Cerberus Three base symmetrical arena style map meant to play TS, Oddball, KoTH, 3 Plots. Inspiration taken from Midship, Warlock, and Derelict. I've been having a tough time forging this map since it's inception in Halo 3, but I think when I started playing with both an offensive and defensive side to each base things really started coming together smoother... Almost like the base itself wanted/needed to be asymmetrical in order to place three of them symmetrically on the map. Strange indeed.
You should send an invite when I am on so I can check it out. One of my favorite maps to bottom feed on.
Oh my god. Bottom mid... It's perfect. You should just rename the map Zelda. I can't believe you've forged this map yet again without going insane. So...many...angles. My main concern was the scaling. I'm not concerned about that anymore. I think you nailed it on that front. It's such a minor thing that it's not really even worth mentioning, but my lone criticism on the structure at this point is that I don't really like the hole at top mid. I look forward to playing some games and offering more legitimate feedback on structure, flow, etc. Aesthetically it looks fine, but has room for improvement. My main advice in that department would be to eliminate as much of the exterior walling as possible, and to utilize that space as a way to differentiate the 3 bases. Probably your main challenge with this map will be getting players to understand where they are on the map. The colors are very distinctive, and I love how you highlight them with the black bordering. I'm just not sure that coloring alone is going to be enough on this particular map. Using landmarks outside of the map to create points of reference would be enormously helpful in tackling that challenge. You currently have openings on the exterior walls where one base meets another. I would take that opening and widen it considerably. Going clockwise from there, it could be extended all the way to the top of the ramp. Going counter clockwise, it could be extended nearly to the lift (you'll obviously need to keep the lift walled in). This would give you basically a 50/50 split of walled in/open aired exterior boundaries. Like I said earlier, I would then use those open aired areas as orientation aids.
Yeah there's definitely a tri force vibe going on bottom mid. My hope and goal is that this time around I get Cerberus right, I feel I finally have all the tools to get it right, so I'm taking it slow and willing myself to go through all the steps to get it just the way I've always wanted it. You've made a solid point with as far as orientation goes and although I like how I have the stripes, I feel some of it is overkill. I like your idea for opening up the outside of the map and adding some orientation elements/landmarks. I'm thinking about some ideas I have for that right now (especially after running around on some of purely's creations), I'm really wanting to simplify my piece usage and get the most out of my blocks. I really want the map to feel a bit more solid, but still keep that arena feel. Besides that I'll probably hit a few minor scaling issues I saw and work towards creating total player immersion. As always I appreciate the feedback Chunk. #ReallyExcitedFace.
Hey I remember this map from Halo 4. It was a really great contender during the THC map pack contest. I enjoyed it for 2v2 on H4 but felt that areas were a bit tight. I think that H2A would make this map play out wonderfully since base player mechanics are so much slower. Love the tube tv pics Would love to run some customs on this when I get back home next week. I'll message ya!
Did you start a re-forge on Cerberus? Or was your object count always really low around 375? Looking great man, can't wait to walk on it one day.
Reforge. Aligned bottom mid so it was more symmetrical, reevaluated piece usage, and scaled the map down a tad bit. Also, took Chunks advice and opened up the sides and back of the bases but I still need to work on those areas. It's much cleaner than it was overall and I used less pieces. Only have six blocks left though.
Let me know when it's done. I've been looking for small maps for small groups of FFA or 2v2 and this sounds pretty popular with other people on here. I'd like to try it out.
Word. Still got a bunch of work to do but I'll definitely be wanting people to run as many games and game types as possible when it's done.
Banged out the rest of Cererus's geometry. Piece count is currently at 516 (that includes 44 weapons/powerups, 2 teleporters, 5 spawns and one floating Wall Coliseum). And there's framerate :'( Likely culprits are the 36 various size bridge pieces I used for trim on the bottom level, 6 garage doors, or the 3 Walkway cover... I don't know if grass planes are taxing for our next gen console, but I have 7 of those too. Here's some visuals. http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/c88fea2a-2e5a-4db6-bfdd-79dafde7bd8e/embed http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/b2112019-e398-49e4-bd6c-9cc79305a057/embed http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/6388d33c-312f-4962-bf1d-77443b038ed6/embed
Map's looking great @thefro3po! Looks like you've made some solid changes. I especially like the grass plane garage door courtyard areas. They really help to break up the map and will help greatly in player orientation. My only real criticism is when looking across map on those longer LOS, it can look kind of blended. I think if you could rework your top mid floor and columns a little using darker colored pieces this would break it up a bit more. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the feedback Barry. I had top mid a little more decked out in an earlier version but ended up deleting a bunch of stuff because that's where the framerate was most visible (looking across from garage door/courtyard areas to top middle), but it still didn't help. But you are most certainly correct, I'm definitely going to have to revisit top mid and add some contrast up there.
Alright, I believe I have the whole framerate thing figured out. Ended up deleting all the Col. Walls, Grass Plains, and Walkway Covers and simplified some areas. I added some trim and extra goodies to top mid and got rid of the soccer fields on the sides of the bases. http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/9b3cb65d-473d-4861-a1e3-08312645ff2c/embed http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/5edd564f-b980-4b14-91b3-c2df1d84a953/embed http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/a80686d6-655f-4746-808e-fd56627f3010/embed
Some gameplay footage. http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/bb8b7eae-9b71-4d11-b890-7fbcbe0d6ca6 http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/77da8adc-51d9-4162-82ad-af6a7e01e48b As one would suspect from after putting so many hours of love into this map, there's still some minor framerate issues to iron out... Thus is life I suppose.
It looks like it's come together really nicely fro. I'm looking forward to playing some games on it soon.
Cerberus is ready to start testing for real this time. Walkthrough: http://xboxclips.com/thefro3po/30ddf060-5fe1-42f5-8aa8-8b89186cea53/embed Changes: Removed about 100 pieces (simplified geo and elevated frame-rate issues) Fixed lifts Added a pateo/balcony area to the low sides of each base Opened up the back of the bases Simplified Top Middle Extended Attic areas
Really like the changes @thefro3po Top mid looks much cleaner and more distinguishable. The balcony areas are a great addition as well. Look forward to running some customs on this to see how it plays! What's your visual object count now?