The Tale of a Map

It was 2013 in the town of Weehawken
The people weren’t reading
They were hardly still talkin’
Books and church going
And rooms full of friends
All things of the past
All come to an end

The Once-ler now victor
The Lorax now gone
All peeps to the internet
Their attention was drawn.
They browsed and they browsed
They surfed and downloaded
Pr0n and hacked software
Till their hard drive was bloated

With no one to read, the books were packed UP
The kids had gone stupid
Always mumbling, “Wussup?”
So they packed UP the Hortons
They packed UP the Whos
They packed UP the Sneetches
And the Truffulas too

One lonely warehouse
Now holds but a few
Of the tales you once cherished
Like Cindy-Lou Who
But the books are well guarded 
by Liche and by Loque
Those are real guns they’re shooting
This is no Seuss joke.

Perhaps you can find one
You need not look hard
But wary you should be
Of Visse’s flak shard
So here’s to the Playground
The keeper of whimsy
If even this poem 
Turned out rather flimsy.


:p


This map Copyright 2003 by HortonsWho who encourages you to get out, 
smell the fresh air, and get a little sun. It won't hurt you... much.

The map was made for the 2003 Dr. Seuss Mapping Contest held by www.unrealplayground.com

The contest rules stipulated "You can, of course, interpret this theme however you wish - you don't have to recreate Seuss' books, world or characters; be creative and take this in whatever way you want. The things mentioned above are just some of the more obvious directions you could take this.

"...your CTF maps will also need to incorporate opportunities for advanced players to take advantage of. Examples would be wall sliding/dodging, piston-jump (vertical or horizontal!) opportunities, lift-piston-boot jumps (ok so those are tricky ), lift-jumps, piston-boot jumps, kicker-dodging, flag drops (be careful with these!) and anything else you can think of."

You can see that I chose NOT to recreate a Seussian world, too much potential for high-poly nightmares and BSP holes. Instead, I built a map that would incorporate several tricks and twists for the more advanced player. Since this is a contest, I'll point them out:

Dodges:
The map is scaled to benefit many simple dodges. Suspended walkway & keg perch to the flag, second floor of the warehouse to the side route, etc.

Hammer jumps:
There are many, obvious, short hammer jump possibilities UP ledges and crates. Likewise, you can hammer UP to the second floor from the room with the teleporters, you can grab the flag and hammer to the suspended walkway among others. With boots, you can also hammer to the health keg then horizontal hammer out the back exit towards the teleporters.

Lift jumps: 
All pretty obvious. In the flag base, the easy jump is UP backwards to the shock rifle. However, a carefully timed lift jump forward will indeed get you to the keg of health... the other easy jump is to the suspended walkway. Likewise, a timed jump off the big lift with the crate on it will get you through that back exit. The crate was placed and the lift was timed to make the jump timing critical. You can also lift jump sideways to quickly get to the side corridor.

Flag drops:
One spot in the center of the map. With well-planned teamwork, this route dramatically shortens the map but it comes at high risk (and a hidden benefit). Bots will snipe that route (in fact they will snipe all the way to the enemy base) from defense points. The translocator throw has to be exact so in-game timing is everything. The flag will not make it through 100% of the time, adding to the peril.

Wall slides:
One spot in each base. Good for evading bots. Best combo move here is: 

1) Double-dodge to grab the flag and shoot out over the ramp to the spot in the side wall.
2) Double-dodge/wall slide UP.
3) Piston/Hammer UP to the keg, grab it, then side-hammer out the back exit. :D

There are some fairly minor, less apparent opportunities. The best players will invent some others I am certain.









