Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Master Theory Battle Report: MT versus Halocharts 40 and Above

Master Theory returned to the battlefield once again. After a close series the last time the two sides fought, HC40A wanted another shot at downing the ever-vigilant Master Theory gang. The gametypes were decided to be the same as the time before, with the only difference from the previous skirmish being the color uniforms the teams decided to wear.

Up first, a true deathmatch on the frozen tundra of Avalanche.

The gods of the Halo universe planted the HC40A squad on Light Side, and Master Theory on Dark Side, and the two teams clashed for laser. HC40A sent a hog and hornet to attempt an early kill on TsengMao, Master Theory's Hornet ace pilot. However, they met with surprise as TsengMao's shields had been boosted above their usual level, thanks to his overshield. Master Theory secured laser, and destroyed the Halocharts' hornet shortly after.

With laser control, vehicles patrols began pouring from the Master Theory side, with only a few foot soldiers to ensure map control was not lost. With nhd and Achronos sharing the Ghost, Audley and Pie took a lone Warthog out of the shadows to harass the HC40A team. The Master Theory team had a small lead, with very few kills being given up in one direction or another, until Master Theory took its second Warthog, again with the crack crew of Audley and Pie. With the completion of production of HC40A's second hornet nearing, Audley and Pie sat quietly in the HC40A base, while the others all fought for control of the middle of the map. The hornet spawned, and Audley hopped in the pilot and took off to become the Iceman to TsengMao's Maverick.

With two aircraft patrolling the skies, Anubis' Sniper controlling the keyhole from afar, and the possession of Laser by Stembo, Master Theory took solid control of the match, gaining almost two kills for every one from the Halocharts squad. Master Theory's air support regimen flew confidently onto the HC40A squad to attempt to score the kills even faster, forcing TsengMao to eventually become gunned down and Audley to retreat. As the clock wound down, the deathmatch score read 91-55. The hornet duo combined for 36 assists, displaying the value of a little bit of air support.

Up next, a return to the box canyon, with the objective of scoring the opponents' flag. Valhalla Multi-Flag.

The game opened in traditional fashion, a bloody battle at the top of the hill, both sides charging for the Ark of the SPARTAN program, the Laser. Despite heavy casualties on both sides, Pie secured the laser for Master Theory, pulling it back to territory 4.

The two teams continued to fight for control of the hill, understanding its tactical merit. Some time after the second laser spawned, Master Theory cleared the hill with the warthog duo of Audley and Rob, using the opportunity presented by its vacancy to take a foothold of the hill it wouldn't soon relinquish. Despite not controlling the hill, HC40A tightened up and would not concede ground at Watercave or their waterfall ledge.

Unfortunately for HC40A, their more defensive position gave way for Master Theory to finally get a Banshee up in the hands of Stembo, who used it to pick at HC40A's defenses. After 15 minutes, Anubis finally broke through their defenses long enough to get the flag into the man cannon, where he eventually finished off the flag run.

A few minutes later, Achronos disloged a second flag in an attempt to increase the score, but HC40A charged the hill guns a-blazin' to ensure the score did not pass 1-0. Time expired with HaloCharts sending everything they had in a last-ditch effort to score, but none could break Master Theory's heavy wall of defenses.

With a 2-0 series lead, the teams decided Standoff Slayer would be the next battleground, pre-empting the choices of Sandbox Flag and Neutral Assault on Rat's Nest.

And so the battle went.

Master Theory opened Standoff with precise movement, neutralizing the Warthog, the Invis, and the entire left side of the HC40A base. Under heavy suppression, HC40A was forced to forfeit an attempt for the laser, allowing Master Theory to secure it easily.

With laser in hand, Master Theory's driver of choice, nhd drove Cloud in true BTB fashion, focusing on keeping the Warthog alive, and keeping bullets in anyone brave enough to show their faces.

The infantry of Master Theory took control of HC40A's left flank, at their Brute Shot and their BR Rock, keeping the HaloCharts team with only three choices of destination, their rockets, their Invis, or their base. Any attempts to venture elsewhere met with a deadly combination of Warthog suppressive fire and BR clean-up fire for the majority of the battle.

After nearly six minutes of driving, nhd and Cloud's duo ran out of gas, and the Warthog was neutralized. Master Theory didn't give up their control, however, and continued the slaughter in similar fashion, as TsengMao immediately resecured the Warthog and refueled it with Stembo as his gunner, with nhd and Cloud taking over on foot.

A few minutes later, the dust began to settle as the scoreboard showed 100-48.

Master Theory's camaraderie and focus carried them to a sweep of HC40A's challengers. With the series at 3-0, HC40A deferred the last two gametypes, finishing the series with a slew of Good Games and proverbial handshakes.

Afterward, Master Theory's challenge captain TsengMao dubbed the honors of Co-MVP on Stembo for his 5.0 Kill-to-Death performance and Audley for the tactics that secured Master Theory's gameplan and teamwork.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Hephaestus, Spartan God of the Forge.

Okay, so the title's a bit of a stretch this time to get a really horrible pun in. But this episode of Audley Enough will focus on helping you take advantage of one of Reach's biggest improvements from Halo 3: Forge 2.0 and ForgeWorld.

Map design is a tricky business. The smallest hitch in an otherwise well-designed map can ruin its ability to be played effectively, but today I'm going to be ranting on a few of the missteps map makers may have in their attempt to assemble an awesome map. You won't become a master forger by reading this, but it may offer a few thoughts that help you rethink your design and improve your map.

First, let's talk about Lines of Sight, and breaking them. There are four basic degrees through which you can break lines of sight. The first is through the main geometry of your map. Walls, partitions, blocks, and the like will always serve to separate your players' abilities to shoot at one another. Every map you'll ever make will establish its main lines of sight through the design you give your walls, bridges, floors, ceilings, walkways, and caves. Once you get those established, it's time for the less prominent, but even more important ways to block lines of sight.

Up next is natural cover, or geometrical cover. This is still a part of your map's intended geometry, but rather than being intended as just a wall to establish your map's form, these are intended to be used by the player as a form of significant cover. The best example I can give of these are the rocks on Standoff. They block large amounts of sightlines from your opponents, and provide safety from grenades and enemy fire, while allowing you to still fire upon your opponents when you choose to peek out. They are a perfect example of cover that is intentional from a design standpoint.

This leaves us with two more methods of blocking lines of sight. Both of these are pretty similar from the standpoint of appearance, but the functionality given by them is what separates them. The first is often called "lazy cover," but I prefer to simply call it CLUTTER. Clutter are pieces of your map that block lines of sight for very short periods of time, but cannot be used to hide behind, move around your map effectively, or offer any sort of control for the person present there. The latter, although it may be an identical piece of map geometry, are what I call Micro-Breakers. A Micro-Breaker is a very small break in your line of sight (or a very small opening in an otherwise blocked line of sight) that allows higher skilled players to micromanage the sightline in order to use effectively.

Clutter is very rarely a good thing to have on your map. It should never be added prior to play-testing your map -- if you end up needing it, don't fret. Sometimes areas of your map ARE too open and need some form of brief respite such as a small rock you can fit behind. But when it comes to clutter, remember that LESS is MORE. If you've got an area of your map that needed clutter to be safe, chances are you're not really expecting your players to be going there often anyway. A map with an example of excessive clutter is the BTB map/Sandbox variant Vindictive. The Brute Towers, the tunnels, the Crow's Nest, and the pillars on top of the base are all examples of clutter. They block lines of sight, but offer very little safety for players trying to pass through that area of the map.

On the other hand, Micro-Breakers are a great thing to have on your map. The Pit and Narrows are two maps that show a great amount of Micro-Breakers, from the yellow padding, to the holes in the partition walls, to the slots on the ceiling of sword room in the Pit, and the different holes and openings littered all around Narrows that allow highly aware players to see positions newer or less-skilled players wouldn't bother to use. Micro-Breakers help your map to establish a skill gap, which is absolutely great if you wish your map to garner competitive merit.

Our next topic is elevation. We all know map flow is important. That's a given. One way to improve your map's flow is to improve the variation of elevation. Especially as we move into Halo Reach, where you'll have to keep the Jetpack in mind (assuming you allow default loadouts), elevation is key.

One mistake newer forgers tend to make is to follow a three-tiered elevation scheme: "Floor, One Block, Two Block." While this can work out for a very basic design, it's not creative and eventually the gameplay becomes very predictable.

There are a few ways to alleviate this. The most elementary of these, throw in a height of half-block! Ha! That'll show those critics...right? Well, maybe.

Another way to improve your height variations is to offer alternate passages between areas where "2 Block" meets "1 Block." For example, you could have a slow grade (slope) leading up behind 2 Block, while you have a series of jumps, or a lift on the other side (more exposed), that allows the player to scale straight up. (See: Pit Sniper Tower)

Keep in mind that your entire map doesn't have to be flat. I'm not saying go crazy and make nothing flat, because that would be a profoundly annoying map to play on, but remember that slopes are a way to offer varied elevation, and with Halo Reach's "Fixed" and "Phased" options of placement geometry as well as the ability to turn things one degree of one unit at a time, being able to make hills and ramps out of pieces that aren't hills and ramps will be much easier. Take advantage of this. Angle your tunnel so it comes out in a way that puts the person coming out of it slightly higher than those who came into it. Now you've got a map of Floor, One Block, 1.15 Block, and 2 Block! It's variety, it's depth. It's a start.

As a final note on this subject, remember what I said about Micro-Breakers? They can be applied to elevations as well. As I mentioned the Pit's yellow pads, little subtle ledges that can be jumped on for slight advantages are a great way to add temporary elevation to higher-level play on your map. Little columns that can be jumped off of to traverse from one elevated portion of your map to another are also great, and can add even more of a skill gap to competitive play on your map.

To avoid writing a novel on general map design, I'm going to limit myself to one last topic before I wrap this entry up: Symmetry versus Asymmetry.

Symmetrical maps are ALMOST ALWAYS better for establishing balance from the start to the finish of your map. That doesn't mean you cannot make an asymmetrical map that is fair to both teams. There are four general types of maps, in regards to symmetry:

1) Totally Symmetrical: One side of the map is either a copy of the other side, or a mirrored image of the other side. Narrows, Pit, Midship, Warlock...all of these maps are symmetrical maps all the way to their core. Whether your map is symmetrical four-ways, two-ways, or flipped-symmetry (like Citadel), a totally symmetrical map offers the exact same opportunities to both sides starting the game.

2) Functionally Symmetrical: The two sides are...almost...the same. They work out pretty the same for both teams under most circumstances, but they're not EXACTLY identical. Standoff is an example of a map like this. The differences between the sides aren't enough to affect the two teams' playstyles. The only real differences in a Functionally Symmetrical map are aesthetics.

3) Mostly Symmetrical: The two sides have the same general features, but the different geometry forces teams to have to play their side differently. Valhalla in Halo 3 is the prime example of this type of map. Beach side needs Pelican to retake the hill, while Waterfall side needs Turret to retake the hill. Mostly Symmetrical maps tend to have equal opportunities for the START of the map, but begin to differ once the initial rushes have played out. MLG's Construct also falls in this category.

4) Totally Asymmetrical: No form of symmetry at all in terms of geometry or starting positioning. It is almost NEVER okay to have two-sided objective gametypes on these maps, but properly designed asymmetrical maps can work beautifully for Slayer, Oddball, or King of the Hill, as well as one-sided objective gametypes.

The important thing to keep in mind when making an Asymmetrical Map (for anything except One-Sided objectives) is to offer relatively balanced opportunities off the opening of the game, as well as equal opportunities for control and safe spawning throughout the game.

This doesn't mean "Red Player A" and "Blue Player B" both have to have perfectly equal travel times to the power positions or power weapons. In fact, that's not a requirement at all. What IS a requirement, however, is that if Player A can get to a power position faster than Player B, that Player B has at least one potential counter to player A rushing that position, whether it be a good sightline on the exposed pathway leading there, or an easier way to obtain a power weapon such as Sniper to attempt to Snipe Player A out of the power position. Likewise, since Player B is given easy access to a Sniper, Player A would have to have some way to harass Player B (such as an accessible DMR from the power position) in order to keep the two positions balanced, and allow the better player to come out on top.

It's important to remember on asymmetrical maps that power positions and power weapons should never be contiguous unless being in that power position is highly exposed and dangerous. Don't place your Sniper Rifle at the top of a tower at the highest point of the map with a ton of cover. Don't place your Rockets on a top middle platform with clear sightlines on everyone on the bottom of the map.

Make sure that there's not only one area of interest on the map when forging an Asymmetrical map. You don't want both teams sending everyone they have to a single location, leading to a clusterfuck off the start. The more paths and choices that can be made from the start, the more that players who display intelligent decision making can shine.

That should wrap up today's entry. I tried to keep it short, because as I said, a novel could be written on Map Design that still wouldn't cover enough to ensure every map ever designed was good. But hopefully, you've read the topics I've covered today and thought, "Audley Enough, he's right! Clutter DOES suck...and I need to add more areas that skilled players can take advantage of, even if casual players would just ignore them!"

Be sure to tune in next time, where I'll talk about [insert future subject here.] That's right, Audley Enough, I still don't know what I'm doing here.

Oh, P.S., if you wish this had pictures to go with it, too bad. I'm a writer. If you want someone to spruce these articles up with illustrations, send all hate messages to Anubis x MT.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Communication: The Difference between "A Beast" and "The Best"

If you were to ask someone to define what they considered to be a good Halo player, most people would begin by thinking of tangible, measureable details. High kill-to-death ratio and usage of power weapons are certainly important stats to strive for. Some people may venture to less flashy stats, but still attributes trackable by stats, like objective scoring, wheelmen, assists, even map positioning.

All of the above stats are important toward helping your team win, as well as being a good player. A player with a high KpD ratio, a lot of assists, and excellent map positioning is often referred to as a "beast" colloquially. And they deserve the title. You unleash them in a direction on the map and they're sure to kill what you need them to.

But when it comes to truly being a great player, wise Halo'ers know there is one more feature you must have. Communication.

Now, often you'll find some really solid slayers that can kill anything that comes their way, but they won't tell you when something bad happens to them, or if they see a power weapon they need help getting. So you're probably thinking, "Yeah, if (x) made call-outs, they'd be the best player ever!"

Call-outs are great. They help your team know what they're up against, or at least what you're up against. They let your team know what happened to that laser you had on your back when you died, that no one would've known you had if you hadn't called it out. They help your team finish off the guy with no shields who botched a push and tried to escape.

Some of the players in the "beast" category make call-outs, but they're still not communicating at the level that will really show they've mastered the game. Even if you make constant call-outs of enemy current locations, you're still missing some of the other important information that needs to be spoken throughout the game.

The first of these is enemy spawns. This is a small branch of call-outs that are made before the enemy is actually there. On maps like Sandtrap, Sandbox, or Standoff, knowing where your enemy is going to spawn before they do so helps any vehicles you have get into position to stop them. On Valhalla, knowing when the enemy is going to spawn close to the hill can allow your team to be more aggressive and leave less people on the hill to control it. In MLG, it can help you set up to run a flag with as little resistance as possible.

The second facet of communication is vehicle and power-up timing. Enemy banshee down? Okay, when did it die? 16:20ish...or maybe 16:10? Aha! You weren't paying attention were you? You just cost your team a shot at stealing that Banshee the second it spawns next time. Vehicles are relatively easy to time in Halo 3, because the moment they EXPLODE (or de-spawn, if they were left alone, or fell of the map and didn't explode) is the moment their spawn timer starts. Banshees are always on three minute timers, as are hornets. And Warthogs are usually sitting on a 60 second timer on the maps where they're important. Most players know these, and time them when it's pertinent. Since power-ups always respawn at a specific interval after they're picked up (Most of these are 3 minutes), they belong with vehicle timers.

Now, we've covered the two basics that are relatively easy to keep track of. Now let's move into what separates those who call out from those who truly communicate.

The next part of communication relies entirely on ally positioning. A beast positions himself well to get a lot of kills. The best position themselves and their teammates in ways that they can constantly cover one another. Quotes like "I have your help!" or "I'm going -here-, you go -there-" or "Fall back, stay alive" to help a teammate out all go a long way toward helping your entire team. Without suggestions from one another within a game, players tend to fall back on an individualist approach to the game, and unless your team has perfect chemistry, this can mean conflicting playstyles are going to clash. Helping to keep your nearest teammates in position to help you or vice versa separates someone who calls out from someone who communicates.

After that, we have weapon timers. In MLG settings, weapon timers are usually pretty easy to keep track of -- they spawn at specific times over the course of the match. However, in regular Halo 3 settings, the weapon timers operate on a much more convoluted, confusing system that Bungie applied to the game to attempt to keep the more hardcore players from learning the system and gaming it versus weaker players.

A few extremely dedicated Halo 3 players figured the system out (along with MLG's "dirty" weapon timer problem), and a handful of others have received the shared wisdom. Based on my experience, I've seen very few people who actually know and take advantage of this system. Because of this, those that do know how weapon spawns work have an even greater advantage. Keeping track of weapon timers requires you to be aware not only of the actual timer of the weapon, but other factors ranging from enemy's movements, allied deaths, or whether the weapon was dropped just to even begin to track when it will respawn next.

In MLG, weapons are sometimes picked up in a manner that causes them to take on Halo 3's default weapon timer system -- a process called "Dirtying" by most players. Being able to track dirtied weapon timers is a valuable trait in an MLG team's fifth man, the Coach (a player on a team who is literally just there to communicate).

Being able to properly track weapon timers and relay the information to your team is a hard to understate trait. Rather than your team expecting the laser on Standoff to be up "some time after 16:30" when the first laser was picked up at 19:30, imagine knowing "The next laser will be up at 16:13." It frees up at least one of your players from having to keep an eye on that general area, to allow them to move around until the weapon spawns, then pounce on the fresh ammo.

We've established that a player who tells you there's a guy at your Rockets is better than a player who just died with laser at your rockets, and now we've gone over why a player who can track weapon timers and keep your team's movements all on the same page is a step up from the player who can tell you that one dude at Rockets isn't there anymore, now that he's respawned. After all, if you had someone making sure your laser person at Rockets was covered, the guy at rockets killing him would've died before the call-out was needed, possibly even in time to save your laser person.

However, we're still missing one thing. Undoubtedly, from a playing perspective, a player who can slay with the best of them, and transmit all this collected data I've discussed is an amazing player. But to truly be the best, there is one more characteristic of their communication they must possess.

No matter how seriously you take the game, no matter how competitive the game is, and no matter how tense things get with your teammates, remember one thing: it's still just a game.

The best Halo player will always keep that in mind, and keep his (or her) teammate's spirits up. Whether it be through random encouragement for good plays, random jokes throughout the game during lulls in need for call-outs and communication, keeping quiet when he wants to express frustration, or pointing out the ridiculous antics a teammate/opponent is doing, our Communicating Best will remember he (or she) is just playing a game, and the goal should ultimately be to have fun, and relax.

And Audley Enough, sometimes I have to remind myself of the last one. Fortunately, here at Master Theory, I've got a group of those who have mastered that last portion of communication, and can remind me when I need to just have a laugh instead of a groan, or need to mute myself instead of shout.

If you made it through to the end of this inaugural Audley Enough article, I'll go ahead and promise you that not all of them will end with as sappy a tone as this one. I'm not always fun and games. And I know this one went through a lot of stating the obvious. It was just a message bearing on my mind today, as I found myself thinking on who may be the best players in Halo 3. Next time, we may get into some nittier and grittier details on whatever grinds my gea--err, I mean... whatever I find to be, Audley Enough, important.