<mark>Everything that needs to happen to make multiplayer maps acceptable from launch.</mark>
First off lets start with map amount. We definitly need 14+ at launch. The more the better. Now lets figure out how to distribute these maps. Halo’s bread and button is no doubt team slayer. So this mean that smaller/medium sized maps are a must. BTB is a big deal and the reason it was so popular in Halo 2 is because their were maps for it after a while… So let’s figure medium sized maps are usually decent for objective gametypes. Between all the maps their should be at leat 50/50 symettrical to asymmetrical ratio. It’s the most fair a map can get when both teams are on an even play surface.
So heres the breakdown of the maps we should get right out of the gates on launch day…
<mark>5-6 small maps</mark> good for FFA and Team Slayer and some objective. At least half of which should be symmetrical arena style maps (Think Warlock and Midship style maps)
<mark>3-4 medium sizes maps</mark> that could work well for small teamed games along as BTB to fill the BTB void Halo has been having at launch along with keep a large amount of maps in the core playlist (Team Slayer).
<mark>5-6 large maps</mark>. BTB is always screwed at launch and slowwly becomes better with DLC. Which is always terrible since not everyone buys the maps then the larger DLC playlists always take long for matches. Get BTB right at launch not a year after the game is released.
Another important thing is <mark>map themes</mark>. I don’t want to have to look at blue skies and green grass on every map like Reach. Give us different themes across all the maps.
I want to see…
*vast amounts of skyboxes
*different time of day on each map
*many areas from city to space
*weather from snow to rain
Make all the maps look and feel unique.
Basically take a good hard look at what Halo 2 did with maps with slightly bigger emphasis on btb.
And please for the love of all things logical… If their is going to be a firefight in H4 make the maps for both MP and FF!
I agree with you, although asking for 14 maps is a bit much.
I would say have 3/4 Arena sized maps that are symmetrical for 2v2,4v4 and 6 people FFA, 3/4 medium sized maps for 4v4 to 6v6 or 8 people FFA(Half of which should be symmetrical), and 3/4 Big team maps.
I completely agree. All the maps need to be flexible to allow bigger variety. In the past there were maps that were designed for BTB, but could also be used in normal 4v4 games. This is one of the most important variety factors we need.
The map designers most importantly need to focus on quality. Symmetric maps usually let you easy on this one, so they should be pretty much guaranteed. Asymmetric maps are the harder part. But we have seen good asymmetric quality maps too, they aren’t impossible either.
One thing to produce quality is to have lots of jumps on these small/medium sized maps. That’s one of the things that made Lockout so good. I have yet to see another such a fluid small map in Halo.
Lastly comes the look. The map needs to look beautiful, this gives part of the replay value. No one wants to play on a map that doesn’t look impressive. At least after a while. I think that Halo 3 put this part of multiplayer maps the best. Every map was interesting only to look at.
I hope we would get about fifteen maps at launch, but twelve is the least amount I’ll be happy with.
Making the maps flexable is very big. I remember in Halo 2 playing Lockout in the BTB playlist and in head to head. It worked great for anywhere between 1v1 all the way to 8v8. Thats a pretty amazing thing. I’m not asking for something that crazy. I’m just asking that all the medium sized maps should easily work for both BTB and 4v4.
14 maps isn’t to much to ask for. Gaming devs have just been screwing us recently. If Certain Affinity is helping with some multiplayer maps it shouldn’t be that hard to release a healthy amount of maps right out the gates.
I agree halo 2 had the best maps because they all were set in different places and were not from the campagin like halo reach and firefight should also have its own maps that are not from the campaign like the one from the defiant map pack called unearthed
Why not block off certain sections of large maps to make them medium sized maps? I remember Perfect Dark Zero did something along these lines to adjust for how many players were in the game at once. For example if you were playing 4v4, the same map would be smaller than if you were playing 8v8.
> Why not block off certain sections of large maps to make them medium sized maps? I remember Perfect Dark Zero did something along these lines to adjust for how many players were in the game at once. For example if you were playing 4v4, the same map would be smaller than if you were playing 8v8.
That can get really confusing for people that don’t play all that often. It’s also a really cheap way to make things work. Sometimes it works out nice and sometimes it doesn’t. If it can work with a certain map cool but devs shouldn’t look for ways to make big maps play good in smaller games. Boneyard and Spire are prime examples of why these kind of things don’t always work out.
Underwater map(Sealab), Much more advanced forerunner maps(maybe Valhalla but with much more detail and better skybox), forest, and destructed environments. Those are some new environments i’d like to see.
6 small maps
4 medium maps
4 large maps
2 huge maps (because there should be dedicated servers and stuff like 12v12 or 16v16)
And if FF is included, the 2 huge maps and maybe 2 or 3 large maps could be used for FF.
As for symmetry, 5 of the small maps, 2 of the medium maps, 1 of the large maps, and 1 of the huge maps should all be symmetrical. The rest could be asymm.
I agree with what you said about map environments though. They should all vary, about 50/50 indoor/outdoor.
But seriously, I’ve always wanted to play an FPS inside of a volcano. I don’t know why. I imagine the red lighting and a bunch of smoke and fireballs in the background would differentiate it from any other map created so far.
> I agree with you, although asking for 14 maps is a bit much.
>
> I would say have 3/4 Arena sized maps that are symmetrical for 2v2,4v4 and 6 people FFA, 3/4 medium sized maps for 4v4 to 6v6 or 8 people FFA(Half of which should be symmetrical), and 3/4 Big team maps.
Just saying Modern Warfare 3 ships with 20 multiplayer maps.
14 maps is not at all too many to hope for I would however like to add that the large maps should all be forgeable and all have different piece artwork styles, eg, sidewinder esq map should have snow covered blocks and things - this will stop us getting bored of the same old map ever single time - aka, forge world… all variants, and tempest, c’mon…
> <mark>Everything that needs to happen to make multiplayer maps acceptable from launch.</mark>
>
> First off lets start with map amount. We definitly need 14+ at launch. The more the better. Now lets figure out how to distribute these maps. Halo’s bread and button is no doubt team slayer. So this mean that smaller/medium sized maps are a must. BTB is a big deal and the reason it was so popular in Halo 2 is because their were maps for it after a while… So let’s figure medium sized maps are usually decent for objective gametypes. Between all the maps their should be at leat 50/50 symettrical to asymmetrical ratio. It’s the most fair a map can get when both teams are on an even play surface.
>
> So heres the breakdown of the maps we should get right out of the gates on launch day…
>
> <mark>5-6 small maps</mark> good for FFA and Team Slayer and some objective. At least half of which should be symmetrical arena style maps (Think Warlock and Midship style maps)
>
> <mark>3-4 medium sizes maps</mark> that could work well for small teamed games along as BTB to fill the BTB void Halo has been having at launch along with keep a large amount of maps in the core playlist (Team Slayer).
>
> <mark>5-6 large maps</mark>. BTB is always screwed at launch and slowwly becomes better with DLC. Which is always terrible since not everyone buys the maps then the larger DLC playlists always take long for matches. Get BTB right at launch not a year after the game is released.
>
> Another important thing is <mark>map themes</mark>. I don’t want to have to look at blue skies and green grass on every map like Reach. Give us different themes across all the maps.
>
> I want to see…
>
> *vast amounts of skyboxes
> *different time of day on each map
> *many areas from city to space
> *weather from snow to rain
>
> Make all the maps look and feel unique.
>
> Basically take a good hard look at what Halo 2 did with maps with slightly bigger emphasis on btb.
>
> And please for the love of all things logical… If their is going to be a firefight in H4 make the maps for both MP and FF!
what i wish for, map wise, is as follows
4x
-ASYMMETRIC MAPS
-med to med-small size (lockout, damnation, boardwalk, chill out, midship, guardian)
-SNIPER RIFLES (do it.)
and thats it. just 4 asym maps and im golden. hopefully they’ll be good like the maps i mentioned (albeit some of them arent asym :P)
Small symmetrical maps for me all day long. The idea of spawning everyone on an even play field and giving the same distance runs for power weapons makes me very very happy.
