My dear friends, I present to you a map that possesses elegance in its simplicity. Hoverdangle is the result of many months' testing and tweaking, and I'm proud to say that its final version is all I hoped it would be.

But one question remains. Are you ready to get dangled? You'd better be.

Hoverdangle is an inversely symmetrical Sandbox Crypt map designed for 2-8 players. It supports all default gametypes. Team games are best for this map, but it can support FFA games of 4 people or so. The map is a fully enclosed playspace. As such, it occupies about half of the Crypt's available space. It's completely inescapable, so don't worry about that. This map has been designed with a certain playstyle in mind - close quarters combat. Despite some long sight lines, a fluent wielder of duals should be able to hold their own against an adept BR user. Vertical combat keeps things interesting, and is a core component of this map's gameplay style. Additionally, this map was built around an interesting power weapon whose potential hasn't really been explored fully: the Sentinel Beam. Fear it.

The map itself is laterally centered along the gold line in the Crypt, but it isn't centered otherwise. This creates an environmental effect that effectively divides the map into quadrants for easy reference - one half of the map is darker in terms of ambient lighting, while the other is well-lit. At opposite sides of the map (against the Crypt walls) are the Red and Blue lights, respectively. Thus, each quadrant of the map is either light and red, dark and red, light and blue, or dark and blue. This allows a player to instantly ascertain their position upon spawning per the lighting of the environment around them. Because of the map's inverse symmetry, "light red" corresponds to "dark blue" in terms of geometry, and vice versa.

Red Stair

Blue Stair

Red Bottom

Blue Bottom

Red Courtyard

Blue Courtyard

Red Bubble Shield

Blue Bubble Shield

Red Top

Blue Top

The Roost

Bottom Mid

Comparison of the Middles

Looking from Blue Base's Bottom Floor toward Red Base's Bottom Floor

Map Layout/Design

Hoverdangle is inversely symmetrical. It focuses primarily on two vertical layers: the more open ground floor, and the upper catwalks and tunnels. There are six direct access points from the ground to the upper levels, and many more if tactical jumps are considered. Each base has a two block-height staircase at its far back. Starting from this back staircase perspective-wise, the following describes the map's structure. The left stairs go up to each base's small top floor, and the right stairs go down to each base's pillar-filled ground room. The top room of each base has one exit across a precarious bridge to an open Corner Tube, which leads to what's known as "the Roost," the centered, highest elevated portion of the map where the Sentinel Beam spawns. The bottom room of each base has three exits evenly spaced across the entirety of the inside wall. The center door is shielded. Those three exits lead to each base's "courtyard," a long, open area divided from the rest of the map by walls and connected by hallways. The aforementioned bridge overlooks this entire area. From each courtyard, one can head to the left and ascend a staircase directly to "the Roost." Between each base's courtyard (on the ground floor) lies the main central hallway, whose floor is the Crypt's gold stripe. The Rocket Launcher drop-spawns in the center of this area. From here, there are two one-way Teleporters that lead directly to the Roost. However, using them is risky because people can feasibly camp the Receiver nodes. It's advised that players use another route to the Roost, but the Teleporters can certainly save lives in certain situations.

Now that that attempt at describing the map's layout is out of the way, here are the map's specs:

Weapons/Equipment
2 x Carbine @ 45 second respawn (1 spare clip)
2 x Battle Rifle @ 30 second respawn (run-time max 8)
4 x SMG @ 30 second respawn
4 x Spiker @ 30 second respawn
2 x Plasma Pistol @ 60 second respawn
2 x Plasma Rifle @ 30 second respawn
2 x Assault Rifle @ 30 second respawn (run-time max 8)
2 x Needler @ 60 second respawn (1 spare clip)
4 x Spike Grenade @ 45 second respawn

1 x Rocket Launcher @ 120 second drop-respawn (0 spare clips; run-time max 2)
1 x Sentinel Beam @ 150 second respawn

2 x Bubble Shield @ 120 second respawn

The two power weapons on the map are the Rocket Launcher and *gasp* the Sentinel Beam. The entire map is designed with these weapons in mind, and those of you that don't think a Sentinel Beam fits "power weapon" classification will eat your words the first time you're barbecued by its orange beam of death. The Sentinel Beam has gained the lovely nickname "BBQ Beam" by people that have helped me test this map.

Enough blabbering. Time for a couple of action pics!

Explosion

Get BBQ'd.

Download Hoverdangle Here!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the map!