Greetings sports fans! Allow me to introduce you to the latest Forge Project straight out of BuddhaCrane's crazy mind (He's so crazy he refers to himself in the third person!). Also helping to produce this map is my co-forger (and designer) Mander A1. This is going to be a Basketball map. No, it's not just Grifball with lowered gravity and a plant point suspended in mid air. This, my friends, will be something very different. Originality and creativity are something I always strive for in my Forge Projects and this map is no different (is that an oxymoron?). Allow me to list a few of the fancy features in the map. No Honour Rules. Gameplay designed to promote "dribbling" of the bomb. Scoring system involves throwing a bomb into a hoop, for one point. Alternative scoring system allows for a "Slam dunk" that gives two points! You can throw the bomb into the hoop from further away with the use of suspended grav-lifts. You can perform "passing throws" with the aid of strategically located mancannons. There is more to the map than that but this is just a preview. I'll finish off by demonstrating some of the features, listed above, with the use of pictures. One end of the court. Top down overview. Throwing the bomb into a hoop The single point scoring system explained: Spoiler The bomb carrier jumps higher than everyone else. With this ability he can get high enough to let go of the bomb and have it drop into the hoop. Note that he cannot actually jump high enough to land in the hoop. Once the bomb is in the hoop it rolls down a shaft and ends up in that team's spawn room. To score the bomb a player must kill themselves (a kill ball is close to each hoop for easy access) and then pick up the bomb in their spawn room. Voila! Scoring the bomb after throwing it down the hoop shaft. Using a grav-lift to throw the bomb into a hoop Passing the bomb down court with a mancannon. (only affects the bomb) Performing a "Slam Dunk" Continuation of a Slam Dunk: Getting the first point. Continuation of a Slam Dunk: Getting the second point. The two point Slam Dunk system explained: Spoiler Firstly, performing a slam dunk requires two people; this balances out the risk/reward of deciding whether to throw the ball into the hoop for one point, or attempting a slam dunk for two points. The ball carrier jumps off a team player's head to get more height and land in the hoop. Once in the hoop, the player is teleported into a small box. The small box gives the player one point. It is a fully automated process, initiated the moment the player enters. Should a player attempt to "cheat" and slam dunk in their own hoop, the box will not provide the player with a point and will then proceed to kill them (dirty cheaters!). We lovingly dub it "the genius box". The Genius Box (Wall removed to show interior) Once the player aquires the first point, they're teleported under the ball spawn point in the centre of the court. From here they simply jump and grab the ball above them; this gives them the second point. The explosion from the blast will kill them so they may return to the court. To prevent players on the court from grabbing the ball before the player underneath can get their second point, a series of teleporters surround the ball spawn point. Upon the player getting the first point, the teleporters become active and kill anyone attempting to grab the ball from above. The centre of the court, where the ball spawns. If you look closely you can see the room below where the player can get their second point in a slam dunk. "Pro 'Sketball" will be ready in two weeks!
Nicely done preview Buddha- you do a great job of explaining the inconceivable, lol. I should also mention that the gameplay will differ greatly from Grifball in that Pro'sketball is highly tactical (Tactiball lol!). While it's easy to learn and get the jist of things (players should beable to quite easily get the hang of the basics on their first play), there is a learning curve, and dedicated players will learn of tips and tricks to better their skill. Team work is also very essential in this game as a helpful teammate can be the difference between one and two point score in a three point round, which is quite monumental. The map plays so differently from any other mini-game it's unreal. And it really does feel like basket ball. Lol, you even get "tired" if you stay on the court too long, and will have to go for a "substitution". It's great. And correction: Geez, you're such a Jew for credit... or am I? lol
This is looking really good. I always did like the concept of basketball game-types, but this one really seems to stand out. Like, seriously. It seems like you guys have put a lot of effort into this, especially designing the scoring system. Psst... I actually hate basketball, but if it's in Halo 3, I'm all for it. Good luck with tests!
Wow, great job guys. I'm a fan of both of your maps, and if I know aything about your style its that this will be innovative, and completely new. It looks really thought out and I like those man cannon contraptions. The court looks really interesting- are those kill balls I see on the sides?
i think i helped a bit with this concept in the lolbox at some point, its good to see you finally worked out the concept buddha, gratz to you and your co-forger
This map is Very creative and has a very well thought out concept. Cannot wait to see the finish project, in the meantime ill just play the one you guys showed me ha.
Ive seen alot of people make basketball maps in Halo but this is by far the best. The scoring system looks awesome, looks like it actually works too. Anyways I cant wait until the final version is released and I cant wait to slum dunk it!
If it works as you say it does without failure, I think this will stay on my hard drive. ...and if you can, can you make the hoops a little more, hoopier?
We settle for nothing less than perfect consistency. Everything will work perfectly everytime. As for the hoops, I'm not exactly sure what you mean. I thought they resembled hoops fiine, and they're very specifically built- high enough to make scoring a bit of a challenge, but not low enough that you can make it up yourself. They're also angled to prevent ghost jumping and are very smooth on the inside so that the bomb may roll unimpeded into the spawn room. So to rebuild them just to make them look a bit "hoopier" isn't very plausible. And trust me, once your in the game, they look fine and you won't be worrying about them. I should also mention that there is no way to pick up the bomb once it's rolled into the spawn room without planting it, so this prevents people camping in their own spawn with the bomb.
I meant mainly that the back board doesn't really look like a backboard... but I understand why you wouldn't be able to, I'm just saying if you can, you should.
Oh, that's funny because we actually used to have a pretty awesome backboard but it helped players ghost jump so we had to push it back. So now you just see the angular design... Still, it's better than nothing, or even worse, being able to cheat the map by ghost jumping yourself into the hoop.
Yup there was a backboard, it had to be removed. Mander and I have always had an extremely high regard for Gameplay over Aesthetics. We've kept the forging clean and added aesthetics where necessary, but our priority will always be in making a fun game that works flawlessly. Not to toot my own horn (oh who am I kidding!) but I was actually really impressed with the way our hoops turned out. My original design concept for how all this was going to work would not have supported a "hoop like" structure at all. As it is we've actually managed to integrate an aesthetically pleasing design into the role that was required from a gameplay perspective. As with all my Forge Projects, working out how to make all these gameplay mechanics work without honour rules is a logistical nightmare! steve 11thselby can attest to my problems implementing a two point slam dunk system lol!
Is it possible to make the center teleporters look, less...lazy? Right now it looks like they were just sloppily placed, (I know they probably weren't) but if you guys could ghost them halfway through the ground, I think they would look alot more...professional.
Oi, weren't you paying attention? We value gameplay over aesthetics, but make things look as nice as possible where we can, without having them damage the gameplay. I agree, at first glance the teleporters don't look as majestic as one would expect from a map of this standard, but you get used to them quick, and it doesn't distract from the fun. If there's something that affects the map's aesthetics then it's that way for a reason; there is no way to make the teleporters look better as geomerging them would cause them to also affect the player below, preventing him/her frm grabbing the bomb and thus making the whole point of having the teleporters there in the first place redundant. I think that most of these things will be explained best when you play the map and see how everything works for yourself. But here are some quick examples to explain some incnsistencies you may have noticed: -In the overview pic the teleporters look off-center from the gold stripe on Sandbox's floor- Reason: That's because the whole court is off-center, and we built it that way to make each side perfectly proportioned, seeing as the bomb itself spawns off-center (see last pic in spoiler) and had to be that way. -In that last picture in the second spoiler the center row of teleporters seems to be a bit too far to the right- Reasn: That's because one side of a teleporter is more sensitive than the other. We had to move the teleporter on the right side closer in to counter this otherwise it would be possible to stand in the center without being affected by the teleporters after a bomb plant. And so you see there is a reason for absolutely every quirky thing on this map. Have faith that Buddha and I will do our best to make it look as pleasing as possible where possible. This thread was set up to show you guys the ingenius way everything works on this map, not to show off aesthetics.
Woah, Woah, Woah, I'm just trying to offer as MUCH criticism as I can, and alright, I'll trust you two to make it as awe inspiring as possible.
Heh, sorry if we're being overly defensive of our work. We've just put a lot of hours/days/months into this is all and we've spent the longest of time deliberating over the smallest of details. You can trust us that we've pretty much considered everything and nothing has been purposefully built out of place. We really do appreciate your input though and I honestly do prefer people that criticise and analyse a map over those that just say "looks great, I like it!". Should someone mention something we haven't thought of then we will most likely take it into consideration. Obviously this is just a preview and now is the best time to have any concerns voiced, before we actually publish the map. As always, I like to break the mold with any map I make. I introduced the idea of a "Hub" in puzzle maps with "Re on Carnation", I created the first playable optical illusion map with "Distortion", I made the first puzzle map that's played in Forge with "Forger's Cell", and now I hope to introduce the first Basketball map that actually feels truly unique. I mean, have you ever heard of anyone devising an assault gametype that has two different scoring mechanisms, one of which actually provides two points, without honour rules?! I didn't think so! *ahem* I may have been tooting my own horn again. I'll stop now
This sounds awesome, but the point scoring system confuses me (don't even try to explain it to me, please). I reckon, once you're done with mechanics and gameplay and stuff, if you have any more items and/or budget, you should whack in some badass aesthetics. I don't know, but it will make the make a whole lot cooler.