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By CGH xSGT Panda | Posted:
March 20, 2008 2:41pm
Avalanche (AKA Cotton Ball), the second
map from next month’s Legendary Map pack – due
April 15th for 800 marketplace points (remember,
we just make the maps, we don't get to price them) –
is a lovingly crafted reimagination of Halo: Combat Evolved
classic Sidewinder. It wouldn’t be wholly accurate to
call it a “remake,” but elements of Avalanche
are certainly culled from Sidewinder – it has the same
familiar U-shape, multiple ways from base-to-base, and a whole
sandbox full o’ vehicles to play with. But there are
many, many changes too.
Designers Niles Sankey and Lars Bakken
along with artists Mike Buelterman and Jason Sussman have
answered a bunch of questions about Avalanche and hopefully
between their answers and the accompanying pictures, what
Avalanche is will begin to crystallize.
Q: What did
each of you do on Avalanche?
Lars Bakken: I did
the initial map set-up work (weapons, game types, vehicles,
etc) and then handed it off to Niles so he could make it better.
Towards the end, I oversaw any bug fixes that impacted design.
Mike Buelterman: I
somehow got slapped with the ownership of the map but we all
did our part to help pull the map together to really let the
soul of Sidewinder shine through with Avalanche. I started
with the unwieldy geometry straight from the original Sidewinder
file and then worked to beat it into submission in the architecting
stage. I worked with design to help fix the issues that occurred
on Sidewinder when it came to stalemating and infantry fatigue
while on foot. After which I was tasked with the large forerunner
structures and bases. Jason Sussman worked on the center hallways,
ice cave, and forge placeable objects. Sam Jones ended up
owning the terrain, and Harold Lamb did some great work on
the mancannons and glowing probes in the back of the bases.
Jason Sussman: I worked
on the Forerunner center pass section (Shotty area) and the
outer portions of the bases. Along with a few twigs here and
there.
Niles Sankey: Designer.
This generally entails guiding environment artists in developing
the spaces, although Buelterman and Sussman are both very
talented artists and a lot of the spatial design was handled
by them. As a designer I also work on objective and object
placement and weapon/vehicles types.
Q: What’s the fictional
setting for Avalanche?
NS: Snow… duh.
LB: (Spoilarz) Hopefully
I’m not ruining it for anyone that hasn’t finished
Halo 3 yet, but I believe it’s on the new “under-construction”
Installation 04, yes?
JS: I think we all
had this idea of it being some sort of power plant type of
structure where the power was being drawn from within the
ice. This idea was started from Harold Lamb who made the man
cannons that poke out from the cliffs and the snow covered
ground. He mentioned it one day and it just kinda stuck. That’s
mainly why I made the middle section look like some kind of
carving/power storage machine thingy ma bob.
MB: Avalanche is a
large forerunner power station set on the front of a huge
glacial shelf on an under construction Halo installation.
The structure is pulling its power out of the densely compacted
ice that constantly builds up behind the station before it
falls into the ocean below.
Q: What’s different about
Avalanche in terms of actual structural changes?
NS: Buelterman knows
best. NO LADDERS!
LB: The basics are
the same, but you’ll notice some new additions (man
cannons), and some things missing (the interior tunnel between
the bases). We also haven’t had any ladders in Halo
multiplayer maps since Halo 1, so we had to re-design the
interiors of the bases to accommodate that. There are a lot
more quick ways to get around the level now, that’s
probably the biggest change.
JS: Well the first
thing that folks will notice is that the rear hallways that
connected the bases have been removed. This was mainly due
to the fact that people had a tendency to use them over taking
vehicles. Being that sidewinder is all about the vehicles
traversing this huge snowy plane, having folks mainly fight
in a hallway just made the whole experience not as fun.
The other change that people will notice
is that there is a new cavern area that connects the central
section to the front of the map via mancannon. That route
is very handy for when you’re getting pummeled from
either entrance. It can be a fast way out of a hot zone.
One of the other great things that
makes Avalanche different from Sidewinder is the addition
of mancannons. Having the mancannons definitely changes up
the on-foot aspect of Sidewinder. And they are great for launching
the flag from one area to another when you’re in a jam.
MB: Most of the higher
level changes from Sidewinder to Avalanche came about from
the fact that the original map was just too huge for someone
on foot, and objective games stalemated pretty frequently.
The main structural changes included the additions of the
mancannons placed at key areas to help the player on foot
get from point A to point B as fast as possible. With those
mancannons we were able to remove the back infantry hallways
to move more of the action out into the main play area, which
is what this map is all about. Another important change was
the large increase of vehicles at your disposal. As a big
team battle map we really needed to make it feel like the
-blam!- was hitting the fan, and the best way to make that
happen is to give the player a nice supply of vehicles. Let’s
just say you won’t need to wait around long for a nice
new set of wheels. We also opened up a few more attack routes
into the bases to try and ease the stalemate issues that we
saw on Sidewinder.
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