Battlements

This is my third and, currently, last map.

As a developer's note, I actually used every single dollar of the budget in constructing this map, and carefully placed all 100 spawn points and respawn areas from scratch, on my own, by hand.

Also, the double grav-lift boost from the second to third tier at the rear of the Castle was something I thought of a couple of weeks ago, having already used weapon holders to place grav-lifts in Jax Basement as a means of keeping players inside the map, but was gutted to find that it is also in the Labyrinth map (by AZN, Asper, Titmar, and Savage when I downloaded it the other day). Having already incorporated it into Battlements, I decided to leave it in. I hope you don't mind!

Overview: Battlements is an asymmetrical, symmetrical map. By this I mean that the left and right of the map are a mirror of each other, but attackers and defenders spawn front and back. The Battlements is a four level base designed for team offense/defense games, particularly One Flag, Territories and One Bomb Assault, however the map has also been set up to allow Team Slayer, Multi-Flag, Assault, Neutral Assault, Team Mosh Pit and Team Oddball (but these games are currently untested for balance).

Unlike my other maps, Jax Basement and Air Race, which made use of the existing terrain in new ways, Battlements is built entirely from the ground up and actually evolved from an experiment in which I thought I would see whether it would be possible to replicate Stonehenge. Two of the structures which I put together then became the front wall and the rest of the Castle grew from this point.

Because of the organic development of the Castle, some joins in the scenery are not perfect at this stage (for which I apologise) and will--at some point--be revisited and possibly even built again from scratch. For now, I'm happy with how the map plays and will commence work on a fresh project so I don't get bored.

At the start of the game, the Attackers have managed to fight their way to a forward position where they have entrenched themselves in the default bases, which have been opened up to form a long tunnel with caches of weapons in each end room, the tunnel itself, and behind the attackers "trench" wall.

Defenders spawn in the rear entrance to the Castle which is a four level structure built in the main section of the Foundry. There are two ground level entrances to the Castle, one front and one rear, however attackers may use other means to breach the Castle's high walls. The castle has three main playable levels with a fourth level accessible with the use of portable grav-lifts.

Points of interest:

The base has two entrances at ground level, one front and one rear. Both entrances are tunnels and can lead into either the left (red) or right (yellow) courtyards. The Battlements are an obvious place for the defenders to set up camp, however there is little cover (apart from the obvious height advantage) and aggressive (but skilled) defenders can be rewarded with strong close ranged weapons and some nice blind corners if they venture into the lower levels.

Attackers then have the option of heading to the back of the base and fighting their way onto the battlements via the stairs to attempt to control the base, or lead an immediate assault on the flag/bomb arming point. The flag and bomb arming point are on the second level in the centre; a place where the defenders can easily rain down hell on the attackers from the Battlements themselves.

Outside of the Castle there is very little cover for the attackers to make use of in an attempt to reach the rear of the base. There's a gap of approximately two Warthog widths between the walls and the Foundry barrier. However, at intervals there are short "tunnels" (double or single open boxes) which provide some respite and even some gifts to aid attackers... or particularly aggressive defenders. Defenders should be wary of leaving the base for these treats, however, as they will be completely exposed to counter-fire.

Note the signs in the Castle as they will help you with callouts and orientation. Defender's left (attacker's right) is red, defender's right (attacker's left) is yellow.

Weapons and equipment:

Each team begins with the same set of weapons in their bases and they are set up so that they are diametrically opposed (so a sword on attacker's base left would be at defender's base left, which is on the attacker's right, and so on).

Attackers also have several equipment items and powerups to help them, but if wasted they will take a long time to respawn and attackers will have to resort to grinding their way head on through one of the two ground floor entrances. Defenders also have their own equipment at their disposal, including two Trip Mines (back walkways, third level), a Regenerator (front right box), and a Flare (front left box) and two portable grav-lifts.

Weapons included at each base are:

2x Assault Rifles
3x Battle Rifles
2x Shotguns
2x Brute Shot
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Spartan Laser
1x Rocket Launcher
1x Fuel Rod Gun
1x Hammer
1x Energy Sword
8x Frag Grenades
8x Plasma Grenades
8x Spike Grenades
8x Flame Grenades

Additionally, in the boxes outside the Castle there is a Mauler and a Plasma Pistol, 3x extra Battle Rifles plus the defenders also have a Flamethrower inside the Castle itself.

The attacker's weapons will respawn relatively quickly, while the defender's weapons will take longer (in the case of some power weapons, up to twice as long as their counterpart in the attacker's base) because let's face it, the attackers are going to bring you plenty of ammo ;)

Game types:

No specific rules for games have been developed for use on this map, so use with standard gametypes. Default weapon start is debatable, but for fast and bloody gameplay I recommend a AR start, BR secondary.

6-16 players, suitable for:
One Flag
One Bomb
Territories
Team Slayer
Also set up, but not ideal, for: Multi-Flag, Assault, Neutral Assault, Team Oddball, Team Mosh Pit.

Screenshots

Attacker's base left. Attacker's base right has a sniper rifle in place of the Spartan Laser.

Attacker's left armoury.

Attacker's base left front.

Attacker's base right front.

Castle front entrance. The signs prevent a long line of sight and create a natural choke point for defenders to make use of.

Castle rear entrance.

Castle third tier, showing flag placement. In Assault, the bomb detonation point is in the same place.

Castle rear, showing stairs to third tier battlements.

Castle right courtyard. (Castle left courtyard is a mirror of this setup.)

Edit: Fixed a couple of image tags.