Blasted Creek

So this is Blasted Creek. I spent awhile on this, and even drafted it out on paper first. It was inspired by Beaver Creek, which I believe to be the epitome of small-scale Halo battles. However, there are a few minor differences... OK, really the only thing that is kept is the two bases that are suspiciously close. Seriously, why did the Red and Blue teams decide to make bases ten feet from eachother? It seems rather redundant. It also reminds me of the first episode of Red vs Blue, which I highly reccommend.

RvB fan or not, you can get a good image of the outside from these two shots:





The first image is that of the red base. The bases are identical in layout, so I won't post the blue base. Anyways, there are three floors inside the base, the second and third each have a "patio" of sorts, although the third floor roof is only accesible via jetpack. The second floor patio has two entrances back into the base, and can be accessible to those skilled with sprint directly off the bridge. There is also a fourth floor, or "roof" area, which is the platform blocked by two energy shields. Most of the roof is a soft kill zone, but the area inside that particular platform is fair game for whoever wants.

Speaking of the bridge, the S-shaped mass in the center of the map is an interesting piece, as it looks much simpler than it actually is. In reality, it is rotationally symmetrical with a little "outpost" on each side. The tricky part is getting onto the bridge. Inside each outpost, oasis, or whatever other o-word you want to call them, is a receiver for a teleporter. The sender is inside the second floor of each base near the patio. This large displacement ends up with some odd changes, as a person running from combat can hide behind the nearby wall, and lob grenades at their hunter as he runs up onto the bridge.

Or you can just use a jetpack. That works too.

But no map is directed solely as outdoor gameplay. There is also an outdoor element. as a visual guide, here's what it looks like, in order of height from top to bottom:







The top floor is mainly useless as it is essentially a single cramped room, and because of the patio outside, you can't really see much with the sniper rifle lying near the ramp. Speaking of which, there's a sniper rifle lying near the ramp up to the floor. I would suggest sniping off the second floor patio with someone backing your rear, such as this fine shot:



The second floor is essentially a way to get from floor one to the second floor patio, a good defendable position. There's a shotgun near the glowing ball of awesomeness, and ramps galore.

The first floor is more interesting. First of all is this little pretty, which I have dubbed the Minigun-O-Death.



The reason I dubbed it that is not because it is overpowered. The reason is because it was overpowered before. Placed near the center of the room, the turret basically denies access from the front doors. I wanted the gun to be there, but I couldn't figure out how to tone down its power. Then I found the shield door. I put it in front of the gun, and now it isn't overpowered. It does a very minute amount of damage to the gunner as it breaks down the shield, and takes just enough time to break as is needed to time it well. You can also rip the turret off the stand, and that's perfectly legitimate too.

And with that, I sign off on this chapter. Enjoy the map, folks!