Asahi Valley Asahi Valley is an invasion experience I've been working on for about 5 days now. It contains several key features never before seen in any Reach Invasion map including a fully functional day/night cycle, stationary long range artillery, fixed AA batteries, and a large portion of playable space outside the normal forge world kill area boundaries. Here is a breakdown of the action. Spartans spawn on the gun deck. On the lower deck is the hangar/armory. Two falcons spawn here with 1 second re spawns upon destruction, and higher tier power weapons will spawn here in the later phases. Using the falcons fire teams can drop in and secure a forward position to operate from. In the first phase (and the first phase only) there is a teleporter that links the initial elite spawn (cliff base) and the ridge above the landing zone that the Spartans are trying to secure. There are also a couple nice little caves on that ridge that provide an excellent ambush point for the Elites. After securing the landing Zone, the atmosphere will transfer to a dim afternoon light, and the Spartans will gain access to a warthog and two mongooses. The Spartan objective is to bomb a landing pad on the other side of the valley, which is overlooked by two stationary AA batteries as well as the elite's main position, the cliff side base. This phase makes for one hell of a set piece during the game as mongooses haul ass across a gauntlet of artillery and plasma fire and falcons constantly drop off fire teams to neutralize the AA battery. It's pretty intense and a blast to play through. It's not completely one sided, however, as the Spartans do have access to heavy fire support from their ship-side gun batteries the entire game. The real challenge comes from both attackers and defenders delegating their players to fire support, vehicular usage, or infantry purposes. In addition, the entire play space of forge world is available for use and maneuvering. Teamwork is essential, and no team should rely on only one facet of offense or defense. It's all about balance, strategy, and creativity. After destroying the landing pad, the Spartans final objective is to capture the command tower of the cliff side base. There are 3 man cannons and a teleporter that can be used to access the main base. The teleporter links the AA battery and the cliff base for the entirety of the game. There is also a fourth man cannon that allows ground side access to the AA platform. And finally, here's a shot of how useful accurate artillery support can be (Shells take about 4-5 seconds to reach their target, so make sure if you are spotting for your guns, lead their shots by a pretty good margin or they probably won't hit anything). Minor details are subject to change as the testing process continues. I've got a great team of a dozen or so testers giving me lots of fantastic feedback after every session, but you can expect this map and it's compatible game type to be released some time soon. Feel free to post your impressions here. The more feedback I get the better. Cheers, - Neo
This looks epic, but I'm sad there's no download link. The only problem is that acquiring a target is generally much more difficult with effects on. The ships guns will literally be shooting in the dark.
That's what helps to balance it a bit. You need a very good spotter/gunner dynamic to be able to provide accurate fire support to the rest of the team. They need to able to communicate effectively in order to kill effectively, and that's half the fun. Lets say two ground side teams are running a warthog charge to take control of the comm tower, and they get pushed back from the various covenant gun emplacements on the ridge. They will need to communicate to their team that they need artillery support, and the spotter will then need to have good communication with whoever is manning the guns to take out those gun emplacements and open up a hole for a ground assault. It's all about team work
Yay! I'm in these pictures! Lol but really nice map you got going here. The only thing I can recommend is add more spawn points so the elite can actually cover the first phase territory.
You said you went outside the normal Forge World boundaries.......how exactly did you do this? I found it rather disappointing that Bungie wouldn't allow us to edit the entire world. I also found it disappointing that we can't add as many items as our Budget allows. For instance I had a map where I needed more than 8 gravity jumps for it to work how I wanted it to....but they limited it to only 8 of those or 8 ManCannons or 8 of any combination in that category. Not much wiggle room there if you ask me. Anyway....so yeah I was just wondering if there is a way to bypass the hard coded soft kill zones or something? Thanks in advance for any info. on this subject.
I'm actually not sure. GodlyPerfection and GunnerGrunt did it for me. They did something with teleporters and next thing I know I could go above forge world.
I love the name, and the ship looks amazing. Although it does look like it rode head on into a cliff at some point in it's career xD
Tell me, is it actually a cycle? As in, eventually day will come again, the thought of this although not terribly exciting, is what got me the most interested in the map. Although I really look forward to seeing the finished map because it looks quite good already, and by the looks of it, I'll enjoy this map with or without a day/night cycle.
Well, I could if I wanted to, but for game play balance purposes I went with day/afternoon/night rather than day/night/day. But hell, the system I implemented could work for anything, even green/purple/orange or juicy/colorblind/next gen if the map creator wanted. Added after 9 Hours 23 minutes: I'm throwing together a play test for the latest build of atarac valley tonight. If you are interested post here and message me on xbl and I'll pop you an invite. GT: Neo Arkitect
This map looks pretty good, but I doubt you really have any budget left. If you do I think you should add a little more structure to the canyon. The ship looks really good and the day/night cycle is cool. Although maybe change the name, because what if someone made the real Alteric Valley?
I've got about 600-700 dollars left. I can do a little freshening up here and there but so far for game play purposes it doesn't really need it. As for the name, I've decided to change it to Asahi Valley because apparently there is something in WoW with a similar name to Atarac and a bunch of people **** bricks over a 2 letter difference.
This map looks awesome the ship is grate and the artillery Is an awesome idea and I know you have a bunch of testers but I cant wait to play so if you ever playtest this map and need someone my Gt is SNiPeRBaiT636. This will be a definite download!!
I just updated the OP with version 3 of the map. Phase 2 now consists of an assault on a landing pad that makes for one hell of a thrill ride through the valley.
Idea thief shame... Hey NeoA, I started making an invasion map myself yesterday, and one of the things i did was use the tank/turret idea you had. I thought i had seen it in the tips and tricks section, hope you don't mind me using it though, this will be my second map and the turret really finishs the look of a certain piece im pretty proud of. Anyway basically just wanted to say cool map, and hope you dont mind me using your turret idea!
Wow. I'm definitely gonna keep my eye on this one. I love the idea of lighting phases, can't wait till you release this and see how it plays.