With the recent release of Halo Wars, those who ordered the limited edition (or were lucky enough to score a map code), got their hands on the new Mythic Map pack. The Mythic pack features perhaps the most anticipated map of Halo 3, Sandbox, which has had forge designers everywhere chomping at the bit, waiting to get their hands on it.
One designer in particular is runNOKYARDrun, who most of us in the community know as the guy who created the amazing map which we all currently play on in both custom and league games. Nokyard is without a doubt a forging genius, so everyone in the community has been looking forward to what he puts together in Sandbox. Well the wait is finally over. This weekend Nokyard released a beta version of his latest creation, a grifball map created on the ground level of Sandbox. As expected, the map is quite visually stunning.
On Saturday I was invited by Nokyard to help test out the map and play a few pick-up games on it. It’s the exact same size as our current grifball court and for the most part plays the same.
I very much liked the map and enjoyed playing on it, however there were a couple things which made play on it a little different than our current map. The first was the wall hop ledge, which Nokyard created along the back wall, behind each goal. The majority of players in our party found it very difficult to actually hop off the ledge and use it as any sort of advantage. If you’re someone like me who has mastered the wall hop in the current Foundry map, you may have to learn how to wall hop all over again with the Sandbox map. I still haven’t quite figured it out. Considering the map is still only in its beta phase though, I suspect Nokyard may find a way to improve that ledge.
The second thing which struck me is just how bright it is inside the map. Though Nokyard created the court to be fully enclosed, it seems as though the light from outside the map still shines through, creating a rather bright glow on your hammer. I personally found it to be a bit distracting. I play on an LCD monitor which has very bright, vivid color, so the glow from the hammer was practically blinding if I looked directly at it. It’s just something that will take some getting used to, since I don’t think there’s any way the lighting can be decreased. If there is a way though, Nokyard will no doubt find it.
If you own the Mythic map pack and would like to take Nokyard’s latest creation for a test drive, you may download the map from his file share. Feel free to leave a comment below and let us know what you think of the court!
Thanks goes to Nokyard for the great photos used in this article.
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I think its an awesome map… you may see it in the future for such things as commercials more on that later lol
I think these choices of maps (foundry and sandbox) is an opportunity for grifball to have some more map choice, especially since some players don’t like the whole ‘wall jump’ thing. I’m looking forward to seeing where grifball evolves from here.
I’d say its great, but I can’t even play until I get the dam map… But hey! Its a Nokyard map, of course it will be great.
i agree with Iasarkack, with both the new sandbox court and the regular foundry court, grilfball could evolve to something new. im not sure if anyone who has explored sandbox found the underground court that bungie “designed” for grifball. if that court is included as just a smooth wall court and nokyard improves the ledge on this beta court, there could be a total of three different grifball court environments.
just an interesting thought. im looking forward to seeing this in one of the upcoming leagues.
-swimmer117, captain of the Flag Masters grifball team
Commercials FTW.
have they ever considered an outdoor court?
Awesome dude.
we have tried outdoor courts unofficially (sandtrap, avalanch, last resort) and they would not work for official maps. at least, the ones that currently exist would not work.
can’t wait until i can play on the sandbox one
There is a regulation griffball court in a hidden tunnel under the center structure, so this is redundant.
Actually no the grifball court in the Crypt is not regulation size. It’s much larger than the grifball map used in league play.
So, the preview video that roosterteeth made is wrong?
Yep, it is wrong!
Yes, as Seanzie said, it’s very wrong. I’ve played around enough in the Grifbox to know first hand that it is MUCH larger than the grifball court the league currently uses.
It’s unfortunate that it is, because if it were actually made to regulation size, it could eventually become an amazing alternative for league games. The ceilings are ridiculously high. Launches would be epic.
I think there might be a way to get the right dimensions. I would like to get my hands on the maps on the ninth so I can take a look at it! Hopefully we can make it work with the epic ceilings!
[...] the league our fantastic official map which we all play our league games on and the great new Grifball Palace, it’s safe to say many were intrigued and couldn’t wait to see just what he was talking [...]
Grifbox is gay grifball palace is 2 cool 4 u