Atrium

This looks like Sword base, but more cat walks

 

Love the look of this map, especially your use of windows as a ceiling. I'll check it out!

 

Zombies, I suppose.

 

looks really well thought about, the whole thing looks how i would prefer sword base to be. Plenty of crossing catwalks. Platforms, ledges and rocks to land and jump on. Deffinatly a DL from me.

 

Well, to be a true atrium it should be open ceiling and have a slightly lower region that catches rain-water in the center... which is what I planned to call my map that has that as a centerpiece, but oh well, I can think up a new name. other than that, it looks fairly good. although the rocks holding the one bridge up don't exactly look like they really belong in that type of environment.

 

Not sure where you got that from, an Atrium in architecture is a large, open space within a building, usually with a glazed roof and usually positioned right next to the entrance doors. Atria are popular because of the feeling of light and space that they offer, as well as the ability for the architect to design the atria as a centerpiece for the rest of the building, allowing him or her to create a positive initial impression to anyone entering the structure.

Anyway, downloaded the map. Can quite honestly say that it plays better than any map that shipped with reach (feels a bit like Countdown, but looks a whole lot better, and doesn't have nearly as many places to get stuck on. Also, isn't as unforgiving cover wise if you get caught in the open under DMR fire.)

Actually my new favorite map, if I'm honest.

Also, the stones in the center work brilliantly. The screenshots don't show it as well as they could, but it feels like (from an architectural standpoint) they've a part of the map that the rest has been built around, rather than being placed there as an afterthought. As for not fitting in with the rest, with the pellet of items in forge still being limited to a single style, there's nothing changeable about the contrast of the rocks and the metallic tiles. That said, I actually think they work well here.

Essential download. Brilliant work (feature worthy?).

 

Played a FFA 4p match on this last night, worked *brilliantly*!! I promptly grabbed the sword and camped out on one of the corner staircases and racked up a killing frenzy in no time!

Love this map, will continue to play on it. Nice job!!

The only thing I can think of is whenever we started the game our loadout camera was not in the map...if I remember correctly, it was somewhere else out in Forge World. Perhaps you are missing a neutral loadout camera object on the map? (We were playing FFA.)

 

If you got your information from Wikipedia you are mistaken, they are more commonplace in office buildings, and some more modern atria have glazed glass ceilings, but almost all have the pool in the center, I have yet to see an atrium without one. In older times the open roofed atrium was the only kind, with society becoming more sophisticated the glazed roof provides more protection from the elements, but in tradition with the old atria the pool stays and instead just has fresh water put in it.

my point is that an atrium without a pool or water feature isn't a real atrium.

Sorry for dragging this off topic.

 

Awesome looking map, great for game play also. As for the atrium debate every atrium i have seen has been closed roof.

It would be great if they featured this map as its well worth it.

 

Alright, before I say anything about the map, my most favorite part is the glass corner that shows the waterfall. Very beautiful and amazing. I've always wanted to incorporate a view of the waterfall in one of my maps, but I couldn't think of a way how. I may steal that idea from you if I make another indoor map.

Now, my thoughts on the map overall. The structural layout is very nice, and clean. The use of cover is very important, and the pieces you have currently seem to work well. (The small FFA I did with my roommates was very fun because it wasn't as safe as the map I've been making. I should really get back to that...) There is one thing I would change when it comes to the layout. Its not really game changing, but for me, its annoying. The ramps on the 3rd floor that goto the 4th floor you should move a couple notches over on the X plane so they're flush with the railing. I found a few people getting stuck on those while cross map/multilevel shooting. Although, I went to edit myself in forge, I noticed that its kinda hard to get it flush, and still have the pieces match correctly, so I wouldn't worry about it too much, since it seems to be something that players will have to avoid.

Weapon placement: There is only one thing I don't like about weapon placement, and thats the Sniper Rifle. It just seems too close to Red team during Team Slayer, and I don't like that Red spawns on it in CTF. While Its justified by Blue Team spawning on F3 with easy Jetpack/Sprint Jump(I think) to Rockets, it just doesn't seem like the right spot to put a sniper.

Overall, I do like this map, and its definitely one that will be in my custom match cycles, a few tweaks would give it a 10/10 on my scale. I do look forward to any updated versions, as well as other maps you may design.

As for the Off Topic Atria Argument, There are countless buildings with Atria. Many Office Buildings, Hotels, and even houses have an Atrium. While center place pools are common within these categories, based on personal experience, I've only seen atria with pools in large business buildings/HQ's and High/Moderately high class hotels. Many of the small businesses, office buildings, and hotels I've been in are not wealthy enough to have and maintain a pool, some did however have center piece garden(s), which looked amazing.

 

Lovely map!

I would remove all the railings though (except the bridges), they give too much height advantage - it's too easy to snipe someone down below while just showing your head, and then hide. If you remove them it will be easier to fight back from below and to throw grenades up there too.

Love the windows ;-)

PS: You should add some lights is you have $$ left

 

Version 2.0 is now up!! The changes list can be found on the first post.

We tried to take into account everything that had been said, and implemented anything that we thought benefited the map.

Couple of notes for anyone playing the map:

Firstly, we do have support for stockpile, however, when it's launched, only 4 of the flags show up, rather than the full 7. If anyone could figure out what's causing this, it'd be a huge help.

Second, the Jetpack in the MLG variant hasn't been tested in a full MLG rules 4v4 yet. With the map's design, it's quite possible that the jetpack user will be cut to ribbons by team-shot as soon as he/she takes off. If this is the case, we may need to swap out the jetpack for another MLG approved armor ability.

Aside from that, enjoy the map, be sure to keep suggestions for any possible improvements coming, and if you think that the map is good enough, maybe even vote us for a feature =P

 

Tried out v2. Not a lot had changed, but the stuff that has is very well done. The weapons work a lot better with the new spawns, you don't have to slug to the top of the level any more once you pick up the sniper.

 

Despite a few visual parts that are sightly haphazard due to inherant limitations to forge this map is quite captavating visually. id love to see you add Infection to this map and maybe some Stockpile just for added Varity.

i can see a zombies game with each vista as a safe haven and the absent minded human getting destracted long enough that the haven changes and he get infected.

this map would also support Territories VERY well for smaller teams and id like to see that added as well.

over all i would on a scale of 1-10 rate this map high with a 7 for the beautiful structure and general gameplay but sight lack of gameplay potential. Looking forward to you easly boosting that to 8 or even 9 with just minor ajustments.

id rate my own maps about the same, maybe less due to lack of astetics but large support for many gametypes. so you are def a great forger imo.