First off, i love Valhalla. I thought it was an amazing BTB map, and i would love to see it remade. I have seen three remakes of Valhalla so far. Some were better than others, but they all made the same two mistakes. The gulch is to big for Valhalla! While it was big, the gulch is massive. especially width wise. I would suggest using about 2/3 of the width, and 3/4 of the length, maybe less. Secondly, The hill in the center does not need to be made out of rocks. A large metal hill with the geometry of the original will be far better than an inaccurate, bumpy hill made out of tin cups and rocks.
What if the hill was a combo of rocks and metal? The flattish parts could be metal, while the hilly and sides could be rock. That would probably look pretty snazzy.
The specifics on the terrain aren't of importance, however how the terrain in general manipulates gameplay is. Blood Gulch/Coagulation/Hemmorage is, and has always always been shite. It's two downfalls are weaker ordance (especially at countering the ever-increased player speeds) and an exposed base and slawns. You could do most of the job of making a successor just by creating two really interesting and well-defendable bases, with little or no more complexity than Valhalla's, for the sake of encouraging people to leave them and not hold ground. The central hill as a focal point is of little importance. Personally, BG/C/H has a better idea of having the center of the map exposed and vulnerable, and offering better cover in either side. This creates two strong points not one, and will promote more player movement and tactition, rather than feeling like it's a 'tower-of-power'. For this reason, it is of little importance to re-structure the terrain to suit Valhalla, when it could be quite easy and aesthetically pleasing to just flesh it out with a handful of well crafted rock structures, that could also compliment the towering bases.
The weeds, flowers and parts of the grass peak through everywhere if you have the shape right. Any higher and the hill would be way to big.
There are barely enough supplies to narrow down the gulch to fit Valhalla's size. Aside from that, the creation of a center hill, pelican and cave structures would be nearly impossible to do after wasting most objects on creating boundaries.
Hello All, While I dont personally think its feasible to re-make valhalla on reach (unless they introduce more options) I have reworked the existing blood gulch, coagulation, hemorrage map. Please take a look at the link below and let me know what you think? The map has been updated slightly since the images were uploaded but all I have done is add more cover in the open expanses between the bases to break the open areas up a little. The structures have remained largely the same. http://www.forgehub.com/forum/halo-...7-proliferation-preview-clip.html#post1260221
The hill is important on valhalla, it forces players to leave their base. But the bases are far enough from the hill so you dont get spawn camped completely. For this, i believe you should use the entire canyon because DMRs shoot alot more accurate on longe range then a BR did. Reach has a whole new feeling compared to H3, you walk slower, so you should downscale the map some, but you also get sprint and weapons that are more longe range based. Its a shame you cant import maps.
One of the defining aspects of a large map like Valhalla, Hemmorage, Sandtrap, and the list goes on is whether the map is concave or convex. Hemmorage is concave; the sides are higher which means snipers will be off to the sides, but the central area is flat to prevent it from just becoming a mosh pit. Valhalla was defined by being convex; the famed 'hill' defined gameplay with the strategically placed laser, and gave high ground to whoever controlled it. Remaking Valhalla would require somehow giving Hemmorage the same overall elevation changes. I have seem some maps reminiscent of Valhalla, by recreating the sort of battles for terrain, but I have yet to see one that successfully 'remakes' Valhalla.
In the aspect of size my remake (really just inspired map) doesn't come close, middle hill is way to low. Having read this and realizing it i think i am going to completely change the middle hill to be higher, oh and metal/rock/tincup doesn't look bad i did that in mine and it looks good, all you have to do is create a layer of rock flat for the bottom then induce some metal and finally build up the middle with rocks/tincups for the grass (if you want i think it'd be fine without it but due to limitations on number of rocks you will have to use the tin cups) As for a map that would work better, as stated make Valhalla esque bases for the gulch but build the terrain to leave a small, not to wide, canyon in the middle giving both sides another high point in the map rather than just single bases, due to this i think i will go ahead and design a map that incorporates Hemorrhage and Valhalla together in aspects of playability as well as aesthetics.
i have actually started a 'remake'/'inspired by' map for Valhalla,..my first conclusion was that you must use the whole canyon, or people on the hill will definitely have full controll over people who are in their in base. Second, its impossible to remake the hill to make it look like a natural formation. You simply do not have enough rocks and tin cups (grass underground) to create this. Third, the shape of the hemmorage canyon is unsuited to remake valhalla properly. To many 'caves' and edges on the walls that need to be locked out. I think its not possible to remake Valhalla like it was in H3 on the current Canvas, perhaps the noble map pack will give us that option.