LINK:Urban Simulator V2

View the original map here (note that it can no longer be downloaded, however).

Following the Furious Review, I thought I'd return to this map (which is probably my favourite, alongside Jax Basement) to see if I could sort out the issues that were raised. In short, these issues were the spawns (several of which along the outside were wall-facing), the interior being too cramped, and the uneven floor from the ring to the middle.

An initial redraft of the transition from outer to middle involved using the tops of bridges to make a ramp. However, I didn't like that and thought it was still a little messly. I deleted the ramp, then I deleted the bridges and then I deleted the fence boxes and the walls along one side of the ring. Then I deleted everything else in the middle and was left with only the outer ring.

Basically, I ended up making Urban Simulator again from scratch!

Version History:

Some key differences between V1 and V2:

- The floors of the outer ring are now upside down boxes instead of on their sides so they are much smoother to run around on.
- The sniper roosts are gone (The circle of boxes is now merged with the annoying crane to make a continuous upper ring).
- Another level of walls and fences competely encloses the map up to Foundry's invisible ceiling so you can no longer get out of the playing area, even with crafty grenade jumps (Insane54, that one's for you ;) ).
- The complete closing off of the map means I can now safely add a grav-lift to allow easy access to the 'rooftops'.
- The fence boxes that formed the 'rooftops' are now moved into a new position, and some crafty interlocking has created an actual sloped rooftop which can offer some cover.
- Two whole lengths of wall have been removed and lowered, merged double walls have been used instead to create balconies (these walls also allow a jump up onto the rooftops without the aid of the grav-lift; tricky, but possible).
- The open single boxes are now in the corners opposite the ramps. They have been turned upside down and merged with Foundry's foor and set back into the corner to create a small room and also an easy jump into the outer ring.
- Above these boxes there are interlocked and angled walls to create more cover.
- The central area is much more open to encourage accurate fire and team shooting, but is still very tight in the very centre.
- Respawn points have been individually checked and repositioned, several times.

Overview:

Urban Simulator is a small 1v1 arena style map designed around the concept of an urban training environment. Within the map are many areas which simulate situations that might be found in tight, close quarter city fighting.

These are: long, narrow hallways (possibly apartment complexes or alleyways), balconies, tight blind corners, and ambushes from rooftops. Strong teams should learn to control these areas and their respective weapons (and break setups when another team is already doing so) as they are a key to dominating this map.

The initial concept was a small-scale 1v1 map and it works very well for this, but it is also great for 2v2. It starts to feel very crowded at the 5 players point, so I don't recommend FFA games of greater than 4 players, not least because of the small size and the way H3 prioritises spawn points.

Differences: Although a grav-lift is included to reach the top level (or whatever other uses you want to put it to!), it isn't required for reaching the rooftops. In the previous version, the only way to reach the roof was through grenade or partner jumping. Some people liked it some didn't, but over time it became clear that it slowed down the game's pace so this feature was cut. Getting to the top is still risky, though.

Points of interest:

USv2 is rotationally symmetrical arena built with an outer ring (which has long, narrow hallways and balconies) and a central area that contains the blind corners and the elevations that lead to the rooftops.

http://drunkheretic.com/images/jax/urbansim/v2/overview-large.jpg
Click on the image for a high-resolution panoramic view of the middle area. The view from the other corner is the same.

http://drunkheretic.com/images/jax/urbansim/v2/corner-small.jpg
Click on the image for a high resolution panoramic view of the balcony and hallways.

The environments that each section is supposed to simulate:
Upper level: Rooftops, top-down ambushes.
Middle level, centre: transition area, open lines of sight.
Middle level, outer ring: narrow hallways, tight alleyways, balconies.
Lower level, bases: open lines of sight, negotiating obstacles.
Lower level, centre: blind corners, situation awareness, close quarters combat.

Differences: The lower level has changed the most, which is very clear when you first load the map. The single open boxes have been moved to the corners and merged with the ground to make a step into the outer ring. One corner partition has also been removed to open up the courtyard a little more. The fence boxes have also been completely repositioned.

A light cosmetic detail I quite like are the interlocked doors at the Team spawn points where the teams enter the arena before doing battle. :P

Weapons and equipment:

Human:
4x Battle Rifle
3x SMG
2x Magnum
1x Rocket Launcher (no spare clips, 90 second respawn)
5x Frag Grenade

Covenant:
3x Plasma Rifle
2x Carbine
2x Plasma Pistol
2x Mauler (no spare clips, 90 second respawn)
5x Plasma Grenade

1x Grav-lift

Differences: For those who played the original Urban Simulator, the Sword and sniper rifles are gone and there are no longer any weapons out of normal jumping reach. As noted above, this feature ultimately slowed the pace of games down and in larger team games meant that power weapons would often never be used at all (not necessarily a bad thing, but the weapons are there for a reason).

A grav-lift was included in this version (omitted previously) to facilitate getting to the rooftops. This was previously not included on purpose because, while USv1 generally scored high on durability, it was actually possible to grenade jump out of the arena completely. Now that this is no longer possible I considered it safer to include a grav-lift.

Game types: This map works, as far as I know, with all default game types for both FFA and Team, however it is designed primarily with Slayer (and tested mostly with MLG settings) in mind. The game type I have used most for test this map is on my fileshare but is by no means official, so isn't included as an actual part of this release.

For team games I recommend BR starts but, as much as it pains me to say it, for FFA games I recommend SMG starts. This is because the ability to land headshots right after you have spawned allows you to immediately kill an opponent who has been weakened by combat and you end up trading kills all the way until the end. Not very competitive, I hope you'll agree!

Random Screenshots:

And finally, lulz... what a comeback.