Sparrow racing is pretty fun: albeit a little buggy, but fun nonetheless. Bungie has given us a legitimate, new gametype. Yet I am getting tired of the same two maps in constant rotation. I mean, sure, they're great tracks, but I can't help but feel we need a bit more variety. So today I took a few minutes to imagine, create, and design four new racetracks. Let me know what you think of them, and of course [b]feel free to create your own Sparrow Racetracks[/b] in the comments. The reason I decided to make four maps was to balance the existing planets: the following races take place on Earth, the Moon, the Dreadnaught, and Mercury (which although we can't explore, has become associated with challenge due to Trials of Osiris). Earth Map: Liftoff Difficulty: Easy Takes place on an abandoned Cosmodrome airport. The track is a long oval, with a long, straight stretch being the runway where planes would have taken off. This stretch is filled with boost gates, making it the single fastest and longest straightaway. The track then quickly turns left, and proceeds back the opposite way, weaving through hangars, around broken planes, and on top off and even through some particularly decayed airplanes. Since this map is so straightforward, the event has 4 laps instead of 3. The only jumps are small lifts off of plane wings. Fallen enemies are scattered throughout. Moon Map: Mare Gladius Difficulty: Medium Begins in a Moon base similar to the ones seen in Patrol. After exiting the shattered front of the Golden-Age-themed dome, the track transitions to a wide open space, with very wavy/crater-y characteristics. There are no boost gates in this stretch: the focus will be on not flipping as you careen around and through craters. It's basically a bumpy section. Following this section, the ground breaks away, leading to a constant downward spiral underground. There are several boost gates here, making the descent quite difficult. At the end of the spiral, the cavern opens up slightly, revealing Hive architecture (like the style of the Hellmouth). After a few generic twists and turns, a jump appears. The jump will send the racers flying over the middle of the Hellmouth, with a gaping, infinite hole visible below. It is possible to make this jump normally: however, flying in the middle of the jump is a Hive Tombship with a boost gate on it, which can be used for a quick speed boost. After the jump, the racers quickly approach a large Hive portal (think the doorway from the TTK quests), which brings them to the surface, in a Hive temple. This temple, which players burst out of at high speeds, has a wide exit, but leads to a narrowing trench. Finally, this trench, which is loaded with speed gates and turns, leads back to the Moon base. That is one lap. Hive enemies are scattered throughout, including Shriekers that are positioned right before the final portal. Dreadnaught Map: The Battlements Difficulty: Hard This race begins in a long cavern with a hole in the middle, and two paths on either side (the path splits immediately after the start). Think the Tombship section of the King's Fall Raid, but with less open space above, and two very clear pathways. The left side is faster, but more narrow: the right side has less speed gates, but is wider and therefore safer. The two paths converge after a while in a cramped, narrow passage that constantly slopes upward. Speed gates litter this passage, giving racers huge amounts of speed. At the end of the passage, racers are thrust into the air by a jump, which leads to the very top of the Dreadnaught. There is a narrow straightaway on the very top, but hitting this at top speeds is incredibly difficult, and staying on is nigh impossible. To the left and down (for when racers inevitably fall) is an assortment of Cabal boarding ships (with convenient flat tops) that the racers must jump across to reach the end. The right and down is similar, but with City and human boarding ships. The three paths again converge in the middle after a distance. The track becomes wider, with various obstacles: the racers enter a structure that looks like... Well, part of the Dreadnaught. Suddenly at top speeds the racers burst out of a gaping hole at the end of the structure, and basically freefall towards a partially-destroyed Reef Ketch. At the end of the Ketch (which is flaming, making visibility slightly impaired), the racers again jump off into the unknown. Some stray thrusters, broken off from the Ketch, boost the racers back and down, to the Ketch's interior. This will require racers to make a 180 degree turn at high speeds. Racers skirt through the Ketch, avoiding the large hole on the left side, and jump back into the Dreadnaught. Then comes a long, S shaped segment with Raid-based attributes. The first area has swinging pendulums that can knock racers left, right, or dead. Small right turn. The next segment has those nice thrusters that everyone loves: they're everywhere on the walls, and some places in the floor, popping up directly in racers' path. At the end of this segment is a 'gravity lift' in the shape of a sideways U: racers zoom up and around, ultimately flipping upright right into the end of the first lap. As this is an incredibly long course, there will only be two laps. Taken enemies litter the racetrack, including Taken Phalanxes on the left path in the very first segment, and on the Ketch. Fallen Captains will appear in the last wall-thruster stretch, blinding racers and causing havoc. Mercury Map: Hell's Shores Difficulty: Very Hard This race starts looking out over the vast Vex landscapes of Mercury. Blasting forwards, racers must dodge protruding Vex architecture and fireballs that weave across the track. This stretch will last for quite some time, and gradually slope downward. After a while, the ground literally stops: cuts off at a right angle. Racers are flung onto a series of floating Vex structures. There are some boost gates in this segment. Falling means instant death, and some structures disappear the moment they are landed on: these will be signified by a highly visible oracle floating atop the structure in question. This section is just racers desperately skipping from block to block at high speeds. After the last block, racers jump into a large Vex portal, which drops them in the air in a new location. Racers are above a large ramp, which they will fall into at high speeds. The track levels out into a large, straight cylinder that constantly rotates. There are gaps in this cylinder, which consequentially move with it, that lead directly to lava. Speed gates again litter this section. Also, Cyclopses are situated in key locations along this cylinder. The section ends with two portals: one on the left and one on the right. Entering the right portal brings racers to the past: the sun is larger, and half the track is consumed in fire. Entering the left portal brings racers to the future: the sun is a dim glare in the distance, and the track has become disgruntled, with more holes and uneven sections, and racer vision is slightly impaired. The tracks on both are narrow, with drop offs and hard turns. Both end with a portal, which leads to a long, straight section with lots of speed gates. This section, which is straight and obstacle-less, leads to a large Vex-cannon-jump (like on the Mars map, but bigger). The finish lies on a floating block of Vex structure at the end of the high-speed jump. There is only one lap of this race.