Conquest on Crackle Hey guys, nok here. It's about time i finally posted this map. Crackle is a 5 territories map made of only Walls and Columns. In fact it uses every Wall and Column in the inventory. No other structural items are used other than gameplay items and Energy Doors. The map is built into the top and side invisi-barriers of the skybubble. The idea was to build a very open-looking map, while making it play as if you were in a cave. You cannot fall off the map unless you try really hard to fall off. You can not get on top of the map. Weapon loadout (per side): 4 each SMGs and Spikers on Weapon Holders 2 each Plasma Rifle and Magnum 1 each Sniper and Beam on Weapon Holders 1 Brute Shot 1 each Plasma and Spike grenade The map was first used by the Red vs. Blue guys as an exclusive for their playdate to aid in Bungie's Haiti relief efforts. Although the inaugural game was successful, the popularity of the event prevented them from playing custom games. The map had the fortune of being chosen for a Bungie Favorites feature just a few days after completion. Conquest on Crackle
Holy BEEP!!! this is real interesting, but this looks real sick. anyway this must of taken a while just to even think of doing a map like this. merging is just perfect and i hope this would have some real fun gameplay, if your hosting any matches be sure to invite me. I have to give ya a Hunting Dog for this map.
I'm really sad now, because I won't be able to try this out for at least a month, but it looks incredible. This map takes uniqueness and creativity to a whole new level. So do the flexi-barriers make it difficult to fall off or something? Can you maybe elaborate on that a bit? Also, if you do fall off, do you fall into the death barrier, or down to the dunes below? Those overview shots look incredible. This must have taken so much effort.
Your talent for unique structures astounds me. I've bounced around on this map quite a few times, but as of yet haven't been able to get a group of people together to actually play a game on it. This needs to be rectified.
The map is very interesting and great for a conquest game... The design is very dynamic and creative. I dont see myself doing this. I like the idea and you definitely took some time on this
I remember playing this a month or so ago and was initially questioning its playablity with such a unique design. But it really did still play well and differently than other conquest maps. And not to mention, the map is beautiful. Really nice work Nok.
The map is a cousin to my latest Hallway map HaloGAF Hallway Falling off floating Hallway maps is part of the game, but plain annoying on other maps (excluding maps with death pits - i love those) so i carefully measured the side invisi-barrier by floating spawn points against them. Once i realized the Skybubble was not round, and more importantly the sides were 90°, i floated blocks and measured the actual physical barriers, then aligned the floor to match. In normal game play you don't notice them in any way, but when you jump against them they make your jump feel like slow motion. If you intentionally push against them for a few seconds you can fall very slowly. It takes about 10 seconds to hit the death volume. The map is built completely within the standard area of the Skybubble because it was constructed with the intention of getting it into Matchmaking. It was based on a standard OLN canvas, uses (all of) the normal budget, and is setup for all other variants. The only ghost merging used was for the uptight Columns, the rest of the construction used standard methods. The floor is pixel-perfect using the 'snap-to' method of aligning Columns.
Oh awesome, Nok, I was hoping you'd post it here eventually. AZN and I had some pretty fun games on this map while it was on the Faves. We both agreed that the weapons were a bit scrunched up towards the spawn areas, but it didn't seem to effect things much because you had plenty of weapons that got dropped throughout the map during the game anyway. I was surprised that 4 snipers worked so well with gameplay. I guess that's because of your spiffy LOS blockers. Overall, it was a fresh yet classic Conquest experience. I'm glad you got it Fave'd so quickly along with v4. I hope to see more Conquest maps from you sometime! Great map, much fun. Oh, and impressive use of the barriers.
You know how Walls on Sandbox tend to skew after returning from a save. You can use this to your advantage by using a pre-skewed item as a template. All similar items placed using this template will skew in exactly the same way after returning from a save. This allows for extremely accurate placement. You can also use this template for Ghost-Merge items. Columns are different. They tend to skew from crooked to straight after a save. All you have to do is get them as close as possible to where you want them, and the game will set them into to the correct position. They must, however, be at a perfect 0°, 90°,180°, or 270° (either standing, on their side, or on their edge) to the map for this to work. For this map, and all other floating maps i have made, i make a foundation out of naturally floating Columns aligned and measured using Spawn Area Markers. I then place the floor pieces on top of this foundation and butt them up against each other. As long as the first item is perfectly placed, all adjacent items can also be perfectly placed.
I have no idea what to make of the map, but it's certainly one of the most unique takes on a concept I've seen. I'd be incredibly interested to see how this would play. -=Moxus=-
Firstly, I adore how unique this map looks and feels. Seriously, it was mind blowing. If you made a big-ass map with these kind of aesthetics, I think everyone on Forgehub would explode. Gameplay-wise, I found the snipers had a bit too much domination because of corner to corner sniping. In our game, we even resorted to corner-camping, which broke the conquest flow somewhat. Also, when we were unlucky enough to be assaulted on our spawns, it was literally IMPOSSIBLE to survive, especially with the weapons spawning below (where the enemy was). If you were to do a v2, a spawn room would be much appreciated. Sadly, I felt like this map was style over function. It looked breathtaking, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary in terms of gameplay. Conquest maps like "The Hollows" seem to balance the aesthetics and gameplay very well. I think Crackle just tipped into the aesthetic part of the equation, and the gameplay wasn't all I expected.
We will be looking at ways to better balance the weapon load out should this map be considered for Matchmaking. If that happens i plan to look into moving the Weapon Holders closer to the spawn, and possibly using a Shield Door in a very creative way to help with the spawn trapping problem. As far as the aesthetics goes, you have to realize that the main purpose of this map is to draw attention to the Conquest in Matchmaking cause. This map needed to turn heads first, and play well second. Should this map be included in a future MM playlist you can rest assured that the MM version will indeed play well.
I played this a few times with Dream 76 on his Forgebattle Fridays event, and I must say, I really love the concept. I didn't get into any spawn issues. Forging seems flawless, but I just don't like the simplicity of the actual layout of the map. I understand not much could be done, but a starting height difference and an S-path looks like the mp was only about the aesthetic element. A v2 with a more unique layout would definitely kick ass.
I'm not about to get into a long-winded explanation of the architectural concepts behind the map, but the simplicity of the layout, how it interacts with the location, and the interweaving of form and function, is the map. Saying it needs "a more unique layout" is like stating "your geodesic dome looks good and all, but try making it again without all the triangles". I have no problem making changes to weapons, cover and territory areas but the structure is not going to change. I'd rather blow it up than compromise my artistic and personal vision. How'd you like that answer? Intense, eh? Actually, i have a pretty heavy Halo related workload right now (building a complete website from the ground up). I'm happy with the map as it is right now (with weapon changes) but if i do find the time to work on a Conquest map it will be on a map other than Sandbox.
I remeber one of my friends was showing me this, but I wasn't aware that it was yours! It's definetely a very unique map, Nokyard. If we're ever both online and feelin' like playing some Conquest, send me an invite for sure.
sure will also, i sent your 'random block' map up the pipe - i don't know if it was approved (no one tells me anything), but you might see 2 of your maps in MM next month.
This map is the ****. I'm going to download it now. Although I don't expect it to have the most wonderful play, I'm downloading this as an abstract aesthetic art. And something that I've noticed is that, if you play on a map and like what you see, it makes the experience better. Magnificent job. Edit: HOLY ****!!! NEARLY 42,000 dl's! DID THIS GET BUNGIE FAVORITED?!?!