Welcome to Interchange. This district has been isolated from the surrounding city and now serves as a UNSC urban combat training ground. The dominant features of the facility include several city buildings, fortified bases and a road in the form of an infinite loop. Combat during training exercises is often focused on the central overpass area, particularly at the beginning of matches, but other areas of the district also see a lot of action. While the streets are wide and open for vehicular travel and combat, there is an abundance of varied paths throughout the area for on foot missions. The two sides of the map are easily distinguishable from one another despite the symmetry of the facility. Look to the sky. If you see blue, that’s the direction of the Blue base. If you see red, you’ll know you’re moving toward the Red base. Each base is supplied with a Rocket hog and a mongoose. Use these vehicles to traverse the map quickly and to reign terror down on your enemies, but don’t expect to dominate with ease. Your enemy is equipped with the same vehicles, and on-foot Spartans have several buildings and corridors to use as cover. While the Rocket hog might seem powerful, it can be countered by wise loadout choices and the skillful use of ordnance drops. Get out there on the Interchange and become a master of urban conflict. Thanks to UNSC Fenix Hulk for the CTF gameplay video: Bases (Blue and Red bases are identical): Rocket Launcher Location: Looking Down Main Street: Combat:
I can't understand how this thread hasn't received any comments yet, due to the large response you got in the map's Preview thread. Having never played Interchange before, I can't really give feedback on gameplay from my personal experience, however I can make comments based on Fenix's video: everything seemed perfectly balanced, regarding both weapons and the map's layout. Weapons-wise, I don't think anyone would be at a disadvantage whatever starting weapon they chose to use. You have no freakishly long sightlines that would be beneficial for DMR users, and no stupidly close quarters areas that would be dominated by Assault Rifles or Boltshots, so good work on that. Layout-wise, I'm a fan of the fact that the buildings have roughly the same advantage as the outer areas. The buildings seem to offer more cover, and as a result less vision of the map. The walkways are the opposite of this. Aesthetically, everything looks pretty sweet, just like your other maps. Nothing immediately jumps out at me as being ugly or out of place. I'd love to play this, although I don't think I'll ever be able to due to the fact I never find myself in larger custom lobbies. Besides this, I'm still giving Interchange a download because I really like what I see.
I completely missed this thread. This map is great. Plays like a dream and so fun for CTF. Lee, you always make fantastic creations - looking forward to the next one!
Thanks, Kaz and Nut. I figured since most people had seen the preview thread, they just skipped over the thread. I'm really happy with how the map turned out, especially as a CTF map. Kaz, sorry you haven't been able to get into a larger party to try it out yet. Much of our testing was done with 4v4 and 5v5 team sizes, so don't feel like you need 8v8 size parties. Hopefully, at some time in the future, we can pull a party together and play some CTF on it. I've yet to get bored plying CTF on it.
When did you post this then? What's going on? Where am I? Honestly I still don't know how you made this. I know you stuck blocks and **** together but it is just so good. Don't be fooled, because as big as this seems, and indeed is, it plays amazing with just eight guys. The roads twist in and out of flawlessly constructed buildings and alleyways- no frame rate lag, no dead ends and no bad spawns. You don't feel comfortable in a hog? Take the alleyways, you can head that hog off on it's next turn. When I found out you were an architect in real life, I realised why this is how it is. If you don't get a chance to play this modern urban halo map, then that is a shame cos you have missed something special.
I saw your map Interchange a few weeks ago in some customs. I really liked it. In fact I really really liked it. The way the map flows is great and the variances in height make for some interesting game play. Weapons spawns seem well balanced and the vehicles feel right too. My favorite part about your map is that I didn't need to add game types or tweak the spawns. I host a lot and that can take up a lot of my time quickly! I was experimenting with a new game type I call "3 way extraction". *One site at each base. (plays like assault) *After either base is extracted an neutral site appears in the middle. (Plays like 1 bomb/Neutral bomb) *First to two wins the round - 2 rounds/game While I was at it, I also added a two story tower at the end of the overpass at each base to add another route into the base. Here are links to both: 3 way extraction BR balance: Interchange Tower - Our group hosts customs a couple days a week. Here's our group Here's what we play If you have any other creations you want to test out feel free to drop a line in our group or message me on XBL: Short Bizzle