There is no debate that the Invasion maps are unplayable outside of invasion and in BTB they remain largely unchanged and thus still unplayable(Phase 1 of Spire… really?).
Can the invasion maps please be tweaked into playable 4v4 or 8v8 maps? Every invasion map is set up in a way that Phase 3 has the most playability while the first 2 are strictly offense vs defense. If the 3rd Phase were to be separated from the other parts of the map to tighten the focus of the players. The base of the Spire on Spire up to where the Shield Doors in Phase 2 are is an exceptional area of the map that is small enough for 4v4 yet large enough for 8v8. Access to the top of the spire can be limited except for BTB which would add an interesting dynamic of providing support for the players on the ground.
The 3rd Phase of Boneyard also allows for another interesting 4v4 to 8v8 experience. While the map is asymmetric it lends very well to 2 bases opposite from each other, one on the yellow stairs by the cliff and the other at the other side. All access to the other parts of the map are blocked off and select areas of access to the large structure and upper area removed allows for the very focused gameplay revolving arpund controlling the side building and moving through the open middle area. This map is also great for zombies when the spawns for humans is set up in that side building and the zombies spawn outside. With so many access routes and the hatch in the ceiling it provides a balanced means of zombies attacking without the humans having too much of an advantage.
With a miniscule amount of effort 2-3 maps can be added to the circulation for all the gametypes as well as fixing the currently broken standard variants of these maps in BTB. Outside of Invasion these maps do not play well at all and that is a shame and missed opportunity which is a common theme with Reach as a whole. I have not even gone into any detail about Breakpoint but again, Phase 3 can be turned into a good 4v4 map. Examples of these maps can be found in my fileshare on Spire and Boneyard named Spiral and Boneless respectively(please note that these files are almost a year old).
Just like Altitude and Sanctum, I don’t understand why 343i keeps ignoring your brilliant ideas that improve the maps by like 100000%. Spire is imbalanced to the max (1 team gets free sniper, rockets and a banshee) and boneyard just has this huge unused space. Breakpoint on the other hand plays OK, although it could be turned into a nice 4v4 map too.
So TL;DR. 343i listen to this guy and put these maps in matchmaking ASAP
I’d also say that some first phase areas could be used for asymmetric objective like 1 Flag. Maybe 343i could even come up with a one-sided 2 or 3 flag for 4v4 or 5v5.
I’m pretty sure they allowed for multiple flags or bomb arm sites in an update a few months back. Would be good to have maps make use of this, most famously Ivory Tower/Reflection and its dual arm sites for the bomb.
I definitely support the idea if not the exact implementations.
As is, Spire is weird since there is this big empty space off to the back of the map loaded up with an RL, Sniper and Banshee, and I’m convinced half the players don’t even know those are there! It’s just a bit too big and can leave you wandering around for ages wondering where the hell everyone went.
Of course on Boneyard Phase 2/3 is used the overwhelming majority of the time and having the back part is largely pointless.
So, yeah, I support the idea. These maps could use a bit more tweaking for non-invasion gametypes.
Phase 1 of spire is where the banshee spawns, where rocket spawns, where there’s health packs, and where plenty of people snipe. I don’t know about you, but I spent the majority of the time around there. On top of that it is possible to have players spawn around that area.
> Phase 1 of spire is where the banshee spawns, where rocket spawns, where there’s health packs, and where plenty of people snipe. I don’t know about you, but I spent the majority of the time around there. On top of that it is possible to have players spawn around that area.
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> Phase 1 of boneyard however, umm… Pretty useless.
Phase one of spire is so removed from the main action it hurts the game. Phase one of Spire is so removed from the main action that you have to take a long walk to get to the banshee that only the people who are willing to remove themselves from the action for the 3 minutes it takes to for it to spawn will get it which sometimes ends up being multiple people thus absolute dead weight.
> -Yoink!-’ thanked.
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> Good idea. Sad I didn’t think of it myself.
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> Idea: Could the Phase 1 areas of both be used for asymmetrical objectives in 4v4s? They already are in Invasion.
This could supplement the idea of using one file in different ways depending on the gametype. Since the Invasion maps are extremely underutilized this would allow for certain phases to lend themselves more to certain gametypes. Phase 1 is clearly Offense vs Defense so it works well for asymmetric gametypes like 1 flag/bomb, KoTH, FFA and the like while 2 flag/bomb, stockpile, and the other symmetric gametypes are played in phase 2/3 where it is more balanced.
Spire has the most potential to being utilized in many different ways thanks to the way the first phase has so much cover so it is fairly balanced in terms of one sided gameplay.
This reminds me of battlefield 3, where there was a base map, and different sections of it were used for different gametypes. Would add a lot to the game with with really very little effort. Good job, op
> This reminds me of battlefield 3, where there was a base map, and different sections of it were used for different gametypes. Would add a lot to the game with with really very little effort. Good job, op
Yeah especially given that Invasion is modeled after the Rush game mode with a few tweaks they might as well go the distance and do it properly.
> > This reminds me of battlefield 3, where there was a base map, and different sections of it were used for different gametypes. Would add a lot to the game with with really very little effort. Good job, op
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> Yeah especially given that Invasion is modeled after the Rush game mode with a few tweaks they might as well go the distance and do it properly.
I sorta wish we had a Rush-like gametype (or at least objective-type) where you need to eliminate two bomb sites in order to proceed. Unless we do and it’s unknown to me.