Fenris So this is one of my very old designs. It was made in the Sandbox era of Halo 3, after seeing Nexn’s Quarantine. I wanted to recreate the natural rock feel he had done in that map. I was a lazy forger at the time so I never bothered building it but suddenly, after looking more closely at the area on Paradiso, (Baron’s Coastal) I was struck how similar that area was to my design and knew I must forge it there. Comparison of H3 sketch-up and Forged map Apart from the scaling, 90% of the design is the same as in H3. I feel it is balanced, the top side has the most cover and is the easiest to hold, but is far away from most of the power weapons. The map allows for a more tactical use of sprint, its openness means that if you miscalculate your usage, you could be left in the open without a way out. The natural geometry of the map allows for lots of jumps, slides and opportunities for added height advantages and sneaky routes. It only uses about 2300 Budget , has no framerate problems fullscreen and should be playable in split. The map is designed to play KOTH. As it is asymmetric, 3 hills would mean that it would just flow in a circle, so I have devised a 5 hill rotation, where the cross map movement to each hill forms a 5-pointed star. EG: During testing I have found a 2 minute hill time to be too slow, as well as the 15 minute time limit having 8 hill changes, so some hills are used more than others. I tested a 1 minute change, so each hill would be used 3 times in 15 mins, but this was a little hectic and scrappy, but this could be due to the unfamiliarity of the people playing. My suggestion is to play this map with each hill changing every 90 seconds. This would allow two full rotations in 15 minutes, and provide the medium between the hill moving too fast and slow. This map has been selected by the Community Cartographers and is in the final phases of being sent to Bungie for approval, Fingers crossed =] Weapons on the map: 1 Rocket launcher (Back Water) 1 Sniper (Mountain Door) 1 Camo ( Tree Corner) 1 Evade (Top Mid) 6 DMRs 2 Needle Rifles 2 Plasma repeaters 1 Needler 2 Frag Grenades 4 Plasma Grenades (On Bridges) 2 Healthpacks (Unders bridges) Overview (Coliseums around the map are only for this picture) Here are some more images: (In these next two pics the tower is outdated, should be a dish instead) Thanks again to people who gave suggestions and playtested.
Wow, its surprising how similar the layout of that area is to your original design. Maybe Bungie stole it? lol anyways... I typically despise the use of rocks in maps, as it tends to make them look rather sloppy and unpolished. Here though, I think you managed to pull it off remarkably well. Kudos on that dude. Overall, i'd say the layout looks pretty solid. I especially like the tunnels around the back of the map. Very well done. PW's seem balanced. Spawns seem in good order, with the exception of a few that are angled towards walls, rather than the obvious paths to there left or right. Never been a fan of AA's on maps, and I always did like the overshield better than the cloak. But those are minor grievances, and personal preferences. This map is awesome, and plan on throwing it up next custom lobby I host.
I disagree with FriedFoodStuffz about the rocks in maps. Often if used right the rocks can enhance the aesthetics of the map. They are a nice way to break up the gray from all of the other forge pieces. One thing that I would change is the color of the map. The pieces you have are selected to have the neutral blue color. I would suggest to give the map a common theme color that can be held up around the whole map. I was thinking of red because it really would stick out from the water and rocks that you have placed. This is a very nice map that looks like it would be fun to play on. I hope that you take my ideas into consideration if you edit your map.
Nice presentation, cleanly forged map, what more can I say? If this gets into matchmaking happy will I be. I am surprised that this isn't setup for CTF Assault or Infection. I do like it however, that you have built a competitive FFA map that's fairly balanced.
I don't understand how you can disagree with what I said considering you said basically the same thing. I never said that no map ever used rocks effectively, just that few really do. Fenris is one of those few. As for the color issue, I did some messing and I would suggest using orange instead of red. It blends more naturally with the maps color pallet, while retaining a nice contrast to all the blue. Red is also a bit dark, so doesn't catch your eye in quite the same way. just my two cents.
I've seen this map twice before and love it. On of the best uses of that part of the map ever the others being Jackal Creek.
I am very impressed with this map! It takes a special forger to be able to create a solid map around the terrain that bungie has supplied us with! I don't know many times I have tried to work around all the level changes and rocks and failed! I love how you have blended the pre-exciting rocks with the artificial ones, it is nearly a seamless blend! I have also played several games on this and can honestly say, I can't find much wrong with this map! I also like how the base is open and looks like it would actually would be in the location! Overall an amazing map bro!
I have plans to play this in just a bit this map looks fantastic it is very asthetic and I love that you gave it a beaver creek feel the only thing asthetically I wish could be made more unique looking is the bridge but with the limited space provided its quite a task and may do more harm than good I like the way you used the inclines and your halo 3 concept actually turned out very reliable I see they line up very well and im happy you got to create a map youve wanted to for a very long time congrats , if i do happen to notice anything during gameplay tonight I will let you know for sure, and if youd like to run a play test with me sometime just send a add im looking to get to know more individuals from the community and this site to create fantastic environments for mayhem with, as for as geography I think u did a great job with it all considering that area is generally hard to really make a realistic effort with a medium sized map such as this one without spending alot of time editing im proud to get to play on this fantastic map and I hope you make your next even more so [br][/br]Edited by merge: I was able to have a amazing play test on this map tonight and it does in fact play very well and the balance is quite good in every aspect geography wise there were a few things that stood out during gameplay im currently in the process of editing a couple things on the map that I will add to my fileshare or invite you and let you save to your harddrive to see what you think, The tunnel and the tower over it was something that stood out geography/asthetic wise I think the tower just doesnt fit very well with the dish under it coming through the rock arch I think the tower could be pushed back a little further giving room for a more natural rock formation to have as a broken rock bridge of sorts, perhaps deleting the rock arch all together and adding more metal/cover to that area in general which seems to lack it for a more intense experience especially during ctf, also red team spawn isnt quite balanced with the distance between the rocket and blue team it seems the red team would always have the advantage of picking up the rockets in the beginning but moving them to the Islands tunnel seems to take away that issue making it a struggle for both teams to gain a power weapon, moving the sniper to the middle bridge would also help the game flow I believe giving each team equal distance to another power weapon, I really love this map and anything I can help improve im willing to do so to create a more enjoyable experience on something very unique, hit me up on live if youd like I should be finished editing sometime today.