Shield Room | Shield Room | OVERBOARD!

-= Introduction =-
So OVERBOARD! is a relatively new gametype with relatively few maps that have been made for it. Having played it a number of times, I can attest to the addicting nature of it, because despite how notedly repetitive it gets, and despite how much people may complain in-game and whine for the end, they will continue to play (I have yet to see someone completely boycott the game). The gametype works on a wide variety of maps, but unfortunately, there are precious few maps that are designed specifically for it: Metered and Walk the Plank being the only two that immediately come to the front of my mind.

-= Conception =-
So I set out to not only make a map designed specifically for OVERBOARD!, but also to do something innovative that would add a new twist to the gameplay. That is where the concept for Shield Room came in. Originally, it had been my understanding that grenades would bounce off shield doors to no end. In creating a room that was completely surrounded by shield doors, I was hoping to make a death-trap of epic proportions. Despite my incorrect assumptions (which were discovered very early on in forging), I continued the map, bringing to fruition a multi-tiered, slanted, separated-platform-based design reminiscent of but not identical to Walk the Plank. Ramps leading up to the center from an outer ring with "lilly pads" between them that provide new options in a pinch, and a dark lighting effect to make the purple light bright white were all forged according to design.

-= Refinement =-
After the first test, there were a few things that were made blatantly clear: if you were the leader and you spawned in one of the corners in a smaller game, you were fresh out of luck. There was also no way to see the inverted tin cups that provided a sometimes safe alternative route, and there were entirely too many ~~soccer~~ golf balls in the shield room itself (despite how frequently they managed to escape). It was also not entirely too difficult to land atop the light, which while not providing any distinct advantage, was something to be fixed. A few edits and tests later, and the map was in its current state.

-= Description =-

Shield Room is a map of exceptional symmetry. It forms a square, and each sector of the square is identical to the others. A two-leveled walkway around the perimeter provides the haven in which players spawn (and sometimes battle). This is decorated by obelisks, and is within jumping distance of the ramps and "lilly pads" - which are now made of destructible pallets instead of inverted tin cups. At the bottoms of the ramps are thin wood bridges, put in place to prevent grenades (or players) lost on the ramp from falling into oblivion. And in the center of this whole mess is the shield room: six walls of shield doors with soccer balls, obelisks at the corners, and man cannons pointed at the floor to keep things moving. Surrounding this is a hastily-constructed platform consisting of scaffolding and thin wooden bridges (to prevent the golf balls from throwing people off the map entirely). Teleporters also link the corners of the map to the scaffolding about the middle, providing easier access to the hot zone. Above that floats the bright ~~white~~ purple light, which keeps things well-illuminated for the most part.

In the last forging session, though, mista tipsta was kind enough to join in, and saw fit to fiddle with the lighting effects whilst I made my simple corrections to the rest of the map (e.g. replacing the man cannons of previous versions with teleporters, getting rid of some soccer balls, etc.). While I had removed the lighting effects entirely so that people with CRT TVs could still see the darker regions of the map, tipsta's expertise managed to produce a darker coloring that left the whole map perfectly visible. But due to the fact that CRT TVs aren't as good with dark colors as Plasma or LCD screens, I decided that it would be in my best interest to publish two versions of the map: one with tipsta's effects, and the other without.

Screenshots

An overview picture of the map with the effects enabled.

An artistic shot demonstrating a sample of the map's structures with the sunset as a backdrop.

An angle demonstrating the action within the shield room, as well as its structure.

Another angle on the shield room, more thoroughly demonstrating the structure and paths that can be taken to get there.

The majority of the fighting tends to take place outside the shield room, as demonstrated here.

An example of someone using the pallets as an alternative path.

Spartan has reached critical mass!

Get away from the Sparto-nuclear meltdown!

Death.

Battle for the lead.

Stick to the face. His doom is eternally impending.

Throw down!

Action in the middle.

More action in the middle.

Yet more acton in the middle.

-= Credits =-
God, Null Parameter (and everyone else who conceived the game), bos54redsox and mista tipsta for being at almost all of the test sessions, mista tipsta for his amazing visual effects artistry, and everyone else who tested this map along the way.

-= Linkage (again) =-
Download Shield Room E
Download Shield Room N
Download OVERBOARD!