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Hello there! This is the first proper map I've made since Halo 3, so let's see how it goes... When Forge Island came out, I wanted to see what I could do with the smallest island. I wanted to make something designed for a more casual FFA session of madness, with a good balance between the original Forge Island map geometry, natural pieces like trees, rocks and caves, and man made structures using a combination of forge objects, without either of these three features overpowering the others.

I took a fair amount of inspiration from Ascension for this map, but this is by no means a remake. I wanted the middle of the map to be some sort of death pit, but with its rewards. The railgun and turret are found there, and can deal some serious damage. Rocks and trees are scattered around for cover or escape routes, and there are quite a few handy jumps to get up to the higher points. There is a felled tree in the middle, which can also be used to access the upper level of one of the bases. The bases themselves are fairly high up, but trees and other scenery block lines of sight, and there are several routes, jumps and gravity lifts to the top, so despite their elevation, they are not impervious to attack. A path runs around most of the outside of the island, slightly lower than the terrain in the middle. While you may be out of sight, any player in the middle can get around faster, and will have a better angle to shoot you from, but there are a few routes and jumps to get back in to the middle from this path. Here, you will also find a cave with a shotgun, a grav lift to the top of the map, and 2 man cannons either side of a sniper, allowing you to get around the map, while catching a glimpse of any action going on in the middle.

In terms of gameplay, I had Infinity Slayer in mind when designing this, but it also supports oddball and koth. In terms of random drops, I wanted their purpose to be resupply, rather than power weapons. Therefore, the random drops are grenades, loadout weapons, and armour abilities, if you want to mix it up a bit. I was hoping for something that would be ideal for FFA games of around 6-8 players, but unfortunately I haven't been able to test it under those conditions. Still, I've had a couple of friends running around and killing each other, and nothing seems to have broken yet, so I might as well release what I've got. So, without further adieu, I present the result of my careful-map-planning-and-forging/dicking-about: Runaround!

Overview:

Initial loadout cam, showing the felled tree:

One of the bases and upper entrance to the cave:

Grav lifts and sniper spawn:

Jump pad behind one of the bases, and another entrance to the cave:

Another view of the middle:

Upper cave entrance:

The cave, containing the shotgun:

Thanks for reading/scrolling this far. If you want to give this map a try, that's awesome! I haven't made any proper maps in a while, so I'd love to hear what you think I could change. Hopefully I'll add support for other gametypes and make other minor improvements in the future. If you feel like playing some time, add my GT and maybe I'll see you next time I'm on Halo. Happy slaying!

Updates:
- 1.1 Added random pistol drop and swapped the Shotgun and Sniper for a Scattershot and Beam Rifle respectively