Original map thread​

Not very often does a new map come along that manages to capture the attention of players across the full spectrum of Halo communities. Designed from the ground up as a spiritual successor to the beloved "Space Assault" mode from Star Wars Battlefront 2, Infinity Siege embodies all the aspects of large-scale warfare that players have come to adore.

The map, however, is only half the story. The custom gametype, appropriately named Galactic Conquest, is what truly sets this map apart. Galactic Conquest is required to play on the map and it does not currently support any other core game modes. Technically, that makes this as a mini game. This "mini game" however, is as competitive and team-driven as any other big team game mode.



The map itself is immaculate, the level of detail observed here is truly inspiring. All too often in the past, big team maps are neglected in this department because of object count restrictions. With the increased cap on piece count and through creative conservation of pieces, WyvernZu has managed to create one of the largest, yet most detailed play spaces to date. The interior spaces especially make for a very convincing battleground.



The game is simple. Two teams start inside large UNSC ships on opposing ends of the map. There are three tiers of objectives that a team must achieve in order to emerge victorious. The first objective is to destroy the enemy team's fuel silos. These silos are perilously exposed to the enemy team and their powerful defensive canon. Once the silos are destroyed, there are several shield generators that must be taken out in order to board the enemy ship. The generators are located in several different locations along the exterior of the ship. Once these are neutralized, the enemy shields fall and the attacking team is now free to come aboard. The third and final objective is to destroy the enemy core. The shields guarding the core are powerful and require a concentrated force in order to disable it.



We had the privilege of sitting down with WyvernZu and discussing the map and her design philosophy.

Foxy: Thanks for taking the time to meet with us Wyvern.

WyvernZu: Thanks for having me!

WARHOLIC: You've created a wide variety of projects in Halo 5 ranging from BTB to Infection. What inspired you to create a mini-game and have you ever created one in the past?

WyvernZu: The reason why I started making Infinity Siege is that I've always wanted space combat in Halo. I also want to work on very varied projects to get more experience about map design. I remember playing Star Wars Battlefront when I was a kid and just having my mind blown over the huge battles between ship to ship and the dogfighting between the fighters. I've tried making a map like this ever since Halo 3 but I've just never been able to make it because of the restrictions of the old forge modes. So I just felt that I had to try again for Halo 5!

Foxy: Well I would have to say you nailed it. I feel maybe a little inspiration from Halo: Reach may have made it in?

WyvernZu: Thank you! Yeah the space stations on each side are actually heavily inspired by Anchor 9 from Halo Reach. I also looked a lot at the maps from Halo 4 that had the interior of the Infinity to get a good grasp over how the UNSC design and colors worked for the interior of the ship.



Foxy: Most definitely! Speaking of Halo: Reach, the three-tier system reminds me of the much beloved invasion game type. Is this your way of requesting official inclusion of a similar game type from 343 in the future?

WyvernZu: Invasion for Halo 5 would've been awesome and I really hope that we get to see it in this or in future Halo games. So because of that I actually started working on setting up an Invasion mode for Halo 5 but it's still a WIP. Invasion was a huge inspiration for building the map and mode. It's just something about the linear progression in a gamemode that makes it feel so much more immersive for me.


Foxy: I couldn't agree more. I know I'm not alone in saying that I am very excited to see that project come to fruition! There is so much happening dynamically on this map. What was the largest obstacle you had to overcome during the creation process?

WyvernZu: The hardest thing about the map has honestly been keeping track of all of the different script power channels. When there is this much going on at once it gets really hard to keep track of them all. Other than that I'd say the Core room in the last tier. There was a glitch in forge earlier where random objects would apply scripts on themselves so at one point a huge part of that room was randomly spinning!



Foxy: I've encountered that glitch personally myself! I'm glad to see you managed to overcome it. You've quickly earned a place among the elite of the forge community. Would you consider Infinity Siege to be your greatest contribution to your library of Halo 5 creations?

WyvernZu: I think Infinity Siege is the most interesting out of my maps for Halo 5 just due to the tier system and the destructible objectives. But it's honestly hard to pick one out of the maps hahah.

WARHOLIC: Players are encouraged to destroy beacons to disable the shield doors allowing access to the enemy core. In our testing sessions many of the players were unaware of the transitions between objectives. What were some of the problem solving solutions you came up with to make this experience more intuitive?

WyvernZu: Letting the player know what to do has been a hard thing to accomplish. But I ended up putting name locations over the strongholds to give the players a sense of direction like (Blue One, Blue Two, Deck) for the different objectives in the Tiers. It's not ideal but it's the best I can do with Strongholds as of now. I also included an alarm sound that spawns when the shields for the ship have gone down to alert the players that they need to go back and defend their core. I do intend on adding more visual queues like lights etc to make it even clearer in the future. On top of that, I've included a picture in my post explaining the different tiers. It has worked pretty well since then. Hopefully that should be enough for players to know what to do.



Foxy: I saw the ForgeHub post and I have to say, it's almost as impressive as the map itself. What has motivated you this time around to put so much time and detail into this project? It's clear that you are very passionate about this map.

WyvernZu: Thanks! I really wanted the map to stand out and look as polished as possible. I think it's a lot of fun designing logos and buttons so I tried to make the post look as professional as possible. I haven't really seen any real modes with progression in them so I wanted to push this mode as much as possible.

Foxy: Well the level of detail you added is what really sells the map for me. It's rare to see a map with such a large footprint be so detailed. No doubt the recent forge updates (especially the higher object limit) helped make this map possible?

WyvernZu: I think it's really important to try and sell your map as much as possible to get people interested in the map and it's something I would love to see more of from forgers! Yeah the object count increase is what made this map possible. 1492 objects. I had a very rough draft earlier when we only had 1024 objects to play with but it was much more basic and didn't feature the tier system like the finalized map does.



Foxy: Was the inclusion of the phaeton part of the design from the beginning or was it included later as a result of play testing feedback?

WyvernZu: The phaeton was something I was considering adding from the start but I held off due to balance concerns but it was added later and it showed to be a pretty balanced neutral vehicle.

Foxy: The wasps were added in with the object count update too if I'm not mistaken. Was the original idea to use banshees then? What motivated you to change the design to include wasps instead?

WyvernZu: The map initially had banshees instead of wasps but it never really felt right balance wise so the wasps really helped making the map a more fun and balanced experience due to it's design (weak points, weapons, health and hover).

Foxy: The wasps also have the UNSC design that compliments the rest of the map. That must have been an exciting update for you! Considering overwhelmingly positive feedback and how quickly this map is garnishing attention, are you planning on creating more of these tiered big team maps in the future?

WyvernZu: Oh yeah for sure. The Wasp was a godsend. I'm considering making a Covenant version and then a UNSC vs Covenant version when the prefab feature is released. On top of that, I plan on making an Invasion map with a gamemode I'm working on.



Foxy: Sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you! I'm always amazed at how different your creations are. Normally forgers get into a style of forging and stick with it. Some people only forge infection, for example, because it's their "thing". Will this style of map design become your "thing" or will you continue to impress us with infection and traditional arena maps too?

WyvernZu: I really try to do different things each time to challenge myself. I personally think focusing on one niché part of maps would get old so I try and keep making new things. My next big project is making a core 4v4 map.

Foxy: I'm excited to hear that! Was there anything you wanted to do that you either didn't get around to or were unable to accomplish due to unforeseen restrictions?

WyvernZu: I managed to get most of the things I wanted to have in to the map. Something I really wanted to have but couldn't fully pull of was destructible things. So when you take out an objective that part would get destroyed and debris would fly out in to space. Another thing is asteroids with physics. But there was just too much work to be able to get this to work and run smoothly so ended up not including it in the map.



Foxy: Maybe in a future update right? Well thank you for taking the time to sit down with us. We appreciate your many contributions to the community and are all very excited to see what comes next.

WyvernZu: I'll definitely try and improve the map if we get more scripting options in forge for sure! I really appreciate the community enjoying my content and I'm very eager to show everyone what's coming next! Thanks for having me!

WARHOLIC: Can you give us a hint on what your next project may be? Perhaps some sort of cryptic message for us to unravel?

WyvernZu:


For more information, check out the Infinity Siege post. Don't forget to download the map and the custom gametype.