Rain of Death
My version of the air strike. It shoots three tank shells from the sky. They fall slowly, fan out from each other as they fall, and there is a fairly large margin of error. So it's not an instant death weapon; it takes skill and finesse to use. The farther away you are from the target, the greater the error and fan-out of the shells. Don't fire it beneath a low ceiling unless you've had all you can stand of this cold, cold world.
Bonus: The L trigger shoots plasma grenades, with regular grenade velocity and ballistics. ROF is slow, however, so think of the nades as merely an adjunct. An air strike takes two rounds of ammo, whereas a grenade only takes one.
The BEEFY rocket launcher
Similar to the regular version, but it holds four rockets per clip and is dual wieldable. "But my hero CaptainPoopface, that's way overpowered!" Not in this game, kiddos. There is substantial incentive not to dual wield, as ye shall see.
The Grappling Gun
One of my first creations and it still roxxors. See my original post for a detailed tutorial. But it's a tad long, and attention spans are so five minutes ago, so I'll give you the quick rundown. It thrusts you forward using a short series of zero-damage explosions. Jump and hold the R trigger at the same time while running forward, and you will fly up and forward. Aiming higher won't make you go higher. To jump high, but not far, look about 45 degrees above the horizon, run backwards, jump and shoot. You'll be launched high into the air and slightly backwards. You must be rising as you pull the trigger, or you'll just scoot along the ground.
A sample grapple, from the red base, over the crane, to the little platform.
I know it sounds complicated, but it becomes like breathing. Some of you may prefer...
The Deucer
As effective as it is corny! It's a magnum that shoots plasma grenades (YEAH YEAH I KNOW, just keep reading), three per clip, limited ROF, slightly faster than grenade tossing speed, with the same ballistics of the grenade. So again, it's not an instant noob-a-rific sticky gun. It's intended to flush someone into the path of another weapon, or polish him off if you've weakened him. Due to the highly mobile nature of the game, the explosions can be easily evaded unless you employ devious strategems. Sticking someone with it is about as difficult as with regular plasmas in a regular game. You have to wait for the right moment.
Where this gun really comes in handy is the old pound-the-ground shenanigans. Melee strike response has been increased for this gun only. Meleeing the ground with the Deucer will give you some serious height - about as much as a skillful upward grapple with the grap gun. Melee-jumping with the Deucer will give you ludicrous height. Melee jumping is when you look at the ground, melee, then immediately jump as the melee occurs. If you try it and jump without the melee, you jumped too soon. If you melee to regular melee height, you jumped too late. The action is very quick and will take a bit of practice. You have to hit the buttons just a hair later than simultaneously.
A regular jump:
A melee bounce, from the same spot on the ground:
A melee jump, from the same spot on the ground. I can see my house from here!
There are a couple more weapons. See below.
Gameplay
The way this map is intended to be played, you hold one gun for mobility (the Deucer or the grap gun), and one gun for mucho destructo (Rain of Death or BEEFY rocket launcher). Because all the projectiles travel at fairly slow speeds, they can be evaded by simply switching to your mobility gun and either grappling or melee-jumping to safety. However, both of those tactics will give you a predictable and inevitable trajectory, which means a skilled opponent can have some steaming hot rockets waiting for you when you arrive at your destination. The skill of killing someone on this map usually consists of flushing them into a predictable trajectory and putting some boom-boom at the end of it, or somehow getting the drop on your opponent by skillful grappling or melee-bouncing/melee-jumping. In close quarters, because the heavy weapons are so powerful, combat will usually become a sticky battle between Deucers and/or Rain of Deth nades.
It is a rollicking good time. Rest assured that the ground will be thoroughly scorched and saturated with blood. The additional speed, mobility and weapon power shrink this large map to playable proportions for small games. It's probably my favorite map for dueling.
Other stuff
- Ceiling death zones have been raised but not eliminated. You can explore some of the fringes of the map, but don't go too far... Also, do not melee-jump from the upper levels of the map, or the Guardians will eat your lunch.
- The cloak sniper replaces the overshields. I actually invented the cloak sniper for this game type, not the Chaste series. Quick review: L trigger activates camo for 10 seconds, but you must be holding still and either looking straight down at the ground (elites) or crouching (the Chief) when you activate it. You have two "rounds" of camo and 4 sniper bullets. Ammo is low because this gun is designed to be used from the ground, to snipe those pesky high perchers who are just a tad too overjoyed at the ability to jump very high and sit on the upper outer fringes of the map.
- Plasma nades (for throwing) are replaced by my prox mines. They don't travel as far, and they kill anyone within the radius over a period of 25 seconds. Kudos if you kill someone this way; it's difficult for the way this map plays.
- Frag grenades have less bounce, a shorter fuse, and they don't go as far when thrown.
- Shield recharge is very slow.
- Running speed is a little faster, but don't worry. CaptainPoopface always keeps it reasonable.
- Make sure you turn damage resistance on in your gametype. You should still be alive after one direct hit with the rocket launcher (two direct hits, not so much). It's intended to be a power game.
- SLC should be fine, but as always, let me know if you observe problems.
- Again as always, I'd be all too happy to thrash anyone on a mod of my own design. Make sure you wrap that ego up in kevlar though. And smear it with some flame retardant. And leave it at your grandma's house for safekeeping.
Credits
- TF6 for the original air strike mod
- ExileLord for the gravity gun, which was the inspiration for my grap gun
- Turk and Doom for the camo jpt trick
- Entity 1.6, 1.39, Yelo, and DotHalo(!)
EPILOGUE
Before you wag a finger at me for releasing an almost-as-if-noobular mod, please make an earnest effort to learn either (a) how to melee-jump, or (b) how to control the grap gun. Then kill a few people on this mod, and then tell me it's no good. It's not as noobish as a presumptuous person might presume. It certainly plays very differently from a conventional Halo map, but that IS why we're all here... It's balanced and requires its own strategy, and stick that BXR stuff in the potty because it ain't no good here.
Of all my jaw-droppingly amazing mods, I play this one (same weapons, various maps) probably 70% of the time with my friends. It is among my simplest but is also the most fun. I might even have made it too awesome, because now I have to wear dark glasses and a sombrero in order not to be mobbed by beautiful women everywhere I go.
I tell you, it's no bed of roses being Ultimate Super Hero #1.
