Copy+paste:
Since launch I've always thought the Sanctuary remake called Asylum in Reach could have been so much more than it ended up being. While I appreciate the fact that Bungie even bothered remaking one of my favorite maps from Halo 2, the end results always seemed a bit half-done to me. Oddly placed objects, inaccuracies and framedrops are common on Asylum. Now, nearly a year and a half later the same version that came with the disc is still in matchmaking. After such a long time Forgers have discovered ways to create their maps more efficiently, something Bungie apparently didn't have the time for (at least for Asylum and other launch Forge maps). That's why I decided to start building my own version of Sanctuary a few weeks ago. The result of this labor is
Refuge.
With Refuge I tried to recreate Sanctuary accurately, while using as few objects and as little budget as possible. I heard that previous remakes of Sanctuary were denied deployment into matchmaking because they didn't support splitscreen. I was hoping to make a version that
does support it. I'm really happy with the end result because I ended up using only around 4100$ budget which is roughly 1500$ less than Asylum! Combine that with the fact that I don't use lights and the sight-lines are shorter Refuge is sure to perform better than Asylum. In my tests so far I haven't recorded any complaints about the framerate, splitscreen and singlescreen alike.
Aside from performance issues that Asylum had, I also decided to include some changes to the geometry of the map. While I did like some of the things that were different from the original overall it didn't feel like Sanctuary.
Some (but not all) of the changes I've made:
-Raised the Needle Rifle walkway
-Removed the line of sight from sniper to sniper
-Made the walkway from sniper to the middle equal length on both sides of the map
-Moved around the rocks so they're more like the placement in Sanctuary
-Made a small jump-up to the top of the middle ring just like in the Halo 2 version of the map
-Kept the jump-up right in front of the Shotgun tunnel but made it a bit easier to use
-Added objects next to Blue Needle Rifle walkway to replicate the rock cliff on the Red side
I've made some screenshots so you can get a better idea of what the map looks like:
-An overview of the map
-Red base
-Blue base
-Sniper spawn
-Blue rock area
-Middle ring
-Sniper-to-middle line of sight
-Raised Needle Rifle walkway
It's set up for all gametypes (except for Invasion and Race), supports teams of every colour and also Free-For-All. Keep in mind that Refuge has dynamic spawns for Slayer. This means that players aren't limited to their own side in regards to spawns. They can now spawn everywhere on the map resulting is less spawn-killing and less frustrating matches.
Click here to download Refuge!
