The Way Things Are

I loved Race mode in Halo: Combat Evolved. Many a nights were spent in Blood Gulch, chasing down friends and ramming them off the ledges of the infamous canyon. So you can only imagine how bummed I was to find out that not only was it removed from Halo 2, but it didn’t return in Halo 3, either. And while the latter came with the Forge creation tool, I never felt particularly inspired to create my own race track, though plenty of others did.

I wasn’t inspired, that is, until I got my pre-release code for the Legendary Map Pack and with it, Avalanche. With little to no experience under my belt, I dove into Forge and through plenty of experimentation, came my first creation: Overdriftacular.

Map: Overdrift 1.1 (04.15.08)
Gametype: Overdriftacular (04.15.08)

“Everyone on Installation 04 drifted. It was impossible to drive straight.”

Overview
Overdriftacular is a more pure, Mongoose racing experience for Halo 3, played on Avalanche from the Legendary Map Pack and designed for six players. It was created in response to other race maps created in Forge that, more or less, played more like an obstacle course than an actual contest. It doesn’t forget that it takes place in Halo, however, as there are still plenty of ridiculous challenges to be had.

Scoring System
1 Point per successful lap, 10 in all.
-1 Point for killing a fellow competitior.
Suicides are handled via penalty box and result in a 60 second respawn time.

Version History
Version 1.1 (04.15.08)
- With the help of Alkaline Prodigy, this version sees a huge increase in the amount of anti-cheating, mainly, a brand new finish line, set atop a series of ramps to prevent Mongoose from driving in circles at the start.
- A penalty box has been setup for those who attempt to cross the finish line on foot. Players will be transported to a room with nothing but fusion coils and grenades. They’ll know what to do. 
- There are many more barricades than before to both guide and prevent players from skipping sections of the course. The back end of the course has been left open as there is no reason to prevent players from accessing the opposite base. It’s a waste of time on their part more than anything else.
- The megaramp has been rebuilt entirely is now easier to utilize at high speeds. The explosion has been tweaked and is not only larger, but safer as well. It’s still not perfect, however. 
- The hairpin curve has been tightened (David: “Just the way I like it!”) and the walls replaced with field doors to aid those who can’t quite make the turn.
-  Changes were made to the Gametype file, including increased VIP gravity and suicide rates for those caught in the penalty box.
- The course is now, officially, ugly as all gets. See under development for further details. 

Version 1.0 (04.13.08)
- Welcome to Overdriftacular! The main assets of the course are set in place and the Gametype is fully prepared for score keeping.

Under Development 
- The megaramp, in its present state, is not entirely correct and I would still like to make it 100% safe to leap.
- The effort to prevent cheating has made the course an eyesore. I’ll be coming up with better ways to not only keep players inbounds, but to make the course nice and tidy again. Pardon the dust, folks. 
- Coming up with better ways to keep the players on course and away from the out-of-bounds areas.
- There’s a need to better re-think how Overdriftacular handles spawning. I can feel it.
- The addition screenshots section should be updated as the course has changed quite dramatically between 1.0 and 1.1.

Course Overview

The race begins with a classic, Speed Racer style sprint to your Mongoose. There’s always a chance that competitors will attempt to assassinate one another at this point, but that’ll just tack on an additional lap.

The first obstacle is a natural ridge that makes just staying on your vehicle tricky. Once you get the line down, you should be fine. Then it’s a tight left turn, through the trees and right into the highlight of the course.

The megaramp of exploding doom! Build up some speed, hit the ramp and let the protected grav lifts do the rest of the job.

Hang a right and again, the natural elements of Avalanche make the course. Originally, I had planned to create some shallow, bumpy jumps through this section but I found that the real fun came from watching a few racers attempt to cram their way through this tunnel.

Another right and you’ll be heading into a wide open mine field. Fusion cores fall from the sky at varying heights and while it’s easy to avoid alone, that changes dramatically once everyone starts pushing each other around.

If you were wondering when you were going to get a chance to go sideways (It is Overdriftacular, after all), look no further than this hairpin curve over open ice. At this point you’ll start to realize that Overdriftacular is actually a lopsided figure-eight. Make a long left over the hill and you’ll find yourself back at the jump, but you won’t be going over it.

But you’ll be zooming right back under it. In the final version, I’ll most likely swap out that bridge with the glass barriers for added effect, but this works for now. After this it’s another long left and you’re back at the starting line and ready for a second lap.

Additional Screenshots

Contact
If you have any comments or suggestions on how to improve Overdriftacular, feel free to shoot me a message on Xbox Live or send me an email. Friend invites without messages attached will be ignored. Thanks!

Special Thanks
Miss Shelby, David Ellis, Alkaline Prodigy and Bungie. Inspired by Duncan Bros’ Overdrift.

Press
HBO - Overdriftacular