Hello fellow forgers! TallT66 with yet another map preview! I raised the question in another thread about taking kill balls seriously in competitive maps. This map is my attempt to add such a hazard without "junking up" the map with gimmicks. The concept is a forerunner fusion power station that generates and emits pulses of power to the rest of the halo facility along a power conduit. This power conduit splits the map in half between red and blue base and is usually safe to cross, but will occasionally have a kill ball roll down the line at high speed, killing any unlucky soul that tarries along the track conduit too long. The map is symmetrical with several height variations. It's a 4 vs 4 map that I hope to have compatible with most all game types soon. Here are some screen shots... From Blue Base... The Forerunner Fusion Power Station... Blue on Left, Red on Right... Blue Base... Red Base... Top of the Power Conduit... Red Base's Mongoose... Rockets Spawn Up High In the Middle... The Back of Red Base... Man Cannons Can Take You Up to the Top Level... You do not want to stand here for long... ...or the ball will nail you! The map is in my file share if you care to give it a test. I have played several games on it already. Crazy King had us moving all over the map using everything. It was a blast to play. Odd Ball is fun too and CTF is a challenge. Let me know your thoughts. EDIT: 9/13/11 I updated the map. There is now more cover in the open areas. I added two "generators" complete with lifelike "hum" Extra Cover + Aesthetics = Better I made the tops hills, so this should be interesting...
I like the concept; I've seen it done before, but it usually results in some pretty bad frame rate lag whenever two or more people are fighting as it crosses their view. The implementation of the kill ball is pretty clean- i just hope it doesn't affect game play in any way other than as intended.
Well your map look very open . Maybe adding some rocks or making new structures. Adding new stuff can fix frame rate lag. Maybe? Anyway Feel free to invite me if you want me to show some structures you can add or your map . GT: Frenchys
this map reminds me of terminal for its detailed structures and courtyards overlooked by tall buildings. It also remids me of last resort with its inclusion of vehicles in slightly small areas. But overall, i like it.
Downloaded, looking forward to testing this later. From the pictures you've clearly got a very good eye for aesthetics. Has screen lag been an issue so far?
Thank you all for your interest! Frozenlynx, I was concerned about lag, but in the games I have played, the kill ball didn't seem to cause me any problems. It doesn't appear very often and it's moving pretty fast so it in and out of the area before you know it. I'd say it almost moves as fast as the train in terminal. Frenchy, the map is actually quite small, so adding even more cover may make the map seem a bit crowded, but I will take another look and maybe add something to the most open area and see how it plays. There is a rock in the court yards that provides some cover and it gets used quite a bit. EpicCheif117, thank you for your kind words. I tried to make it feel like terminal a bit with the higher ledges, tall buildings, and of course the dynamic object rolling through occasionally. The mongoose was a fun addition I think. I don't think the map is too small for it and a lot of game play happens up on the cat walks where the mongoose can't really get to. Explosium, thanks for the download and I look forward to hearing what you think. I really tried to make this place feel like it has a purpose. I placed plasma batteries and teleporters that are unusable around the center structures for aesthetics and so you get an "electrical hum" when you are near them. I wanted the Fusion Reactor building to feel powerful and foreboding to give that sense of danger. I have not played it split screen, but I did play 4 vs 4 several times and noticed no lag. There are no lights and very little glass, so I think that helps. Thank you all again, I love the feed back, it's vital to make a good map great to listen to your peers. Please download and play test this for me and give me more honest opinions.
Hey Tall, had a chance to play around on your map a bit and I have some feedback. Sorry I've ended up writing a massive essay on your map, but you did ask for feedback and I don't want to just bite my tongue. Feel free to ignore any of my suggestions you don't agree with, I won't be offended and I'm hardly a forge pro myself. You've certainly done a good job trying to make something that stands out from the majority of forge maps, as I said before you know how to make a map look nice, I particularly like little red/blue buildings made of braces, I don't think I've seen that done before. I personally didn't like the look of the dice above the hole where the kill ball spawns, but that might just be me. Unfortunately I could only get a 1v1 going so I can't comment too much on how gameplay was for us, as we obviously weren't getting the full experience. It was apparent even in 1v1 though that there are a lot of power weapons on the map. Far too many in my opinion. I don't think you need both the Focus Rifles AND the Sniper Rifles, nor the Shotguns AND the Sword. If I were you I'd pick one or the other in each case, but I could be wrong here and I'd need to see a 4v4 in action to be sure. I've got a few things to say on your layout. You've chosen to build in the Quarry area, which is a great place to build, but I would advise you not to feel the need to use the whole rectangle for your map. The red/blue structures are too far away I feel and there's a big empty space between each of them and the centre which we tried to avoid when I played. I'd suggest moving these structures into these spaces and blocking off the 'back' of the map. Now let's talk about the big feature; the kill-ball. The good news is I'm still a big fan of it and it didn't seem to cause any screen lag. However I think it needs some work. Now, I'm not very familiar with Halo 2's maps, so I have to ask, did Terminal warn you when a train was coming? If you play TF2, the map Well features a similar train that kills players. In Well, players are warned that the train is coming by flashing lights and a bell sound; this gives cautious players a chance to avoid the train, but if you're distacted by a fight you often fall victim to it. My problem at the minute is there's no warning that the kill-ball is coming, and it moves so fast it's very difficult to avoid, whether you're paying attention or not. It's infuriating if a player is trying to be cautious and still gets killed by the hazard regardless. I think you could try warning players one of two ways: First, try putting some glass pieces on the structure the kill-ball spawns in. An alternative would be to place a vehicle somewhere near the kill-ball spawn. The ball would spawn, blow up the vehicle, and players would hear the explosion and know to avoid the tracks until they were safe. The other big problem with the kill-ball was that there was little reason to cross the tracks. As I mentioned before, the central spaces have little cover, and the tracks don't have much either. Couple this with the hazard of the kill-ball, and we just clung to the edges of the map, using the teleporters and grav-lifts to get us onto the high paths when we wanted to cross it. You need to give players some motivation to risk going onto the tracks, I'd suggest placing one of your power weapons next to them (which would add an element of risk vs. reward), or breaking up the top level so you can only cross the map via the tracks. Hope you don't mind, I've scribbled on one of your images to show you my suggestion about the layout. Sorry for the MASSIVE post, let me know what you do/don't agree with. I'd recommend submitting your map to the testers guild at some point as well, I found that helpful with my map.
I am very appreciative of your feedback. It's not often someone take the time to really test someone's map out and give generous feed back so I commend you for that. Thanks for your comment on the "Brace Bases". I agree I have not seen that done either so I hope it's something that will make the map unique. The Dice are a signature feature I include in all of my maps. I suppose I could hide them somewhere else if they are an eye sore there. I will consider it. I can see your point on the power weapons. My hope is they are spread out enough to not cause a problem. I may eliminate the focus rifles and the sword to even things out a bit. I did add an update if you haven't noticed. There is more cover now in the open spaces you indicated that I think will help bring more gameplay to the middle. I think the distance of the bases plays very well on objective games, something it sounds like you couldn't really test with just 1 vs 1. Even though you can avoid the kill ball track by using the upper levels, it still can take a lot longer to go those routes. By having the track cut through the shortest distance between bases, I think it becomes a very attractive route. Risk reward is the idea here. Longer safe route or shorter dangerous route. I don't think Terminal warned players, but it did make some noise. I like your idea of using an explosive to warn players about the ball. I may tinker with that. Once again your feed back is much appreciated and you have given me some more to think about.
The map looks nice but very object-heavy, and under unfavorable conditions, exploded debris could push it over the disco threshold... You'd need to test to be sure. If you are close to the disco threshold, it may be safer to use Trip Mines than vehicles, as the former will not create debris (disco-contributing objects) when detonated. EDIT: "Unfavorable conditions"? An exaggerated example would be 16 players with 2 weapons each, 8 corpses with 2 dropped weapons and 2 dropped grenades each, for a total of at least 88 run-time-only objects that count toward the disco threshold.
I like aesthetic cones myself. The cheeky orange plays off against forgeworld's greys and greens in a way that makes me forget the cruelty of the world, if only for a short time. Yeah I would seriously work on some sort of que that the kill ball is about to make an appearence. I was ganked by it with zero warning or oppurtunity to get out the way and it was just annoying and i cried at least three bitter tears.
Dude that cracked me up! I am working on something. Thanks for your advice on the cones too. I always forget about those little orange guys.