Why not go for a long stroll Round da Bay?

I have been off Forgehub pretty much since Reach came out due to a very tight work schedule: the life of an engineer with end of the year contract completions. Either way I am back and forging plenty. I am working on several maps simultaneously. My first official post of a Reach map is this RACE map called Round da Bay.

This map is a high speed track with many opportunities to lose that speed. The track itself is very smooth considering its length. I have taken a great deal of care making sure the jumps and turns are as smooth as possible without having edges exposed (pet peeve).

Compared to other race maps, this one has some different features:

First off, it is 97% snap free. Most of the map has been created purely by my eye and testing for smoothness.
Secondly, the map lacks the ever too popular flat, or flat banked turn. As an engineer, I can't stand those turns. I wouldn't design them in real life so why do something unrealistic in a game too? I much prefer the realistic super-elevated turns. This map has many super elevated turns. Some of them change banking over crest which made them hard to design but overall, the end result is very good. I did the best I could with a bunch of flat rectangles =P
Another fairly major difference are the three high G dip turns on the map. If you drive a car, you know that when you quick valley such as this hill here you will gain considerable traction for turning at the cost of your suspension. Well, I have created three such turns in my track. They are smooth, very fast, and very tight. Normally, pulling a 115 degree left at 105kph would not be possible, but thanks to the strong suspension of the UNSC M/AAV-20 Mongoose, it is.
The final difference that I would consider major compared to other racetracks is a special Easter Egg I added to the map. It isn't really an Easter Egg anymore now that I am going to tell you but the map also supports Slayer Team and FFA as well as CTF multi flag for up to a 4v4. It has no effect on the track but I figure if you are going to use up space on your 360 HD, at least it should be a map that supports more than one game-type. =P

I do not have a video attached. I refuse to pay bungie more money just to get a 10 second clip from my 360. I originally wanted to edit a very nice video similar to a replay in a racing game or highlights real in the WRC but apparently a 10 second clip still takes up a whole minute of 'rendering time'. Either way, I have a video in my file share.

On to the pictures. I have cropped them to be a little smaller than original to save my Photo-bucket account's bandwidth. They are in order as they appear on the map.

Long drive around the coast.

Realistic structured bridge.

One of several jumps/drops.

The super-elevated turns in the canyon.

Two of the three high G dip turns.

Narrow bridge over the fjord.

Last and most extreme high G dip turn.

The Easter Egg small asymmetric map.

The final drop showing its nice superstructure.

That is all I have for now. My map from a previous sketch-up called Freighter is completed but not fully tested yet. My friends and I have tested it several times and there seems to be some issues with CTF and assault flow that need to be addressed. I should have it ready in a couple days.

Big thanks to the testers: dotexotic, Gorekill, FifieldA, PeKeRu, and HALFYARD.