Plunderland
UT4’s Underland re-imagined for Halo: Infinite
This isolated cove, once a staging ground for pirates and rebels was finally tracked down. However something far more sinister was discovered in the depths of the island
Plunderland has been officially recommended by 343 Industries!
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Map coverage by the Infinite News Network
Vision & Direction
OVERVIEW
A re-imagining of Underland from UT4 within the Halo Infinite sandbox
Made for 4v4 gameplay
Added competitive levels of objective play, focus on 2/3 key game-modes
Altered the environment to bring the map into a Pirate Inspired setting whilst paying homage to the original design
Adapted the layout to translate key sight lines and flow, made necessary adjustments to metrics for Infinite's player traversal options, speed, and additional cover requirements
New map landmarks and major route options to account for new verticality
Asymmetrical Layout Objective Balancing
GAMEPLAY DIRECTION
Reworked Asym layout to bring in line with Objective based modes
Prioritized making the map feel dense and tight for hectic fighting but also vertical for interesting power dynamics in elevation.
Focused on smooth traversal options with jumps and clambers (adhering to metrics to ensure no false clamber triggers happen for low geo)
Equipment to compliment vertical traversability and replace UT4’s Jump Boots.
ex: Repulsor jumps that give quick access to higher power positions
ex: Grapple points that allow for a smooth grapple to new positions
Scaled up landmarks and combat spaces to account for Halo’s traversal tools and movement.
ART DIRECTION
Immediately recognizable as the source UT4 level with similar themes and setting
Medieval Architecture, pulling art style and motifs from UT4
Pirate Occupation evident over underlying historical significance
Sell the setting of a “Hidden Cove” (Dark, Mysterious, Isolated)
Layout Comparison UT4 (Top)
Original Layout Impressions
UT4 shares a lot of foundational pillars with Halo, it’s centered around pickups, power weapons, and equipment. This means many UT4 maps are well balanced for a sandbox like Halo’s. However, Halo has a more expanded sandbox. In UT4 players have a small jump with no clamber, in Halo that’s the exact opposite.
In order to capitalize on Halo’s vertical movement capabilities, I decided to re-imagine Underland from UT4 in Halo: Infinite due to it’s condensed size and drastic changes in elevation. This was a challenge however. The original map was an asym deathmatch map, very small FFA only with no real “home bases” accounted for. This posed some unique challenges. In order to bring this map into Halo, my goal was to re-imagine it in a way that could support all game modes well. This means it must support all Arena Team based modes, as well as ranked play. Therefore, a new home base had to be established, as well as new architecture and cover options to establish lanes and areas for objective play. The new home base and routes would also need to be safe enough to combat the elevated and well protected ruins in the middle of the map which are more easily accessed by the team that spawns to the north.
With all of this taken into account. I began work on faithfully up-scaling and replicating key features of the original in blockout, establishing metrics and motifs before attempting to balance the map for arena modes. The main focus though, was on three key gamemodes that achieve the best map experience. King of the Hill, CTF, and Oddball. FFA was also a main focus of the map, given it’s roots as a FFA only map.
Map Alterations
The Ship and Peninsula to the north, and Ruins to the south were added to create new home bases for teams in Halo. Given how initial spawns are laid, players on both teams are funneled towards the center of the map evenly at the start of the map. Many other changes occurred to balance out the map on all axes and create lanes/routes. These were integral to team-play and objective game-modes.
Broke Top Mid Tower (TMT) to make it a neutral power position that can be challenged. TMT is the highest point of the map and is very powerful. By segmenting the pillars players have little cover and are exposed from several sight-lines. This pushes TMT owners to lock down angles but stay quick on their toes, jumping from pillar to pillar to break lines of sight.
New Caves, Rock Formations and Cover to break long sight-lines from higher elevations, create distinct lanes and utilize Halo’s expanded movement. Given the vertical nature of the map and how most of the architecture in the original design is located near the team that spawns there. Many measures were taken to ensure the Ship and the subsequent routes towards the middle of the map were safe at a distance and offered quick means to ascend the towers and provide that team with the opportunity to establish themselves at higher elevations.
Increased scale in key areas to host objectives and make them interesting to play in. Focus on witty outplay potential with movement.
Re-imagined Blockout
3D Comparisons
Notable challenges for adapting this map for 4v4 are present here. The beach is exposed and at a lower elevation, it's also on the outer rim of the map with most of the architecture running through the middle (North-South) The tower located on the beach hosts the sniper rifle and has no windows to shoot through, forcing players to stand on the bridge for sightlines. It also makes the Tower a dead end, restricting movement for cornered players.
The beach now acts as a lower elevation mid ground to battle over. The inclusion of the new broken beach tower adds cover for running tight routes on the sand and jumps to higher elevation thanks to Halo's increased mobility. The pre-existing beach tower now has two more doorways to allow flow through the tower, as well as a wraparound ramp on the back side to allow access from below. This tower makes for a solid position to hold that allows players to jump and clamber up, down, and across the beach as they bound from structure to structure never touching the sand below.
Here you can see an even larger tower on the left, this is Top-Mid Tower (TMT). In the original map, the top of the tower was accessible by a lift which connected to a strong overlook position. In UT4 this is a balanced position since health is tied to pickups and players cannot stay up there indefinitely. However, it is still the most dominant position on the map with the greatest positional advantage
In Halo the TMT was too powerful to keep as is. Players in Halo have regenerating Health and Shields and could stay in the original tower almost indefinitely with no easy counter. To combat this, the top of the Tower was broken apart to make 4 distinct pillars players are pressured to jump between.
Here you can see the other side of TMT and how you can cross through it, this area is also connected to the beach with the stone pillars being the only cover options breaking sight-lines across the beach
Reimagined
Original
Reimagined
Original
Reimagined
Objective Gamemode Top Downs
