ESOTERICA [es-uh-ter-i-kuh] -plural noun 1. Things understood by or meant for a select few. 2. Things belonging to a select few. 3. That which is private; secret; confidential. The Forerunners built this facility in a remote area for a reason. Who knows what secrets it hold? 4-8 players. * * * * * * * * * * Hello fellow forgers! I bring you Esoterica, my first Halo Reach creation released. Esoterica is a medium sized asymmetrical map created between Alaska and Montana (in Forge World of course!), and is built in a way so that Red Team's base is in the canyon, and Blue Team's base is on the coastline. It is supposed to resemble a secret Forerunner facility hidden in a cove, built into the mountains. With the backstory out of the way, let's go on to everyone's favorite part; the pictures! I know it's not easy to find your bearings just by looking at unfamiliar pictures of the map, so I will try my best to explain the picture, and help give you a better feeling of the map's flow. The captions are placed below the pictures, and should do a good job of "showing you the tour". This is of course an overview of Esoterica. Here's a shot of the Red Base. In the center you'll notice the elevator that leads to the Red Team sniper tower. On the right side you can see a cave entrance that also leads to the sniper tower, protected by a mounted machine gun. This is a shot of the Blue Base. They too have an elevator that leads to their own sniper tower, but unlike the Red Team's sniper tower, unless you have a jetpack handy, the only way up there as a Red Team member is via the elevator. Also, it's not shown here but the Blue Team flag spawns behind the mounted machine gun. This is a view from right behind and a little bit above Blue Team's mounted machine gun. From here, you can see the double archway rocks on the right side, which lead to... ...the cave entrance on the Red Team's side of the map. Here's another shot of the double rock arches (on the right) that lead to the cave entrance (on the left). On the bottom left of the picture, you can also see a ramp. That ramp leads to... The Red Base. Going through this entrance leads you not just inside the Red Base, but also the same level as the Red Team flag. Here's a shot from inside the Red Base. The Blue Team can come through the front door, or they can jump in from the roof, made possible by the open air double level roof design. Here's a picture of that open air double level roof design of the Red Base. Players can follow the path on the left side of the picture, and that leads them onto the roof. * * * * * * * * * * I spent roughly 3 weeks creating this map, making sure all aesthetics, as well as all weapon and spawn placements are on point. Soft and Hard Kill Zones are where they should be, and I'm confident that this map cannot be "broken". The distance between both teams' flags is not that far, but I'm hoping that the way I have placed the Respawn Zones help balance the gameplay for both sides. I feel that this map flows great, especially for an asymmetrical map. Red Team's half is built defensively, and Blue offensively, by design. It's hard to tell from the pictures above, but this part of Forge World lends such perfect natural inclines in the environment, and I feel it creates great lines of sight, and adds to the defense/offense dynamic without making one side feel overpowered. Of course, I had limited testing, so your mileage may vary. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know. * * * * * * * * * * Weapons on map (respawn time:extra clip) 5x DMR (30:1) 2x Sniper Rifle (90:1) 2x Needle Rifle (30:1) 1x Rocket Launcher (60:0) 1x Shotgun (60:1) 1x Needler (30:2) 1x Magnum (30:2) 1x Grenade Launcher (90:3) 1x Plasma Launcher (90:na) 2x Mounted Machine Gun (120:na) 4x Frag Grenades (15:na) 8x Plasma Grenades (15:na) CLICK HERE to download Esoterica.
That would be awesome of you if you did. I'd like to hear your comments/complaints on what you think of the weapon and spawn placements, as well as the respawn zones. I think I did a decent job on those but I need more comments, all the comments from my friends are positive, but that's because they're my friends... I'd like to hear negative comments so as to learn from mistakes and correct problems I might have missed. Of course, if there are no negative comments, I guess it's a good thing. PS. I also would like to hear what you think of playing CTF on this, either multi-flag, or 1-flag. You might want to change some settings around like flag at home to score, touch flag returns, flag return timers, etc... depending on how many people are in your party.
The name caught my eye - I read it peripherally as "Erotica". The images did the rest of the work, though. Queued up for download and I'll edit this post with feedback after a look, or a custom if I can get any. Won't be for a while though.
I'll just stick up a new post instead of revising the first so it's easier to see (and for a sneaky bump). This map is awesome. It's not just that it's built into a cool location, it actually uses that location and synthesizes it with its news structures really, really well. This block of hill that used to be a corner in Hemmorhage you only ever saw if you spawned in it is all of a sudden the centrepiece in this very attractive little map. The way the beginning of the ridge connects to red base is brilliant (although I would have made it a smooth connection, although it looks like an obvious decision to force players to jump). My only criticism would be the way, particularly around the red base, there's only really two levels: ground floor, and really God-damn high around the edges. It kinda feels like it would be defenders with the sniper rifle looking directly down, almost vertically, on the plain at the bottom. And I'm not sure about the little room with the Shotgun and the Sender Node. If there was two-way node access into it it might not be such a concern, but as it stands it looks like a dead end, which it's usualyl wise to avoid. And that's about all the criticism I could scrape together, it's actually really damn cool, and I'm gonna keep it on my HDD.
Thanks so much for the comments/criticisms... I really do appreciate you taking the time play on the map and then to returning here to comment. You're right about the red sniper tower... they would have to be aiming directly down to get any shots at enemies at the red base. That was actually the second structure I made in this map (the first being the red team elevator, not counting the coliseum walls), and I wanted the sniper up there to be responsible for making sure the blues stay in their base, or if the blues get the red team flag, he would be the guy to stop them from bringing it home. The way I envisioned the map before putting it all together, was like this: It's a 1 flag 4v4 CTF game, red team/base on defense. 1 guy on the sniper tower overlooking the blue base, relaying enemy positions to his/her teammates. Another guy would man the turret, making sure no blue can get up to the top where the sniper is, through the caves. The other 2 red guys are in the field/in the base making sure the blues don't get the flag. The blue team however, plays a bit differently, being on offense: The blue sniper tower really only has a view of the red tower/cave area, if he wants to aim at the red base, he would have to put himself out in the open; he is after all on offense and has no business camping. He can however protect his own base from there, making sure the enemy flag makes it home. A blue guy can go towards the rockets, it's his job to take out the enemy turret, and opening up the right side for attack. Another can go towards the needler, it works amazing on the red base roof. The shotgun in the teleporter room is there for a reason. I've set up the respawn zones as such: If blue team goes into red base, kills red team, takes the red flag and turns around to go back home, the 2 nearest respawn zones for the red team will either be occupied by blue, or have "negative points" because they recently died there. Where they should spawn (if all the above conditions are true), is on the rock arches side. This is they're last line of defense, the last chance to get the flag back. They either go through the rock arches and onto the blue base with a good angle of the blue guy with their flag going up the final ramp to score the flag, or they go through the rock arches, under the blue base where the shotgun spawns, through the teleporter, and get an even better shot at the blue guy with their flag from an even better angle. If the latter, and if the shotgun was picked up, it's at the distance where it's useful but not super powerful. The one-way teleporter in my mind was/is an offensive tool for the red team. Seeing as how more of the red team's spawn points are far apart (by needler, by elevator, under cave, in cave), and all the blue's in generally one small area (all of blue base structure), I figured it'd be kinda hard for red team to actually get into the blue base, which is the reasoning behind the teleporter. I made it one-way so that if a blue wanted the shotgun to use to camp the blue base, he would have to go out and get it, and put himself in (albeit a little) trouble, and not just be able to go in/out the teleporter. Again thanks for the comments/criticisms... so do you think I should make the teleporter a 2-way? Anyone else care to share their opinions?
I think you justified it pretty well actually. Usually I try to avoid planning set pieces of maps around a particular strategy, because you can never expect people playing it to actually follow the steps you have set out for them in your head. But in this case I think it's non-specific enough that as long as they know the teleporter's there, then it would work out.