I made a rough draft of this map back in december, and now, after learning how to ghost merge non-moving objects a few days ago (thanks again for the tip, Black Knight), I've tried to further realize the idea of turning Longshore into a hog-friendly map.
It's far from done, however.
Here's a photobucket slideshow with screenshots of the map, all taken today. (Notice the title in the lower left corner of each picture if you don't understand/know some of the callouts I use for locations)
My goal is a map where hogs are more important than on maps like Last Resort or Rats Nest (or at least as important), but not as unforgivably vital as on a map like Standoff.
Now, I'm not an experienced forger. I know some practical tricks, but I don't know how to build maps properly right off the bat. Well, maybe in theory, kinda sorta... but not really. So I'll need any help, feedback and criticism I can get from you guys.
To start off, I've made driving around the map easier by adding several ramps and platforms as well as moved/removed some existing objects that hindered hog movement (see pictures in album above).
I think the fundamental geometry alterations of the map are pretty much done (tho I've considered adding a huge, curving highway up in the air going from top of M Building to top of K Building - please suggest wild ideas like that if you can think of any)
Spawns: I have yet to touch any of the spawn points (except one outside the M building, which I moved just a tiny bit to make room for a ramp). I hope to be able to keep as many of them as possible in their current spots. I know spawns are a very important part of a map, so I will listen to any advice about how the spawns need to be changed to fit with all the other changes on the map.
Weapons:- Put the rockets at a neutral point on the upper wood deck, hoping it'll be THE powerweapon to control. I'm doubtful about how this will work. The upper wood deck is in fact one of the areas I feel still needs its geometry changed, I'm just not sure how. In any case I simply don't see the need to put a laser on the map. I doubt anyone would disagree with this unless they really like the laser, but feel free to argue the opposite. Same probably goes for the missile pod, tho I might experiment with that one.
- Added one brute shot in a weapon holder to each side. When rockets aren't available, I'm hoping these will become one of the primary anti-hog weapons. Might need to put one or two extra ones somewhere on the map.
- Sword removed. Reasoning? No bridge room camping allowed!
- Kept the sniper rifles just as they were. Not sure what to do with them yet, or if they even need to be on the map.
- Removed shotgun from lower wood deck and moved the other one to a neutral position near original OS spawn. Not sure about keeping these either, or where to place them.
Grenades:Most grenades are untouched, if not all. I might have moved some of the stickies in the broiler room, but that's it, I think.
Equipment/Powerups:- Put camo in sword room at a neutral position. Might move this one into the freezer instead, where I've put the bubble shield instead of the original rockets (that means no bubble shield on the upper wood deck).
- Removed powerdrain. Too easy to use against a hog.
- Removed grav lift in broiler room. It feels redundant with all the new ramps.
- Regens are fine at their original positions IMO, so I haven't touched those.
- Moved overshield to original camo spawn on lower wood deck. It's a neutral position, so if I was going to keep it on the map, it seemed like a good place to put it.
- I'm considering putting a tripmine somewhere on the map. Maybe on the lower wood deck? Previously I'd put one at original OS spawn, but I removed it.
Vehicles:
- A goose in the broiler room. I couldn't resist putting one there.

I'm considering putting another one on the lower wood deck.
- Warthogs!? One per base!? Who'd a thunk it?!! Not sure they're in perfectly balanced postions, but then that goes for a lot of things on the map right now.

Supported gametypes:I've restricted myself to Big Team Slayer for now. 8v8 to 6v6, possibly 5v5. Maybe I'll put in support for objective games sometime later. I know this really is a one-sided semi-asymmetrical map, but I think it can work for slayer, much like Last Resort and vanilla Longshore does. They're not 100-percent-MLG-approved-balanced-to-teh-max maps, but they're balanced enough to be fun IMO. Got any suggestions towards making the map more symmetrical or balanced in some way? Speak up!
Here's the map in my file share.Have at it and give me your thoughts!
