Hello Hubbers! I have a special treat for you today; an invasion map! Sure, there’s been a few of these posted on the site before –namely Summit and Cargo Port- but when was the last time a Bungie-style competitive invasion map was posted on the site? Well, basically never, to be perfectly honest. And with that, I’ll let that obnoxious shoe that keeps flying around introduce the map.

About 11 months ago Psychoduck and I decided we were going to make an Invasion map. We thought we were pretty badass and could just jump right in and make it, expecting to release it by October. We were wrong. Oh so painfully wrong. After months of learning Invasion, rebuilding versions, moving the entire map, and fighting to improve gameplay and performance, Meteora is finally complete however, and ready to be played.
Meteora follows the standard Invasion layout of territories–territories–core and follows the Matchmaking concepts of 3 Fire Teams and forward progression. After that, conventionality was thrown out the window. Unlike the community maps currently in matchmaking, Meteora is an Elite Defense map. Over half of the map is also built out over the edge of Alaska, using no natural terrain for a futuristic/urban aesthetic that looks nothing like the other Invasion maps out there. Meteora plays a very competitive game of Invasion in an atmosphere unique to the gametype, always bringing something new to the table.

“But Psychoduck, why would you name a map after a Linkin Park album?” I hear you ask. Ell, first let’s not forget that the map is actually shaped like a Backwards Meteora. Then, let’s make the same joke about that over and over again for months, because it’ll totally still be funny, right? Nope, probably not. Anyway, despite the fact that Meteora being a spectacular album, and me being a huge fan of Linkin Park, Meteora’s namesake is actually something else. Meteora refers to a series of butte-top cathedrals in Greece, and given our maps attempt to capture an urban rooftop theme, we felt the name was fitting. You can call it Cockwaffle if you don’t like it.

So what else is there to say about Meteora? Well, as Shoe said, we started making this map almost a year ago. We went through so many concepts (Concept, Conecept, Pyramidcept, BananaToiletcept, HappySadPandaMuffincept, Chroncept, Corncept, and Ray Panamals-cept to name but a few). We created enough geometry to have at least five entire maps, all prior to actually beginning work on Meteora itself. One of these, mockKnizzle and I almost converted into what could have been a solid BTB map. After doing what can only be described as “dicking around” in forge for a few months, Shoe and I came to the realization that there are, in fact, a few members of the forge community who actually know invasion. We came into contact with the Halo Wheelmen and found ourselves talking to Able SirThomas, Yardbird92, and Oakley Hidef shortly afterwards. Of course many of these fellows have now become our Brosiedons over at The Halo Forge Epidemic, where this fine video was produced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMe8ab9AFEw&list=SPB58F899FC59AF544&index=11&feature=plpp_video

I think that’s enough of a text wall. The video should tell you everything, and the screenshots will tell you the rest. Oh, did I mention that Meteora is compatible with BTB Slayer and BTB Flag as well as invasion? No invasion slayer here though, what a shame right? The map also supports splitscreen play as per matchmaking standards. The map uses the standard invasion gametype, but don't forget to set elites as defenders when playing the map! I’ll end by saying that this has been a crazy wild ride for Shoe and me, one that rivals the wild rides leading up to the releases of Cargo Port, Embarcadero and S before I go on to thank a huge list of people who helped with this map.

MockKnizzle008: ever since the Cargo Port days, Mock has helped me in forge in increasing amounts. With Shoe, Mock, and I forging an epic forging triangle, covering each other’s strengths and weaknesses and making better maps for it. Mock only dipped his toes into invasion forging in his time helping with Meteora, but he still managed to be a huge help, being a great bouncy thing to bounce ideas off of, and helping just plenty with the actual forging, and just being a bro and listening to Nine Inch Nails and playing Mass Effect with me when I needed a break from forging.
Able SirThomas: Able was one of the first invasion forgers to really help us with the map. He provided a lot of insight and advice, and helped a bunch with testing and coordinating lobbies to do so. He was also a huge help with optimizing the map to support splitscreen play. I also thoroughly enjoyed working with Able to make the THFE video for the map.
Oakley Hidef and Yardbird92: Both were great helps with the map in the same way Able was, although neither was quite as ever-present as Able was. These guys along with Stubborn Clam made up the rest of the group of invasion forgers that we were able to coordinate with to improve the first round of invasion matchmaking submissions (which Meteora regrettably wasn’t quite ready for).
HWM Luv Gunn and the rest of the Halo Wheelmen: the wheelmen are the reason we got into contact with Able, Bird, and Oakley, and basically the reason Meteora is actually a true invasion map. Luv Gunn, being a Cartographer was a big help when we were trying to meet the deadline for the initial matchmaking invasion submission.
Of course there were a lot of others who helped test the map as well. Sadly, I don’t remember even close to everyone. If you helped, then we thank you.
Flying Shoe ILR: Of course I need to thank Shoe as well. It all started when Shoe provided all this feedback on Cargo port, and then I went and did the same on First Tracks. Shoe and I struggled a lot at the beginning, and contemplated giving up, but our shared love for invasion and fine food kept us going through it all. In the end, we had each other’s backs, and we were able to cover each other’s weaknesses (mine an inability to do anything right in phase 1, and Shoe’s a failure to get left side to work after numerous builds namely). Shoe, thanks for forging this with me bro. I know it sucked at times, but I think the long discussions about music, life. and symbols of power were worth even more than the awesome map we have created. I look forward to our future projects.