"Need a blade or armor? You should talk to CaptainDireWolf, at the forge." (Haha couldn't resist)

Gametypes supported: Slayer (FFA, Team), Strongholds, and Infection

Whiterun – The Journey to Creation

This is it. My coup de grâce. So far, I’ve tried my hand at developing maps for unique racing like “Podracer: Boonta Eve,” maps geared towards total FFA craziness like “The Hunger Games,” epic Star Wars space battles in “Starfighter Combat,” and epic sea battles aboard pirate ships in “BlackFlags”. I’ve also worked on crazy parkour/challenge/puzzle maps like “The Crusade” and “Summer Olympics,” 1v1 mind games within “Poke’ Battle,” other ludicrous mini games such as “Lawnmower Spree” and “Moby D,” and finally a boss battle gametype like “Bongo Bongo”. I FINALLY decided to branch out and try my hand at making my first true core map (crazy right?). Of course, I’m a sucker for designing maps based on my favorite childhood games, so I decided to turn to Skyrim for inspiration.

Whiterun – The Design

In my quest for finding a balanced mix of beauty and map layout, I looked into every major city within Skyrim. However, some of the most aesthetically beautiful places like Solitude and Winterhold had layout designs that I felt simply weren’t conducive to halo gameplay. Markarth looked pretty good, though I don’t feel it’s as well known to the community and so chose the classic Whiterun.

Whiterun’s beauty lies in the flowing waters and a variety of familiar landmarks seen throughout the city, so I first and foremost made sure to recreate these as close to the originals as possible in forge. From Warmaiden’s armor shop, to the Gildergreen Tree, to Dragonsreach, and even the Skyforge under the great rock bird, you’ll hopefully get some nostalgia. Match all of these structures with the simple, yet effective housing and market designs and I found that I had a decent layout to play with. Mix in a little terrain, a dash of strategically placed rocks, and a sprinkle of trees to give a little life to Whiterun’s typical bleak environment and voila! Whiterun was born into the Halo 5 universe.

Whiterun – Gameplay and Guns

I originally just saw Whiterun playing well in FFA and Team Slayer, however, I also designed it for strongholds and Infection. I certainly encourage suggestions for improvement as I'm new to designing core gameplay, but I’m under the belief that stronghold locations fit best in the Marketplace, near the Shrine of Talos (or who I call the Daedric Grunt), and by the Hall of the Dead, as it gives reasonably balanced distance for starting teams to reach.

As for weapon choices, I tried to keep things simple. There are four power weapons: sniper rifle, hammer, and railgun. I personally hate hydra with a passion and rocket launcher always feels slightly OP so I kept them out. Other guns include DMR, battle rifle, smg, plasma pistol, needler, pistol, plasma rifles, shotgun, a sword (of course there's one, it's skyrim!), and an overshield for balance. As I have more experience with designing minigames, feel free to let me know if you think I should change or move any of the weapons located on the map.

Final Remarks:
- It is possible to climb onto building roofs and a few of the inner walls to get an edge on people while battling, which I didn't realize until testing with others that it turned out to be rather fun. (The design of the city didn't allow for much verticality to begin with so I'll take what I can get HA!

- Hope you enjoy playing Whiterun as much as I did forging it. It took me the longest time to forge out of all of my maps, but I think it was worth it. Again, I’m CaptainDireWolf and hit the download link above to check it out in all of its glory for yourself. Cheers!