New version of Genetic (non-MLG) is up. Previously, Genetic was on the uglier Genome v2, and I think everyone will appreciate the significant aesthetic changes and smoothing changes made on 3.0.
congrats man, its about time you got some credit. i noticed this map when you first posted it and i kinda had a feeling about it. extra congrats on the MLG circuit!!
I played a game on this last week and definitely enjoyed it. It was a swords game, and I don't really know if that's what you had in mind when you made this map, but it was fun and I remember appreciating the level's layout. There's a lot to be said for giving a map one distinct design purpose, like the over under bridge here, and building the rest of the map to support that goal. This map's simplicity, and I mean that in the best way possible, is really very appealing, especially against the backdrop of the convoluted maps that we got with Reach. And thanks for posting that new version. Gonna play it tomorrow with friends.
About time. This is a really great map (as it was in Halo 3) and I'm glad to see a small guy getting some recognition.
Simply fantastic. I've always adored this design, I remember testing this in quick, casual stockpile game way back when, and even that was amazingly fun. It's good to see that this map hasn't been forgotten, and if it were in the circuit, that'd be amazing.
In my opinion, it's not engineered in a usable way. There are a few angled floors which seem unplanned. Gameplay is exciting, especially when you're a preserved marksman . It's incredibly dynamic for Slayer DMRs. 7/10
I'm curious what angled floors you believe to be unplanned. I consider height variation extremely important to create more interesting gunfights, so I intentionally limited the size of all flat planes on this and other maps I've made.
I really like the lines of sight and all the elevations. I just think the aesthetics are a little sub-par. It's too bad there aren't more options in forge to fix this. Overall, really awesome map.
There is no frame rate, I've played it many times, sometimes even with as many as 12 players. No FR issues at all. Have you even downloaded this map? The aesthetics are superior for a competitive map. You're not even in the right map thread. This is a competitive map. Aesthetics are invalid in criticising quality. What really matters is gameplay, and therefore you have no point. Play a competitive game on this map and come back in 10 minutes. Then you will see what this map is really made for.
This map has been having difficulty getting into the MLG playlist only because of framerate issues. Have you tried it in splitscreen? The Line of Sight across from base to base can drop quite a bit in split screen. They really aren't. Ladnil had to sacrifice quite a bit in order to create a map with so many long lines of sight; especially aesthetics. This is the only point I agree with.
Maps should be a solid blend of game play and aesthetics. It may not be ugly, but its not pretty. And no matter how good game play is, I don't think a professional organization like MLG would pick an ugly map as it is a spectator sport. Who wants to watch a ugly map on main stage? 4Shot, can you fanboi harder?
The simple fact is this: aesthetics are often at the cost of gameplay in a specific sense. This is not to say that they are mutually exclusive as many people often imply, but to ensure that every inch of a map plays well, often you have to discard ideas that could make the map look better. MLG gametype officials are more aware than anyone that picking a map which looks nice over one which plays that bit better for being slimmed down on the aesthetic front is a bad decision in every sense of the word. Sure it's a spectator sport, but the people watching want to see decent gameplay, uninterrupted by the potential issues that aesthetically minded design can sometimes bring. They don't want to go 'ooooh a pretty fountain!' on a map that they're likely going to see over and over for maybe even years at a time, to the point where any aesthetic prowess basically becomes invisible and they just see the map in terms of: power position, push route, vulnerable spot, likely team spawn etc. It also seems odd to complain about framerate and criticise lack of aesthetics in the same breath. Negating framerate issues is hard enough on Reach, and the first port of call in slimming down a map is taking out any features, objects or geometry not necessary to maintaining gameplay. You know what that generally equates to? You guessed it, aesthetic additions. EDIT: And ya know what? I actually still think this map looks pretty damn good considering it's highly competitive nature and FW's rather bland object set. It uses the open air design well to incorporate the outside aesthetic of FW a bit more than the fully enclosed maps you often see in MLG maps. I feel that the only place where I'd perhaps want a little more going on visually is inside the bases, again because being enclosed just brings the curse of grey on all sides. However, considering the main problem that Bungie seem to point to is object density, and (if I'm any judge) the bases probably have the highest density on the whole map, making them the last place you want to go adding flowery touches.
I would have thought that you, having been a long time staff member and journalist, would know that aesthetics are hardly "additions". Good aesthetics don't come from tack on pieces in the decorative section. It comes from planning the structure of the map with aesthetics in mind. It's all about the continuity of textures. Things can look perfectly acceptable using only gray boxes as long as people don't mix and match ugly textures, cross lines in seven directions and interlock things terribly. Now I'm not relating this to Genome in any sense, for Genome looks perfectly fine in my opinion. However, many of the more "framerate cautious" forgers seem to forget that they can still make their map look good as long as they pay attention to doing so from the get-go.
I kinda get Proximo. Creating a visually pleasing map isn't always down to intricacy or complexity. Often it is achievable by repetition, good use of solid lines and well defined space. These three add up to give the player or viewer a good sense of definition, both in their physical and locational position. That is to say, the player know where is, and where he belongs. Now, these things are often very achievable if a forger puts a lot of thought into how he wants to use objects. The budgets in reach are generous, to say the least, so it's no great difficulty to achieve both looks and gameplay. Aesthetics is a really overused word on this website. People should be more descriptive about how something appears visually. Theres plenty of options. Fundamentally the word aesthetics is both vague and undescriptive, not to mention that it's being used incorrectly.