So, I made a map on Foundry. All the kids were doing it, so I figured, what the hell.
Before I embarrass myself with this, an epic caveat: I made this mostly for my own amusement. Forge is fun to tinker with, and I wanted to see if I could take a concept through to completion. I don't play tons of MP, and so don't have a good feel for what makes a good MP map. I deliberately didn't download any one else's creation yet, partly to have a go at it fresh, and partly because I know my effort would pale by comparison. I didn't want to lose motivation, as Itagaki would say. But I wanted to try making a CTF map that I would like to play on. I had a sloppier version that had a couple of the same ideas, but I nuked it and started mostly over last night.
Slingshot
The concept is simple: Foundry is split down the middle by a double-decker stack of cargo containers, and the only way across is via a pair of man cannons on either side. Launching from the built-in base lands you either on the opposite corner of the map, or on top of the wall, depending how you angle it.
You start inside the base, as might be expected. The closest man cannon is right outside the front door, up a ramp.
Looking towards the bases as I launch over -
And the reverse view, from the edge of the outcropping. Landing zone is the bottom of the ramp in the distance. *OR* - and this is crucial - the top end of the wall, if I slow momentum on the way down just right.
From there a couple of options present themselves: go high, or go low. The high route is a pair of bridges, with shield doors blocking direct fire between them. It is most vulnerable to direct fire from the opposing base, but has cover along the way which can be utilized. A man cannon is placed to fire back to the outside of the base you just came from.
The low road has a tunnel on one side formed by a series of three separated cargo containers, with lots of room to weave between them, the dividing wall and the open containers on the other side. It's open to direct fire from the base, but lots of cover just means they can just glimpse you weaving towards them unless you stand out in the middle. Each of the six cargo containers down below holds goodies, as seen here -
As you can see above, there's a Mongoose on each side. The lane alongside the dividing wall is plenty wide enough to accommodate it, but attackers need to make sure the coast is clear first. It's wide open down that stretch.
The high two halves of the top route split at the end, with one side going up to what I call the summit, and the other dropping off at the corner. The summit has a perfect view into the base, but an attacker is also very vulnerable. The Spartan Laser resides up there. Of course, the defending team
should have it by then, as there's a grav lift at the bottom of the drop off. The idea was to make getting to the end of the bridges feel like a gauntlet, where an individual can get that far. Getting into the base, though, requires teamwork.
The low path is protected from direct fire up until the corner, but it's a
very wide open corner. Oh, and there's stuff that blows up on the corner.
The defending base can has a lone turret with a view of the entire gauntlet, the top of the wall and the lower corner. The explosives just peek around the corner -
- so caution is advised when charging out into the open. How do you get past such a wide gulf?
With teamwork. Remember how the man cannons near the base are designed to land either on the opposite side of the wall or, if you slow down mid-flight, to land on top of it? Controlling the wall is crucial, as that will allow for suppressing fire onto the turret and into the base. It also has the side-effect of having man cannon from each base launching people to the
same spot on top of the dividing wall. Anyone on the wall is a sitting duck, of course, but it's key to suppressing fire so the guys on the ground can get to the base. Attackers down below can use the built-in stairs or use an object to climb the end of the catwalk and enter the built-in tunnel to get into the base where the flag is. There front of the base is wide open, no windows.
Once a flag is grabbed, the player has a choice - take the man cannon to land on the far end of their side of the map, or run down to the far man cannon which will launch them directly to their own base. All the pros and cons of running the gauntlet from the other end apply.
I imagine a 6 vs 6 game where control of the wall is constantly see-sawing back and forth, and players are launching back and forth constantly. (Thus the name of the map.) There are NO sniper rifles on the map, so the top will be controlled with the two Spartan Lasers, or Carbines/BR. The lone rocket launcher is in the middle. The map seems to have a good flow to it as I move around, but probably plays like crap in reality.
I don't have it finished - needs spawn points and flags still. And as the first pic shows, a few tweaks to make it perfectly symmetrical. I'll toss it in my file share tomorrow on the off chance that someone wants to try it out.
Even if no one ever plays on it, I've had a hoot the past few days doodling it up, creating it, and generally tooling around in Forge. It's a tool I wasn't really excited about until I tried it. My hat off to the Bungie guys that designed this baby - I've never done anything like this before, and I dig it. And I can't wait to start seeing what the rest of the community has come up with. Great Wall is at the top of my list.
