Hello gentle populace of Forgehub, after much procrastination and endless postponement, I am proud to present one of my oldest and dearest creations: Observatory. Many thanks to Psychoduck for editing all my pretty pictures. You're the best <3 Observatory is a small, asymmetric floating map reminiscent of both Guardian and Lockout, meant for 2-6 players. Gameplay is fast and furious, and the multitude of tactical jumps rewards the player who has superior map knowledge. Observatory has been a journey of sorts. Conceived not long after the release of Halo Reach, you could say that it's been a long development cycle. Some old TG testers might remember when an early version of Observatory made it's rounds, waaaaay back when. In fact, between the date that Observatory was started and now, I've completed six other fully playable maps. That's not to say that I've forgotten about this one; on the contrary, it's been a slow, steady process of improvements and gameplay tweaks, and tests of one gametype or another are a common occurrence during TGIF lobbies. Speaking of gametypes, Observatory specifically caters to an interesting, non-standard selection of game modes: King of the Hill, Infection (which I'll talk about more below), FFA, and two of my custom gametypes, Three-Ball and Hot Potatoes. Three-Ball is pretty much exactly what it sounds like - three oddballs for three times the fun - and is especially entertaining when you have a lobby of four players, as the game becomes a "musical chairs" of sorts. Hot Potatoes is similar in that there are also three oddballs, except now they're bombs instead of skulls and you can spontaneously explode at any second. Fun for the whole family. Crazy King is also a blast as well, especially if you turn on random weapons. Weapons list: Spoiler 1x Sniper Rifle, 120s, 1 spare clip 1x Gravity Hammer, 120s 1x Concussion Rifle, 120s, 1 spare clip 2x DMR, 45s, 1 spare clip 2x Needle Rifle, 45s, 1 spare clip 1x Needler, 45s, 1 spare clip 1x Plasma Repeater, 30s 2x Plasma Pistol, 30s 4x Plasma Grenade, 30s 2x Health Pack, 15s And now for the part you've all been waiting for, the pictures: As I said a little earlier, Observatory supports its own brand of infection. An alpha zombies variant, the infected spawn atop the high cliff overlooking the map. They must then jump down onto the heads of unsuspecting humans below, much like the Flood-themed levels of the Halo campaigns. Upon death, zombies are allowed to spawn on top of all the main buildings, and can drop down on the humans from almost anywhere. The map undergoes a few changes during infection games, namely the large rockslide that cuts down the open sightline on the top half of the map. Survivors can jump on top of the rocks and gain a slight height advantage, but must be extremely careful as they're positioned directly below the main zombie spawn. The dangers of such positioning are illustrated below. Poor Zatherla. He never saw it coming. This concludes our featured presentation. Remember, always use protection, eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetable per day, and don't forget to download, play and enjoy!
Hey, just letting you know, never use white text in a thread. People who are using the white skin can't see some words. Anyway, it's a good thing you posted this in competitive, otherwise I might be a little mad. I just posted a map called "The Observatory" in the casual section. Same theme kinda, but mines all indoors. Anyway, cool map, good aesthetics but I would have like to see some more detail to suit your theme, although I understand it is a large map. What was your budget left? I like that you have a little logo of a binocular for the theme of this thread, and I can tell you've spent alot of time on the theme, all that is great, but did you know you can actually make a binocular in forge? I added one to my Observatory and I gotta admit, it adds aesthetic. All of this being said, solid map, and a very impressive thread. DL +1.
Yeah Mock! For a map that just looks like a Guardian re-fit Observatory sure is something to play on: You have a unique infection setup that is always a lot of fun, an insane oddball game and even some good slayer when all else fails. Observatory may be behind the times on piece usage and aesthetics, but it is still a winner for gameplay. I hope people do take the time to learn this map in game instead of passing it off for not being like all the rest. By the way, very nice post. Duck did good.
Aww **** yeah! Observatory is up! Definitely a fun map to piss about with a couple friends on; and even if you don't have enough to play a proper game, you can just jump around all the tac jumps for hours! The infection play is really fun and fast-paced, playing a mix between holdout survival and free roam survival. Though Observatory lacks a consistent architectural style, a piece placement style and is noisy in some areas, Mock has forged it very smoothly and very wisely.
Yeah definitely not the best piece use, but it is still fun to play on. I think I have only played infection, though, so I'll have to play some other games on here. Good job.
I remember seeing this map for the first time almost a year ago. I had downloaded it and was looking around it in forge prior to running a TG test on it. I thought the map looked pretty cool. I liked the theme and the layout, but I wasn't blown away. Then I saw the infection setup. Infection transforms Observatory into a super-fun, and truly unique experience. For once you don't groan when you see you've been infected. Instead, you take pleasure in sneakily dropping down onto the heads of the unsuspecting humans and devouring their brains, until John Freeman, Saver of Humens shows up, that is. Infection was really the stand-out gametype on this map as far as I'm concerned. That said, I still appreciate the rest of the maps features as well. The tac jumps are cool, although I don't trust my jumping abilities enough to attempt them most of the time. The gameplay is very fast paced, and 3-Ball and especially Hot Potatoes are both incredibly fun to play here. Good work, Sir Mock. Next we'll have Port Authority out the door, and then Project Mudkip!
Man, everybody's on my ass about the piece usage, just cause it's not made exclusively from brace larges and 2x4s... My design necessitated the use of a lot of "non-standard" (read: not boring) pieces, especially in the construction of the two 2-story buildings. They're quite small, and it'd be impossible to make them out of anything else. In fact, I'd argue that it really is the best piece usage, since I got the geometry I wanted out of the fewest number of pieces. That being said, I actually really like the way the map looks. It's unique, which isn't something that can be said about a lot of the smaller-sized maps these days. Paints: Thanks for the suggestion. However, I think our themes are a little different. Mine's supposed to be some sort of cryptic Forerunner monitoring station or something, and I figure that being a hyper-advanced interstellar civilization and all, they'd have progressed a little further than simple optical binoculars.
lol lololololollololololol This took a loooooooooooooooooooong time. Good work it's finally up lolz. I did like playing on it, though. Oddball was especially fun, and I don't see anything wrong with the piece usage, I think it's a classic.
Personally I think this is a great map and I have to disagree with everyone else because I think the object usage is fine. I love the tac jumps on the map they really increase movement on the map and causes some interesting gameplay. 1 thing I have to say thou is I think some of the rock placement is a little odd and random in some areas thou which make that area look a little rushed. besides that I think this is an amazing map that anyone who loves infection should try. Great job MockKnizzle008
Looks beast, definitely see the resemblance of Guardian and Lockout. Having played it, it's awesome, just like I expected. Oddball and 3 flag was fast paced, and I enjoyed every single moment on it. I recommend putting a falcon in the background for aesthetics, if you still have a ton ass of money left.
The rock placement in infection is supposed to emulate a rock slide. It should appear a bit random. Still, the rocks are strategically placed for gameplay. Adding a falcon for aesthetics sounds pretty boring and pointless to me. I'm not sure what a "ton ass" of anything is, either. Mock let's play some hot potatoes on here soon...
Nice! It's nice to see some maps that are set up for Slayer as well as the less common gametypes like Oddball and KotH. I also like how you added new pieces for the infection version instead of just slapping on a Purple FX and saying "entirely new infection experience!" like most people do. I can definetly see the inspiration from Lockout and Guardion, well done in that aspect. As for piece usage, I like how you used the 2x2 blocks. Not many people use them so it makes the map recognizable. And that is perhaps the best use of Double Wall I've seen, usually I think that piece looks terrible. I'm not a fan of merging 4x4s together on floors though. But yeah, definitely adding this one to my collection of maps!
How did I miss this? this is sick! It kind of reminds me of Cargo Port which I think is amazing aesthetically. Admittedly it does lack a solid style that goes through the whole map but it still looks well forged. The rock slide is a nice addition. It looks good and the way it improves gameplay for Infection is a plus. This may well just be played in my BIOC lobby if we have enough time after the already specified maps to be played. Hope we do though.
Personally I like the map layout along side the object placement, Its got a number one in my book on gameplay as I believe I have played this with some Customs with several friends who liked the map and downloaded it sometime, I don't know when though. The asthetics though are a little out of touch in my perspective because I can see resembalance to Guardian and Lockout but I feel like the asthetics do not emphasize a Forerunner moniter station well enough. You may want to add some more asthetics if you have anymore budget. Looks good. I would definitely like to see this on matchmaking!
This map is amazing! It's almost resembles Lockout from Halo 2, the level of detail is awesome! Please keep up the work!
necrobump! im late to the party here obviously, but i got to play this map last night (inf) and i thought it was an excellent example of infection done right. there is no special place for anyone to hide, youve got to stay on your toes at all times. the game is fast paced and exciting like it should be, rather than a bunch of humans in one OP'd room being douchey. great job on this map, great forging. and yea, it reminded me of lockout also.