Quixotic Bravado

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Over the weekend I took a crack at designing a custom game type and map variant in Halo 3.

For those unfamiliar with this, the game contains a map editor called “Forge.” This allows you to move and manipulate many of the items on the map, but not the base map itself. There is also a “Custom Games” function to configure game options and settings like health, gravity, ammo, etc. Put the two together, you can make your own game variant and share with others.

My first effort at this I’m calling “zigzag boom.” It’s a symmetrical map variant of “Foundry,” one of the new maps which can be almost completely cleared out. My base map was actually derived from another customization of a variation called “Grifball” by BurnieBurns of Red Vs Blue. I used it because the author did a great job walling off the map to make it a clean rectangular space; it saved me a bunch of time.

The map is set-up for Capture the Flag or Assault games. I took a nod from the Unreal Tournament games we used to play at the office and set-up the map for low-gravity and instant kills. The point was to make a map you had to think about moving around in instead of a spray and pray map. Here’s the map overview as it stands now:

• Players start of with shotguns only. This is because long range weapons would create a game of dodgeball with players just standing at opposite ends of the “hallways” shooting at each other from afar.
• The armor is white and can’t be killed for 5 seconds after spawning. They also can’t cause damage in that time either. This was to prevent spawn camping and to give the player time to get out of the way since it’s instakill.
• There’s one set of rockets at the center of the map but it doesn’t spawn right away and there’s only two shots in it. This is to prevent rocket hoarding.
• There’s two custom power-ups which make the player unable to be shot for a brief period. I wanted it to be long enough to allow players a shot to making it tho the other end of the map, but not so far they could score without being stopped. The player’s armor turns gold to make this more readily visible. These also do not spawn right away, encouraging players to get into the action at game start instead of running for power-ups and power weapons
• The flag/bomb carrier has slower speed and turns a nice zombie green. This forces the rest of the team to work toward protecting the carrier.
• I’m old school, the team’s flag must be at home for them to score
• There’s shield doors at key locations to force close combat. Smart use of the environment will keep a player alive.
• The environment can also kill a player. Around every corner, power-up, hiding spot, and object to interact with, there’s apt to be something that will explode and get you, all set to respawn quickly. So you can hide in that storage container, but beware that a wall of fusion cores may appear behind you. Shooting first may not save either player.
• For CTF games, a team only has to return the flag, not retrieve it as well.
• If the flag or bomb is away, players trying to recover will respawn in the middle of the map, giving them a realistic shot at recovery.
• Grenades are very limited. Again, this map is about getting up close and personal. Besides, the large amount of explosive items on the map make it risky anyway.
• I had gravity hammers, then took them out, now will put them back. Using the hammers made it easy too easy to go over instead of around. After feedback from playing with friends, I’m going to just raise the wall height in certain places.

As of this writing the maps are at version 1 on my Bungie File Share. Over the holiday break I’ll look to update them. It’s still a work in progress, but so far, so good. While I don’t expect an award for “best map,” I found it a very good exercise in learning how to adjust the environment and player options to get very different kinds of game play. It’s given me some additional perspective and ideas on the cause and effect of designs. Very applicable.

Hope you like the map and game variant. Please feel free to send feedback.