~Click Here to Download Façade~ This once used to be a underground facility but was shut down due to numerous water flooding from the surface. (6-8) Briefing: Façade is an asymmetrical map that features many abstract structures. It takes up the main Foundry floor and blocks off the back area. The map itself may seem rather open, but in actual gameplay it is not it also may seem breakabable (and by all means, you can buddy-jump out of the map) but by yourself, you can not. I had Buddhacrane him self do so and luckily for me he couldn’t get out of the map. Well, there was that one time during a CTF game that he got catapulted out by a mongoose…but that’s besides the point. Anyways, I’ll be moving on to the next part of my post now, which is a video BL00D F1R3 made for me. http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=bQ47Lbih1TI I shall note in the video, actaul gameplay is from an older weapon layout, so don't think that those are the weapons in the map. Background: I started Façade nearly two months ago when I was done with my map H. At the start, I had no real set theme, no real set plan, no real anything. So I did what I normally do when I start a map and just started to forge. Seeing what kind of things I could make and see if I could get a spark from them to make an actual map. After making five structures/bases, I finally decided to go into other maps to see if I could get a spark from them. For the most part, I didn’t see anything that gave me a spark… until I found myself looking around BlazeIsGod’s map Curbstomp. As you’ll see in this map, I’ve used a somewhat similar wall with bridge-bumps with A/B signs. You’ll also see that with it, I threw in my own touch to it. After I made the basic form of that most of the rest of the map came naturally. I ended up keeping one base that I originally had (because I liked it so much) --and did some touchups to it. I then added various cover and other things. The overall map was done within a month and a half. I then threw down some weapons/spawns and had my first few tests. The weapons weren’t that bad, but the spawns were god-awful. I had a good feeling that I was going to need a person that was experienced more with spawns than I was. One day I was up early talking to Linny about my problem. He suggested that I get help from JAY and Chipsinabox. So we all got on and Chips started to amplify my spawns. Though, he only did Slayer and CTF spawns, he basically put down the foundation of them and I later did the rest, with the help of Vicious Vice. Through the time of tweaking spawns to their current state I was adding/changing minor layout things (mostly involving prevention of escaping the map). A few days ago I was basically done. But then chrstphrbrnnn was part of one of my test sessions. He felt that the weapon layout could be better. At first I wasn’t fond of changing it, but I later gave in (and thank god I did). The new weapon layout made it much more competitive, and much more likeable to myself and thus I kept it and stamped COMPLETE on my long awaited map known as Façade. So, now I'm going to go ahead and move on to the pics. Since I bet you're all tired of reading The Wall of China. Layout Shots Attackers Base (Front View) Attackers Base (Back View) Overshield Spawn Beam Rifle Spawn The Curved Fence Wall CatWalk The area behind the Fence Wall CatWalk (wait is that a soccer ball I see? O_O lol) The Pallet Wall Inside the Defenders Base view 1 Inside the Defenders Base view 2 Action Shots We r guys who r gun teach u lessonz No Roche, Plasma does not put out the fire... JAY is blue and is in need of some dye... Two Plasma Pistols ftw? Dark Flag Pyrogoose Mongoose Mowdown! Flag-Duel I r in ur base, sniping ur mongoose Ok, now on to some more information such as whats on the map, top 7 recommended gametypes, and other stuff... Weapons/Vechicals/Equipment x6 Battle Rifle; 30 sec. respawn, 2 clips. x1 Shotgun; 120 sec. repsawn, 0 clips. x1 SMG; 30 sec. respawn, 2 clips. x2 Plasma Pistol; 60 sec. repsawn. x1 Plasma Rifle; 30 sec. repsawn. x1 Needler; 90 sec. respawn, 2 clips. x4 Carbine; 30 sec. respawn, 2 clips. x1 Beam Rifle; 150 sec. respawn. x1 Flamerthrower; 180 sec. respawn. x2 Mongoose; 60 sec. respawn. x3 Frag Grenade; 45 sec. respawn. x3 Spiker Grenade; 45 sec. respawn. x1 Bubble Shield; 120 sec. respawn. x1 Power Drainer; 120 sec. respawn. x1 Overshields; 150 sec. respawn. Top 7 Recommended Gametypes. Team Slayer; 3v3 - 4v4 1-Flag; 3v3 - 4v4 Team King; 3v3 - 4v4 1-Bomb; 3v3 - 4v4 Territories; 3v3 - 4v4 Multi-Flag; 3v3 - 4v4 Assault; 3v3 - 4v4 *NOTE: For Oddball, VIP, Juggernaut, and Infection don't have respawn area's/starting points/set objectives, so it's best not to play those. Ok, at this time I would like the thank some people. xX5w33ny70ddXx; for spending countless hours with me in Forge just messing around on this map, testing it, giving me some ideas, oh, and of course for making the promo-shot. Chipsinaboxes, J A Y, & Linubidix; for helping with spawns, and various tests, and having fun with the outdated weapon system. Vicious Vice; For giving me good advice for tweaking the current spawns. buddhacrane; For failing to break my map in a way where it'd be possible in actual gameplay without the help of others. (That one you did with the mongoose and random grenade doesn't count!! >) --oh and for filling in as a screenshot person. chrstphrbrnnn; For making an very competitive weapon layout for me and helping test out some bad spawns. BL00D F1R3; For the video. All the other people who helped test this map; I could've wrote all of your names (if I remembered them all) but I really just keep it simple and just thank everyone else who helped test this map, with out you it wouldn't be as great as it is now. So, with all of that out of the way, I now bring you a small little treat. Within the map I have hidden something and to help you find it I have come up with a riddle. So here's the riddle... With loyality in hand, Go to where the silence sits. From there you can see me resting on a buddha's belly. If you think you have found me then PM what it is I am to Vorpal Saint, and he'll tell you if you're right or not. ...So yeah... good luck with that. --And here's another Download link just in case you missed it at the top. DOWNLOAD
So review time finally: I'm going to try to categorize this as much as possible, but it's might be a bit confusing. So lets start with: Forge Techniques: You obviously have an extreme understanding of bungies messed up box sizes as well as how to manipulate them with interlocking and geomerging. All your structures are pretty well constructed, smooth and without any "catches" or bumps to prevent negative gameplay. Your structures are all well designed and your techniques are excuted well. So lets here no: "I luv Y0r inTrluks M4n" people. The only negative thing I have to say is there are a few out of the way bumps, as well as slightly crooked geomerges, while they don't negatively effect gameplay and don't really bother me seeing as I don't spend much time perfecting either, it's not a big deal to me. But I can see how someone would care, so: 8.5/10 Aesthetics: Basically every structure in this map is cool and pretty much unique to the map. I see you building a style Vorpal, but in ways I hope it evolves differently than it looks to currently. First I must say, the defenders base area is very cool and well done. I love that whole section, with the mancannon semi-circle bridges and the shotty perch. Very awesome. But, from here, the rest of the map feels kind of random? The attackers base is pretty wicked looking as well, but to fill the space between the two bases it kinda just felt like you stuck some random stuff in. Tho the ramp/bridge/curved place sniper location is kinda cool, it needed a bit more defination. Maybe something down the sides to make it feel more like a structure and less just a random asortment of items. The soccer ball area kinda confuses me and with the barriers just kinda seems shaped in due to lack of budget. The OS area is cool though as well, I like that and the back tunnel. Overall, your aesthetics need to flow more. Your map needs to have an overall theme, rather than feeling kinda random. 7.5/10 Gameplay: To be completely honest, when I first saw your finished map, I was like "oh god this is going to be painful". Thats complete honesty. I thought the lack of flow through aesthetics would cause the same lack of flow through gameplay. I was wrong. Initially, the gameplay was fun with the old weapon set-up. Fun, but grew stale as it became a bit of a random jumble, kinda feeling like the map (so it suited, but I thought it could be better.) When playing 1 sided objective games on the old layout I thought "hey, this is kinda competitive, the map is actually well suited for this style of gameplay". Thus why I suggested a more balanced and ultimately more competitive layout, while still remain pretty unique, like your map. No single weapon, or powerup has a command on the map, while all are extremely useful in their own right. Grenades never seem to be in abundance, but there just enough to allow you to use them at the right times. BR's and carbines are plenty but spread out so you can find one always, but aren't bumping into six and stealing the ammo. And of course: the flamethrower. This is the BEST use of a flamethrower I've ever seen on ANY map including construct. It's perfect, the FT is actually useful while again not remain too overpowering. Good choice. The only real negative I have with gameplay is the occasional wonky spawn (not spawning on top of eachother, but rather the position of some object game spawns seem strange under circumstance.) Not at all a real problem though, bungies spawn system sucks. So docking .5 for spawns nets: 9.5/10 So just some final notes from me on my overall opinion of this map: Originally, when you showed me this map with the mancannon bridge area and the attackers base built, I had thought the map was going to be smaller and more enclosed. When I then saw the map completed I was leary of how it would play, as I felt (and still feel) that the layout lacks an aesthetic flow. What I mean by this is it seems to lack a feeling of a map separate from foundry. The defenders area is perfect, though I dislike the space between that and the attackers base. As well, the attackers base could have a bit more detail and connectivity to the map. Aethetics aside (which I honestly don't really care that much about, it's more "Style" that I care about), the gameplay is awesome. You pulled off a map thats fun to play both casually and competitively. What I would like to see from you Vorpal though, is a development of your style towards something that feels it's own. I see you take a lot from other forgers styles (not their structure, but moreso their positioning of structure), and while it's great to learn from people, with your unique pieces I'd like to see you develope connectivity between them. Ultimately this will lead you to have a Bungie style map, with both great gameplay and flow between this and your interesting and awesome aesthetics. Honestly, the overall rating isn't just, so I'll just leave it as separate sections. Great map, and look forward to seeing more from you.
I have long since been watching you build maps as you caught my attention early on. I was a big fan of the map pack you released with the original harddisc maps. [the one with BrokenBlaze.] This map was very impressive to look at even when it was merely half built. I would have LOVED to have seen what you couldve done with the budget glitch installed, because i feel its a little open. This isnt a condemning factor for the map however. The maps geometry leave plenty of room for the weapons to really be useful, and the weapon choice not only matches the unorthodox map geometry and design, but works wonderfully with the maps layout. Objective games are much more difficult, as the flag carrier must run the flag across much open terrain with the other team having clear sight of him almost at all times. This leaves the defenders rushing from their base to regain control of their flag if someone manages to get in there and run away with it. Both teams are mostly balanced and can reach the same amount of power weapons fairly. I see you went with a different approach on the weapons from my last engagement with the map. I know you had a hard time separating your map from them, but i think it's working out much better. Overall, id say a job well done. This map is both interesting to look at, and packs some serious nonstop action. Looking forward to working with you. AESTHETICS | 9 GAMEPLAY | 8 ORIGINALITY | 10 SHOTGUN | 10 and because i can:
so this is the map deathtoll was telling me about. from what i here the map is very good but gets a little boring. But man oh man all i have to say is the aesthetics in this map are beastin. i give you a 100/10 for aesthetics this is a definite dl for me!!
I will update my post tomorrow with a more descriptive review, but for now I will say: This map is surprisingly fun. You have a good understanding on how to make things unique, and I enjoyed watching this map grow.
And the Heavens opened and Façade drifted to earth with the elegance of an angel Something like that... This map, is in my opinion, one of the best asymetrical maps available for download. If you took a bathtub full of winsauce and covered a blank Foundry canvas with it, then added in flawless interlocking and geo-mering. The map would still fall short of Façade. If you couldn't tell I love this map, like a baby(not really that much). Onto the review. This map has one of the best gameplays I have seen since an actual Halo 3 defaul map, and better than some at that. If you want to play any kind of game this map should be the first to come to mind. With slayer this map dominats in all aspects of Halo; Gameplay, aestetics, and creativity. The structures in this map stand out by themselves to show some of the most fluid gameplay you could want. The interlocking on this map is flawyless and the jumps are perfect to every detail, this map, if skining a map was possible would definatly be a real Halo 3 map. The fence wall bridge, the defenders base, the attackers base, flamethrower spawn, niper tower(sniper not actually placed here but is used here well), the flowing bridge wave. All of these combine to make a map of epic proportions. If I were to rate this map I would have to give it a 30/30 Overall Score. Here's why. Creativity 10/10: The ideas for structures and walls rise above the normal maps, the symmetrical/asymetrical features(as in the secret tunnel in only symmetrical maps), the way the map plays out with all the the objects forged onto the map and how some of the structures were made and look add to this catagories 10/10 Gameplay 10/10: The gameplay in this map is definatly, in my opinion, the best of any competetive map I have ever played. When I played my first test on this map I thought it was a prank and we were testing a features map, but then I learned that the version I played was maybe 20 versions away from actual completion of the map and the playing was still devestatingly amazing. Aestetics 10/10: While playing this map I do not think I saw anything needed of fixing in the forged aspect of this map. Everything was created so smooth it's as if the map was made on a computer, not by hand in forge. The areas such as the mancannons in the sniper spawn area add to the way the map flows. The mancannons are there, they don't ruin gameplay by throwing you across map, and can still be helpful in some situations(one test I played on this map I survived a shotgun attack by jumping into these and assassinating shotgun guy). If you don;t download this map you have no idea what you are missing out on. This map will be featured in no time and hopefully be a very popular map for all the hard and tedious work put in by Vorpal Saint. Everybody should try this map out at least once and if you don;t like it, then I'm sorry your disappointed at one of the greatest forges in a ong while. Thank you Vorpal for creating a map at such a high level of awsome. BTW: I don't worship this map or anything, I just love how the map is played and how it looks! Everybody needs to DL and gape at its awsomeness. Façade FTW! P.S. As a side note, don't let Vorpal Raven get the flamethrower... it's bad, very bad. P.S.S. All my review was for an older version with no OS so darn, the Flamer was in the OS spot, and the beam rifle used to be in that mancannon room, that was I was talking about higher up.
Glad to have the final version out for my downloading pleasure. I sure had some fun times on this map EDIT: WAIIIIT! THERE IS NO LONGER A WARTHOG? You've just broken my heart, my good sir. This map is no longer worthy of being featured, let alone posted on this forum!
I know, i r sad face 2, but now there are TWO!!! mongeese(plural ftw) so kinda better byt I did like the warthog alot as did you I see.
With the warthog, all their base was mine. I loved jumping off the bridge ramp and crashin' their parties.
Ya that was so fun to do, one time while showing map to my friend I got a double splatter doing that! It wer sw33t! No film though, I was mad I forgot to save it.
More or less, yes... Tomorrow I'll have a link in this thread with it. (And please, don't spam this thread)
Hey, about damn time you finally posted this, I guess that a month of testing plays out well in the long run, so congrats to you for having the patience to test and test until everything turned out perfectly balanced. I don't think I need to write you a review, considering 3 people above me have already taken the pleasure to do so, so I'll be brief (you know what I think anyway, right?). To sum it up: mancannon alcove tunnely thing is awesome, shotgun pagoda thing is awesome, Beam Rifle spawn and curved fence wall catwalk are a bit too hard to access from ground level but still look great, flamethrower fits in well and isn't overpowered at all, objective locations are fair and well thought out (although you might want to add a way to jump up to Defender side base from below the fence wall catwalk in symmetric games only (as I said before, it's a bit too hard to get anywhere from ground level over there (in the area near the soccer ball). Anything that I forgot will be picked up by someone else, and here's a quick review just for the hell of it (yep, I'm a hypocrite). aesthetics: 9/10 - the only (small) issues I have here are some of the bridges and fence walls that touch foundry floor (a bit of an edge showing, I know it would be a pain in the ass to geo-merge all that, but I think it's possible) and the one open single box with the bubble shield (just seems out of place in the middle of the map, doesn't play bad but looks a bit awkward) gameplay: 9/10 - (needz moar oddball...) my only gripe is the one issue mentioned above with the difficulty of accessing the Beam Rifle spawn and fence wall catwalk from ground level, it's just a bit annoying to spawn over there (IMO), especially with the possibility of getting cross-map BR'd with nowhere to go, see the one suggestion I bolded above originality: 9.8/10 - mandatory .2 point deduction for using a teleporter sun to hold OS (they used to be awesome aesthetic features, and then everyone started using them, so now they seem uninspired (IMO)), other than that you get a perfect score for well-designed and original structures, almost everything here looks fresh and new and mostly hasn't been done before, and the soccer ball fence box is a perfect final touch final: 9.2666... To all those who haven't played on this yet, it's truly a great map both aesthetically and gameplay-wise, especially for objective. Go forth and download. Footnote: I'm surprised that none of the action shots involved me getting sniped from the Gauss cannon. Seriously, I got killed by the ****ing thing at least 10 times in that one heavy game. 'Tis my least favorite vehicle in H3. And I'm probably going to need testing on my new map soon, so I'll probably invite you whenever that happens (it's only 2 v 2). EDIT: 300th post, time well spent.
This map is phenomenal the aesthetics are amazing and the attackers and defenders bases are very well constructed This is a definite dl for me!
thats really good.... u use a lot of org. structures very artistic stufff... nice aesthetics... layout looks pretty good a little blant on one side compared to the other but i bet thats b/c one is a building the other is a structure.... nice interlockin nice geo. NICE job overall this is good cant wait to see ur next map this is good 5/5
You finally got it posted up! Congrats man I wish I could get a game on it. It looked pretty good when you were in the building process of it but wow. This turned out AMAZING. The bases with the mancannons coming from the ceiling are outstanding. This is aesthetic + gameplay brilliance. You've got a feature here.
Hmm... your map seems somewhat above average. There are a few spots where geo-merging is needed, but other than that you did a great job on interlocking. Overall this map deserves a 7/10. Happy Fayce...
OMG! I feel so special I get to be in a picture of me getting splattered by a mongoose lol. On to the map, with the mass amount of time I've spent help testing this with you its gone through A Lot of changed some for the better some for the worst. I think the most part I like about it is the Defenders base it is so original with the crazy arches and such but it still has room for that.... shotgun tower...? Haha. The game play is very nice but the only thing I didn't like was spawning next to the soccer ball like 70% of the time I spawned that got quite annoying but at least you got rid of the weird spawns that spawn you right behind someone lol. Overall I like this map a lot and I'm DLing it, you always make good maps Vorpal keep up the good work.
[FONT="]Normally I give my reviews a la test style like I have in the past. Today is going to be different. I’m will waste less time talking about format and more about Façade. [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]My Gamebattles team conversation:[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]“Hey what map are we playing?[/FONT] [FONT="]Façade[/FONT] [FONT="]“Who made it?”[/FONT] [FONT="]One of my guild mates[/FONT] [FONT="]“Like the one that made something-nexus? I want to warm up on Guardian!”[/FONT] [FONT="]Yup and no.[/FONT] [FONT="]5…4…3…2...1[/FONT] [FONT="]“Did you make this?”[/FONT] [FONT="]No[/FONT] [FONT="]“OMG look at this!”[/FONT] [FONT="]Transactionzero has killed Mr. default.[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]Initial response:[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]First impressions are always the biggest impression. When the TV screen went from the lobby, turned black and my Spartan spawned I felt weirded out by Façade. It was so different I almost did not like it. I began exploring and used the pictures in the thread to navigate through Façade. The odd sense of displacement slowly faded as my brain pieced together all the great looking structures.[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]Weapons. Check.[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]One of the biggest factors in any type of map is weapon balance and spacing. If any two powerful weapons reside next to each other it can cause imbalance. Additionally, if to many power weapons are placed on a map it causes imbalance. This includes equipment and powers ups too. Façade, however, has good weapon balance. Normally having a shotgun and a sniper in close proximity would be bad. However, in the beginning of the match both teams race for there weapon. Offense gets sniper and defense gets shotgun. Overshield is a good distance between both bases. [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]Box Boxers.[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]Aesthetically ([/FONT]ß[FONT="] I can never spell this word right) Façade looks really good. From the offenses side to the defenses side the map looks really good. Aesthetically the map works really well. Aesthetics is one of the strongest points of Façade.[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]Competitive?[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]I can see why people may question the competitiveness of Façade. So what makes Facade a competitive map?[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="] At first glance the way Façade is presented (Different style of making structures) it does not feel competitive. However, let me assure Façade does deliver. Right off the bat both bases have a position of power. Offense has the structure they spawn at. Defense has the shotgun tower. From both of these structures the line of sight makes these positions powerful and makes the possibility of team shooting great. Inversely if the offense takes over shotgun tower they have a position of power over the defense. Offense can use this Point of interest to assault the defenders base. [/FONT] [FONT="] On another note Façade is a smaller competitive map which makes game play faster. This means players need to be quick in making decisions, because their decisions impact a win or loss. [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]To summarize at first Façade may seem like a bunch a structures placed on a map. However, once a player gets to know Façade, they will truly understand what the map is about. Façade is a fast paced competitive super aesthetically pleasing mape (Yea I KNOW).[/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]Rating System: Façade receives a 7/10![/FONT] [FONT="] [/FONT] [FONT="]1-3 Poor[/FONT] [FONT="]4-5 Average[/FONT] [FONT="]6 Above Average[/FONT] [FONT="]7-8 Borderline Genius[/FONT] [FONT="]9 Genius.[/FONT] [FONT="]10 Map making god.[/FONT]