Archive:Halowars.com/Skirmish Maps/2v2 Maps
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Beasley's Plateau 2v2
Programmer Notes
Chris Stark, Programmer on Halo Wars, talks about his strategies on Beasley's Plateau.
Beasley’s Plateau is probably one of my favorite 2v2 maps. The wide open space gives me plenty of room to maneuver and sneak my army up next to the enemy base before they realize I’m coming. One of my favorite tricks on Beasley’s is to use my scout and a couple of friends to sneak over and grab unused sockets at the start of the game. It’s a great way to get my econ boosted, or start cranking out troops right next to the enemy.
I always try to make sure to take out sockets on the way to the enemy base, that way it’s harder for the enemy to regroup. However, I also like to just attack the sockets with a few troops, and then move the bulk of my army around the other side of their base. As soon as they get their troops over to defend the sockets, I rush in and take out their base.
Designer Notes
Justin Rouse, a skirmish map Designer, gives us one of his tactics:
I like going with a Forge infantry rush on this map because of the extra building sockets near the starting bases. I quickly clear the rebels there and build 2 supply pads on the those sockets. The extra resources allows me to pump infantry and warthogs at the same time. I use this force to get over to the enemy’s free standing sockets since many players will build on them quickly and use the extra buildings to tech/boom faster. If I can take down these buildings I can usually put my opponent into a hole off the start. At that point, if I can keep the pressure on them they’ll begin to crumble.
The other notable thing to do on Beasley’s is to get the Life Support hook in the center. The mistake a lot of people make is they go for this too early in the game. This hook is extremely powerful (+20~25% to total max pop with reinforcements upgraded) but its power will go unused if you acquire this hook before you’re ready to use the population space. You should always wait until you’re near pop cap before fighting the tough rebels at this location, but even if you can’t make use of the pop room its still a good idea to make sure you’re in control of it and not your enemy.
Crevice 2v2
Designer Notes
Paul Jaquays, Skirmish Map Artist, talks about developing Crevice:
Memorable game maps spring from a melding of design intent and fortunate accidents. It can begin with an innovative design layout, perhaps pushing a tried and true layout from an earlier RTS in a new direction. It develops as designers attempt clever, but technically risky game play gimmicks. It takes final shape with art that pushes the envelope. For every map that succeeds, there are likely to be two (or more) that fail, stumbling, and then falling never to rise again on the path to production. Crevice was a map that stumbled more than once, fell, yet got back up and kept going.
Crevice a.k.a. Crevasse, etc. started with the earliest pack of map designs. It was one of the first maps I worked on as I shifted from model-making to map making on Halo Wars. Like Repository it began as a Shield World Interior (aka "Halo style") map. Given the "circular" layout and how Forerunner artifacts were originally placed on the map, it was sometimes confused for Repository. Not the best thing if one is trying for memorable.
Good maps are often built around a "gimmick," some game play function or activity that needs to be supported or encouraged. Initially, this gimmick was "Transport." The center of the map had an isolated central platform with a valuable forerunner artifact that could ony be reached by air-lifting army out to it. Coincidentally, it was also a strategic position upon which artillery pieces and turrets could be placed (this was pre-modular bases). Through the early stages of Halo Wars development, the Transport feature waffled between unsatisfactory functionality and simple unfunctionality. Long before Transport became a working feature, the notion of using it in Crevice had been discarded.
Despite this stumble and near fall, Crevice survived because it had an intriguing layout of start positions. Players, both allies and enemies, began relatively near each other towards the center of the map. To reach an enemy, players had to go away from them first to the outer portions of the map.
During development, Crevice shifted from the inside of the Shield World to the outside. To achieve this, I painted over a screen capture of the current version of the map, sketching out ideas for details on notebook paper. The design rework of the map had turned the central platform into a big hole. I suggested changing this into a playable area, a partially buried circular Forerunner platform. One feature I wanted to play up was the "bouncy-ness" of the warthogs, so where possible, I sculpted in small steps and shelves into the terrain. The UNSC portable bridges were adapted from the early campaign maps (via a quick paint job that turned snow to yellow dust) and retasked on this map (kudos to artist Don Gagen for both the original bridge and the clean-up for this map).
The switch to Shield World Exterior brought with it two new game play features centered around the Flood creeps infesting the map. The First, and core concept was "the Flood come out at night." Art created a day and night light-set for the map. Programming implemented a way to cycle and blend between the two light sets. Design built complex, yet elegant paths for flocks of flying flood to follow, focusing on the foundation locations of the player bases.
It worked. It was beautiful to behold. It was a serious game play challenge. Yet it completely flushed game performance down the toilet and ultimately, had to be abandoned.
The second concept was related to the first, that of the Flood Slayer, a mobile Forerunner artifact, player-capturable and controllable (possibly a vehicle or a super sentinel). I don't remember this going much beyond the idea stage, though there may have been something built for it (super sentinels eventually appeared in other maps). I definitely never got the chance to play test it.
Another idea abandoned, another stumble, even a fall. But it was not a failure. By this point Crevice was a a nearly complete production map well on its way to completion and despite the failed Flood features, was still a fun map, and just as important, a memorable map.
If I have any regrets on this one, it's that we didn't get to implement those awesome toxic slime waterfalls into the map.
Paul Jaquays is a former Ensemble Studios artist who now develops games as Senior Level Designer for CCP North America.
Multiplayer Notes
Duncan Stanley, Community Manager for Halo Wars, on Crevice:
Crevice can be a confusing map, since there aren't any direct paths from each teams starting location to the opponents bases, except by air. There are plenty of extra bases on this map for expansions, as well as 4(!) reactors across the map. Given the large distance and creeps in between everything, it is usually a good idea to team up with your ally to capture objectives.
I usually go for the reactor near the Flood expansion near me and occupy that early on. It gives me a bit of early warning if my opponent comes at me that way, and the extra tech is very nice as well. I also try to take that base early, since it's the closest expansion to the opponents main base. If I manage to get it, I try to make that base my unit producing one, so that my opponent is pressured constantly. You do have to be careful of air units coming at you over the very short gap between bases though, anti-air turrets or a Wolverine or two are very helpful on this map.
If I know that the game is going to drag on, and it's going to be a big battle for the Flood-expansion, the 2 free bases inbetween my ally and me are also a great resource to use. If I can convince my opponent to live with just his 1 flood expansion, I can sometimes get both of the back bases, and churn out a bunch of air units to harass my opponents while my ally takes out their bases. Crevice is a pretty good non-standard map for trying new things.
Docks 2v2
Designer Notes
Justin Rouse, Designer on Halo Wars, talks about his strategies on Docks.
Iterations: The_Docks, our city map on arcadia world, was a difficult map to create because we had to stick to our core gameplay which did not include any building to building fighting which is the usual type of fighting style you see in city based conflicts. We also placed a rule on ourselves that because this map was on Arcadia, in a pristine UNSC city it couldn’t have large forerunner structures in it nor could it have the look of a large covenant presence. This limited the designer of the map a lot because it took away a lot the available in game “hooks” we had available to add to gameplay. What we settled on was a large section of the city of “Pirth” that conveniently had only one passable location in the center to move between two sides. We also added a few covenant towers to help defend this large choke point that can give some flavor to the large battles that usually occur in this location.
Tactic: Because of the choke point and decent travel time from one side to the other early in the game, it’s pretty safe too boom up. This is why I really like using Cutter and elephant/marine rushing on this map. If I can setup my Elephant near the enemy bases and get it pumping I can slow down their boom sometimes, even keeping them off the open base location near their start area while my partner boom/techs freely. This tends to leave me behind the curve a bit but I can still get to ODST’s and just support my teammate until we can get the win.
Multiplayer Notes
Duncan Stanley, Community Manager for Halo Wars, on Docks:
Docks was a map that I hadn't really playtested much on during development. I was usually playing Campaign missions or 1v1 games, so I never really got into many 2v2 matches. When Halo Wars first launched I was online playing Multiplayer games every night after work to get out there and talk to people in game and get a feel for how the Community was going. I was doing pretty well, about 14-0 in 1v1 games, when all of a sudden I found myself on Docks. It's a 2v2 map, but due to a glitch was in the 1v1 hopper for a time. While the game was loading, I looked up my partner's game stats on HaloWars.com so I could see what he had built in previous games. This tactic was usually pretty good, as I could build a counter without even scouting!
Unfortunately my tactic only works if my opponent doesn't adapt to my strategy. I had pumped out a few Flame Marines and built a turret and was waiting for resources to expand to one of the many free bases on docks when my opponents Brute Chieftan showed up with a few packs of Brutes. A melee ensued and my units got crushed by his skillful micromanagement and kiting. I was pumping out more marines, and my turrets were having an effect, when a Banshee showed up, and then another, and then another. I had spent too much time countering his ground units that I had completely forgot about the huge wall in the middle, and the necessity of air units. To end this quickly, he wrecked me. I was too confident that since I knew what he was going to try, that I didn't really try to adapt. So don't be too confident!
Labyrinth 2v2
Programmer Notes
Chris Stark, Programmer on Halo Wars, talks about his strategies on Docks.
During the development of Halo Wars, I did a lot of work on the teleporters in the game, including the ones on Labyrinth. Teleporters sound awfully easy to write, don’t they? Unit goes in one side, unit appears on the other side, done! Sadly, there are a variety of fun edge cases that have to be dealt with. One of my “favorite” teleporter bugs that came up during development resulted in units going through the teleporter leaving tire tracks going across the entire map.
Behind the scenes in Halo Wars, when you move a unit to a new position, it’s interpolated, so when I moved the unit across the map to the other teleporter, it was interpolated across the map. When vehicles move, they leave tire tracks, so presto! Tire tracks across the map. Admittedly, it was pretty funny but nothing we could ship. Fortunately, fixing this was as easy as turning the interpolation flag off when a unit went into the teleporter and then back on when it reached the other side.
Multiplayer Notes
Duncan Stanley, Community Manager for Halo Wars, on Labyrinth:
Labyrinth is one of my favorite maps, mostly because it was the one that was Dave Pottinger (Halo Wars Lead Designer) demo'd on G4TV at E3 2008. If you haven't seen it, you definitely should look for the video online, it's one of the funnier game demos I have seen. It brings a new meaning to turkey bacon.
As far as gamplay goes, Labyrinth was one of the maps I played most while playtesting. There was a really good challenge the designers set for us, which was fastest time to beat 2 Legendary AI players in a 2v2 skirmish. The Skirmish AI is pretty good at keeping you from having both natural expansions at the same time, so it was always a back and forth for me and I usually ended up losing until I had one of the balance testers as my partners. He showed me that having a good defense, only going for 2 bases total and going for air on this map is very effective, given that it takes quite a while to traverse the map. Trying to keep and hold both expansions can be tough, so take your time and get a good foothold before going for both.
