GT: Darkling Ninjas
File: Permafrost v1
Playercount: 4 vs 4
Gametypes: Slayer, strongholds, ball

[B]Map Authors and Contributors

Lead Design: Darkling Ninja
Co-designers: Limey, Redemption. Sethiroth

Design input: Fritzer, HezbollaHector, The Fated Fire, Warholic, Nitroo, Psycho Duck, A3leggedgoat, Atlas, Agentpapercraft

Co-forgers: Eww Your Skinny, Darkling Ninja, Redemption

Map Information and History

Permafrost’s Long History:

Originally called Mutant, Permafrost was one of those everyone was excited for it, but it never was completely finished or released. Many people are aware of the design and it has become one of those famous maps that was never made.

The original Permafrost was designed over 7 years ago for the first Halo 3 MLG forge forum map pack. It was inspired by guardian, lockout. I, Sethiroth and Fritzer have all put some of our design skills into making this a good map. Here is a picture of the original sketch up

Many people were excited and looked forward to its release. In the end it turned out to be impossible to forge on Halo 3 with the piece limitations. The fact is that Permafrost was just to far ahead of its time for Halo 3. Permafrost was put on the back burner for the first time, as we all waited for the next Halo game to be released hoping that the next forge system would be able to handle the map.

Enter the brokenness of Halo: Reach. Permafrost was redesigned soon after the games release by me and Sethiroth. Even though we had little issues redesigning some areas, we were not able to find any solutions for the frame rate issues. In the end frame rate killed Permafrost. The forge pieces required to create Permafrost in Halo: Reach consisted of primarily frame rate heavy objects. Combine that with the long lines of sight, there was no way to make Permafrost on Halo: Reach without frame rate. Halo: reach could not handle the design either. Me and Sethiroth gave up on Permafrost and focused on our own work. Upset with the frame issues of Halo: Reach forge, frustrated with the broken and terrible game play, and busy with college I stop playing Halo and disappeared from the face of XBL and Halo for the next 2 years, leaving Permafrost and forge behind.

Then I got my hands on Halo 4, a vast improvement over Halo: reach. Halo was once again fun for me to play. I picked back up forge, and got involved with the community once again. I practiced making maps to get use to the system while re-designing Permafrost for Halo 4. At first Halo 4 had no problem handling Permafrost, sadly enough Halo forge design had advanced so far that Permafrost was no longer light years ahead of its time. The map was first forged on Ravine, and the design was able to be tweaked. After some stress testing the map was revealed to have framerate on the longer lines of sight. So it was re-forged on the new forge islands.

The forge island version had no noticeable framerate in testing and everything was going great. The map was featured by multiple channels, and even here on forgehub (http://www.forgehub.com/threads/mutant.145325/). The map received a lot of notoriety and positive feedback. The cartographers at the time planned it to be in multiple play list. The competitive community also loved the map The European gaming league as well as ESL where considering the map for the tournament rotations. Then the worst happened……..

343 industries put the map under there framerate stress test and found the map to have frame rate problems. I ask the cartographers at the time what I could do about it and they said nothing. The cartographers ask 343 the same thing I ask them, and 343 told them that the map has to many long sight lines that view to many objects. These long sight lines make it impossible to make in the current forge system without frame rate. Due to this Permafrost was not able to be in match making, let alone a tournament because of the frame rate. Once again frustrated by both forge and the gameplay I left halo for 2 years and built a pc and stayed a pc gamer for 2 years.

Enter Halo 5, after forge was released my friend who had H5 invited me over to play. I enjoyed myself, and saw what people where making so I decided to get my hands on it. I made a couple maps, getting use to the new forge system and re-hashing my knowledge of map design. I decided once again forged Permafrost.

At this point it is just about doing the map justice. I want to make a good playing version of the map without frame rate. After all the time I have put into this design I just want one that plays well without frame rate. After much testing and tweaking I think I finally have a version of the map I am happy with.

Map Description:

Permafrost is a 4 tower, asymmetrical competitive map, which specializes in slayer, strongholds and oddball. Since its conception, Permafrost has been geared towards competitive game play.

This is a fast pace asymmetrical competitive map. Rapid fighting and non-stop action is what Permafrost has to offer. The map promotes movement and team work, and demotes camping. The geometry of the map does not rely on lazy cover and/or generic geometry to provide cover for players. Providing oneself with cover will depend on taking advantage of the angles and using team support.

Unlike most 4 tower asymmetrical maps, stalemates and polarized spawns are not an issue. Like all maps stale mates happen from time to time, but they do not last very long. The longest stalemate has been 45 seconds in my testing. The lockout problem does not exist on this map, a team will not find themselves making a hard push to a power point just to spawn in the same place over and over. (Like lift room on lockout) The spawns are dynamic, yet sensible and controllable.

The levels on the map are balanced out well and no part of the map is underplayed. The high ground remains the coveted locations to control just like any other map, but the other levels are not without vital importance. Middle ground provides more cover, with critical shooting angels, and versatility, making middle ground a vital location to utilize properly. Low ground provides the most cover with access to flanking positions, as well as an Overshield spawn making it important to keep an eye on.

I have to say the interactions between the towers works great as well. Almost everyone who has played the map has said they enjoyed how the towers interacted with one and other.

Weapons
x1 Overshield
x1 PlasmaCaster
x1 Shotgun (No extra clip, Slayer Only)
x1 Hydra (1 clip, Ball and Strongholds Only)

x2 DMR
x2 BR
x1 Plasma Pistol
x1 SMG (1 clip only)
x2 Supressor (1 clip only)

x5 frag
x3 plasma
x3 splinter
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