Select FI By: SecretSchnitzel Aesthetics by: Hahka Cleaning by: Hahka Select is an elongated bridge map in the style of Narrows. It's designed strictly for CTF and TS game play. This is its third rendition since it was originally created in Reach. Backstory: Select was originally designed as a spiritual successor to Narrows in which it attempted to address the issues inherrent to Narrows, such as the ease of spawn trapping and the bottle neck in the center of the map. It was also heavily inspired by the smooth sloping curvature of Dream On in H3. In it's first iteration (Reach), I had widened the map and added two alternative paths on the outskirts to the map. This trait has persisted through each iteration, although with significant changes along the way. The Reach rendition also featured a mancannon the connected the underneaths of the two bases for flanking. While this was a very popular trait of the map, I eventually decided to scrap it for a hard route in the form of a bridge. Currently Select FI still features the side routes, the central bridge, and a lower bridge. Additionally it has two small huts in the base the cover the function of the attics from Narrows, although significantly nerfed. The map has also been scaled up to a degree to compensate for H4's spawn system. Weapons: Rockets - 176* Sniper(2) - 116* DMR(2) BR(2) LR(2) Carbine(2) PlasmaPistol(2) AR(2) PlasmaNades(8) - 60 Frags(4) - 60 Screens: Major thanks to Hahka for helping out with reforging this map. It it wasn't for him, this wouldn't look so damn good. Big thanks to Haunted Army, Warholic, Carey and all the guys that supported my notion to revisit this map. And thanks to aPK, for if he hadn't hounded me so much about how the map was "fundamentally flawed", I wouldn't have worked so hard on it. Download Link: Coming Soon
I loved Select in Reach. Actually had one of my favourite moments there... Of course that's beside the point. Anyway, in the second screenshot (the one looking directly at the bridge from the base area) it seems a tad narrow. Now I know it's supposed to be a re-imagining to narrows, but there doesn't appear to be much maneuvering space. Is this just a trick of the eye or are the base areas really that narrow? If so I don't think there'll be enough maneuvering room. There also doesn't seem to be too much cover from the bridge there, which I could see causing problems in CTF.
Trick of the eye mate. The map is approximately 240 units wide and features significant segregation of sight lines between the different spaces on the map. The geometry of the map itself creates a significant amount of cover for players transversing it. Of course top mid is still the prominent power position, but the flanking options for players are by no means over exposed. You've got to understand, cover doesn't essentially have to be in the form of a wall or block set in a place specifically to break line of sight. While this map does not feature much cover of that nature, it does have possibly more than significant cover on it.
Looks great, nice to see this back in Halo 4. I take it there won't be anymore changes concerning design ?
There's some tweakage that Hahka is doing on my behalf (no xbox)... Nothing that changes the design though. Just lowering the bases a little, adding some more cover to top mid (possibly), and putting a walkway between the two base buildings where the flag will be moved to. Also a slight issue I overlooked with spawn zone weighting that needs fixed, especially for CTF (I don't like players spawning towards the middle on an equal weighting as in the bases, and I absolutely don't want players spawning in the middle when the flat is "away"). Probably will add a second tier power weapon or pulse nades to the bridge in the basements. The map, apart from those tweaks, is pretty much finished. After the tweaks, it's really just a matter of promotion and trying to win the support of players against the only other "Narrows successor": Confined by SaLoT.
I haven't played on the forge island variant yet, but I like what I see. It is a shame that SaLoT's map got all the recognition in testing phases and this received very little. Either way, I've had fun on the Erosion variant and I'm sure it plays much better on 'FI'. I'll try and get some games on the map and let you know if I find any issues.
Well, comparing "Select FI " and SaLoT's "Confined", Overall I'd come to this map, Select's consistent curved geometry is original. I can't tell much without actually playing the map but I don't think top mid needs more "cover" is it not a general power position?
Welcome to ForgeHub Secret! (JK) It has been a while since I seen anything posted by you, and this map is damn SEXY!!!! I cant wait to download it to try it out!
Yeah, I've been tied up with my studies and partying a bit too much for forging. Got a few other designs I'd like to wrap up, but don't have an xbox for the summer.... :/ Oh, and that 9 month ban for having a "proxy account" kind of hurt my activity here. Yeah, the copy up there isn't my fileshare. Don't have gold account and good 'ol Microsoft wouldn't let me access fileshare with a 2-week pass. There will be an updated copy coming soon on Hahka's fileshare. I don't think top mid needs more cover either, but other forgers have voiced complaint that it's not enough of a "power position", mostly because of the height of the base rooms. Well, the Erosion version originally was looking to get into a round of MM, but GodlyPerfection went well out of his way to shoot it down. This version was built in time to catch the CCs, but PaperCraft refused to give it a playtest, let alone a look. Homeboyd and Nokyard are away of the map though and it does have a possible future. My big concern is SaLoT's map going viral because of it's exposure in the FI Hopper, which could green light it for Ghost's v5 settings when they come along, while Select FI gets completely passed by despite being the stronger map. As I've said before, Select started off as an attempt to overcome the flaws inherrent to Narrows design. Select (Reach) didn't do an adequate job of that and was really nothing more than a different flavor of Narrows. Select (Erosion) was a step in the right direction, but still suffered from Narrows lack of flanking options and over bearing choke point. Select FI finally managed to accomplish the goals I had set out to achieve as it offers real flanking options, isn't reliant on mancannons, and has a more bearable choke point(s). Not to mention this combination of changes, while maintaining the feel of Narrows, offers a deeper and more diverse meta game than it's predecessors could dream of offering.