Looking through the forums and HBO news posts, I've seen a lot of amazing Forge creations. Maps laid out with great precision and thought to create interesting play spaces with nuanced gameplay options. I'm really floored.
I started tinkering around with an idea tonight, and made the antithesis of those maps. It's kind like going to a museum of fine art and then doing some finger painting at home that evening. Here's my finger paint job. In this case, finger paint that involves many and frequent explosions.
Basically, I started toying with the idea of a two-level map, with the top level consisting of nothing but suspended bridges. Taking advantage of the way unmovable structures remain suspended in the air after their support objects are deleted, I wanted to try to create a space floating high above the main floor for carnage to take place on. Jumping is
required.
Um, then I sort of got the idea to make that the
main play area, and to establish a penalty for falling down. It turned into this:
I call it Cracker Barrel. Essentially, this is a floating King of the Hill map. The area below the floating bridges is all eight fence boxes turned upside down, like to rows of chicken coops.
Inside each box are four fusion cores, a propane tank and a crate to enable escape.
Two teams spawn on either side of the protruding wall, protected by a pair of shield doors. Just on the other side is a pair of hammers, a fuel rod gun and one of every type of equipment.
On the way up, beyond the two rows of shield doors and on the offset platforms are plasma, spike and flame grenades, brute shots, rocket launchers and a turret on each side. Spartan Lasers are located on the four corners of the cages below. More of a reward if you survive than an incentive to go down. Basically, every kind of weapon that explodes or goes 'boom' in some capacity. 2x shields are
suggested.
With all explosives set to respawn every 10 seconds, this happens a lot:
With 2x shields on, you can actually survive the blast while down below; it just strips shields down to zero. Which is good, because the hill alternates between the floating platform and the pit of carnage.
Not advised.
Wheeee!
That's about all there is to it. I think it might actually be
fun in a no-skill-required kind of way. I'll stop cluttering the thread with my splashes of paint amid the the excellent maps above. I hope someone has taken the idea of suspended platforms and tiered play spaces to a better, more disciplined place. It could have interesting results.
I'd just like to thank Bungie for letting me go all Crackdown in my Halo.