Canals of Venus is a big team map designed to transport the scenic canal look of Venice to a Halo environment. It is symmetrical with two large identical bases at each end, and is carefully laid out to prevent too much sniper/laser domination. It's very fun for big team CTF. Oh, and there are rocket 'hogs. IMPORTANT NOTE: This map has been decommissioned due to my lack of fileshare space. Once the Forgetacular contest is over I'll be uploading it again. Weapons - 2 sniper rifles - 1 spartan laser - 2 rocket launchers (2 shots each) - 2 swords - 2 machine gun turrets - 4 needle rifles - 2 needlers - lots of DMRs - a few ARs, spikers, plasma repeaters, and other short range stuff that will mostly get you killed for trying to use it - lots of frag and plasma grenades - 2 health stations Unique features - Waterways that can be traversed by vehicle (two rocket 'hogs and four mongooses) or on foot. Just be careful to stay inside the map, pedestrians! - A giant floating rock structure accessible by two bridges (or by jetpack) where the laser is located, and which separates the halves of the map and prevents snipers from dominating too much... - Did I mention rocket 'hogs? Screenshots and video tour YouTube - Canals of Venus - Halo: Reach map preview
Its a fun and interesting map. But, A good change in gameplay would be to make it so if a human were to go into the water they would die, While if they were driving the warthog in it they wouldn't. I'm not sure how that would be possible though.
Don't take this for complete truth, but I believe he tried that early into the build and changed it because it didn't fit overall. From the single time I played on this map, I can definitely say that it was a very intense game of CTF (except for shoddy team work D. Sometimes the rocket-hogs weren't worth using because the rockets detonate at the surface of the water and are very dangerous to the occupants of the hog.
That's semi-true. I never actually did put it in, but that was my initial goal - to put a shallow kill zone under the water so you could drive in it, but not walk in it. However, once I got the layout finished, I realized it might play better if you could "swim" in the canals. It gives players a lot more options for getting around on foot, and ways to move while being concealed from snipers (the two large walkways on the sides are quite vulnerable, especially past the map's midpoint). Also, I had two technical challenges - one was how to add enough ways to get safely in and out of vehicles, because if the water kills pedestrians, you need lots of places where vehicles can get on land, but then I still wanted to keep them off the main platforms. It was kind of a headache, though I did end up building good areas just for the 'hogs. The other was that I would have had to put rails around most of the platforms because you can't have players accidentally drowning all game long. Ultimately, ditching the "aquatic kill zone" concept was the best thing for gameplay and for solving my issues. Yeah, that's a little quirk of the engine that unfortunately I can't do much about. Definitely for anyone who plays this - if you are a hog gunner, stick to firing above the waterline, or at least make sure you're not trying to hit something right next to you! But I do like the unintended consequence that the rocket hogs are far from overpowering. They can still be great if used properly, but they are quite vulnerable too, unlike the hog domination that used to happen on, say, Standoff.
That was a good video, but it had too little people. If you want to make a video with 16, I would be interested in being part of it. Outstanding implementation of the concept of driving in water.
I think there were 16 players in that game, actually. It may not be obvious because of where I placed the camera at the beginning, and because I didn't put a bunch of spawns in that starting room; some of the players on each team probably spawned in the second level, or outside the base. Nonetheless, I'd be glad to play the map again in customs some time - drop me a friend request. My tag is to the left there.
The whole water/canal idea is very original I'm loving this map, somehow it reminds me of Vivec from Morrowind, not sure why? Very cool nonetheless.
Pretty cool i has to say. It seems to open in spots though. I like the overall feel of the map and i feel it could signifigantly alter gameplay depending on WHAT gametype is played, which is why I have to DL this map.
Thanks, hope you like it! Hopefully the openness is not too much of an issue. I knew I wasn't going to have the budget to do what I initially wanted (to make it more city-like with varied elevations, and even some aesthetic "buildings" outside the play area), so I had to ditch that... but I settled on a good compromise by trying to be very careful about lines of sight. It's hard to tell from the overhead screenshot, but lines of sight are pretty interesting. The big rock in the middle prevents snipers from doing much on the other half of the map, even from the roof of their base. The two large pipes shield most of the middle area as well. Anybody in the canals has pretty good cover and low visibility to anyone on land, as long as they stick close to the walls. Also there are some happy side effects that I didn't really intend - for example the curved bridges are high enough to break up lines of sight from one side walkway to the other, the big middle bridges (which are slightly staggered and off-center) do the same for people in the areas between the two pipes, etc. Once you get in the map and at ground level, you should find that there's nowhere you can stand and see everything. Probably the best vantage point is the top of the big rock, but you're highly vulnerable to anyone on top of either base, and the rock itself shields a big chunk of the area around and underneath it.