WEAPONS LIST Sniper Rifle (x4) Spartan Laser (x2) Plasma Launcher (x2) Rocket Launcher (x1) Shotgun (x2) DMR (x6) Grenade Laucner (x2) Plasma Grenade (x8) VEHICLES Warthog Rocket (x2) Warthog Gauss (x1) Warthog (x2) Wraith (x1) Falcon (x2) Ghost (x2) Banshee (x2) Mongoose (x6) Shade Turret (x4) Halo has always been a fun game, and with Halo Reach came numerous fun options for us all to utilise. Unfortunately a lot have been deemd "overpowered" and as such you'll be hard pushed to find many weapons outside of a DMR and a standard Warthog in competitive play. For me that's not enough, I want some joy in my halo experience, and that's why I'm posting here. A particular travesty in the halo matchmaking is the dearth of options available for BTB maps. To me that is the best reason to play Halo, and yet in my eyes it is the least catered for. What's the point in having a Gauss hog (as powerful as it is) if you're never gonig to use it? I decided to take on the responsibility of bringing the joy back to BTB, and this is my submission for your perusal. "The Storm" is a BTB map designed in the Hemorrhage section of forgeworld. As fun as the map was in its original form, I for one found that lack of ANYTHING outside the original bases to be something of a downer on the gameplay. With that in mind I built an enormous tower in the centre of the map. The tower overlooks the map in it's entirity and is accessable by air or by a two-way teleport at it's base. Within the tower there is a rocket launcher on a slow respawn, and very little else. Taking a sniper up there is a particularly effective strategy. In the neautral assault gametype the tower also houses the bomb. As with any such map, "The Storm" contains two opposing bases, Red and Blue. Each offer a combination of style and function with clear identification of the respective occupying team as well as access to some of the maps most powerful weapons and vehicles. The Rocket Hog is a powerful, but seldom used vehicle. This map was designed with the Rocket Hog in mind and each base starts with one. It has proven to be an effective, if not entirely unpredictable weapon. But the most important factor is that it is a hell of a lot of fun. The bases also house a selection of mongooses, a standard warthog (for those unlucky enough to miss out on the rocket one), a Falcon, a Ghost and, later in the game, a Banshee. The variety of vehicles available migt be a tad excessive, but this is a very big map and where else can you utilise these things as effectively? The bases also house a Sniper Rifle, DMR (s) and a Grenade Launcher. To the right of each base is a Sniper Station. As you might expect this station houses a second sniper rifle. This is due to the frustration of only having the one per team, and the annoyance of having someone follow you around waiting for you to die so that they can steal your own. The station also houses a mongoose for easy escape and a DMR. On top of the sniper station are two Shade Turrets. These vehicles are a lot of fun, and two concentrating their fire on a target will make short work of them in no time. The centre of the map also houses two platforms. On each of these platforms spawn a Wraith and a Warthog Gauss repectively. These vehicles are very powerful, and thus arenot available initially. They also only respawn every 3 minutes making them a rare commodity. To counteract the vehicle-heavy design, there are two Spartan Lasers and Plasma Lauchers in memorable locations on the map. In interests of fairness neither Plasma launcher spawns initally. The map is suitable for both Assault and CTF ganmetypes in addition to BTB, and although it may suffer from balance issues in places, what can't be dneied is the fun and variety it provides to all. This really is a map that does it's utmost to ensure that no one get's left out and makes the best of the various toys available in the Halo game. I hope you like it.
Although I do enjoy your map I don't think the weapons were chosen well. Due to the nature of the Wraith, Gauss-Hog, and let's not forget the rocket hog, I can tell this map was made without careful thought. First off, the 4 power vehicles on the map all have their own personal pros and cons; Wraith: Slow, inaccurate but powerful Gauss-Hog: Fast, super accurate, deadly Rocket-Hog: Fast, accurate but not useful if target is moving quickly. Now review these settings? Two rocket hogs? If one team has both of those, the other team is in hell. A wraith? Helpfull but not usefull, since a player in a mongoose can easily dismantle it. Gauss-Hog? Uber usefull and thank god there is only one on the map. What I am saying is that you should have only one of those vehicles on the map, ONE, that means one Rocket or One Gauss, and definitely ONE Wraith. The usefulness of the vehicles are wasted when there are more than ONE on the map, it's like rock paper scissors, but everything can kill everything else easily. Now don't even make me mention the P.G. Launcher and the Splazer. Sure, I can accept having one of each on the map, but two? WTF that screws up gameplay. A better thing to do is to give one team the P.G. Launcher and the other a Splazer, not only is it even, but it will keep one team from being cannon fodder whilst the other is the shooter. To sum things up, even though it is a nice idea, and has choice spawning, you need to understand weapons before you think of putting them on a map like this, nuff' said. And come on man, a rocket launcher on top of that? Kill me now.
I appreciate your concerns and have no doubt made very similar observations myself, but the point of the map was to maximise the availability of the power weapons in what was (hopefully) a balanced way. Perhaps the map would make more sense if named "The Storm - Heavy", but to me that is missing the point. Cleary I could have removed the Wraith, Gauss Hog and Banshees and used only one Plasma Launcher and SPartan Laser and made a semi-competitive map. ANd it would have been as balanced and as boring as every other BTB map out there. We play Halo to get the power weapons, to make use of the uber-vehicles. With regards to balance can you not tell me you wouldn't feel a little more uneasy in a Rocket Hog knowing full well that at any moment you could be hit by one of two Lasers/Plasma Launchers/Rocket Launchers/Banshees? And vice versa. In summary, I'll reiterate the jist of my argument. This map is about giving EVERYONE the good stuff, rightly or wrongly. Though admittedly it woyld probably make more sense as a "HEAVY" map, that goes without saying. The important tihng is that you have fun.
Equality and Death Gods I agree with both of you. Psquiddy is right in the way of it being a difficult map and perhaps unbalanced, or well, probably. But on the other hand, I get the feeling, that the "Top Gun Struggle" is what Dark Maltos tried to achieve in this map, otherwise said: Psquiddy, you are aware of the danger of the power weapons and you believe that they are what is wrong about the map, for they can endanger the enjoyment for players when they.....well, get owned. Dark Maltos, you are also aware of the danger of the power weapons and you believe they are what is good about the map, for they form a challenge to see which player can handle the great amount of power weapons the best, and you seek the thrill of......well, being a Death god. Of course, the map's general idea is good, the forging is great, and the risk taking is not even near under-done, so, good job. But the intention of the map may just be what will take it's popularity down. Because, to be honest, it's freaking awesome to be a Death God and make people bow before your unlimited power and doom. On the other hand, if you're playing with someone better than you, and you get owned, you won't like the map either. On top of that, relentlessly comes, that, the rest of the Death God's teammates won't be to satisfied, because they're ain't no victims left. So in the end, only the best player will enjoy the game. And that will cause the inevitable oblivion that the map will fall in. So, in a short story: Nice job on the map dude, but it's risky, I hope to see more awesome stuff coming from your way though, I hope you readers appreciated my comment ;D
I tihnk that's a fair analysis. Clearly the map could be redesigned without the heavy weapons with great ease, and perhaps that is something I could post in the future. I still think this map could be a lot of fun for all of those involved however as there's a lot to play with what with the 2 snipers per team, the Shade Turrets, the Falcons, the Banshees, the Warthogs. One thing's for sure, there'll be a lot of explosions