Radiant - Per uszh, this played great. I wasn't sure about what changes were made since last time. Those small bunker things on top mid are a little strange to me for some reason; they seem like they'd be overpowered in certain gametypes but I'm not sure yet. I'd say that overall the top mid was a little too heavily fortified and so it attracted most of the game play. For certain game types this won't matter, but I'd consider making it a little more vulnerable or just making outer areas more appealing/defensible. I had tried your open round one flag game type on a map of mine before and I got such a negative reaction. "This simply is not done," they might say. But despite some haters out there, I thought it was really fun and well-executed. Interchange - The gauss hog was surprisingly not OP with all the cover for infantry. (I have an anti-vehicle loadout which I always forget about for some reason and which would have been great on this map; I really need to diversify my loadout decisions). Anyway, the tunnels and pathways looked snazzier than before and I can't say I had any major issues with the map. On occasion I felt like the doorways to the side/lower passages were hard to spot or were too small-scale, you really have to know the map well to spot them. This provides more sneaking and cover from vehicles so I guess it's a tradeoff, but I felt like they should be expanded a little if possible. Also, the little rooms on the side made out of the room triples were sort of dead ends, good for safe spawning but didn't promote as much movement. Is there a way you could make those more accesible and connected to the outside? Btw this map reminds me a little of Meltdown, but plays even better. Salvage - This was really creative and the layout was really impressive, as I'd expect from you. The bridge of the ship was really impressive aesthetically, and made me conclude that the frame rate issue on forged maps has to be better in halo 4 than it was in reach. I have to agree about the bottom area: it's interesting that it's there and definitely mixes up your options, but it was never very useful to me. Now if you put something like a rocket launcher or incinerator cannon down there, that's another story. Or if you want to cut back on the binary rifles, perhaps you could just put one down there and scrap the other(s). The drop shaft was a cool idea but I didn't really know what/where it was at first and definitely wouldn't have wanted to try it I hadn't had you around to explain it first. The flag locations were ok, but they didn't make much use of the map except the most direct route through the ship. Painted - Played well even though 4v4 was a little cramped. I wouldn't give up on it, just experiment with it a bit. The indoor area on each side of the middle line of the map was a little awkward since you had to walk around to the middle to get in there. Although that made it a choke point for attackers it was not as flowy as it could have been. I think a windy elevated route (perhaps requiring some jumps/risks) through the middle might help as well. The map seemed like a series of walls that, once you got on top of them, you didn't have anywhere to go forward except by dropping down and climbing to the next wall. I hope that makes sense. As for Juanez's game type on the map, this was hilarious. It reminded me of the tiny mushroom mode on smash bros. The Clash test - this was really cool idea and I'm surprised the game type worked so well, other than the carbine issue. I definitely spawned right in front of the carbine at least once. I only got to do a few of the tests over and over, so if there is anyway to make the area distribution more even that would be great. There were a few instances where I didn't know where to go or what to do after winning my duel. In the sniper tower for instance, could you jump down afterwards or during the sniper battle or would you get killed? (If so you could add railings, etc.) And would you die in the banshee if you chose to fly out of bounds? Finally, because one of my duels ended a lot earlier than someone else's, I was able to fly over and destroy the enemy banshee before that enemy even got teleported to that area. I know it was cheap (hehe) but if there's anything you can do to prevent that it would be more fair. Chimera - The combat seemed a little more spread out than before, which is good. I saw a little lag from top green/grass area. I also think the new rocket location is a bad idea since it is kind of elevated and secluded. I would put the rocket in a much more risky area like the open middle section of the map. I still fell like I am learning new things about the map (where the man cannons are/go, etc.) but the map is coming along. I still think you should nerf the two towers or make the middle area more covered. Wetwork - This went better than expected, and the action seemed reasonably (but not ideally) spread out. What did people think of the power weapons and their locations? Was any one area too defensible? The Estate - Same question: how were the power weapons, and were the elevated areas counterbalanced well enough? Also, I am trying to set this up for one flag and was looking for suggestions about flag and cap locations. Pent (was this the name?) - There were some great ideas and object uses in the map, but it was a little cluttered, campy and overdone in some areas. If you could expand the routes and simplify the map at the same time I think that would help it overall. Oddball really brought out the campy cubbies (e.g. the gazebo-like room in the middle) but was still fun. The outside sword area was interesting but felt very separated from the map. Also the weapons were a little hard to spot where they were. Now I am used to ordinance markers but I think the rockets and sword need to be much easier to spot.
Thanks for the feedback! Regarding that bottom area, the intent for that really is like the outer space area on Zealot - a way to escape heavy action on top and traverse the map in relative safety. Basically it's a big connector - you can drop down in four places, teleport down in two, and then teleport up in two places or take the lift to the ship. I don't really expect people to spend a lot of time down there. It also may prove to be a good route for flag runners - more on that in a sec. I may experiment with a big ordnance down there as you suggest, though. I have a splaser right now but it's mainly to offset the ghost and otherwise isn't that useful; rockets might be a good idea. The drop shafts could be problematic but I have no clue what else to do with them. I wanted to use tin cup flags to make it more obvious; the problem is, there's nowhere to hide the base of the dumb things. Plus that's a lot of budget ($400) to add. I tried using 2x1 banks as arrows instead but ultimately it's something people will either have to have explained to them, or just figure out... not sure if that's a horrible flaw but I'm definitely aware of it. The flag locations is something I hope will work out better as the map is played repeatedly. It's what the map was designed around and I actually timed out the routes on foot after I finished building it: the path through the ship takes the same amount of time, within 1-2 seconds, as going around the entire ring using the mancannons, as well as dropping down to the bottom and taking either the lift or a teleporter back up. The ultimate goal is to give people many ways to run the flag, like on Avalanche (from Halo 3), where one path seems the most direct and quick, but the others are both less dangerous and nearly as fast thanks to the shortcuts (lifts/teleporters). If people start holding down the ship like I expect them to, then those other routes will become a lot more appealing... In my opinion both were good. I didn't feel like the weapons you chose were overwhelming for the map, and the most powerful one had to be rushed for in a dangerous spot. The fuel rod guns dropped in via ordnance were annoying (I feel those things are grossly overpowered outside of BTB) but that's hardly your fault. No part of the layout seemed campy or OP to me, so it wasn't surprising that action moved around a lot. One flag could be just the calling card this map needs, actually. I can't think off the top of my head where to put the flag though. A good capture spot might be the room with the one-way lift going into it. If you hit me up when I'm online I'd be happy to run around it with you and make a suggestion. I really need to consider all the available paths, and it's hard to remember in my head where they all are...
Juanez, if I go anywhere with the map I'm completely rebuilding it. I don't really want to do that any time soon, so Painted is getting put on the side for now.
Hmm, well maybe my problem then was that the middle route looked the fastest and also had the most cover, but I think the outer paths were probably more viable based on what you said. I thought this map had some potential in terms of the structures I used but I'm sorry you didn't find it that memorable (your standards for me are too high! lol). If this doesn't play really well for one flag I think I might rebuild it using similar ideas but with a different layout (rotationally symmetrical perhaps?). It's funny what you said about that room with the lift, because I thought that would be a good place for the flag, not the capture point (or the room beneath/leading to the lift). Maybe I'll try both, but I forge new maps more than I have the patience the test them!
That should prove out if people ultimately play the map like I think they will. If you ever played Avalanche (were you a Halo 3 guy?), it had that keyhole in the middle; that was clearly the fastest route from side to side, but teams would hold it like grim death, either sitting right in the middle or hanging out just on their side where the sniper spawned. I'm guessing that the ship will end up serving a very similar function on Salvage; it's them most important portal between the two halves of the map and it has a couple ordnance drops in it, so it will tend to either be held by one team, or at least be an area with heavy conflict. That will encourage runners to find just about any other path, if they're running solo. That will especially be true with larger teams, which I think this map may be able to support. That was my first thought too; the only problem is that I think that room is the most naturally campy spot on the map right now, since it has design similarities to the two lift rooms on Sword Base (one-way lift in the back, other entrances to the front or sides). As long as you get a few people in there and control the front entrances, the lift itself is easy to dominate. That makes me think it would perhaps be a bad spot for a flag; it might be too hard to infiltrate. Personally I prefer slightly more vulnerable locations for the flag; even if they're in the middle of a base area, it should be the most attackable spot in the base, IMO. That said... your map isn't huge and doesn't have a lot of areas I'd feel comfortable defending for a long time, so I'm guessing once a flag run gets started, it will be hard to stop. So maybe it's better to go with an all-or-nothing approach where the flag is hard to get to, but once it moves out of that room it's almost as good as captured? Just thinking out loud here, sorry! By the way, my standards for you are only high because you made them that way. Blame yourself and your beautiful, well-designed maps.
I was actually pretty disappointed with the test and the other game i played on it after the lobby. for some reason the ordinance didn't show up when its in between the two core pieces. the vehicles with added power and no shield recharge didn't kill as fast as i thought. the banshee blocked the ramp spawning, tombo broke my sniper section and escaped. Some people experienced intial spawning in the same spot 80% of the time. Most of these issues are fixed now but I was hoping these wouldn't happen but then again its hard to predict how things are going to happen and my perdictions were not correct. Frankly i am happy you didn't use the other side especially since you missed the sniper and basically walked over it without picking it up. It was bad enough dealing with your covenant sniping prowess. Also switching the fuel rod and rocket was a bad idea especially since the natural area is much less covered. I am happy with this and will probably put hills for testing(but not next week I got something up my sleeves, much like i always do). The sides are so different i don't know if i should attempt ctf on this though. I loved this map simply for the fact that i killed nutduster more times then he killed me. Any map that confuzzes and frazzles nutduster is fine by me. I actually liked this map a lot because i guess i just like close quartered combat but it had a few glaring problems that need to be addressed which i will mention in my review probably tonight after my soccer game.
Feedback. Lets get rrrrrrrrrready to rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrramble RADIANT Mine. Very mixed feelings about this one. You were all so kind after that first test 2 weeks ago, and I was super pumped about those reactions. However you can't just test slayer and I always kinda build my maps with at least CTF in mind. Yeah we had the dicussion about my 1-flag idea, and it sorta worked but degenerated quickly into a killing field at bottom-mid. The logical approach to capping a flag seemed inescapably to grab it and jump down the middle and just drag it forwards death by death. The sides didn't get used and why would they? Maybe i'll add them mancannons to top gold like Audience suggested.I am going to move the attackers capture plate to the back of the map near the coli window and basically rebuild that whole part, which kinda looks and plays like an afterthought. The game of extraction started off awesome, the point at the back seemed to be just right, the one we played at the side seemed good too, but the one in the top mid corridor was a bust. The battle went on FOREVER and about 50 deaths occurred before it could get capped, and even then we kinda let that one go. I might remove that one or reduce the extraction time to 30 seconds for the gametype so it's not such a motherfucker to cap. The point on the blue's flag spot was also way too hard to cap. Dunno. INTERCHANGE I simply love this map. Its big, cleverly layed out and just chock-full of routes and weapons. I dunno how you done it but you did. For me, keep the gauss hog. Its a massive threat but there is plenty enough cover to keep out of it's way unless you have the balls to deal with it. Nothing negative to say, this is a future FHF. SALVAGE I am not sure about this map. The layout was very clever and really unique but for me it lacked the solidarity of your other maps. After two games, and this may just be me, I couldn't really grasp the layout. The ship aesthetic was very very pretty, and your cannons worked flawlessly. The bottom seemed a little disconnected but it was funny when you jetpacked down to get me. However I love the Binary rifle and it was awesome to get one every couple of minutes. Add more. I would prefer to see this ship idea more in a hangar-type environment, as the ship was sweet as I said, but the surrounds didn't gel with any theme. PAINTED As I said, i think this plays great. It's fast and furious but that's what I like in a map. I didn't see anyone get spawn-killed or trapped excessively in their side. I would play this again but alas Audience has shelved it. THE CLASH Thanks a million for causing Nutduster to break into a rendition of London Calling. Very good fun this was, but the thing needs tweaking. A stage based, rules-oriented arena-battle tourney. Obviously some folks got through when they shouldn't have, and some lumps of scenery didn't spawn right, but if you can iron out those things it will be a great mini-game(?). It's not really a mini-game, don't take that the wrong way. I enjoyed most of all the BR-battle room. So classic and so basic and honest. I really wanted to have a go at the sword showdown bit!!!!!! CHIMERA I couldn't really tell that much difference from last week to be honest. I seemed to get shot from a lot of places that I couldn't see coming. It's probably just me and not my type of map really, some folk like maps like lockout and some like maps like the pit. I'm a pit guy myself, I don't really take falling to my death that well and I did a few times on here. I'm clumsy, what can I say???????? WETWORK Good name, good map. I thought it was an absolute ***** to get the other team outta that top corridor, it's a real power position. But we were awfully un-coordinated as a team and couldn't drive a wedge inbetween the other guys and that spot. I love the base canvas, I just can't seem to make anything good on erosion but you sure have here. I did think the bottom level got ignored or there just wasn't much happenin down there, apart from to perform flanking moves. ESTATE Did I ever say you use inclines better than anyone else? Cos you do. The power position was the room in the centre- Nuts managed to hold that down almost single-handedly. You always need power positions though, and this had different options for attack. Sadly the other team was kinda going full pelt and we got wrecked a lot but I would sure like to play this again so I can form some more decent feedback. Sadly I missed PENT, which was a shame, but I was almost falling asleep cos it was 230am and I had to get up for work in 4.5 hours lololololololololololololol Thanks everyone, GG as they used to say
how did i break it? im not sure what i did!?! [br][/br]Edited by merge: my favourite part of your map was a lie!!! i am a little dissapointed, i enjoy bottlenecks - i know most dont oh GG.....that takes me back! as for missing Pent, you would have if you had stayed. i wasnt planning on testing Pent at all. but when we dropped down to 3v3 i thought it better to test a map designed for 2v2 primarily (that might work for 3v3...) than possibly have people lost on my 4v4 maps. both the maps i wanted to test had ordnance drops to find weapons easier etc. but i'll save them for next week if you'll have me back
Any time, my man. Hope you can make it. Next sign-up thread will be up on Friday. @ Juanez - this rudimentary map sketch I made (before building it, even) shows how Salvage is laid out, more or less. It's a floating ring (broken to make more of a U-shape) that wraps around the ship in the middle. The red area is the lower level, with those arrows showing the drop shafts - I didn't put the teleporters on here because I didn't decide to add them until I actually made the map. The overall layout is actually surprisingly basic, but from on the map I imagine it's a little harder to grasp. The only significant change I made from this sketch, besides the teleporters, was to convert the bridges at the bottom to another pair of mancannons like on the sides.
Been doing a lot of work on Salvage. So far: - Binary rifles spawn at 3 minutes, not 2. - Splaser on bottom level replaced with rockets. - Sticky det in the ship removed, and SAW moved to the lower level where the sticky det was before. No ordnance in the main level of the ship now. - The big lift has been adjusted to be, god willing, as consistent as possible. I can't break it but you guys probably still will. Damn Halo mancannons... Well anyway, I hope it will almost never malfunction now. - The drop shafts are now lit up with domain shields in a striking cyan color, with the big arrow (2x1 bank) in the middle. I can't really make it much more visually obvious, so hopefully players will figure it out - or at least be drawn to the pretty lights like moths. - The ship's engines were elevated as far as possible to make jetpacking between the two bases harder. Not impossible, but it's now enough work that it takes about as long as going through the ship. So I'm comfortable with that.
Radiant by Juanez Sanchez – Both gametypes were enjoyable on the map, even despite the few problems. For CTF, it was obvious that there needs to be an added incentive to venture off to the sides while running the flag. It was still fun down on the bottom fighting over the flag though, It just would’ve been nice to move those fights around the map. For Extraction, the last two locations were too hard to capture and steal, though all the carnage was fun while trying to do so. For the top location, if it is to remain, there needs to be some spot up there where a person isn’t seen form four direction at once. Perhaps a one-way shield protecting the location from the two sides would help. Then people could still cannon in but not shoot at the location as easily. The shields or other cover could be set to spawn only in Extraction games. Perhaps some extraction-only cover might help the last, lower extraction location as well. Interchange by Lee C G – The games were really fun. I think it should really be teams of 5, 6 or seven on CTF. I’ll up the respawn on the Hogs. I believe they might be set to 90 seconds right now. I’ll up it to 180. Should I spawn a plasma pistol on each side? I could add it to the Random ordnance drops or create a new drop on each side of the map. Or should I just force people to use their anti-vehicle loadouts. Did the Mongeese get used? Should I keep them or replace them with ghosts or have both? As for the small entries, I’m only bothered by the lower three entries off of the main lower raod into the bottom of the main buildings, but I’m not bothered enough to fix them. I think once people understand the layout, they work alright. Widening them would alter the look of the façade of those buildings and I don’t have the available pieces to do it nicely. On the green and gold bases (the triple rooms), they have exits/entries at both ends. I do feel I’d prefer the spaces were a bit more open/larger, but budget and functionality-wise, I’m pretty happy with them. Salvage – by NUtduster – This was a very interesting map. It had such long sight lines, but no lack of cover. The architecture was very cool. Most of the map was very sleek/sci-fi feeling. It was pretty massive seeming. I didn’t do much on the lower level and saw no incentive to use it. I think it feels a bit too removed from the upper area. I may not have been observant during the games, but I’d see if there is a way to better integrate the upper and lower levels and get people more interested in using the lower level. I also felt the bridge/ramp paths up into center room were a bit awkward looking/feeling relative to the other parts of the map. I want them more sleek and sci-fi like the rest of the aesthetics. Regardless of the issues, I enjoyed immensely both games we played. Painted by Audience – I still really enjoy this map. It just is not right for more than 3v3, I think. It seems like a good enough start to refine it for a great 2v2 map. You’ve got quite a bit of time to finish it for the 2v2 map contest and still make a few other maps as well. The Clash by Unrivaled – Though I lost most of my initial battles, I had a good time playing the game. I didn’t even mind sitting and observing the remainder of the battles. This is a great game concept, and I can see it being refined by you into razor-sharp perfection. Chimera by Unrivaled – I can’t even tell you what alterations you made to the map, but the game was really fun. It seemed like everyone was utilizing all the areas of the map. While there were still a lot of battles at the central halls, we weren’t all there at the same time clogging them up with death. Whatever you did to get people flowing better through the map, I’d recommend doing a little more of it. Wetwork by Cyborg – I’m with Nutduster. This was a map that felt like a real place, and I didn’t even mind the Erosion palette. The pace of the action seemed right and most of the areas of the map were constantly in use. I don’t have any advice for improvement but would like to try some more gametypes on this map. The Estate by Cyborg – Again, Nutduster says what I would’ve said. The action was fun and the map felt balanced, but while I was playing, I felt like none of the areas excited me. The forging was fine as were the routes throughout the map and the various spaces, but I thinks something is missing either aesthetically or structurally. It could just be that I had one of the worst games in all of Halo history that soured me, so don’t listen to me. I might have an irrational bias. Pent by Tombo – I liked many of the visuals in the map and the interesting uses of forge objects, but I think you added so many different cool, little things that the overall map suffers because of it. I think my favorite space on the map was the open area, though I saw some great aesthetics on the interior portion as well. I’d suggest cleaning up the overall concept by strengthening the main routes through and around the map and removing some of the minor ones. Also, for the size of the map, you should have about half of the number of distinct rooms on the interior portion as you do now. Make the ones that you keep a little larger both in floor area and in height. I think you had enough cool forge object uses on this map for two whole maps. They just don’t all go together on a single map very well. The map is very well done for a first time and not beyond redemption with some thoughtful revisions.
Radiant by Juanez Sanchez – I found this map extremely enjoyable, although some extraction locations were extremely hazardous. I would suggest having all or a few of those spawn at once. Other than that the map played very well, and I enjoyed these games greatly. Interchange by Lee C G – Basically everything I didnt like so much the last time was improved upon. The guass hogs worked really well, the map played to both their strengths and weaknesses, and I constantly felt like I was in extreme danger in them. I would maybe add one or two extra anti-hog weapons and increase their respawn time though. Salvage – by Nutduster – Its tough to say much about this map. The test was a 4v4 on a 6v6, possibly even 8v8, BTB map. The binary rifles were a bit too much, and the bottom was hardly used in my PoV. But that last point was all because of the team sizes I think. Painted by Audience – Yeah, this one's going away. Thanks for the kind words, but it's rubbish and needs to decompose in a hole of remorse. The Clash by Unrivaled – This gametype was great, just fix a few of the issues mentioned by the others and its golden. Some additional aesthetics could be addded I think as well, if you so choose to pretty it up. Chimera by Unrivaled – While I'm not entirely sure what changed (I did see a few things, but nothing comes to mind), this was the best test on Chimera ever. I still am against the extremely linear lower levels, and some areas (ie, natural end tele exit) seem very overpowered. Wetwork by Cyborg – This is my faverite design of your Halo 4 career his far. I didnt have any issues at all, I loved the game and it blended hectic fights with long distance battles. Nothing bad to say at all, but keep testing. The Estate by Cyborg – This is, in contrast to Wetwork, my least faverite map of your Halo 4 career. It wasnt particularly bad, but it just wasnt particularly fun either. I cant really seem to point to anything specific here, but I suspect it may have to do with a lack of cover in some areas and a general lack of interest in many halls and rooms They were empty and there was nothing unique about many areas of this map. That was my last map, I unfortunately had to depart the lobby. These were quite fun and I look forward to next time alreday! Maybe I'll do some marathon forging on a new map for us to play. With Painted gone, I still need a map for these larger lobbies.
just a couple of little notes as i am going over these maps again inforge... wetwork the lifts work well and the drop downs too. but i dont see much traffic downstairs. but any map has that problem as people are not quick to give people the height advantage. i particularly liked your use of glass covers to use as railings, very nice. i dont know how you would incorporate it, but another decent position would be nice to improve flow away from that main corridor. which has nice sight lines. but thats not telling you to, only musing outloud - as it were. for all i know it could ruin the map! salvage i am much happier with my knowledge of this map now so i am liking it. a little bit more incentive to go down the bottom would be nice...but how do you make it easy and safe...i am not sure. the lifts worked fine for me, and the drop downs too. now i know i'll be safe im happy to use 'em! i particularly like the cockpit area and your use of railings for trim. now i know my way around i think id be a lot more comfortable on this map. interchange i grow more fond of this map the more i see it. nice layout. it fits well, and looks good. theres alternative routes. and its well forged. my only suggestion for you is to create a way to jump from bottom to top in the 2 red and blue buildings. as a hider (at times!) i would like to navigate the map safely, and this would offer a few more options and the ability to flank snipers etc from the bridge. you might have done this intentionally, so to promote more movement. so im am unsure if this would be any better. it might promote a bit of camping as you could safely defend your half of the map without risk of much fire.... the clash i like the idea. and the battles are good. aside from the tweaking its gold. i might have a couple of ideas for a couple of the heads up. how is it best to attempt them? add them to your map and pm or make them on a new map and you can rebuild/change as you desire? (assuming they are good enough to use) chimera with a second look, i like what you are trying to do. i didnt find the cave to teleport before! and i like the man cannons to blue. some of your lines and shortcuts are good, but the piece usage is a little random. yellow base is still my favourite. and the bases fronts look grand as well. i dont know how invested in the map you are, but i think nutduster reccomended a remaking from scratch, and i think that might be a good idea. a couple of times i have started a map on one map and remade it again on another and starting the process again gives you a new perspective and new ideas. also, having a reference of knowing what you want where, makes things a bit quicker. i would like to see where you go from here painted i still like it, but i think its missing that je ne sais quoi... estate the map flows so well, and there are some nice sight lines. i think i dont remember myself ever taking notice of my surroundings as i was always moving. i thought the map was on impact! (it was getting late for me!) i'll put this down to my first time, but i didnt, and dont think there is an area i could hold and breathe. this could be a good thing, but without testing further i am stuck with my first impressions and how i felt looking around forge for a couple of minutes. it is well forged though. and what is the point of the tin cup on the lift up? i think thats all of you
I like to go back and look at what we played in forge but i am not finding time to do that. grrrr, life gets busy sometimes. So i'll to this from memory which is less in depth but oh well Radiant by Juanez Sanchez - This map looked the same to me and i didnt notice much difference at all. The extraction game seemed hopeless at times. Is there a way to reduce the time to extract if not then you need to move your extraction points especially the center one since its very easy to get to and if i am killed i will probably kill the person who killed me tring to extract. The capture the flag game was actually pretty fun. This was the first time i played 1 flag and it worked pretty well. Interchange by Lee C G - For those who thought the gauss wasn't overpowered. Look at everyones kill total who got in it. Nutduster went on a killing freenzy twice.My team and myself aren't the best drivers and we still got killing sprees in it. Honestly, i would rather fight a mantis then a gauss on this map. Other then that i love the map and think it is the best ctf map i have seen. Maybe test a rocket hog or mantis next time Salvage - I didn't like this map because the bottom seemed so separated from the top. The flag was brought down to the bottom layer twice and was unable to be capped so brining it to the bottom layer was pointless in my opinion. It fact the only reason i see to go to the bottom layer was to get the ghost, And one time i got the ghost i got stuck in a crack. The binary rifles spawn to quick. I jetpacked from one flag to another which i think you should never be able to do. I think if you do keep the bottom put a trait zone with no armor abilitys because people with jetpack can jump down and every other aa can't. I did like the top level though and if it was me i would scrap the bottom level Painted by Audience - I think we had two many people on this map and it would have played better with less people Wetwork by Cyborg - I liked this map. But i don't have many suggestions. I will try and take a second look to see if i can spot anything but The Estate by Cyborg - I actually don't even remember this map. Which probably means the replayability isn't very high. I will go back and take a second look and replay later on Pent by Tombo - There was one area that was cramped and you would die if you jumped out the window. also some of the window were hard to get to. I will try to give you and cyborg a better review later on
Think of it like the space area on Zealot (from Reach). It's not meant to be a place you spend a lot of time or a place where a lot of firefights happen; it's just an alternate way to get out of danger and move across the map, which is mostly separate from the main level. It's just that in this case it's below the map rather than above it. I was actually fine with how it worked out in these two tests - people went down there pretty frequently, but mostly just to use the lift or teleporters. It should also be good for flag running as long as there's not constantly a binary rifle looking down from above, which should be fixed by me increasing the spawn time on them. That you can jetpack down there is actually another unintentional parallel to Zealot's space area. I'm fine with that, I don't think it creates a big advantage since the lower area is less traveled and less strategically important to control. As for jetpacking from base to base, I've made that significantly harder, though good players (or patient ones) can still pull it off. I'll see how that goes in further testing. The only way I could really fix it is to either remove the ship's engines (which removes a big and rather important line-of-sight blocker), or put a hard kill on top of them, which I really hate to do. But I'm still considering it anyway.
Thanks everyone for the great feedback. In response I moved the blue capture plate further back, added lifts to either side of top gold to give attackers alternative routes. I also removed the extraction point it was awfully hard to cap. So i really wanna run it again either in or out of Audiences lobby
Idea sounds like a good one. Just make sure if you're going to run something like that, that you think it all through in advance and commit to it fully. A lot of community contests have been announced, started, but then fallen through, and it made people pretty jaded about unofficial (i.e. non-Forge Hub-run) contests.
News: - Lobby sign-up thread will be up tomorrow morning as usual. Last week's was a ton of fun, looking forward to the next one! - Preview madness! TCOJ regulars are previewing maps they are testing with us like mad lately. I have put up threads for Bleached, Salvage and Vandelay. CyborgAnthro has previewed Windswept, Wetwork and Promenade. Fenix Hulk has Longest Yard, LEE C G has Camber (is that released now?),xAudienceofone has Opal and Jade... hit up some of these threads if you have thoughts the general public needs to hear. And if you put up a preview or release a map yourself, let us know right here in this thread.
Oh, now that's interesting. Just keep in mind what you'll be getting in to. You'll have to explain the gametype and sort through potentially dozens of entries with a specific judging criteria. Really consider how it will all work out. If I were you, I might also ask about tournaments to those who have done their own successfully. Nutduster and Gorilla did one back in the Reach days (I'd add Overdoziz to the list, but he's not here so much), and I'm sure that the staff wouldn't mind giving you some advice.
Good stuff. Remember to add the extraction pieces as well, i remember some capture points were invisible. I hope to see you in the FFC lobby tomorrow, but with all of the signups it's going to be tough to get you in. Sign up sooner! I honestly have no idea how that's all going to work out with player count either. We may do 2 2v2 lobbies, or a 2v2 and 3v3, or two 3v3's. It all depends on how many people are on at 7est.