Glossary of Terms

A
Aesthetics - Pertaining to the "look" of the map. Often has no relevance to gameplay apart from callouts and orientation.

Alpha - A version of a map with finished geometry but is usually not playable or only partially playable. This version of the map has a rough layout of the geometry and has many changes left before a Beta version.

Atrium - A large open space that is often at the center of a map is known as the Central Atrium. Most of the map's rooms and hallways usually stem from this area. The word Atrium refers to a large room that is connected in many ways to the rest of the map. Maps can range from having only one Atrium to more than five Atriums.

B
Balance - The relative power of different parts of a map. Not to be confused with fairness, which is the equal opportunity of either team to win from the start of the game.

Base - An area or room, usually loacated in the extremities of the map, out of which a team can regroup and form pushes. This is usually the location of a team's starting spawns and a point of emphasis in games such as CTF, Assault, and Stockpile. This area also usually contains safe spawns for a particular team.

Beta version - A version of a map that is playable, but is still being tested. This is not considered by its creator to be in a complete form. Most testing occurs on Beta versions of maps.

C
Callout - A "name" given to a specific area of a map that is used as a reference point when comminicating with teammates.

Choke points - Bottleneck areas where encounters are likely to occur. Players are often attracted to these type of areas by Power weapons or positions gained by control of these areas. Notable examples include the middle structure of Sanctuary (Asylum), and the Rocket hall of The Pit.

Competitive - A competitive map is conducive to a fair and interesting game between opponents who are trying to win.

Connectivity - A map design element that focuses on how well separate structures are conected to eachother and how those structures interact. Maps with good connectivity feel more like actual maps and not just isolated structures.

Cover - Any geometry that can be used by the player to avoid enemy fire. Cover breaks up lines of sight. Often divided by forgers into Lazy Cover and Structural Cover. Lazy Cover is Cover placed with no other purpose. It generally clutters areas up, and should be avoided as a main from a cover. Structural cover preferable in more cases, and is defined as Cover that serves another purpores in terms of the actual geometry of the map. Misleading cover that is, in fact, not cover at all is known as Fuzzy Cover. Objects that can be shot through or that are not wide enough to hide the player are prime examples of Fuzzy Cover. Technical Cover refers to thin or otherwise complex structures that do not offer the same level of safety that a large, bulky piece of geometry would. Technical cover is often situational, only offering benefit to players who are in direct proximity of the Cover.

D
Dance Floor - A casual term for the physical walking room of a map. This specifically refers to the open spaces where players can maneuver freely, as opposed to narrow walkways that restrict motion.

F
Fairness - The equal chance for any of two or more evenly matched teams to win from the start of the game. Can also be used in more localized terms such as a one-flag map being fair to both offense and defense in a given round.

Feedback - The return of information about the result of a process or activity; an evaluative response. See also: http://forums.majorleaguegaming.com/topic/204334 How to give, recieve and use feedback.

Frame Rate - The number of frames per second the game runs at. Halo Reach runs at 30 fps, but poorly constructed maps will strain the engine and cause the game to run slower, negatively impacting the games played on that map. Also known as Screen lag.

Flow - Refers to how a map's geometry and item layout encourage map-movement. Generally, a map should give a sense of constant forward motion to a player moving about it. Frequent jumpups, Teleporters, and Lifts can break up flow as well as poorly planned movement routes.

H
Height Variation - Any change in the Z-axis (Up and down), regardless of the degree of change. Height variation is necessary so that most battles are not done at the same height. Maps with too little Height variation become very one-dimensional.

L
Line of Sight - Vision from one area of the map to another. Lines of Sight range from short, medium, and long distances. Cover is used to break up Lines of Sight so that certain areas of a map don't have dominant vision of the map.

O
Object Density - The number of objects occupying a given space. High density is a known cause of frame rate problems.

Orientation - The process a player goes through, upon spawning, of figuring out where they are and where they want to go is known as spawn orientation. Object orientation refers to the angle and rotation of a particular object.

P
Power Position - Any area of a map that grants you an advantage over the enemy, and specific areas of the map. In most cases, this advantage comes from a higher elevation, unhindered sight lines, or increased safety.

Power Weapon - A weapon that gives the user a higher potential to do damage to his or her opponents. Examples include the Rocket Launcher, the Sniper Rifle, the Grenade Launcher, Shotgun, Sword, Spartan Laser, Focus Rifle, and Plasma Launcher.

Powerup '-' A pickup used to increase the atributes of the player that picked it up. Examples include Active Camoflauge, Overshield, and a Custom Powerup.

R
Room-based maps - Term used to describe a map that is divided into distinct sections or rooms. Examples include Chill Out, Rat Race, and the less popular Chiron TL-34.

S
Sketchup - A computer program used to design 3D models outside of the game, used by many forgers to design their map with complete freedom before adapting the design to the objects provided in forge.

Z
Z-Fighting - When two objects are placed on the exact same plane (most commonly the Z Plane when used for flooring) and interlocked in a way that the textures are in the exact same place. The two textures then compete, or fight, for which one is shown on screen causing the textures to alternate rapidly and flicker. This negatively impacts performance and contributes to screen-lag/Frame rate lag.