Forest Moon

FOREST MOON​

Hello! This is my first post on these forums and the first Forge map I've ever completed. It hasn't seen much testing at all, but now that I have it in a state I'm relatively happy with, I'm ready to get some feedback and hopefully play a few test games.

Forest Moon is an outdoor asymmetrical map built atop one of the cliffs overlooking Blood Gulch. It's a mix of the sloping terrain of forge world and forged bases and walkways. I wanted to get away from the typical symmetrical maps, and this is my attempt to build an asymmetrical map that is balanced enough for Classic CTF, with neither team having an advantage over the other. No testing has been done with a full 8 player game, so it remains to be seen if that balance can be achieved. If not, I may settle for tweaking it a bit and leaving out 2-flag and 2-bomb support, sticking to Offense/Defense gametypes.

At first, I was aiming for something that felt like a slightly bigger, more mid-long range Beaver Creek. It ended up growing much larger than I planned, though not much bigger than any of the maps built in the quarry (Cliffhanger, Atom, Beaver Creek remakes). There are a few extra-long lines of sight for sniping, but most of the action is mid-long range, perfect for DMRs and pistols. The center structure and both bases, on the other hand, are tight quarters - the shotgun and spiker will rip it up here.

WEAPONS​

PLEASE NOTE, for this screenshot, the satellite dish and roof in the center were removed to make it easier to point out weapons.

SCREENSHOT TOUR​

Looking straight up into Red Base from the field just outside the center structure. The flag waits just inside the front door, but a lack of cover on the approach and two easy hiding spots guarding the door make it a harder to grab the flag and get back out than you might think.


Red Base is cramped with low ceilings, so hard to get a good shot. But this is looking down from the 2nd floor onto the flag room below. Easy to lob grenades down onto the flag spawn, but the area down there is bigger than it looks from here. The 2nd floor has little cover, so you leave yourself open to snipers/DMRs as well.


From the 2nd floor of Red Base (accessible by grav lift near its back, cliffside entrance), you can take this covered catwalk straight to the sniper hill on the left side of the screenshot. For awhile, I had fusion cores spawn every minute or so beneath the openings of the catwalk to prevent camping up there (one shot at the core and it blows up beneath your feet), but I removed them.


View from the catwalk looking down in front of Red Base, with the walkway to Rockets in the distance. Anybody trying to approach Red Base from the cliffside path has to walk this straight hall - easy shots for snipers, if they can pick out a head between all the cover.


When you emerge from the catwalk, you'll be on the sniper hill (160s respawn with 1 spare clip). Yes, the sniper is rather powerful from it's starting position, but not as much as you might think. The lines of sight are tricky, lots of cover, and the center structure/satellite prevent you from seeing anything on the rocket side of the map. There are also 3 separate routes to the hill, making it decently difficult to hold.


Looking from the sniper hill down towards Blue Base. The catwalk from Red Base is right behind us.


This view from the Blue Base 2nd floor window shows their ramp to the sniper hill on the far-left side. The needler (60s respawn with 1 spare clip) spawns at the bottom of the ramp.


Blue Base. Continuing down from the sniper hill, we'd be approaching from the far-right of the screen. There are four entrances to both bases. For blue, there's the 2nd floor ramp seen on the left, the 1st floor entrance to the right of that, and the 2nd floor side entrance to the far right. There's also a back entrance around a cliffside path. The approach to Blue Base has plenty of rocky outcroppings for cover, making getting there relatively simple...


...but the particularly cramped quarters of the Blue flag room, coupled with their proximity to the shotgun spawn, make getting in, grabbing the flag, and getting out a hassle. The ramp at the bottom of this shot leads out to the cliffside path...


...seen here. That small balcony on the right has the shotgun (160s respawn with 1 spare clip). In front of the shotgun is an opening to the large field between Blue Base and the center ring, as well as a path to the rocket spawn.


Looking up the hill towards Blue Base and the center ring. The shotgun spawn is directly behind.


The rocket spawn (180s respawn with 4 total shots). To the right is the shotgun spawn and the cliffside path to Blue Base. Behind us is a ramp leading up into the center structure. To the left is a path towards Red Base.


View from the Red Base side-entrance landing pad. Rocket spawn is in the middle on the left side of the screen. To the bottom-left, you can see the path leading to a man cannon launching you to this pad on the side of Red Base. The spiker spawn (60s with 1 spare clip) is directly in front of the cannon. There is also a ramp with a DMR so you can sneak in or escape the same way.


Finally, the center structure, which houses the grenade launcher (160s respawn with 5 extra shots), a plasma repeater and plasma pistol (both 45s). The pit is low enough to jump out of, and the hanging piece in the center creates interesting lines of sights for circle strafing. Plenty of entrances and windows make this a vulnerable location.



Like I said, my goal was to make an asymmetrical map balanced enough for classic CTF and Assault. Any tips or advice on ANY aspect of the map is welcome, but my primary concern is hopefully achieving this balance. My philosophy behind the map balance is this:

- Red Base is relatively open, but long lines of sight on approach make the sniper rifle key to its defense (hence why Red team gets the close sniper spawn).
- Blue Base is tight-quarters and its flag room has a 2nd floor ledge that is easy to camp under (perhaps too easy), especially with the shotgun spawn close by.

-To counter both of these, Red team has a spiker spawn to even the odds in close combat against the shotgun. Blue team has a needler for a mid-range boost. (The spiker really does chew things up in close-quarters, and I'm not sure if the needler is quite as useful. Perhaps an Active Camo for Blue to combat snipers when approaching Red Base?)
-Red base also has more approaches than Blue base. Once you get inside Red base, the sniper is useless.
-Blue base is the opposite - lots of cover and easy approaches, but once you get inside, the shotgun is your main enemy. The spiker given to red team as well as the neutral rocket and grenade launchers will be helpful in assaulting Blue Base.

-Many might think having the sniper spawn on a hill and giving the shotgun to the team with a close-quarters base is imbalanced, but I feel each base simply suits the team's starting weapon sets. If necessary, however, simply swapping the two may be a more balanced solution - shotgun on a wide open hill, sniper at the bottom with tons of cover blocking your views. What do you think?
-Other things I've considered to play with balance are adding Active Camo/Overshield powerups or replacing the center-spawning grenade launcher with a sword to level the field against Blue team's shotgun.

This map has had very little testing. A few 3v3 games were played on a slightly earlier version (different rocket spawn area, no 2nd floor on Blue Base, entirely different Red Base) as well as a single 4-player FFA game on a very recent version (only change was swapping spawn locations for grenade and rocket launcher to balance traffic). The gameplay seems fun, but as I said, my primary concern is balance in 2-flag/bomb games, and I've yet to be able to get a full 4v4 game going. Looking at the weapons list, I think I may need to add a few more weapons if it's to support 8 players, but we'll see. I'm in school full-time and work part-time, so my availability is limited, but if anybody is interested in trying to get some 4v4 test games on the go, I'll do my best!

OVERVIEW SHOTS​

Spoiler

ACTION SHOTS​

PLEASE NOTE, these shots were taken before the final base colours were decided. The "red base" actually uses blue colours, and vice versa

Spoiler

Center ring

Blue Base - 2nd floor

Blue base

Blue base

Center ring

Red base

Sniper hill

DOWNLOAD LINK
FOREST MOON
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No worries. I don't know what to say other than that I think it's pretty unique. Most of the popular maps I've seen are all symmetrical and the bulk of the playing area is forge pieces. This map is asymmetrical and a large portion of it uses the natural terrain of forge world, along with bases, walkways, structures, etc. that fit very well into place amongst the terrain. The flow from outdoor to indoor areas works well, I feel.

Can you give me a bit more feedback? What do you mean by the playing area not fitting? Have you downloaded and checked out the map?

Thank you