Innovation 1.1

Innovation

A tank! What an innovation!

Centerpiecehttp://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/7A2E0B148A920D5A4D1F311EC8DBB9E5/

Why the f*ck aren't there any tanks in Bungie maps?

Innovation is a heavy vehicle/skyway map, set up for all gametypes. It's a collaborative effort between me (Enailis E09) and Monkeyfaceofdoo, whose Gold account recently ran out. The bases and caches are designed differently, though they're balanced, but the rest of the map is near-symmetrical. I had to alter a few small areas to deal with the sand's asymmetry. It's my first competitive map, and Monkeyface's first map at all. We started it about two months ago and just recently found time to finish it. It has been playtested fairly extensively, but only with small teams.

Overview

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/F72F7A0AF8941D398231703FFE7ACFCF/

Each team has a tank (OMG! This map must suck!), a gauss hog, and a hornet, plus a missile pod, two BR's, two man cannons
to the skyway, and a teleporter to mid-map. Looking at these pictures, I don't think screenshots can do Innovation justice.

Bases from the sniper "towers"

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/A9FD62E1FDC884A5A1C09063F0652526/http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/5BE5AF1110E42F83DF48E920C1FCBCEF/

I designed blue base and Monkeyface made red base, so you know who to blame.

Mid-Map

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/9FDAD0DD97F3B870B6B4B51040D049A1/

This map works fine for all modes, but really shines in Slayer and Team Slayer, especially if you spawn with BR's. Infection is also interesting, with the hard-to-get-to skyways and large open areas. Also, King of the Hill has one very different hill.

Cache

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/FECDECD115F33F34E4251F91D8E113DE/

The local caches are hard to get to - they're in the middle of a tank-infested field - but even harder to escape. You can drop through their roof from the sniper towers. The weaponry they hold isn't going to instantly grant you a running riot, but it's enough to deal with both light vehicles and infantry.

Red Skyway

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/2EBB9B242D578B058FEA2F0E1777756E/

See the spooky purple thing in the background?

The third floor is very hard to get to, but worth it because of the amazing cover. You have to head up the grav lift sitting on the undertunnels, usually bouncing on it once to gain momentum, or grenade jump up.

Left Skyway and Sniper Tower

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/7F03DD32EE7813EB2342375E01433360/

I made sure to balance it. There's a missile pod at each base, a spartan laser in the middle, several brute shots, two trip mines, a bunch of spikes, lots of places to jump down onto and board vehicles from, and two fuel rods that are a little hard to get to. Plus tons of very good cover. If the scorpion stays near its spawn, it can get dropped on from the sniper tower, nailed with the missile pod, or jumped from the base. If it moves to the narrow point of the open field, it can't really shoot anybody and the tight quarters make it hard to aim anyways. Plus the undertunnels are positioned perfectly to jack it. If it tries to move around to the teleporter exit, it loses its line of sights to the high-frequency areas and skyways, and if someone can sneak into the middle, a couple blasts with the laser can take it down. If it heads out into the sands, it becomes super-vulnerable to the missile pods and hornets, and has no escape route.

Also, players don't always spawn at the bases, and when they do, it's usually in the area the tanks can't get to that holds a teleporter and missile pod. Players spawning outside the bases usually have a straight shot to one of the explosive weapons. This ensures no spawnkilling, even if one team controls both tanks. Also, a team down by two to four men (the ones sitting in the scorpions) doesn't have much chance of taking on the rest of the enemy team in close quarters.

Download Innovation

Update 1.1

Adjusted anti-vehicle weapon respawn times, corrected red missile pod spawn, replaced hard-to-get-to fuel rod gun with rocket launcher (so it's actually worth going to), replaced deployable cover with grav lift (very useful anywhere and can be dropped right when you get it to jump straight from cache to sniper tower), opened a few sight lines, removed worthless magnums, removed ghosts, increased tank respawn time, moved neutral bomb and flag spawns to a more interesting spot, got action pics.

ITEM LIST: since you been asking about it...
In each Base:
missile pod
Objective
2 BR's
hornet
2 mancannons to far right skyway and left skyway on close side
teleporter to left midmap

In each open Vehicle Field:
tank (long respawn)
gauss warthog (quick respawn)
mongoose (near middle)
Cache

In each Cache:
brute shot
smg
2 frags
2 firebombs
trip mine
grav lift
straight up tunnel to Sniper Tower
no cover from Vehicle Field

In each Sniper Tower:
sniper rifle
regenerator (on ramp)
ramp to Left Skyway
cover from and drop to bases and vehicle field
exposure to far side and top

On each Left Skyway:
cover from all sides (but not at the same time)
br
jump to centerpiece
receiver for mancannon
open path to Right Skyway

In each Right Skyway:
assault rifle
2 spike grenades
heavy, multisided cover
drop to top of Undertunnels (w/grav lift to Topmap)
receiver for mancannon

In (or on or around) each Undertunnel:
bubble shield
machine gun (covering teleporter with long shot to enemy base)
shotgun
grav lift to Right Skyway (or Topmap with effort)
covered run to Centerpiece

On each Topmap:
flare
rocket launcher
cover from enemy Topmap
cover box (can attack forward-left)
one of the hills (everything as high as Topmap except sands, like sniper towers and fin tops)

Around Centerpiece:
spartan laser
neutral objective in top-middle
jump to Left Skyways
full cover from cardinal directions
half cover towards Vehicle Fields and Undertunnels
ramp to top of Centerpiece from sides (with effort)

TOTAL WEAPON LIST:
Spartan Laser
2 Missile Pods
2 Rocket Launchers
2 Brute Shots
6 BR's
2 Assault Rifles
2 SMG's
2 Sniper Rifles
2 Shotguns
2 Machine Guns

Action pics:

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/A08D005DDA9943A78F46848699A10778/

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/90B219C81FD7BF3622ECE00BD39C6F94/

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/8321A17C639D017B1CEF90C5579127F4/

http://haloscreenshots.net/gallery/2F37CB8A0DF0A5AEB4B45FC03BDF652C/

Download Innovation

I am also including as a bonus a simple custom gametype that works well on this map: My Zombies.

Haven't you always wanted to mow down zombies with a 'hog?

This version of Infection allows the use of light ground vehicles. To balance this the zombies get several boosts, the most significant of which is Zombie Spit: plasma pistol backpack weapons. The main use for these is vehicle disabling, but as a secondary purpose they use the new 25% shield drain to bolster their own health while charging the enemy. Lesser changes include: SMG spawns, Zombie color instead of Black, Overshields for the Last Man instead of a marker (I never understood why the one who survives longest should be punished), and wave respawns.

Download My Zombies