Out of all the more well known asymmetric maps in the Halo series, I don't think I've played worse spawns in slayer than in that map. I don't know what made that click, but you'll be shooting at enemies in the gate and so often will they spawn in the rocks by the Shotty spawn or on the small cliff near Overshield. Quick grenade to the back and eventually death unless you have equipment to save you.
Someone in Plywood's satirical GAF>internet>GAF thread questioned why Halo didn't ship with more maps to accommodate the vast and varied gametypes the game has. And I agree to an extent. Ten maps is fine if
all the maps are stellar and there aren't maps that don't instil dread at the mere prospect of playing them. Unfortunately, Halo history tells us that there inevitably will be poor maps at launch and the only question is: how many will be of questionable quality?
Say three of the ten maps are poor. We have seven maps of decent quality. OK that's far more than Reach but now we have to stretch these seven maps across 4v4 slayer, 5v5 symmetric objective, 5v5 asymmetric objective, 8v8 slayer, 8v8 symmetric objective and 8v8 asymmetric objective. It starts to sound a little threadbare.
Many of these problems can be adequately circumnavigated with the use of the Forge tool set. Really, if you set aside the distracting and wholly false endeavour to push Forge as a mapmaker (which it is quite poor at), you are left with a wonderful and simple function that allows you to hone, refine and adapt pre-existing maps over the years they spend in matchmaking. Bungie started brightly enough when they recognised small things like the Maulers on Guardian being a problem, removing Flares and radar Jammer's and later on they made small adjustments to Narrows (moved rockets, swapped camo for OS, changed the spawns) and The Pit (removed attic spawns).
However, as Forge moved further towards a quasi-mapmaking package, first with Sandbox and then with the bloated and flawed Forge World, the emphasis appeared to shift towards installing user created maps into matchmaking rather than refining the maps that were already there. You can take any map from Reach's opening palette and see problems with it that are fixable with Forge but haven't been. Take Reflection for example. Its initial team spawns and weapon placement are 'fine' for the one-sided objective gametype the map was built around. Problem is, I've played one-sided objective on it less than five times. Its Team Slayer (a gametype in which I have played the map hundreds of times) initial spawns and weapon placement are senseless in comparison; Red team are gifted Rockets directly in front of them, have easier access to the Shotgun and, providing one of them chooses Jetpack, have a better chance of securing the Sniper. That leaves the Sword as the only given for the Blue team off of spawn.
The solution to this is quite simple in a world where Forge exists. You adjust the opening spawns, the weapon placement or both. MLG figured it out with their first attempt at making a Reflection Team Slayer gametype. They spawned Blue and Red opposite each other on the walkways either side of the Rockets. Even with Bungie weapon placements, this simple adjustment to where the teams initially spawn ensures that both have an equal chance at securing rockets and sniper while one is gifted Shotgun and the other the Sword. Simple changes that don't require TU's and expensive man power but just a bit of forging and are to the infinite improvement of the MM experience. And yet very little is done. At best it's thoughtlessness on behalf of the people in charge and at worst rank laziness. This pairing of various different gametypes to the same team spawns and weapon placement across all modes is the equivalent of hosting a marathon on a 100 metre race track; just because they both involve running, doesn't mean it's going to work.
