Ships

Ships is a map consistent of two relatively large gun-platforms suspended over water. The game is invasion, and each team spawns on their respective "ship"

The blue team (Elites, offense) are on the same ship as the territories to be invaded. (located on the side vulnerable to attack) The red team (Spartans, defense) defend the territories from their ship. Then, in phase three, they defend their own ship from blue teams bomb assault.

The map also supports other gametypes and regular invasion, but the custom gametype "Invasion: Ships" is highly recommended.




Red ship (top) and blue ship (bottom).

As mentioned, the map is intentioned for the special gametype "Invasion: Ships" for optimally balanced gameplay.

The first phase is slightly tilted in the elites favor, with hiding-spots and a general lack of overly lethal weaponry; although all players spawn with three grenades so watch out for them explosions! Elites have Evade or Sprint. Spartans have Sprint. There is two territories. One on deck and one below. Both take 30 seconds and the elites have 4 minutes to complete this task.
Elite tip: Make short process of the batteries and other explosives near your position, or they will be used against you.
Spartan tip: Curb your grenade throws on the mast and ship-wall to reach those nasty hiding-spots; and use the explosive batteries to your advantage.

In the second phase, new weapons and armor abilities are awarded. Elites get Evade, Sprint and Hologram. Spartans have Evade, Sprint and ArmorLock. The usual weapon setup is still Sword + Spiker (or pistol/repeater), as has been in phase one. Two grenades per spawn. A DMR spawns in each ships tower which acts like a marksmans nest and is available trough a teleport at the bridge.
Two portable turrets also spawn on each ship.
The territories are now narrower and more vulnerable to attack. It also takes 1 full minute to bleed them out, but the elites have 5 minutes to do so and there are three of them. One on deck, one on the bow (front) and one at the aft (back).
Elite tip: Detach turret and you can bleed the timer and shoot at the same time.
Spartan tip: Take out the enemy cannons (shade turrets) if you haven´t already, they are slow to load and you will have the upper hand with them gone.

The third phase is an Assault phase, (elites bomb the enemy ship). The Man-cannons appear, and Jetpack is available for both teams. (+Hologram/ArmorLock) This means both ships are accessible for both teams, though they still spawn on their respective ship. This final phase is tilted slightly in the spartans favor, in terms of difficulty.
A rocket launcher appears in each teams "captains quarter" (or: room below bridge), and a needle rifle on each ships bow, most likely to be picked up by enemies arriving via Man-canon. Both teams also get a Banshee, which spawns on the side oposite battle-side. Take use of this as quickly as possible. The Spartans also get a grenade launcher, which is optimal for "sinking" the enemy banshee. However, this weapon spawns only once, and on a trap door which can be broken from underneath the spartan ship (Via banshee or kamikaze-elite).
The elites have 5 minutes to deliver the bomb to the back of the spartan ship. That means a trip over both decks and a man-cannon. With 30 seconds bomb return time and 45 seconds sudden death.
Tip: Water is deadly, so don´t fall off. This also counts for vehicles.

All phases support multiple fire-team spawning and optional spawn zones, and fire teams are switched around, so they don´t spawn in the same general area each phase.






ENJOY!!!!!!!!

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Edited by merge:

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I couldn´t post a video in last post because of a weird bug. Also your guidelines clearly states "pictures OR video", so here goes:

But here is a link to a video

I apologize in advance for the poor quality. No sound. Cammed.
Also you should know it is built for more players than featured in this video.

Thanks!

 

Thank you so much! Its great to see people appreciate the map! Cant ask for more. And trust you me, making the ships look like they do was a real challenge. It has to be a compromise between exterior aesthetic appearance, interior design, functional gameplay experience and an acceptable level weight (or budget).

On the matter of gangplanks, yes, I partially agree with you, and it was in fact in the plan to begin with, but I changed it after testing that with other players. You see, the whole point of this map is to break up the usual pace of gameplay, thus forcing the player to think in different ways than before, as well as providing a break from the mainstream bundle.
It wouldn´t have been particularly groundbreaking to make another "Boneyard" or "Spire". I personally think we need more invasion maps than those, and that they require their own type of strategy.

Still, if you want overall access in the second phase, I recommend enabling jetpacks in spartan and/or elite loadouts. Think of them as "Grappling Hooks".

Yeah, in the beginning I was thinking about having them float on the surface of the water like real ships. But it appears to me that as a design element, this has been done before. A lot. And as mentioned I wanted to make something new.
Also I don´t like how the water is animated towards foreign objects. (its not) And its very hard to create the illusion that something is floating, rather than being a fixed object.

Then I had to take the gameplay into consideration. I really needed to elevate the map to give jetpackers and banshees some dynamic vertical room around the platforms, and a better chance to pull themselves back on (where they to fall off). Or else perishing in the abyss would be far too big a hazard.

I kind of like the ships where they are. It seems kind of romantic, a battle in mid-air. Reminiscent of fantasy- and science fiction pirates alike.

You honestly don´t like space-pirates?

Thank you and Im glad you like it!

I wish I had more tools to use in forge. For example I could use a "move" tool, to select groups of objects to move at the same time.

Also It would have been extremely cool to have a group of objects move on a set course. Like falcons in campaign. Imagine this level moving around Forge-World in a massive mobile carnage! Now that I want to see.