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Just a quick update for you guys on the current status of the Halo Gladiators series. First of all, map building is proving a lot more time-consuming that I first expected, so things aren’t coming along as quickly as I would have liked. Still, there are now 2 games nearing completion.

Assault

The general layout of the Assault map has been completed. Contender starts at one end of the arena, behind a shield door (so no being taken out half a second into the game!). The Gladiator is situated on a double box platform at the opposite end of the arena, and is armed with 2 Beam Rifles (for a total of 20 shots). Behind a protective shield and wall is the target - a single fusion coil being held aloft by a Gravity Lift. Contender scores 10 points for destroying the coil, or making it to the Gladiator’s platform within 60 seconds. If the Contender fails, they score 1 point for each station completed.

Station 1, is a barrier in the centre with a stack of wire spools either side. Contender must pick up and throw the spike grenade before advancing.

Station 2 has fence walls coated with shield doors at 90 degrees to each other with a gap in the middle. Two stacks of small barrels provide basic cover. Contender gets one no-scope shot with a Sniper Rifle. A dumpster is available for cover en route to Station 3.

Station 3 has a truck for cover. Contender gets one shot with a Brute Shot. There is also a Bubble Shield that can be used for cover between Stations 3 and 4, but cannot be used for cover anywhere else.

Station 4 has low barriers and signs for cover. Contender gets one three-round burst from a Battle Rifle. Barrels provide cover en route to Station 5.

Station 5 has a pair of crates for cover. Contender must throw all three Firebomb grenades before advancing. If the time hasn’t expired or the target still hasn’t been destroyed, Contender gets a run for the bottom of the Gladiator’s platform for the full 10 points.

• Neither the Contender or the Gladiator may zoom when using any weapon.
• The Gladiator may not deliberatly attempt to kill the Contender by ricocheting the Beam Rifle shot. If the Contender is accidentally killed in this way, the game is restarted from the last completed station.

There are still a few teething problems with the target - although the fusion coil doesn’t spawn until after the Grav Lift is fully operational, sometimes it doesn’t settle in place and bounces up and down. In that case, the game will just be restarted and tried again. Only once the coil settles will the rest of the preparation continue. Plus, since custom powerups can only be active for 90 seconds, the Gladiator has to take care not to grab it too early.

Pyramid

This one was a nightmare to get right. Due to height limitations, it was eventually built with a 3×3 box base, then 2×2 and 1×1. To make a total of 6 “levels”, crates and dumpsters are used. Contenders have to make it to the top of the Pyramid and grab the powerup within 60 seconds for 10 points. 5 points if they can make it to the second box level at any time during the game. Gladiators are armed with Gravity Hammers to knock the Contenders back (since Energy Swords don’t provide any knockback).

• Contenders may not jump 2 levels at once.
• Gladiators may not swing the Hammer deliberatly while the Contender is jumping to knock them back further, they must lunge at the Contender when the reticle is red.
• Gladiators may not simply stand in one place and wait for the Contender, they must actively seek them out as far down as the third level.
• Since 0% damage doesn’t stop assassination kills, Gladiators may not lunge with the Hammer if they are behind the Contender, and must be at least alongside them before swinging.

Hopefully these maps and games can be fully completed very soon, and then it’s a case of building more sets for more games (Powerball, Gauntlet and others to come)

It’s been an awful long time since the attempted Summer Season, which got cancelled quite quickly, but now we’re back from the summer lapse and getting the Sunday action back up and running!

The Fall ‘08 season (hopefully) starts Sunday week, that’s the 5th October, at 5pm EDT/2pm PDT/10pm BST/11pm CEST (Please check here for your local time). It’s two hours earlier than it was before, but it makes it easier on those in Europe, and those who have to be somewhere on Monday mornings!

With the new season, comes a few changes in the ruleset. The biggest change is the new scoring system, designed to reduce the large difference between winning and the bottom-end positions. Also, custom maps can now appear in the custom game segment. Finally, there is a change in what gametypes fall under the Slayer/Objective/Custom categories:

• Slayer is a default Free for All game. The only changes can be to starting weapons and weapons on map, and can only be changed to normal usage weapons or default/matchmaking settings. This means that e.g. Snipers would count as a Slayer game, but e.g. Laser Tag falls under Custom.
• Objective is a default game where the focus is not on killing all other players. This includes King of the Hill, Oddball, and very rarely, Juggernaut. Again weapon changes are limited to normal usage weapons or default/matchmaking settings. e.g. Rocketball would count as Objective, but KotH Hammers would fall under Custom.
• Custom is all other gametypes that don’t fall under the above two descriptions, and includes all gametypes that require custom maps. The Custom game is slightly more weighted towards a Slayer-based gametype, and will not be of the same base gametype as the Objective game - e.g. if the Objective game is Oddball, than the Custom game cannot be any Oddball gametype.

With that in mind, the first week’s map is Foundry, and the gametypes are:

• Slayer: Slayer BRs
• Objective: Shotty Snipers KotH
• Custom: CHAOS! (custom map and gametype combo)

The gametype and map will be put in my own File Share later tonight, and the links will then be added. As always, either post here, send an FR to RPWS Members or just turn up if you want to play!

Yup, they’re out. While you can’t get them all immediately, those of you who were anal enough to 1k the game within a few days of it’s launch can still enjoy unlocking more achievements so you can show off to your friends and have them not care less

What you can unlock now

• Vidmaster Challenge: Annual - 0GS
  After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.
• Double Double - 25GS
  On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match.
• Alas, Poor Yorrick - 25GS
  On a Legendary map, get three Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
• Came… From… Behind - 50GS
  On a Legendary map, get three assassinations during any ranked or social match.
• Defend This - 50GS
  On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match.
• Flag Dropped - 25GS
  On a Legendary map, get two flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match.
• Road Rage - 25GS
  On a Legendary map, get five Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match.
• Look Both Ways - 50GS
  On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.
• Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch - 0GS
  Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
• Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 - 0GS
  Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.

That makes a total of 250GS more you can achieve RIGHT NOW!

What you can unlock after Mythic comes out

• Hammer Time - 25GS
  On Assembly, get five Hammer kills during any ranked or social match.
• Pull - 25GS
  On Citadel, get a Shotgun Spree during any ranked or social match.
• Blades of Fury - 25GS
  On Heretic, get a Sword Spree during any ranked or social match.
• Ghost Patrol - 25GS
  On Longshore, get 3 kills with a Ghost during any ranked or social match.
• Post Mortem - 25GS
  On Orbital, get 2 Death From the Grave medals during any ranked or social match.
• … Get the Horns - 25GS
  On a Mythic map, get a Bulltrue medal during any ranked or social match.
• Awww, Too Bad - 25GS
  On a Mythic map, get a Killjoy medal during any ranked or social match.
• Killtacular - 25GS
  On a Mythic map, get a Killtacular during any ranked or social match.
• Have Fun Respawning - 25GS
  On a Mythic map, get an Extermination during any ranked or social match.
• Save This Film - 25GS
  On a Mythic map, get a Perfection medal during any ranked or social match.
• Delicious Brains - 25GS
  On a Mythic map, infect 2 humans during any ranked or social match.
• Zombie Repeller - 25GS
  On a Mythic map, kill 2 Zombies during any ranked or social match.
• Tank Dropper - 25GS
  On any Mythic map, get a kill on another player while in monitor mode.
• Assembly Skull - 25GS
  On Assembly, find the hidden skull.
• Citadel Skull - 25GS
  On Citadel, find the hidden skull.
• Heretic Skull - 25GS
  On Heretic, find the hidden skull.
• Longshore Skull - 25GS
  On Longshore, find the hidden skull.
• Orbital Skull - 25GS
  On Orbital, find the hidden skull.
• Sandbox Skull - 25GS
  On Sandbox, find the hidden skull.
• Vidmaster Challenge: Brainpan - 25GS
  Find all the hidden skulls on the Mythic maps.

Which makes 500GS that will come with Mythic.

So go get achieving! And if you really want to be nice, arrange a party, head into Social and achievement boost like mad!

No there hasn’t really been all that much news recently. Title Update 2 will be launching within the next week however, which will bring some much anticipated changes to the game. Matchmaking rankings will be changing, maps will have things removed and lots of other minor changes will take place.

As for the RPWS, we’re still looking to start up Autumn ‘08 in early October. Right now, nothing is set in stone until we get the mess that is school and college back underway and that we have some sort of benchmark as to who/when/where we have available.

If all does go according to plan, we should be starting early October on the usual Sunday, but with the timeslot pushed much earlier to 5pm EST. This gives a much larger window of players as it helps to incorprate Europe better without forcing them to play in the early hours of the morning in their local time.

Also, once last thing to note is that with daylight savings time ending at two different dates for both the US and Europe, there may be some discrepancy as to when exactly the games will take place. If we are going to start getting confused, then the games will be scheduled off of UTC time (i.e. the global base Internet time), and from there you can find your local time. Hopefully we can all this through those few weeks without everyone arriving an hour late and wondering where the heck we are!

In case you were wondering whether you had accidentally set your browser’s zoom function just a little bit too high - well, you haven’t. After a little re-working the site banners, and the RPWS logo have been refined and remade.

The RPWS logo is now clearer and sharper, with more detail than the old incarnation. It’s still the same basic design though, nothing radical going on here

Also there is a bit more height in the banner, showing off a lot more of the really great quality in-game screenshots we have as our banners. If you have a good shot that you think would work well, feel free to post about it in the forums

Regarding the next season, Autumn ‘08, we plan on announcing a start date within the next few weeks. As most of you are probably back in school/college/work or will be by the time the season starts, we’ve pushed back the weekly start time to 5pm Eastern (2pm Pacific, 10pm West Europe). This should suit may more people who would otherwise have to stay away for fear of oversleeping the next morning, or getting yelled at by parents/girl(boy)-friends/significant others.

Stick around, have a chat in the forums! We’re not gone, we’re just preparing