I think you got as far as you could with in terms of remake. There isn't any major flaws but the color palette is so gray that it's impossible to truly capture the essence of isolation. You did great job but it's just not the same and unfortunately there is nothing you can really do.
Based on the map description, I wanted to pretend that the grass and flood spores covering the area had eroded, but it doesn't really make sense that the whole thing is metal. Even if the surface eroded there would still be dirt, since halo is supposed to generate natural systems (and not just covering a metal frame two feet below the ground). Lol oh well. The next forge pallet should have forgeable colosseum wall-sized grass pieces. That would solve all my natural remake problems. That and tree pieces. I can dream. Thanks for the feedback combs.
This is an awesome remake. The asthetic hit the trees took lowered the grade of the map, but how close it is to the original makes up for it. Maybe my friend will finally play on it now that the flood is gone. PS: is the lift to tree hiding spot still there?
Yesterday, myself and 7 other members downloaded randomly and played around 30 community maps. This is one of them. The map is fairly accurate, though the shotgun spawning mechanics didn't feel the same, which is a major part of the map for me. The battle went on more below the map, and at the sides than on the real Isolation. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I did however, chalk that up to mostly that the trees are gone, and your substitutes not only don't work well, but look unattractive as well. I think you can find better ways to make the top have better cover. More rocks in strategically placed locations. Maybe some attractively placed struts or something. I know you want accurate, but the top plays like an open field. A great try, but it can be improved. Additionally, I'd like to see more detail work done around the edges. The dull flat grey look is meh, and those cool cubby holes are missing.
I agree about the trees but I've been stubborn about getting rid of them. I know they don't look so good compared to the rest of the relatively clean map, but I felt they were integral to the map. Unfortunately it is hard if not impossible to make up on top of the one tree from the lift, but you can always jet pack up to it. Without the leafy branches the trees don't provide as much cover, so that hiding spot is not so great anymore anyway. Thank you for the comment sir. Could you tell me more about what felt different about the shotgun spawn mechanics? The complex shape of the shotgun bunker was one of the harder things to forge on the map and in the interest of budget and frame rate I simplified it a bit. I know that the areas on the back wall on either side of the bunker should be more even and elevated and I have not yet figured out a good way to do this. The hill topography is necessarily approximated but I am open to suggestions. Also, I may also try to figure out a way to include a small number of the cubby holes you mentioned. I didn't think they were as essential as they would cost budget wise so I left them out of my priority list, but enough people seemed to want them there so I will see if I can do something about it cheaply. Finally with the cover up top, I wish I could figure out how to make "attractively placed struts" work but I have not had luck so far. I will definitely add more rocks though, since they are definitely needed and were more numerous in the original too. I have been putting off a better version of this for a while due to other projects but I will take your comments into consideration. Thanks for the constructive feedback!
I have to agree that forging the trees was a bad idea. They do look ugly, and don't really fit in with the map. I suggest trying to make pillars or obelisks where the trees were. You should have tried to make your own unique aesthetics using the Forerunner pallet, instead of trying to remake the Flood concept.
The shape of the landscape is fine. I just suggest more rocks instead of trees. The shotgun spawned every thirty seconds with no extra clips, and it spawned even if someone had one. I felt like those settings were screwed up.
He has the max count on the shotty set to a higher number than one. This allows it to spawn until there are a total of whatever number it is set to on the map. Generally it's a count of 8, but thats only TS with To4. I never noticed how quickly the shotty spawns though. Good call.
The forerunner aesthetics I tried just seemed too different but more rocks I can do. Using obelisks and antennaes etc. just didn't bring back the feel of the map, but this seems to be a common criticism so I will see what I can do. Either way the flood concept wasn't what I tried to bring back, it was the "nature" that I tried and failed to recreate but... potayto potahto. and I had an original justification for reducing the clips which was that there were no maulers to counter the shotgun anymore. The shotty isn't really over powered on this map anyway so I may up it to 1 clip. As for the 30 second respawn and the raised max count, I think this was accidental though honestly I never noticed in game. Good catch, and thanks for pointing this out. For those interested, stay tuned since I will release a corrected version in the next day or two. Rob Schneider is about to find out that even with remakes, more than just casual playtesting is needed...
It appears very faithful to the original. Although mildly bland, with many grey blocks and almost no other colors in it, it does make me think of Isolation the first time I glance at it. You could have used more rocks and more Tin Cups, but I guess you ran out of money before you could do that. Of course, Game-play > Aesthetics, so it doesn't matter too much. Great Job. I have to ask: Did you try play-testing it to check if it was true to the original in terms of gameplay, movement, and weapon placement?
I did playtest it, but not as much as I should have. The community's responses have given me much better feedback than the games that I ran on it before release. In fact the map does not play like the original in a very accurate sense, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. For one, the loadouts make it play very differently, and also I made a few weapon changes (in part since some weapons were not brought back in reach). These things aside, the movement of the map also plays different in the sense that the top of the map is underused since it is so open, and this is my fault. This is what I am working to improve at this point, although I may also adjust some of the weapon choices to make it more like the original. Thanks.
Would it be possible to make this map more split-screen friendly? Anytime I get 2+ on the same console, the frame rate seems to drop pretty badly. Other than that, great job on the remake!
I just uploaded a new version to my file share with some improvements to frame rate: - I removed the orange lights - replaced the (crappy) "trees" with rocks, thus eliminating a bunch of railings with lights on them - consolidated a few pieces for a lower object count - color coded some objects which weren't colored before (now colored by base) I'm sure it still won't be ideal for split screen, but the lag should be significantly improved either way.
Thanks Anthro! I'll have to test it out later when I get the chance. I personally thought the trees were cool, although I can imagine they might have been behind some of the frame rate issues. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Was able to play-test the map with 2 players... It's still very laggy, almost not playable, but I suppose there isn't much that can be done. Hopefully Forge will have little to no frame rate issues in Halo 4...