Coming off a self-imposed forge hiatus, I had an idea for a smaller competitive map, three levels high and modeled in part (and very loosely) off a few Halo levels I like: Countdown, Prisoner and Longest. You'll see very little direct references to those maps in what I ended up with though. It doesn't have a name yet, hence the question mark - feel free to suggest one.
I like he looks of this, is it symmetrical though? Your door construct in the second picture actually looks pretty cool, and the map in general looks nice. I just hope gameplay won't be bland.
Why thank you sir. Doors were one of the theme objects of this map so they are all over the damn place. I tried to do some interesting things with them. It is indeed symmetrical. Gameplay should definitely be un-bland. If that's a word, and I know it ain't. There are a bunch of interesting tactical jumps, three dimensional gameplay with the different levels (and lots of ways to move quickly between them), some weird little nooks and ledges for temporary camping in objective play (cry now, MLG types!)... plus it's small enough to make it very probably a frenetic experience from wire to wire. Initial testing hasn't begun, but I have high hopes.
Although I don't have a full mental picture of the map, it still looks pretty nice and it kinda reminds me of one of your earlier maps. (Sadly, I cannot recall the name) I'd would very much like to see more of this map in the future. Off-topic, it's nice to see that your still making maps even after Hivemind.
Really like the aesthetics going for this map. I personally suck at indoor maps, so I envy those that can make them as well as this. I can help test, gamertag is same as this forum idea. Name idea: Portus? Just because all the door centered decor.
Preview vid below. This map has undergone a lot of changes after the first round of testing - it's longer and more spacious, certain areas are a little more segmented/covered, and there are new "maintenance tunnels" running from the ground floor of each base to the room with the rocket launcher in it (sure to be a beginning-of-game hot spot). Untitled Halo: Reach map preview - YouTube
This looks nice, Im not crazy about the random door in the video at 0:14 though, personally speaking.
It's not quite as random as it looks. There are the stupid end posts on the 45 degree corners sticking up through the floor there. I initially thought it would be interesting and an aesthetic improvement to cover them with long railings going up to the ceiling (like support struts basically), which would also break up line of sight and give a bit of cover to people running across the map lengthwise on that walkway (otherwise, you're completely exposed to someone coming from the opposite end - there's no defensive options except strafing or jumping off the walkway). For budget and framerate reasons, I later thought to replace the two rails with a single door. Also, it looks a little weird in this vid because the ceiling is so dark, but that door does make contact with the roof to give it more of a structural feel.
You could always rotate those 2x2 corners to face down so the bumps don't hinder movement, but then you'd have breaks in the railings, which may be ok. I agree the door looks a little funny but if you need that cover that's fine, but maybe you could keep experimenting with pieces to spruce it up or better connect the door to the ceiling (with a 2x1 flat maybe?). Other than that I think the changes look great. I like the segmentation we were talking about. I look forward to getting another game on it.
I thought about doing that (rotating the corners to face down) but it would look odd from below, I think, and breaks the railing like you mentioned. Alternatively I could redesign the whole balcony to use different pieces (and probably have a different shape), but that's really the only part of it I'm not totally sold on - the rest is exactly how I wanted it. Damn forge objects, always one step ahead of me..! I may play with it some more.
Theres some Z-fighting right at the beginning... And I'm interested see how this plays with rockets. It almost seems like a bad idea. But we shall see.
Yeah, that damn platform XL keeps shifting on me. I'll fix that. I'm not totally sure about the rockets, but I know that the new design of the map will make the sniper somewhat ineffectual (as well as probably annoying - it will encourage people to sit in their base and snipe down the long corridors for cheap kills, which I hate). Rockets will draw people down to a less-used section of the map and give aggressive pushers a strong hand in infiltrating enemy territory. We'll see how it goes! If it's consistently horrible, I might go with some other scheme. I could almost see putting a sword or hammer down there, and maybe a couple of 3-shot grenade launchers on each side.
I'm constantly rearranging the power weapon set. Can't quite make up my mind. Right now I have a sword in place of rockets, two new grenade launchers (one on each side), and a shotgun upstairs. Thinking about ditching the shotgun though - upstairs is a strong enough position without a power weapon.
There is a very important rule for single atrium maps: Force player movement into the center, not with a weapon, with geometry. As of now, you can circle the map without ever stepping foot in the central atrium, which always poses a problem for map control and flow.
1. Why should I force them into the atrium? 2. If you are forcing them into the atrium through "geometry," doesn't that ensure that the atrium becomes an intolerable chokepoint? 3. How does this apply to well-regarded maps like Midship, Zealot, and others that use a central atrium but allow players to stick to the outside if they like? Is Guardian an "atrium" map, because if so you can certainly (and SHOULD certainly) avoid top mid like the plague? Not trying to be obtuse, I just am very distrustful of blanket rules like that especially when I can think of myriad counter-examples.
Think about Epitaph and how no one ever went towards the middle of the map, especially bottom mid. There was no reason to except every few minutes when a power weapon spawned. It was much safer to traverse the map around the edges, especially with the height advantage that came with the edges.
The central area of Epitaph was disproportionately huge compared to the outer walkways though. With this map I'm trying for something closer to the room-and-halls design of Chill Out/Cold Storage, Countdown, etc. There is a large room in the center, but it's not intended to be the main feature of the map.