Orbital

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Orbital, also known by its former names, Moonbase Alpha and Space Camp, is one of three maps in the Mythic Map Pack designed for Halo 3. Orbital, along with Assembly and Sandbox, ships with the Limited Edition of Halo Wars. It will be on the Xbox Live Marketplace with the two other Mythic maps on April 9, 2009.

Design

Orbital takes place inside the docking-station for Quito Space Tether, a Space Elevator that transports cargo and people in and out of the Earths atmosphere easily.

It is said to be best for asymmetrical objective games, like CTF and Assault, but also has some natural deadlocks that makes Slayer interesting and Infection "terrifying". Although the side that starts out on top may have an advantage in height, being able to see the enemy from up top, the bottom team has a ghost which balances things out, especially in slayer even if it is hard to use in the relatively narrow hallways. It's essentially two overlapping hallways in horseshoe shaped levels, so each team can see the other one's spawn through a window above or below them, but they are separated. Both bases of the map have operable doors that are important for objective games. It's a multi-level map, so there are many stairways. The middle of the connecting horseshoes features a chasm which separates both sides, effectively forming a choke point that is crucial to being held. Orbital may be confusing at first with its long hallways all connected together by intersections and junctions, but this all adds to the strategic importance of map control.

The map is located on an "empty UNSC space platform", more specifically, the station atop the Quito Space Tether. The map contains plaques dedicated to Doctors Tobias Fleming Shaw and Wallace Fujikawa, the creators of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, the map also contains a lot of aesthetical elements such as windows showing the Earth, electronic devices like display screens, escalators, and even a video phone. Overall the map has a feel of advanced technology.

. It was reported in a Bungie Weekly Update that one part of the map has a deadly chasm, which can be easily traversed once it is "unlocked". However, this seems to have changed since that information was released, long before the map was ever shown. Orbital has several such locks and "switches to disable and enable access to various parts of the map". However, the only switches currently found in the map are the two door switches in either base (that only open the doors, and do not close them). currently, there is no way to open up other sections of the map. Orbital has been described as cleanly beautiful, yet haunting and having signs of abrupt abandonment. The map has 2 exits out of either base, plus a small maintenance hallway leading to the upper level. This makes defending on CTF interesting.

Weapon Placement

Battle Rifles are common throughout the level with two spawning on the starting bases of each side and another two near the middle of each side. Plasma Pistols are located on the bottom of the two escalators, Maulers are next to the equipments on the junctions, Plasma Grenades come in pairs scattered around the map, and a pair of Spikers are found in both hallways which connect the bases to the middle. There are also a pair of Plasma Rifles located just next to the rocket spawn. The two main power weapons on this map are the Sniper Rifle (on the lower side of the pit) and a Rocket Launcher (on the higher side), it should be noted though that both weapons have had their ammo decreased for balance.

Equipment is also found around, a Bubble Shield, a Regenerator and a Power Drainer are put in strategic locations, with the bubble shield and regenerator spawning next to a mauler and the power drainer opposite the sniper rifle in the same junction.

There are two Mongooses on each base facing the operatable doors(only closed in objective games), and a Ghost spawns at the attacking base during asymetrical gametypes.

Skull

Main article: Orbital Skull

The skull can be found near the Sniper Rifle spawn point high above the map. It can easily be found, and reached in Forge. The logo of the hidden skull on this level appears to have a symbol that looks like a giant fan. This symbol can be seen on the walls and other areas such as the computer monitors. It has also been interpreted as the general shape of the station itself, which resembles other orbital stations in Halo canon, such as the Tiara Space Elevator or the Orbital Defense Platforms seen in Halo: Contact Harvest and Halo 2, respectively.

Speaker Lines

While playing on Orbital, a female and male voice can be heard every once in a while announcing things over a speaker (much like The Pit and Terminal). Some of these lines are:

• "Welcome to the Quito Orbital Elevator. Please refer to video moniters for current information."
• "Posession of firearms is strictly prohibited."
• "If you see any suspicious activity or any unattended packaging, please call the Quito Orbital Elevator Hotline."
• "Do not leave children unattended. Children should be monitered at all times."

Trivia

A battle on Orbital.

• This map's codename was originally "Moonbase Alpha", then later changed to "Space Camp". The map's official name was then changed to be "Orbital".
• This map was first shown in Game Informers story on Halo 3: ODST.
• Orbital is the first map in Halo 3 to be set in space. Also, through use of glitches, Orbital offers the first, and currently only, opportunity for players to experience direct exposure to space in Halo 3, except for the Valhalla Banshee glitch found only in the Halo 3 Beta. In Halo: Combat Evolved, Boarding Action is the only map open to space, and in Halo 2, the initial campaign level Cairo Station and the maps Elongation and Midship were the only maps to allow this.
• Some of the computer monitors across the map make reference to Cairo Station.
• The view of Earth on some of the monitors is actually a screenshot from one of the Halo 2 trailers.
• Recently the cast of Red vs. Blue was given permission by Bungie to play on the map and post videos of it on their website. As it turns out it is extremely similar in shape to the Halo: CE map Longest and the Halo 2 multiplayer level Elongation. It is believed these two maps were inspiration for Orbital.
• Orbital is the first ever map in the Halo franchise to take place inside a Space Elevator.
• Rooster Teeth has said they wish they had the map when they were doing the last episodes of Red vs Blue: Reconstruction this one specifically to use as the Freelancer Headquarters.
• The male that can be heard over the intercom is Bungie environment artist Chris Carney.
• It appears that Orbital is hovering above the continent of Asia, although the real-life city of Quito is in Ecuador, South America.
• Several of terminals within Orbital have schedules on them labeled with the names of several notable locations in the Halo series, for example: Charybdis IX and Gilgamesh.

Gallery

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  An escalator leading towards another chamber, and on the wall is the tribute to Tobias Fleming Shaw.

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  A loading dock with Sniper Rifle in sight.

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  Another hallway with 2 Mongooses in sight.

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  A hallway with vegetation on the wall, as well as two information tubes displaying "Welcome" in several languages.

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  The main control station.

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  Orbital Heatmap.

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  The surface below.