Forged by jacobdenver1 and ll TR1BAL ll

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UPDATED: April 16, 2011

Serenity is a spacious, symmetrical map built in a custom coliseum, floating high over Forge World and is suitable for up to sixteen players. Its design encourages extremely fast-paced gameplay, especially in the objective gametypes for which its been prepared (all CTF and Assault variants, plus Team Oddball). This is due largely to the four man cannons which lift to the highest tower of each base from alternate corners of the map.

Blue Lifts

Blue Tower

The lifts and towers were designed by jacobdenver1 and form the conceptual foundation stone for the map. We wanted to create a fairly strong base for each team, but make room for any setup in these bases to be broken by good use of teamwork and close-quarters combat. The lifts achieve this by allowing quick access to each strongpoint, resulting in fluid capturing and recapturing of bases in Team Slayer games whilst also encouraging quick-scoring objective games.

Blue side from Blue lifts

By the second iteration we had developed the initial idea into a multilevelled arena, with strong, high bases looking out over terrain with varying altitudes; the lowest visible being the very center of the map.

Center/Top Mid

We then added the Vault, or basement area as an alternate, hidden route across the map which becomes a focal point for Neutral Bomb/Flag gametypes. It also houses the rockets on Slayer games.

The Vault has only two access points and these are both located at the bottom of the lift platforms, meaning one location on each side of the map is where the majority of decisions about map movement are made. The exception to this rule is the two way teleporters, which are located in their own room on each side of the Vault and the neutral zone between lifts and tower on each side of the map.

There are two large pillars on each side of the map which, in addition to the tall structure in the center, drastically reduce sightlines for long-range weapons from each tower, thus encouraging map movement. These interlock with the rooftop areas via walkways which offer very little cover, on which are placed the godly Shade Turrets of death.

Weapons (Power weapons in Bold)

Sword x 1 (1 Max) - Top mid - 120 sec respawn
Needle Rifle x 4 - 60 sec respawn, 2 spare clips
Conc. Rifle x 2 - Top tower - 140 sec respawn, 1 spare clip
Plasma pistols x 2 - Mid tower - 90 sec respawn
Spiker x 4 - 60 sec respawn, 2 spare clips
Shotgun x 2 - below Mid tower - 120 sec respawn, 1 spare clip
AR x 4 - 30 & 60 sec respawn, 2 spare clips
Needler x 2 90 sec respawn, 2 spaer clips
Sniper x 2 - Cover by lifts - 180 sec respawn, 1 spare clip
Magnum x 4 - 60 sec respawn, 2 spare clips
Frag x 12 - 30 second respawn
Stickies x 4 - 30 second respawn
DMR x 10 - 30 & 60 second respawn, 2 spare clips
Rockets x 1 (Slayer only) - Bottom mid - 180 sec, 1 spare clip
Shade Turrets x 2 - 120 second respawn

Playtesting

Big thanks to Matty the IV who organised an extensive playtesting session yesterday, which allowed us to try out a variety of gametypes on the map. It worked surprisingly well for FFA games.

Playtests:
FFA Oddball
7v7 Team Slayer
6v6 CTF
6v6 Assault
FFA Slayer
FFA Slayer
FFA Slayer

Gameplay/Flythrough

Video flythrough of Serenity during FFA Slayer playtest

Changelog (since v4):
>Soft Kill boundaries added above teleporters
>Soft Kill boundary added at top of central structure
>DMRs repositioned in Vault and top mid
>Z-fighting near blue lifts fixed
>Aesthetic & structural improvements made to Shotgun tunnel
>Top of large columns modified to fix coordinate glitching
>Ramps, blocks, and bridge area cleaned up near lift platforms
>Corner Pyramids replaced with Brace, Large
>Initial Spawning areas demarcated with embedded Tower, Tall
>Removed Grenade Launchers
>Teleporters rebuilt to accomodate Elites
>Fixed coordinate glitching on vertical Coliseum Walls near bases