[[Click the banner to download]] OVERVIEW "It quickly became common practice for UNSC forces to build makeshift bases in the factories of New Mombasa." Skewer is a medium-sized asymmetrical map built on Foundry. It is designed for standard team games for 6 to 10 players. GAMETYPES All gametypes are supported. Recommended gametypes: Team Slayer, Assault, Neutral Bomb, Territories (one-sided), and One Flag. LAYOUT The first concept I wanted to explore with Skewer is the idea of a "twisted" map, in which the physical position of terrain is not the same as the metaphysical position. For example, Skewer features a central room, but rather than being the main point on the map, it is the defender's forward base. Likewise, although the rocket tower is located on the defender's side, it is the central location on the map and both attackers and defenders have an equal chance of controlling it. WEAPONS All weapons spawn at start, and are the same for asymmetrical and symmetrical, with the exception of the attacker's turret, which is symmetrical only. Weapon...................| # On Map | Respawn Time | Spare Clips x1, 180 sec, 1 spare clip x1, 120 sec, 1 spare clip x1 120 sec, 1 spare clip x6, 20-45 sec, 1-2 spare clips x3, 30 sec, 2 spare clips x2, never, N/A x1, 90 sec, 2 spare clips x1, 90 sec, 2 spare clips x1, 30 sec, N/A x2, 30 sec, N/A x2, 30 sec, 1 spare clip x1, 30 sec, 2 spare clips x1, 30 sec, 2 spare clips EQUIPMENT Fragmentation Grenade: 2 sets of 2, 10 sec respawn Plasma Grenade: 3 sets of 2, 10-30 sec respawn Bubble Shield: 60 sec respawn Gravity Lift: 90 sec respawn Regenerator: 60 sec respawn Mongoose: 30 sec respawn It's worth pointing out here one second aspect of Skewer's design philosophy. I really wanted to emphasize the traditional differences between attackers and defenders. Therefore, most duel-wielded, close range, and spray-n-pray weapons are on the attacker's side of the map. The burst-fire, head shot, and long range weapons are likewise weighted towards the defender's side. TERRAIN THIS MEANS PICTURES! This is the attacker's base. The default foundry rooms are used as spawn hives, and the flag spawn/return is visible next to the turret. The turret spawns in symmetrical games only, so most of the time you'll just see the return point or bomb spawn where there's a turret and flag here. This is the attacker's field. The brute shot spawns in the weird wall structure on the left, while on the right you can see the crouching tunnel (more on that bad boy later). Also visible are the ramp leading to the shotgun bunker and the windows into the sniper room. Also, here's a good place to make a final note about the design philosophy of the map. As I was making the map, I realized two things: I didn't have any good places to put A or B signs, and I was already trying to emphasize the differences between attackers and defenders in a number of ways. I decided to change the layout in a couple of ways so that the attacker's and defender's sides would be very visually distinct. The attacker's side now features a number of buildings with upright columns and is mostly on one elevation (as you can see here). The defenders side, by contrast, has tons of fence boxes, bridges, and ramps, and features lots of verticality. As a result, it's very easy to immediately tell what part of the map you're in. This is the shotgun bunker. It is the attacker's secondary structure, and as the name suggests, houses the ever rape-tastic shotgun. On the side is the rarely visited SMG house, and in the back, up against Foundry's corner, is the perennially useful bubble shield. Moving around the corner, we find the transition from the shotgun bunker to the back wall and the all-important rocket tower. Typically, the attackers will try to rush the rocket tower, introducing the defenders to some buckshot in the process. Visible next to the mongoose is the tunnel which leads into the sniper room. Moving across the back wall and into the defender's territory, we find the rocket tower. The rocket tower holds a commanding view of about 60% of the map. Controlling the tower is of extreme importance, but of course, saying so is easier than doing so. The rocket tower has only two entrances, the ramp in the center of the picture, and the upper walkway, accessible by gravity lift only. The tower is also rather exposed, and a few well placed grenades or sniper rounds will easily remove its occupants. [[CONTINUED IN REPLY]]
[[CONTINUED FROM MAIN POST]] Pulling back further to the defender's base, we get a pretty good view of bridge central, aka 50% of the defender's field. This is where most of the fighting happens. When the defender's turret is mowing soldiers down, the path on the far left is a good place to make a sneaky approach. Performing an about-face, we can now see the other half of the defender's field, as well as the imposing defender's wall. The turret can lay some serious smack down on this section of the map. Luckily for the attackers, it never respawns, and there are some handy fusion coils to blow it off its perch. We can also now see the three entrances to the defender's base. The path on the upper left is usually heavily guarded, unless the attackers have pushed through the sniper room. The tunnel through the bottom is the most heavily traveled, and a straight shot towards the flag/arm point. On the right is the ninja entrance, usually unguarded but tough to reach. This is the view from Foundry's default room into the defender's base. Again, the default geometry is used for spawn hives. The defender's base is pretty simple. Once the wall is breached, the objective point is right in the middle. Let's take a detour into the very back to point out two things: first, the very back hall is closed off, so attackers and defenders can't mingle freely. Second, one door of this spawn hive is blocked so that attackers arming the bomb or stealing the flag have a second to catch their breath before the defenders can return. This is the view right outside the defender's base, looking towards the central wall. Defenders leaving their base have three main choices: Head straight for the rocket tower (left in this picture), take the crouching tunnel directly to the attacker's side (next to the A sign), or take the curving tunnel to the sniper room. Defenders that take the curving tunnel end up here, the sniper room. Quick snipers can use the windows to bust the heads of slow attackers, or they can continue towards the back wall. This screenshot shows the other two entrances/exits of the sniper room. On the left, in the little alcove, defenders can use the gravity lift to rush the rocket tower. The tunnel on the right leads to the back wall of Foundry (and the mongoose, for what that's worth). Against the back wall, players will find BR ammo and quick transport. Those wishing to get to the rocket tower from the ground floor (assuming the gravity lift isn't spawned) can head left or right, since both attackers and defenders have one bridge leading to this little ridge. Last on our tour, here is a close up view of the crouch tunnel. A crouch-jump is required to enter it from this side. The crouch tunnel is the shortest path between bases. However, it is a magnet for grenade spam, and of course, since players must crouch through it, it is probably the most dangerous location on the map. This is a view of the crouch tunnel from the attacker's side. A crouch-jump is not required on this side, just crouch-walking, so attackers will tend to use the tunnel more than defenders. And for our last picture, one more close up of the rocket tower to point out the neutral bomb spawn. The rocket tower is also Territory 3 and the first KotH location. ACTION SHOTS Prior to some brokeback action, my friend El Cokeroach puts the sniper to use. ...But Lord Phil gets his revenge with a well-thrown plasma grenade. A distracted blue gets ninja'd by yours truly. Getting folks off the rocket tower is best achieved with big booms. A fight in the crouching tunnel. Taking cover from the terrifying death machine. The turret is an extremely powerful defensive weapon, but it never respawns, and is therefore a hurdle the attackers must only overcome once. The shotgun is particularly effective in its home territory. Case in point. As good as the shotgun is, the rockets are better. 1. Acquire rockets 2. Get double kill 3. ??? 4. Profit CLOSING COMMENTS Thanks for reading! I've spent a TON of time on this map, tweaking layout, spawns, and weapons to near-perfection. I first drew designs for Skewer back in December. I loved the idea of this map so much that I went to the trouble of interlocking every single object on the map, and attempting geomerging I had previously never dreamed of. This post has been a long time coming (OK, partly because I'm a lazy bum), and I'm really happy to finally release Skewer to the public. Hope you guys like it as much as I do. Finally, thanks to all my testers: inariii, pvilleforger777, uscfan7690, Chancedude2000, El Cokeroach, saxmaster5000, Lord Phil VIII, and even more offline friends. Thanks guys, I really appreciate your help. DOWNLOAD SKEWER
ehhhh, it looks pretty good. I see a couple spots for merging to make it cleaner. As in the last picture of the second post, they should be merged together. And the Double box's should be flipped upside down to make it smother, But its a good post and looks like a decent map. 4/5
Overall it looks like a pretty good map but the one area you could improve some on was the back hallway. It looks VERY open and could probably use some boxes and movable objects to get rid of the blankness.
Don't listen to Huntar. A map doesn't need perfect forging (or aesthetics) to be great. What is more important is the gameplay. Your forging is very good, however. It's as good as it needs to be, considering you're not making an aesthetic map. I'm not saying your aesthetics are bad though. I'm just saying that you probably didn't focus on aesthetics, which is good because that generally means that you focused on layout and gameplay more. Now, about you layout. I like how you skewed the map in its asymmetry. The risk and reward of the different paths seem well considered as well. Your post is also rather well laid out, with complete descriptions of all the different areas of the map, which is more than many people do nowadays. I await action shots... Judging by the second to last and the last pictures of your first post, can one grenade jump from the upper walkway to the top of the dividing wall? Is that what those fusion coils are for? I will comment on gameplay once I've played a few more games on it. Await my update...
I've now updated both sections of the post with a few more comments and a whole bunch of action pics. @Huntar: If you're going to make comments about a map you don't download, at least make educated comments. Every box on this map is interlocked with it's surroundings by the width of at least one wall, including the vertical double boxes that make up the rocket tower. Although the screenshots might be a bit deceptive, the map is also absolutely smooth. You can run all the way through it without ever having your character do that little mini-jump they do on bumpy surfaces. @exploreTheGore: That hallway is only used as a spawn hive. Fighting never really occurs there, and I'm out of budget even if I wanted to add stuff. @Sotha Sil: Thanks for the kind words. Yeah, aesthetics weren't a huge focus for this map, mainly because it isn't budget-glitched and so, having used the entire floor space of foundry, I really don't have any budget left to make crazy aesthetics. Plus, like you said, gameplay is more important, and I'd like to submit this to Atlas, so gameplay needs to be absolutely perfected for it to have a chance. And yes, you're completely right about getting to the top of the map. It's even easier than you think, since you can put the grav lift anywhere on the first story to get up there. Instead of reworking the map (I briefly considered having a stationary grav lift, but it didn't feel right), I freed up some budget and put a bunch of fusion coils on top to discourage snipers from camping up there. As it is now, I feel like the risk/reward for setting up on top is acceptable.
Alright. I've now played One Flag, and I really liked it. Unfortunately, I can't comment on Symmetrical games yet. There were just a few things my party and I felt could be improved upon. Though I don't really find it a problem, considering that it makes the game quite challenging for the Attackers, my party felt that the Defenders had too good a defense, with the shotgun, the turret, sometimes the sniper and the rocket, and a large amount of cover compared to when the attackers are on their side. If you feel this needs to be fixed for Asymmetric games, you could just place more cover for the Attackers that appears only in Asymmetric games. I don't know if you meant for this; it really isn't a problem, but there is a great discontinuity between the Aesthetics of the Attacker's side and the Defender's side. I don't think it's a problem at all, but it might contribute to other people commenting negatively on your aesthetics if they ever do. I wouldn't fix this though, it's fine how it is. Some people felt that that crouch hallway was too easily campable, especially with the sticky grenades. But that's how you want it, right? No problem there then. Something that happened during one of the rounds we played is that the Defenders came over to the Attacker's side of the map had held them down very well. They extended their control so that they had one person camping the crouch hallway, and the rest had rocket, sniper, and shotgun. We, the Attackers, couldn't do anything to get past them. The reasons being that the most powerful weapon closer to our spawn than the shotgun is the brute shot and that there were only two paths we could take. The first being the crouch hallway, which was being camped, and the main path, which was being controlled very well. This lasted for nearly a minute. If you find this a problem, you could either put a more powerful weapon closer to the Attacker spawn or you could move the entrance to the sniper room from the halfway point closer to the attacker spawn. Unless you could think of another way of going about fixing this (if you feel it needs to be), the sniper hallway one would probably be the best choice.