Recap for Tuesday, Jan 15th What did we learn, guys? WHAT DID WE LEARN? Short version: some really good, fun, competitive games last night. Long version will be up later.
Here we go: Camber - The more I play this map the more I like it. Which really speaks well of the design, since I'm a forge snob AND a BTB snob. I don't have much more to say about it that I haven't already. My one remaining criticism, albeit a minor one, is that I don't care for the sniper towers in the middle structure. They're very powerful positions due to the combination of elevation and lots of cover, and there's no good way to attack them except from the side, or a really well-placed 'nade. If there was a platform there you had to jump up and stand on to see each base, I think I would prefer it. That, or at least one major piece of cover (like a big rock) between the base and this tower to negate its power somewhat, and give someone on foot a way to approach it more easily? Maybe that's just me though. Anyway, really nice job making this map. Evoke - I found this game kind of puzzling. The map has changed a lot but I didn't expect it to feel so unfamiliar. My main objection is that it suddenly felt like a busy map - like every few feet there was a ramp up or down, a wall, some kind of cover object in my way, etc. I don't know if all of that is due to the changes, or just me playing the map differently from before - I really couldn't say. But I did feel like it would benefit from a few more big, broad, open areas where you can get your bearings and use as a vantage point to understand what's going on around you better. Maybe that's what was missing, since those elevated platforms where the hills used to be went away. Impacted - I have no real feedback on this except that we shouldn't have been playing it with so many people. It felt like a 2v2 map that we were forcing to be 5v5, and the result was non-stop chaos. You mentioned that it needed more spawn points and maybe different flag locations, and that might be part of the issue, I'm not sure. I will say that the flag locations didn't do much for me; it was basically just a straight corridor with two ways in and no cover. I tried playing defense a couple times, and every time two or three enemies would come around the corner and just mow me down because I had nowhere to duck behind, and no way to pop out from an unexpected location to attack them. (This is also not great for flag runners, either; if you enter a location like that alone, you only have two very obvious angles of approach, and will get drilled yourself. Really, for the benefit of players on BOTH teams, the flag usually needs to be in a junction area with several approaches and a few nooks & crannies to use for cover if you end up battling or just hiding around the flag stand.) Octave (5v5 game) - I thought this played pretty well for a first test. I have changes I want to make now but they're based more on the 2v2 game, which I'll get to below. I'm curious what everyone thought of this. Was the layout clear? Did you feel like action gravitated to the mid-center too much? Inducer - I'm nearly completely happy with this map. Not that it's the greatest map ever, but this CTF game was a lot closer to how I envisioned it would go when I first built it. I know some people were confused about how to move through center; hopefully that became clear as you moved around a little bit. (There are four ways through on each side: a lift to the 2nd or 3rd level, a mancannon to the opposite side, a jump-up over a railing that leads up a ramp to the 2nd level, and a walkway that goes directly to the 2nd level. On ground level, there's only one "trick" way through, which is a sprint jump through the center tunnel; this layout is deliberate but probably a bit puzzling when you first start running around and figuring things out.) Subway - This game was fun but rather repetitive and low-strategy. Basically, if you want to be massacred you run out in the middle of the tunnel; if you want to kill a person or two and THEN be massacred, you stick near a doorway. I didn't find there to be a lot of competitive merit in the design. But I did enjoy the games for what they were, and thought the aesthetics were cool. If you have designs on making this into a more multi-purpose map, I would suggest a lot more cover in the tunnel, and make the side passages more useful while somehow de-emphasizing that atrium that we kept fighting over. Cartel - This was a pretty unique design; to be honest I didn't get a good feel for it except for the one room with the lifts and the big catwalk in the middle, so I kept going in there knowing I could hold that down (or try to) and be pretty safe. One thing that I'm starting to realize is that it's a lot easier for me to grasp layouts on Ravine and Impact; Erosion maps, with those dirty brown textures and dirty brown landscape, tend to feel very same-y to me, so unless the architecture is extremely distinctive I just get a little lost and start playing without thinking. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. There were some good ideas in this map but I need to play it more before I can effectively comment on them. Windswept - Now this is a Cyborg map. Old school Breezeway-ish action. It was just complex enough that I didn't fully wrap my head around it in this one game, but it looked and felt really good, and just what I would expect from one of my favorite, most reliable forgers. Nice work, looking forward to playing it again. (Will it work for flag? Without knowing where the flag locations are, I couldn't tell.) Overpass - Aesthetics of this map were really nice in a lot of areas. Comparisons to "The Walking Dead" I can definitely see. Unfortunately I didn't think much of the gametype - it was just way too hard for the flood to do anything, and the only reason they won each round is that the humans scattered and just goofed off. A concentrated band of humans would never get infected I don't think. The flood may need to move faster, jump higher, and maybe be given armor abilities (camo, thruster?). Also, I don't really like the high ground spots - I don't think they ever benefit the infection gametype for humans to be able to get to some weird little place up high that can only be approached one way. If you keep those elevated positions, I'd suggest more big, obvious ramps and lifts that lead to them so that the human camping there has to stay on their toes. Fast Animals - This game was incredibly silly. I enjoyed playing it despite myself, but it was very, very silly. Not really my thing, I guess. It seemed impossible as a human to kill the flood - maybe I was just bad at it, but I meleed a flood a few times and shot him a few times, and he still infected me. Annex - I have mainly criticisms of this map, unfortunately. First of all, initial spawns were on a tiny, narrow ledge that I immediately fell off of. That irritates and disorients players - don't do it. Second, a lot of the underground and side tunnels and areas of the map were very claustrophobic and hard to navigate. A good rule of thumb is that most tunnels and doors should be two units wide or wider, and two or even three units high. This gives players room to maneuver and strafe and jump around. Many of the tunnels I ended up in felt like they were barely bigger than me, and they connected in these awkward ways with pieces sticking out and getting in the way of clear, easy movement. On a similar note, the bases felt very rickety with narrow, steep walkways to get to the top. In the middle structure and seemingly other areas as well, there were key weapons and power positions spawning up high, but I could never figure out how to get there; you either had to use jetpack or there was just one small ramp or jump that was hard to find. And the severe height of the very top structure was underlined by the flood match, where humans just went up there and camped out; if you keep that structure, I would be very inclined to put a soft kill zone across the entire top of it. Letting people get up that high on any map is seldom a good idea, especially if they go up there with a DMR and/or sniper. Arcusphere - There was some very cool design and forge-work going on with this map, so it was all the more disappointing that one team being outnumbered and playing it with probably too many people kind of wrecked the test experience. I'd love to play this again with 2v2 or even 1v1. The lift and center room was very cool-looking, and the outside ramps were used a lot by me to get upstairs once the other team had firm control of the top room. My only real criticism about the map itself is that it seemed like there were a number of spots only accessible by jetpack (e.g. the tops of all those struts); I'd suggest to either make them physically inaccessible (taller), or put soft kills over them, or lower them so they aren't so dominant. Berb was crushing us by flying up there and picking us off from unexpected angles as we came upstairs and couldn't figure out immediately where he was. In fact, at one point I think two different people on his team were doing that at the same time. Scenario Opal - I liked how this played for a first test. The layout was unique but easy to grasp, and no position seemed overly powerful, or at least they all had reasonable counters. The one walkway on the side with two different levels was my favorite area - the right blend of powerful, yet vulnerable. One small gripe: it felt like it was very easy to jetpack above most of the map, and in a lot of cases it wasn't clear which areas were intended to be playable and which weren't, until I landed in a soft kill. If you can elevate those unplayable rooftops somehow, and maybe use a few big rocks around the outskirts of the map to make the intended boundaries visually clear, I think it will improve the playing experience. It's weird, because it won't play all that differently - I didn't break the map at any point - but I think it just improves the playing experience when players understand intuitively how the map "works." Scenario Jade - A solid improvement over our first test. The changes to the middle really improved the overall complexity and flow from the previous version, where I was kinda running in a circle much of the time. Some of the outer walkways and things that were added helped with that also, by giving players a place to fall back to or shoot from. Octave (2v2) - The main things this test brought out for me are that I need to perhaps do some work to make jetpacks less annoying on the map - maybe raise a few walls or add a few ceilings, I'm not really sure yet. But the jetpack was turning the map almost into The Cage, where so many of the structures are just places to land while flying around, and that's not what I want out of it; the layout shouldn't be that easy to circumvent. The other one is that I may revisit the mid-bridge design. I want the very middle to feel more open and vulnerable, and the side areas to feel like you can hold them - think top mid vs. the two towers on Lockout, or top mid vs. gold lift room and snipe tower on Guardian. In this game it seemed clear that this effect hasn't been achieved yet.
Camber my main problem this time is that I spawned a few times in the open, and could do nothing but get killed immediately. Evoke I have nothing particular to say here. I had already nominated it for FHF. Impacted I'm not sure what to say, it's a small and relatively simple map. I didn't notice anything wrong in particular. Octave I found this map hard and frustrating to play, people would just appear out of nowhere and kill me, it also looked like it could be imbalanced in favor of jetpack users, attacks often came from above. Inducer it seemed easier to play than the 1st time. I don't know if it was because I knew it better, or because I was on the other team. it seemed easier to see enemies come and not be taken by surprise overall. Subway it was a request from a friend who wanted Subway from Timesplitters for MLG type matches. 5v5 is a bit much for this map, even 4v4 tended to be very chaotic on Timesplitters. I wanted to try CTF but it said the map isn't compatible. Cartel the map seemed good, though a bit hard or weird to play. I missed many jumps, lack of skills I guess... Windswept it was one of my favourite maps last night. Overpass I don't have much experience with parasites or flood or whatever that game mode is called, but that wasn't very exciting overall. it appears that the tower was quite campable since the last human was always there. Fast Animals I didn't get it, weapons seemed inefficient, and when I spawned as a human, I was slow as hell, which isn't fun at all. Annex that was one of my least favourite. forging a bit floppy, I noticed some Z-fighting during the game. it looked too open and randomly made. that bridge over the map seemed to high and hard to reach, I hated those random holes everywhere in which I kept falling. the stairs were too steep and I felt there were too many power weapons, I saw several binary rifles and incineration cannons. unfortunately, as I said, it's a remake, so there isn't a lot I can change if I want to stay faithful. not everyone got massacred by the way. I used the same strategy that when I played online on timesplitters and did well (though, if we had been on timesplitters, no one would have killed me) I have to say I was surprised by the request of my friend, since he is a pro on Halo and Timesplitters, and we both know this map isn't balanced. maybe he knows how to make it more competitive...
Damn, I missed a lot of maps after I went! yeah it was a night wasn't it? Lots of people. I'll post my feedback in a bit. CAMBER +Great use of the limited natural geometry on Ravine +Ridge structure in middle is awesome looking and functions as a safe route across the centre +Fun dash for rockets at the beginning -CTF seemed a chore to attack the bases -Paradoxically the most stealthy route of attack base to base is also the highly dangerous and busy sniper ridge This map reminds me of Valhalla instantly. There are obvious differences but the central ridge creates that over-the-top element, but it isn't too dominant a feature of gameplay. Here it is; I enjoyed the hell outta this on Slayer but not on CTF, I found the base was hard to attack as the approach was very open. If I wasn't getting lit up by a sniper it was team-shotting by DMRs. I am also very aware that experiences on maps are very subjective and I personally enjoy cramped spaces that force one-on-ones, without the need for good or at least attempted team communication. I really liked battling over the sniper ridge area though, and going toe-to-toe with Nutduster in his goddamn ghost was great fun. Weapon placement was sweet too, I noted that less and less people are going for repeating ordnance drops, and instead place weapons that simply respawn. EVOKE +The map seems to flow around without too many campy spots +Seems to play okay with bigger number of players, but only *correctly* with 2v2 or 4v4 -Some have expressed concerns, nay, dislike for the aesthetics such as the wiring and monitors from dominion -my ***** is too big for a concealed weapon, yet too small for effective riot control duty This map is kinda finished now. I like the way it plays but 5v5 is just wrong on a map this size folks. Shoulda said something. Sorry you were unsettled by the changes Nutduster- on objective games they make sense. Those raised hill platforms were too hard to attack and resulted in hyper-nade-spam. ***A big question that might affect us all is the one of 'trait zones' as ceilings on maps. Evoke V5 was almost the same but featured a trait zone of 200% gravity that prevented jet-packers from escpaping or otherwise abusing the map. However CC Nokyard strongly recommended that I remove said zone and replace it with a soft kill. He edited it for me and you played this version last night. He said the players can break the zone and get stuck ontop of objects, Although i have never seen this happen on Evoke. Do any of you have an opinion on this? The previous version seemed to work fine but then I am a n00b. Discuss, if you can be arsed, as we say. IMPACTED +LOL -LOL Yeah, too many spartans make a big pile of hot sick. I shall attempt to relocate the flag spot or at least make the lower approach safer. Spawns seemed okay. I also need to work on communicating how many players I need on my maps. OCTAVE +Superb layout +complex but learnable in a few minutes -Didn't use the bottom section much at all- didn't seems as much down there as up top - a little cramped at times maybe I didn't get a chance to play the 2v2 game but the game I did play was fun. Too many people again though, and it did get a bit messy in the map middle. There was a lot of cover objects around that might have been simplified, and that might have added to the chaos. A very fun and promising playspace, looking forward to next week on it. INDUCER + great fun CTF + lots of routes and ways to attack either base- good asymmetry made for creative plays + very good looking + player count was spot-on - found it frustrating tryin to jump over the dominion rail at the jump-up - not sure that i would ever use the trick-jump part in the middle Didn't play this last week but it seems very solid. You know your map is working when you can hear your team laughing, making callouts and enjoying the game at hand rather than struggling to navgate it and cursing. Lots of height variation made it seem more expansive. I defo wanna play some more on this but I liked the one game I got. Oh yeah, I didn't like the railing on the jump up. I am a decent jumper but I tried three times and then had to go round the side to get up. More games needed. SUBWAY + unique and amazing aesthetics + Much bigger than I initially thought + great choice of Erosion as a base canvas for this dirty looking space - lines of sight were too simple - slight frame-rate issues but not unmanageable - the centre area was way too open This map looked AWESOME, your use of curved walls and inclines for the tunnel walls and corridors worked great. I personally got one or two bad spawns, maybe you need to look at your spawn zones or place more spawn points. That central 'platform' was too open but the addition of some more structure or even shrinking that area would make it more playable. I really wanted to engage the other team in that space but the large amount of objects and action on display made it too laggy. Heres an idea- as it looked like a derelict rail station why not create some trains in that central area? that would make a very sweet aesthetic and allow it to be a more functional and less deadly area. Large containers can make a great looking base for trains. CARTEL + nice LOS allowed some long, medium and short range fighting + flow was fast and fluent + player count was spot-on - kinda looked unfinished, maybe just the canvas like Nuts said - shoulda had more ammo in the sniper for my tastes, of course I need three bullets to kill one guy Big and roomy, with lots of up and down action, i just began to get to grips with it towards the end of the game. Didn't have any specific issues at all, it was a good laugh. I personally dislike trying to jump and run up the erosion pipes- they look and feel awkward, IMO. Never sure if they are just aesthetic or cover or part of the pathing whenever I see them. More games needed. WINDSWEPT + Instantly playable, although I didn't know the layout + classic arena style gameplay + never played breezeway but saw screens of it and this looks like a geat successor - my team got forced onto the platform where the shotty spawned and couldn't seem to break out til we were all dead Excellent fun! every area of the map was used and it flowed excellently. What I said about getting forced on to the platform outside was purely circumstantial, we just got swept up and re-grouped there I reckon. Looking forward to more games on there. OVERPASS Firstly, I apologise profoundly for being rude about this map. It was obviously crafted with great care and attention and I am sorry for insulting it. I can't really pass much comment on this, cos I dislike and avoid infection/flood like a three-curl dog-turd on the sidewalk, but I am under no illusions as to how popular it is with fans. It was too hard for the flood and it shoulda been one-hit kill too. I will try harder to play it seriously next time too. Thats all. Sorry for rambling. TL;DR? Good stuff everyone, and yall keep making sweet, varied maps.
Forgot to mention, I had this problem at least once or twice last night, and more the first time we played. I don't think the map's design is at fault; it's the spawn point locations. Some of the more open ones need to be moved to safer places or deleted. That's the first issue I'm going to be working on. I don't use jetpack that often myself but I used it in a 2v2 test of the map last night and noticed the same problem. So that will be worked on soon. I'll also watch the video and see if I can see where people were attacking you from - it's three levels deep in the middle and has two mancannons to the middle, so if you were hanging out there much you probably got blind-sided a lot. I'm tempted to remove those mancannons and replace them with jumps to the middle instead. Thanks, I think partially this was due to changes I made to the layout, especially closing off the middle a little more (fewer lines of sight toward the initial spawn areas), and making it less likely for people to spawn near the mancannons. And partially it probably was just you knowing the map already.
Octave (5v5 game) - I thought this was rather enjoyable despite all the jetpack issues. The edit you did to the top bridge and the explosives were fantastic, though the bottom floor felt like it only had one way out- through the center bottom. I know this isnt the case, but the way that I spawned showed me only that one route, and I very often forgot about any others. Inducer -I've really enjoyed the few games I've had here. The middle messed me up once, I thought the trick jump was still there and with the flag I plummeted. I still find it incredibly easy to get to the enemy flag, but the travel back to my own flag was often dificult (save one time when the entire enemy team weas nowhere in sight and I had the flag back in my base in no time at all). I dont really have any complaints. I just have those little quirky things that were noticed. They arent bad, just... quirky. Subway - This was fun, but overly simplistic and in many areas incredibly easily camped. I camped the top mid, and I'm awful at the game. Ask Nutduster, or Berb. Overall, it was a fun casual game, with lots of moments of laughter and suspense, but this is no competitive map. Cartel - I feel like this took basic design and made it complex. Everything worked out well, though I missed the ordinence a wee bit. Not much for it to matter but nobody knew where the rockets, snipers, or any other weapon spawned besides yourself. On the geometry, I cannot say much. nothing felt wrong to me (I mentioned that crate to you in the base). It will take a few more games for me to truely deduce any issues, if any at all exist. Windswept - This was eally fun, and larger than I thought. After half the game was done, I realized I still hadnt been in the green hall at all. My one complaint is that alot of attention went to the center with the broken bridge, a bit too much if you ask me. I would suggest another area to counter it, and to be regarded as equally valuble. Overpass - Sorry, but nothing about this map made me look at it seriously. It may have been the awkwardly made 'Gas' letters, or the easily campable buildings, but my first instict was to goof off. Clearly. There was no fright or suspense. no feeling like no matter how hard I try, I could die here. I did die, but because I was on a mongoose and driving around like a moron. I'm no flood expert, you wont get much help here. maybe talk with some of the BIOC folks. They seem to know that gametype exceptionally well. Fast Animals - This was wonderfully silly fun, but no more. It suffers from a similar issue as Overpass, but this game embraces its own ridiculousness. not a bad thing, just dont think its a serious flood game. Because it isnt. Annex - I'll keep this one short. The map was too large for the teams we had, too cramped in some areas, large lines of sight were too long, as a mantis I fell into the sairway to the bottom level once, and the gauss was overpowered. On top of that, none of the geometry made any sense, it seemed like this map was made around the idea 'wouldnt it be cool if I did this!?' That works when you balance everything out, but there were some areas that were clearly stronger than others. Overall, this was bad, but you can improve by learning from the others here. I would have liked to offer some remedies, but I need to move on with this write-up and go to something else. message me if you want to talk about it (or I may post back here later. If I remember.) Arcusphere - Again, I'll keep this one short too. I was able to jetpack all over, and on top of the center dome a few times to drop down in the fray. Bad. The top looks great, but the bottom seemed added on as an afterthougt, and was very cramped. There was also no reason to be there. Scenarios Opal and Jade- I'll take all suggestions and comments into consideration on my maps. The names are a WIP, as are the maps. I thought they played rather well, but be honest with me and let me know what you think, if you havent already. Octave (2v2) - You addressed the issues already. Anything else I said above in the 5v5 game review. This was loads of fun, thanks for the tests and I look forward to playing with you all again! Maybe I'll have a larger map! ...probably not...
the window? I thought so too. it was easy to counter in timesplitters, probably much harder in halo. but I wasn't camping there.
Thanks for feedback, Juanez! One thing - that railing you had trouble with on Inducer is intentionally high enough that you can't jump over it; you have to jump up on one of the corners or jetpack over it or whatever. The intent was to make it a trickier jump so that it's not abused (seeing as it's the quickest and most powerful means of approaching the opposite base). But I may just remove the railing if it was frustrating. By the way, I've done another pretty substantial update to that map, and I may run it twice next week. I moved the flags very slightly to a more optimal spot that encourages using different routes (on both sides), and made some structural changes in the bases so they are more segmented and less wide-open and long-range-oriented. Will have to see how it actually plays now but I think it might be an improvement. The intent all along was for each side (outside the main building) to feel like it had two or three separate, but semi-overlapping, spaces to fight; I don't think I ever pulled that off, but maybe I have now. I imagine he means spawning in front of one or more enemies. Sometimes that happens if the map doesn't have enough spawn points in different safe places; sometimes, unfortunately, it's just a quirk of the Halo spawn system and how it weights different spots. It seems to prefer spawning you near a teammate and away from your teammate's dead bodies pretty heavily.
Come to think of it, i found that railing rather bothersome as well. Also, I am making a few changes to my 2v2 maps and ran some more tests this morning. They are coming along well, although they will most likely return for next time.
well i guess i should have tested my older map, instead of the one i finished literally 10 minutes before 7pm. After creating it, I realized the fact you couldn't jump underground was a bad thing but i didnt have time to raise everything and i wanted to test it anyways. Also the fact that the tunnels weren't connected bothered me more then i anticipated. And that every thing lead you to the base side of the arena I did a few things last night. 1.Raised the bottom layer so you could jump on some of the level 2.Connected the tunnels so it is easier to manuver underground 3.Removed the towers leading up to the large walkway 4.Removed the area were the binary slayer was 5. Moved some spawns in the base 6. Moved the flag location 7. Put a soft kill spawn on top of the large brace 8. Removed mantis for normal warthog The holes were there so you could escape vehicles and, you can jump out of them. I am not sure how i could make the bases bigger and keep the design. I actually like the small bases as they are hard to defend. This clearly needs to be played at least 6 vs 6. and the 4 vs 4 didnt work well at all. This was its beta forum and its saying something that i didn't really even like the test. I might finish this over time but i wasn't happy with it and i thought it would have gone a little better. I will give you feed back when i get a chance. probably tonight
you should get rid of the guass watrgogs as well. Those are just naturally overpowered, especially with so few line of sight blockers.
Camber – I’m not sure if I’m happy about losing the weapon icons for the initial weapons in order to use placed versions with lower ammo counts. However, I didn’t notice anyone totally dominating with the snipers this time. I don’t know if that was because of the lower ammo count or because none of us was a sniper pro. How did people feel about the addition of the ghost. I know it was fun for some, but did it feel right for the map? As for being spawn killed, I don’t think I can do much more to stop it. I’m pretty positive it isn’t happening much, especially compared to previous builds of the map. Currently all respawn points are protected from sight lines to the middle and opposite sides of the map. There aren’t any spawn points that aren’t situated next to and behind cover. What happens after you move away from that cover isn’t something I can control (or at least not something I think the map architecture needs to deal with). If I were to account for all those variables, I’d be adding more architecture to the map than I’d like. I understand that the bases can be hard to approach from certain directions, but I feel that there is cover enough to approach from either the chasm side or the elevated area on the opposite side. As for approaching from the center, it is meant to be mostly done by the vehicles. This means that it’s going to take teamwork. Lone-wolfing it toward the base and expecting to get out with the flag isn’t going to work and shouldn’t. Evoke – I still enjoyed this map, though the game felt a bit more wild/fast paced than it was before. Could’ve been player count. I like the different lines of sight across the map and enjoy running around in the interesting layout. It has nice height variation. Impacted – My very first experience in the game was to spawn in looking at the enemy flag that was a mere 2 or three seconds travel time from me. Might want to review the spawn points in forge. I think the flag might be better placed in the location where the snipers were and possibly relocate the sniper. That is just a quick thought, so it may not be the thing to do. I didn’t get the layout while we were playing, but ran through it by myself afterward. The layout is actually pretty simple and makes sense. It has similar paths as my Checkered map, though you did more interesting things detail-wise. I liked the look of the map. Your use of forge objects was nicely done. Octave – This was a complex layout, perhaps overly complex, but I enjoyed exploring it while we were playing. This is another one I had to run through afterward in order to understand and appreciate the layout. During the game, it felt like it just had a simple symmetry. Now I realize it has a complex symmetry (can’t think of the name of the symmetry. Perhaps inverse rotational). I like the overall layout, but it just seems a bit too complex. The bottom area feels a bit too removed from the upper portion of the map. It was a little too intense for me at the center area. I’m a fairly slow-paced player and ended up dying there a lot, but It looked like others were doing a good job of traversing the area effectively. Overall, I enjoyed he game. I’d like to try it again now that I’m more familiar with the layout. Inducer – The game was more fun and felt more balanced than before. I liked how you dealt with the bottom center by removing the floor. I think this forced people to utilize the rest of the map more than they otherwise would have. I noticed afterward that not once did I use the lift or elevated walkways over the blue area (it is over the blue area right?). Did anyone else notice that or was I just oblivious? I still get a little confused when moving through the center and to the upper levels because the paths through and up are different on each side. What do you think of making a version (or two) where the map is symmetrical either using the red side or blue side. Subway – I really liked the architecture, particularly the several ways you created tunnels. I’m not positive the asymmetrical portions of the map made sense. There was a dead end upper room that didn’t appear to serve a purpose. While we played, I remember thinking that I wished both upper areas had a window on the open space below. If you could, It seems like it would make sense to forge some sort of train(s) in the main open area because It feels far too open right now. I think the long train tunnel at the side of the map looks really good but doesn’t really serve much of a purpose in gameplay. Over all, the map seems like a lot of good forging in need of a purposeful layout. Cartel – I liked the scale and layout of this map. The mix of the central symmetry with the asymmetrical edges was carried out well. There was a lot of room for fun combat and still enough cover to break it up. My only complaint is the dullness of the forge palette, though I liked the use of the pipes. I think the map would look better with light and shadow, but there’s not much you can do about that on Erosion. Windswept – This map was very fun to play on. I liked the look of it and it felt very easy to navigate. It was neatly forged with a conservative but effective use of forge objects. I was more impressed with the upper areas than the lower areas, particularly the central lower area that felt a bit compressed and dull. I ran through the map by myself afterward and realized that there were some areas I never noticed during the game. For instance, I never noticed the teleporter on the lower level. I could see having a lot of fun playing on this map some more. Overpass – I hate this map because it has the name I was intending to use for the map I’m currently working on. Alright, I don’t hate it. I’d work on cleaning up some of the forging. Make it easier to climb up the inside of that one tower. It wasn’t my favorite flood experience, but I don’t have a lot of experience with the gametype. I didn’t get the sense of a band of soldiers holding down a location on the map against the flood. It seems like we were all inclined to run off into all sorts of different directions without watching each other’s backs. I thought the damaged overpass looked really good. I don’t know if it would affect how the game plays, but I’d like to see the overpass lowered so you get to view it more during the game. Fast Animals – I wasn’t a big fan of the gametype while we were playing this. I like to feel like a have a bit more control of my ability to fight and defend myself. I’m sure I could get use to it, but just trying it out once was frustrating. Annex – I think the scale of this map needs to be lessened. The area that moved around the backside of the Forerunner structure isn’t at all connected the rest of the map. I didn’t even know it was there until I ran through the map by myself. The bases are interesting but need work. The thin walkways are used too much in them. Thin walkways are fine in moderation, but it becomes cumbersome when that’s all there is. Also, on the top level of the base, there’s z-fighting with those walkways. It’s just a visual interruption in the game that detracts from the experience. I like that there is a lower level to the map, but that space needs to be carefully thought out. Just having the entirety of the map open on the bottom makes the area a bit dull and doesn’t do anything to focus the gameplay. There was just too much space on this map to get lost in, with places to go but no reason to go to them. On the other hand, on the upper area, the space and much of the architecture looked interesting. I’d just ask that you reign in the scale and provide a purpose for all the spaces that you choose to incorporate. Arcusphere – There were definitely too many players on this map. It was originally designed for 2v2. I’ll throw some soft kill barriers on the top of those struts. I don’t know how someone was able to get on top of the large dome. I have a 200% gravity zone place completely over it. When I did my tests on it, I wasn’t able to get past that zone. Regardless, there is no way to play from up there effectively. You can’t jump and there’s a soft kill barrier. As for the lower area not being useful, the testers guild said exactly the opposite. They said they found that the only time the upper area under the dome was used was to grab the rockets. Since I’ve had two opposite opinions on the subject, I’ll just take it to mean that I hit a nice, happy, perfect middle ground ☺. I’d like to test this one out again, but only when the party dies down to four. I was rushed on Tuesday, because I had to leave a bit early. Scenario Opal – Despite my dislike of the Erosion palette, I was pleasantly surprised by the looks of this map. It didn’t feel too dark and fit into the surrounding context very well. I liked the few death pits here and there. Once I got a feel for the map, I noticed I almost exclusively hung around the side toward the lake around the room where the sticky detonator was located. I don’t know if that means you need some way to draw players from gravitating toward that area or not. I believe I noticed most of the action in the game happened in that area. The map was forged very well and had some interesting and unique architecture.
the guy who dominated with the sniper the time before is my friend and he is a MLG pro, he would have dominated with any weapon.
As I wrote the feedback, I figure I should clarify. Although I would not say the bottom floor was useless by any means, it was definitely underused as opposed to the upper floor given a team could dominate that center dome fairly easy. Introducing some kind of disadvantage there would benefit gameplay more IMO.
Just a notice that those who have played my maps may find interesting. Either that or I'm advertizing myself. Both most likely. Opal and Jade are both within their own preview threads. See the signature or the forge discussion, comment if you feel like it!
Testing lobby for Tuesday Jan. 22nd, 7 PM EST Got a custom map? (Or just want to play some fun customs on others' maps?) We will help you test it - twice! We start on Tuesday at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time, and usually wrap up at or before 10:00. Rules - please read if new to our group. Spoiler Ground rules: You get two slots, and we go in order of who signs up first or if you request certain slot numbers (excepting cases where certain people don't show up). If you want to go earlier, sign up earlier - or swap with somebody else and let me know so I can update the list. Don't ask for party leader in the lobby. We will smite you. Don't ask for more than your two slots (at least until after the scheduled tests are done). Make sure that if you've never played with us before, send xAudienceofone or Nutduster a message on Xbox Live around start time to get into the lobby. New note If you're planning to bring one or more guests, please say so. We don't mind guests (in fact, often we need them to fill up the lobby) but sometimes guests will crowd out people who signed up. So if you can let us know in advance, we can make the necessary allowances. Recap There's always a recap thread the next day. The critique is not mandatory but is highly encouraged - after all, why play each others' maps if we're not going to give feedback? And now, Attendees: 1/2. GetRdy2Fall 3/4. unrivaled20 5/6. LEE C G 7/8. xAudienceofone 9/10. Nutduster 11/12. Juanez Sanchez 13/14. CyborgAnthro 15/16. UNSC Fenix Hulk Reserves: 1. X2Sora 2. SpinCycle014 3. WPX ColdAdam010 4. EIGHTmm 5. Barf
Sign me up too. I will be there and with a better map this time, but probably two different ones this time. one is kinda small though.