This thread is specificaly designed for those who have trouble setting up their invasion maps, incorrect spawns, etc. Because I have noticed a lot of fellow forgers do not know how to set up an invasion map, and I wish to broaden this knowledge with others in the forging community. In here I will go over the main stuff for invasion and how to set it up properly. I will go over Spawns, Objectives, Gates, Weapons, and Vehicles. All in that order. First up is spawns. When you put the spawns down on your invasion map it they must need initial spawns, the first part is setting up initial spawns, it is where the players will first spawn. The advanced properties for them should be: Spawn sequence: 1/2/3 OR "never" Place at start: True Game Specific: True Gametype label: Invasion And that is it for the stuff that you need to change for Initial spawns for your invasion map. The next thing is the respawn area, Respawn points are "don'ts" in invasion maps, they impare the spawning of players. What you use for respawns are Respawn zones. There should be at least 1 Respawn zone for each phase for each team. This is where most players get stumped is with spawns. Now how you would set up the Advance properties will be: Spawn time: 1/2/3 OR "never" Place at start: True Gametype Label: Inv_Res_P1 (Phase 1)/P2 (Phase 2)/P3 (Phase 3) (depending on which phase). Backfield spawns can also be used in Invasion maps, but are not necessarily needed. The way you would set the properties would be like : Spawn time: 1/2/3 OR "never" Place at start: True Gametype Label: Inv_Res_P1 (Phase 1)/P2 (Phase 2)/P3 (Phase 3) (depending on which phase). The recommended amount of respawn zones for both teams is 2, but use them how you please to fit your game. That Is it for setting up invasion spawns and having them work right. REMEMBER set the respawn zones and Initials spawns to a specific team! Next is Objectives Objectives will depend on the gametype and what order they come in, but this will show you how to set up each objective. For the Bomb. What you will need for the assault phase is where the bomb will spawn, and where the attackers will plant the bomb. The bomb spawn will need to have these properties: Place at start: True Spawn Sequence: 1, 2, or 3 (Depending on which phase) Game Specific: True Gametype Label: Inv_Obj_Flag. Now for the area in which the bomb will be planted, it's properties should be: Place At Start: True Spawn Sequence: 1/2/3 (Depending on Phase) Game Specific: True GameType Label: Inv_objective. And that's it for setting up the Assualt phase. Next is the Territories phase. The territories phase consists of the attackers capturing a set location. How to set up those objective properties is: Spawn sequence: 1/2/3 (Depending on Phase) Game Specific: True Place At Start: True Gametype Label: Inv_Objective. You can set up multiple territories during this phase. And thats it for Territories. Next Is the Flag Capture Phase (AKA Core Capture Phase) In which the attackers retrieve the core and take it to a set location. The properties for them will be basically the same as the Assualt phase and consisting of a Core spawn and a Capture Zone Area. The properties should be: Spawn Sequence 1/2/3 (Depending on Phase) Place at Start: True Game Specific: True Gametype Label: Inv_Obj_Flag. The properties for the Core Capture Area Properties Should be: Spawn Sequence: 1/2/3 (Depending on which phase) Place at Start: True Game Specific: True Game type Label: Inv_Objective. And thats it for the Objectives, keep in mind that different objective items can be use, and it doesn't hurt to be creative with where you place them. Next is Gates Gates are one of the abilities that make invasion stand out, now setting them up is easy if you know how to. Lets say you had a wall colliseum as a Gate for invasion and you wanted it to dissappear after the first phase. You would want to set the properties of the to: Spawn Sequence: 1 Place at Start: True Game Specific: True Game Type Label: Inv_Gates. That will cause the desired gate to dissappear (The colliseum wall, for example). If you want it to dissapear at a different stage, simply change the spawn sequence to the Phase that it is supposed to dissappear on. And that Is it for setting up gates for invasion. Next is Weapons. Weapons can do many different things during an invasion game. You just got to know how to set them up. First up is spawning on a desired phase, if you want a weapon to spawn on a desired phase, simply change the Properties to: Spawn Sequence: 0/1/2/3 (Depending on which phase) Place At Start: True Game Specific: True Gametype Label: Invasion. And thats it for making a weapon spawn on a certain phase. Let's say you wanted a rocket launcher to dissappear after phase 1. You would want to set the properties to: Spawn Sequence: 1 Place At Start: True Game Specific: True Game type Label: Inv_Gates. It will automatically despawn after the first phase, you can do that with any phase by changing the Spawn Sequence. Weapons will also act the same as vehicles when set to objectives, only they cannot be picked up (will get to that down in the vehicle section). That is it for the basics of weapon spawns in invasion. Next is Vehicle spawns Let's say you wanted to have a warthog that is suppposed to spawn on phase 2, you would set the properties to: Spawn Sequence: 2 Place At Start: True Game Specific: True Gametype label: Inv_Vehicle. Then the Warthog will spawn during phase 2. NOTE: Vehicles do not spawn immediatley. Now if you want a warthog to despawn after phase 1. You would set the properties to: Spawn Sequence: 1 Place At Start: True Game Specific: True Gametype Label: Inv_Gates. Vehicles can also be used as territories and Flag Return Zone in the Core phase. Vehicles must be labeled accordingly in order to work properly. Vehicles ARE drivable as Objectives. The Core/Bomb Will spawn on top of the vehicle if labeled Inv_Obj_Flag. If the vehicle is labeled the objective it will be present the whole game. And that is the basics of vehicle spawns in invasion. Now For Armor Abilities Armor Abilities can Diversify Invasion gameplay if used as objectives. Let's use Sprint for example, during a territory phase, The sprint can be used as the objective. So who ever gains control of the sprint, can control the objective. If someone dies while holding the territory, the territory becomes static again and will reset after a certain amount of time is up. Leaving the attackers stuck to wait for the sprint to respawn. Note: If it is set to INV_OBJ_FLAG, then the bomb/core will spawn overtop. If it is set to the capture point in a core/bomb phase then things get intersting. The Armor Ability can be picked up. Which allows many things to happen such as: - the enemy can steal it and run away - someone can take the Armor Ability up to a core, and instantly capture the core - if it set to bomb. Someone can pick up the AA, then pick up the bomb. But he holds the bomb until the arming is complete. The Bomb holder then becomes a suicide bomber with enemies chasing him to disarm the bomb. If they manage kill him, then they can disarm the bomb by crouching on his body. when the fuse runs out, a big explosion comes from the person who had just been running around capturing the objective if set as the Bomb/Core. Well that's it for my invasion tutorial, I know a lot of people have been wanting one so I decided to make it. This covered most the basics for invasion maps.NOTE: This is not what it should exactly be like, this is simple properties and such for it, there are tons of different things you can do, I am just stating the simplest for me. I hope this helps some people with the basics of Invasion and I look forward to seeing more Invasion maps out there. Happy Forging! By the way, if you have more stuff to add to this, I will post it on here ASAP. Thanks to Berb Nutduster
Ohhhh.. Inv_Res_P# is for the phase number, I guess that makes sense. I was somehow believing that it was for the battle-bro system. No wonder none of my maps made any sense at all... If you want to add to this, I suggest going in depth into how long each phase should be compared to the size of the play field; Loadout traits; and the like. Good guide though, like I said the spawn part really cleared things up for me.
if think you forgot some things. First of all, you can actually spawn objects by using the INV_WEAPON label. yes, regualr forge objects. spawn time can be used to determine how far into the phase they spawn and spawn sequence can be used to determine what phase. also, i think you should of included using weapons, vehicles, AA and explosives as objectives. Vehicles - can be used as capture zones in a territtory phase and flag return zones in core/bomb phases. vehicles must be labelled appropriately. vehicles ARE drivable when used as objectives. any vehicle that is given an INV_OBJ_FLAG label will just have the core/bomb spawn on top of it. note- if a vehicle is used as an objective, it will be on th map the WHOLE GAME. Weapons - act the same way as vehicle BUT weapons that are objectives cannot be picked up explosives - act the same way as weapons with the explosives being indistructable until their phase is over (needs conformation) now for the cool one AA (armor abilities) Armor Abilities can actually completely diversify the invasion gameplay if used as objectives. ill use sprint as an example. during a territory phase, a sprint can be used as the territory and CAN BE PICKED UP!!!!! yes, you can be running around with the objective. i sense a new invasion gametype where instead of extracting a core, you extract a sprint and have to hold onto it for 20 seconds. if you die whilst holding the territory, your body will keep the AA but do not fear, because if your objective has a shape that is in existence, then they objective will just be a static territory unless the body moves. eventually the body will disappear, then all hope and progression into the next phase is lost until the AA respawns. if it is set to INV_OBJ_FLAG, then the bomb/core will spawn overtop. if it is set to the capture point in a core/bomb phase then things get intersting. the AA can be picked up. this can mean many things such as: - the enemy can steal it and run away - a guy can take the AA up to a core, and instantly capture the core the second he picks the core up. - if it set to bomb, some ultra lulz arrive. a guy can pick up the AA, then pick up the bomb. he holds the bomb until the arming is complete. The spartan/elite then becomes a suicide bomber with enemies chasing him to disarm the bomb. if the kill him, then they can disarm the bomb by crouching on his body. when the fuse runs out, a big boom comes from the man who had just been running around capturing the objective
The spawning section here needs updating - the way it is now is incomplete and will cause problems in most invasion matches. Here's the two critical pieces of information: 1. You can set up "backfield" spawn zones for each team that apply to all three phases. All they need is the team designation, gametype specific = true, and label = INV_RES_ZONE. Depending on your invasion vision these backfield areas may not be necessary, but most Bungie invasion maps seem to use them. 2. You didn't mention the fire team numbering for the other respawn zones. When you set up a zone labeled INV_RES_P1 (or P2, or P3) for a team, this actually only applies to a "fire team," based on the spawn sequence number. Imagine your invasion team of 8 guys is split into three sub-teams of 3, 2 and 2 players, and these are fire teams 0, 1 and 2 respectively. If you wanted all three fire teams to spawn in separate places with access to different vehicles and power weapons (Bungie does this on Breakpoint with rockets, the hornet, and perhaps other stuff too), you can set up three zones for INV_RES_P3 (phase 3) with different spawn sequence numbers of 0, 1 and 2. However, if you want any player to be able to spawn there (equivalent to a phase-specific backfield spawn zone), you can set the spawn sequence number to 3. This is a confusing point since the spawn sequence for most other invasion objects refers to phase numbers and not fire teams, but it's important to keep in mind, ESPECIALLY if you don't have generic, non-phase-specific spawn zones as described in #1 above. (EDIT - I just realized you said "spawn time" should be 3 for the INV_RES_Px zones. I assume that was just an error & you meant to put in spawn sequence, in which case those zones would work for all players. I would still recommend to explain what the other spawn sequence numbers are used for. The actual spawn time on those zones can be "never.")
Good points, this helped alot to. Nutduster are you going to get on tomarow? I could use some live help.
I think some corrections to your spawn section should be made to the original post so that people are not confused if that is as far as they get with this thread. The rest is a pretty good read. *snipped arrogant, inexcusable rant from earlier* SPAWN TIME property has nothing to do with the phase or fire team assignment, and should remain set to NEVER. The only time I can see setting this to a value is if you want a respawn zone (phased or backfield) to show up on the map some time into the round that it starts in. But that is really advanced, and bungie does not specify how to use this property, so we should just leave it as NEVER. For phase respawn zones, SPAWN SEQUENCE property defines the fire team assignment. 0 for fire team 1, 1 for FT2, 2 for FT3, and 3 for all fire teams. The back field spawn zone is GAME TYPE property INV_RES_ZONE, not one of the phase respawn zones. To determine when the back field spawn zone actually appears (when you can first use it) is defined by the SPAWN SEQUENCE property. 0 and 1 = Phase 1 and later. 2 = Phase 2 and later. 3 = Phase 3 only. You are correct, that for invasion games, GAME SPECIFIC property should be set to true, but in fact, it can be set to false - it is ignored for zones. I do not know why, I just know that it is ignored. But a quality forger would set it to true in case this bug is ever fixed. Whether to use backfield spawn zones or phased spawn zones is really more up to the map than anything else, so I would not recommend anything as a general rule. What is important is that the forger understands how these work and decides which to use in each case. I talk in depth about this point in my Invasion Spawn Tutorial and my Invasion Case Study. I apologize for my earlier comments (which I removed here).
I hope you eventually realize there are infinitely better ways to convey corrections, ones with noticeably less haughtiness, ignorance of social norms, and general dickishness.
I created an epic Invasion map based off of an ODST mission. I finished the map, but whenever I test it, it has spawned a few elites outside them map, even though I have at least 3 inv_res_p... in every phase. I have no idea what causes this, and I was wondering if you could help... I'd appreciate it!