Sandbox The Reactor

The Reactor v 2.0

The Reactor is an ancient power source floating in space. Originally the ramps and ductwork were there to facilitate working on the reactor itself; now it's all there to facilitate killing. I'd call that an improvement.

This map is a smallish map meant for intense, multi-tiered combat. Some design principles are modeled on ones from older Halo maps I loved best: Damnation, Chill Out, and Lockout. I don't know if this will provide the same combat experience but I hope it comes close. Attention has been paid to making sure there are multiple access points to all areas of the map, and to providing lots of different vertical levels to vary the fighting experience.

The basic design here is a two base setup with the reactor of the title providing an aesthetic centerpiece with no real function - except to keep players from moving directly through the middle, of course. The defensive base is large and mostly flat with a small tower a la The Pit - flag spawn is on top of this tower, and the bomb plant spot is inside it. The offensive base is smaller but occupies more vertical space, with lots of nooks and crannies to stand on and BR from. The overall map is basically a circle or square with the two sides connecting the two bases, but there's also a much higher top level that has a good view of roughly half the map (depending where you stand - line of sight can be tricky) and also holds the active camo. A teleporter close to the defensive base and a ramp leading out of the offensive base provide access to the top. Additionally, there's old ductwork wrapping around the defensive side of the map, with multiple access points - most notably a mancannon on one side that shoots you up into the duct.

A lot of the focus in building this map was providing a smooth playing experience (even interlocking some wedges to smooth out bumps in the floor) and make sure there are good but not dominant lines of sight from several locations, and also to include some interesting jumps that, once learned, will streamline the playing experience. The Reactor is set up for all gametypes, but I think it will play best for small team slayer, one flag CTF, one bomb assault, and infection. 2-8 players recommended.

Weapon list:
- 5 BRs
- 1 carbine
- 2 maulers
- 1 grav hammer
- 1 sword
- 1 sniper rifle
- 2 needlers
- 4 SMGs
- 1 plasma rifle
- 1 spiker
- 2 assault rifles

Equipment list:
- 1 power drain
- 1 bubble shield
- a handful each of plasma, frag, and spike grenades
- active camo

Screenshots:










Floor merging:



DOWNLOAD LINK

Fixed in version 2:
- More "rails" added in some locations to lessen the possibility of falling off the map (although if you choose to stand on top of the many double box perches, you're on your own!)
- Spawn points slightly adjusted to better direct players to high traffic areas and not point them toward oblivion
- Floors outside the play area have been covered/made inaccessible - if you get outside the map now, you should be falling to your death
- A floating single wall replaced with a double wall to make a few trick jumps easier, and to give players who fall off the top a slightly higher chance of living
- Two walls added to the top to reduce the dominance of that position over the lower levels, and make a couple strategic jumps harder
- Brute shot replaced with grav hammer (which should be a very effective weapon on the upper deck and near the edges, a la Guardian)
- Trip mine removed - it wasn't adding much to gameplay, and I needed the budget $ at the time

 

Thanks guys -

I may look for some testers here soon. I'd like to run a few games on it and see how it goes. I'm also hoping to test with my friends this week (we have an occasional weeknight game). So there may be a v2 coming, we'll see how the tests go.

On the issue of interlocking, I don't do it unless it's needed to make something fit properly or for an aesthetic idea I have. My main interest in the maps I make (and also in anything I might download, that someone else made) is playability and how fun it is... I don't really care if it's impressive and difficult forging. This particular map has not a whole lot of interlocking, and most of the interlocking I did is pretty subtle - things to make the floor smoother, make a ramp fit properly, have a better exterior wall with no pieces jutting out, that kind of thing. If you go over the map with a fine-tooth comb you'll find plenty of interlocking, but most of it is meant to be unobtrusive.

 

I just spotted (from one of the screenshots actually) an annoying little "spawn at start" issue with one piece - that has been fixed and the map re-shared. Sorry for the inconvenience. Those that downloaded it before probably won't notice a huge difference - the piece in question is just a wedge that sits off of one of the walkways, similar to the ledges on Lockout outside the walkway between the center room and downstairs of the air lift tower. In the 4th screen above, it would sit to the right of the two red columns. So you wouldn't be spending much time on it anyway. In the previous share it was set to spawn after 90 seconds.

 

The filter is part of the atmosphere - do you want it off just to get a better idea of the layout? I wanted the map kind of dark except for the parts around the lights and the reactor.

 

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! I was wondering about if it's too open - I might have to scrounge a little more budget to make it slightly more difficult to walk into oblivion. I'll see what I can do. I don't think I have any $ left but I could probably invent some by slightly adjusting some pieces elsewhere.

 

Bump for updates! See first post for the changes that have been made. I didn't redo screenshots, however, because the changes are mostly not significant to the overall layout - it still looks basically like depicted here.