Speleology

is a small, asymmetrical, competitive play map located entirely within Forgeworld's cave tunnel. The concept is that it's mostly natural cave formations, with some added forerunner structures in key places that form the two ends of the map into bases and provide some visual landmarks. It has been play tested for team slayer and one flag with teams of around four players; the design was focused on slayer (team and FFA), CTF (especially one flag), single or neutral bomb assault, and king of the hill. Other gametypes are also supported - see list. Two teams of four provides fast, exciting play, but the map's relative compression would work for team doubles or even 1 vs. 1. The map is set up for a mix of close and mid-range combat, leaning more toward the former - it definitely ain't heaven for snipers.

Features:

- Two bases at either end of the cave with four distinct points of entry
- A network of tunnels and rooms connecting the two bases, including a narrow overhead tunnel that leads to a catwalk into red base
- A teleport sender/receiver combo going into blue base

Weapons and power-ups:

- 5 DMRs
- 2 assault rifles
- 2 spikers
- 2 plasma repeaters
- 1 plasma pistol
- 2 magnums
- 2 needlers
- 1 needle rifle
- 1 shotgun
- 1 grav hammer
- 1 concussion rifle
- 1 grenade launcher
- 1 overshield
- Numerous plasma and frag grenades

Video preview:

Including a few action clips followed by a complete tour of the map - during combat!
YouTube - Halo: Reach map preview - Speleology (cave map)

Screenshots:

Blue base


Red base


Fighting my way into the upstairs tunnel


Fracas


That won't save you for long


Special thanks:

StonedDevil05 - for helping me set up a playtest and inviting in extra participants.

 

Thanks man - I hope it gets it, I put a lot of work into the map and a fair amount into that rather overwrought video preview. It's not a super-aesthetic map 'cause that's not my focus, but it does have good atmosphere and I think the gameplay is really fun. Plus I used less than half the Forgeworld budget, so it ought to be completely lag-free.

 

Drop back in with feedback whenever you can - I'd really appreciate it. So far I've had just two play tests and the map has morphed a bit after each one (though most of the changes were cosmetic). I'm open to doing updates if it seems like a good idea.

I hope people will watch all of the preview vid too, it's just a couple minutes long and that continuous camera shot (starting around :25) was a huge pain in the ass! I tried to time a lot of specific things to get in the shot and after about twenty passes I came close to nailing it finally. The only thing I missed was I wanted a specific elite to jump over my camera, but instead he jumped kind of into me and bumped me sideways... ah well. Close enough.

 

Let me know how it goes in a play test, if you have one - I didn't have any problems with it in mine, but the participants didn't really know the map that well.

Here was my thinking on it and why it is set up that way:

First, the reason it exists is to provide an entry into blue base. I was worried about only having three entrances, and all on the same wall. Unless I wanted to substantially change my layout, I needed another way in from a different direction. The teleporter in the back room (really more of a storage closet, heh heh) was the solution.

Why it wasn't made two-way - first, I don't really like the kind of stuff people do with two-way teleporters in a fight (basically jumping back and forth through them). Second, I think it's not as critical to provide another way out of blue base as to provide one in. There are three exits already - there's the main tunnel which is likely to be heavily trafficked, but the other two are smaller and shielded from the main entrance. The left one is basically an emergency-escape crevice. So from a blue spawn perspective, the only purpose of the back room is it gives you some place to retreat if the room is under fire, and it has a health pack in it.

I was definitely worried about red team jumping directly into blue base - hence the sender is located about 1/3 of the way to blue base. Red team should spawn against their back wall initially, so it's a run of at least 5 seconds or so to get to that sender. Then it takes another second to actually get into blue base from the receiver, and you're trapped in a little hole - if blue team is aware of it (and from the right hand corridor they can see the teleporter) they can just turn around and pin you back there with grenades.

Anyway that was my logic. I'm not crazy about the idea of making it two-way, I don't think, but I could be talked into moving the sender node somewhere closer to the middle of the map, probably in that same tunnel. I did notice it made it a little too easy to score in one flag CTF, which already compelled me to move the red base's flag spawn further from the sender.

 

If they were completely embedded except for the glow, you mean? I kind of like them as is, they look like big alien lighting fixtures - but I guess if you're used to thinking of them as what they actually are maybe it would be distracting.

By the way, it's hilarious if you jump off the bridge in red base into one of the cannon streams. Quick and brutal suicide against the cave floor...

 

Thanks! It actually is set up properly for two flag, but blue base is probably a little overmatched, like playing 2 flag on Last Resort (not that bad though). One flag is better.

By the way if anybody has gameplay vids from this map and wouldn't mind filesharing them, I'd love to see.

Getting back to the teleporter topic, for anyone who has played more than a game or two - how has that worked out? Is it problematic having those where they are? I'm dead set against taking them out because I think it would make blue base a camping mecca, but I could be talked into relocating the sender, at least slightly. The biggest issue is that where I'd really like to put that thing is off to the side in a somewhat harder to access location, and because the tunnel itself is kind of narrow, there really is no such place. But I could see putting it about 15-20 feet farther toward blue base so it would be harder for red spawns to get to. Or maybe just making it two way would work.

Added after 1:

Yeah tell me about it. I would have done another take but I had everything else I wanted perfectly, so I figured one brief bump into an elite's knees wouldn't kill it too badly.

 

Thank you! Yeah the lighting/coloration thing is a tad annoying. In some places they match well and in others they don't. I tried as much as possible to move them around to where the lighting wasn't distractingly different, but the engine is finicky. In a couple places I wanted to embed something more deeply in the tunnel wall or floor but when I did, it would turn almost ghostly white - luckily that stuff was able to be worked around without compromising the map design too much, but still the final product isn't quite as natural looking as I had hoped.

 

Thanks for all the responses and downloads, guys.

Having not heard back much more about the teleporter, I think I might leave it as is. With normal running (no sprint) it still takes a good 14-15 seconds from the red team initial spawn to go through the teleporter and get into blue base, which I think is reasonable; it's only a bit faster than going one of the other three routes, and it takes you through a closet-sized space that is highly vulnerable to grenades.

I never did find a way to darken up the map without overkill, but after playing a dark Longest remake on my friend's TV and seeing how hard it was to even tell what was going on, that might be for the best. At this point we just don't have enough control over lighting. (My other map Magma does have a purple filter on - basically to make the volcano stand out - but it's not that dark really since the map is built out in the open air.)