I figured I would tackle the challenge of turning the undesirable rust of Erosion into something beautiful. I soon learned that this challenge was impossible, but Hive was born nonetheless. Inspired by one previous design by Its_Nexn, this 2v2 map features a singular rotational flow in the counter clockwise direction with exterior paths offering players viable flanking routes and the option the break free of the primary routing. Nevertheless, there are three stackable, 0clip railguns lined across the primary route to promote movement away from the uppermost level, and create three predominant ways to play the map; weapon control, top control, or a combination of the two. Teh map is in my fileshare. Of course, any kind of feedback is very much welcome. Thanks to Hulk for the fantastic video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oVp4yHtY81I
Awesome map, loved it. Only thing I recommend is making your trait zone up top taller so you can't fly through it and the ladder lift is a bit sketchy. Either make it not as powerful or raise that archway in front of it. Video coming shortly.
You know what i think of this map, but I thought I'd let you know here as well that it's crazy fun. I just wish that I could navigate it.
This. The layout is tougher to grasp than the screenshots make it look like. Nice to see a preview up no female name?
Thanks for the video, Hulk. I plan on placing some kind of roof over that whole area to prevent whatever was happening with that lift, hahaha. Did you have any concerns with the map layout wise? From the video, it seemed like you found it more beneficial to steer clear of the bottom floor. Would a different kind of weapon have changed that, or were you just more fond of controlling the top? Also, when you were pushing on opponents at the top, did you find that difficult to do? Sorry for all the questions, hahaha. I've been getting mixed responses to all those things lately. Thanks for the comment, Audience. I added some color to each room so hopefully that should help people learn the layout quicker. dem female names. Nah, I named it hive because the octagon doorways reminded me of a beehive, hahaha.
After only playing this map two times I have become somewhat familiar with the layout and how it plays. I personally think this is the best 2v2 forged map I've played in Halo 4. I'm very anxious to get some more games on this map as I love the layout. Did you have any concerns with the map layout wise? The sizes of each "room" are absolutely perfect for 2v2 and supporting the BR. There is just enough entrances/exits per room and the flow between them work flawlessly. I fell to my death a couple times in the open bottom room but that was my error and not knowing the layout. I caught on fairly quickly to layout as you can tell from the video that was only my second run on this map with people I've never played with. From the video, it seemed like you found it more beneficial to steer clear of the bottom floor. Would a different kind of weapon have changed that, or were you just more fond of controlling the top? It is always more beneficial to hold the high ground because it's easier to shoot down rather than up and same goes with grenades. Plus having the high ground gives you more indirect cover and you can jump down on the enemy any time you choose to ambush. I think 3 railguns with one shot is almost pointless. I understand your reasoning here but I think have one railgun with 1 spare shot and replace the other two with something else. I also never even saw the railguns until the pickup icon appeared on my screen so making the pick ups more noticeable from 10 feet away would not only make them stand out but also make experienced players here more aware of when the weapon respawns. Also, when you were pushing on opponents at the top, did you find that difficult to do? Somewhat, mainly around the outside ramps but nothing due to poor design. It felt like I was trying to retake the high ground and as long as I "out-shoot" him I could get it back. The arches are a VERY nice touch and how you can jump from platform to arch and etc. make this very fun and enjoyable. It gives you so many more ways to hold areas and gain angles to shoot at your opponent. It also adds a lot more movement to the map and keeps you interested.
-Octagon doors are nice, but the lips on the bottom sides of them should be hidden where possible. -Pipes are good, but perhaps a different aesthetic to further tell the rooms apart? Something with more color. -Map design has a strange pull towards green side. Personally I would try a few things to eliminate that. Let's go in forge sometime and ill explain what I had in mind.
Exactly what I was going to say. I'm not quite sure why, but a lot of the action seemed to be focused on gaining green control. Other than that, I found this very enjoyable Aubs
It's the most advantageous spot. You have 3 main ways of getting there and all three can be easily defended with plenty of indirect cover and multiples angles to defend from. As long as you hang around on green far away from the ladder, it usually forces the enemy team to spawn near the ladder. That ladder is the hardest route to regain green room.
The high ground is the most advantageous spot as Fenix said. The only way I can see steering people away from that location is to make another elevated spot. Or perhaps simply replacing the lift with another walk up. As of right now taking the lift, when the other team has the top area, is by far the riskiest approach. Switching the lift may not change the area where the fighting happens but it could make it harder to defend
here is what I wrote in the FFC recap thread, cc'd here to help you consolodate feedback in one place... Easily one of the best Erosion maps I've played. Had good flow and some intersting areas to battle. The death trap needs more of a railing so you know that if you venture over the top of the pipe piece, you are falling to your death. Maybe it was my fault, but any newcomer to the map will probably suffer from a few deaths as a result. My only other problem was that the Ladder with the one-way shield didn't work about half the time. Try to come up with something that works more consistently. I got stuck just bouncing up and down, and was killed as a result.
Thanks for the comments, guys. You definitely aren't the first to mention the death pits being a problem during your initlal game. Although I made them to be somewhat of a hazard to powerful positions, I think I'm going to throw up some railings to indicate their locations. Well, I need three weapons in the rooms that did not have a direct route to the upper level but having three different weapons seemed like a bit much. Nonetheless, I will make a version with a diverse weapon set and see how it plays in comparison. Thanks for the feedback again, Hulk. Good stuff. I added the pulse grenades at top blue to help players push on green from that approach, but it didn't seem like they were actually being used in that fashion much. Perhaps I should open the doorway up coming from that side so that players at red bridge will have better LoS into the room? Sure thing, I'll invite you whenever I catch you online. I was thinking of creating a top purple with strong LoS on green. The only problem there would be the lack of connection between the two rooms. I suppose I could make use of pipes in that case, though. Thanks for that. A hard route would be pretty difficult to fit in that little bit of space, but I could always try blocking off the lift approach entirely and adding a hard route up to green from top orange? If all else fails, I could replace the plasma pistol with the storm rifle again, hahaha. Thanks. Thanks, I have a new, non-halfassed lift design in mind for that, hahaha. Railings are definitely going up.
Don't know if I told you already, but I think your spawns are a reason everyone's running to green (besides radar, lol). There is / are hyperactive spawn (s) at the area to the left of purple facing blue, and what I noticed in game was that players funneled themselves through blue and red to get to green. The only option you have at red room is to drop down or go to green room, and there is one (?) other option in blue room (going to purple?) that's way off to the side. If it was used, it was infrequent enough that I'm not even sure it was there. So yeah, orienting those spawnpoint (s) so that players run off spawn into purple room instead of blue should help.
I made some changes based on the feedback thus far. There is now an upper purple in the form of pipes with LoS into green room, the railgun at bottom orange was replaced with a storm rifle to help push on the lift approach to green, a sniper now spawns at upper blue, there is a connection between top purple and top green, and I added dem railings. Thanks for the suggestions everybody. Glad to have your input, Spin, although I'm not sure which set of spawns you're talking about. IIRC, there is one set up spawns in purple pointing towards blue, one set at bottom orange facing green, and another in the purple hall facing blue again. I don't think I have played with you recently, so the respawns may have changed since then. You bring up another good point though that I cannot quite figure out; players always move from purple to upper blue and then to green. Obviously, it's only natural to travel to higher ground, but it doesn't seem like the railguns on the bottom level do much to promote movement down there despite their use. Perhaps I just need to play with a wider variety of people with different playstyles. Thanks, I'd like to get a game on the most recent version with ya sometime.
that "movement upwards" tendency is tricky to try and "tune" out of your level, or any for that matter. if you put powerful weapons or powerups down below, will people go there merely to get the "power" and then go up top to use it? I think when there is higher ground, people will probably just want to get it and keep it. Holding that upper-most area seemed like the only way to play the match, from what I remember. It seemed almost guaranteed that if you waited there after killing the other team, they'd very soon be back to try and take that area from you again. I don't know if there's any way to keep that from happening, really. Maybe a slide or shute that safely takes you to bottom when the upper is under attack and you'd rather flee than finish the fight? In a 2v2 slayer type, the aim is killing and not dying, so giving up the high ground to save deaths is logical. yea, that's what I would do... some sort of shute (anti-lift) to safely take you to bottom would be good. that might keep things rotating more, instead of just down up, down up, down up.
I don't necessarily mind if players constantly moving towards top green as the position is easily counterable and where the flow of the design natural leads. I just cannot figure out why some choose to, as you mentioned, move to top green immediately after spawning, proceed to hold the position, get raped soon after, then repeat the process all over again. I personally think it is the more viable option to move around the map, gain weapons as they spawn, and proceed to defeat the players that predictably try to camp top green the whole game. In the end, the team that controls the entire map is the one that generally comes out on top. Perhaps that's just not peoples' play style, though. Thanks for the feedback, man. I'd like to play the newer version again with you some time.
Try putting everything important on ordnance (eg storm rifle, rail, pulse nades), so everyone knows where everything is? It might just be an issue with players not knowing the map well enough or the spawn times of the weapons.
I'd like to play it again too. You're right that the best strategy would be to gain weapons then take top. I think if I played it a few more times I would have understood that. But honestly, sometimes in H4 mathces I find myself doing better with just regular loadout weapons than I do with power weapons. What usually happens to me is I earn or pick up a power weapon, go to use it, and die in like two seconds! SOMETIMES I can get a SAW or something like that and wreak havoc, but usually the good weapons are wasted on me. So I'll just try to find a safe place to assure no one is coming up behind me and I can watch all the entry points to that area. If it's stale, I move on to another. (in other words I don't really camp, but I like to try and hold a spot for a while). So yea my play style is not really gravitating towards the heavy weapons if there are any on a given map. So take my words with a grain of salt because I have not had more than two or three kills EVER with a Railgun but seem to be murdered by them constantly.
hahaha, I will gladly take the feedback despite how good you are at the game, man. Holding a powerful position is a perfectly viable strategy, so I understand your using it although I dont believe it's very useful here. Thanks for the feedback again, Addict. I was told yesterday that map knowledge and awareness are two important aspects of competitive gameplay, and players who don't learn the design should be at a disadvantage. Although I didn't necessarily agree with the prior, I did agree with the latter in that players should be constantly aware of their surroundings despite whether they have played the map before or not. For that reason, I removed the railings above all the death pits. In addition to that: - Pulse grenades were placed at bottom blue - Replaced the storm rifle with a supressor - Railgun now has only one shot Thanks to everybody that's tested the most recent versions. [br][/br]Edited by merge: The only reasons I would be against that is the HUD clutter and the fact that I designed it for the Dust-Up tourney which doesn't allow for anything but powerups to be on ordinance. An Infinity Slayer version with only the power weapons on ordinance is a great idea, though. Thanks for the suggestions, Spin.