Update 1: Nov 17 (24dl) added several kill zones for anyone who falls off the track in the canyon area; added a checkpoint at the start of the canyon to shorten distance from death; updated remaining checkpoints; widened turns in canyon region; removed choke walls in Montana area; smoothed transition for turn on Island. Update 2: Nov 20 (59dl) fixed the clipping issue at the second turn for the fjord bridge; fixed the spawns in the Easter egg mini map; added several gametypes to the Easter egg mini map. Update 3: Nov 30 (413dl) adjusted the final jump distance to allow people to make the jump at 40-80kph; smoothed the hairpin banked turn in the Montana area; made some minor aesthetic adjustments; Got a new job that sucks away 56 hours of my weeks =P. Why not go for a long stroll Round da Bay? I have been off Forgehub pretty much since Reach came out due to a very tight work schedule: the life of an engineer with end of the year contract completions. Either way I am back and forging plenty. I am working on several maps simultaneously. My first official post of a Reach map is this RACE map called Round da Bay. This map is a high speed track with many opportunities to lose that speed. The track itself is very smooth considering its length. I have taken a great deal of care making sure the jumps and turns are as smooth as possible without having edges exposed (pet peeve). Compared to other race maps, this one has some different features: First off, it is 97% snap free. Most of the map has been created purely by my eye and testing for smoothness. Secondly, the map lacks the ever too popular flat, or flat banked turn. As an engineer, I can't stand those turns. I design them in real life so why not do something similar in the game too? I much prefer the realistic super-elevated turns. This map has many super elevated turns. Some of them change banking over crest which made them hard to design but overall, the end result is very good. I did the best I could with a bunch of flat rectangles =P Another fairly major difference are the three high G dip turns on the map. If you drive a car, you know that when you drive in a quick valley such as this hill here you will gain considerable traction for turning at the cost of your suspension. Well, I have created three such turns in my track. They are smooth, very fast, and very tight. Normally, pulling a 115 degree left at 105kph would not be possible, but thanks to the strong suspension of the UNSC M/AAV-20 Mongoose, it is. The final difference that I would consider major compared to other racetracks is a special Easter Egg I added to the map. It isn't really an Easter Egg anymore now that I am going to tell you but the map also supports Slayer Team and FFA as well as CTF multi flag for up to a 4v4. It has no effect on the track but I figure if you are going to use up space on your 360 HD, at least it should be a map that supports more than one game-type. =P I do not have a video attached. I refuse to pay bungie more money just to get a 10 second clip from my 360. I originally wanted to edit a very nice video similar to a replay in a racing game or highlights real in the WRC but apparently a 10 second clip still takes up a whole minute of 'rendering time'. Either way, I have a video in my file share (video of original map). On to the pictures. I have cropped them to be a little smaller than original to save my Photo-bucket account's bandwidth. They are in order as they appear on the map. Pictures below: Spoiler Long drive around the coast. Realistic structured bridge. One of several jumps/drops. The super-elevated turns in the canyon. (out of date) Two of the three high G dip turns. Narrow bridge over the fjord. Last and most extreme high G dip turn. The Easter Egg small asymmetric map. The final drop showing its nice superstructure. (now smaller gap) That is all I have for now. My map from a previous sketch-up called Freighter is completed but not fully tested yet. My friends and I have tested it several times and there seems to be some issues with CTF and assault flow that need to be addressed. I should have it ready in a couple days. Big thanks to the testers: dotexotic, Gorekill, FifieldA, PeKeRu, and HALFYARD. I appreciate any and all constructive criticism and feedback on my maps.
This map LOOKS good, but please add more pictures or a link to a video on this post so we can see more of the map, thank you!
I explained everything just before the pictures in my original post... but nonetheless: I'm sorry but I don't intend to add any more pictures or a video. It is a matter of bandwidth for the pictures. Every time this thread is loaded, a bit of my bandwidth on Photo-bucket is chewed up so the less the better. As for the video, I have linked a download of a video in my file share but that is as far as I am going with it. I do not want to get into the habit of paying Bungie $5 every time I want to load up 4 or 5 videos. I want to do videos like a highlights reel which means many small clips put together. A 1s clip costs 1 minute of Bungie render time as well as 59s. If you want the HD render, up to 15s is one minute. If I were to do a video in this cut and edit style right now, using many small 10-30s clips, I would need a tv tuner or a capture card, and that isn't going to happen any time soon. Sorry man.
I downloaded and played, and found this to be great fun. I liked that it was pretty consistently clear where I was supposed to go, the length is very impressive, and many of the aesthetic touches are nice. My only criticism is that the track is awfully narrow at times, especially in the canyon and crossing the fjord. Those parts were very difficult, and in a tight race I bet they would be the point where one guy got way out in the lead and everyone else fell off or flipped. But, as a single player, "I'm bored let's drive around Forge World" map, this is fantastic.
I just took a look into it and adjusted the map best I could. Most of the track is around 4-5m wide with some areas up to 15 and some as narrow as 2m. The sections you are talking about did pose some troubles when the testers took the track for a spin. Originally I just wanted them to break the map for me and look for areas of the track with bad flow. Either way, they noted those chokes as well but I said screw off =P. Now that you also mentioned it, I've adjusted the area in the canyon to be a fair bit larger and smoother. The bridge is going to have to stay the way it is. You can download the updated track here to see the updates. I've fixed the download link as well and updated the thread. Thanks for the feedback. If you get a chance to try the updated section, let me know. On a side note, by the time you get to the bridge in your first lap, you would have driven more than 5km so chances are the players would already be in a single file fashion. I originally have a large burm hill crossing the fjord but I opted out of it to save on blocks to use on the canyon segment.
I just played the updated version, and the canyon section is just fine now. The one final change I might suggest is to make the arrow exiting the fjord a flat wall. When I make 90 degree turns in Halo, I use the power slide to turn 45 degrees, then I try to slam into the wall so that I am facing the correct direction but still have some of my momentum. The glass cover piece at the exit of the fjord has this little nook, that, when I try to use my technique, catches the front end of the mongoose and gets me stuck. Then I have to reverse, and slowly start driving again, which can be somewhat frustrating. Hopefully you understand my weird explanation- I don't know if this is a common problem or if there's some magical secret to making 90 degree turns without slowing down or using the environment. Regardless, it's just one tiny spot on a rather enormous, excellent racetrack, and I've already fixed it on my Xbox. And now that you've improved the canyon this is henceforth (FANFARE) my go-to racetrack for LANs.
Ah yes, there is a 3x2 block and a glass cover in the same location and the block is slightly behind by a tiny amount. They surfaces look the same but there was a clipping issue. I noticed that but never really stuck as I was dealing with more issues. I will fix that and update it on my fileshare and here in the thread once I get back from some holiday shopping. Excellent feedback man! =D
I love this map but I never noticed the little problem thing in the corner but those high g turns are so fun I just want to turn around and go back up and great job the map looks great good job.
I love it. Just one problem: the very last jump right before the end of the lap is almost impossible to make, luckily there's an alternate route available when I fall off, but you really might want to fix that.
I just took a look at the map and adjusted the map. My gf asked why I never listened to her when she said the distance was too short =P. Either way, you can download the latest version here.