Invasion Forge Guide

This guide will show you how to set up an Invasion game mode, every tag in Invasion, and maybe some examples of what you could use them for.

Introduction

Before you can make an Invasion map, you'll obviously need... well, a map.

This guide won't be teaching you everything about how to make maps itself, just mainly how to set up the Invasion gamemode and a couple of basic mapmaking tricks.

Basic Mapmaking

You need to have your map all set up obviously. Here's just a couple basic things your map needs.

Spawn Areas

Now, you don't want your map to be a complete mess like the official ones. Remember when you'd join in and a couple minutes later, you're being spawn killed by the defending team? Nobody likes that, so go ahead and add a few spawn points with one way shields.

Make it Fair

Get a couple buddies to help test out your map, and have them give you honest opinions of it. What they'd change in loadouts and such. A Needle Rifle and Plasma Pistol is a terrible combo for loadouts, unless you plan on giving both teams that exact loadout. Try to move away from things that seem unfair, like map design, loadouts, spawn points, ect.

Map Descriptions

This is the most basic thing. Don't make it too long, but describe your map. For example, in my map named The Sub, it tells you what it's gonna be about, Attacking/Defending a sub. You can say which team attacks or defends, or maybe how many rounds there are in the game type description. Telling how many players the map supports is very helpful too.

Tags (Normal Invasion Gametype)

Invasion is a really cool gamemode, but it's so annoying trying to figure out what stuff does whenever you're first starting, so here's what all of the tags do.

INVASION
Use on any object to make it spawn only on Invasion.
INV_GATES
An object with this label will get deleted when the next phase begins. Don't use this on weapons, vehicles, or armor abilities.
INV_MANCANNON
Don't use this label as it is used for the Spire's man-cannons.
INV_NO_CORE_ZONE
When the core/bomb goes into this zone, it will reset.
INV_OBJECTIVE
This is the most important, most essential tag for Invasion mapmaking. This will be for every objective (There are only 3 phases in Invasion, so use Spawn Sequence 1, 2, and 3 for these.) in your map.
INV_OBJ_FLAG
This is the spawn point for the bomb/core, use Spawn Sequence to set it with whichever objective you want to use it with.
INV_PLATFORM
Don't use this as it is for the Spire's lift which changes how high you go with each phase.
INV_RES_P1, INV_RES_P2, and INV_RES_P3
These are for which phase respawns are used.
INV_RES_ZONE
A respawn zone for fireteams.
INV_VEHICLE
An object with this label spawns at the start of a phase.
INV_WEAPON
Same thing as INV_VEHICLE, but no waypoint is shown over the object.

Tags (Invasion Slayer)

I have never made an Invasion Slayer map, so I will not be giving examples of what you can use these tags for.

INV_SLAYER
Makes the object only spawn on Invasion Slayer.
INV_SLAYER_DROP
A zone that drops weapons and such after capturing it.
INV_SLAYER_RES_ZONE
A respawn zone for fireteams.
INV_PLATFORM
Do not use this label, read above.
INV_MANCANNON
Do not use this label, read above.
CREATED_VEHICLES
Used to track vehicles by the game engine. New vehicles will not spawn at drop points if there are more than 15 vehicles with this label on the map.
NONE
Objects with this label will get deleted when you save your map.

What can I use these tags for?

INVASION
This is self explanatory. It'll just make sure whatever object you have this tag on will only spawn in the Invasion gametype. For example, you want a concussion rifle in your Invasion map, but not your Slayer map.
INV_GATES
This is really fun to mess around with when you figure it out. Personally what I love to do is put a bomb objective next to a bunch of rocks or something, and after the bomb goes off, it will look as if the bomb destroyed all of the rocks. You can also have an object inside another object and make it so one is colored as the defending team color and one as the attacking team color, and have the defending team colored object disappear and have it look like the enemy team has captured an area.
INV_MANCANNON
You won't use this.
INV_NO_CORE_ZONE
Let's say the core is somehow thrown into the enemy spawn point where you can't reach it. You can have this tag set up in that spawn point so the core automatically resets instead of having wasted a bunch of time or the possibility of a trolling team who refuses to try to reset it.
INV_OBJECTIVE
Just use this as your objectives. There's no cool tricks I know of that you can do with this. Remember to set your objectives with Spawn Sequences 1, 2, or 3, as other numbers won't do anything.
INV_OBJ_FLAG
Read the objective tag above. This is just a core or bomb spawn point.
INV_PLATFORM
You won't use this.
INV_RES_P1-P3
These are just your respawn zones for each phase. I like to have these near for example, an elite drop pod.
INV_RES_ZONE
Same as the tag above this one.
INV_VEHICLE
You don't want overpowered vehicles on the first phase, do you? Use this to set vehicles to spawn in other phases. You can also use this tag to make an object spawn in on a certain phase (using the sequences) but you need to have a respawn time set or else it'll never spawn.
INV_WEAPON
Same as the tag above this one.

Setting up the Gametype Modes

Okay, this is the last part. Just set up your gametype, it's the same way as all the other gametypes.

All you really need to know here are the objectives.

Territories are zone capture. Stand inside a zone for a set amount of time to move to the next phase. You can't have multiple zones all required to be captured sadly, if you capture one, it's onto the next phase, or if it's phase 3, it's the end of the map.
CTF is the core objective usually seen at the end of official maps.

Assault is bomb objective where you arm a bomb and defend it until the time runs out.

CTF and Assault are the really just the same thing, the only difference being in Assault, there's a bomb that has to be armed/defused and obviously, well...

Other Gametype Settings

There's not much to cover here. It's the same as all other modes really, but here's a few things you can do to edit player traits.

Spawn-Killing

Obviously, nobody likes spawn killers. Everyone hates them, so here's a way to prevent that from happening if setting one way shields don't work.Screw you, spawnkillers! Above is an image with a purple spartan. Okay, cool, who cares about that, right? Well, this spartan has spawn traits and him being purple makes it so you can tell if he does have spawn traits or if he doesn't. This is a red vs blue mode, so I decided purple will fit well as it's used on both teams.

There's several things you can do to these traits. I personally decided to up their health and damage if those pesky elites decide they wanna sit right outside the spawn area. If you feel like just doing that isn't enough, you can make him invincible outright. Be sure to keep a fair timer, though. 5 seconds is usually all you may need to take them out.

Well, looks like that didn't work somehow. What else can you do? You can set up say, a rocket launcher inside the spawn, so you can take that and kill all the spawn killers making the game unfun and unfair. Take that!
That's about all you can do for spawn killing, so let's move on.

Carrier Traits

Feeling like your objective is too little or too long of a walk, maybe? You can change the speed of the carrier to make him slower, or faster, to best suit your map. I personally made it so whoever is carrying the core/bomb, they'll be a little slower, do a little less damage, and take a little more damage. I also made the carrier turn yellow to differentiate normal players and the carrier easier.

End

Thanks for reading my guide, I hope it helped you in making your Invasion map!

[HarleyIsntReal]

i might, but don't count on it.

[Link117]

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[Cerrin]

nice guide

[CommanderHunter]

LMBO

[garfield youtooz]

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[HarleyIsntReal]

you

[garfield youtooz]

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