Pantheon by MexicanLeprican, SleezxMcGeez and Likwidkiler. Danger awaits all who wish to unravel the secrets hidden within the pantheon. A symmetrical map designed by people who love DMR's and snipes, very few blind corners. Designed for quick maneuverability on foot. Was designed for team slayer/ team snipers, swat ETC. No team objective playability yet. In our limited playtesting, pantheon plays without any obvious camping spots and action is spread throughout the map. The 3 of us have played halo since CE and feel it has a classic map feel, fast paced action. The more I play the map, the less safe I feel at any particular point, there is enough cover to make you feel safe but there are plenty of spots for cross mapping. If anyone would like to have a look at it and playtest it, give me some feedback, I'd really appreciate it. Weapons: 2x Plasma pistol 8x DMR 4x Needle Rifle 2 sniper rifles, one at the red and blue sides. 1 shotgun 1 grenade launcher 1 rocker launcher v. 1.7D: Removed Juicy fx Added Green and purple light to green and purple sides added energy sword to bottm mid, purple side Added 2 Needle Rifles to the outside rim, bottom middle added new photos reflecting changes and highlighting the sword. removed shield doors and red and blue sides, left green and purple (I like shield doors, but felt that removal of two of 4 opens the area a bit more. CTF enabled Removed Capture Plates and Flag Stands from Slayer Game types 1.7db power weapons moved to lower level removed sword decreased sniper clips to 1 decreased rocket clip to 4 shotgun clip to 1 increased power weapon spawn time - rockets 140, shotty/grenade 90, snipers 80 assault added edited bottom corners for maneuverability red and blue respawn zones added red and blue spawns moved to top levels removed needle rife from bottom mid version 2.0: assault, CTF now fully supported headhunter supported rocket spawn for CTF and assault changed added hard killzones around the edges to prevent map breaking
Nice map for a first post, can definitely see the Halo: CE influences in there the aesthetics are good and the layout/design is also one of the better ones in which I have seen. High variation is good but the lighting looks a bit.......iffy, is it a filter? Not sure but great first post bro.
Reply, the lighting was intentional, although we are unsure of what the color palate will be aside from red and blue sides. We basically had run out of funds to make any gross differences in the sides to establish some sort of coordinates for when players are running on the lower levels on the outside. We decided to make the colors pink and green so that those colors don't look like blue or red (as the pink looks white with the lighting). This was mainly to make call outs easier and to establish coordinates. Again, we wanted a symmetrical map so we felt that establishing colors on the sides would help players become oriented. Without the lighting filter, I felt it took a conscious effort to find what color hallway I was in if it wasn't red or green. I just felt like explaining my rational for adding the filter (as I had to do so with my buddies who help me build it, the lighting and colors were more what I felt were functional aesthetics so people know where they are, and give major landmarks for call outs (eg, red, blue, pink and green cannons). If this is more of a distraction it can be changed. What would you recommend I do to help establish coordinates and for callouts? I am sorry if this is an obvious question but I don't have any other ideas other than changing gross map design. Lastly, thanks for the kind words and your feedback. We really really like this map and want to know what to do to improve it. [br][/br]Edited by merge: I really want some feedback on how it plays, if anyone wants to playtest it let me know
So, without much hesitation, I give to you...feedback. Liked: -Man cannons to mid -Spacing between mid and outer edge of map -LOS -Map flow (for the most part) -Spawning -Sniper rifle spawns Disliked: -FX -Lack of signs/objects for orientation after spawning -Shield doors at bottom of mid So, my overall first impression was very good. I absolutely loved the flow of the mid section and the ability to "climb" the walls of the mid section drop pit in order to move up and maneuver around enemies quickly and effectively. However, with the Slayer DMR game mode, I felt like a majority of the fights that took place were on the outer rim of the map and not focused on the mid section. For something as unique and well-made as that, I feel like the game mode didn't do it justice for a majority of the match, mostly because of the weapon loadouts in Slayer DMR pushing players to play more long ranged and not close range. This is only from one play through though and from only a few people. The only times I felt like the mid section was really at its peak was when the rocket launcher would spawn, but I was only present for that at the beginning of the match. Apart from the mid section, I liked the flow of the outer rim, where a majority of the fighting took place, or at least from my perspective. You created very good sight lines for long range confrontations and good use of the sniper rifles, but also managed to use ramps to provide cover and help players move closer to their enemies. I didn't have much time with the shotgun and never found its spawn, but for the ~30 seconds or so that I had it, it felt like it fit well with the rest of the weapons, even with everyone spawning with DMR and 2 sniper rifles on the map. The glass sails on the corners allowed for good cover when moving around with the shotgun, but didn't make it so the game was all close-range either. Now, from what I recall and what I saw in the replay of the test match, a majority of the spawning took place on the bottom and yet it didn't feel like it was a bad thing. I never spawned immediately next to a person and the only time there was ever a red dot on my radar immediately after spawning, I was able to use cover and maneuver around them before they could find me. The only major flaw I saw in the spawn system, which wasn't even really the spawn system itself, was the lack of memorable objects/scenery/lights that allowed me to find my position on the map right away. I found myself doing circles to find where the ramps and gravity lifts were and also trying to find out where I just was in relation to where I am now, so I can know a spot where there's guaranteed to be a person nearby. From reading what you had to say above, I understand now that the FX was supposed to help my orientation and allow me to find my way around the map, but it didn't, at least not for me. I spent a good majority of the first few minutes trying to let my eyes adjust to the colors and even at the end of the match it still felt awkward. Although you did color-code the areas, I never noticed the colors apart from one time when I spawned behind a strut or something similar where the colors were very noticeable and there was no action happening right around me. When I was actually playing on the map, however, I never noticed the color-coding of the areas. I never do really, I am usually focused more on the action, trying to find weapons, reloading, looking for enemies and planning what to do next all within a few seconds, I don't have much time to look at the small edges of objects to see the color of the lights to then figure out my position on the map. The simplest way to solve this without creating overwhelming structures that just take up space is to put in lights. I, personally, find it significantly easier to notice a large ball of colored light than tiny lights on objects. That would also allow players to see them from far away and help orient recently spawned players. Along with that, there are several other ways you can help orient spawned players so that they can get to the action quicker and let them figure out where they are. By pointing players in the direction of the nearest ramp, grav lift or the center of the map you can influence the flow of the map in a way. You can encourage players to move up to the top level or you can influence them to move towards the center, whatever is your decision, you need to make sure that the recently spawned player can either a.) see a significant location/object/light; b.) see a nearby set of ramps/grav lift/wall climb or c.) see both a and b. This will allow players to get into the action a lot faster and allow them to orient themselves much quicker upon respawning. This will help to speed up action (if it needs to be) and help newcomers navigate your map. With all that said...I have a little bit more to say. The four shield doors on the bottom of the map. I don't like them, but that's probably because they kept me from getting a few kills. While they do help segment the bottom section into a closer battle and make it a little more fair for the shotgun/rocket launcher, I feel like they slowed down gameplay a little too much down there. At one point we were in a three-way dance contest to see who would break first. You were in the middle fighting off Matty I believe and I was recently spawned and trying to get in on the action. I stuck you, you walked through the shield and got unstuck, you fought with Matty, I danced back and forth, Matty danced back and forth, we all danced back and forth. Personally, I'd take them out, but it's all up to you and how you want your map to flow. And before I end with lots of bad news, I really liked the spacing between in the mid section and outer rim. It felt far enough away that players had to rely on long-range weaponry, but it was easily manageable, especially with sprint on. I utilized a sprint-jump to get from the mid section to the side (not corner) to flank two or so people and managed to get a headshot kill on you. I felt that really helped in the flow of the map, because it offered a little bit of an advantage to knowing the map, but wasn't such a strong advantage that it was game breaking (clearly). In the end I had a lot of fun playing on your map and it felt good with Slayer DMR, unfortunately we didn't player any other modes so I can't comment on flow or playability on those game modes, but I'm sure they would be just as good, if not better without the good amount in height variation, space for both close and long-range combat and easy maneuverability throughout the map.
I appreciate your honest opinion, ill try removing two of the shield doors and move the other two closer to the middle. All of the things you liked were things I focused on. I'll work on the spawns [br][/br]Edited by merge: v. 1.7D: Removed Juicy fx Added Green and purple light to green and purple sides added energy sword to bottm mid, purple side Added 2 Needle Rifles to the outside rim, bottom middle added new photos reflecting changes and highlighting the sword. removed shield doors and red and blue sides, left green and purple (I like shield doors, but felt that removal of two of 4 opens the area a bit more.
I love how you used juicy! I know most people hate FX, but it really makes a map feel a bit like it's not in Forge World. The map I just finished has juicy too, but mostly because I used a grid as the map floor, and Juicy makes it more distinguishable. Good job!
y u no? SO I will probably go back and forth with Juicy. It is removed for now and lights are added in an attempt to help players get their bearings as soon as they spawn. Green Light = Green Side = Shotgun side. Purple Light = Grenade Launcher side. I will try to update the lighting but was just trying to make a build to test out the map without Juicy and with the lights. This was previously pink Map is now CTF ready, only 2 flag though, haven't setup neutral flag games or 1 flag.