Orion : H2A

Discussion in 'Halo and Forge Discussion' started by SecretSchnitzel, Nov 18, 2014.

  1. SecretSchnitzel

    SecretSchnitzel Donald Trump
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    Orion

    By SecretSchnitzel

    Featured Gametypes: Team Slayer | King of the Hill

    Description: Orion is a vertical oriented map in the fashion of H3's Construct. It was designed to address some of the flaws of that plagued Construct in H3, such as the lack of movement options and difficulty breaking top control, while maintaining the awesome style of KotH gameplay that the map featured. The map was originally forged in H4 and was featured in the Proving Grounds playlist. This iteration features some slight changes, most notably being more vertical and slightly wide to promote better spawning. Additionally the sword bridge and sword legs have been reworked to better reflect Construct's design. The map has also undergone some significant aesthetic and weapon changes (aside from the the forge textures) to further differentiate Open and Closed side from one another, primarily the change of the OS location from Bottom Gold to Open Ramp and the inclusion of a Camo at the bottom of the Blue Street drop down.

    One major change to this map comes in the feature or using H2A's scripting capabilities to influence the game's spawn system, which now allows players to activate spawn points in certain locations around the map to anchor spawns. These areas are are Sword Bridge (great for KotH control), Red and Blue Lobby, and Back Gold. Additionally, the map features scripted timers for the power weapons and power ups.

    Strategy: Maintain top control by holding down any combination of the Lobbies and/or Back Gold, forcing the opposing team to spawn on the bottom of the map. The hardest hill to hold is the the primary hill under sword (snipe spawn) which spawns most frequently. A great way to hold it is through controlling the streets, and an additional player anchoring in either lobby or sword ramp. The two other hills are located on the opposing streets, which are much easier to lock down and thus most vital to control for racking up hill time.

    Weapon Timers (15 minute game):
    Rockets: 3min
    Sniper: 2min
    Camo: 90sec
    OS: 1min (it's weak, one layer)

    For a break down of the timers, visit my blogpost.

    Screen Shots:

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    You can find the map in my fileshare. Currently you have to be a friend or follower on XBL in order to access fileshares.

    GT: SecretSchnitzel

    Hope you enjoy the map!
     
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  2. WaiHo

    WaiHo Talented
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    Ah good to see Orion back in H2A! This time it definitely feels more as a whole due to the object choices, however at the same time it looks even more boring to look at.
    I would suggest to make this map more aesthetically appealing as that would definitely help this map out in its overall acceptance in the competitive community. Think of an theme for this one, maybe add more natural rocks also on the ground floor as that could provide a bit more asymmetrical feel/look to it.

    Also I would make the floor on bottom gold out if natural rocks and add the tactical jumps back at camo that would take you up to the street. I always liked those jumps.

    Looking forward to seeing you change this map and perfecting it!
     
  3. SecretSchnitzel

    SecretSchnitzel Donald Trump
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    Completely out of the question given H2A's forge limitations, especially regarding frame rate. You start adding in many objects that aren't blocks and your frame rate performance is gonna tank. :/
     
  4. WaiHo

    WaiHo Talented
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    Ahw man that is a real shame.. Hoped that this version of forge would allow something like that without dropping so many frames.
     
  5. SecretSchnitzel

    SecretSchnitzel Donald Trump
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    There's little tricks you can do to pretty up the maps still, but for the most part here, less is more.
     
  6. Doju

    Doju Promethean
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    I think the H2A pallet is atrocious, looks like a last gen game.

    Would like to see more asymmetry.
     
  7. SecretSchnitzel

    SecretSchnitzel Donald Trump
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    It's about as asymm as Construct. Not gonna compromise the design by adding something stupid like a ramp on closed side.
     
  8. SecretSchnitzel

    SecretSchnitzel Donald Trump
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    Well, after several test games on the last version of Orion, I've come to realize that the design simply wasn't very good. I find myself questioning how a port of a map that excelled so much in H4 with NS Modded settings could be so flawed in this game. Even with scaling the map down and working with the geometry to offer better breakage of sight lines to improve pathing for players, it still wasn't working out as well as I had hoped... Either that, or we had all turned a blind eye to the flaws that plagued this map in H4. Regardless, I went back to the drawing board (ie: Construct) to see what subtle design tweaks I could implement to improve the map.



    Change Log:

    • Reversed direction of Open Ramp
    • Removed ceilings from map
    • Scaled length down 2 units
    • Cut hard corners in bottom blue and red coming from gold basement
    • Opened sight lines from sword (shotty) to bottom streets
    • Swapped out rock walling from blue street for a window
    • Extended blue streets inside wall to offer more protection
    • Added structural cover to top gold
    • Added structural cover to blue streen
    • Brought back in the window jump on open street / open ramp
    Most of these changes are minor tweaks to help add more protection to players pushing along the more exposed areas of the map. The major change was the reversal of Open Ramp's direction so that it leads from bottom red on gold side to top red by lobby. The logic behind this is that sword (shotty) side of the map had 3 immediate pathways leading to the top, while gold side only had one (gold lift). By reversing it, the movement option for the map are more balanced and also allows for more intuitive pushes to the upper levels. It also greatly helps pushes from Camo spawn, as it gives a player coming from that location three real movement options while wearing Camo as opposed to the two very predictable ones previously available.



    Screenshots:



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  9. the_suicide_fox

    the_suicide_fox Ancient
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    Looks pretty clean. Nice work. Pics are a little low res, or those blocks might just be that ugly.

    But I must admit I hate it because it's named Orion and I made a 1v1 map of the same name :p. It's cool though LOL
     
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  10. the_suicide_fox

    the_suicide_fox Ancient
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    *EDIT
    Double post. Browser lagged :/
     
  11. SecretSchnitzel

    SecretSchnitzel Donald Trump
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    It's low-res... Don't have a cap card, so I stream to twitch and screen shot off my laptop. Sucks, but that's all I can do for the time being.

    Orion's been a design I've been working on since Halo Reach actually. It's not a very novel name, but I thought it went well with "Gemini", as the map originally started off as a Gemini spiritual successor. It's amazing how over time it's slowly warped into more of a construct map. :O
     

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