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Morpheus - A Halo 4 recreation of the 4th most downloaded fan-made level for the 1997 game, Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight (better known as JK). Original level by "Bug" in 2000, who was one of the best level designers for the game, and also created "Atlantis" among others.

Recreated by JKaddict, GT "ExTerrestr1al"

While this is not my first forge map (and I hope it shows) it is my first official published map for the community.

Thanks to Psychoduck for inspiring me to make this after watching his video on Jump Pads. I realized suddenly, "I could make MORPHEUS!" I dropped other projects and dove right into this concept. The result was the "Super Jump Pad" design featured in this map.

What the heck is Morpheus, you ask? Jedi Knight was one of the first and biggest fanbased communities built around level editing, and is actually still alive today. Though, now days, level designers are using hi-res textures to make it look more current.

Morpheus was a level that featured jump pads placed around the level to allow you to jump from building rooftop to rooftop like Morpheus did in "The Matrix". The fast-paced running of JK gameplay married itself beautifully to the jump pads concept and coupled with higher damage added to some of the weapons, it made for great fun, no matter what number of players you had.

Primarily, I was concerned with replicating the exact design of the original, with little care about how it would affect Halo gameplay.

Secondarily, after testing w/ some friends which some of them were Halo noobs, I realized the level needed to be more "noob friendly" with fewer places to fall into the abbyss and more ways to save you from dying from a poorly executed jump. More visual cues needed to be provided to show players where they can and cannot make a jump.

FEATURES:
SUPER Jump-Pads with unique design
Building tops surrounded by a full 360`city-scape view.
Higher jump height everywhere
Faster player run-speed everywhere
No fall damage anywhere (except falling into abyss)
Slightly higher damage from weapons to compensate for large distances (110%)
These attributes when blended together offer a balanced result.

Game-types Supported: (best with classic Slayer types) Slayer, Team Slayer, 2 Flag CTF, and King of the Hill. (If suicides are a concern, modify gametypes to not penalize deaths/suicides. Once familiar with jumps that should not be a major concern, however.)

Recommended Players: 2-8

NOTES ABOUT USING JUMPS SAFELY: Initially players did not know which ledges can be lept from and which cannot, which caused frequent deaths. Also, some jumps can provide different results based on how you hit them. Here is how you should hit them:

If running over a jump, try sprinting over it and pressing the stick forward/left/right to steer while watching where you are going to land.
If you are falling down onto an angled jump, try pressing your stick against the jump as you hit it, and then pushing forward w/ stick and steering left/right as needed.
Walking up against an angled jump will always produce a reliable trajectory.
Jumps that are poorly executed can often be saved by pressing the stick in the desired direction if done soon enough.
Experiment in practice to find other trick jumps available. Some of which are featured in a "Jumps of Morpheus" video I'll be posting sometime soon. (Available on fileshare now)

If practiced, there is no reason you should ever die from these jumps, especially now that they've been fine tuned.

Video:
(Note: This video was prior to many cover & safety changes made after playtesting with Friendly Fire Customs on 1/28/2013. Thanks to Fenix Hulk for the video capturing/posting. (see below for detailed changes made from version seen here)
Morpheus FFA Slayer - YouTube

SCREENSHOTS:
(notice the changes since video above such as railings along walkways and additional cover.)

MORE SCREENSHOTS:

ORIGINAL JK Screenshot

ORIGINAL JK Screenshot

Some pre-emptively answered questions (PAQs):

Q: Do I need a special game-type to fully enjoy the unique gameplay of this map?
A: No. A large trait zone defining player movement covers the entire map, and other localized ones modify it to provide you the abillity to jump just right without any gametype customization. EDIT: You may want to alter some gametypes for no death/suicide penalties if you fall a lot.

Q: Why is everything so flat and open?
A: Because that's how the original was, and it was fun. Just try it out. A jump height of 110% and Speed of 150% (I think) creates a faster moving target that does not suffer from long lines of sight (LOS) in the same way other levels do.

Q: Why did a particular jump not execute properly?
A: Probably based on the player's movement prior to hitting the jump. Try to hit them cleanly and toward the center of the pad, though anywhere on the pads should work to a lesser degree. You will get best results from hitting the center.

Q: Why did you increase player damage to 110%?
A: Because of the larger distances involved and to help get closer to the larger explosions of the Morpheus weapons. (weapons could be modded using the levels themselves)

Q: Why are jump pads designed with this particular technique?
A: Because I needed a bigger boost. Placing a trait zone (or multiples) with a One-Way shield makes you bounce off of the pad much better and projected much higher/farther. it also adds a visual style to the level which is unique (for now).

Q: Why is this particular weapon placed where it is?
A: Because it corresponds closely to a weapon placed in the original. Rocket Launcher corresponds to old-school "rail gun" for instance.

Q: Why are there mines on top of the buiding w/ the sniper rifle?
A: To emulate that there were placeable mines in JK which were located in that same spot in original Morpheus map. You can't pick these ones up, but they are not there just for decoration. If you think someone is going for the sniper rifle, you can shoot one of these mines from across the level and get a kill to eliminate the wannabe sniper ;)
Q: Why are all of the buildings floating in space?
A: I wanted to close it all off, but the limitations on number of Wall pieces forced me to leave some things open, but when you are not looking for the gaps, the level does appear to be in the middle of a cityscape which is not floating.

Q: Why are the jump pads at each base using a different type of shield and mancannon from the rest of the jump pads?
A: First, the game only lets you use 6 items from the "Shields" menu, and I just ran out. Using a red-colored Dominion base shield allowed me to get a similar look to the others. Second, the different type of mancannon offered the ideal type of lift/jump for the placement of these two. It was all done very intentionally and works great.

Q: Why is there a jump pad on the Red Base when there wasn't one in the original Morpheus?
A: Because I wanted to enable team-based gameplay here, and both sides, while asymetric in layout, needed to have similar features to provide equivelant gameplay for both sides. This is also why in CTF you will not see the teleporter appear.

Q: Why are there trays, rocks and soft-kills placed around edges?
A: These were all part of making sure the player knew which areas were playable versus which were just for decoration. The rocks discourage players from climbing over the edge into the abyss, trays catch players who don't perfeclty execute jumps (most of the time), and soft-kills are used to just barely give a warning when you are at the edge of some cliffs. Once a player has run around the map, though, they should know where the safe areas are very quickly.

Q: Why are some weapons as normal pickups and others are Initial drops?
A: Because I wanted to alert new players where the good weapons are, and control the ammo in some of the others.

Q: Why are grenades placed in groups of three when Halo only lets you pick up two?
A: This is one of many things done merely to pay homage to JK, where "Thermal detonators" usually came in packs of three on a belt of sorts.

Q: Why are there no Jetpacks placed around the level?
A: Because JK did not have them, and they are lame in Halo IMO. I've made sure this level will not favor someone who tries to bring in JetPacks to get around vs using the jump pads. That's simply not the type of gameplay this was designed for.

Q: Why is there a building with a diagonal piece coming out of it extending into another building?
A: I know it looks weird, but that is true to the original and awesome just for that reason alone ;)

I hope everyone enjoys this level! It's a fun yet potentially competitive experience.