Map Map Spotlight - Lithe

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In the Shire calender, Lithe is a Midsummer event occurring between the sixth and seventh months of the year. Lithe was a time of great feasting and merriment among the Hobbit culture. Throughout the holiday, the Free Fair was held on the White Downs, where Hobbits gathered to celebrate and to buy and sell goods. Every seven years at the Free Fair during Lithe, an election was... wait, wrong Lithe.

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Lithe is an asymmetrical, room-based design that ironically has little relevance to its LotR counterpart. TheElderAcorn rectifies this... discrepancy with a solid 1v1 experience, thrusting players into an intuitive layout that promotes map knowledge and punishes predictable movement. One thing to keep in mind with room-based design is that engagements should happen within individual rooms, not between their connections. Lithe presents a myriad of options to push from room to room, ranging from loose connections to skill jumps. We asked mister Acorn if he had advice for any aspiring 1v1 connoisseurs. His response was as follows:

TheElderAcorn
"Flow is vitally important for 1v1 maps. People think its unnecessary, but the circular flow in Lithe is what makes it play as smooth and fast as it does. Scaling is also important in room based maps. Lithe is very compact, meaning there aren't any overscaled rooms, long travel times, or a ton of segmentation. Action occurs fairly often and you dont have the event of players trying to find one another. Another thing to keep in mind; simplicity is big. The layout is simple so once each player has map knowledge, the contest then becomes who can use that simple layout in the smartest way, and that has always been a cool style of play for me. Additionally, the design should be predictable but not too predictable. Obviously the routing is very predictable on Lithe, but things like the teleporter, or the OS nade jump etc. offer up ways to break that predictability to keep your enemy on his toes. Obviously movement is important, it can control spawns and its needed to control the power weapons."

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:fronk: commands thee to find out more about Lithe here. Happy Halo-ing!​
 
Meanwhile, I've (apparently mistakenly) lived my life believing lithe meant flexible. Thank you for enlightening me. I shall use this knowledge for the good of all mankind.

Lithe - a good word, AND a good map. Here's a hint for anyone who happens to play Warholic on this map...odds are he's sitting right next to the OS.
Nice writeup Auburn. I hope you're working on that corruption thing we discussed a while back.
 
Meanwhile, I've (apparently mistakenly) lived my life believing lithe meant flexible. Thank you for enlightening me. I shall use this knowledge for the good of all mankind.

Lithe - a good word, AND a good map. Here's a hint for anyone who happens to play Warholic on this map...odds are he's sitting right next to the OS.
Nice writeup Auburn. I hope you're working on that corruption thing we discussed a while back.
Doesn't War do that on any map with an OS? And we have finally achieved cross-site corruption. That is something to be truly proud of.

This map looks pretty neat, though I've not seen it before. The forging I can see from the screenshots takes me back to Reach a bit with the bank textures. I'll have to play this sometime.