Imagine a shooting range. A shooting range where the targets are thrown on a particular trajectory. A... trajectory range, if you will. Now imagine that the targets are shooting back at you. OK, now that we have all that, let's find some way to involve unnecessary explosives. Sounds like a mini game, right? Not so fast. This is a finely-tuned game of skill, not some silly affair of random luck and kindergarten tactics. Trajectory Range is an adaptation of a Halo 3 map I made back in the day. I think it translated very well to Reach, and may be even more fun that before. The premise is really simple and intuitive. The offense is in the skybase, trying to arm the bomb as many times as possible within the time limit. The defense is stuck on the ground, and must prevent the other team from scoring by shooting them out of the sky. DEFENSE The defense has a tough job. Armor abilities have very little to offer to their repertoire. The main task is to identify and kill the bomb carrier. OFFENSE Offense starts in the sky base. One member finds the bomb, and everyone is then cordially invited to jump through the drop hole right next to it. Then the sniper battle begins. Non-bomb-carrying members need to provide suppressive fire for the bomb carrier. This is important for ensuring as many bomb plants as possible, especially if the teams are large and/or the sniper skill level of the players is high. PRO TIP: In any given attack wave, the shooters should go BEFORE the bomb carrier to maximize protection. This is also where sending holograms through the drop hole is especially awesome. Don't worry about using the jet pack, you can't land outside the teleporter range unless you really try (which you'll be quickly killed by the guardians for doing). The antennas mark the safe landing zone. Jet packs on offense are good for adding unpredictability to your flight path, and also give you a moment of steady aim if you're having trouble picking off targets. Respect my gangster!! That about wraps it up. Thanks one more time, Forge Hub, for indulging in my antics. Also thanks to all my testers, including but not limited to, members of the Tester's Guild and the Ghosts of Onyx. Sayonara!!
Haha, I remember testing this with my friend ShadowStorrmxX (Confused Flamingo) and with a bunch of his other friends. I must say this game was a blast and kept a competitive edge with fun and enjoyable equality. This game basically was my fun for the night, which happened to be yesterday, and I remember just using all of the strategies I could to help test it. I am surprised you posted so fast after I tested. Shadow must have gotten the feedback to you pretty fast. I can say without a doubt that this game was completely worth it and the concept is unique and breathtaking. I also have to thank you because I did not really come to think of a use of Jetpack until you mentioned the stability of its effects. Aesthetics are great and love playing this with about teams of 3 vs 3 or 4 vs 4, but more players is more hectic. Any questions just ask!
Yes he did give me feedback fast, I was impressed. It was really helpful. I didn't end up taking all of his advice but that's beside the point. Not only that but I had a couple more test games of my own before I posted this. So I got lots of good feedback form lots of sources, and I can't thank you guys enough.
I finally got to give this a go and it was definitely worth the wait. It's a pretty simple idea in and of itself but still includes a great deal of strategy. My team realized quickly that just running off the lift solo wasn't going to work and that we were going to have to organize. This is an amazing mini-game that anyone should be able to enjoy. Keep em' coming.
Oh awesome, It's like Duckhunt.. I'ma download this tomorrow and try to get a few games on it. I can't tell how it plays from screenshots but it does look nice. The forging is clean and the inside of the Attackers base actually looks pretty sexy. I'll edit this post and give you feedback after I play this.
I've played this a few times now, mostly with Nibbles up there ^, and I gotta say I love it. Really does promote strategy and good sniper aiming. Possibly the most satisfying feeling ever in all of Halo Reach so far for me was no scoping the bomb carrier right before he was about to score to end one of the rounds.
Trajectory Range When the idea of sniper training in Halo comes up in conversation, Trajectory Range by Indie Anthias should come to mind. This simple map boasts a simple yet fun variant of Assault that puts players riding on the edges of skill, teamwork, and cunning in order to overcome the adversary. Basically put, the assaulting team must drop through a hole with the bomb, get propelled over an enormous arc while being at relentlessly by grounded players, detonate the bomb at the platform near the water should they make it, and rinse and repeat the process until the round ends. Now one may ask, “How does this require any skill, teamwork, or cunning at all?” Well the answer resides in the player’s ability with the Sniper, the launch order of the players, and the loadout a player chooses. All of those factor in to how well the attacking team progresses across the treacherous flight to uncertain victory. Enjoyment is a very important factor of any mini-game. Trajectory Range certainly does not fall short here because it is fun for even people who are not great at sniping because sniping is only half the game. The other half is trickery. One of the most gratifying accomplishments is when the defending players shoot at multiple holograms sent down the hole and then the offensive team makes the score whilst they all reload. However, once the players begin to take advantage of a certain point on the map it becomes quite hard to score even with the most clever hologram placements and player assortments. This drives the fun factor down rather fast and veers quickly to a stalemate between both teams. Mini games are not part of a very competitive spectrum so balancing does not necessarily revolve whether or not players are equal, but if they are equal enough to have fun. Balancing a team of people with full mobility and snipers against a team which is constantly moving forward in one direction may seem like something hard to achieve especially when the assaulting team’s ability to counter-snipe while moving at high speeds is hampered severely. However, as mentioned earlier, a lot of the assaulting team's ability to score is not their ability to attack the defending team but instead to deceive them. If an assaulting player is skilled, then they can always shoot back at their oppressors. These qualities help the attackers defend themselves while they are, for the most part, ducks in the sky. Speaking of bringing multiple points up several times for different reasons: There is a couple points on the map the defending team can traverse that puts those about thirty degrees from the arc that the attackers travel in. This vantage point makes sniping the attacking team much easier and quickly shifts the balance in the favor of the defending team and makes it hard for anyone to score eventually. At first glance this simple mini game has very little to speak of in terms of flaws. Trajectory Range does have one extremely detrimental flaw. If a player on the defending team equips the evade loadout it is entirely possible, albeit difficult, to cross the bridge to the teleporter where the attackers would normally land and teleport themselves into the attacking team's spawn. Suddenly the game becomes a mass assassination fest of the attacking team, and the whole vision of the game is lost unless the party leader is strict enough to call order to the game. This flaw in all aspects ruins the game, but the solution is simple: Remove the purely aesthetic bridge and the problem is fixed, but with it, Trajectory Range stands as something of a broken game. On the more positive spectrum, Trajectory Range has no clear spawn issues and unless playing the game improperly, there are no other major spawn camping issues. EDIT: An updated version of the map was made with these errors corrected. Much like anything Conquest related, the premise of this map is simple to say the least. As a result, it is clear that a lot of time building this map was devoted to adding a little eye candy to an otherwise straightforward gameplay concept. There are only two or three main structures on the map and each have an aesthetic appeal to them. The attacker's spawn structure has something of a space ship feel to it, which suits considering it is floating in mid air. It looks good on the inside and outside and lacks any visible z-fighting whatsoever. Around the defender's spawn are a few buildings that, while they have no indoor access, serve to limit where the defenders can go and keeps them in a certain area. These bounding structures have a very nice look to them and very nearly look like the outskirts of an urban settlement. This theme combined with the spaceship feeling of the attacking structure gives an implied space invaders feel to the map. The glass cover on the beach, while nice for protection from counter-sniping, feels a bit out of place from the rest of the map. Also on the other side of the cover is the game breaking bridge. Of course, removing it would not cause the aesthetic appeal to suffer. Overall, the map has a great aesthetic appeal. The looks do not make the map feel clunky in any way and there are no pointless aesthetic structures to clog up framerate. While there is clearly, plenty of budget left to work with it is not necessary to use it all when the desired effect of the map is achieved. In other words, what is there and what is necessary looks good. Trajectory Range is the successor of a map from Halo 3 by the same name and by the same creator. This Reach rendition is far more streamlined and reliable than its predecessor since Reach’s physics and editing easily allow for intimate calculation and fine-tuning in the creation process. In the end, while bearing striking resemblance to the original, one cannot possibly compare them when things were so much different back then and required an obscene amount of guesswork. While there are indeed many sniper practice mini-games on the market, it is like finding a needle in a haystack when it comes to finding one with a decent competitive air and can be fun for both teams at the same time. In addition, the creative use of Assault as a scoring system to avoid stagnate gameplay and give the flying team purpose was rather fresh, but Indie (or Predicide) is no stranger to rigging unique Assault concepts together, and he prevailed yet again here. Rating Multipliers [floatleft]Enjoyment: Balance: Durability: Aesthetics: Originality:[/B][/floatleft]7 x 3.0 = 21 out of 30 8 x 3.0 = 24 out of 30 6 x 1.5 = 9 out of 15 6 x 1.5 = 9 out of 15 7 x 1.0 = 7 out of 10 Final Score Understanding the Review Hub's Ratings
wow thanks so much for the review I'm glad it went over generally well and I don't dispute your take on it. About the evade problem on the bridge: AAARrrrghh really?? This is the fist I've heard of this. I checked it out in game, and yes you are right. It did not occur to me that you could evade through hard kill zones (foiled again, Bungie). For the record there is a massive hard kill wall separating the entire attacker side from the defender side in addition to all the soft kill zones used around the limits of the defense field. Turns out the wall is just about evade-distance in width. Dammit. Well, I'm not deleting the bridge because there is another more obvious fix. I like the bridge, it serves to suggest a connection between the defense and the target. I've added a much larger hard kill volume over the entire aesthetic bridge. Your take on the high angle is a legitimate point of view but I don't think I'll make any changes to that. I do notice that people seem to underestimate the importance of the sniper game on the attacker side. It is more difficult to get a kill from the air, but it's really just a matter of practice. We actually had an achievement at the Ghosts of Onyx for getting a sniper spree from the flight path in the H3 version. That's always been one of my favorite dynamics of the game. If your shooters are good they will thin out the defenders enough for the bomb carrier to get through. If you can't pull it off you don't score many points. It really brings the team together. I edited the glass wall a bit to make it less of a cover to hide behind, though. That one particular corner will feel less safe form bullets now.A good fix, I believe. Again, thanks for the fine review, I truly appreciate it. The fixed version is now in my file share, updated download link is now live.
I played this with some friends and I did enjoy it a lot, though some people got frustrated halfway through the third round and we quit the game. I suppose my point is that I have no complaints with the game, but I would suggest lowering the round time maybe. I found that my friends were growing bored of doing the same thing so long. Other than that this is inventive and challenging and I love the game.
-updated game options (new link): waypoints visible to everyone added to all players. Bomb carrier is now identified by a bomb icon, and it's much easier to pick out targets on the ground. @xAudienceofone- thanks for the good words but it's 12 minutes total, pretty standard imo. Plus, that's something you can adjust yourself before the game.