“He who battles armor lockers must take care, lest he become an armor locker/ And when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” Hello There Thanks for checking out my thread and reading my post. I assume you’re reading it anyway, and aren’t one of those mucky pawed children who scrolls straight down to look at the pictures. This thread is about my map Abyss, which I have been working on for quite some time. The map is small, designed for 1v1 and 2v2 slayer games, and is designed around an area of negative space in the centre. Abyss came about because I decided to build a map that focuses on the things I really really enjoy doing in multiplayer- namely, doing ridiculous escapes and making rad-ass jumps with the aid of the sprint armor ability. I really like the way that sprint extends the distance of your jump, but I haven’t seen many maps which are designed around said extended sprint jump. Well I wore my fingers to bloody stumps sprint-jumping around Abyss while forging, and there are a plethora of sprint-jumping shortcuts which can be made while moving around the map: some obvious, some less so. UPDATE- Changed plasma pistol spawning time to match time advertised in thread, removed one way system by high red spawn and replaced it with ramps to aid traffic. Have now increased clip on sniper to 1 spare up from 0 spare, I thought 4 shots was playing out as a bit measly. Enough talking, let me see the map! Well if you’re going to be like that... Abyss Flythrough - YouTube To further enhance your understanding, I’ve taken a video of me playing a 2v2 match on the release version of the map. Just to head off any tiresome comments, I play this game for fun and fun alone. The video is included only so you can see a match going down on Abyss, I am unfussed if you think you are better than me, I’m the worst reach player of all time. If my halo reach stats got into a chicken pen and had sex with the chickens, they would all lay eggs that hatched into accursed basilisks. The video has annotations that were meant to be about map design etc but ended up being me mocking my own play and raging at DeathReaper because he loves to get up in my grill during 2v2s: Abyss 2v2 Exhibition Match - YouTube For those who ‘don’t do’ youtubes, I have pics too. This is the loadout cam, showing grenade launcher spawn plinth, top GL balcony which is an important map control point, and the teleporter which takes you across the map to top sniper side, near blue hall. - Sniper side with sniper spawning plinth visible- Red hall, towards sniper side Blue hall, again towards sniper side Top sniperside, towards blue hall. You can see the teleporter exit. Red spiker loft, which is basically a continuation of top sniperside but towards red hall rather than blue. UPDATE- added ramps to top red hall, leading up to back GL side. This replaces the one-way system that existed in version 1.1 of Abyss. Nobody actually suggested this but I've been worried about this area for a while and I couldn't see a reason to keep the one way drop. This should open out flow. Back of top GL side, passage down to bottom GL spawn. GL spawn Yellow strut balcony at top GL side, which gives you a nice sniping view of blue hall Going for sniper Lift from sniper area to top sniper Lift from sniper area to red hall So are there guns? I can confirm that Abyss contains various guns. Remember that guns are not toys. If you find a gun on the ground, DO NOT PICK IT UP. Please tell a responsible adult. Under no circumstances are you to run around the map like a maniac using the weapon to kill other spacemen. Weapons are as follows- The ever popular SNIPER RIFLE- 118 second respawn, 1 spare clip, max count 2. The excitingly explosive GRENADE LAUNCHER- 118 second respawn, 3 spare clips, max count 2. The dastardly DMR- 40 second respawn, 1 spare clip, x2. The nefarious NEEDLE RIFLE- 40 second respawn, 1 spare clip, x2. The BRUTE ‘banned in Singapore’ SPIKER- 30 second respawn, 1 spare clip, x2. The delightfully green PLASMA PISTOL- 45 second respawn, x1. The magnanimous MAGNUM- 40 second respawn, 3 spare clips, x1 The weapon set is split between long range precision play and some close range shield stripping weapons which are of use in the lower regions of the map. You will also find a health kit in the red and blue hall, and grenades of corresponding varieties can be found alongside the precision rifles on the map. I dislike grenade spam so there’s only one per spawn, and they’re on a 40 second timer. Use sparingly. Gameplay As to how you actually win on this map, I suck pretty hard at reach but what I’d advise is get the sniper early and get yourself up to top GL side. There are some long sightlines and you cover a lot of the map, especially in a 1v1 where it’s less hectic. Top GL balcony deliberately doesn’t have much except a sight advantage, so if you get hurt or you’re low on ammo you’ll need to go down and get supplies. The sniper spawns regularly and you can take a fast but exposed route from top GL to snipe spawn, which you’ll see me trying and failing in the gameplay video I’ve posted below (I get taken out with NRs). The situation is complicated, as ever, by the presence of the other team, who will want to do similar things. Due to it’s size I highly recommend playing Abyss in slayer pro rather than vanilla slayer. I recommend this partly because I think no-radar enhances small team games (and I suspect I’m not the only person on FH who holds this view), but also because Pro ensures everyone has sprint which is necessary to perform sprint jumps which are the entire reason I made this map. Playing the map using a jetpack is basically like spitting in my face. I supplied a custom gametype that I like for 1v1 where you spawn with magnums and have a choice between sprint or hologram. See how you like it. I didn’t support any gametypes except slayer because all I want to do in my space gun game is kill people, I don’t care about flags or balls or being the king of some dumb hill. The map has always been envisioned as slayer only, I dislike objective gametypes and had no wish to test them in my map. If you really love CTF then this isn’t the map for you, apologies. Design The map has been through quite a few different designs, including an early model which was built for 4v4 and featured two sniper rifles and very large elevation changes, somewhat like sword base (shudder). You can see my sketch above. This version was extremely bad and was deleted before the initial forging was even finished. I felt ashamed of what I had brought into the world. I went into forge and began to mess around with 2x4’s, realizing I needed a much smaller map for it to have the thrilling jumps and fast gameplay that I craved. The map I’ve ended up with is nearly unrecognizable from that first draft, but the central design goal always remained the same. What I’ve created is asymmetrical, has large height variations, and to me at least plays rather fun in a small scale slayer match. Aesthetically my prime concern has been framerate and smooth movement during gameplay. The map’s looks are not going to blow anybody’s mind, it’s a ‘grey box’ map made from a collection of smaller grey boxes. I tried to use a consistent piece pallet centering around large braces, platform Ls and 2x2 blocks of varying types. The red and blue halls are as heavily color coded as I could manage, and areas of interest are highlighted in bright orange to draw the player’s eye. Due to the asymmetry and some long sightlines I don’t think orientation is much of a problem past your initial playthrough. Fans of budget maps will be pleased to know that Abyss weighs in at just under $5000, and fans of aesthetic cones will be pleased to know that I spent $10 of that budget on a cone. Overall aesthetics took a back seat to gameplay, but I hope you find it to be cleanly forged and inoffensive to the eye. But wait, there’s more! Here’s some ‘light hearted’ shots that some people might find ‘funny’ although they would be wrong because posting reach maps is super serious and I am frowning right now at my computer: I know who the real Quaid is- My spartan reeeally loves to ham it up when he dies And again. Seriously he could not be more dramatic about this- “It’s a really nice neighborhood, the sniper attack problem was highly exaggerated…” Goth MetalCore attempting self fellatio In this picture Explosium has shot me so hard I’m turning into a ghost. Finally I leave you with a video of me making the jump for the sniper and failing horribly- Abyss Fail - YouTube T-t-that’s all folks! Thanks for reading my long post, which I was trying to make fun and informative and to really give you an idea of what Abyss is all about. Let me just say it would be a pleasure if you downloaded my map and gave it a whirl with a couple of friends. Maybe you could play it with people you dislike too? I don’t know, you’re making the rules here. Go hog-wild. I should probably thank people who did a thing SO: Henry Explosium, my forge bud and 1v1 tester, without whom this would not have come about. Especial thanks regarding the use of ramps XLs as walls and the lift design. What can I say Explosium, you shunted the grey objects around really hard. Your forging could make grown men weep or an old woman feel young again. My forging is a dog’s forging. Also it feels really weird that I can’t use your real name to thank you. GothMetal core, my main 1v1 partner, who consistently rocked me on this map so bad I couldn’t sit down for a week. The dude has got no mercy and you can thank him for the map no longer having a concussion rifle. Being completely destroyed on something you created smarts even worse than a normal defeat because you create all these boss dropdowns and then he uses them to kill you and you’re like ‘Next time I am going to edit the map so he spawns in a little box I can drop grenades into’. Berb, a forgehub tester’s guild member, who tested Abyss not once but twice within a week and proved to me that other people on the planet had constructive things to say about the way I had arranged various grey boxes in a computer game (my family aren’t very understanding of my hobbies). For real it’s mainly thanks to him I removed the custom powerup, which really improved gameplay. Various other testers including Prophanity 01, who is a cool manly guy with a real nice scent and a melodious voice, as well as a DeathReaper, COPkiller50 who are my American brothers from a different mother, and people who played with Berb- Gekko77, DUCK NG, Mr H1dden, Th3 Equin0x, DHG Redemption7, Tolerance Clam, Gambit87 and Zatheria, none of whom I know but I’m certain they’re upstanding community members who are friends to dogs of many sizes. I’d thank my Mum except all she ever said while I was making this was stuff like ‘get a job’ and ‘go outside’ which wasn’t helpful AT ALL and look at me now Mum I posted the map I made on THE INTERNET and people are LOOKING AT IT so who came out on top? Anyway, you know what you need to do if you made it this far. Download my map, fire up slayer pro and sprint jump around until your brain shrivels to the size of a pea. It’s the only way. Thank you and goodnight.
I when you noticed in your gameplay vid that GL 2 and Snipe 2 are the most desirable locations. While there was nice flow and almost constant movement, those areas may slow down the gameplay. What I am suggesting is having a teleporter on the bottom that is exposed to Snipe 2, but brings you to Snipe 2, and a teleporter on the bottom that is exposed to GL 2, but brings you to GL 2. What this does, is gives the player on the power positions a chance to kill a player who is running towards the teleporter, but once that player enters the teleporter, it will force the player to move from the power position. It would keep the map's flow consistent and give it more balance. Great job, btw.
Oh hey dude, I was really hoping you'd comment on this 'cause you tell it like it is. Yeah the two high locations are the best positions and almost all cross map play happens between those two points. Ok i'm a little drunk but I think what you're suggesting is adding another set of teleporters that would take you up to the GL balcony, from somewhere that is exposed to the GL balcony? Because there's already the one which takes you to high sniper and is exposed to high sniper side, unless you're thinking of something totally different. Anyway that is interesting because I very nearly added another teleporter up to the high GL balcony but then i didn't.
The way you presented your map was very entertaining, and you did a great job at motivating me to read the whole post. As for the map it looks pretty solid, and I really like the idea of you incorporating several sprint jumps. I will make sure to download and get a game on it. I will either edit this post or if I have substantial amount of feedback I will just post it.
Yeah, I could imagine what I said being confusing. Send me an FR and I will show you in game. GT: The Xzample
Ha how did I know you would ask that. Sure I'm going to be out tonight but next time I see you online I will invite you to my game. I've added another set of teles from red spiker loft to the GL2 balcony but I'd be willing to test something else too. Look out for my add soon. X2sora, I'm glad you liked the post itself. I was worried I had written too much and people would not enjoy reading it. I hate it when people post a map and are like 'ok uh here's my map I threw together from prefab objects it's called HALO XTREME erm here's one picture that doesn't provide any overview at all, no weapon list, no information about my design intentions, BUT PLEASE DOWNLOAD OMG' Anyway the map is more important than how well I can talk about it so please do let me know if you enjoyed your 1v1/2v2
My name is Henry Explosium and I approve of this halo map. I've been testing this map and flying round it in forge since it was a little babby forgeling, and I'm really impressed with the final result. It has grown into a fine young map with a strong weapon layout, excellent flow, a nice haircut and a job. I just wanted to say if you're a fan of 1v1s or 2v2s (or FFA if you don't play nice with the other boys) you should really give this map a go. @Mr. xzamplez, you make a valid point that a lot of the fights centre around the balconies over the power weapons, but I don't think adding more teleporters on a map this size would do any more than make for really, really, hectic gameplay. Hectic in a bad way. MUDNUB noticed that people always go for the higher ground in maps, which is why you have a clear line of sight across the map from these points but are very susceptible to people flanking you either side, or coming up behind you using the grav lifts. I'd like to see a map like you suggested with two power-weapon balconies overlooking the very teleporter sender nodes that could lead to their downfall, but I don't think that map is this map.
Well I posted that as a suggestion. As of right now the multiple routes to the power position help the cause, but teleporters may improve it further. The only way to find out for sure is with trial and error. My example of a teleporter used in the same way: the sniper teleporter on Chill Out. Outside of Sniper Room is a large, exposed atrium. When a player is in the atrium the sniper has the upper hand, but when the player enters the teleporter in the center, he has the upper hand because he is now behind the sniper. The purpose of the teleporter is to balance the map by giving more routes to a power position, and create flow by encouraging the Sniper to push out of Sniper Room. It may provide hectic gameplay, or it may provide balanced gameplay. Like I said, "trial and error".
Explosium, you are the definite godfather of this map and I loved all your help with it. In this case I feel xzamplez has a point, and I'm slightly wishing I'd held off a little longer to test some further possibilities regarding the GL 2 balcony. I want this map to go to review hub, and they don't go easy on you, so anything that is potentially weak in the context of 2v2 competitive gameplay needs a look over. What i've done in forge and will probably need to test a while is this- I've opened up the one way system that existed on the high GL side of red hall, so players now have a choice of either acessing the back GL high hall with the passage down to the GL spawn, or they can go the old route onto the dangerous overlook balcony area. Second I added another set of teleporters which take you from red spiker loft to the high yellow strut balcony which overlooks blue hall. The reason for this is that I felt yellow strut was very dominant over the blue hall in our test game, which is fine, except that three of the four ways up to high GL side can be covered from that area. With the experimental map changes I've made, players on the yellow strut balcony looking out over blue side are not able to cover red hall, and can be surprised from behind by someone coming through the new teleporter. I'm not happy with the aesthetics of the teleporter exit atm, but that comes last. Have a look in forge Explosium and you'll see what I'm talking about and how it could help flow. Also xzamplez I will give you a look round too so we can see if we're on the right page.
So I am back with that feedback I promised earlier. After getting a game on the map (1v1) I must say you have done a terrific job on this map. The addition of sprint jumps made gameplay much more intense and fast paced. You did a great job in balancing both upper sniper spawn and upper grenade launcher spawn. Despite their (arguably) long LOs they were equally as vulnerable. I must say though I never really used grav lift (that leads to upper grenade launcher) or the teleporter that leads to sniper. Perhaps it was because I was playing a 1v1 that they were not used, or maybe it was because of playing style. Also the brace large you used as an incline to reach upper grenade launcher was a tad bit too long and steep for my taste. Whenever I used the ramp I was always ambushed and under serious pressure from whoever was at upper grenade spawn. This may not be of concern because it only happened once, but my friend experienced a pretty bad spawn during our 1v1, he spawned directly in front me in upper grenade. Other than that one occurrence your spawn set up was pretty good. Overall you have a really solid map on your hands, and I will definitely be keeping it on my hard drive.
Yo yo, thanks for not only playing my map but giving detailed gameplay feedback, both things which are hard to come by sometimes. Ok a few remarks- Both the grav lift and teleporter have specific uses, and obviously I don't want to tell you how to play my map but they're both there for a reason. The grav lift, if you look at it again when you play, allows you a very fast route from sniper spawn to the highest point of the map, at the cost of the balcony leading to the lift being very exposed, and also there is a distinctive sound que when a player uses it. I also often use that balcony/lift to bail myself out of blue hall if the action is getting too hot for me. The teleporter I usually use to escape from the long balcony which overlooks most o the map from GL side (I keep renaming the map areas when I talk about them so i hope you know where i mean). It's also a great route to flank the enemy team in a 2v2 if they're giving your partner some grief on sniperside and you just spawned in red hall, although you have to be careful they don't see you using it because it's deliberately a nade death zone if someone knows you're coming through the teleporter. As for that ramp, it's sort of my moment of shame on this map because it was one of the first objects I placed and at the time I had no idea that 30 degrees was a tad too steep to feel 'good' to walk on in Reach gameplay. I've gotten used to it but yeah it's a weak ramp, I'm worried about changing it because so many other things would have to be moved to accomodate the new incline. If anyone has suggestions about how I could do that I'd listen to them for the 1.2 update. Wow once again I type so many words about my own map. Thanks for playing and I'm really glad you're keeping it on your hard drive. I think there should be a 1.2 version with some fixes in a few weeks.
Well, I finally was able to get a game on this the other day, so I decided it was time to leave some feedback. Overall, I was very impressed with the end result. I would say the two things that caught my attention in the pics would have to be 1) The height variations(I love several levels on maps) 2) the death pit(I have a fetish for them) But in all seriousness, this map played very well. The flow was good and a majority of the maps fights centered around the two control points, neither of which were over powered. I would say my biggest concern would be the grav lift platform that is in the bottom right of your first picture. In the game that I played, that part of the map was greatly ignored, and I believe there was a reason for that. IMO, to use that lift would almost always be a death wish if one team controls that area. The one time I saw that lift used, I heard the player hit the lift, placed a grenade at the exit point, and poped the person in the head. Although, there are other routes up to that control point, I feel that the nature of the lift is nearly pointless. Unlike the other lift in the map, you have no way of getting a shot off at the people controling that point. Which IMO means it is not worth the risk. I hope I am articulating my thoughts in a coherent fashion, if not I will try to explain better. The other thing I noticed was that the bottom of the level went unused, other than for spawning. Not a bad thing, just something I noticed. All in all I had a good time on this map, it played well and I will be looking for more of your works in the feature.
Hey thanks for the crit mate. Yeah that lift is a deathtrap if someone knows you're coming, originally the lift actually took you up into blue spawn if you can imagine that, anyway nobody wanted to use it because there was no point in going to blue spawn so I changed it to take you to high GL side. Trust me when I say that flow is worse without that lift? I would agree it's hardly the ideal route to take up there though. As far as the bottom level of the map going unused, it's been my observation that players will try and get as high ground as they can and will almost always move away from lowered areas. You could almost argue it's good to have some lowered areas in order to safely spawn people. I know what you're saying though. I did my best to put most of the useful stuff in lowered areas but inevitably this map is a battle for the two high points. Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed yourself on my creation
I completely agree with you on the bottom floor. I in no way think that it is a bad thing that it goes un-used. A good example would be prisoner, the bottom was really only used for spawning, but if absent then it would not be any good. Anyways, I'm not sure what your budget is like, but have you ever considered making that lift into a ladder? If it were silent then it might be used more? Just a thought, either way great map.
It's great to see that Abyss is up! Personally, I would highly recommend this map. A very fun, smooth, jump and sprint filled adventure. No disrespect to the other forgers, but this has probably been the best map I've tested in the TG. It's been great to see the creative process at work through the testing I did which I am sure helped to mould a very good map here.
@moth, see this is where I admit my ignorance because I never really played much multiplayer in CE and I've never had a match on Prisoner! I am looking forward to the aniversary edition so I finally get to experience these legendary maps like Damnation etc that I hear about. As far as the ladder idea goes, that would be perfect except I don't think the geometry will allow for it. I would have to radically change the GL spawn area otherwise the shield doors would stick through into that hallway and it would be unspeakably messy. I do see it though, if I could do a giant ladder like on Jia it would work really well. @Berb, hey man I was actually going to tell you I posted this then I forgot. Anyway I hope you saw my thank you at the end of my giant ass post, you and the other TG guys really helped me out a lot with this one. Removing the Custom Powerup in particular was sound advice and once it was gone I never missed it. Thanks for your testing and your kind words. --- In other news I've updated the map so the one-way system that existed at the red side of high GL is now a normal ramp system. I feel this is better for flow and hopefully will open up play on the highest point of the map, as well as encourage traffic through red hall which I felt was being underused. I'm still looking into a second pair of teleporters as suggested by Xamplez but I haven't been happy with the results so far. Watch this space. Update pic below, have added info to the initial post too-