Since you are accessing a Halo-orientated website, I can say with almost complete confidence that you know about the recently released Champions Bundle that happens to include two new maps and a new game-type. There are some quite exciting prospects because of this new release, so today, I will be exploring these prospects. For the very small/non-existent group of you that have just learned of this new Halo 4 downloadable content check out this video that covers just about everything. Pitfall When Pitfall was announced, I was pretty excited since it was my favourite map in Halo 3, but it obviously didn't get my forging juices flowing. Surprisingly, it turns out Pitfall has a decent little pallet going for it that has unique pieces not found on the four canvases. These pieces include a selection of crates, a couple of very clean walls and also the corner pieces found on the 'Training' area of the map. Pitfall also has a neat little trick up its sleeve. You know that huge outside area with the falling meteors? Well, you can actually break out of the map in Forge and even build a map there! It is pretty easy to do. Fly right up against the railings that look out onto the desert and face towards it. Spawn a receiver node and let go of it instantly Spawn a sender node in the map and go through it Quickly spawn another receiver node and delete the first one. (at this point you will be stuck in an elastic barrier) Fly into the ground to kill your self, fly through the sender node again and voiala! Your out of the map! The area is pretty substantial and has cool meteors and stuff. There are a couple of things that you should note before venturing into this area and starting a map. First, do not forge to close to the actual map, otherwise you will be caught by the elastic barrier and be pulled towards Pitfall. Secondly, beware of the ground. It is not solid so you cannot walk on it. Essentially, all maps forged in this area must be floating. Thirdly, the area available is limited. Make sure that the entirety of your map is inside the area to avoid players dying without cause on your map. The meteor field This area and the unique objects, paired with a nifty modded variant (shhh, everyone is doing it these days!) means that we will hopefully see some legitimate maps built on Pitfall soon. We just need you guys to get stuck in! Hey, it might even convince some of you guys to pick up the map pack. Remember, the maps and game-type can be bought separately for just 5.00 USD. Vertigo Vertigo has forging possibilities too. A selection of very clean walls are available and there is a area out of the map that you can build in. It is smaller in comparison to Pitfall's area, but still has potential. The same rules I mentioned earlier apply when escaping the map, except it is just an invisible elastic barrier that you have to cross, instead of a solid wall. A modded variant is also available for Vertigo, allowing a lot more pieces to be used. Ricochet Damn, Ricochet is fun. All of the throwing, intercepting and those bloody announcements from Jeff Steitzer are incredibly satisfying. Pitfall seems to be the best map for it and it almost feels purpose built for the game-type with the base design. But, I know the forge community can do better with what is on offer because the customisation with Ricochet is pretty awesome. Certain Affinity have provided an extensive guide to the game type labels present along with a video to explain the basics. The particularly interesting portion of the customisation are the "Forgeball" settings. Spoiler ForgeBall Setup Forge Ball adds new labels in Forge to allow you to make any object a Ball, Goal, or Zone. In order to get access to these labels, you will need to enter Forge with the Multi-Team Ricochet game mode selected. NOTE: Only Forge Balls can score in Forge Goals or Forge Zones. If you have a separate “normal” Ricochet mode set up on your map, it will appear in Multi-Team Ricochet (e.g. ForgeBall) games, but your ordinary Ricochet ball cannot score in Forge Goals or Zones, and your ForgeBall cannot score in Ricochet Endzones or Hoops. Forge Ball (rico_forgeball) Gametype Label: rico_forgeball – Serves as the “ball” and can be scored in ForgeGoals or ForgeZones Team Which team the ball belongs to. This doesn’t restrict who can use it, but it restricts who gains points for scoring with this object. Spawn sequence This is the time in seconds after a ball has scored before it can score again. For instance, if you drive into a goal with a Mongoose labeled as the ForgeBall, and its Spawn Sequence set to 3, you will score immediately. Then, 3 seconds later, you will score again (if you have remained in the goal). 3s later, you will score again, etc. Set this to 0 if you want to only score again if you exit the goal and then re-enter it. User data The User Data is the number of points to award to the Ball’s team upon scoring with this ball. The default, 0, means that no score will be awarded. Forge Goal (rico_forgegoal) Gametype Label: rico_forgegoal – Serves as the “goal” and awards points when a ForgeBall enters its boundary Team Which team the Goal belongs to. This doesn’t restrict who can score in it, but it determines who gains points for scores in this Goal. Example: If you put a ForgeBall in a goal set to team Defender, but you’re team Attacker, you will not gain points from the goal, but the Defenders will. Spawn Sequence This should be set to any number from 0 to 7. This number is called a ‘bitmask’, and that means that numbers are added together to allow multiple things to happen at once when someone scores. 0 will do nothing. 1 will delete the ball after it scores in this goal. 2 will delete this goal after a ball scores in it. 4 will play the scoring explosion effect when a ball scores in this goal. You can combine these numbers to get combination effects. For instance, setting Spawn Sequence to 6 is the same as setting it 4 and also 2, meaning that the goal would be deleted when a player scores, and an explosion would also play. Setting it to 7 would do all three things – delete the ball, delete the goal, play an explosion. Setting it to just 4 would just play the explosion. User data The User Data contains the number of points to award to the Goal’s team upon scoring in this Goal. The default, 0, means that no score will be awarded. Forge Zone (rico_forgezone) Forge Zones are special types of Goal that enable and disable in according to Spawn Sequence and disappear after scoring in them. Gametype Label: rico_forgezone – When a Forgeball enters the goal, points are awarded and the next ForgeZone in the sequence is activated Team Which team the Zone belongs to. This determines who can score in the zone, and also whether the nav marker is visible to a team. However, all zones themselves are visible. Any ball can score in Neutral zones. Balls of the right team can score in team zones, and so can neutral balls. Spawn Sequence The order in which this Forge Zone will appear with the other Forge Zones for this team, starting at 1. Once you score in the 1 zone, the 2 zone will appear and the 1 zone will hide. When you score in that, the 3 zone will appear and the 2 zone will hide, etc. Once you get to the end of the set of zones, they will loop around and 1 will show again. User data The User Data contains the number of points to award to the Zone’s team upon scoring in this Zone. The default, 0, means that no score will be awarded. Note that the points are awarded to the team of the zone. So, in a nutshell, any item found in forge can serve as a ball or goal. Building blocks, weapons, grenades, armour abilities, teleporters and more are included! Nutduster has taken advantage of the Forgeball mechanics with Castle Seige using the rico_forgezone label to create a mini-game where you can destroy the wall of a castle. Fusion coils are set as balls and the building blocks of the castle wall are set as forge zones, causing the blocks to delete once the fusion coil hits them! You can even breach the castle and steal their jewels for more points! It sounds incredible and I cannot wait to play it. Be sure to check out the Ricochet Discussion Thread too. It is definitely the place to ask any questions regarding the game type, with a wealth of information already discussed. Recap of links Modded Pitfall download link Modded Vertigo download link Ricochet game-type labels guide Ricochet basics video Castle Seige Ricochet Discussion Thread Happy forging!
Out of curiosity, how big are the open spaces on pitfall/vertigo? Are we talking enough space for a 1v1 map or a full blown 4v4? And is there enough piece variety on each map to make something that looks decent?
The space looked pretty large in Pokephile's video. I would think you could manage a 4v4 but no larger. Unfortunately, I don't even have the maps
Here's another example map from Vertigo. I believe it's modded to allow more pieces though. http://www.forgehub.com/threads/vertigo-hth-honesty.147387/
The map pack? No, it can be bought as part of the champions bundle for 800 Microsoft points or cheaper on its own.