Artificial By Ladnil Artificial is a map that has its roots, like Genome's, in a map I forged in Halo 3. The very oldest version of the map is over 2 years old, and was forged on Avalanche when I was still brand new to map design and decided to attempt a map in the man cannon cave there. When the request went out for forgers to deliver floating maps to MLG, I took that old design, scaled it up to support 4v4, and applied all of the knowledge and experience I've gathered to transform it into what you see here today. Only a small handful of similarities still exist of that original design (including the name), as this has transformed into a full scale four point floating asymmetric map in Reach. I released this map a while ago on the MLG forum. Just now getting around to publishing it here. Enjoy it yall. Artificial supports: 1-Flag Oddball Territories Slayer. I personally perfer Slayer and Oddball. This is the best oddball map I've played in Reach yet. Weapons: 4 DMRs 2 NRs 1 Magnum 2 PPs 2 Frag Grenades 4 Plasma Grenades 1 Grenade Launcher 1 Sniper 1 Jetpack 1 Evade 2 Health Packs And since half of you probably skipped to this point anyway, pictures: From Left to Right: Green Elbow, Purple Building (P1/P2/P Stairs), Glass Hall (Jetpack below glass). From Left to Right: Glass Hall, Snipe, Snipe Elbow. Bottom Snipe is Magnum. Below Snipe Elbow is Gold 1. From Left to Right: Snipe Elbow, Gold (Gold 1, Gold 2), Gold Tunnel. Bottom mid contains evade under the ramps in the foreground. Green Side. Contains Grenade Launcher Green Lift. Jump at the arrow to lift up. Top Down, with callouts. I'd like to thank Mr Cleanup, Fatalityz, Fritzster, Solo XIII, Sethiroth, Col Keller, Deathstars OG, Atticus, LBR6 Dominant, Mac, and probably a dozen other people I can't remember off the top of my head. Thanks to everyone, really. Download Here
I downloaded Artificial a while ago when somebody recommended it to me on Reach. I have to say I was VERY impressed. The entire map flowed very well, and none of the weapons felt overpowering. The green lift jump was something that, once we noticed, we started using a lot. One thing i really admired about Artificial was how you used the Objects. I would never have thought of using some of the objects you have, and that really sets areas apart aesthetically from most other maps. Give this a download, even if you hate MLG.
Man that must have taken a lot of patience in order to delete everything and create a whole map from scratch. Very Nice job.
why isnt this getting as much attention. it looks fantastic. it makes me want to buy the DLC. this looks like a very very well designed map and looks liek it has great flow.
Thanks a lot. MLG subforum here is a bit of a ghost town. I'm starting to regret that I have shelved this map for a while and have not worked on the V2 and standard weapons version, if I had I would've posted it in competitive and had more people see it and comment on it.
We gotta get more games on here, I only had one or two and I'm wanting to check it out a bit more. I wish more people had the dlc but they'll come around. I really like the layout, not sure if it felt a little big, but I need more games to see if it was just that day. Will post back in a few, really cool map overall :tu ..edit, really dig the look of this map as well..I didn't touch on that, just design. The look is very pleasing to the eyes.
Artificial Artificial is a far cry from Ladnil’s previous work, Genome. This is not to say that Artificial is not enjoyable to certain degree, but it simply does not boast the immediate familiarity, flawless weapon layout, and fluidity that Genome possessed. However, every map cannot be cast in the same light as another meaning Artificial is by no means a not enjoyable map. While there are kinks in gameplay Artificial, overall, plays nicely and has its best games with four player free-for-all matches. Even though the player count for this map states that it can play up to eight players, six is hectic at times and eight is utter chaos. This issue is mainly due to the fact that despite the mix of open areas up top and intertwining pathways down below, most of the fighting on Artificial is concentrated in Purple Base. Whoever controls purple base is in ideal proximity of a Sniper Rifle with a decent overview of the top tier of the map, and the Plasma Pistol in Purple Base makes camping up in the curved structure of purple base all too easy. Essentially, the player who has control of Purple has very little to worry about short of somebody being in possession of the Grenade Launcher. Speaking of the only human EMP weapon, the Grenade Launcher’s resting place is very awkward and out of the way. In fact, the whole design of the Green Base feels out of touch in relation to the rest of Artificial. Coupled with the Grenade Launcher’s hidden location is another interesting find which is the shield door lift to the top level that is equally hidden and as a result seldom used. Perhaps if the lift replaced the terraced ramps up to the top level it would be of more use, but as it stands the lift is more of a futile escape route. On the more positive spectrum, DMR battles are generally satisfying on most areas of Artificial thanks to midrange lines of sight throughout the majority of the map. Oddball, as the creator mentioned, is by far the most enjoyable objective gametype to play on Artificial. The round feel of the map keeps the holder moving while the paths below offer quick escape or attack routes making Oddball on this particular map a fun experience that is neither too hard nor too easy to achieve victory. As mentioned, Artificial does suffer some balance issues that scream the name of Purple Base. With its close proximity to the Sniper and its decent overview of the top level of the map whoever controls Purple can easily dominate the game. To make matters worse, Players in that area, if threatened, can retreat into the close quarters, curved area with a Plasma Pistol and Plasma Grenades and fend off intruders effortlessly. Despite there being four entrances into Purple Base, three of them come from a lower elevation and players going those routes often fall victim to grenade spam and Plasma Pistol beat downs. Balance wise, Purple Base is really the only detriment of Artificial. Players generally spawn close to a power weapon or armor ability which helps to even the tides in a free-for-all bout and the weapon set does not feel out of place, too scarce, or overly abundant. The weapon layout of Artificial works spectacularly well in relation to the situation a player is in. On the top level players will find more DMRs and midrange weapons whereas on the lower levels are automatic weapons ideal for closer encounters where accuracy is not so much a friend as rate of fire. No weapon in and of itself was overly dominating and could be countered using another weapon on the map i.e. the example mentioned earlier of the Grenade Launcher countering the Sniper Rifle and so on. Aside from one glitch in one rather large section of the map, Artificial is balanced well. In an odd way, Artificial is so durable that it is actually broken in one way that makes using the Jet Pack on the map almost useless. The ceiling of the map is placed so low that users of the propulsion pack find themselves in a death barrier almost immediately after takeoff. These are not nice ten second barriers either. Players fly up for half a second and die instantly with very little warning. It is understandable that on a map of this size that players should not be able to orbit the map, but it also begs the question that if the Jet Pack is basically available solely for quick transitions between levels that are already accomplished well by actual geometry of the map, why is the Jet Pack even on the map? Other than the flying and dying issue, Artificial has no other clear physical break. In fact, one could say the only physical break of the map is an artificial one. Artificial is a deceptively small map and when it is played with four or five people spawns perform very well. However, when the player limit is pushed to the max the spawns begin to falter and all the spawning issues that players are familiar with in Reach begin to arise. In testing there were several instances of players spawning in the same room as one another and a few complaints of being spawn trapped came about as well. Artificial takes an MLG stance, therefore eight player supports is ideal, but if the max player count of this map had been lowered or if more precautions had been taken to prevent spawn issues with larger numbers of players then the spawn system’s durability would not be taking any damage. Despite the awkward spawns here and there, the spawn system is in no way broken. On one-sided objectives players never spawned in the opposing team’s base and nobody ever spawn outside the map. Overall the spawns work exceptionally well with a smaller number of people than they do with a larger player count. Artificial has some aesthetic touches that look nice, but the aesthetic theme is also widely inconsistent and despite the clean and nicely built look it is unpleasing to the eye. The biggest complaint here is the Green Base. Nothing in Green seems to fit with any other part of the map well. Every other area of the map has a clear rounded feel to it while the Green room has more of a blocky geometric feel that does not flow well with the rest of the map. Purple Base definitely has the most prevalent appeal in the aesthetics department and had the rest of the map been built with the same clean, curved look that Purple Base had then Artificial would be a prettier stage to look at. What the aesthetic detail of Artificial does accomplish is that the inherit differences amongst basically the four corners of the map help players easily identify where they are. Whist some of the pathways on the lower levels can still be disorienting the color and shape of the room a player emerges in should help them figure out where they are. Overall, the aesthetic prowess of Artificial was nothing extraordinary, but it was not an eyesore either. Artificial stands out as being remarkably standard. The layout is, like most maps, a cross shape at its core and as a result really does not offer anything new in terms of gameplay experience. Aside from being located on Tempest, the look and feel of the map does not strike awe into players. This map gets down to the basics and offers the most standard Halo play experience that is possible in a Forged map, which some players actually thrive off of simplicity and regularity, but in this section, such a lack of originality hurts, but not all that much. Rating Multipliers [floatleft]Enjoyment: Balance: Durability: Aesthetic : Originality:[/floatleft]6 x 3.0 = 18 out of 30 7 x 3.0 = 21 out of 30 8 x 1.5 = 12 out of 15 5 x 1.5 = 7.5 out of 15 4 x 1.0 = 4 out of 10 Final Score Understanding the Review Hub's Ratings
Cool review, thanks. You touched on a lot of things I'm already aware of, and a couple things I hadn't yet considered. If/When I decide to update this map, the top/orange side and the green/lift side are going to get the most attention, as I've known for a long time that orange is just awkward and unused and green is little more than a spawn hive.
I really like your maps, you seem to have a lot of creativity, without going overboard with aesthetics. Your structures seem to be very well forged and you really know how to create some interesting structures. The glass hall is my favorite, it reminds me of a glass hallway I put in one of my maps, but you did a much better job, kudos. I look forward to seeing more of your maps.