Sandbox Marksman 1.0 on Sidewinder

[Shroomz]

Map Title: Sidewinder1.1
Updated 7/31/09
Inspired by the map, Halo
Recommended # of players : 8-16




Download Map : Sidewinder1.1 - 275+ downloads
Download Gametype : Marksman 1.1 ( zombie without infinite ammo ) - 125+ downloads
Download Map : Sidewinder - 200+ downloads
Download Gametype : Marksman 1.0 - 125+ downloads

Description:
I've seen many variations and spin-offs of the map, Halo... but all of them suck compared to the original. I was tired of seeing these poorly forged variations that usually favor the zombie even more than the original, or even making it way too short for the driver. Halo, despite looking average in the forging, was the perfect blend of skill driving versus marksmanship. Although the course is difficult, especially with all the other jackasses playing, it was possible to make it completely around the track to get your opportunity to kill the sniper.

With Sidewinder, I tried to use the same formula as Halo... but added a twist... literally. With Halo, the sniper had it pretty easy. It was pretty much the same distance all the way around and the sniper only had to follow the track. Sidewinder starts off similarly, but forks off into two courses... each with it's own twists, turns, and jumps. The two tracks are pretty much the same distance, but they constantly switch to being in front, in back, higher, and lower than the other track all while riding side by side with the other track. In essence, I made it slightly more difficult for the sniper because he now must switch between two different tracks to snipe at. At the same time, the difficulty for the humans is a little higher as well. It's not just a matter of turning the the right all the time with a few minor course corrections. There are some sharper turns and plenty of jumps, so be sure to straighten out before each ramp to maximize your chances of landing well enough to continue on. Just like in the original Halo, you also must have a mongoose in order to complete the course.

At the end of the course there is a trick to getting through the teleporters above. There are some deployable grav lifts on a weapon holder. There are also two damaged columns on the ground laying on their side. Throw the grav lift on the damaged column and the column will rise into the air. It should take you either through the teleporters or near them so you can fall through. You will then be teleported to one of three locations.
1.) A sniper tower with the guardian tower light blinding the sniper.
2.) Another sniper tower hidden in a guardian tower light.
3.) Under the sniper tower, where you can pick up an invisibility, sword, and grav hammer and assassinate the sniper.

To prevent the sniper zombie from killing himself before he can get sniped, I created a funnel pit that has some teleporters at the bottom which will take him right back into his tower. The teleporters at the bottom of that pit are the same teleporters used to assassinate the zombie sniper. You just come in from underneath instead of falling in the pit.

Here's some pics...

Zombie Sniper Tower


Human Spawn Area/Start ( As you can see it's similar to the original Halo, but completely remade with scaffolding and wooden planks.


This is where the two different paths start.

Here's some shots of the course...











This is the trick to getting through the teleporters.


Human Sniper Tower ( hidden in the guardian tower lights )


These are the teleporters at the bottom of the pit under the zombie tower. To assassinate the zombie, you have to go under the tube piece and jump up through it if you spawn under the tower.

Game Settings for Marksman 1.0...

Human Traits:
All normal health and shield attributes.
Starting Weapon : Magnum
Infinite Ammo : Enabled
Weapon Pickup : Enabled
Speed : 125%
Gravity : 150%
Waypoint : Visible To Allies
I made them slightly faster and decreased their jumping to prevent making it across some jumps.

Alpha Zombie Traits:
All normal health and shield attributes.
Starting Weapon : Magnum
Damage Modifier : 125%
Infinite Ammo : Enabled
Weapon Pickup : Enabled
Speed : 100%
Gravity : 200%
Sensors : None
Waypoint : Visible to Everyone
Zombie Damage was increased so that two body shots or one headshot will kill the humans. Two sniper shots to the front wheel of a mongoose will destroy it. Gravity was increased to minimize the chance of the zombie being able to commit suicide by jumping over the pit.

Last Man Standing Traits :
Damage Resistance : 150%
Shield Multiplier : Normal
Shield Recharge : 90%
Damage Modifier : 150%
Active Camo : Poor Camo
Waypoint : Visible to Everyone
These settings were slightly increased to hopefully give the human a better chance to kill the zombie... if they can still manage to make it through the course.

Custom Powerup Traits :
Duration : 60 seconds
Damage Modifier : 200%
Player Gravity : 200%
Active Camo : Poor Camo
Forced Color : Gold

Game Settings :
Points for killing the zombie : 10
Points for killing the humans : 1
Number of Rounds : 10
Time Limit : 3 minutes
Friendly Fire : Disabled
Lives : 1
The rounds are short. It should take no longer than 3 minutes to complete the round. Majority of the time, people just fall off while driving. If you don't get a mongoose at the start, wait for someone to die and a mongoose to respawn. You cannot make it completely around the track without a mongoose. I have it set up so there is a run time minimum of 8 and all the mongooses have 10 second respawn times. It's a glitched map, so it doesn't always work as quickly as I'd like.

This map has absolutely no rocket launchers. Only n00bs play with rocket launchers. The alpha zombie only has a sniper rifle. The sniper rifle is more than enough to hit the mongoose and nudge the driver off the side. You also have more than enough time to knock them off before they reach the end if you do it systematically. The sniper rifle is perfect because when reloading, it offers the human an opportunity to recharge shields and a small break from being sniped. Beam rifles can be constantly fired and offer no breaks if you use it correctly, thus giving the zombie even more of an advantage.

The idea behind the 3 destinations for the human teleporter is that the zombie has the advantage for 95% of the game. If a human can actually make it all the way around, the advantage swings in their favor. If a human makes it all the way around the course, the zombie can't just camp one teleporter to kill them. They now only have a 33% chance of camping the right teleporter... if they can see it. It is also possible that multiple humans make it all the way around. This would possibly put the zombie in a crossfire situation... or one person distracting the zombie while another comes in to assassinate them.

You definitely want larger parties with this game. I've played this numerous times with about 4-6 players and unfortunately we were all decent snipers. The human made it all the way around 2 times in over 50 rounds of the game. Many times the human made it around the track only to mess up at the end of the course. I personally dismounted my mongoose too late and ended up on the mancannons taking me back to the start.

This map is definitely not one of my best examples of forging. It's a map for the gameplay. The track is interlocked around every turn. There's maybe 1-2 areas with bumps from poor interlocking. It doesn't affect the gameplay though. Some friends and I made it through the course full throttle, so it is possible. Most of the time we use common sense and slow down when needed. If you do that, you should have no problem navigating the course.

I wasn't going to post this map, but decided that I should so that people don't start taking credit for my hard work. I've been running into some games using my maps, but they've been renamed and people have been taking credit for it.

Special Thanks :

Devinish, Cosmic Rick, and Uc Gollum for the canvas map.
Blackjack389 for assistance with the human sniper towers.

Playtesters :
Blackjack389
WhiteLoneWolf90
beastlybeast92
giraffesrock536 + guest
Guywitguns
LiveLaughLove77
POL Ducttape + guest
+ anyone else that entered the game while we were playing.

Hope you all have as much fun playing this map as me and my friends do. We all enjoy this much better than all those shitty Halo variations.

UPDATE :

Changes in v1.1 :
Issue : Zombie could hide in sniper tower from snipers.
Resolution : Zombie tower was lowered by one block height.

Issue : Zombies would get out of the tower and hide in the pit and snipe anyone trying to assassinate them.
Resolution : Remade the zombie tower so the sniper slot is narrower and zombies can't jump out anymore.

Issue :

Originally Posted by Spawn of saltin

1. The very beginning is way too hectic. The humans all spawn right next to each other( not next to a respective mongoose).

Resolution : While I didn't see this as a problem, I did change the beginning for the human spawn. I added another half wooden plank on the back end of the platform and put all the spawn points there. The spawn points are also in two rows now instead of one.

Issue :

Originally Posted by Spawn of saltin

2. the mongoose are on scaffolding, this is bad. The little bars that pop up off them keeps 2-3 mongoose from leaving the platform easily.

Resolution : Again, for a decent driver my friends and I did not see this as a problem... but I merged those pipes in front with tube ramps so if you can't drive, you now hit a small wall instead of a pipe.
[Click on spoiler to see new human spawn area]

Issue :

Originally Posted by Spawn of saltin

3. The zombie spawns infront of the sniper, But hes facing the wrong direction?

Resolution : This will not change. This gives the drivers time to get in mongooses and drive off... kinda like a head start for the humans.

Issue :

Originally Posted by Spawn of saltin

4. the right path where the paths fork is tweaked a little strangely so if you come to close to the left of entering it you will fall off.

Resolution : Again I did not see this as an issue for decent drivers that were familiar with the track. I stated earlier that I had a fin there originally. I now remember why I removed it. So it would not provide the drivers with cover and because it was more troublesome to drivers that hit it. Instead I lowered the blue light that was hovering above that section and it is now blocking the middle gap. If you now drive straight instead of left or right, you hit the blue light.
[Click on spoiler to see change in the fork in road]

Issue :

Originally Posted by Spawn of saltin

5. The mancannon jumps! I swear I would have won the game so many times if it weren't for those. If you could make some type of cradle where the landing to the jumps is it would help a lot. This way when your mongoose lands upside down after the jump you will not tumble off the edge.

Resolution : While my friends and I never saw that as a problem as long as you hit one mancannon instead of both, I gave that whole area a makeover. There is now one mancannon there so you should flip side over side less frequently if you hit it straight on. Due to the tube ramp, you do occasionally flip front over back. I used 4 single tin cups with wooden planks as side rails to help with flipping off the edge. I also have a single hovering wall above the 3rd tin cup. You'll usually either hit the front of it and stop, or you'll bounce up under it and stop. I hate pampering drivers and making this easier, but meh... no more crying now. You can now only blame it on poor driving.
[Click on spoiler to see change in the mancannon jump/landing]

Issue :

Originally Posted by Spawn of saltin

6. I almost forgot, but along with the hectic beginning, every human driving a mongoose in a wall width road did not work too well. If you widened the driving area of the beginning that would solve a lot of that chaos.

Resolution : That won't change either. That's like asking me to make half walls into full walls. For the drivers, this is about patience and skill. Two mongooses can easily fit within the width of that wooden plank, hell we've even had 3 mongooses across. If you're in that situation, let them go ahead of you. They'll usually get shot at first anyways. You can also see which routes they take and take the opposite so you're not driving up their tailpipe. At least now, you don't have the humans standing in your driving path so that should ease some of that up.

Issue : One of the columns in the red column bridge was slightly off.
Resolution : I leveled it out a little bit and added one more column. Should be pretty smooth even with gaps.
[Click on spoiler to see change in the red column bridge]

Issue : Left path first small jump.
Resolution : Changed the ramp from tube ramp to small wedge. Removed tube ramp at landing. Also added guide rails for those crappy drivers that can't land. No more tears about jumps being too difficult.
[Click on spoiler to see change in the 1st jump on left path.]

Issue : Blue columns on end platform made walking very bumpy.
Resolution : I lowered and merged them so it should be smoother to walk across. You still need to grav lift the column to get up through the teleporters, though. That will not change.

[Click on spoiler to see change in the final platform.]

Other minor change...
- Needed tube ramp from this double jump, so now both jumps bounce off the shield door. I removed a tall block from the beginning of the landing and placed it further where it was needed.
[Click on spoiler to see change in combined jump.]

- Changed the layout under the sniper tower for the assassination option. It's now a small hallway leading to the teleporters under the tube. There is a two-way teleporter up to the right that can take you to a sniper tower if you want.

- Added teleporter to mancannon jump. That way you have a 33% chance of returning to the start area to grab a mongoose again.

- Closed gap in teleporters before the last jump. Those teleporters are two-way. You'll either exit the other one or end up at the beginning again.

- Moved kill ball with attacker respawn point at end of map. If anyone tries to quit and rejoin after dying, they are repeatedly instant killed. You can now jump over it if you want to go back to the beginning from the end platform.

- Unblocked some guardian towers so that if humans dropped from sniper tower, they'd get killed by the guardians now.

- Changed number of clips in zombie sniper rifle to 1 instead of two.

GAME TYPE UPDATE :

Changes in Marksman 1.1

- I disabled infinite ammo for the zombie sniper. This causes the zombie to need to get more ammo after 8 or 12 shots ( depending on when you downloaded the 1.1 version of the map ), allowing him to lose momentum and letting the humans get a little farther. I still had no problems killing numerous humans with only 1 spare clip before they reached the end, so as long as you can aim... it's just more challenging.

[Dak393]

Looks great love the two paths that you made I'm surprised you were able to build that much without hitting the object limit. I will have to download this one and delete the halo I have. Halo had started to get boring anyways. I should be back here with my review and suggestions once I play it with a large party.

ok finally got a chance to play this map kind of forgot about it for a while. Its a great game that's fun with many people I think its better than the original halo because of its different tracks and challengingly long course. If you play with few people or a good sniper the game tends to end rather quickly as you all fall off. I personally like the right path as I think it is easier but both paths are similarly difficult. The challenge in navigating the paths (even without a sniper) is actually a good thing and leads to even the experienced drivers falling off giving a chance to others. The one problem I have found is that its fairly easy to get out of the sniper area and dodge the net thats meant to catch you. overall I think its a great new take on a good idea and I will be holding on too this one for a while 4/5

EDIT: Amazing edit you fixed all the problems with version 1, I will download it again I've had so much fun playing this with many friends. I'm speechless not many people actually fix their maps 5/5 again amazing.

[Shroomz]

Originally Posted by Dak393

Looks great love the two paths that you made I'm surprised you were able to build that much without hitting the object limit. I will have to download this one and delete the halo I have. Halo had started to get boring anyways. I should be back here with my review and suggestions once I play it with a large party.

About 50% of the map has two different paths. The two paths eventually merge again. One path is directly below the other path before the first shield door. The top path will clear the shield door on the jump. The bottom path will bounce off the shield door and land on the path if you're lined up correctly. The shield door jumps are where it's impossible for the humans to make it without a mongoose.

I used an OLN budget glitched canvas and had plenty of pieces available. As long as you use up most of the original pieces, you will have a lot of pieces to spare. This is actually my first map in which it doesn't start flickering from hitting the item limit. I never deleted any item that I spawned and used them to create the pit. That way if I ever wanted or needed to update the map, I had the pieces available. All the weapons, vehicles, and equipment from the canvas are still on the main level. When I first thought of doing this, I used the original Halo map and soon found out that I was too close to the item limit. That's when I decided to just start from scratch with a canvas.

This map should be a nice change of pace from the original Halo and should prove to be quite challenging to stay on the track throughout the course. Many of the jumps may cause you to flip and roll ( often to your death ), but every one of them if hit correctly can end up with you landing perfectly and can continue driving. Many of my friends who are fans of the original Halo have made it around the track several times without a sniper, so we know it's possible. We've even made it around the track and took the mancannons back to the start and tried the course again taking the other path.

Oh yeah... for anyone that thinks it's funny to quit and rejoin the game after you die, an attacker respawn point is in the middle of that kill ball. Even if they do manage to respawn, they'll have 10% health, the slowest speed and do absolutely no damage. Rounds are only 3 minutes, so it's not a long wait unless you suck and die right away.

[TrustierToaster]

That is so cool. I've played maps like this before, but none as good looking as this.That's very cool how you made multiple levels, it shows that you took the time and effort to make this map, incredible job man.

[Shroomz]

Yeah. I was getting tired of all those maps that made shortcuts or extended the length you had to drive. Just plain stupid, if you ask me. Then there's those maps that are made where you have to stop in order to turn. Screw that. Especially when the game type gave the zombie rockets. People seriously don't know what game play is all about. The outside of the sky bubble is the perfect length for a sniper course. I was just tired of all those abominations made and decided to make my own. One that wasn't Halo, but paid tribute to it.

[Tortimer]

Great job, The two paths are a nice addition to the regular one path on halo. I think that you map is atleast three times better than the original halo. It looks a bit to much work for one zombie though, mabey two? Also mabey add a beam rifle or a rocket launcher? The rocket launcher may seem very cheep, but it does take some skill to aim the rocket far enough ahead of the drivers to get a kill. Good job and long live the chicken empire!

[Shroomz]

Trust me when I say that the course is difficult enough for majority of the people to fall off. A sniper shot at the right area of the track will almost never fail.

Like I mentioned in my OP... rocket launchers are for pussies. Beam rifles are unnecessary for the alpha zombie. Play a few games and see how often a human makes it all the way around the track or even comes close. It happens so rarely that any other weapon is overkill. As it is, the sniper rifle versus the driver is already in favor of the sniper... why would you need more of an advantage?

To kill humans, all a zombie needs to do is :
1.) 2 body shots, so you just need to hit 2/4 bullets in a clip. The reload time is enough to regenerate their shield.
2.) 1 head shot
3.) 2 hits to the front tire of the mongoose to destroy the mongoose and kill the driver.
4.) 1 good hit to the mongoose will nudge the average driver off the track and fall to their death.

Considering that 50% of the people will fall off the track by themselves, as long as you concentrate on the lead driver and work your way back... it's way too easy for the sniper. I'm actually debating whether the zombie should have limited ammo so they need to keep going back to get more ammo.

I played with 5 other players last night and all of us were decent snipers. We must've played about 50 rounds. Only one time did someone make it all the way around to kill the sniper. Most of the time nobody made it half way around.

Zombies only have to deal with three things... the driver, their sniping skills, and time to reload. The humans have to deal with the course, whether someone is on back, other drivers, mongooses left on the track, their own skills, and the sniper shooting at them. I'd say the zombie already has a big enough advantage.

[Awkward Silence]

Dude! I'm so glad that you made this!! I love the original Halo, and everyone is always begging me to play it. I'm very excited to have what looks like an excellent variation on the original formula. I can't wait to try this out. I'll be back with my impressions.

Edit: Oh, I almost forgot: I think I'm going to turn down the Zombie's Damage to 100% when I play this. I don't like the idea of the Zombie being able to take out a Mongoose by shooting the wheel twice.

[Shroomz]

At 100%, it takes three shots at the front tire to destroy the mongoose... keep in mind, it's the front tire. It seems that shooting the front tire is the quickest way to destroy the mongoose. It doesn't appear to work with the rear tires. Perhaps due to the engine location. Don't know why it matters, though. At the distance the zombie has to shoot, it's like trying to get two headshots on the tire because that's how small the tire is. If they can do that, it would save time just to get a headshot on the person. It's very rare that you see mongooses explode on the track.

Played another 20 rounds last night. I finally made it around the track myself, but I was the only one to make it around in those 20 rounds. Only once did I see a mongoose get blown up on the track in those 20 rounds.

[Awkward Silence]

Originally Posted by Shroomz

At 100%, it takes three shots at the front tire to destroy the mongoose. It seems that shooting the front tire is the quickest way to destroy the mongoose. Don't know why it matters, though. At the distance the zombie has to shoot, it's like trying to get two headshots on the tire because that's how small the tire is. If they can do that, it would save time just to get a headshot on the person. It's very rare that you see mongooses explode on the track.

Hmm. Maybe it's like the weak spot on the left gas tank-thingy on the Ghost in Halo 2? Also, you mentioned that the extra Zombie damage lets him kill a Human with 2 body shots. If I turned it down to 100%, would it take 3 body shots?