Updated: weapon spawn revision 03/09/12 3-5 player Classic Slayer Oddball Headhunter I've been playing Baltis Causeway for almost a year now but due to lag issues I've never uploaded. The map has gone through a number of lag fix changes and recently had the Oddball and Headhunter gametypes added. (originally only intended for Classic Slayer) My buddies have pretty much vanished recently (kids/travel) so I haven't been able to playtest the latest changes. I also haven't been playing Halo much lately but I figured that I should upload this to the masses to enjoy before the masses move on. Lag is to my knowledge undetectable on multiplayer 1 player per screen setups, though the most we've played is 3 players in that format. Lag typically starts at the 3 player mark on combination split screen setups. I realize the glass is one of the largest lag culprits but the map was designed partially around the windows. I would love to hear some feedback before I make the official upload. Warning: This map, as per my usual, is stocked with heavy firepower Download Now
I haven't used Imageshacks new, YOU HAVE TO SIGN UP, layout that doesn't automatically bring me to a page filled with direct links like the old anonymous way. I don't know if it works like it used to if I just upload as a nobody then log in after they've brought me to the details page with the irritating sign up overlay. It's all good now though, I just had to click on every image individually to get the direct link.
I'm loving the aesthetics, but is the sword fixed? That's usually not a good thing to have. I'll take a look at it tomarrow morning and write some feedback for you.
3-5 players? That's kind of an odd number... Is it a 2v2? Looks like it'd be pretty easy to fall into the water in the first and third pictures. Not sure how railings would work out for you though. The flooring looks pretty inconsistent in that first picture. Personally, I think columns are a waste of budget. They don't really block LoS that much and are so small that you would usually need more than one to accomplish what a single building block and easily do, like in your sword spawn. It might be balancing on the handle with normal physics..
It's a solid map aside from one problem and a couple other miscellaneous ones. The sword is fixed and because it stays floating when you let go of it, it's not a good thing to have. I would recommend changing that to normal physics and creating a weapon holder of some sort. Another thing that bugged me was your map was symmetrical, but your weapon layout was not. I don't know if this was meant for team games or not, but having different weapons on each side causes an unfair balance. Next, I would suggest putting up railings because a player could easily go falling into the abyss and that's never good. The biggest issues I saw were weapon placement, timers, and spare clips. I will say that the powerups' timers are fine at 120s. The concussion rifle on the other hand is set to 30s which is too small for a map that size. Now that I think about it, all of the power weapon timers were to short, so all of them, with maybe the exception of the shotgun, need to be raised. there are too many power weapons placed on themap in my opinion. I say this because some are only a couple steps away from the other. For example, I could pick up the focus rifle and then pick up the sword two steps later. Another axample is the rocket spawn area being directly over the focus rifle. I would suggest removing the focus rifle as I don't think it would be of much use on this map anyway. i would also remove some others like the shotgun, powerups, concussion rifle or the dreaded fuel rod gun. Because I despise this gun so much it gets it's own section. Even with little spare clips, the fuel rod gun is an overpowered weapon. It's a one-hit kill and bounces around everywhere like crazy. You have it set to a 60s timer with one spare clip. 60s is, like I said, to short for any power weapon and with one spare clip it gives the player a total of ten shots. Now since the area it's in can easily be held down, it would prove the be a dominating factor in a 2v2 game. I would recommend removing it all together, but if you insist on keeping it I would raise the timer 180 and lower the spare clips to 0. Other than all that it's great. You have cover where it's needed and plenty of paths and escape routes. I already said this, but I love the aesthetics you through in there.
@Noooooch - The map is borderline too large and pushing a little too weapons heavy for good 1v1 play. I'm going to assume, though not tested, that the map is also bordering on little too small for good 6 player play. Sooooo, 3-5 players. I never play team games so I can't offer feedback on that. I only recently adopted Oddball and Headhunter as worthy gametypes so I'm not even sure if they are setup to acceptable standards. I firmly believe falling into water is a part of gameplay. If I didn't want you to fall, I would have put up a railing. I'm not sure what you mean? I typically use 45 degree angles properly aligned unless on occasion I need to fine tune it. The first picture does have a slightly fisheye look to it, if that's what you're referring to. Budget wasn't a concern so there are indeed 2 Columns. Lag wouldn't have been improved by anything that I would used to replace them, so I went for a bit of aesthetic value. @basketskate3 - Thx for checking out the map and giving some good feedback. I'm not sure why you felt the sword was fixed. I was positive it wasn't but for the sake of argument I went back and checked and can confirm it definitely is not fixed. I'm personally not a fan of symmetrical weapons layouts. If this was set up as a CTF map I may try to keep the weapons symmetrical with possibly one or two changes. On this map the importance is focused more on balancing the weapons power. You'll notice Shotgun is opposite Concussion rifle, Rocket Launcher is opposite Fuel Rod gun, Sword is center stage ect . . . Now because there is so much firepower and it can easily be gotten from every corner of the map I find the sword gets adopted as a loose secondary weapon. I agree that the Focus rifle is a little close but with limited ranged attack locations it also becomes a secondary weapon. It however can be effective at taking down the the Fuel Rod gun if you get a nice bead. The real beauty of the weapon layout comes into play when you realize no matter where you are or what they have, you can find the right weapon to take down your opponent. Don't forget there is both an Overshield and an Invisibility powerup on this map. Either can help you take down an unyielding foe. Timers were originally intentionally short. That being said, I may have actually changed up a few of the times on one of my last revisions that was more recent than my lag fix revisions. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was different but I didn't check weapon spawn times. Unfortunately now that map revision has been deleted. If I was to change the timers it probably would have been to almost triple up on spawn times yet offer a double spawn of all but the Fuel Rod Gun and the Rocket Launcher. (possibly with reduced ammo) This, as my taste has shown by my previous maps, is supposed to be in the more classic Deathmatch style of the maps of old. There are already plenty of maps for the Competitive players. How about for a change, we just kill each other as fast, and as often, as possible.