Epsilon v1.6 DOWNLOAD EPSILON V1.6 SEE VIDEO WALKTHROUGH OF EPSILON Note: Not a professional video, just a simple fly-through of the map. Introduction A project I began in Halo: Reach, Epsilon is finally complete. Originally inspired by Zealot and Element, this map has evolved much from where it began on Reach - hardly a trace of either inspiration can be seen on the final version. A symmetrical layout promoting highly competitive play, Epsilon forces teams to control either neutral end of the map in both Slayer and Flag due to their powerful height advantages and weapon spawns. Epsilon features lines of sight that enable teams to partake in both long range and close range battles, making team shot and communication necessary for truly epic results: a strong point in the map's competitive focus. The game play is fast and exciting, and teams are constantly striving for control of either (or both) neutral sides of the map. Weapons Sniper - x1 - 2 extra clips - 120 sec - Top Gold Rocket Launcher - x1 - 1 extra clip - 180 sec - Top Green DMR - x1 - 2 extra clips - 30 sec - Bottom Green Covenant Carbine - x2 - Bottom of Red + Blue "Spiral" Pistol - x2 - Top of Red + Blue "Spiral" Screenshots Overviews. Top Gold, snipe spawn. Top Green, rocket spawn. Blue base, shows basement that leads up to spiral. Blue flag, shows the entrance to blue spawn / blue "windows" (hallway on right). Team spawns. Path from spawns to green. Jump up from bottom spiral to gold/red bridge. Thoughts on Gameplay When playing Epsilon, there are only two major spawn areas. The most common spawn is the bottom of the spirals / "basement". The other spawn area is on the initial spawns, or in that vicinity. The quick jump from bottom spiral to gold bridge allows players who spawn bottom to get ahead and make a quick push for gold control (and shame on the opposing team if they don't have it already). From my experience on the map, the best set up on Flag is to have a good sniper on Top Gold (sniping, obviously), someone with covering fire on Top Green (nabbing those rockets wouldn't hurt either), another player freely traversing the map, and one player set out to run the flag. If the sniper is good enough, they can prevent pushes from the spiral (especially if the opposing players are unaware of the tactical jump) and pushes from the initial spawn area. If the players spawning bottom spiral decide to avoid the sniper and instead push through the bottom of the map, the free roaming player, the flag runner, and the player holding Top Green can communicate this and work out some sort of team shot. After this setup is attained, running the flag Top Gold is the safest and most efficient route to capture. Although the quickest flag route to capture would be to take it straight through the bottom of the map, because the major spawn system is located in the basement, that flag run is almost completely obsolete. Win or lose, Epsilon features game play that is fast pace and exciting, making for a fun yet competitive map.
Definitely looks interesting, Although judging by the screenies i can say i think id get lost. Lol all the walls kinda look the same. Or the shots you took were just in similar areas. Regardless ill DL and post some feedback shortly. EDIT: OK so after a couple customs with my friends Ive noticed 3 things. First that the map it self plays decent the only issue Ive had so far is center. There isn't a whole lot of cover. . . Those six pillars you look at(much like i did) and go hey those should make decent cover. Well. . . They didn't really provide much at all. My most frequent deaths were trying to grab sniper and hopping into center structure, which in most cases ended with me trying to run away either jumping down from center structure and dieing or trying to exit via side hallways from sniper only to be picked off.(Who knows maybe im just that shitty) Second thing I noticed was you used a Hard Kill Barrier to set a limit on high high a player could go be it accidental or on purpose. Although this was useful in Halo3 and Reach for when we decided we wanted to see the sky box, Now there is one more way you can do it. That would be by use of trait zones. This way you can have an invisible ceiling and your sky box with out being worried if players have gotten outside your map. Third I noticed aside from the center where it was very Aesthetically pleasing(minus the lack of cover), The rest of the map was kind of. . . to be blunt it was, bland. The walls were that just walls, There was no real Aesthetics to them so If not for the color's on the blocks i could see it being difficult to determine where your team is for call outs. Asie from those three points i really enjoyed this map and hopefully i can get more games on it in the future.
What, is this... is this feedback on game play I'm seeing right now?! I didn't know people still tested maps! All joking aside, I appreciate the feedback very much. I'm going to respond to your three individual points, and please don't take it as a "I'm right, you're wrong," sort of thing. Some of the things you noticed were actually intentional, and I'm basically just going to explain why. 1) Gold + Red/Blue Flag were intended to be that open for several reasons. First and foremost, the flags, in reality, aren't very far apart. If that area had any more cover, a flag run through Top Gold would be completely overpowered - a team wouldn't even need map control to capture a flag like that, and I'm a huge advocate of players earning what they worked for, not what they have handed to them via map geometry and cover. The purpose of the pillars is just that: to be pillars. They are intentionally not walls. They aren't supposed to create rooms, but rather just be simple LoS blockers - making team shot from higher points (such as Top Green) to be difficult, while not being impossible. Still on this first point, you mentioned that the primary concern for cover was that you kept dying while attempting to flee with sniper. In actuality, that was another one of my goals as a competitive forger. I place weapons and design my maps based on a risk vs reward system: you risk your life to grab the sniper and are possibly rewarded by doing work with it. In order to grab a power weapon, such as the sniper, your team essentially needs to have some sort of control over the opposing team. I tried to make it so players had to work towards a common goal rather than one player simply sneaking up to gold and going somewhere "safe" with the sniper (especially when the best angles are actually on Top Gold). In the very first version of Epsilon, I actually had the sniper spawn on the edge of the Catwalk Lip until my friend pointed out that a sneaky player could merely go Top Mid, jump, grab it, fall, and run away to a more closed portion of the map - hence why it spawns in the very back where no player can just "sneak" their way into grabbing a power weapon. Honestly, grabbing sniper isn't supposed to be safe, or easy. Not on a map where it's a neutral power weapon, anyway. 2) I believe you are referring to the hard kill barrier here behind the tree? If so, that was on purpose as well. Basically, the player is allowed onto part of that structure for height advantage purposes. In the original version of the map, the tree stump in the middle was actually flipped upright and was also a tree, so this was a tactical ledge that allowed players to have both height advantage and some amount of cover/camouflage. The ledge still exists because height advantage is still useful, and frankly, the piece fits the best. I'm aware of the trait zone abilities, and I actually have one large trait zone covering the entirety of the map with the exception of green. Reason being that if rockets were to spawn whilst a player were on said ledge, they have the option of jumping to rockets instead of trying to jump and being thrown to the ground immediately by a trait zone set to 200% gravity. Personally I think it's fairly obvious that the map ends there, and anyone attempting to go there is just trying to break it in the first place (curiosity killed the cat?). 3) Yeah... the walls... That's pretty much your only point that I didn't do on purpose. My budget's pretty maxed out, though. Ramps are gone, building blocks: gone. Hell, decorative and platforms are probably sucked dry as well. (Budget is at 9080). I tried, though - a couple of the features around the map are there for primarily orientation purposes. The windows at the spawn, green having "natural" structures. I colored every piece in hopes that if players required extra orientation help, they could at least turn to that. Colors are also for call-out purposes, of course. Again, hope I didn't shove my competitive ideals down your throat too hard. I do appreciate the feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed it somewhat (OR SO YOU SAY :U). Edit: **** that was really long sorry for the novel you totally don't have to read it, I just feel better justifying my maps
Hey man tis cool Most of the Cover **** i think was just my shitty play LOL. As for the barrior i tottaly understand, I mean I didn't mean for it to seem like i thought it was a bad idea or anything. And i apologize for not noticing the budget it should have been the first thing i looked at. As for feedback, well i noticed a lack of feeback lately and i thought id do my best><;. im no pro but if nothing else i might point out something.
Very impressive layout and it's nice to see someone forging some more competetive maps. Very balanced with nice Los blockers and good height variation. Good games on this!