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ForgeHub brings you DEADLINE, a recreation of 'Terminal' that was originally released in Halo 2's Maptacular map pack. Deadline's author, LookMumNoScope, did a great job to recreate the original setting of the Liwitoni Train Station located in the city streets of New Mombasa. The map supports up to 16 players and provides numerous vehicles to choose from including the wraith for a truly classic big team battle experience. The attention to detail on this map is incredible and the gameplay experience is both new and nostalgic providing advanced movement options which were never before possible. We've had the exclusive privilege to speak with the author of this map providing you a closer look behind Deadline's construction as well as talking with the author about his educational pursuits in the video game industry. Let's get started, please welcome LookMumNoScope.

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WARHOLIC
How long have you been a fan of Halo and have you forged in any previous halo games?

LookMumNoScope
The first Halo I got was Halo 2 in 2004. I loved it, and bought Halo CE a few days after completing it. I've been a fan ever since.

I started playing around with forge in Halo 3. I made some puzzle maps and obstacle courses, but never anything serious. When Sandbox was released, I made a simple competitive map under a different name, which was absolutely terrible in hindsight. After halo 3, I never really picked up Forging again. Seeing the improvements made to Forge in each new installment has always been very exiting to me. I've played around with Forge a bit in every Halo, and started on some blockouts and maps in H2A. Even though I was always sketching ideas and designs for levels, I've never actually finished something.

WARHOLIC
What attracted you to remake the map 'Terminal' from Halo 2 and were you concerned that its creation would come with extreme difficulty?

LookMumNoScope
I think a lot of people have hoped to see Terminal return after Halo 2, but the map has never gotten an official remake. As I was going through the object list when Forge was just released in Halo 5, the car prop immediately reminded me of Terminal. It looks just like the 'Überchassis' civilian vehicle on the original map. I knew some maps like Guardian or Lockout were being remade by a bunch of people, but I hadn't heard of anyone doing a Terminal remake at the time, so I decided to give it a shot.

I was definitely afraid I wouldn't be able to finish the map before I hit the object limit. Just the offensive base and the parking garage took up about 700 objects, and my lightmap meter was already in the red. By the time the station was finished I had used about about 900 objects, leaving me with just a few to finish the entire outside part of the map for the station courtyard. I still had to add weapons, vehicles and spawns as well.
Some compromises had to be made. I decided to simplify the area a bit by turning it into a muddy construction site. This allowed me to save on objects by making the track appear like it was still being built.
In the end, I made it using up the entire object budget, but just barely.

WARHOLIC
How did you address scaling when translating a map from Halo 2? Did you make any alterations to the original design to incorporate new gameplay opportunities utilizing the advanced movement mechanics in Halo 5?

LookMumNoScope
When building the map, I had Halo 2 running on a second screen to see how tall objects were compared to the player character, and to make sure everything lined up and connected were it should. Most of it came down to what felt right in Halo 5. I tried to make sure that some jump were possible without clamber, like they were in the original, while including some new opportunities for crouch or thrust jumps as well. For example, on of the blast doors on the second level of the offensive base is partially opened, allowing spartans to slide underneath the small gap and surprise enemies below with a ground pound.
Later on I remembered I had a booklet that came with the physical release of the halo 2 Multiplayer Map Pack, which had top-down views of the layout of every map, including Terminal. Compared to the scale I stuck to earlier, I noticed 2mm translated to 24 units in Halo 5. I made the station using those measurements.

WARHOLIC
Have you thought about creating the train using dynamic scripting features available in Halo 5's forge? If so, could you provide any footage material to share with everyone? How has your experience been using the new scripting features available?

LookMumNoScope
When I started on the map, I did intent to include the trains. Unfortunately I needed every remaining object to finish the map and include gameplay related items. I did some experimenting with scripting, and had something resembling a train moving in a straight line.

(There used to be a clip of it here:
http://xboxclips.com/LookMumNoScope/995919cd-7c05-4fd3-9979-9b236c94bf1c but it seems like something is wrong with my captured clips. Nearly all of them are unavailable at the moment.)

The train could ram vehicles and send them flying out of the map, but the force wasn't enough to destroy vehicles or kill players. It would often just drag a spartan across the track, or pass right through a player. Kill volumes can't be scripted to move, so attaching one of those did not work.
Even though scripting is a great addition to Forge, my experience with it has been a bit frustrating. Once the train started moving, there was no way stop it. If I wanted to tweak something I had to leave Forge, Load the map again, apply the scripts again with slightly altered values, and repeat the process. I think getting the train to follow the curve of the track would be incredibly difficult to implement this way. Having the ability to start a new round would be very helpful. I'm definitely no expert on scripting, so I may just be overlooking something.

I realize a lot of people would love to see the trains in there. Having that risk/reward element of traversing the track to go for the Sword or Overshield was a big part of the original map. I will continue to look into this, but I can't make any promises. To get the trains in I would have to strip the map down for parts, and finish the tracks in the construction site as well. Maybe some day!

WARHOLIC
What are your top 5 favorite Halo BTB maps of all time? What can the community expect to see from you in the near future? Do you have plans to create an original project or will you focus on creating another remake?

LookMumNoScope
Some of my favorite BTB maps are: Avalanche, Valhalla, Sandtrap, Headlong, and Standoff, but not necessarily in that order.
I don't plan on doing another remake. Remaking Terminal was a great way to get familiar with the new Forge, but for my next project I would rather work on an original design. In the near future I will continue to update and improve Deadline based on feedback I receive.

WARHOLIC
'Deadline' is successfully recognizable in both scale and atmosphere. Now that you've learned how to use the new forge, I'm glad to hear of your intentions to pursue an original design. Can you let us know more about your plans? Is it another BTB map? Or will you create something with a smaller player count, perhaps to enter in our 'Throwdown' 2v2 contest?

LookMumNoScope
I honestly have no idea yet. I haven't started on anything else. It could be a small arena map or another big team map. Anything's possible.

WARHOLIC
Can you tell us more about yourself? Whats your nationality and what are you studying?

LookMumNoScope
I'm 23 years old. I'm from The Netherlands, and I study International Game Architecture and Design. I'm interested in general design and level design, and I'm trying to specialize a bit more in the latter. I'm hoping to start my internship after the summer, and to graduate next year.

WARHOLIC
That sounds like an incredible educational pursuit and I'm sure most people here would commend you for it. Hopefully forge continues to provide you with the hands on experience and growth to apply for a career in the game industry. I'm looking forward to your progress and we will be watching your evolution.

Do you think forge is a useful tool to use to advance your knowledge and experience for level design? How does it compare to what is being taught in your school with your curriculum? Any differences or similarities you can share?

LookMumNoScope
I absolutely think Forge is a valid tool for gaining more knowledge and experience in level design, especially for competitive multiplayer maps. Forge is as good a tool as any for learning to apply principles like Flow, item placement, lighting and balancing, and translating a 2D design to a real, playable level. Forge obviously has the huge advantage of coming with an already established sandbox of weapons and vehicles. You can jump in at any time and immediately test what you have been creating. The game is already there.

This iteration of Forge finally feels a lot more like a real development tool with features like multi-select, grouping, and more advanced translation options. Forge is very accessible and easy to get into, but obviously a lot more limited than Unreal Engine for example, which I have been using a lot lately.

Unreal Engine 4 has a great node-based visual scripting system called Blueprints. It's a fantastic tool that allows anyone to create gameplay elements without requiring any programming knowledge. It's great to use in combination with Mantinee, Unreals cinematic tool.

Matinee allows you to animate any group of objects by placing keyframes on a timeline. By having a keyframe selected and dragging an object to a new location in the editor, the values will update automatically, and the object will follow the path to its translations in the next keyframe when the animation plays. Both tools are simple to use, but allow for very complex creations.

I would love to see Forge take some cues from this. It would certainly help making the trains a lot easier

Download Information
Gamertag: LookMumNoScope
Map name: Deadline 1.1B