The basics
This map is a re-imagined version of the insanely popular Castle Wars by PRONGEDVERMIN0. If you've found this type of gameplay fun previuosly, you'll probably love this version, which has a one of a kind adjustable cannon on each base!

Note: Pathing is more diverse than original, but is still intended to force players to push across the bridge and into the enemy base. That is the intended gameplay characteristic, which keeps this map appealing to fans of the original.

Aside from desiring to reforge for a more cohesive product, I also had the intention of making the map playable using more normal weapon types. This will not stop anyone from playing swords or whatever.

Oh, and there's a working cannon on each base that has three different distance settings.

Main GameType = Capture the Flag (Recommend using Pistol + AR Longbarrel Starts) with a longer flag reset profile.

VEHICLES UNLOCK AS PLAYER COUNT INCREASES TO AVOID VEHICULAR DOMINATION - SEE DETAILS BELOW IN "TECH"

Weapons:
Magnum 4x, 30sec, 2 spare
AR Longbow 4x, 30sec, 2 spare
Plasma Pistol 2x, 30sec, 100
Plasma Pistol (Spitfire) 2x, 45sec, 100
Battle Rifle 1x, 90sec, 1 spare
DMR 2x, 90sec, No spare
(note, the BR and DMR are very limited in ammo with long respawn times so that they serve as a temporary power weapon)

Frag Grenade 16x 30sec
Plasma Grenade 12x 30sec

Weapon Pad
Plasma Caster 1x, 180sec, 2 spare

Vehicles:
Ghost: 100 sec respawn (min 4 players)
Mongoose: 90 sec respawn (min 6 players)
Warthog: 90 sec respawn (min 8 players)

Tip: Players should pick up plasma nades and weapons quickly to counter vehicles!

The Vision

Castle Wars by PRONGEDVERMIN0 is very popular with the extreme casual Halo 5 player. Love it or hate it, it and its X.0 variants are always dominating the Custom Games Lobbies on both XBONE and PC Forge. This can be frustrating because the map has many poorly forged pieces and several design flaws that hinder gameplay. It succeeds in creating a chaotic arena for Super Fiesta, but doesn't represent the capabilities of Forge.

No offense to the original author, but the community deserves something that's just... put together better.

The journey

I first set out to create a simple copy and re-pieced version. I immediately realized the original is actually built on a 45deg angle! This caused me to examine the landscape to find a good place for two entirely rebuilt castles. Once I located my starting point, I built a basic temporary bridge and started work on the custom scripted cannons you see today. This required dozens of hours just getting this right, and later as the map was built, many more hours just on this one feature! Thanks to some help from script experts, I solved a couple problems related to this cannon and proceeded to build the actual map. (I tend to decide on a neat centerpiece "gadget" or piece of "tech", and then see if a workable map can be built using it as an attraction and demonstration)

Once the decision had been made to relocate and rebuild entirely, it then made more sense to take vast liberties with the design of the castles and bridge. That is why we see a set of bases that follow a similar general progression to getting to top-base where the flags are kept, but instead with three viable routes instead of one.

The tech

The cannon:
There is a cannon on each base, which when activated, will fire a projectile using in-game kinetic energy. Similar to the behavior of a frag grenade, the projectile will actually explode a short time after landing on the floor rather than a set time interval. This was needed due to the varying distance settings available.

Respawn time = 12 sec
Inner radius = instant kill/destroy anything on opposing team
Outer radius = 50% damage to anything on opposing team
Cannons cannot be fired by opposing team

Explosions will not kill teammates, but will temporarily disable teammates' vehicles and disable turrets. Be careful!

Explosions use lightning effect because it allows scripted movement to a target between the time it spawns in, and actually performs the effect. Othewise, I understand a traditional explosion would be more desirable.

Player Count Dependent Vehicle Unlocks:
Ever get frustrated when you join a custom game with VEHICLES and while you wait for players to join, the only other player will unfairly own you with a Wraith? That is not a concern here.

In a desire to force good behavior with vehicles and small numbers of players, this map keeps a constant count of the number of players and only releases vehicles for use if the count is high enough to be able to counter the use of said vehicle. This has the effect of allowing smaller numbers of players to enjoy a game while more join. A light above the garages indicates when each vehicle type is both permitted AND respawned.

Vehicle Unlock Requirements
Ghost > 4 players (cannot carry flag)
Mongoose > 6 players (can carry flag)
Warthog > 8 players (can carry flag and is mobile turret)

Known issue - player count is inaccurate when players are dead. I was forced to exclude dead players to avoid the game from counting both respawned players and their previous bodies, resulting in overcounting and releasing vehicles prematurely. Instead, the occasional temporary lock of a vehicle may occur while players are waiting to spawn in or for a short time thereafter (a few seconds at most).

(Note, a Mantis was recently tested as a replacement for the hog for a couple days, but did not enhance gameplay to the satisfaction of this author, and did break some elements of gamelpay)

Special Thanks for help in a scripting thread, or testing lobby:
@Ascend Hyperion
@Agent Zero85
@Yumudas Beegbut

**Cannon custom ball/explosion idea is an adaptation of the technique from the following youtube video on Custom Grenades.