Some of you may remember way back when in the Halo 3 Forge Vidoc when Bungie said that within weeks people would be using Forge to fix their maps. And indeed, some of you might remember when I set out to just that with several maps in Halo: Reach. Bungie beat me to the punch on at least on of them (The Cage to Uncaged), however, I'm still working on a few. One of them that you might remember is Hemorrhage. Most of us probably know that the current Hemorrhage is.....less than popular. (Hence the fan nickname of HemorRAGE) I set out earlier to fix it, taking inspiration from Coagulation and Blood Gulch. This map was known as Hemorrhage Classic (which is still in my file share), and some of you might have seen it. However, now I've moved past simple fixes and gone into just straight improving Hemorrhage, rather than just aping the old maps. The result is now called Aneurism, and like Hemorrhage Classic, it seeks to vastly improve both the 4v4 and BTB experience on Hemorrhage with some tweaks to the map, while still staying true. Most of us know what Hemorrhage looks like, and some of you even played my map Hemorrhage Classic. Thus, I don't need a ton of pictures to illustrate the changes; just 3 for the key points, and a description of some of the changes. Red Base Center Overview - The puddle the Ghost is about to travel over is where the Rocket Launcher is now located Rock Side Close-Up Other Changes from Hemorrhage and previous Versions - Re-orientated bases - Modified spawns; bases now have higher priority - Vehicle respawns modified; Warthog now spawns slightly faster, Wraith and Mongeese slightly slower - Plasma Launcher replaced with Rocket Launcher; moved to actual center of map - Objective placement modified to better fit map - Tentative Invasion Slayer set-up - Added more rock cover - Weapon spawn times slightly tweaked - Fixed issue where Red Sniper started with one more magazine than Blue Sniper Now the reason this is in the "Preview" section is for one reason; the modifications I've made are based purely on reasoning and thoughts. The map itself hasn't been playtested yet. So before I can post it in the maps section, or put it forward to Bungie/343 Industries to replace/supplement Hemorrhage, I need to get some actual game time on the map. To that end, tonight (Saturday May 21st) and tomorrow night (Sunday May 22nd) I'll be attempting to get the map tested at around 7:00PM EST/19:00 both nights. I'll need at least 7 people to try a 4v4 match or two, but the real test will be having this map survive the chaos of an 8v8 BTB match. If you'd like to help, let me know.
I applaud your efforts, but to me the problems with Hemorrhage run deeper - in many cases all the way back to the original (Blood Gulch). The Gulch was always too flat and open, but it worked OK in CE because there weren't jet packs or as many elevated sniper positions, a lot of people didn't yet understand just how easy it was to game the spawn system (which was horrific on Blood Gulch and only marginally improved on Hemorrhage), and frankly - we just didn't yet understand how good a BTB map could be. Valhalla improved on the general design in basically every way, and it saddens me that Bungie jumped back to the inferior original rather than remaking the better map - and one that would be so much better suited to life in Reach. Ah, regrets. Anyway, I think a serious patching up of Hemorrhage would probably involve: 1. Creating more large-scale pieces of cover and concealment, like the enormous rocks and valleys on Valhalla. 2. Redesigning those bases. Frankly, just dumping in the Valhalla bases would be a big improvement (I was never crazy about the design of the Coagulation bases for some reason, but I couldn't tell you why). End rant and semi-thread jack.
I've seen that map (and several like it before), its well forged, but even if I hadn't looked on the map personally, I already noticed several things I purposely avoided in my remake. 1: The Scorpion. The is a reason there is only one map with the Scorpion in MM. And its a reason that rhymes with "grape". Rocket Launchers and Plasma Launchers are insufficient to deal with Scorpions, and SPARTAN Lasers break an open map like Hemorrhage. 2: The Banshee. While I'm ambivalent about what the Banshee could do on an open map with DMRs and Snipers gunning for it, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Bungie has had to remove the Banshee from several maps already that had more anti-vehicle weapons than any version of Blood Gulch has had, simply because of how obscene the Banshee can be. Also, the Banshee is just plain not fun or fair to deal with in 4v4 playlists, like TO. 3: Base height. Being able to fully shoot directly from base-to-base is a big no-no in any game. While in earlier versions of BG/Coag you could see either the very top of the base or the Sniper corner from either base (depending on which game you're playing), you could never see what amounts to the whole of the base like you can in these remakes. I realize its a limitation of the map, but really, skipping the Banshee (or parking it out back) lets you get the base shape while avoiding this issue. 4: The Revanant. Just....the Revanant. Its not fun to fight, it defeats the purpose of the Warthog and Mongoose (with it being a faster, more durable, armed Mongoose that can still carry a passenger) and makes infantry life even more of a hell than normal. 5: High/secluded sniper spots. These are only fun for the Sniper, and can potentially break the map, especially if they are given only to one team. There really is no need for them, and certainly no need to go and make them out specifically. Snipers have more than enough fun and room on the ground with everyone else; no reason to give them special Jetpack/Banshee spots too.
The reason the current Blood Gulch remake in matchmaking isn't fun isn't because it's not well forged or adequately thought-out. It isn't fun because Reach is dominated by long range weapons. The desolate wasteland that is Hemorrhage provides no fun gameplay simply because everything is done from a distance. CQC is scarce and vehicle combat is mediocre at best. I used to be the person to encourage people to remake older maps, but god damnit it's getting ****ing annoying.
play hemorrhage in team snipers and you will realized the problem is that red has a ridiculous terrain advantage (which is exacerbated in team snipers to the point of ludicrousness and total domination) I don't love Renegade (or whatever it is called) which is in matchmaking in the canyon it has banshees, lazer, 2 rockets, 2 snipes, revenants, grenade launchers, no tanks, and a large central structure with partial terrain rebalancing but realistically the only solution is complex bases with lots of cover, side bases, a large middle structure, and actual cover for the spawns
I don't think it needs to be quite that extreme. Proper spawning, teleports and cover for the teleports would help a lot for Snipers, and those changes combined with the other changes should help a lot in other gametypes too.