look alike, and because there are no overhead high up landmarks to identify either. Sure, the sky kind of looks different, but that just tells you which side you're on, not where you're at. And I can already notice that from the map itself. I just can't ever figure out where I've spawned at until I look around and move around for several seconds. Its very frustrating sometimes, especially in SWAT. My favorite map BY FAR is... EXILE!!!!!! I think Exile is possibly the best map for the banshee made yet in any Halo game! The oval shape gives cover for the banshee to fly around when you're being shot at. But, they should have really put 2 banshees in my opinion since the banshee(s) does get cover from the oval shape of the map. A map like Ragnarok, where the banshee gets no cover due to the entire map having shots at it basically the entire time, should have 1 neutral banshee so that you don't have to get into a dogfight and then also be shot at from the ground. The banshee on Ragnarok will usually be very damaged from its fight with the other banshee, and then it has no cover to work with from the other team shooting at it, so it dies very fast on Ragnarok. So I think a neutral banshee would work better on Ragnarok, but the map was never really designed for that. I guess one could be spawned on the side opposite of the crashed pelican maybe. But I love me some Exile. I get 5-15 kills normally with the banshee each game on Exile! [br][/br]Edited by merge: I mostly play BTB, and don't find the voting in that skewed at all really. I get an even mix of Ragnarok, Exile, Longbow, and Meltdown, because those are the popular maps in BTB. Vortex comes up once in a long time, but that's because its not as good as the other 4 and therefore not popular. And the reason I don't play Infinity Slayer much is because most of the maps they put up in that playlist aren't that great imo. I don't care much for Adrift, it feels awkward to play on to me because the middle is sooo dangerous to go in and can't be defended/ camped either, while the outside is basically a straight hallway or lift depending on where you're at/go. I hate Abandon, but I feel like with some serious drastic lighting changes, a new skybox, some small texture changes in a few spots near the cliff, and adding a tall landmark to the map would make it easy to know where you've spawned at, it would become a great map. Complex is ok I guess. Same for Solace, although I'm not sure if Solace comes up in Infinity Slayer?? So anyway, those reasons are probably why people vote up Haven so much like me if I play Infinity Slayer. I mean it wouldn't be fair to divide the maps up coming up as 3 popular or 3 unpopular... because people don't want to play the unpopular ones lol. Those maps just have to be put up against a popular one sometimes. And lots of times I see 2 popular 1 unpopular if that's what you mean. I'm really impressed with the maps in Halo 4 though. The only one I really dislike is Abandon, but only because due to the textures, lighting, skybox, and lack of a tall landmark, its difficult to figure out where you've spawned at on the map, which is problematic during SWAT. [br][/br]Edited by merge: I couldn't agree with you more about your comments about Longbow and Ragnarok. I really, really, REALLY wish they had lowered the top mid section of Longbow quite a bit so that it wouldn't be so dominant over the map. The other side of Longbow is barely even used, and would be, if the high side was not so high and therefore commanding of the map too. Ragnarok... I have no idea what they could do to that map to make the DMR less useful on it. Maybe they could make it where you can't shoot out of the bases at least. That would be a minor improvement at least, because I've crouched on the edge of the base shooting people in the middle with the DMR and Sniper Rifle and done way way too much damage in lots of games. I almost got a perfection doing that my last game on Ragnarok actually. Maybe adding a few tall pine trees between the bases and the middle hill would help too, to break up sight lines between the middle hill and the rest of the map.
I would like Exile except that it comes up way too often whenever I play BTB. I've played more than a dozen (I started counting) games on exile and barely any on Vortex or Meltdown. On exile I feel like the Banshee and Scorpion spawn closer to the Red spawn then blue side. Whenever I play blue I try to rush the scorpion on a mongoose and I lose to the red team who are on foot.
from my experience I don't get an even mix lol, Ragnarok and exile get voted about 80% of the time for BTB, sometimes if I'm lucky longbow will get voted, very rarely do I see vortex or meltdown voted for. I think it would be fair to divide the voting scheme to 3 popular then 3 unpopular. there isn't really any other way to get those maps in the rotation. they aren't bad maps because they are unpopular, they are just underplayed, the average gamer (talking bout those level 15-40) would rather play the same map over and over because they are still trying to learn the game mechanics and want a familiar setting, they feel safer, get more kills etc.. I'm SR55, so I'd say above average to enthusiast level, switching it up is my style, throughout my 55 ranks I've prob played vortex and meltdown about 8 times, and that's combined lol, so when you look at it from that perspective, it is VERY skewed. I'd love to play them / learn them but alas I can't because nobody votes them.
Well I do get more games on Exile and Ragnarok, but I get a fair number of games on Longbow and Meltdown too, and rarely any on Vortex. But that reflects their popularity to unpopularity. And they are more or less popular depending largely on how good of maps they are and how good people think they look. I think looks often influence a map's popularity as much as how good its actual gameplay is too. But its still fair. I mean its not fair to people to divide the maps up popular and unpopular to make sure they're all played evenly because that defeats the purpose of voting to a degree somewhat. People get to vote so that their favorite maps are played more than their least favorite maps. So more popular maps are going to be played more, and Halo 4 happens to have 2 very, very popular maps. If you're looking at it from a perspective that all the maps should come up almost as often as each other, then yeah, you're right, its not even at all. But I'm ok with that as long as all the maps do eventually come up. And luckily for me, I enjoy how often all of them come up anyway lol. Its about exactly how often I would want them all to come up lol! I do see what you're saying though.
I haven't seen them all yet, but so far I like haven better. it's not too big, simple enough but not basic, overall it's very clean and it's easy to tell what's going on.
Haven is a good all-purpose 4v4 map. Really enjoyable, plays really well. I'm surprised to see no votes for Complex - I know it has its issues (those rooftops... oh, those rooftops), but it's a very fun map for CTF and not a bad map for slayer and oddball.
Agreed. I consider it the second best 4v4 Slayer map despite its issues, simply because all the others are so bad if you ask me. Abandon is just silly, one important structure and a mess of bad sight lines. Adrift is too corridor-y for me, too much fighting from corners in to lift corridors or vice versa, and too much skimming around the edge. Solace is cluttered in the open area and the bottom area is near unused, leaving most of the combat to go on in the bases, which I don't enjoy. But I still enjoy Complex a lot despite balance, size and spawning issues. Obviously it's no Haven, but a solid second in my book.
Once again we are sharing a brain, Peg. I agree with your take on all the maps. I'm hoping they'll grow on me with repeated exposure but so far H4's "purpose-built" maps have been mostly duds. Complex is one of only a handful that I look forward to playing on, even with its issues. "Silly" is the right word for Abandon - I will still vote for it, play on it and usually enjoy myself, but it's not actually a good design, and the gameplay is repetitive. I'm not a fan of "de facto KOTH" maps; they can be mindlessly fun just like playing KOTH with a single non-moving hill, but the gameplay is as deep as an evaporating puddle.