Intro: Hello everybody! It seems that I am finally caught up with showing you all my maps, this being the latest one I have completed. If you enjoy it, be sure to check out my previous maps (Mafia), (Fallsview Retreat), (Venice) and (Meltdown). Anyways, before I begin the description of this map, please keep in mind that I will be using a bit of Skyrim "lingo" as I explain everything. So, I'm going to keep this last part short and sweet. This map IS a re-creation of the Skyrim DLC location: Fort Dawnguard and I HAVE made a custom gamemode which I believe works great with the theme of the map! So, let's get started!!! The map (Skyrim: Fort Dawnguard): As I mentioned above, this map is a re-creation of the actual Fort Dawnguard from Skyrim. When I show you all the pictures, I hope that any Skyrim fans will be able to see how I kept that fort as accurate in construction to the original structure as possible. So, to start off, let me say that as far as Infection maps go, this one is pretty massive (Hence the number of players necessary to even it out). The fort itself is a huge, multi-leved structure, but I have also permitted outdoor combat (as is seen in the DLC). The fort can be accessed by four entrances. The main door, one of the outer turrets (by man-cannon), the broken wall (by teleporter) and the roof (by man-cannon). I will also admit that I did have to use some creative-licensing to make the map playable for Infection, but I believe that it has not taken away too much from its accuracy. As players charge through the main gates, they will climb the grassy hill to the main entrance and enter the fort. Once inside, they enter a circular room which connects to all the other sectors of the map. There are three towers (two for the turrets and one for the roof) which bring you up a few levels. There is also a small tunnel which will bring you to the second floor, overlooking the circular room. The fort feature two caves, three floors and a multitude of potential hiding places. I hope the pictures will serve better than my words to explain the map! The gametype (The Dawnguard): Here's where the Skyrim "lingo" begins. First of all, I will explain the teams. The humans, in this scenario, are the Dawnguard soldiers (or vampire slayers as they are also known), while the zombies represent the Volkihar vampires. The gametype is based off of Alpha zombies but has a few alterations that completely change the game. The Dawnguard soldiers are all brown (like the Dawnguard armour) and all spawn with only an assault rifle and sprint. A mix of weapons can be picked up, including the Vampires' swords (as they are a one-shot-kill weapon). When the final Dawnguard soldier becomes last man standing, his/her armour turns to gold (with the power of light) and he/she receives an infinite sprint. All Dawnguard spawn into three separate squads that must gather if they hope to survive. As for the Vampires, they also follow the Alpha zombies structure in-game. The three initials Vampires are the Vampire Masters. They all have black armour, wield a sword, spawn with evade and have an enhanced speed (because of their vampire reflexes). Whenever a player is infected he/she becomes a Thrall (a minion of the Vampire Masters). The Thralls have the regular zombie color, wield a sword and have sprint. All Vampires, however, share the common trait which allows them to smell the Dawnguards' blood, thus giving away their position (red arrows above all humans). Screenshots: This is an outside view of the massive fort. The first Dawnguard squad spawn area (Right Turret). The second Dawnguard squad spawn area (Near the entrance of the Fort). The third Dawnguard squad spawn area (The back-room of the main floor). The first Vampire spawn area (Outside on the right flank of the fort). The second Vampire spawn area (Inside the fort, on the second floor - they dug a tunnel "creative licensing"). The third Vampire spawn area (Through the mine tunnel on the main floor). The fourth Vampire spawn area (On the roof of the Fort). Some Dawnguard soldiers trying to hold out at the man-cannons "creative licensing". The last man standing holds out at the front gates of the Fort. A Dawnguard soldiers attempts to fend off three Vampires at once. A Vampire Thrall charges the entrance of the Fort. (This shows the Vampire's ability to spot all living Dawnguard). A last man standing is chased through the circular entrance of the Fort by multiple Vampires. The Dawnguard hold out at the second floor of the circular entrance room. The Dawnguard, grouped together at the spawning point of Isran's Hammer (Gravity hammer). A last man standing wielding a Vampire's blade to protect himself. Three Dawnguard soldiers holding out at the right turret. Beware, the Vampires can also attack from the roof! A few Dawnguard soldiers fend off the Vampires at the left turret. A Dawnguard soldier running for the Sniper rifle in the dining hall. A swordsman holds out near the Battle-Trolls' cell, on the main floor. A brave Dawnguard soldier decides to attack the Vampires' entrance in the mine. Some soldiers begin the journey up the tower, to the right turret. Beware your pace while in the towers, as your enemies may be lurking within! This side entrance, at the far right of the fort, represents a tunnel dug into one of the caves of the fort. "Creative licensing" The cave leads to a small hole in the ceiling of the mine room. A few unaware Dawnguard are about to be attacked by two Vampire Masters. I know I put a lot of pictures in for this map, but I think it was the only way to really give you all the proper idea of how the map plays. The thing I love the most about the gameplay is that it forces people to work together. If the Dawnguard hope to survive, they need to stay in squads, with different members using different weapons and must position themselves properly in whatever area they chose. As for the Vampires, if the Dawnguard manage to prepare themselves a strong position, it is up to the Vampire Masters to lead the charge (as they are much faster) and to cause chaos, while the Thralls must then charge in to kill as many Dawnguard as possible during the disarray. I also forgot to mention that the vampires have many respawn zones and are not restricted to their initial respawn areas. Camping-wise, during our testing we found that no particular area was invincible and that different people had different spots they preferred to camp out. We did not see the humans win a whole round yet, but they did make it to the last 30 seconds! The map was described to me by my testers as: Amazing! So cool! Really well made. So much fun! A great zombie game! An awesome recreation of Skyrim! - So, I hope that all of you who download it will enjoy as much as we did. At 6K downloads, it is by far my most successful map yet! I'd also like to give a quick shout-out to all the AMAZING people who helped me test this map. You were all great, I loved you feedback and I had sooooooo much fun playing it with you guys. Thank you all! Weapons list: Sniper rifle: 1 Shotgun: 2 Gravity Hammer: 1 Grenade launcher: 1 Magnum: 3 Assault rifle: 3 Conclusion: Well, I'm pretty sure that is all I have to say. I hope the community likes my very first Infection map! If any of you think this is good enough for BIOC, please let me know, because I was not too sure about their standards... Please leave your feedback, be it positive or simply some constructive criticism, I will take note of it and, if I haven't already realised it since I made this map, will add it to my standards for future maps. Video Review: Halo Reach Forge Maps: "Skyrim: Fort Dawnguard" - YouTube
Since when do you of all people speak on behalf of BIOC? First, I would like to let you know that the map will be one of the many new additions to the BIOC map database. Though the map isn't the best in the database, it is certainly better than some other maps. Second, I had a little forge-around on the map and gathered some of my thoughts on the map Here we go: Visually, the map was lacking. Now even though your newness to forge (or ForgeHub at least) excuses you slightly, I feel that your piece choice and placement in many areas felt forced and quite sloppy. When the forging is generally this sloppy, it reflects you as a forger in a bad light, so I would suggest for next time that you try and make the map as clean and neat as possible. When you remake something, or are inspired by something, it is always good to try and pull a few things from your inspiration but to try and create something personal and unique. I think a lot of that lead to the sort of forced pieces, because you tried to stay close to the original.
If you had paid attention and not posted a stupid spam comment without downloading the map, you would have realized it actually follows basic alpha zombies in a free roam setting, like many established infection maps do. Are you actually being ****ing serious? So because you simply show up to a custom game night once in a while, you are granted the ability to speak on the behalf of myself and the other 250 people in the group? The lobbies are for testing, so any and all true infection maps are welcome. When they're done, myself and REM discuss what I put in and drop from the database. And trust me, our standards aren't too too high... yet.
Thanks Berb, I guess I will then submit this map on the BIOC page. As for the maps visuals, I agree that they were somewhat lacking. To be honest, I'd never tried to re-create anything before. If you would have any basic suggestions to help me with my piece placement for future maps, I would really appreciate it. Also, I am currently working on a smaller infection map in which I am implementing much more detail. I may bring it to BIOC for testing before I officially finish it. Anyways, thank you for your feedback.
Looks good, I haven't actually had enough money to get the actual DLC for it, but, from what I can tell, it looks pretty good. In my opinion, I think the purple FX should be in affect, considering that Vampires burn in the sunlight, at least the purple would give it a more shady approach. If you have enough money, I would again suggest that you flip the bridges at the start of the game, at the Dawnguard spawn. Then put another bridge under the bridge and connect them via railings. I have no idea if that made sense to you, but I hope it did, I will try to test the map and give you feedback at fast as I can. Good luck with other maps you are making or plan on making.
Thank you for the kind words GruntHunter. I'd like to think that I was able to keep the basics of Fort Dawnguard from Skyrim in affect within my map. I like your idea for the purple affect, aswell as the bridge attachement (yes I did understand what you were talking about) however, if you enter my map in forge you will see that I have 0$ remaining. I literally used every last piece available to finish the map. Thanks for the suggestion though and I look forward to you feedback.
I see, sadly nothing can be added as of right now, but that is now, the future is still young and ahead of us. With only zero money able to be spent, not much people can do now, nor can you. I can't wait to test this out, it should be fun, and I'll be on the look for many other astounding things to add!
I do think this map is alot better than your other maps you have created, but in my opinion it's a little small. Anyway, good job and keep improving.
Thank you MacaroniMayor, I'm glad that you can see a progression in my forging abilities while looking at the map. As for your second comment that "it's a little small", I'm assuming that you were kidding (although I apologise if I'm misinterpreting), as this is one of the largest infection maps I've played. The terrain itself is rather widespread and the fact that there are three levels to the fort, also adds to the size of the map. To even this out, I gave the zombies the ability to spot the humans from anywhere (with red arrows) and made the Alpha zombies very fast moving. Anyways, thanks for the feedback!
Oh, ok cool, well that's good to know. Nevertheless, once we (I mean my youtube channel) are ready to post the video of gameplay for this map, I hope to show everyone how well the map flows. We had a full lobby of 16 players and 13 of them had never seen or heard of the map before. Within seconds of the game beginning, people were breaking into squads, exploring and fortifying their positions. When I asked for everyone's feedback at the end of our last testing session, none of them had any complaints about the size and most thought that I had balanced the classes (human/zombie) properly, in accordance with the map. I really want to get that out there for the ForgeHub community to see and understand!
Now it has been cleared up that this plays standard Alpha Zombies you should sign up to my lobby when the thread appears to get a test on this map Gwaaaaan Berb.
Alright, thank you Elliot. I am not too certain why a few people have gotten confused that it is a minigame, but I'm pleased that it is cleared up. The map was definitely built with free-roam survival in mind. Also, I'm not certain if I can play the next lobby, since I might be busy, but if things clear up, I'll be sure to sign up. If it is not possible however, by the next lobby I will have my second infection map (Tanker) up and running. I've already had it tested but would really like to have BIOC's opinion. In fact, I'll try to get the map on ForgeHub today.