- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
That image really helped. However, if this were a map, there is a major flaw to its design.
You've restricted a player's movement to either the gondola, the Man Cannons, or the air vehicles. The vehicles can be destroyed, preventing one way to get to the other side (or any means of transportation to some other structure, for example). This cannot be fixed with fast respawning vehicles, as this is detrimental to gameplay.
Also, the Man Cannons are very risky to travel through, as players can be easily sniped. Even I sometimes hesitate to go through the Man Cannons on Valhalla. Considering player traffic, this area can allow a sniper a lot of kills. Snipers can effectively shut down this mode of transportation. This cannot be completely fixed with replacing Man Cannons with Teleporters, as these are very susceptible to camping. Again, this shuts down another mode of transportation.
Finally, the gondolas aren't totally reliable, as they won't always be at the base. It'd be very easy to shut down one team from going anywhere. The map can become very one-sided; it wouldn't be very fun for the players who don't control the middle.
Something that would really help the flow of the map is the addition of walkways and routes for infantry (and possibly vehicles like the Warthog or Wraith). The layout of the map is a "U", each base is at the end of each prong of the "U", and players cannot walk on the curve of the "U". Change the cliff to a circular canyon, with a waterfall on one side. Make it so that players can walk to either base on the ridge of this circle. You could have bridges over the waterfall and a key weapon/power up/vehicle there. Also, expand the middle structure a bit. Allow players to travel to the middle structure without going on Man Cannons, air vehicles or gondolas, aka walkways.
You've got a very good idea, and this has the potential to be a very good map, if a map like this were to be in Halo: Reach. I'd LOVE the aesthetics on the map. It'd be beautiful map to play on. Having gondolas in a map would be sweet. Good concept.