ONS-Icarus

Map stub
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Icarus Plaza
Author	Chris 'Plutonic' Blundell
Music	"City" by Kevin Riepl
Game	Unreal Tournament 2004
Gametype	Onslaught
Comes with	UT2004 Ownage Semi-official downloadable addon
Platform	PC
Arena info
Player count	6-10
Arena type	Open

"Soaring 3 miles above Earth's surface, Icarus Plaza was designed to be the ultimate residential precinct. But like its namesake, ambition for the project exceeded caution. Even before the project was completed, significant structural flaws were detected and the buildings were abandoned."

– Map description

ONS- is an Onslaught map from Unreal Tournament 2004. It's a semi-official release by its author that was meant to be shipped with the game but wasn't finished on time. It's also the first "Ownage" map for the game and, as such, it's present in the "Ownage" tab in the "Community" section.

Map description

Keyguide by KurlonT.

Default link setup.

Default + Leviathan 2 Core link setup.

The map takes place atop of several towers linked by way of roads, with the exception of two standalone towers near each team's bases. The bases are located at the North (blue) and South (red) towers. Left of the Blue tower, there's the Blue Leviathan tower, which isn't connected to the rest of the map, except by way of a jumppad and a teleporter going from this tower to near the Blue base. The Red Leviathan tower is similar to the Blue Leviathan, except that obviously is located at the right of the Red base, and the respective tele and jumppad gets the user to near the Red base. The titular tower spans through four of them, holding the nodes, and a lot of the vehicles and strategic positions.

There are six nodes in the map:

1. West Tower, placed atop the, well, West Tower of the central area.
2. East Tower, placed atop the tower in front of the above.
3. Blue Prime, located south of the blue base at the north central tower.
4. Red Prime, located north of the red base at the south central tower.
5. Red Leviathan, located in the tower at the northeast of the Red base.
6. Blue Leviathan, located in the tower at the southwest of the Blue base.

Link Setups

• Default: Blue Base connected to Blue Prime. Blue Prime connected to Blue Leviathan, West Tower and East Tower. West Tower connected to Blue Prime and Red Prime. Same with East Tower. Red Prime connected to West Tower, East Tower and Red Leviathan. Red Base connected to Red Prime.
• Default + Leviathan 2 Core: Same as above, plus Red Base connected to Red Leviathan, and Blue Base connected to Blue Leviathan.

Weapons and pickups

Weapons

Weapon	Count	Location
Shock Rifle	W: - A: 4	Weapon: - Ammo: -
Minigun	W: 1 A: 2	Weapon: - Ammo: -
Flak Cannon	W: 3 A: 6	Weapon: - Ammo: -
Grenade Launcher	W: 2 A: 4	Weapon: - Ammo: -
Rocket Launcher	W: 2 A: 4	Weapon: - Ammo: -
AVRiL	W: 2 A: 4	Weapon: - Ammo: -
Target Painter	W: 1	-
Weapon Locker	W: 12	Weapon: [See below]

Weapon Lockers

Items	Count	Location
	2	-
	2	-
	2	-
	2	-
	2	-
	2	-

Pickups

Pickup	Count	Location
Health Vial	20	6x East Tower, lower chamber. 6x West Tower, lower chamber. 4x near Blue Prime, in a ledge above the lower entrance to central area. 4x near Red Prime, in a ledge above the lower entrance to central area.
Health Pack	24	3x Blue Base (2x lower floor near ramp entrance, 1x third floor above entrance to base), 3x Red Base (2x lower floor near ramp entrance, 1x third floor above entrance to base), 2x Red Leviathan Tower (lower floor), 2x Blue Leviathan (lower floor), 1x ledge near north entrance to Blue Prime, 1x ledge near south entrance to Red Prime, 1x near Blue Prime (higher level), 1x near Red Prime (higher level), 2x near tunnel to Blue Prime, central area. 2x near tunnel to Red Prime, central area. 2x near West Tower node. 2x West Tower, second floor, north corner. 2x East Tower, second floor, near the turret.
Big Keg O' Health	2	1x near West Tower, near Hellbender. 1x near East Tower, near the Node.
Shield Pack	6	1x Blue Base, second floor. 1x Red Base, second floor. 1x east entrance to Blue Prime. 1x west entrance to Red Prime. 1x East Tower, near the Scorpion. 1x West Tower, near the Turret.
Double Damage	2	1x near Blue Prime, above a tall pillar. 1x near Red Prime, above a tall pillar.

Vehicles

Vehicle	Count	Location
Manta	6	1x northwest of the Blue Base. 1x north of the Blue Prime. 1x West Tower, third floor. 1x East Tower, lower floor. 1x south of the Red Prime. 1x southeast of the Red Base.
Raptor	6	1x Blue Base, third floor. 1x Red Base, third floor. 1x Blue Leviathan tower, higher floor. 1x Red Leviathan tower, higher floor. 1x West Tower, west corner, second-to-third floor ramp. 1x East Tower, east corner, second-to-third floor platform.
Scorpion	6	1x West Tower, south pillar. 1x West Tower, north pillar. 1x Blue Base, near the Core. 1x Red Base, near the Core. 1x East Tower, second floor south. 1x East Tower, second floor north.
Hellbender	4	1x Blue Prime, higher floor. 1x Red Prime, higher floor. 1x West Tower, near the Node. 1x East Tower, below the platform.
Goliath	4	1x Blue Prime, near the node. 1x Red Prime, near the node. 1x Blue Base. 1x Red Base.
Leviathan	2	1x Blue Leviathan tower, lower floor. 1x Red Leviathan tower, lower floor.
Energy Turret	14	1x East Tower, east corner. 1x East Tower, ledge over Central area. 1x West Tower, above the West Tower node. 1x West Tower, second floor, looking at Central area. 1x near Blue Base in a ledge near the entrance. 1x near Red Base in a ledge near the entrance. 2x Blue Base. 2x Red Base. 1x Blue Leviathan, higher floor. 1x Red Leviathan, higher floor. 1x Blue Prime, ledge above tunnel entrance. 1x Red Prime, ledge above tunnel entrance.

Tips and tricks

Link setup-specific tips

• Default: Suffers the dreaded Enemy Prime Stalemate Syndrome. And it creates a problem when one of the cores is vulnerable, as the dominating team gets access to the Leviathan in the nearby tower, while the dominated team must take control of their own prime node before gaining access to the Leviathan again.
• Default + Leviathan2Core: With another route to the Core, it's possible to retaliate, and also prevents the enemy from dominating the attack to the base by controlling the Leviathan (plus the retaliating team can take control of the Leviathan node in order to regain territory without having to control their own Prime Node). However, the Prime nodes become the bottlenecks of the map.

Trivia

• The map was slated to be shipped with the game, however time constraints prevented it from doing so. This didn't stopped the map to be released as a standalone bonus map.

Accolades

• The map was the first UT2004 map to earn Cliff Bleszinski's "Ownage award".

"This is a stunning map that didn't make it in time for ship. However, since we had a couple of weeks from when the game was handed off we were able to take a bit more time to polish it up and have it ready day 1 for the very first ut2004 OWNAGE map! Icarus is a Morpheus style "fight 3 miles up" style of level. It features wheeled vehicles jumping from building to building, Raptors flying through interior halls, and a pair of very angry trapped Leviathans. Download this map now and add it to your rotation!"

– UT2004 Ownage Maps tab

Author's Notes

"I am proud to announce that ONS-Icarus has been released and is available for download. Icarus is a significant departure from the ONS maps released with UT2004. The setting - a massively tall set of buildings - provides for a more vertical game play dynamic for all vehicles in the region around the central nodes. In particular, ramps and elevated floors/platforms create great opportunities to get some serious 'air time'. Jumping the vehicle is a core component of matches in ONS-Icarus!"

– Chris 'Plutonic' Blundell

"This map started as a concept generated while I was working on UT2004 as a contract level designer, but I didn't get a chance to seriously work on it until February this year [2004]. So, why not release it as soon as possible after the launch of UT2004?
My intentions for this map was twofold - firstly, to make an Onslaught map that relied on BSP and static meshes for its gameplay environment, and secondly, to create a map were 'jumping' the vehicles was a core component of the gameplay. Hence the 'skyline' theme seemed a logical choice. ;-)"

– Chris 'Plutonic' Blundell

Reviews

• Twrecks from NaliCity gave the map a score of 8.0.

"Icarus, the legend, the map, the review.

ONS-Icarus takes its name from the legend of Icarus, the son of a inventor who is given wings of wax and feathers to escape an island. Icarus doesn't heed his father's warnings to stay away from the sun has his wings melt and plummets to the sea. More of that in antiquity and the readme. SO goes Icarus towers, only over budget and under engineered is sold to the Liandri, same old story.

The real story behind ONS-Icarus is more interesting. Perhaps started as a commissioned work by Epic (good enough to be retail IMHO), or prospectus resume, Icarus was the first community made onslaught map to be featured at NaliCity, for that matter anywhere on the web. Solidly constructed, unlike its namesake, it still shows up on servers today almost a year later. This map from the mapper down-under has staying power. Unlike numerous terrain based maps that soon would populate our HD's.

The premise is simple, take the underlying theme of BR-Skyline (you know, the map that smacks yo-ass in the tournament) and turn it into a full scale onslaught map, complete with all your favorite vehicles, and all the rest of the toys in the box. Oh yea, and throw in a couple meshes that fill some gaps but, pardon the pun, mesh with the retail.

Well, to do that, you need to add scope, as in more room, and that means some liberal frame saving distance-view fog. Also more Z, add ramps and more platforms. Create some connectivity, ahhh... jump ramps for wheeled vehicles and purpose objectives for Raptors (like the Painter and the U-Damage). Offset the dominance of flying vehicles by burying one of the central nodes inside the skyscraper and delegating the Raptor to keeping the land-locked Leviathan off the backs of your team mates for the final push.

Bot support is in the forefront of new unreal items, such as flying path nodes. Bots do their stuff in this map, but as all onslaught maps they really shine with the human element. Organized team attacks can rapidly sway the entire game in this map. Each node has it's own unique exploits, like parking your tank in the lower central node, or attacking the outer node from the abandoned upper corridor. At the same time, the mapper preserving frameratres, this is a multi-player gametype after all. Better add some very large anti-portals.

What I like best about ONS-Icarus is that it works, on many levels. The name ties into the theme and draws players into the concept. The map is built to the gametype rather than one being forced upon it. The author attempts balance, from the lonely bot on foot to the human in the Leviathan, with only geometry as his tools. Also is included new fun factors, like daredevil jumps and an environment perfect for aerial combat, even calling a bombing strike adds an element of surprise.

So with no lack of AWE, excellent quality of BUILD and a CAST that delivers the gametype in full, ONS-Icarus is a winner and deserves full marks! I wish the AI were better, but really that's a game problem not a map problem and I'am not making excuses for a map that needs none, only for a review that should have been made before the consensus was out. If you haven't downloaded this map, you probably haven't been playing onslaught, so do yourself a favor and do it now and save some server the bandwidth for players."

– Twrecks

Gallery

Nalicity screenshot.

Nalicity screenshot.

Nalicity screenshot.

Nalicity screenshot.