Orbital: Difference between revisions

'''Orbital''' is one of three maps in the [[Mythic Map Pack]] designed for ''[[Halo 3]]''.<ref>Game Informer December 2008</ref> ''Orbital'', along with ''[[Assembly (level)|Assembly]]'' and ''[[Sandbox]]'', ships with the [[Halo Wars: Limited Edition|Limited Edition]] of ''[[Halo Wars]]''. It was released on [[Xbox LIVE]] Marketplace with the two other Mythic maps on April 9, [[2009]].

Orbital takes place inside the docking-station for the [[Quito Space Tether]], a [[space elevator]] above South America that transports cargo and people in and out of the [[Earth]]'s atmosphere easily. The map is the setting of the [[Epilogue]] in ''[[Halo 3: ODST]]''. The map contains plaques dedicated to Doctors [[Tobias Fleming Shaw]] and [[Wallace Fujikawa]], the creators of the [[Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine]]. Orbital also contains many aesthetic elements, such as windows showing the Earth, electronic devices like display screens, escalators, and even a video phone. Overall the map has a feel of advanced technology.<ref>Game Informer December 2008</ref>

It is said to be best for asymmetrical objective games, like [[Capture the Flag]] and [[Assault]], but also has some natural deadlocks that makes [[Slayer]] interesting and [[Infection]] "terrifying". It's essentially two overlapping hallways in horseshoe shaped levels, so each team can see the other one's spawn through a window above or below them, but they are separated. Both bases of the map have operable doors that are important for objective games.<ref>Game Informer December 2008</ref> It's a two-story map, and one base is located at the end of the second level hallway. The middle of the connecting horseshoes features a chasm which separates both sides, effectively forming a choke point that is crucial to hold.

*Orbital, then known as "Moonbase Alpha", was in production as early as January 2008. <ref>[http://halo.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=13160 '''Bungie.net''': ''Bungie Weekly Update: 1/11/08''] - ''“Moon Base Alpha” – a codename only -  is definitely still being worked on. It’s received some new lighting and different switches to enable and disable access to various parts of the map. We’re still playing it pretty often. It is a brutal map to play on, that may appeal to fans of Elongation, but is absolutely NOT a remake.''</ref> At this time, it was said to be something that would appeal to fans of the map [[Elongation]]. The map was later teased under the codename "Space Camp" in the 14/02/2008 Bungie Humpday Challenge<ref>[http://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?cid=13262 '''Bungie.net''': ''Humpday Challenge: Toying With Macfarlane''] - ''While it’s not the prettiest map in all of Halo history (seriously, the upcoming map nicknamed Spacecamp very well might be, IMHO)''</ref>, before later being confirmed to be the same map as "Moonbase Alpha".<ref>[http://halo.bungie.net/news/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=13264 '''Bungie.net''': ''Bungie Weekly Update: 2/15/08''] - ''In this week’s Humpday Challenge we mentioned a map called "Spacecamp" and its aesthetic beauty. Folks saw that and thought we were mentioning a brand new, never-before-talked-about map. We weren’t, the map we called Spacecamp is actually the map we’ve been talking about for a while now: Moonbase Alpha. While there are undoubtedly other maps in production, we didn’t just give away mention of a new one, we’re at least somewhat careful, sometimes. Moonbase Alpha’s lighting, decorators and general aesthetic continues to impress each time a new build pops up on my dev kit. A small garden of Ivy embraces a shrine in memory of the creators of the Shaw Fujikawa warp drive. And there are crates, oh yes, there are handsome crates.''</ref> More details were later revealed in May 2008 alongside "[[Assembly (level)|Purple Reign]]" and "[[Cold Storage|Smuggler]]", confirming the map's setting of a UNSC space station.<ref>[http://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=13824 '''Bungie.net''': ''Bungie Weekly Update 05/23/08'']</ref>