Foreward: I finished constructing this map while still being a member of the FHA Beta. Shortly before I was going to originally release it, my LIVE ran out and I stopped playing xbox for about two months. After I finally renewed my gold, I started getting bored of playing Halo. Now, I'm bored of Cod 6. So, I came back and did a couple tweaks and now I'm finally sharing my last project on Halo 3 with you. I hope you enjoy! PONTIFEX BY: stickmanmeyhem Pontifex is a symmetrical map intended for Capture the Flag and Team Slayer. It can also be played with King of the Hill, Territories, and Oddball. Now, let's talk about specifics... The Centre Structure: The Centre Structure is a work of art. It ties the map together with style. Housed inside this marvel is an energy sword and a power drain. There is one path from each base leading to it. There is also one path leading from it to the mauler path. The Mauler Path: The mauler path is a nice quick way to get behind your enemies base. There are three levels to this corridor. The first level houses an oversheild. The second level houses the mauler. It also has the three ways up to the third floor. The Plazas: The Plazas are located on the opposite side of the map from the Mauler Path. Each plaza has a sniper structure and a Bubble Sheild wall. The Pods: The Pods are really just a must needed filler. They provide some cover in the open area between the base and the entrance to the mauler path. They each house dual SMGs and a pair of plasma grenades. Jump in these babies if you want a nice treat, but when you're up top the only cover you've got is for your legs. The Arch: The arch is an arched wall that divides the two plazas. There is a hole in this wall at the very back. You can find rockets inside this hole. The Bases: The bases are very interesting. They provide a very defendable area for CTF, however they provide the enemy with multiple entrances to balance it out. The Weapons: BR x5 Shotgun x2 Sniper Rifle x2 Mauler x1 Spiker x2 SMG x4 Rockets x1 Energy Sword x1 Plasma Grenades x8 Power Drain x1 Bubble Sheild x2 Oversheild x1 The Info: ↓ Dowload Here ↓ Designed and Built By stickmanmeyhem I hope you enjoy! Comments appreciated, but no spam. The Mods and Admins have enough to deal with without you.
Ok I like the basic design of the map. The middle area especially. The sword spawn has a good mood about it. My only critique is that I think you could have neatened this map up slightly. I can't help but think your were brace merging in this map and if thats true you should definately learn to ghost merge because trust me it's much much better than brace merging. Anyway I liked the map.
a very interesting map, but i aint sure on the mauler path, thats if the top is accessible, i hope it isnt because it is kinda campable. Try adding man cannons for more access to the top
Thanks for your input. I did use some of the classic interlocking, but I used a lot of ghostmerging, too. As I mentioned in the foreward, I was attending the FHA beta. If there were forging techniques that I didn't know before that, then I surely knew them after. Thanks for the input. I'll be sure to take it into consideration if I ever come back to make a v2.
Official Review Hub review: Enjoyment: Pontifex aims to be an enjoyable competitive map built for Team Slayer and Multi Flag. Unfortunately, Pontiflex fails in most ways, namely that the map design plays like it was hastily done and barely thought out. It’s really hard to enjoy the map when there’s little well-thought out design whatsoever, and players move around the map more or less randomly, to eventually die from someone else moving around the map randomly. Many places are extremely hard to get to, most particularly the whole top part of the map is impossible to get to unless you're already up there. While it looks like Pontifex had some good design ideas, none of them are particularly well done or complete enough to just be more than a good idea. All in all, it seems as though Pontifex’s design elements started out as an idea that’s quickly abandoned or left to be ‘good enough’, and that definitely hurts a map that otherwise probably would have been significantly better. In a way it's even harder to enjoy a map you know could have much higher potential if more work into perfecting the design had happened. Balance: The map is symmetrical, so the teams were technically even off the start. However, while no routes are particularly unbalanced, many of them felt useless, as there was almost no advantage or disadvantage between going to one route over another. In fact, the three-story building that dominates one side of the map is almost completely useless except for spawns, and the map would have done much better to be more spread out and without the structure at all. In addition, weapons are kind of hard to find, and those power weapons that are on the map aren’t very useful because they run out of ammo after the first clip. Two of the corners of the map are completely unused except for a sniper perch, but as there’s not enough sniper ammo to get more than a maximum of four kills, the whole part ends up practically useless. The flags are also in a cramped corner against a wall and make it extremely hard to get out without being exploded instantly. The tight corners and columns also promote camping the area. Much of the map areas seemed completely random and difficult to get to, for example, the top part of the middle structure is only useful if you’re already up there. Lastly, there were several bad respawns, most notably the starting spawns in Team Slayer, which had Devinish exclaiming “COOL SPAWN BRO!“ when the game started and he got kablooied by grenades. Durability: As far as I could tell, the map was impossible to break out of. There’s really not much I can say here, because there’s not really anywhere to escape to in a full Crypt map. Aesthetics: Pontifex’s aesthetics are more or less standard-issue. Some bases look nicer the others (the middle base), while others, like cover on the sides and pods, aren’t very impressive. Some jumps are unneedingly difficult, most notably the only way up to the third story of the large apartment-like structure from the second is an awkward jump that can take a few tries to get right. This would be far improved by a choice of another object, or some smart merging or interlocking. Pontifex doesn’t have any apparent scheme or theme to its aesthetics, as well. Originality: Pontifex, unfortunately, looks and feels almost the same as any other full Crypt two-base map. While I think it still has some original ideas that somewhat worked out (the pods), and some that barely worked out (the apartment structure), the map still feels like you have no real direction and that you’re just wandering around randomly. I think this map still has potential, but every part of the map needs to be better thought out. I look forward to seeing a fixed up version in the future. Final score: 25/50