This is my current project I have been working on for the past few weeks. Cascade is located in a sort of futuristic pump station. There is a waterfall in the back with a river flowing into the building. Each team has a banshee in symmetrical game types, and in asymmetrical game types the attackers start with a falcon. I think the tall buildings will make air combat more interesting and I have purposely designed the back are to be less open and therefore harder for the air vehicles to dominate. Cascade itself is actually structurally complete however spawns, weapon placement, and objectives have a long way to go. Also it has yet to be tested at all, so there will likely be minor changes to the map as necessary. One of the biggest concepts I had in mind while making this map was the final atmosphere I wanted to achieve. I wanted to make this map a somewhat believable place, albeit with exaggerated features like the massive pipes in this facility. Back Area: This is where the waterfall is located as well as some bridges and walkways. Waterfall Close Up: As you can see, the rockets spawn on a rock in the waterfall. The spawn is connected to the bottom of the pump station. Blue to Red Back Area View: This is more of the back area which shows elevation differences. It is important to note the height disadvantage of Blue in almost all situations has been offset with an efficient base design as well as a sniper that spawns on Blue side. Symmetrical Red Pipe vs. Asymmetrical Red Pipe: The Red pipe has more cover on it to stop the blue team's falcon form easily landing in the red team's base during asymmetrical games. Miscellaneous Pictures: Thanks for reading this, as always comments and questions are appreciated. I hope to be testing this map in the near future. If you would like to help feel free to contact me. EDIT: Here is the link to the most up to date test version, however be warned it has lots of frame rate lag in forge because of all the spawn points and the banshee spawning on top of the falcon, quick delete them and your good to go: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=27093415&player=Tiamat8
I actually really like to look of this. Care to add a dl link so I can look around and give you some actualy feedback?
I'm loving the pump station theme and those curvy aesthetics, but most of all the location in which you chose to build it. One thing I personally don't like is the shield door waterfall, to me those have always looked like a terrible substitute for water, though I understand that it completes the theme. idk it might just be me. Like Erupt said, I'd really like to see a dl link so I can check it out early.
Thank you for proving to me that creativity is not entirely absent from Forgehub. The fact that you have actually created a theme around your map makes me actually want to play it, as opposed to 90% of maps where it's just Grey Box #388. The location you used is awesome, and I'll have to check it out to be sure, but it sounds like gameplay will be very interesting. great job man, I really want to play this sometime. I'll come back and give more feedback once I look around in forge.
I just went for a spin in forge and I love the theme and height variation. I'm sure Duck will want to tell you all he thought, but I agree that it is good to see some creativity here again. I'm sure a lot of fine tuning is needed but this is definitely a very good start. We will both come into forge with you sometime to give our thoughts more explicitly. Once again, good start and thank you for breaking the mold.
Thanks for the feedback everyone @Erupt: The download link is up upon your request, just note that there is a lot of frame rate problems in forge mode. Have fun =) @Ociee: Ya, the shield door waterfall does look kinda ugly in the picture. However, it is better in the game because behind it I have a few mancannons embedded behind the rock and shield doors that give an illusion to moving water. @Psycoduck & FlyingshoeIRL: Thanks guys it is exciting getting all this positive feedback form you. I have high hopes as well, and will be around this weekend. Any detailed feedback would be absolutely amazing and could be used for even more refinement before testing begins.
Upon looking at the map in forge, I am still quite impressed. The amount of verticality is great, and while some of the paths are a bit counter-intuitive, the design is still pretty solid in general. It's worth noting that objects in blue base are set to belong to blue team, but are actually colored red for some reason. Hit Shoe and I up for testing, we'd love to play this sometime.
Finally you finish it . Last time you show me that , there was just a waterfall and now a full map ! This looks really massive . I would like to get a game on it . Invite me for testing it .
Yeah, I do agree that this map stands out quite a bit. I do find it interesting and creative. The only thing that bothers me is the light mapping. That's mostly personal preference, though. I'd like to check this out sometime, or even play it. Great work.
Finally, someone finds a good spot to build. Firstly, props for that. And the map is awesome. Perfectly themed. What I like is that you don't spend time on small details but instead, more larger scale aesthetics that actually help sightlines in the map. Downloading. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Oh wait, its a preview. Cant download. Lol i stupid. Something to try before release: put either a 3x3 short or a 2x1 flat, slightly behind the shield door. This will give the aesthetic shield door waterfall a much more solid blue color.
if i am not mistaken and the pump station is all there is then this map is probably ment for 4v4 or 5v5. and you want to put a banshee and a falcon on the map? adding in a flying vehicle on small maps never works out, mostly to the overpowered ness of the vehicles. also the lack of invisible walls in forge means that a banshee is either free to fly way outside the maps to avoid danger because and come back in before the soft kill countdown kills him or dieing the second he pops outside the map because he has no idea where the boundaries are. and the falcon requires 3 people to use correctly, 3/4 or 3/5 of the team on a single vehicle. good luck.
I think Cargo Port is proof enough that a falcon can work in 4v4 games, if balanced properly. The falcon works very well with a single gunner, and due to the nature of this map would actually work better with a single gunner. Having a second gunner would have too much downtime, and cause the falcon's pilot focus too much effort towards getting both gunners kills, rather than focusing on navigating the map. With the way the verticality of the map works, combined with the more closed-off side of the map, air vehicles will be relegated to support vehicles, as they should be in most maps. Of course, we'll have to wait to know for sure, but with some tweaking, there's no reason why this map won't do a great job of supporting air vehicles.
A quick update... @Psychoduck: The objects are set to red team because I thought red team attacked, but as it turns out blue team attacked, so I switched the colors but never got around to putting the team colors back to blue. You will find the same thing with objects in the red base. @Frenchy's: Thanks i will make sure to invite you whenever I get this ready for testing. @Eightball: I agree. Halo Reach lighting is really irritating, especially in the out of the way areas where they didn't put much effort into it. There are a few black objects but I will keep trying to find ways around the "shadow patches" that are especially prevalent around the rocket spawn. @I Paints I: Thank your for the interest @newbieninja2:I agree with you. I think it will be really hard to get banshees, let alone the falcon to work well with the 5 v 5 or 6 v 6 I am aiming for. But I really wanted to give it a try, and if worse comes to worse, I can easily delete them for more budget. @Psychoduck: I actually haven't played cargo port, but I have forged through it. Good map, and like you said I could see the falcon working well within that play space. Hopefully Cascade will follow in it's footsteps. UPDATE: I have a few new screenshot with some areas I have been working on, many in response to comments I have received. New Upper Platform: I didn't like the Colosseum walls, so I went a little more detailed and chose lots of colorful objects. That orange strip ( corner 4 by 4) should follow the railing all the way down, but because of the way Colosseum walls shift after being saved, it looks kinda ugly. New Waterfall Thing: I went a little more blue. There is now a little more space down there with some solders to the left and right of the rocket spawn. Still considering if I should rip up the rest of the rocks in favor of shield doors over walls. New Curvy Staircase: I didn't like the old one, so I made this one cooler. Thanks everyone for helping me with my creation!
Whoa, I didn't see this update. I was reminded of Cascade when I saw yet another unique map preview today (rare, I know). I'm really looking forward to getting some games on this. Has testing commenced yet? I do like what you've changed on here, although I'm a bit worried that the added objects might cause a bit of screenlag from aerial vehicles. I guess we'll wait and see, though.