Sandbox Salty Fingers

SALTY FINGERS - A Rotationally symmetrical, fun-ish yet competitive, 4-8 player, mainly slayer map.

download link for MAP variant: Bungie.net : Halo 3 File Details

download link for GAME variant (only if you'd rather not Manually configure the custom powerup):
Bungie.net : Halo 3 File Details

CUSTOM POWERUP CONFIGURATION: 15seconds/300%speed/Invulnerable (inspired by the hammer in Super Smash Brothers)

This map was inspired, I think, by a few different maps: Warlock, Sanctuary, Super Smash Brothers (N64), Lockout, and my brother's map "Mexican Sky" (he doesn't have internet).

Here are some distinct features of this map.

Aesthetics:

- I chose to have a sort of "Obelisk Claw" rising out of the middle with a cube floating on its corner between them. On top of that is the gravhammer/custom powerup.

- Minimal interlocking because I don't have much skill in that.

- I put invis on red and OS on blue because I think it's prettier that way.

- Mixed elements of straightline symmetry and symmetry of scattered rock formations.

- I wanted to have a view from side to side marred only by shield doors.

Layout:

- Each base has a snipe tower, but the sniper is in what I call the "snipe bus", accessible only by a shield door and subject to four fusion coils if populated for any amount of time.

- Each base also is populated by many fusion coils to avoid camping.

- A man cannon on each side which leads to the Custom powerup and a Hammer.

- Rocket in the middle, open to all manner of fire, but one can quickly drop into the shield door middle on bottom which also holds a shotgun and four fusion coils.

- Mauler which is, honestly, a little too close too snipe behind a shield door.

- Teleport to get from side to side.

Supports 4-8 players (slayer tested only)
The weapons are below, but, honestly, I should probably get rid of a few, regardless of my long respawn times (I kind of went for variety for fun's sake).

Weapons/Respawn Time

6 brs/60
1 rocket/120
2 snipers/150
1 shotgun/120
2 needlers/60
6 frags/60
10 plasmas/60
1 hammer/120
1 custom powerup/120
1 os/120
1 invis/120
2 carbine/60
2 ar/30
2 plasmarifle/30
2 pp/30
2 spikers/30
2 bruteshot/120
2 regen/120
2 drainers/120
NO BUBBLESHIELDS (those things are ridiculous)
Here's the download links again:

MAP variant: Bungie.net : Halo 3 File Details

GAME variant: Bungie.net : Halo 3 File Details

Here's the screenshots:

This is an overview of the whole map (as much as I could get).



This is the Hammer and the 300%speed/invulnerability/15sec powerup. It's inspired by getting the Hammer in Smash Bros. 64. When you take the cannon to the hammer and get the powerup too, don't forget to hum the MarioStarPower song. It makes it much more satisfying.



Here's a view of blue base.



Closer view of Blue base.



The entire blue side and middle.



Here's a long view of blue side.



And a long view of red side.



Here's the mancannon section on red side. Notice there's an invis on red side and overshield on blue. I think it's prettier that way.



Here's a big shot of the middle section.



Here's a closer view of the middle.



Here's the snipe bus. Don't stay in there or you're screwed. You can't enter it from either end, only through shield door, and if you stay you'll get fusioncoiled out of this dimension.


Here's the sightline through shield doors from snipe to snipe.



Here's a view that shows the two-way teleport on either side.



I tried to throw in a few fun elements, a few challenges, a little aesthetics, and space things out for competitive purposes. There are a number of ways out of death and a number of sightlines as well. Hope you enjoy!

 

Reserved

To explain or apologize after verbal beatdowns.

Titan Gamer: Yeah, I interlocked some...but for this first map I just wanted to see if I could embody the principles of competitive play. If I had more time I would have interlocked more than just the boards and walls on top of ramps...I would have done the slitwalls and some other things. At this point, what needs to be interlocked doesn't really even enter into my head. I mainly just interlocked where it was absolutely necessary (holes you could fall into, ridiculous grenade crevices, etc. Thanks for the tips though! I had fun with this.

JellyBelly: I'll try merging later. I've seen maps with it, but I figured this first time I'd learn to crawl before I learned to walk. BTW, are there VIDEO tutorials of this on the site? It's said in words, but hard to envision from word to concept. Thanks for the comments!

SoulCrusher: Yeah, I know there's a toooon of shield doors, and ordinarily i'm not a fan (really I'm still not). There's nothing more frustrating than looking at a guy with a shotgun on the other side who can't outshoot you but he sure can stare...but I did it more aesthetically, and thought the shield doors may have a different effect if there were six in a row lined up and you could see cross-map. Thx for the comments!

 

Just out of curiosity...I've been seeing this on toooooons of posts...but is more interlocking always necessary? Everybody suggests more interlocking, pretty much without explanation. I see that it "adds a lot" to maps.

Personally, I don't see its necessity for a map except to fill in holes and traps players could get stuck in, or to eliminate the problem of hitting snags. The only other purposes I see are to make allowances for every 500th grenade throw which bounces funny in a crevice, and aesthetics.

In this section of the forums, though, shouldn't our purposes be that gameplay be sound above all? I personally playtested my maps, ran and jumped over every surface, and determined it to be more than easily playable.

If anybody could explain to me why the aesthetics aspect is important, or if I'm missing some level of gameplay necessary through interlocking that I've missed, I'd really appreciate it.

And I'm not bitter...just curious. Thx for any responses!