Hey all.
Of course I know that there is no guarantee we will see the Covenant returning in Halo 4 (unless I’ve missed something during my holiday under this rock), but this hasn’t put me off the idea of what to me would be a kick–Yoink- Invasion map and objectives list. The concept? A war in space. I know I will lose a few readers with that last sentence, but hear me out:
The defending team is either the UNSC, Covenant or a faction we meet in Halo 4 (whoever is considered an Ally), and they are located on a UNSC/Covenant frigate. They are under attack from boarders, who are trying to shut down the ship from the inside. The match begins with the defenders in the lifeboat corridors, where combat is tight, fierce and close-quarters.
Imagine if you will, the life pod corridors from the Pillar of Autumn, but perhaps slightly larger to allow for more movement and action. The attackers enter the ship in a unique manner: boarding craft. Upon spawning, the enemies will have the option of either spawning on their bro, co-op style, or spawning on their own ship and being launched into battle via a boarding pod or craft. The method of entry will vary with each phase. The pods will crash into the ship in predetermined locations which are out of the defending team’s reach as to prevent camping (e.g. the layered room with several blast doors in the Pillar of Autumn, minus the stairway up). The attackers here simply aim to disable the life pods of the UNSC/Covenant ship, so that no-one can escape. This can be done by sabotaging one of two computer terminals which control the blast covers protecting the pods. When they are permanently lowered, escape becomes impossible, and the defenders must fall back into the ship.
Phase two begins with the defenders retreating to more open spaces, such as the mess hall and the cargo hold. It is in these honeycombs of corridors and open spaces that the fight for control of the ship takes place. The attackers are tasked with destroying the safety systems in place to prevent unauthorised access to the ship’s drive core. The controls to the safety systems must be destroyed by planting an explosive device (e.g. a bomb from previous Halo games) in the ship’s armoury, which will whittle down the defenders’ numbers even more and provide a hole through which the attackers can access the core room.
The third and final phase is simple: destroy the core. This is a new concept to Invasion, as it does not involve capturing or planting objectives. Instead, the attackers must destroy the core with any means possible. The core will have a large health value, and will take damage from all forms of attack, from melees to rocket launchers. The defenders must simply stop all attackers from reaching the core room and causing damage to the device. If they can hold out for long enough, the defenders will be able to alter the ship’s course to face the opposition’s craft, and destroy it with a MAC round. Should the defenders fail? The ship will be lost…
To make the experience even more inspirational and intense, when the defenders are close to winning, they will be able to see the enemy ship appearing on monitors placed around the map, and a large viewing panel in the core room, allowing them to see the MAC shot obliterate the enemy craft.
For the second phase’s spawn system, it will again be akin to the first phase with pods or co-op spawning, but instead of pods, attackers will be spawned inside of transport spacecraft (such as the Phantom, as a loose example), which will be hovering inside the cargo bay of the defending ship. Once Phase One is completed, the cargo bay will open to allow two Pelicans/Phantoms out in an attempt to fend off the attacking craft, but they will be destroyed and lost to the cold embrace of space. The enemy craft will then enter the bay and the bay doors will close. Once the doors close, the enemies will be able to spawn, and the defenders will have access to the hold. The third phase will see the attackers spawn in the cargo bay once again, as the core room will not be far away.
I will follow some of these up with diagrams if you would like, so that you can get an idea of what the scenario would be.
What do you think of this structure and setting? Do you think it could work? As a concept, it has potential (and has probably been suggested before in a similar manner), but the overall scope of the map and gametype may prove too ambitious.
Here’s a quick concept drawing of the core room. Keep in mind I’m not a particularly good artist, I think I captured the essence of what I was talking about. I even threw in an annotation because even I couldn’t tell what the background was.
