Halo 4 easily had the worst maps Halo has ever seen. Not only were they swollen and oversized, but they were horribly structured, filled with pointless aesthetic clutter, and they failed to give off any remote “arena” aspect (Haven is an exception to this.) While I do personally blame this on Certain Affinity’s apparent desire to “have gameplay take a backseat to breath-taking aesthetics,” the map design greatly improved with the Majestic Map Pack and the ones that followed.
In Halo 5, maps need to not be swollen and misshapen. However, Sprint is to blame from this. I like sprint, and I think it’s possible to adjust it so that it can work with Classic Map Sizes.
Classic Gametypes with have a base player speed of 100, whilst Sprint gametypes will have a base speed of 75 and a sprint speed of 125.With Sprint issues solved, we can then ensure that map design is no longer altered because of that - and we can finally tackle another problem: Pointless, aesthetic clutter!
Halo 4’s maps are ridden with non-removable crates, misplaced scenery, and are plagued with lag-inducing (yet breath-taking) backgrounds. While it’s okay to have maps be surrounded with beautiful vistas, gameplay must always come first. Take Solace for example, it’s got absolutely astonishing views, and a potentially promising design, but it’s coated in crates, debris, and insanely bright jets of light that ruin gameplay and map flow. However, it has been proven possible for aesthetics and good map structure to coexist - the Majestic Map Pack says it all.
Halo 5’s maps should use the Majestic and Castle Map Packs as inspiration when it comes to map design. I want arena style maps that play smoothly and look awesome. I want BTB Maps to be large, open, and not cramped and confined like how Vortex, Exile, and Shatter are. While I do know that these cramped maps exist to compensate for the lack of descope, they are incredibly horrible to play on.
On a final thought, Forge Maps should be designed for FORGE, not for the map that is “built in with it.”
With Erosion and Ravine, it’s clear that these maps were really only designed for Settler and Ascent in mind (which are ironically both terrible maps.) It’s almost as if Certain Affinity made Settler and Ascent as stand-alone, non Forgable maps - but then “changed” them to allow “minor” modifications. Also, Forge Maps should not only have flat, and even workspaces, but they must also have terrain (or even better, modifiable terrain) that isn’t impossible to work with.