At this point in time, there are several decent maps in Reach’s matchmaking such as Synapse, Kingdom, Arena Zealot, Select and Enclosed. I believe at this point in time we can remove a blight from Reach’s map selection. That blight would be the abomination called Sword Base.
I don’t believe there is anything positive to say about this map. The geometry of the map creates an impenetrable set up in Red Spawn. It doesn’t help that the same spawn also gives extremely quick access to the Grenade Launcher, Shotgun and Sniper, unless they can somehow balance the spawns (which, quite frankly, seems impossible due to the map being asymmetrical.) If you’re playing Living Dead as a zombie, you may as well AFK because that same impenetrable setup in normal matchmaking becomes even worse now that you have no shields and only a Sword.
You cannot honestly say that there is variety on the map. Most of the combat happens in one five meter area, which is familiar to almost every Reach player. Deaths occur mainly from one of three sources: Shotguns, Swords and Grenades.
It would be a benefit to Reach’s multiplayer if Sword Base was permanently removed from MM.
Sword Base should have never made it to the final game. We made it very clear to Bungie where all the combat happens, that grenades don’t reach the corners of the lift room, and that one team has the advantage. They completely ignored us and tossed it into the mix anyway. We can only hope that 343 actually cares about this game.
> > Not only Sword Base but Boardwalk, countdown, and the cage/uncaged as well.
>
> Those maps are other posts for other times. Let’s focus on SB for now. Give me one good reason why it should stay in MM.
I never said that it should stay in matchmaking. SB can burn in a fiery pit just like I said for Gaurdian, Construct, and Stand Off on Halo 3. Well actually to tell you the truth, I said that for almost all Halo 3 maps.
> > I’d take a broken Sword base over a ton of bland grey cookie cutter forge maps any day.
>
> So you’d rather good graphics than good gameplay? Why don’t you just watch a movie then?
>
> Better yet, compromise. MGS4 or Heavy Rain. Those are pretty much game/movie hybrids.
He’s just noting how many forged world maps there are that attempt to make up for the sub-par default Reach maps.
Yes, block off vent/airlift rooms in Sword Base for Infection. It’s a death-trap for poor zombies and a huge waste of time trying to take down pistol-shooting campers hiding there. Man up and face the zombies in open area, laughing and shooting maniacally at them.
> > > I’d take a broken Sword base over a ton of bland grey cookie cutter forge maps any day.
> >
> > So you’d rather good graphics than good gameplay? Why don’t you just watch a movie then?
> >
> > Better yet, compromise. MGS4 or Heavy Rain. Those are pretty much game/movie hybrids.
>
> He’s just noting how many forged world maps there are that attempt to make up for the sub-par default Reach maps.
True, the community was expected to do Bungie’s job. I’d still take any of the forged maps over sword base though.
> > I’d take a broken Sword base over a ton of bland grey cookie cutter forge maps any day.
>
> So you’d rather good graphics than good gameplay? Why don’t you just watch a movie then?
>
> Better yet, compromise. MGS4 or Heavy Rain. Those are pretty much game/movie hybrids.
No, that’s not what I said in the slightest. I like Sword base, the map isn’t as bad as most folks make it out to be. I’d rather play on a real map that I know than get stuck on one of a hundred mazes of grey walls that all look the same.
I don’t care how well crafted a forge map is, if you spawn out in one you’re not familiar with you’re going to get destroyed. You start out not knowing where anything is and it’s incredibly easy to get lost in the labyrinth of grey blocks. So, I’d vote for Sword base over the sea of indistinguishable community maps.
EDIT:
Some of them are good but I don’t like not knowing half the time what I’m supposed to vote for just by a hastily made up name that’s got nothing to do with the map. I can’t tell half of them apart most of the time, it’s basically voting for Forge world in the menu, not a specific map. Anyhow, there are too many of them, they’re mostly bland and I’d rather play a real map than one that was whipped up by the fans. Forge is great, I love the tool but we shouldn’t rely on that for 70% of our matchmaking maps.
> > > I’d take a broken Sword base over a ton of bland grey cookie cutter forge maps any day.
> >
> > So you’d rather good graphics than good gameplay? Why don’t you just watch a movie then?
> >
> > Better yet, compromise. MGS4 or Heavy Rain. Those are pretty much game/movie hybrids.
>
> No, that’s not what I said in the slightest. I like Sword base, the map isn’t as bad as most folks make it out to be. I’d rather play on a real map that I know than get stuck on one of a hundred mazes of grey walls that all look the same.
>
> I don’t care how well crafted a forge map is, if you spawn out in one you’re not familiar with you’re going to get destroyed. You start out not knowing where anything is and it’s incredibly easy to get lost in the labyrinth of grey blocks. So, I’d vote for Sword base over the sea of indistinguishable community maps.
It isn’t difficult to get your bearings on a FW map. The most trouble I ever had was on the old Enclosed, and that was because I was always setting up for people I thought would spawn in front of me, but instead spawned behind me. Balance > Aesthetics.
> Sword Base heatmap says it all. I’m pretty sure that the only reason there’s red in the bottom right is due to Infection.
heatmaps dont mean anything. i mean they help a little bit, but this is deaths for ALL PLAYERS, good AND terrible. notice how yellow lift is one giant blob of red? thats because morons like to suicide the lift roughly 40 times a game.
sword base is a pretty marginal map, i agree. its not beyond saving, IMO. it just needs some teleporter / lift lovin. there absoultely needs to be WAYYY more ways to get to the top that dont involve going up one of the insta-suicide lifts, or going up the main lift bottom mid (you might as well say ‘PULL’ because against good players you’ll instantly get shot to -Yoink- before you land anywhere, and even if you DO make it you will be no shields and wont be able to do anything anyways). then you have the bridges, the most epic choke points. the whole map is pretty terrible without a teleporter from the bottom base to the top of the attic TBH. if it had just 1 or 2 teleporters that led from the bottom to the top-ish area (even if the teleporter exit was on the top base’s flag spawn), the map would play INFINITELY better.
oh, another thing is they should REMOVE THE SHOTGUN AND THE SWORD. why the hell is there a shotgun and a sword on a map that has 3 foot pathways and about infinite choke points and only ~3 ways to go someplace. shotgun / sword is literally the best possible thing you could have on that map. its so blatantly god-tier amazing they should be INSTA-REMOVED. heck, thats one of the main reasons why its not even viable to go up the yellow or red lifts.
