Cargo Port

I don’t even know why this is here:

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Maps are not like steak. Steak is delicious, and you can put A1 sauce on it. Maps, while delicious in their own way, do not go well with A1 sauce, and despite the obvious “fillet share” connection, maps just have little in common with steak. If you take steak off the grill before it’s cooked, you’ll have to put it in the microwave to cook it the rest of the way. This usually results in the steak being less tasty. If you play a map before it’s done, it won’t be awesome. You’ll have to go into forge and fix it up. But despite the number of times you go back into forge to work on it, it will only get tastier. And that’s where Cargo Port comes in. It has gone through a staggering amount of playtests and revisions, and it has just gotten tastier, and tastier.

This is pretty important though:

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Cargo Port’s beginnings date back to my very first playthrough of Halo Reach’s stellar campaign. When I reached the cargo port in the Exodus level, I thought, “wouldn’t this be a cool multiplayer space?” Then, a few weeks later, on my second playthrough, I had the same though. So after a while, I began constructing it on Forge World. It had humble beginnings, originally being a complex of floating platforms, bearing no aesthetic similarities to the campaign space. But that was the just the first of many changes. I originally had no intention of setting the map up for Invasion, but obviously that has changed too.

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Unfortunately, after hours of forging, the idea became less interesting to me. I became unsure of how well the map would play, and quit working on the map in order to release my Tempest map Focal, shortly after the release of the Noble map pack. Upon Focal’s completion, I still had little interest in this project.
However, only a few weeks ago, I was exploring abandoned projects with friend and fellow forger MattKestrel. Cargo Port quickly moved to the forefront of our minds. Wuth Matt’s help, I soon finished the map’s structure, and began setting it up for the long list of gametypes the map now supports. Matt and I finished the map's geometry within a week. Ever since, we have put the map through it's paces with 50+ full games played.

As we played game after game with various members of the community, we made countless revisions. After every testing session, we spent between ten minutes and two hours in forge, addressing concerns, and improving the map in every way imaginable. Community members began taking interest in the map, contributing to the map's ever growing preview thread. That's when we knew we really had something. We never heard any negativity towards the map. Sure, there were plenty of wrinkles in the map which people pointed out, but we addressed every issue, making the map a better experience every day. The community is what pushed us onwards, and what motivated us to spend the countless hours of testing and revision that have made Cargo Port what it is today.

And here’s the really important stuff:

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Before we go any further, I'd like to thank everyone who helped with this map in any way.

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I would first like to thank everyone who participated in the forging of Cargo Port.

MattKestrel: Without him, this map would still be half-finished, collecting dust on my hard drive. He did a big chunk of the forging on here. He also was great to coordinate with in the creation of the map. He was the perfect guy to forge with, and I look forward to continuing to do so.

Stevo: Lil' Stevie was always arround, helping me with Cargo Port's spawn system, as well as with balance of Invasion. He's a great guy to ask if you need help with your forging.

Grif Otage: Grif briefly hopped into Invasion forge with me back before I had a clue what I was doing. He helped making sure all of my gametype labels were correct.

Inferno: Like always, he was very supportive of my forging, and great to bounce ideas off of. Oh yeah, he's pretty much the coolest second-cousin ever.

Secret Schnitzel: He was one of the first to hop into forge with Matt and I, one of the first to tell us we were taking the map in the right direction.

Anthraxe187 and xJxLONGSHOTxHx also went into forge here when we were setting up Bro Slayer and Invasion Skirmish.

Bungie: They designed the campaign space Cargo Port is modeled after. Of course they also created Forge and Halo in the first place.

Now, those who helped with the video. My plan was to make the video myself, but my computer can't really run the software well enough.

Crypto nv: He made the awesome video, what more can I say?

Grif Otage: He offered to make the video. I turned him down because I planned to make it myself. I was later too embarrassed to ask him to do it, as I had already told him not too. Grif also gave me the idea for the opening for the video.

Stevo: Again?! Yeah, he captured all the clips for me so they could be used in the video.

Here's to all the testers. You were all very helpful, and it is because of you that the map turned out so awesome. I know I won't be able to name all of them, but I'll try.

First, there's "The Peeps", the group of friends that have played this map almost everyday for the last few weeks.
I would define "The Peeps" as MattKestrel, Hi Im Erupt, Kittenpaste co, AnthraXe187, Longshot619, and Ticky12.

Other testers included Stevo, Gnappy, Grif Otage, Organite, Cart0graph, DunkInMyCookies, Concentric Three, Crypto nv, cory21, De starfighter, Ociee, Rusty Eagle, Hydro, Titmar, Inferno, BurningThunder, Tyco Terminator, Adelyss, Security77, IMyEndI, Rorak Kuroda, IG11, Dinosaur Drugs, PacMonster1, Black Theorum, Nibs, iTz CHEEZ3, Confused Flamingo, and many, many more.

Bear with me here, almost done. I also want to thank everyone who participated in my TGIF 7 lobby, as we played a few games on Cargo Port.

Thanks to everyone who posted in the preview thread, you're what made us strive to perfect the map.

If you're in a hurry, you should at least read this!

Cargo Port is a medium-large, asymmetrical map based off of the cargo port area in the Exodus level of campaign. We've made some changes to better suit the map for multiplayer, but the basic layout is from campaign.

The map is set up for every standard gametype except for race. I believe the best gametypes to play here are 4v4 Invasion, Team Slayer, and One-Flag. Other standouts were 3-Plots (paricularly "9-Plots", where there are 3 teams fighting over 3 territories), multi-team, and FFA games. Free-for-all is best played with 5 or 6 players. All else is best for 6-8 players.

Weapon List:
DMR x4
Needle Rifle x2
Spiker x2
Needler x2
Concussion Rifle x1
Gravity Hammer x1
Shotgun x1
Sniper Rifle x1

Plasma Grenade x4

Health Pack x4

In Invasion, the weapon layout is quite different. It includes a rocket launcher, sniper rifle, focus rifle, and falcon.

Supported gametypes:
Slayer***
Bro Slayer
CTF
Assault
Territories**
Invasion
Oddball***
King of the Hill***
Headhunter***
Invasion Skirmish
Infection

* The game type is set up for, and works well with FFA and two-team
** The game type is set up for, and works well with multi-team and two-team
*** The gametype is set up for, and works well with FFA, multi-team, and two team.

Assault and CTF should be played with asymmetrical varients.

Screenshots:

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It’s worth noting that the red and blue base shown in these screenshots are only for asymmetrical games. In Team Slayer and other Symmetrical matches, both teams start on equal footing and use spawn clusters. The map was not meant to be an exact replica of the campaign space, but if you mouse over the screenshots, most of them have comparison shots from campaign. For some reason, some of the screenshots from campaign are a bit screwy, but you hould be able to get the gist of them.

[[MouseOverImage=http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/reach_14202753_Full.jpg]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/Overview.png[/MouseOverImage]


[MouseOverImage=http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/reach_14202729_Full.jpg]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/RedBaseView.png [/MouseOverImage]

[MouseOverImage=http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/reach_14202752_Full.jpg]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/reach_13964584_Full.jpg[/MouseOverImage]

[MouseOverImage=http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/reach_14202733_Full.jpg]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/BluePlatform.png[/MouseOverImage]

[MouseOverImage=http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/reach_14202734_Full.jpg]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/RedBase.png[/MouseOverImage]

[MouseOverImage=http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/reach_14202749_Full.jpg]http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj173/P5ych0duck/RedApproach.png[/MouseOverImage]

Video:

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YouTube - Cargo Port

If you read this whole post you deserve a cookie (and to play an awesome map like Cargo Port)!
Gametype (Invasion: Cargo Port, not required)
Map

I understand that there are double spoilers in areas where there should only be one, there isn't really a way to fix this though as the site has been automatically putting spoiler tags there, even though I've deleted them several times.

 

Wow, where do I begin?

Longshot: I'm really glad that you like the map. I'm surprised that even more hardcore players like you and Erupt actually enjoy this so much. I'm not sure how this inspired Composition as they are completely different, but whatever the case, I think Compy is pretty awesome.

Ociee: Thanks, but don't forget that I didn't forge this alone, MattKestrel desrves some credit too at the very least.

Crypto: Hopefully Stevo will get you the footage in a few days...

Erupt: You definitely influenced a lot of the map's changes, particularly with initial spawns and the Invasion gametype. Then again, so did a hell of a lot of other people... Once again, I'm really glad that competitive players like you enjoy the map as much as all the casual guys.

Everyone else: Thanks for the great feedback! I'm glad everyone is so happy with the map. Also, it's been getting some pretty interesting tags... "duck does it again", "awesomesauce", and "rotflolmao" were some of my favorites

Also, to the peeps, something special may be arriving in your PM inboxes in the near future