The next episode of Bungie Favorites from Ascendant Justice includes a sweet Forge Variant of Valhalla, "Riverworld," learn a bit about it inside.
Last week, we populated Bungie Favorites with a mountain of files from Halo community Ascendant Justice. This week begins their next go-round on Bungie Favorites. Part of the spotlight on each of these community groups includes some questions about their favorite things, as well as a brief Q&A on one of their Forged Maps. The map they've chosen to spotlight is "Riverworld," (labeled ASC Valhalla in Favorites) a Forge variant of Halo 3's Valhalla.
Q: What are your [Ascendant Justice's] favorite maps?
A: Collectively, Valhalla, High Ground, Ghost Town and Avalanche stand out among most of our members for Halo 3. We also enjoy Hang 'Em High, Prisoner and Damnation of Halo: Combat Evolved. During our time with Halo 2, we religiously indulged in Lockout, Midship, Sanctuary and Terminal.
Q: Favorite Gametypes?
A: We're big fans of Team Slayer, but we have the most fun with Team Objective gametypes like Capture the Flag and Assault.
Q: What would you like to see in Matchmaking that isn’t?
A: Clan Support? Realistically, we'd like to see more 1-Flag/1-Bomb games - like a bad-ass hopper with only asymmetrical objective-based gametypes for 8-16 players.
Q: What inspired your creation?
A: Riverworld was originally conceived by Syracuse022, a hardcore Halo: Combat Evolved fan. At the time, it was referred to as "Halo1halla" and using drop-timers, as well as a near identical weapon and vehicle layout, he fused the map from the ground up.
When conducting a walkthrough with the admins of Ascendant Justice, we decided to tweak the map as part of our regular roundup and added a few interesting elements. Only recently has it been called Riverworld, in honor of Bungie's development name for the map. It still has drop-timers and a familiar weapon or two that changes it enough from the original Valhalla layout to be interesting, but similar enough to still be great.
Q: How long did it take to create?
A: Approximately two week of balance testing and layout changes.
Q: What aspect took the longest to get right?
A: Drop-timers.
Q: How could The Forge be improved?
We'd like to see another map similar to Foundry, except this time in a different and more Halo-familiar environment - perhaps something outdoors! We'd also like Bungie to consider allowing players to add/delete and move naturally occurring geometry in this map like terrain differentials (hills, plateaus, cliffs), trees and large rocks to alter the look of the map. The geometry could be similar to that of Avalanche's shield doors, allowing it to pass through the ground and closing up any snag-worthy seams. This environment would have to be large and aesthetically pleasing, because, well, that's how most things are in the Halo Universe.