4v4/5v5 (designed for one flag) This map is still being edited and tested. It is designed for 1-Flag but will house Oddball, KotH, Extraction, Team Slayer, and FFA. The map is a giant freighter traveling across the Ravine sea. Upon start the attackers jump in a bunch of banshees and ambush the ship by air while the defenders lock'n'load with dual mantis', rail guns, turrets of various caliber, and other small arms. After the initial assault attackers spawn on the ship and no vehicles respawn. Recap Recap
The map looks like it could play well, possibly a bit tight but I imagine the Banshees would just break gameplay and be really frustrating.
The banshees have been going down fairly quickly so far. They're only available with the 1-Flag map variant and you have to leave your banshee to run the flag. Plus one flag runner just is not going to get the job done so more must be on foot to help run the flag. The map plays pretty competitively so far and is pretty addicting with the Aerial assaults combined with the rounds.
Fair enough, I suppose with the flag in mind players wont just abandon their flag. What about the defending team? Without a flag too run and only having to defend theirs do they abuse the banshees at all?
Well in the video you can see that the banshees spawn up on the island. The only way for a defender to get a hold of a banshee is if they hijack one. This happens fairly often and the game usually ( at 2mins left) ends up with one team with only 1 banshee left that is on its' last leg. None of the vehicles or turrets respawn. Defenders are equipped with the following anti-air: -Mantis x2 (no respawn) -Rail Gun x2 (only one respawns) -Sniper Rifle x1 -Turrets x3 (no respawn) -Dominion Turrets x3 (one being mostly anti-personnel) -SAW x1 Attackers initially spawn on the island but respawn on the ship and they have: -Sniper Rifle x1 -Rail Gun x1 -SAW x1 -Turret x1 (no respawn) to help finish off any remaining vehicles. A Rocket Launcher (initial ordinance) drops mid ship.
1) This is a great idea for a map, and 2) it's really well-forged and well-balanced. I can say that because I've now helped test it a bunch of times, and pretty much every match has been a nailbiter. I agree with Hulk, the banshees aren't OP. The defending team has plenty to counter them - 2 mantises, a dominion turret, a sniper, and rockets if they go grab them from a neutral location. Plus of course good ol' EMPs and hijacking. The kill zoning around the ship is also fairly aggressive (due to Ravine's built-in boundaries, I think?) so banshees can't go way out to sea and then swoop back in; you can do that a little bit but if you KEEP doing it, you end up dead.
Just a little thing that bothers me.... What made you decide to say casual over competitive? Just because it doesn't stick to the usual formula that most competitive maps/gametypes adhere to, doesn't make it any less of a competitive game. Sure, it can be played casually for fun, but so can Team Slayer on Haven. I've not played this, but from watching the videos and reading some feedback it seems as it can be balanced to suit competitive play. I dunno, I guess I've just never really been a fan of the casual label
I'd like to see a bit more opportunity to gain height for non-jetpack users. As it stands, if you don't use that armor ability, you're already at a disadvantage. I messed around with pro-vision, thruster pack, and hologram a bit, but none had the effectiveness as jetpack because I just found it so difficult to ascend. Other than that, the map was awesome. I asked who made it about a minute into our first game last night, and when someone said 'Hulk', I immediately got excited for the schenanigans. Banshees were fun, but not overpowered. if anything, I'd say that the manyises are underpowered, because they only have one exit and often can be executed before leaving the garage they spawn in. Overall a fantastic game and blends some serious gameplay and what i now recognize as your signature 'controlled chaos'.
Balance doesn't equal competitive, and non-balance doesn't equal casual. Saying casual should apply negative stigma towards the map, because the map can be casual and good. It is casual because competitive maps are the kind of maps you would expect in a matchmaking playlist.
As far as height opportunity, I will probably add about 2-3 grav lifts in locations that you might not accidentally run over them. I think that should help, maybe one in the middle and one at each end of the crates. The mantises should be out are ready when I fix the spawning and delay of banshees by maybe 3-5seconds. I want the defenders to feel a calm before the storm, like they just saw a banshee force on their radar and everyone mans their battle stations.
Says who though? Since when was a competitive map defined by one that resembles the characteristics of a map in matchmaking? Too many people have this stigma that a "competitive map" must follow a certain set of guidelines for it to be considered competitive, and as a result creativity is replaced with repetitiveness. People aren't willing to think outside the box for fear that their map won't be taken as seriously/competitively otherwise. This may just be me, but I would define a competitive map as a map that can be played competitively. That's it. If a map is unbalanced and one team has the clear advantage over the other, then it shouldn't be played competitively since the team with the unfair advantage has a better chance of winning. However if it is balanced, there's no reason why it couldn't be played at a competitive level, right? To go along with that, this map's intended gametype is considered a competitive gametype. Simply because it starts out differently than most CTF games shouldn't completely void it as being competitive. I've found that casual maps consist of three general categories: flood, minigames, and maps that can be played with standard gametypes yet are mainly used for goofing around and not meant to be taken seriously. And I don't think this map fits into any of those 3 categories. Not trying to start anything, I've just always been annoyed by the distinction between competitive and casual, and I'm sitting here in lecture bored as could be, so I figured why not Didn't mean to derail the thread, haha. <3 chu Berb.
That's a false description. I see what you mean though and two things make my map stand out that may make people like you uncomfortable. The first one is the attackers initial spawn with the banshees but it works and is not broken. The second is that the map was made for 1-Flag which is about the most competitive gametypes can come. Yes Halo 4 doesn't support 1-Flag but that doesn't make this a casual map. Many competitive official maps have housed more vehicles than mine as well so I don't see why you think this is casual. When testing the guys said they loved it so much because it is so competitive but yet so fun. Edit: Casual maps are those that support custom gametypes. If they're designed to support an official gametype (no matter how shitty forged) it is still a competitive map. 1-Flag should not follow under a custom gametype because it plays Exactly like 1-flag in halo 3.
Interesting. My first thought when seeing this was that I was looking at one of those horrible invasion maps back in reach with 8 banshees and a huge cluster of explosions when they reached their destination. However, as everyone who has played it is telling me otherwise I suppose I should give it more thought than that. I've never seen this idea made to work well before but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done, so until I've played it I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. The topic of whether this is competitive or not intrigues me as well. My first response would have been no because both sides seem so loaded with weapons/ vehicles. However, the idea of Casual vs Competitive can't even really be discussed because we don't have a real definition for them, just personal thoughts on what makes up the difference. I think I'll start a thread on this topic Over Here.. Anyways, interesting map you have here. I'll have to play this one to really understand it, as it breaks the mold too much to compare otherwise.
I know exactly which maps you mean and unfortunately played a bunch of them. The main difference here is that the defenders' location is fortified with plenty of cover and weapons to fight back the banshees, and there are legitimate anti-aircraft vehicles and turrets available (not just un-legit ones, like the gauss hog, which turned every confrontation into a 1-shot-kill 'fest). Plus there's a lot of ground cover with all those high stacks of "shipping containers," which makes it possible to evade the banshees even outside the flag tower. It works so much better than you might expect, and did from the first test.
Well watch the videos and you can see how well it plays. Both teams play very aggressively and yet everything is balanced. Also after the initial assault, all you have left is a rail gun, saw, and sniper at each end. That's no more than most competitive maps. All I can say is test it yourself to fully get a feel for how it plays.
wow, I really like the concept and design of the ship. nicely done. as for whether it's "competetive" or casual, I suppose that comes down to this question... is it a place where one person's skills can shine over another lesser player? or is the map going to be a place where a noob can dominate a player that is admittedly better skill-wise and is mostly just for fun and no one cares if they die a zillion times? From the look and sdound of this, I'd say it is competetive.
The concept highly encourages team work. As most power weapons on this map are mostly anti-air, they will not be very helpful against infantry with this much cover. You can practically sneak within 30 feet of the flag without being noticed. I think everyone is being blinded by the cinematic style initial assualt that I have set up that makes this map very addicting. Against the mantis' you can gain much higher ground on and flank very easily. The turrets can be taken out from far edges of the ship without ever having to get close to them. The rail guns have a charge up delay so someone running out from behind a crate and into your face makes this weapon almost useless against infantry here. The Sniper Rifle is blinded by high staked crates so you either use it for anti-air, no scopes, or you need to be pretty decent with one sniping at mid to close range. I don't see how all of this is coming across (to some) as someone running around with a power weapon and merking everyone. Edit: Watch the videos or play it yourself for some people's judgement on this map is off and missing the whole point of this map. It is designed from the ground up to be a very competitive objective based map. You have to assault a ship and steal it's flag from a barrage of defenses with a lateral map design. I mean come on, it screams aggressive competitive'ness.