UPDATE: An updated version of the map is available here - see later posts in this thread for changes. This is my second Halo: Reach Forge map, entitled "Paradigm." Paradigm is my submission to the Forgetacular contest, probably in the CTF category (else symmetrical arena or 4v4 Slayer). It's a symmetrical map with some inspiration from both Wizard and Hang 'Em High, though it's an original creation. The map is situated inside the coliseum area of Forge World and consists of three levels - a bottom level where the Rockets and some other weapons/grenades spawn, a middle level along the outside of the map where you will find a Sniper Rifle and some other weapons, and an upper level, where you will find the flag spawns and return points. There are four gravity lifts (one at each corner) to take players from the bottom to the middle level, and one one-way teleporter at each end to take players from the bottom to the top level. Fall damage comes into play on this map, as the top level is high enough to put a player into the red if they walk off and hit the bottom without a way of breaking their fall (so you're required to pay attention when on certain parts of the top level). Weapon spawns are as follows: 16x Frag Grenade, 15 sec 16x Plasma Grenade, 15 sec 6x Health Pack, 45 sec 6x DMR, 30 sec 6x Needle Rifle, 30 sec 4x Assault Rifle, 30 sec 2x Shotgun, 90 sec 2x Needler, 30 sec 2x Plasma Pistol, 30 sec 2x Plasma Repeater, 30 sec 1x Rocket Launcher, 120 sec 1x Sniper Rifle, 90 sec 1x Concussion Rifle, 60 sec It's a bit difficult to describe where the non-power weapons spawn, but they're placed in good locations that shouldn't be easy to miss. The bottom level has four Needle Rifles, the middle level has the remaining two. The DMRs are spread out among the top and middle levels, the Sniper is in the middle, the Rocket Launcher, Shotguns, and Concussion Rifle are in different places on the bottom level, and the rest of the small arms are mostly on the upper level, though the Needlers are on on ramps leading to the upper level. The map has made several major changes since I first envisioned it - initially there were four teleporters on the bottom level and they simply took you to the other end of the map a la Wizard, but after some early playtesting pointed out they were sort of redundant, the teleporter configuration was changed to the current one. There were initially two Sniper Rifles but it was determined the map was too open for that so the number was cut down to one and it was placed in a neutral location so a player would have to compete with the other team for control of it, and then safely escape to a good firing location. A Grenade Launcher was dropped in favor of a Concussion Rifle for various reasons, and a second Shotgun was added. Some screenshots: From above red base, looking out onto the map From the opposite corner of the map, looking toward the point of view of the previous screenshot Looking down on the center of the map toward the sniper spawn (at the far end of the middle walkway) Looking out onto the map from the middle level, red base PoV - near the left of the image is the low wall where a shotgun spawns, and the room in the middle is where the rockets spawn Looking at the bottom level from the blueside teleporter entrance - shotgun can be seen in foreground, rocket room is in the middle, and in the distance is the redside teleporter entrance Finally, here's a video walkthrough, about 3 minutes long. Better quality than the last as I elected to use Bungie Pro to render the video instead of my cheap capture device (I have an HD capture device coming soon, though!). YouTube - Paradigm - Halo: Reach Forge map --- NOTE: I haven't had a chance to really playtest the map in a 4v4 CTF scenario. It's always been slightly uneven due to not having a full 8, though we've played 4v4 and FFA Slayer and it's worked very well. If someone could playtest it and get back to me, that'd be wonderful.
Nicely done, I went ahead and grabbed a copy already. Looks pretty balanced and should play nicely. My only suggestion is try flipping the walkways upside down. As this map will play with an emphasis on top control, the walkway railings add way too much cover (and thus too strong an advantage) to the players on the upper levels vs the lower levels.
Very nice map, well done A few problems though... I agree with SecretSchnitzel above that you need to turn the walkways upside down to remove some of the advantage from players being above you. You may also want to remove quite a few of the grenades from the map as most other maps only use a maximum of 10 overall and having 16 of each is going to make genade spamming a massive issue. Same goes for all of the needle rifles and DMRs. Most maps only have two or three of each, depending on the size and you have 6!!! You may also want to scale down on the power weapons as there seems to be quite a few although this may not be such a big problem, depending on the spare clips available for each weapon. Cool map though
I'm partially relying on the longer spawn timers for the power weapons (Rockets are at 120 seconds, Sniper and Shotguns are at 90 seconds). Might tone back the number of clips in the Sniper, though. I'll see what I can do about lowering the grenade/weapon count and flipping the walkways. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Dialed back the number of clips in the Sniper and Shotguns (lowered from two to one). Pulled off a few sets of grenades and increased the spawn timer on the remaining ones to 30 seconds. Removed a few of the DMRs and Needle Rifles (replaced the DMRs with Magnums and left the old Needle Rifle spawns empty). Added a second set of man cannons (one per side) which take players from the bottom level to the top, allowing for another avenue to the flag spawn (main ramp, teleporter, and now a mancannon). Haven't published the changes yet but may be doing some playtesting tonight to confirm whether the changes work or not. [br][/br]Edited by merge: UPDATE: Made some changes based on feedback, mostly what I covered in the post from last week. I removed the original from my file share and uploaded the new one instead (it can be found here). I didn't post new screenshots since the look and feel of the map is essentially the same, minus a few changes (extra mancannon and a glass window for cover on the top level near each flag spawn).