This is the final of four finished mini-slayer maps I created for Halo 4. When I found out this game type was coming to matchmaking, I contacted 343 via twitter and let them know I had these maps to look at. Asking if they wanted to see them, they said a resounding, “YES.”

They are still in my fileshare BTW, if YOU want to check them out too, beyond these pics I’ve been posting. My Fileshare

Now on to Crater City!

I designed this one on top of the building to make use of that geometry of the map.

This time I’m showing the top view from forge with the safe zone highlighted. It’s right at the edge of the walls. So don’t venture outside of them or you know what will happen to you…


You can access the building just above in the pic. Good place to hide, but I prefer not to camp…

I like the idea of having a mini UNSC base in these maps. Thus again, I added one, this much smaller than the others. It has a mini-“Pelican” that has landed there.

As with Canyon, I’ve included spaces at the bottom of some buildings to create more playspace. Crater city is FULL of these places, so take a good look around!

This is another one of those spaces. I thought about adding more in this area, however the gameplay is so quick, it really became unnecessary.

Not far from the Atrium is the Watchtower. You can get behind it with your spartan as well as walk between it (as shown).

Here is a back alley in Crater City. Again a good place to hide, but I’ve found not much action goes on here, so you might not get many kills if you hang out here.

In the same corner as the alley is a power plant. You can go under this building too!

This building is the gem of the map, IMO. Not only can you run around it and on top of it…

You can go inside of it too. And be greeted by the Impact hologram!

In fact you can walk in amongst it!

I call this corner of the map “Old town” because it’s the corner I worked on first.

This was originally going to be the red base spawn before I moved initial spawns.

It’s another one of the buildings that you can get into!

When at mid, jump up to this ramp to gain access to the top most part of the center building of Impact.

From there you can easily jump up to the top of the Food Court building (no jet pack required!).

And finally, this corner of the map I call New Town as it was the corner I finished last on the map.

I’ve got one more mini-map I’m working on, but that will be awhile. In the meantime, I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at these maps. If you like them well enough, send 343/HaloWaypoint a message saying so and maybe we can see one or more of them in matchmaking. You can tweet them at @HaloWaypoint.

-Sal

Here is the third mini-slayer map I let 343 know about via Twitter and a link to my fileshare.

This one makes use of the actual Ravine between the grassy and Forerunner sections of the map. I went as low as I could go without triggering the soft kill zone on this. Thus you will see mist throughout the map as you play on it.

Here is Canyon

It’s safe to say that you can’t go outside of the map here. Only one way and that is by Red Spawn. Venture too close to that edge though and you’ll meet an immediate KILL ZONE. Also, you can’t go TOO high or you’ll hit another kill zone. All buildings are okay though. So feel free to jump on top of them and rain bullets from above!

Red Spawn’s location.

Blue Spawn also has a ramp for access to the walkways. You’d think this might have a tactical advantage, however during testing it didn’t seem to make much of any impact at all.

Another ramp, this one a little closer to mid.

I included these walkways as I wanted to give the ravine city a feeling of having an “L” train. That’s an elevated train. (And a GREAT classic Jazz song)

Yep, you can get in between those girders by red spawn. Just don’t go out beyond or you’ll hit that kill zone I mentioned earlier.

I wanted to add something more with this map by allowing players to go “inside” of the buildings. This is one of two you enter on the map.

This is the other. It’s easy to gain access from above.

However, when exiting you will need to crouch. Even though it appears you8 can clearly walk through. It’s a matter of the software reading you being a full sized Spartan even though visually you aren’t.

This view shows the many levels you can get to on Canyon. Lots of play space on the main ground level, but if you like more warfare up and above, there are plenty of places to choose from.

Another view of the many levels of playspace on Canyon.

This map has several more places to hide in it, but with grenades, well, I suggest you keep a move on.

-Sal

With mini-slayer coming to matchmaking in the action sack playlist (and only having one map for it), I submitted my maps to 343 via a link on Twitter.

I made use of Impact’s lesser Asteroid for this map.

Here is the second of my four mini-slayer maps.

This is Asteropolis

Here is the top down view. Red and Blue initial spawns are marked by lights of the same color. The red line denotes the map’s boundaries. Go on top of that wall and BAM, kill zone!

A closer look at Red Spawn. This is the Spaceport of the city.

Blue Spawn. Nothing special to note. It’s just opposite of Red Spawn.

Near mid of the map, I created a reflecting pond..er Pool.

The middle of the map brings you to the crossroads or the major intersection of roadways on the map.

A mini-Pelican is perched atop this landing platform.

Behind and on the ground is the alley way behind the building with the landing pad on it.

There’s lots of little nooks and crannies here to hide around. However, get on top of the buildings and you can zoom in on just about anywhere on the map.

-Sal

Friday I reposted the text from HaloWaypoint.com regarding the matchmaking updates coming tomorrow (Mon 6/17/13).

Within that there was news of a new Action Sack gametype called “mini-slayer.” The gametype has been around for a few months but only as a modded gametype. I saw the opportunity then to make maps for these mini-spartans and replying to Waypoint, told them I had FOUR maps ready to go if they’d like to have a look at them for consideration into that new gametype. They said YES! And so I proceeded to upload them to my fileshare. (I had to make a few minor tweaks) They are on there now if you folks should care to take a further look at them. You can check out my fileshare GT= HaloFanForLife1. Any map ending with “MS” are maps for Mini-Slayer. I have a fifth in development.

In the meantime, here is the first I’m showing in pictorial format. I’ll try and get a walkthrough vid up in a couple of days.

I give you: Hydro

Here is the map as seen in forge from the top down. There’s actually a slight bit more near the bottom of the picture that I couldn’t get in as I was as high as I could go to take this shot. This obviously is on Ravine and makes use of about 1/3 of the grassy side of the map. Normally that would not be big enough for a 4v4 map. However, since this is mini-slayer we’re talking about, it’s PLENTY big! The red line shows the map’s boundaries.

At the rock wall is where the blue team initially spawns.On the ledge near middle left is where the red team initially spawns.Here we have one of the cool features on the map. It’s a small ONI/INSC base. Compelte with a base wall, several small buildings, a Pelican that has landed, and the Oni symbol.

Next to this is a roadway that leads to a tunnel. You can’t access the tunnel as that is out of bounds for the map. Oh I should also state that you do NOT want to go over those walls. That’s a KILL zone!

Here’s the ramp that goes up to the tunnel.

You know a city has made it big when they have their own stadium!

The downtown area is CHOCK FULL of buildings that you can run around, jump on top of and so on!

Here is the city’s modest waterway. Initially I had shields, but of course people would camp UNDER it when I tested this, so I took that out and am using a Grid instead. Not as “watery” looking as before, but keeps the camping out of that area!

And finally the Hydro Plant that the map is named for. Note my little mini-me on top of it!

I’ll be showcasing another one of the four maps later today. Then the other two completed mini-maps tomorrow.

Here’s hoping 343 likes these maps enough to put one or more of them into the Action Sack/Mini Slayer playlist!

FILESHARE LINK

So what do you think about this map? Like the idea of mini-slayer? Let me know by clicking that reply button. And if you’re not yet registered, it’s FREE! SO sign up now not just to reply, but to be eligible to participate in blog only contests!

-Sal

This Monday, several updates are coming to Halo 4 Matchmaking. In Spartan Ops, we’ll be showcasing a Designer’s choice medley, SWAT will be updated with new game types and maps, the brand new game type Mini Slayer will be premiering, Team Throwdown will be updated to the most current tournament settings, and more. Check out the full details of the update below.

In SWAT, we’ve added two new Slayer game types. These game types will add new ways to rack up absurd amounts of headshots and good times. Because they are new, we will be offering them exclusively in the third voting slot and keeping an eye on the voting data to see which are most popular. The game types and settings are as follows:

Forerunner SWAT

· Starting weapon: LightRifle
· Secondary: Boltshot
· Pulse Grenades
· Infinite ammo
· No weapons on map (Standard SWAT maps)
· No Armor Abilities
· Regular map rotation

Covenant SWAT

· Starting weapon: Carbine
· Secondary: Plasma Pistol
· No grenades
· Infinite ammo
· No weapons on map (Standard SWAT maps)
· No Armor Abilities
· Regular map rotation

Mini Slayer is a brand new game type that will be added to Action Sack. This mode has only been played by 343 staff and some lucky studio visitors, and we are excited to premiere it this coming Monday. The Spartans are scaled smaller than normal, but the weapons are normal size, creating fun, hectic, and often hilarious game play. The game type will be available exclusively on the map “Rail” at launch, and the rules are as follows:

· All Spartans are mini!
· All players have the “Mobility” tactical package
· All players spawn with Assault Rifle
· Killcam disabled
· Melee disabled

Team Throwdown, our premiere competitive playlist, has been updated to Gh057ayame’s “v4” settings. These updated settings include altered weapon and power-up locations, optimized spawn points, and a new 11-game type layout that will be found in the playlist. All “TD Pro” game types have been removed from the playlist – these new settings will occupy all three voting slots come Monday.

· Abandon Team Slayer
· Adrift CTF
· Dispatch CTF
· Haven Team Slayer
· Haven Extraction
· Onyx Team Slayer
· Simplex Team Slayer
· Simplex CTF
· Skyline Team Slayer
· Skyline CTF
· Station 9 Extraction

In Big Team Slayer Pro, we are disabling the killcam and enabling motion trackers. We will continue to monitor community feedback regarding these decisions.

In Spartan Ops, we’ll be featuring a Designer’s Choice medley from 343 Industries designers Jayce Diaz and Matt Geer. The line-up for Spartan Ops Matchmaking is as follows:

· Episode 7, Chapter 2: Home Field
· Episode 8, Chapter 3: Lancer
· Episode 2, Chapter 3: Hacksaw
· Episode 9, Chapter 1: The Search for Halsey
· Episode 9, Chapter 5: The Hammer

Lastly, we’ve fixed up the Shutout version of Team Snipers to ensure that there aren’t any weapon spawns and balanced the Warthogs on Meltdown. We hope you enjoy these updates and new game modes! Be sure to hop into the War Games feedback section to share your thoughts with us. See you on the virtual battlefield!

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HFFL: Alright! Finally we are getting Forerunner and Covenant SWAT! I’m already maxed on the Carbine and less than 250 away from max on the Light Rifle…However, getting one shot headshot kills with the Boltshot and Plasma Pistol, HELLS YEAH! Time to work on those commendations boys and girls! Not to mention if you still need Pulse Grenade kills.

Mini Slayer huh? Funny, I’ve been playing that for MONTHS now. In fact I have no less that FOUR maps I made specifically for that gametypes. Hmm, I wonder if I can get 343 to put my maps into rotation for this gametype… I’m happy to see it coming. Now to look up that map variant!

Team Throwdown..meh, I think you all know I don’t go into this playlist. But for those that do, there are plenty of changes.

BTB Pro (Why is this even in matchmaking?) now will have disabled killcams and enables motion trackers. (Hmm, so it’s practically back to regular BTB, just without abilities)

Spartan Ops is Designers choice that week. I wonder if I can convince BS Angel to let me pick the chapters one week. That would be SO cool.

All in all some pretty good updates, especially SWAT. And I’m excited to play mini slayer (without using someone else’s modded gametype to do it).

-Sal