Opal

Ladies (Ha, who am I kidding, none of you are girls!) and gentlemen, welcome to Opal. This map will blow you away. It will give you an asthma attack. It will give your girlfriend an asthma attack. It will pay for your car insurance. It will save you from a burning building. It will groom your dogs, AND groom your minute amount of facial hair. Be prepared....

Weapons List:

Spoiler

1 Custom Powerup / 90 seconds
1 Active Camo / 180 seconds
1 Sniper Rifle / 150 seconds
1 Grenade Launcher / 120 seconds
1 Spiker / 150 seconds

Inspirations for this came from everywhere; from other games, from other maps, from paintings, from philosophical concepts, and even from aspects of the human brain itself. Most of its inspirations were filtered out during the forging process, like large, unwieldy stones in a mixture of fine sand. Basically, most of the ideas that originated the map would not work in the realm of Halo, and so they were removed. An early version of the map was composed mostly of stepping stones, to make falling hazards the primary concern of the map. I wanted a map that acted as another player, so that every time you played someone, in reality, you were facing two opponents, two challenges. That can still be said about the map today, but luckily, a medium was found between the traditional and the psychotic.

To help add to this “playing against the map” environment, I made each power weapon location a challenge in itself. The Sniper sits atop a precarious perch, exposed to nearly everything, and surrounded by a watery grave if you don’t pay close enough attention. Considering the size and open nature of Opal, the Sniper is very coveted, but not often as sought-after as other weapons due to its location. The Grenade Launcher sits at its most useless location, directly in the center of the map, with nothing but open air around it. The Active Camo rests in a room that is normally used for cornering in enemies, where each exit can be watched from a single location. The Custom OS is placed in an isolated cubby, which can be easily naded from many different key points on the map. Essentially, each weapon offers a different challenge, because by attempting to obtain a weapon, you’re giving yourself a disadvantage for a brief moment that your enemy can take advantage of. And more often than not, a brief moment is all it takes.

But weapons aren’t the only focus of the design. Another aspect that I wanted to emphasize was the split-up in top control. There are two halves to this map, with each half offering different opportunities that the other side may not. Blue Receiver platform is more beneficial for DMR-focused players, offering safety from grenades and ample amounts of cover. The Red Receiver platform and the Sniper platform compose the other half of the height advantage, and are much more exposed. However, this side offers the Sniper, as well as a teleporter that leads directly to Top Blue Receiver. The interactions of the two platforms force movement depending on the weapon spawns, and depending on the type of players. The overall goal was to make a map that felt different each time you played it, which can be hard to find nowadays in 1v1 maps.






















Special Thanks

Shad0w Viper
You helped get my mind out of the clouds, and into halo map design. The map never would have reached its current state without your honest advice.

MetaWaddleDee
The amount of testing and feedback, and general time spent helping with the map, is unparalleled by anyone else. Thanks man, you DA BOMB.

Ace
Look at this guy. How can't you love this guy? Without this guy, I wouldn't have had the drive to really make Opal shine. To be part of something greater is the best motivation there is, and my coalition with Ace, along with his advice, was certainly something greater.

Erupt
Despite having not beaten me on this map, I hope you enjoyed the countless amounts of tests you made me do on this map. The long nights in which you would just chant "Go again" repeatedly after each game were fun indeed.

Longshot
I ask for fancy threads, you give me threads that look as if they were formed by the hands of some sort of demi-god. I ask for them to be finished whenever you feel like it, you finish them almost as quickly as I asked for them. And you've got a big ***** to boot. Thanks man, for everything. Especially the super awesome threads.

Opal
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I'm glad to see that you're starting to be more inclined towards 1v1 and 2v2 maps. They're my personal preference, not only because of how much detail you can put into them, but because of how experimental you can be as well. 1v1s especially. Thank you for the glowing compliments, it's always great to have supporters!

Let me know how those games go, whenever you play them. I'd love to hear what your thoughts were on this map in specific, since it's probably the most experimental of the entirety of the map pack.

 

Nothing's perfect, and Opal certainly isn't. I could point out plenty of issues I'd like to fix one day on this map, but the changes couldn't really be made within the confines of forge, so in the end, I'm happy with the result. Thanks for praise, though.

Since you saw it, I'm sure the changes have been nothing but improvements. Should you ever find the time to play some casual 1v1s, I'll be ready. Will you?

Yeah, you beat me on here once. Once on Opal, once on Lux, of the 50+ 1v1s I bet we've played.

In all honesty, thanks man. You were a big help in the production of this map.

I'm pretty sure I still have a clip saved from that time that we were playing this map, and I got a cross-map 1-hit kill GL shot while you had camo. The title was "Bop goes the Organite," if I'm not mistaken.

I'm sincerely glad that you enjoyed the map, despite skill differences. And, FHF + Feature? Doubt it'll happen, but I'm flattered

That night.... gah. I think the more tired you are, the more clear your mind is, because you never got mad at anything, which meant that your aim and decision making was spot-on. And yes, you are a camo/no-scope *****.

Thanks a ton, though. You were a big help throughout, and certainly a worthy opponent.

Meta is definitely the #1 tester of earlier versions of this map, but I forgot that nibbles also had quite a few tests on the later AND earlier versions, bringing him close, if not up to, Meta's game count. Yours would be 3rd, probably, but doesn't quite parallel.

Yeah, usually when there's a super fancy thread, most comments are about the thread, not the map. I guess I should be appreciative that I'm getting feedback and praise, but I agree, Longshot certainly put a lot of work into this. SPREAD THE LOVE!

If I could, there are certain areas that I would've changed to add railings, or just larger platforms. In a 1v1 it isn't nearly as essential, but it would still be nice. I myself can fall in quite a bit if I'm not paying attention.

As for the pathways thing, the area that has the least amount of entrances is Top Snipe, which has the main walkway and a jump-up. The jump is difficult, but the walkway is far more advantageous than sitting on top of the sniper plat, so that usually acts as a counter to anyone sitting up there. Although, sniper plat is so open that people usually move out of there anyways.

The custom powerup gives you 200% damage resistance for 30 seconds. It's identical to the MLG CP settings. Imagine an over-shield that doesn't have invulnerability, basically.

It takes most people time to warm up to it, simply because it's a tad overwhelming at first. I know several people that dislike it for aspect almost specifically.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, though. Hopefully the learning curve makes it re-playable, because that's the intent I design my maps with; the ability to be replayed, because new things are uncovered about the layout with each new game.

I'm not sure how full my/your friends list is, but I'd be happy to play against you on any of the Iridescence maps sometime.

What Rho said here:

My map causes beard growth. Play it to become a real man.

Lux I'd agree is the prettiest, but in terms of aesthetic in general, Opal has my favorite atmosphere. It depends on how you look at it, really. And although I used similar pieces as the Divide used, I'd disagree in saying that the aesthetic is the same. The way the structures are built, and the way textures mesh, is much better here than on the Divide, by far.



I'm honestly surprised that you never found the sniper. It's sitting on the very edge of that Hang em High-esque platform. I thought that was the most obvious spawn of them all However, that being said, I'm glad that that was the only issue you came across. Certainly reassures the hours of testing that this map endured.