Brute Force

[GuiltySparkx]

"let’s see what kind of galaxy we woke up too"

 

Halo Wars 2 Big Team Battle Map by OracleGamerx (previously ARC GuiltySpark)

Map Link​

Current Update

Gamemodes

-Heavy Slayer Link
One of the most loved Halo 4 multiplayer modes, Heavies has returned in Halo 5 Guardians. Battle an 8 player team on a massive battlefield to control heavy REQ weapons and vehicles.

-Heavy Strongholds Link
This is what Brute Force was made for. Matches played similarly to Halo Wars 2 Blitz where players fight to control 3 hills with heavy REQ weapons and vehicle.

-Big Team CTF Link
Heavy team work required. Specially designed CTF gamemode with settings like the new movement mechanics in the HCS playlist as well as a more lighter weapon and vehicle set.

Detailed Map Write-up at bottom of page (its really long!)​

Update Info​

This is just a scratch of what the map will offer! Brute Force will be under heavy support and maintenance after release. Updates will be released for the current map and gamemodes each week, which will include things like new gamemodes, map changes, bug fixes, and more. More Updates may be added to the list so please make sure to leave a comment for any problems or suggestions for map improvements so I can fix them in the next update

Update Timeline

May 15: Brute Force Map Release + Heavy Slayer, Heavy Strongholds, and specially designed CTF Gamemodes

May 22: Neutral Flag and Assault Gamemodes + Map performance improvements + Map Aesthetic improvements

May 29: Big Team Oddball, and Extraction Gamemodes + Map Aesthetic improvements + Community Feedback Ideas

June?: Blitz, Scarab Assault, Last Titan Standing, and more!

All updates will be posted for the map on this website, so make sure to come back each week!

 

Other Sources​

Youtube Channel: ORACLE GAMING

Here I post a variety of Halo Forge content like Map Features, Map Reviews, Forge Guides, and more. Submit your maps to me at Halowaypoint down below if you would like your map featured on the channel

Youtube Channel Link
Map Submission Page Link

Follow me on Xbox for fun activities like gamenights, playtests, and of course Halo 5 forge maps: OracleGamerx


Special thanks to everyone who helped me on this map!

LYNX Bobcat CF – for getting me started on the idea of HaloWars2
ONI777777 – for the amazing banished aesthetics
All the playtesters from my playtesting sessions

If you have ANY problems, suggestions, or feedback, PLEASE let me know down below. It would be tremendously helpful and will probably be added in an update.

Hope you all enjoy this map as much as I did!

Map History​

When a friend of mine came to me and said “I have a cool idea for a halo wars game”, I was instantly down for it. This was originally going to be a Halo Wars 2 minigame (may be made in the later updates known as Blitz). I started making a large terrain set that could be big enough to simulate a Halo Wars match (which is very large). As we got into working out the game aspects, we soon realized that a game like this probably wouldn’t work well and would be a little too ambitious, so we decided to scrap the idea. By then I had already built a large amount of the map and didn’t want to see it wasted. I said I would try to make something else out of it on my own, and that I did.

I didn’t want this to be just another Big Team map so I thought of a few gamemodes to make specifically for this map. Halo 4 was my first Halo game I played, so I decided to bring back Heavies and Extraction. I made the current map smaller, which gave me more budget room to add aesthetics and features. The map was very budget tight, but when it was done, it looked fantastic. I set up the other gamemodes, as well as made 2 weapon and vehicle sets (one for flag and ball gametypes, one for heavy gametypes), but making Extraction was a challenge. I first only made 3 extract sites and had 2 active at a time. I knew I would have tons of bugs and problems, so I started playtesting.

I hosted 1 or 2 playtesting sessions a week. I had tons of scripting bugs to fix, as well as some map issues like not enough cover, spawn killing, map layout, and other things like that. I found Extraction to get rather stale, so I decided to make it more like the original, having 5 sites rather than 3 and making them change from 2 to 1 being active at a time. After I fixed that, I released the map, which is what your reading now.

Gameplay Design​

Each team has a base they first spawn in which looks like the base in blitz (in heavies, the base has a shield that keeps the other team from passing through). In each of these home bases is a warthog, rockethog, gungoose, and mantis (in heavies, the gungoose is replaced with a scorpion and a wasp). The map is made around 3 hills (which are supposed to represent the 3 control points in blitz games). Each team has a hill close to the spawn base, and one hill to the side of the map in the middle. This center hill is important for teams to control, as it has a large height advantage to overlook the rest of the map. Around these hills are remnants of a crashed UNSC Heavy Frigate, which creates new smaller areas for players to engage in. There are many weapons throughout the map, and power weapons consist of a railgun, binary rifle, and spnkr rocket launcher. In heavies, there are Spartan lasers, incineration cannons, hunter arms, and spnkr Ems.​

For gameplay, I wanted the player to feel like how a Spartan II should in Halo Wars and I wanted the map to be a big battlefield that makes the player feel small, but still significant. When I first made the map, It was very big, even a little too big for what I later intended. So I shrunk the map, added more cover, and more wreckage for the player to interact with. Players can’t run around from corner to corner of the map quickly which makes it more important for you to strategies where you want to go and how you want to engage before you run into battle. This works very well when working as a team, deciding together when to make pushes for power positions, defending tactics, and flanking routes, making it feel similar to a Halo Wars match. The vehicles on the map are very important to control as well, as some of them can turn the tide of battle. The vehicles are balanced with a rock terrain system on the ground. Spartans have no trouble climbing over the rock, small vehicles like warthogs can go through it if they have a skilled driver, and large vehicles like scorpions have a tough time going over and sometimes have to find another path. This keeps vehicles from being too overpowered on the map, which they would be on battlefields like this otherwise

 

 

Aesthetic Design​

For the aesthetic design of the map, obviously I wanted a good Halo Wars 2 theme since the game was about to come out when I started the map. I wanted to make a nice natural looking environment full of rock, trees, and I made that to start. Then I “crash landed” the Heavy Frigate ship prefab onto the map and warped the terrain accordingly, which included making sinkholes in the ground where ship parts sit, knocking down trees, and lighting things on fire. Then I included some Banished aesthetics, like a banished locus and banished banshees created by Oni777777 (might have miscounted the sevens). I set the banished banshees on joint barrels to make them fly in a circle around they sky, but this caused a lot of framerate drops and performance issues, so they had to be removed. I also considered leaving them static in the sky, but figured it would break the immersion in the map, which was top of my priority list. I also made halo wars 2 blitz bases and hills on the map, using the hills as stronghold points in the strongholds gamemode. The map is set in the barrens map and uses the barrens rock with the alpine terrain, which I thought looks most like Halo Wars 2. The skybox is a crimson colour which fits with the battlefield style of the map. I also added a light smoky fog to the map which is thick enough to make seeing at a long distance a little harder but thin enough to see through well in most areas.

 

 

Unique Map Features​

Random Weapon Generator

On each hill is a random weapon generator plate. The plate spawns 2 weapons from a pool of 8 possibilities every 20 seconds. The weapons despawn every 20 seconds if untouched, so there will never be more than 2 weapons to choose from at a time. On hills Alpha and Charley (red and blue sides), the weapon pool consists of 8 DMRs each with a different attachment or scope. On hill Bravo, the pool is made of SMGs.

Weapon/Vehicle sets

The main gamemode for this map will of course be heavies, but I wanted a second weapon and vehicle set for other gamemodes. I found that the heavies weapon and vehicle set was a little too much for flag and ball gamemodes, as it made players less focused on the objectives and more on killing enemies. This is done by making 2 vehicles phased into each other and set the labels to different gamemodes. Then they are scripted to on match start: set physics normal.

These special features along with other map features will be available to download as a prefab after release in a later update