Debrief Salvage is a themed map where a floating salvage operation is taking apart a spaceship for scrap. The spaceship is therefore the map's aesthetic and strategic centerpiece; the broken ring that surrounds it is the salvage station. And if that's not complicated enough, there's a lower level of mostly natural geometry that can be used to escape the upper-level heat for a bit and move from place to place without all those pesky bullets flying at you. The design leans on Halo classics like Avalanche (the basic horseshoe layout, with the ship replacing Avalanche's hotly-contested keyhole) and Zealot (the lower level here functions in much the same way as outer space did for Zealot - but better). It also incorporates the max number of mancannons and a few teleporters as well for unexpectedly fast travel around the large map, and a gloss of old-school arena-shooter feel on top of the basic Halo template. Floorplan This picture illustrates how the map is put together on the top level, which is where the majority of the action occurs in most gametypes. Blue dots represent a drop shaft to the bottom level; you can walk or run into them and safely land on the ground far below due to the slope of the rock beneath you. Gold dots represent 2-way teleporters; each of these has a corresponding node in the basement level for easy transport to and from the bottom. The purple dot is The Big Lift, or rather, the point in the ship that The Big Lift delivers you to, from the bottom; this lift is one of the map's most fun aspects too as it sends you shooting up through a whole lot of open space, so fast that it's difficult for enemies to even shoot you. (The mechanics of building that thing and making it work reliably, nearly 100% of the time, were so complicated that I won't bore you with them.) Purple arrows are mancannons that move you between the four outer platforms. This concept sketch is what I used to build the map originally. It's not perfectly to scale, but very little of this changed from my original design to the finished map. One thing that did change: the lower level (represented in lightish red) got bigger; it was originally going to be enclosed and somewhat smaller than the top, with every fall from the outer ring above usually resulting in a quick death. This also gives a clearer view of how the map was built from the ground up for CTF in particular - the flag locations (empty red circles here) are placed in such a way that the seemingly most direct route - through the spaceship - is actually almost as long as going around the outer circle, or dropping down to the middle and using The Big Lift or a teleporter to get back up. Ordnance - 2 Beam Rifles - 1 SAW - 1 rocket launcher - 1 ghost - 2 pulse grenades (x2) Recon photos Credits Thanks to xAudienceofone, again, for helping with my lift problem; unrivaled20 for a suggestion about the bottom level that I think improved it greatly; UNSC Fenix Hulk for capturing gameplay for me that helped me see how people were playing the map; and all the other TCOJ guys for helping test this and giving great feedback week in and week out. DOWNLOAD
loving that captain's chair! Looks even better than the one I made. Too bad using small railings would cost too much for my map. Otherwise I'd steal it Great map as usual
This is such a fun map to move through. Be sure to take the time to learn the layout, particularly how to use the lower level. The games are always intense and enjoyable. It's also a beautiful map to look at and has a solid, recognizable theme.
It doesn't take much to see the A++ aesthetics in the map. But I have one question, other than CTF (which is spelled out in your descriptions) and SWAT (the only gamemode under "supported gametypes"), what else works well on this map?
That's odd, I know I checked the others as well, but they certainly aren't there now. Fixed that. The map has been tested and works well with CTF, infinity slayer, and KOTH in particular. It also supports and does fine with oddball and regicide (actually haven't tested the latter, but it doesn't play that differently from slayer on most maps, so I assume it will be fine).
Alright, it was no biggie. But I will definately play this map, considering its the most interesting one I've seen so far
This looks like a really good, classic halo BTB map kind of feel, I don't know why. Also, the ship kind of looks like a bug from up top. I know that isn't really feedback but I thought it was pretty funny
Ha! I could see that. The basic body of it is kind of beetle-shaped and the connecting bridges look a bit like legs... Thanks Lee. I've been a big fan of your Halo 4 maps, Camber in particular and Interchange only slightly behind it, so it's a big compliment to me that you like anything of mine.
I like teh Beem Riful. Yeah, this is a great map Nutduster, after seeing it in the forge discussion forum for like a month now, I'm glad to have finally played it. Works really well for CTF thanks to its unique layout. Congrats on getting it finished.
You would like the beam rifle, as much as you were wrecking people with it the other night. That was gross. My hat is off to you. Unfortunately you never got to see the original version with the binary rifles - I decided the beam rifle might be a bit more balanced and harder to use, though as you demonstrated, it's still quite possible to go on sick runs with the thing. Made for some pretty screenshots too, with that long beam cutting across the entire map and often ricocheting a time or two. One of my favorite images from the other night was this shot (not sure who fired it) - it just missed its target, and if you peer closely you can see him firing up the big lift into the safety of the ship, flag in hand. (Yes, the lift shoots you up fast enough that a shot that just misses is still visible when you're well above it...)
Haha, thanks Was loving it. Oh okay, glad you changed it, love that thing! That shot could quite possibly be me, I was around that area. Pretty shot.
God bless this map. It's great and you should all download it. Very very good CTF, likely it's best gametype. The routes are unusual and you really need to think about what you are doing or you'll get ****ed up and lose. I have played about 8 games on here and it's definitely finished and tested out and good to go. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Co-incidentally this map also has the most complex lift ever assembled on forge. And why is the only picture of me number 13, and I'm getting killed by you?!
Upon this decommissioned ship, many shenanigans have been made. Salvage is purely fun, invoking a Zealot feel with a much better layout. The lower level has always felt a but disorganized, but the more recent builds have seen it grow to have a much nicer layout. Flag is where this map shines, and Crazy King does hold some impressive appeal as well. Salvage directs players while giving them choice on how to get to their destination, and it has been brilliantly constructed. fantastic work, Nutduster. But now, i can't help but wonder, what will you do when your massive map bank is all released? lol.
What a fine question. I guess I'm going to have to finally start building something new. I took a deliberate hiatus from map-sketching for a month so I could get everything I had in the works finished and tested; suddenly that is true for all but one or two maps (which are so close to being released I can taste it), so I guess it's time to open the creative floodgates again.
This look sick as hell and beautiful. Definitely downloading into my collection. Awesome work Nutduster and I love the theme of the map. EDIT: I just checked out the map and it's excellent, better than the pictures make it seem. I love the unique idea of the map floating in the air as a ship docked and you can jump down or take the artificial hyperspace wormhole portals (teleporters for short) to and from the ground and dock/ship. DAT SCREEN with the hologram ghost in front of the captain's chair.... SICK! Aesthetics are bomb ass fruit on this here map. Love all of the man cannon gameplay... it just feels like a real Halo map and I can tell it would be a lot of fun. Nice choice of a ghost on the ground. Even with the terribly small terrain and wacked out cracks and slope that Certain Ashittity gave us on that asteroid... you made it fun.
Aw thanks, that's very effusive praise and much appreciated! If you get a game on it at some point, drop me a line and tell me how it goes. Yeah, there's enough room to use it effectively but it's far from overpowering. By the way, you can take it up the Big Lift for some serious hijinks on the top level... I think that's been xAudienceofone's favorite thing to do on the map throughout weeks of testing. Half the time he's not really even playing, just trying to get the ghost upstairs so he can surprise people with it.
haha! that's awesome about the ghost up the lift... I love doing stuff like that. did the map just turn out that way or did you plan on it being able to get to the top level? Yeah I'll drop a line in here whenever I can get a game on Salvage. I'll be sure to load it up next time I have a small lobby going. I have been planning to start a very basic concept horror Flood map in that same area on Impact. Before I started to build the one structure used for gameplay, I wanted to make sure it would be in the best spot on that limited area on Impact. Would you know the best spot for it if I showed you a screenshot with the locations numbered?
Wasn't intentional but after Audience proved it was possible (it was practically the first thing he tried to do on the map!) I left it in. It doesn't affect gameplay a whole lot and it's really funny. I may not be a great person to ask since I've never forged for flood or infection, but I'd be glad to take a look. PM me.