The Pit: Difference between revisions

|location=[[UNSC Training Facility Bravo]] [[Africa]], [[Earth]]<ref name="HU"/>

While most contemporary combat simulations occur in the [[Holography|holographic]] and pneumatic world of [[War Games]], UNSC Training Facility Bravo - alongside others located throughout the [[East African Protectorate]] - offer unfettered, live combat in real world settings. This methodology is the pride and joy of old-school drill instructors, whose lament the rise in illusory combat environs. Ironically, this site was then replicated in War Games as The Pit, a testament to its time-honored combat value.<ref name="HU"/>

*The Pit's internal name during development was ''Cyberdyne'' and was first discovered shortly after the release of the [[Halo 3 Beta]]. However, it was referred to at least once before official reveal under the name of "Gym Class".<ref name="humpday"/>

**The Pit's final name is a reference to ''The Wire''. It was named by Joe Tung, as it's "where all the deals went down".<ref name="postmortem"/>

*In the initial conception of The Pit, developrs [[Steve Cotton]] and [[Chris Carney]] were inspired by architecture of [[:wikipedia:Bernard Tschumi|Bernard Tschumi]]. They were inspired by cultural centres in France, in which several buildings were built underneath one large roof. An early point of the Pit's design was to use light to differentiate both sides of the map, with one side being in light and the other in shade. This was eventually rotated, with the light area being the light streaming into the hangar from the runway and the dark area being the back wall of the hangar.<ref name="postmortem"/>

*In this original design for The Pit, the map was to be the size of a small town roughly the size of ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'' map [[Hang 'Em High]], with action in the rooftop area and on the ground. In this design, the map would be two storeys high, with players fighting to control a street running down the middle while each team controlled half the town. Inspiration was later taken from ''[[Halo 2]]'' map [[Turf]], while playing around on the roofs. Players would be able to grab the flag out of the base and get onto the rooftops with it, and "be like Spider-Man"; jumping and running along the roof back to the friendly base. To prevent situations like those common in [[Zanzibar]] CTF, the flag would be spawned on the lower level and players on the top, so defenders have quick routes to return the flag.<ref name="postmortem"/>

*The inspiration to set the map in a training facility came from a piece of concept art by [[Isaac Hannaford]] set in a rrealistic modern day facility, built out of plywood, metal and spray paint. One concept produced by [[Paul Russel]] set the map in a human pump station, with a waterfall on one part of the map. This idea would set the level in a human military base that would later be reused and turned into the [[Crow's Nest]] level in the campaign. The map itself would be set in a cave with a waterfall leading into a pool, where players would be able to jump off the map and die.<ref name="postmortem"/>

*In creating the aesthetic of the final level, concept done by [[Lee Wilson]] for ''Mindhunter'' was used for inspiration. In doing concept production for that film, Wilson had been sent to a secret facility in Holland to gather reference that he nicknamed "Crime Town". The facility had molded concrete structures that could be reconfigured or detached for training missions. From there, the artists "put in a UNSC flavor – some metal bars, little connectors, and panels. And thus The Pit was born".<ref name="postmortem"/>

*The control room on the map was added with the original intention being that the monitors would actually display CCTV footage from the cameras placed around the map. The room is heavily enclosed due to how expensive this rendering is, but at one point the system was fully working and standing in the control room would let players see what was going on in other areas of the map. The cameras would operate like AI and follow players near them, but had to count as another player due to how much processing power they needed to work correctly. Because of this, it was cut but the control room remained as the sword room.<ref name="postmortem"/>

*As production got going properly, the Pit's layout changed very little with the main exception being the reduced verticality from the original concept. Originally, however, the Active Camo would have spawned in a room down a ramp. This was removed and changed to the green corridor known in the final map variant.<ref name="postmortem"/>

*At one point, the man cannon fans were to be mobile forge objects that could be placed anywhere.<ref name="postmortem"/>

*During development, the Pelicans on the runway were placed in a layout to emulate ''Black Hawk Down''.<ref name="postmortem"/>

***The voices were recorded by [[Lars Bakken]] and [[C. Paul Johnson]].<ref name="postmortem"/>