Map Preview THE BOTANIST

[Auburn]

Botany is a little linear progression project I've been working on for the past week. The story is...

Map: https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/...&details=2d666694-0f90-47d5-afd5-c390e427cf32
Gametype: https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/.../details/e02bfa85-f04a-4366-9c6c-985a047fca8f

A group of botanists are researching a newly discovered plant form in a simulated botanical garden just below their lab. Long story short, these plants actually contain contaminated seeds that spread a virus onto anything that they come into contact with. The virus slowly mutates its victim into a plant monster thingy, so the researchers try to escape the lab before it spreads too much. Their main route (the upper bridge in the first screenshot), however, is somehow destroyed amongst the chaos and they are forced to take the only other route; through the botanical garden.... *queue suspenseful music*

​

The main goal behind the map was to create a cool experience for the flood and offer them some strategy beyond launching their bodies at the human players. The primary idea was to give them some sort of trait that the human players didn't have, but I didn't want players to feel like they absolutely needed said trait to win. Invisibility was the first thing that came to mind, so linking that with the theme, I came up with the idea of the flood becoming invisible only when they come into contact with some form of nature. You know, because they're plant monsters.

 

[Zandril]

I'd be very interested to see how this would play, Aubs. We should test it sometime.

 

[Auburn]

Added a link to both the map and gametype if anybody would like to take a look.

@REMkings I was hoping we could squeeze it into today's lobby, but it looks like things turned out for the worse. I'd appreciate it if you could add it to your schedule next time, mang. I'll try to attend the next couple of lobbies as well depending on their times.

 

[RogerDodger]

The Floners are spreading fast

 

[REMkings]

Added a link to both the map and gametype if anybody would like to take a look.

@REMkings I was hoping we could squeeze it into today's lobby, but it looks like things turned out for the worse. I'd appreciate it if you could add it to your schedule next time, mang. I'll try to attend the next couple of lobbies as well depending on their times.

Sorry man, I wasn't aware that you had made a Linear map. Unfortunately I didn't check HaloCustoms in time to know about you wanting me to test it, but I'll be sure to put it up next time.

 

[Zandril]

I don't think it can be denied that this map has gorgeous aesthetics. The map truly feels...botanical

I do have some suggestions for gameplay though. I think you could make the receiver node for the Flood in the first holdout a little safer. If I remember correctly, the receiver was on the acid pit and the Flood where getting farmed the moment they teleported. I suggest moving the receiver node to a higher location and give the Flood options from there. I think it'd be better if the Flood's height advantage was kept consistent throughout the map.

I also think that the humans should be able to go into the acid pit. Maybe put a trait zone over it that will slowly decrease the humans health. Maybe even give them the Flood visual effect. Make it seem like they're slowly turning into Flood when they're in the acid pit by using the visual effect.

That's all I got for now though. We weren't really able to get past the first phase. Anyway, hope that helps.

 

[Auburn]

I do have some suggestions for gameplay though.

Gracias, man. Those two games were definitely... something lol. I worked on it a little after, so it should play a little smoother next time around.

The acid was among the biggest changes. I thought about your suggestion after the game and threw a trait zone over both pits that will slowly deteriorate shields. That in conjunction with the soft kill that's now down there should keep humans from falling into the pit. If they do decide to throw a party down there and get stuck like last time, they can jump their way back out, but the process is a little time consuming and will almost certainly get them converted.

Orzium suggested the same thing regarding the high flood spawns. The receiver was moved further back into a cave and the flood have full camo up until they jump out the acid, so I do think that option can work well in real-time. If it doesn't work out anyway, though, I'll settle for moving it higher up like you suggested.

First Stage
• Initial spawns are a little closer to the first holdout
• Acid is soft killed and has -25 shield decay
• Threw down some crates for the flood
• Door timer was bumped up to 70s

Second Stage
• Humans can't jump over those little planters any longer. Instead they have to go around through Saw spawn
• Moved the leftmost flood spawn up higher
• Moved the turret away from the holdout area
• Threw down another crate for the flood
• Door timer was bumped up to 130s

Third Stage
• Same deal with the acid
• That acid run is a little more structured and shorter
• Safe room is actually a safe room now except...
• Players regenerate shields incredibly slow in the safe room (Adds some risk to immediately dropping down into the acid to get there rather than taking the correct way.
• Rockets were moved further up that back ramp.
• Added a third flood spawn higher up in that room

I'm also using Paints' linear Plague gametype now, so humans move slightly slower and cannot sprint. The custom flood classes, however, have been removed as well. I'm a little worried it may be too difficult for the humans, but we'll just have to see I suppose.

 

[Zandril]

I was able to play this with a 12 player lobby today. The map has greatly improved but there are still some problems. Most of them regarding balance.

Firstly, it's too hard for the humans to survive. In the game we played, no one even got to the second phase. This is mainly because the Flood are so tough and they have camo which gets rid of aim assist in Plague. The game was also confusing because it was difficult to differentiate friend from foe because everyone has the same armor effect.

The initial Flood spawns are also a little overpowered. I think the humans could use a little breathing room because the Flood are on them so quick at the start. Lastly, I think the Flood should be able to walk back to the initial spawn because some humans camped it and the Flood had to kill themselves in the acid just to get back.

I saved the film so you can see how the game went.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/.../details/179cd2dd-9049-485a-880c-d4c43e75ea89

Tips:
-Give either the humans or the Flood a different armor effect to lessen the confusion.
-Make the Flood a weaker.
-You can save yourself some budget by using the despawn label that's available with Plague. You can just despawn a crate or something.

 

[Auburn]

This is mainly because the Flood are so tough and they have camo which gets rid of aim assist in Plague.

So the flood had too high a resistance to damage? I know it wasn't much of a game, but how much of a difference do you imagine it would have made if the flood didn't have camo?

That gametype works similarly to the one Remmy uses for Percy in which any player that enters a trait zone gets the OS appearance. You cant differentiate traits between the flood and humans (#343i), so the humans will always have the same appearance as the flood when you use that system. Looks like I'm going to have the scrap the whole invisiflood idea anyway seeing as how aim assist is removed with camo (#343i).

Good stuff, man. Thanks a lot for testing it out and for the feedback. I'll watch the clips and get to making those changes tomorrow.

 

[REMkings]

and they have camo which gets rid of aim assist in Plague.

You're putting too much emphasis on the whole lack-of-aim-assist thingy, Zanny. Aim assist really shouldn't be that big of a deal anyway. On Percy, for instance, goes that as long as you focus fire, you can still easily kill a zombie. It does make it more difficult indeed, but only by a handful. Having invisible zombies does not necessarily mean it'll cause unbalanced gameplay.

 

[Zandril]

You're putting too much emphasis on the whole lack-of-aim-assist thingy, Zanny. Aim assist really shouldn't be that big of a deal anyway. On Percy, for instance, goes that as long as you focus fire, you can still easily kill a zombie. It does make it more difficult indeed, but only by a handful. Having invisible zombies does not necessarily mean it'll cause unbalanced gameplay.

I didn't really mean it as a bad thing. I was trying to say that the zombies were too powerful because they were very tough AND were in camo. I didn't mean that camo should be removed. That's up to Aubz. I don't know if it came off that way. :/

 

[Auburn]

Watched the clips and I definitely see what you mean about the initial Flood spawns, but I actually liked the way they played out TBH. The flood were obviously OP here, but it forces the humans to work together right from the beginning rather than just blindly rush down to the first holdout. The first three rounds were a smorgasbord for the flood, but I noticed in the fourth round that one or two humans stood back a little and watched the cliff while the others dropped down. That's the kind of result I was looking for. If the humans don't watch each others backs in that first area and some are taken out as a result, I definitely want the first holdout to be that much harder for them. I'll move them elsewhere just in case, but I don't want to throw that first setup out the window just yet. I'll move the spawns back, lower the cliff, and open up the path a little as well.

I'm a little worried that the lack of aim assist sets the skill gap too high seeing as how a lot of people had trouble actually hitting the flood, let alone killing them. I'll tone down the damage resistance to 150% as Zan suggested and see if that makes a difference before I remove camo altogether.

@Zandril You're good, I got what you meant. I hadn't actually known about the lack of aim assist with camo until now, so it was just a very disappointing surprise is all lol. Thanks again for playing it, mang.

 

[Auburn]

Mkay, so I made some pretty large changes based on those recordings... reforged a majority of the design in fact.


Gametype
• Takes 3 hits for the flood to kill a human
• Shield regeneration is 20s instead of 15s
• Humans' damage modifier is 90%

First Stage
• Initial spawn is less claustrophobic
• First holdout is larger
• Added a more elevated flood entrance
• Added a ground level flood entrance close to the turret
• Added some awnings for flood
• Removed the rightmost flood entrance
• Delayed the acid spawn entrance teleporter by 10s
• Tweaked weapon ammo

...and I reforged the rest. The idea was to incorporate some more interesting flood entrances rather than just force them to rely on the invisibility trait (which is probably more than enough, but hey). The humans have a little more variety, too, in terms of weaponry.

I ran out of budget about 2/3 the way through and had to pull objects, so some areas look pretty good while others look a little... halfassed

 

[Zandril]

Are the links in the OP updated? I'd like to test the updated version.

 

[Auburn]

Are the links in the OP updated? I'd like to test the updated version.

Here's the gametype and here's the map.

 

[Auburn]

Made another update this morning.

Gametype
• Flood are back to 2-hit kills
• Flood DR is 150%
• Human DM is 100%

First Stage
• Redid the initial spawn area (again)
- Flood spawn closer to the humans
- Shotgun was moved up there
- Soft kill covers the human initial spawn
- fixed some breaks
• First teleporter spawns in 10s sooner

Second Stage
• Second teleporter spawns in slightly sooner
• Third teleporter spawns in 8s later
• Added rockets, ARs, and a regenfield into the connecting room
• Replaced the saw with another shotgun
• Raised the crate entrance up higher (so humans cant see into it)
• Removed the turret

I also redesigned the third phase as was suggested yesterday. It involves a boat and stuff now.

 

[Auburn]

Alrighty, made some pretty large scale changes just recently. I've been told that the original theme was never really clear outside the fact that the humans were moving through some kind of facility. Not to mention there were a couple of noticeable problems, so I figured I would take the chance to completely redesign the map; both improving gameplay and the theme. I tried to incorporate the same functionality as the original, so the flood are still able to become invisible when they interact with any form of nature (excluding rocks) while standing still or crouch walking.

The story now follows a group of survivors that have just abandoned their vehicles because the highway tunnel has caved in. In order to make it to the safe location on the other side, they're forced to move through an old water-levee-tunnel-facility thing. HOWEVER, there's some acidic water flowing through the levee, so before entering the water-levee-tunnel-facility thing, they have to activate the levee barriers to obstruct the flow. This is done at the hydro tower (as our Canadian friends call it) off side the highway. After doing this, they make their way through two areas of the WLTF thing before emerging on the other side of the initial tunnel and the safe room.

The flood are still able to become invisible when they interact with any form of nature (excluding rocks), but only when they are standing still or crouch walking now.

 

[Auburn]

Here're the links, mang.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/...&details=d211704a-7426-4fe5-8538-3950bbd7bd80

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/...&details=82384bbf-a289-48fb-a4f2-37a23bc7779d

 

[REMkings]

I'll leave some feedback too once I've created a new post in the Feedback Hub.

 

[Zandril]

Sorry for the delay but here's the film.
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/.../details/ddde1545-9197-4656-bfc1-09269fa79675

Now it's been a while since this game so my feedback may be a little bit off.

Firstly, you should make the kill zone at the first acid pool more obvious. Most people who didn't know about the terminal went straight to the acid and were killed unexpectedly by the kill zone. Secondly, there were moments in the first phase where the Flood spawned away from the initial area and were trapped where they were until the humans are done activating the terminal. They couldn't really get anywhere because of the kill zone that I mentioned. I don't think this was intentional though.

I also think that you should turn the Flood names off. It kind of ruins the element of surprise the Flood have because the humans know exactly where the Flood are. Lastly, there was a certain part of the map where the Flood couldn't get to the upper floor. It was by the "acidfall" inside the facility.

Just watch the film if some of these don't make sense.