[regulargonzales]

Curse

After the dust settles in these decaying passageways, only the screams of the cursed remain.

\\ Download Link //

Created by Symbo
Based on the Unreal Tournament map "Curse"

Background

When Sandbox arrived I knew I had to try something. I was never a fan of forging on Foundry, there were too many problems with it. Fortunately Sandbox solved most of them and opened up a whole new world of forging. I imagine in the months to come we'll see some amazing maps being made.

So anyway I wanted to build a map based on one of my favourite FPS series', Unreal Tournament. I was playing UT2004 on my PC one day and I was on the hunt for a really enjoyable, versatile map which could transfer to Halo and forge. Curse was my choice. So I floated around on the UT map several times and made some drawings for myself so I could plan how I was going to build it on Sandbox and then I just got underway. I chose the Crypt level of Sandbox as it the best place which felt like Curse, which has many enclosed passageways. It always felt very subterranean and crypt-like so it was an easy decision to make.

Players

2-8

Description

Curse is a relatively small map with several rooms and passageways. There are two main levels and two, somewhat, distinct base areas - red and blue. There's also a tunnel which runs through the centre of the map on level 2, which tends to see a lot of the action.

The biggest problem I encountered when building this map was the budget limit. I didn't get to the total object allowance limit, which was good, but for many hours towards the end of my time forging this map I spent just amending certain areas just to squeeze the tiniest amounts of budget out. As this became so evident about half way through I was not able to add the third level to the the tiers of the map. This was a shame because it would have added another dimension to its play.

But in the end it hasn't actually affected it much. It plays really well, which I am so proud about because it's taken many hours to complete this.

Many areas are very faithful to the original, others have been amended to work with the objects and the limits. I have also added a few areas which did not exist on the Unreal map just to make it work better on Halo (and because of the lack of a third level).

Recommended Gametypes

FFA, Team Slayer, King of the Hill, One Flag, One Bomb.

Note: the map is set up for every gametype but some things just don't work as well.

Weapons and Equipment

4 x Battle Rifle
2 x Carbine
2 x Needler
2 x SMG
2 x Plasma Rifle
1 x Plasma Pistol
1 x Sniper Rifle
1 x Rocket Launcher
2 x Frag Grenade
4 x Plasma Grenade
1 x Regenerator
1 x Bubble Shield

Floor Plan

Click here for a floor plan of Curse in Bungie style:
Floor plan 1
Floor plan 2

On here I have noted the weapon and equipment spawn points, and also the different camera angles from where I took the below photos.

Please note the two colours. Green represents outside areas; purple represents enclosed or tunnel areas.

Thanks to my buddy Supermoves for his photoshop work.

Pictures

Picture 1


Picture 2


Picture 3


Picture 4


Picture 5


Picture 6


Picture 7


Picture 8


Picture 9


Picture 10


Picture 11


Top-Down 1


Top-Down 2


I hope you thoroughly enjoy playing this map. I've played it a number of times with my friends and we've all had a really enjoyable time. It can be fun and it can be really competitive so it has a good balance. Please recommend it to your friends if you like it.

Thanks.

Symbo.

\\ Download Link //

[cartoonwolf]

The map looks like it plays quite well from what I see. This actually looks like one of the better crypt map (which I tend not to enjoy very much) so I'll give it a DL.

[Soulcrusher NP]

I was thinking about remaking Curse also but it sees you have done a pretty good job of it. Deffinitely downloading and will reply after I walk through it. It looks like a pretty fun map through halo's perspective.

[Soups]

Hopefully this gets the plays this map deserves, as it could do with a wider audience. For a first real concerted forging attempt, it's of a neat quality - you've tried and succeeded quite well in combating all the potential flaws with regards getting out of the map and such like. Overall it's a pretty good remake, though areas for various reasons have had to be changed to suit Halo more which is only a good thing in my opinion.

All the games I participated in were fun to play, even through the various evolutions of the map itself. Hell, you even had a certain notoriously difficult to please with regards maps playing enjoying it!

Gotta love the true-to-form holes [those walls with slots] in the floor of the high walkway, sticks, rockets, snipes all fun through those on unsuspecting passers by. :D

[last_chaos_7]

nice crypt map like someone else said it is one of the better crypt maps out there. The interlocking looks pretty good I would probably have interlocked the wood bridge things with the ogjects below them but I don't think it will really matter much... Good map there and I can't say much more until I play it =)

[regulargonzales]

Wow thanks guys! I really appreciate the kind words. It's a great feeling to work so hard on something and then actually get praise for it. Thank you

I hope you all have fun with your friends on it :)

I'll make sure I check out your forged maps as a token of good faith.

[TeapotKing]

awesome looking, and a pretty accurate replica. This just reminded me of my half-finished replicas of flux 2, molten, osiris, asbestos and antalus (yes i was trying to recreate them all :) and i will when i have the time, it won't be a for a few months yet but i'll make an Unreal championship/tournament map pack with all the maps replicated some time.

Edit: PS i downloaded :D

[Fearsome Engine]

Hey regulargonzales, your map caught my eye earlier today so I thought that I would give it a download and have a forge-through. If you are interested here are my thoughts:

First Impressions

Right from the first spawn your map is easy on the eye and simple to traverse. The weapons are easy to find and the rooms flow nicely into one another. However this is to be expected since your map is a remake of an unreal map. Never-the-less you seem to executed the remake well.

Escaping the Map

Since your map is an enclosed map it is almost inevitable that it suffer from escape routes. This is one of the key marks against any enclosed map so I'll cover it first. With my limited jumping abilities I was only able to find one route out of the map. If you stand next to the sniper rifle you can grenade jump onto the left-hand "arch" and from there you can jump on to the adjacent wall and out of the map. It is quite a simple route out from a rather secluded place so a player could do this during a lull in play. It should be quite easy to fix.

Construction/Layout

The layout of the map is logical and well though-out. I particularly like the central canyon that runs through the map. Your use of tunnel sections gives the ground floor of this canyon a distinctive look.

You have done well to implement different heights to all your floors above the ground floor. This is particularly evident in the room with the needler next to the sniper (picture 8) and in the central high BR room. This is a great plus for your map and gives an extra dimension to it, great job.

Another favorite feature are the murder holes on the upper walk-ways. as well as the ramps leading up to the these. The ramp on the blue side being one of my favorite points on the map - the double back from the ground floor to the upper floor is a simple but great feature.

I would agree with last_chaos_7 that the wooden bridge above the blue base could do with smoothing out particularly towards the middle of the map, it is difficult to crouch-walk over this part of the map.

Also in the blue room: the two gravlifts could be interlocked with the "y-sections" so prevent them from being destroyed by explosives.

A final note on construction: you have some z-fighting on the floor in the blue needler corridor.

Weapons

You have a decent and well balance set of weapons on the map. Most are very easy to spot and respawn as expected. I like the placement of the rockets and the sniper-rifle inparticular. However I think the 60 second spawn on the rockets is a bit short. It does have a small clip but perhaps a larger clip with a longer spawn would encourage the rockets to spread around the map a bit. The same could be said in a lesser extent for the sniper-rifle.

I do like the set of weapons that you have chosen, however I think that this map would benifit from some of the great dual weapons that Halo 3 has to offer.

Spawns/Objectives

Your spawns are well placed and consistent through-out the map. Most face in logical directions and arn't too close to each other. If anything you perhaps have too many spawns - lots of spanws in close proximity act as single "spawn zones" so may actually be redundant. In the central canyon you have some sets of spawns back to back. I would suggest turning these to face the direction of play, eg. towards the other team's spawn.

Although your normal spawns are good, your starting spawns and spawn zones don't seem to have been placed correctly. Some of your starting spawns overlap with normal spawns. You also don't have many spawn point around you starting spawns which may cause players to spawn away from each other at the start of the game. Finally you have not set up any spawn zones; this may be ok in slayer but in your objective games this will cause the teams to spawn at random points over the map. I would suggest having a look at some of the spawning guides on these forums.

Concluding Remarks

Your map is neatly made and well laid out. It has some simple but very effective rooms. You spawns are decent but may require some more thought, particularly for objective games. This is a very solid map; with some extra work it could be a really great map.

[regulargonzales]

Once again thank you for your comments. Fearsome Engine in particular, thank you for yours, as the constructive points have been very useful for me to not only improve this one, but for future maps I might build. I'll look into your suggestions and hopefully might have an amended version out shortly and I will add it to this thread.

Thank you

[regulargonzales]

Curse Map Variant: Important Notice

I have just amended the map and have uploaded the new version to my fileshare. The links above are directed to the new version of Curse.

Changes:

- 2 x SMG included
- 2 x Plasma Rifle included
- 1 x Plasma Pistol included
- 2 x Battle Rifle removed
- spawn times of both Sniper Rifle and Rockets have increased by 30 seconds each
- starting and objective spawns have been amended
- several respawn points removed due to overabundance
- spawn zones have been removed
- two 'jump-out' gaps filled (theoretically there should not be any more)
- two sections re-designed slightly to close grenade gaps
- wall section added to red base to make the map more Oddball-playable
- wooden foot bridge merged with scenery
- minor change to central canyon region
- zombie starting spawn added

So yeah, please download my latest version:

\\ Download here //

I look forward to hearing further comments. :)