What's your opinion on teleporters in a Halo 5 arena map?

I think teleporters are an outdated idea and are a good way to throw off a map meant for serious core play. They are too easily manipulated by campers, confuse map flow and also make for some very chaotic and uninteresting escapes and battles when theyre two way. Thats not to say they cant be done right though. The way slaphead did it in Mystic(since most know it) doesnt confuse things too much.

Im okay with a 343 map reintroducing the aspect though. It'll keep it interesting.

Imagine if 343 could make Portal-like teleportors. Ones we can see and shoot through. Id embrace that with open arms.

 

To start, they need to not be so loud. It's absurd that you can hear people port from across the map.

 

Usually, I find man cannons to be a more interesting alternative form of movement than teleporters. The fact that man cannons are not instantaneous and put players at greater risk while airborne makes them quite interesting. This is why man cannons were originally intended to act as somewhat of a replacement for teleporters when bringing a Blood Gulch style map to Halo 3 (Valhalla).

With that said, teleporters provide plenty of interesting opportunities of their own as they allow for indirect movement. As long as any teleporter is truly integrated into a map's intended flow design and not slapped on as a band-aid solution to allow for more movement options, teleporters can certainly have a place in a Halo 5 arena map in my opinion.

 

If the map is simple, teleporters can add some movement depth. But, you don't want to complicate the pathways too much either. It will also work best when the map offers a quick line of sight to the receiving node from the sender to diminish the advantage of escaping through the teleporter and give the attacker some options.

Take original Wizard for instance, it would be pretty boring/predictable if all you could do was go around the center piece or middle; running the Flag would have limited options. If you look at Derelict, it was a way to get to the top from the bottom, rather than lifts or ramps. On Blood Gulch or Sidewinder, it was a way to cut walk time down, rather than these mancannons we see now. Then, the map also needs to be scaled correctly if you look at maps such as Beaver Creek where you can go middle or around to the teleporter, but if you scale it wrong then one pathway gives too much of an advantage.

 

teleporters are fine when done correctly and the only map i can think of off the top of my head that does it in h5 is twice foreskin by @SecretSchnitzel.

personally i don't think i could say how to teleporters in a way that works because i've never been able to figure it out, but what i can say is that most people who do use teleporters tend to use the teleporters as a lazy fix to pathing and power position balance instead of addressing the issue. this is where i think most of the issues come from regarding teleporters and i don't think this should be used to discredit them when they have there place.

 

I would love to see teleportors make a return to official maps. They offer a unique gameplay mechanic that can't really be emulated by anything else. Gravity lifts are neat, but they're not even on the same level. The quick thinking and map awareness required by maps that have good teleporter placement (like Chillout) are some of the best maps for this very reason. The teamwork, intuition, and experience required to predict if a player will choose to teleport is huge--and then predict and counter accordingly--but when executed successfully, there's something incredibly rewarding about it. And daresay Halo about it.

Completely ignoring them because they can be confusing at first or because they're often implemented poorly would be a major disservice to long time fans and it would rob newcomers to the franchise of a mechanic that can be so rewarding and fun.

 

I loved teleporters in old maps and would love to see them make a comeback !

 

Spellcheck has failed me!

As for where and when it can be used, besides pointing to Chillout, I would say it has to meet certain criteria. These guidelines can be broken of course, but for this scenario it would probably be best to adhere to them. To put it plainly, the tele must be counter-able and predictable, like all good Halo mechanics. What does this mean?

1.) Well it can't be hidden away. You have to see someone go into it, and exit, preferably from one perspective. It has to be exposed.

2.) The tele shouldn't take players from the least powerful part of the map to the most powerful part of the map. Nor should it go from least busy to most busy. Or vise versa.

3.) The tele shouldn't ensure death nor should it guarantee an upper hand. A happy balance should be found between risk vs reward. Because teles in H5 are about as loud as a jet about to lift off, teles should probably send to somewhat more advantageous position then prior games where they were silent.

4.) The tele has to "make sense". This is the most difficult to qualify, and I don't really know if I can give a general rule for it, since it is so map dependent. But I'll try. The tele has to incorporate the already established map flow and enhance it. It shouldn't drastically change it or try to balance it. Doing so will create an unnatural flow where players will have no way to predict/counter use.

And lastly, if a tele faces the same direction (like east) sending and receiving, this helps player orientation a lot. But it's hard to do so it's less of a guideline.


This is all info I've learned over the years, anyone please feel free to correct me or where I'm wrong.

 

I love teleporters and grav lifts! @SecretSchnitzel 's map Twice Forsaken is a pretty good example of how teleporters should be done, with lines of sight available between them. Using a teleporter to get to OS creates a choke point at the sender node, which helps with the flow of the map. The style of map I think changes with the introduction of gravs or teles, but if it's done right it can be really fun!

 

I hate you.

 

Being incorporated into the maps flow is of utmost importance. Too often I've seen forgers use teleporters as a bandaid to rectify map flow, when in actuality the teleporter should intentional and map flow designed around it.

I'm a fan of players exiting a teleporter in the same directional orientation that they went in. If you enter facing east, you should exit facing east. I find this helps with player orientation when using two way teleporters. However, this isn't a rule set in stone. I broke it with two of my teleporters on Twice Forsaken after all.

Also, when dealing with two way teleporters, it's beneficial to have a sight line between the two, as this helps mitigate the escapist shenanigans.

 

One way to make teleporters work is to simply have the area the teleporter leads to be easily covered / controlled by someone by the teleporter entrance. The main issue with teleporters is camping, so if you can alleviate this problem by making the teleporter camping strategy a really bad strategy because you limit the options to camp it, and make it so people from different angles near the teleporter ENTRANCE can shoot at the teleporter EXIT, then you can easily 'escort' people through the teleporter and improve map movement.

That being said, I would really never use more than 1 teleporter on a given map; and personally I dont like the general idea of 2 way teleporters at all. 1 ways are the way to go IMO.