Launch Site is the most unbalanced map I’ve seen for Infinite. The map is 1 sided with one side spawning with a power weapon and 3 vehicles while the other spawns with 1 power weapon and vehicle. Sabre Spawn only has 1 way to get to the other side of the map. The other spawn has 2, the 2nd being a Gravity lift.
The person who designed this did no think of balancing or replayability. The map is not a fun experience. Not even when in Fiesta. One side could spawn with multiple ranks and an air vehicle leaving the other team with a single power weapon that is not guaranteed to be a vehicle killer.
It NEEDS to be removed or reworked when Forge drops.
The map was clearly made with 1-flag in mind. The map does a fine job (still could be a bit better though) with that.
It’s not made for slayer type gameplays, in that your criticism is right. I think they only added slayer types for this map because otherwise you would almost never encounter it. Bad decision if you ask me.
Maybe if they come with one-bomb or some other gametypes like that, thet can remove the slayertype gamemodes from this map.
I think the vehicles need to be removed from Launch Site One Flag, the Warthog at the very least. I think the Warthog is unnecessary because if you get the Flag to a certain distance from it’s starting point, the spawns work in favor of the Offensive by making the Defensive constantly spawn back at their base.
I also think it’s odd that there isn’t any turrets around Launch Site either, a turret could be vehicle(or power weapon) substitute for the Defensive side.
In Fiesta it should be one vehicle per side, obviously random spawns.
I think you make a good point. With some adjustments the map would be better for 1-flag, but an also be made a bit more even for other types.
One Flag Vehicles
I think the warthog can be on the map, but should be at the defenders side (so they can catch up when the flag is away). The attackers side the Ghost is fine. The other 2 spawns should be a chopper (can’t carry a flag, but could be an effective counter to the defenders warthog) and a mongoose (you can move the flag quickly with that, but it comes with a high risk since it requires 2 players that can’t attack then) if you ask me.
power weapons
i think the power weapons should switch side, with the Rocket for the defenders and the sniper for tha attackers. This way the defenders have a weapon that can defeat the attacking vehicles and the attackers have a good weapon that can kill people camping on the catwalk.
Slayer/fiesta Vehicles
make both sides have just 1 vehicle spawn and make it either a warthog or a ghost (obviously in fiesta it is random)
powerweapons
make both sides have a same kind of powerweapon, so not 1 side an explosive type and the other a sniping type.
man cannon
make it work two sided. The man cannon on the Sabre side can be on the toplevel above where you now land. Make a little ridge on the other side (only for slayer types) where they can land then (it would bring them then to the back side of the vehicle spawn?). But also make it so that if both sides use it at the same time, they would just bump into each other mid-air and both fall to their death, just like with the H3-map Narrows.
I think these changes would also make a lot of difference to balancing the map.
I enjoy this map for 1 flag, social slayer modes, snipers, rockets, swat, etc… but team slayer and other modes that require some semblance of symmetry do not work on this map as it currently is IMO.
I tend to back out every time this map comes up if it isn’t one of these modes, and it’s the only map I do that for.
Definitely am curious how Covert 1 Flag runs on this map.
Oh, true. Yeah… I have no idea how to make certain aspects of this map more enjoyable for certain gametypes. Which is a shame because I absolutely love the look of it.
One of the first things I’d like to see done with Forge is added is see how people can improve existing maps. We might be able to get improved versions into the game if done well enough.
If people get used to a ramp being under the launch pad I guarantee you in the heat of a One Flag sudden death people will jump down to it expecting it to be there.
Even today people get really confused on Standoff on H3 when the closable doors are closed. People get muscle memory with that sort of thing
I feel like we’re not going to find agreement here. Even if it only happened one in five to ten times… imagine the grief it would provoke between teammates if someone lost you the match making that mistake.
For me the maps should not differ between modes beyond the removal of weapon/power item spawns for modes which don’t need them. People should be able to learn a map regardless of mode
Launch Site is here to stay, but maybe it needs to be changed and worked differently. There have been plenty of asymmetrical maps such as High Ground in Halo 3 that worked great for 1 Flag CTF and Team Slayer. Launch Site has never been a map that I enjoy playing.
Maybe it should be removed from playlists popular with competitive minded gamers, but I definitely don’t want it removed. It’s a fun map. I don’t care if things are perfectly balanced as I care about having fun and funny things happening, above all else.
The extreme asymmetry makes the map interesting, and the big chasm with the man-cannon and plenty of explosive coils makes things funny