Map Preview Aether

[Zandril]

“When you spend time worrying, you’re simply using your imagination to create things you don’t want.”

Hey everyone. I'm back again to show you guys my latest map in Halo 4. This map is called Aether. It is a symmetric map and can be played with 4-8 players.

DOWNLOAD LINKS

2v2: https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/.../details/87f1a3e2-b762-4b9d-a81b-da3910589d55

4v4: https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/.../details/51907f6b-59e1-44cb-a75e-5cc52294573c

Recently, I've been making a lot of 1v1 and 2v2 maps. What's funny is that all those maps were 4v4 maps originally. They were just too small to accommodate 8 players which is why I turned them into 1v1/2v2 maps. As a result, I got worried that I no longer have the capability to scale a map for 4v4.

To see if that's true, I started Aether. I'm happy to report that 4v4 works beautifully in the map along with 2v2.

I tried my best to keep my piece usage as clean and consistent as possible and I think I did a mighty fine job at it. I ran into some budget problems but I managed to piece everything together in the end.

The map can play 4v4 and 2v2 on Slayer and CTF. I don't plan on adding KotH or Extraction because there are no good places for the sites and hills because of the way the map is structured.

To make up for the loss of those two gametypes, I made the map compatible with Headhunter. For the lulz

Weapons and powerups (4v4)

- Damage Boost (150s)
- Rocket Launcher (180s)
- Sniper Rifle (120s)

Weapons (2v2)

- Sniper Rifle (90s)(0 spare clips)
- Sticky Detonator (120s)(1 spare clip)

In 4v4, the Damage Boost spawns in the middle of the map while the Rocket and Sniper spawn on each side of the map in bottom Green and Gold respectively.

Aether has plenty of jump ups that will allow players to get the upper hand on their opponent when used at the right time.

This map was inspired by Orion, Haven, and Arknado (formerly The Ark). You'll find some things in the map that will remind you of those maps such as Haven's drop downs and curves, and Arknado's and Orion's use of the Artifact bases.

NOTE: Most of the pictures are slightly outdated in terms of the map's appearance.

Many thanks to (in no particular order):

-TheFatedFire
-TheAlm0ndKiller
-Astiir
-The Psycho Duck
-RegrettedKarma6
-oOZeroFlameOo
-itsDaxx
-a Chunk
-basketskate3
-Squally Dabeanz

 

[RogerDodger]

It looks like you stuck with keeping the ramp-ups we were looking at the way they were. The flat walls look much better than rock on the inside though

 

[PA1NTS]

Artifact railings. Everyone's new favorite toy.

 

[Dax]

If anyone can give the map a look and give me feedback, that'd be really helpful.

I gotchu, bro. Unfortunately I tend to get overly wordy when trying to explain my concerns, so I might hold off until I've got more time later tonight.

 

[PA1NTS]

The only maps that I've seen use this are Arknado, Orion, and Inheritor. Are they that common now?

Onyx uses the most of them. After Onyx got into matchmaking, I started noticing a lot of competitive maps had them.

 

[Dax]

Ok! So my xbox is sort of in a different city at the moment, so I haven't actually checked this out in forge yet. But the pictures were pretty damn intriguing, so I ended up spending a good amount of time looking through them to get a good feel for the map. I've noticed a couple potential concerns, but I also realize that getting a feel for the map simply through pictures (without actually playing it) can be quite misleading at times, so take this feedback with a grain or two of salt.

Spoiler

Green: I'm a bit worried with how large and open this space seems. There's just not much going on in this area in terms of variation of map geometry, if that makes sense. (I see the change in height from the outside portions to the middle, but it doesn't feel like enough to make a difference.) The fact that this area extends across the whole map essentially cuts the map in half between two distinct sides/bases (gold and green, in this case). Now, this central "map division" (or whatever you want to call it ) can work well with objective games like CTF, but it limits the map for slayer variants.

Orange/Blue: As can be seen in your pictures 4 and 5, there's a direct route from either side of green to the far blue and red ramps leading up to gold (as denoted by my pretty blue lines). Because of this, I feel like there isn't really a reason for traversing the two areas that are circled in orange (except for attempting to elude your opponent), as they lead you to the same exact place. You could argue that the mancannons are enough incentive to traverse these back areas, but they only offer one specific purpose. Any certain area of a map needs more than just one "function," so to speak. Besides the mancannons, I just don't see any benefit to using these paths, again except for trying to run away from your opponent, which isn't something a map design should promote. I also feel there's a bit of a segmentation issue present in these back paths which I'll get to in a sec.

I'm sure I'm repeating myself here, but here are a few examples of how I feel these paths seem a bit redundant/unnecessary. Let's say you're at the rock floor section by blue; you're heading from green and want to get to top gold, but don't want to take the direct route through the middle of the map. You have two options, both leading you to the same exact place, but one route (the one circled in orange) takes longer than the other. When trying to get to top gold as quickly as possible without the potential of being exposed by going through top mid, what's the point in taking the longer, more segmented route?

Now let's look at it from the other way around.

Spoiler

Say the Red player (at 1) spots the Blue player (also at 1) running away from Mid. As red player attempts to go after Blue, he momentarily loses sight of him. While Red's LoS is blocked (2), he won't know whether Blue chooses the inside or outside path, and it turns into a guessing game. By guessing incorrectly, Red could completely lose track of where Blue is. While being able to predict the exact location of where your opponent will be is not a good thing, having to take a complete guess isn't either. Also, this example highlights the segmentation issue as well. If there were less segmentation between the "inside" and "outside" paths, there would be less punishment for making the wrong guess. I can get more into this specific scenario if it doesn't really make sense, but in the interest of not writing an essay, I'll hold off for now.

Besides that though, I only noticed a few tiny other things.

Spoiler

These seem like an unnecessary height change to me - going down a ramp only to go back up another. I know it's very minor, but the 3x3 blocks hinder your ability to take a direct path from the bottom floor up to Mid. If the two ramps (outlined in red) were used only because the ceiling was too low, why not just lower all of bottom green? Either way, I would try to get rid of that small height change.

Spoiler

Dat far ramp. It looks weird just sitting there with no other structure. Add a block or 2 to it?


Aaaand that's it, I think. Remember that I still haven't set foot on this, so feel free to bring up any invalid points I may have made. I felt as though I was able to get a fair enough grasp of how certain situations would play out, but I could very well be wrong on some things. I felt like sharing my concerns in the first place because the map really grabbed my attention, so nice job on that. I think it will play well regardless of any changes you make from here on out.

 

[Dax]

The thing is, I designed the map with CTF in mind (and damn does it play well with balanced teams) which is why I gave two routes offering different levels of safety to the flag.

I was thinking that might have been the case. I'm not too great at giving feedback when it comes to CTF gameplay, seeing as I've always focused on slayer variants. I thought I'd share regardless though.

Hopefully I gave ya something to think about. Keep me updated!