Archive of Test Night Recaps

Well i would still post a map. Because at least 343 would look at your map. And maybe figure out that its good for 2 v 2. Paints map sycthe was suppose to be a 2 v 2. But they threw it into 4 v4 anyways.

I would post opal seeing that nobody else could forge a good looking map on erosion. Unless you go crazy and build a 4 v 4 map

 

ok, we'll go very simple next week

i cant help myself with regards to complexity. i think in attempting to keep dmr line of sight down i maybe over do it a little, but i am trying to find that fine line between mapping what i like to see with what is more generally accepted.

i am not sure which pipes you are referring to, any chance of a screenshot so i can check it?

im 99% sure i am done with this map, but i might try and reuse aspects of it so it would be good to know so i do not replicate said error

i only had a problem with the lifts once whilst building them, i did see hulk walking round in them...so i assumed people were having problems.

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Sanera[/SIZE][/SIZE] [/SIZE][/B][/COLOR][/I]by Tombo V1 - This was another map I found puzzling to navigate. It seemed like it might have been three levels deep, with lots of ways to get around and everything connected in various places. I think my whole team was a little lost - if it hadn't been for flag locations I don't think we would have quite known where to go. Again, some kind of big opening between the levels might help clear up confusion, and maybe just make the design a bit less complex. You have a lot of 1-unit wide walkways and bridges on this map - I'd suggest making them 2 units wide, for the same reason I suggested to Unrivaled on his Moonbase map. Generally, Halo players are more comfortable on a wider walkway where they can maneuver and strafe; if you have a narrower one, there should be a good reason for it, i.e. it's in a high and dangerous place that gives some strategic advantage or accesses a power weapon, and you want the player to be risking something by going there. CTF played reasonably well in that it wasn't too hard to run the flags and the bases weren't too campy.

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i am quite happy with sanera. though dont think it is perfect.

i would say its more 2 and a half ways deep.

people generally enjoy elevated positions, so i have an exposed point. that cannot see too much of the map. its also not easy to get to with no weapons to resupply. i was worried that because the bases might be too easily defensible, so i put the top corridors with drop downs into the base to create another way to get your hands on the flag. to try and promote more flag caps. (or at least thats my thinking behind it!)

the first flag cap i saw used this to get the flag back into base, which was a way i hadnt considered it would be used as its more leg work

as it is well covered i used 5x1 blocks as the walkway. so you are easily seen taking this route, offering the sniper(/whoever) a chance at a shot or the teammate to tell the others where the opposition are. if i doublewide that, you can go from base to base potentially completely unseen.

i have a couple of other 5x1 which i can accept are probably too slim. i could widen them.

is a bridge too thin as well?

i made the map with ctf primarily in mind.


i'm not sure how i would open up the layout, i know i have spent hours on it so have a good knowledge of the layout and no longer consider it complex compared to a new player, but by opening up the middle structure/wall you'll be able to see across most the map, and that is not something i want as it would pin down movement.

i think i am still a one shot: kill mentality player. im not sure how to take this out of my map making.

 

Thanks ND, this means a lot coming from you. I can't think of a bad map you've made since back in Halo 2 (?... exactly.) I will either move the snipers closer to each team's initial spawn or just give the map one neutral sniper (and probably put it at the bottom mid where the saw was). I will tinker with the middle room to make it less campy. I'm not sure what you meant by angled walls, but my thought was to make it more open so that players don't want to gravitate there so much. Upon building it I actually thought the pit-style towers would see more action/camping, but they hardly did at all. More tinkering is needed indeed.

From outside the map it looks really tall, but since the bottom floor is currently underused the top area gives it a more flattened look. The drop from the top of the middle lift through the hole to the bottom sniper spawn actually spans the entire height of the map. For some reason people don't use the holes that much even when the sniper is down there (I blame the homogenous palette). Last week that one hall received a lot of traffic, but this time it seemed more spread out, either because of my tweaks or because it was a FFA and it takes a team to hold down an area. Let's hope it was the former reason. I hadn't thought about this for the Dust Up, because I assumed it was too big. Maybe I'll try out a 2v2 sometime and we'll see.

 

Just got done watch'n that film, it did end up being a pretty good game. I'm glad it didn't get too one sided, I got some good intel from the Playtest, lots of things to work on...

If you get a chance could you post those gameplay vids to my preview thread (link in my sig) or just send me a message with the actual link so I can, thanks in advance man.

 

Sorry i couldn't make it to the games last night, folks. if it makes you feel any better, I got quite a bit done elsewhere though. I did hop on for a moment late in the night, but you were full so I didn't bother you.

 

If you click on youtube title at the bottom right it will take you to the youtube page for that video. Also here's a guide for embedding the video into your thread.

http://www.forgehub.com/forum/customer-service/131422-customer-service-compendium-faq.html

 

oh yes. unless i have my maps messed up, you can sprint jump out of those and i left a block at either side to make getting out easier.

i had intended to put a power weapon in there, but didnt quite get round to it.

 

Opal is a small 2v2, I cant imagine the horror of it with 8 players. I wouldn never submit that.

Nutduster is right, I am incapable of making good 4v4's. The best one was basically a large 2v2.

 

First off, I'd like to say 2 things:

Sorry for leaving early, I really wanted to test mine again last night, it was just past my bed time

And Fenix, I was helping you on archway! I was the sniper picking off everyone I could

Reviews will be here in a few min.

 

I just thought I would let you know that I won't be doing a Recap, I'm too tired and miserable from my work and I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said by the good folks above me. Thanks for the kind words for my map too!!!

Also you should all know that everything we played last night was really awesome, you all inspire me

 

Moonbase20 by Unrivaled20

Even though this map has long lines of sight, I didn’t have an issue with that. I thought the sides of the map offered some cover from the larger central battle that was ongoing in the middle of the map. I liked the “zip line” flank along the outside of the map, added an additional way to get behind the opposing team. I had difficulty getting up onto the ‘catwalks’ sometimes, maybe adding additional ramps or make them wider or just move them in away from the ends might help make them more accessible.

Assault by Unrivaled20

This map played pretty well, even though I thought it had an abundance of power weapons. The bridge seemed to attract a lot of action, I would suggest fleshing that area out a little and allowing room for more players to be involved in the combat in that area. I think adding a ghost might make the large open area more playable, maybe there was one and I just didn’t see it, but something that moves quickly and has offensive capability could allow players to get to the action quicker.

Pipe Dream by Tombo V1

Don’t have a lot to say that hasn’t already been said, somehow allow more movement between levels. Fixing the lift will help this, id play it again with it working to see how it effects gameplay. I know there prolly aint much you can do about it but the lighting on this map looked funky to me too. The red team would often appear almost black, not sure if we looked the same or not? Sorry no suggestions to fix that, I’ll let someone else with more experience guide you there.

Sanera by Tombo V1

I’d like to play this map a few more times, I find it a little hard to grasp the first play through. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, after I know where to go and how to get there I think it could be a lot of fun. The upper levels I particularly liked, it was high enough to keep the battles apart yet close enough to allow for some assist from below. After I play it a few more times I might be able to give some specifics, I enjoyed it without understanding it which says a lot.

Interchange by LEE C G

This was one of my favorites from the night, I really liked the layout. With clear direct paths and more winding side paths, it’s just functions beautifully while also remaining pleasing to the eye. The architecture fits together well and gives movement suggestion, well done. The only negative is that I did get “stuck” when jetpacking over one of our bases, it was adamantly my own fault. It was clearly a place that I wasn’t supposed to be able to be, but I jetpacked up there anyways. Like duster said, might want to put a soft kill zone up there instead of trait zone. Otherwise good map, looking forward to playing it more.

Salvage by Nutduster

This was a unique map that I wasn’t expecting, it actually made ‘good’ use out of man cannons. I was pleased to see how well they functioned in gameplay, breaking up the different combat areas worked well while also keeping it easy to move from one to the other. Also the bottom terrain level was a risk but also worked, I used it several times to flank someone that was following me and get the upper hand.

Bleached by Nutduster

Looked like a very clean forge, tight corridors in the inside with longer sightlines along the outside. I enjoyed this map very much, it played easy. I always knew where I needed to go and how to get there, obvious routes to the middle and outside make it easy find your way around. I like how it has smaller ‘stepped’ vertical combat areas more rather than a clear upper and lower level, gives good variety in combat. Can’t think of any suggestions, it’s damn good.

Freighter Map by UNSC Fenix Hulk

I enjoyed the FFA more than the 1Flag game on this map. Although I definitely thought that the beginning of the 1Flag round was a blast it was very hard (I understand most likely intentionally) to get up the tower where the flag was located after the first push if you didn’t sacrifice a banshee to land there and try and get it out at the beginning your SOL. There are maps (like zanzabar) that are setup like this intentionally and work great that way so it’s not really a negative just an observation. It would be cool, if you could add an ‘under’ the ship tunnel that would allow you to go through some kind of ‘engine room’ and get to the other side for flanking purposes. But I understand with your proximity to the water this might be impossible. FFA was a lot of fun, the boxes on the main deck supplied a lot of close quarters fights with lots of ways to get behind someone and get the first shot.

Archway by Me

This was my first playtest, the size was the first thing that hit me. I didn’t expect it to play that ‘big’. It might require I complete rebuild and scale down, more testing will tell the tale. I knew the second I placed that sniper in that location it was going to be risky. But I was hoping for a ‘lockout’ type effect where both teams battle for control of that area at the beginning of the round and on respawns. It didn’t play well, and it has been changed, as suggested I made the two fusion coils there ‘fixed’ so they can’t be pushed down. And I also just went ahead and added a soft kill zone up there, now you have 10 seconds to get the sniper and get down. After I test some more I might make some other changes, I thought about adding a ROD (random ordnance drop) for the sniper, rocket and the shotty(bottom mid). Or even blocking off the top level of the sniper tower completely and moving it down inside of Purple base, for more access and less open sight lines. Or even replacing the human sniper with the beam or particle or even laser to reduce the amount of ammo you get to start.(while keeping the ordnance drop) The other thing that stood out was that the middle area was too open, I want high risk/ high reward but this is too high of risk I think. I’m looking at adding some type of cover or structure to give players that want to take that risk a snowballs chance in Ecuador.

I’m headed home for the day, I’ll post the rest tomorrow sometime, later.

Radiant by Juanez Sanchez

Daybreak by CyborgAnthro

Wetwork by CyborgAnthro

 

Ok. I give up...just typed out all that feedback for everyone, then my page refreshed.

Most was already said though. But for archway I liked the openess for carbine/dmr/br battles. thats my type of map. And it may be biased, but I dont think the sniper tower was OP. I can explain further if needed.

 

First, sorry I had to leave early for work. I was looking forward to playing Claymore’s, Cyborg’s and Juanez’s maps. I am especially sad that I didn’t get to play as a little Spartan on Nutduster’s half-size map. From what I did play we had quite a spectrum of maps, form very early builds to nearly finished. Overall, it was a great time.


Moonbase by Unrivaled20 – I can definitively say that you don’t get a lot of time to rest on this map. It’s extremely open, and even with all the varied cover placed about, I felt like I was almost never out of view. That being said, I still really enjoyed the game. It felt like, as the game moved on, we all began coming up with strategies for dealing with holding or capturing the hills. I liked the hills located at the far ends of the main space. They seemed most suited to allowing successful defense strategies. The other hills were much harder to defend.

I thought some of the paths could’ve been a bit smoother to move along, particularly where you move onto the ramps that start really close to the walls. I thought the low gravity area was cool, but didn’t play much there to see if there are any problems with it. I was pretty happy with the game, considering it’s pretty much a huge, wide open warehouse.


Assault by Unrivaled20 – This map needs some work in several areas. The thing that struck me most was the respawn points in the middle area below the elevated mounted machine gun (see Fenix Hulk’s video @ about :45). It felt like I spawned there about half the time and almost every time I spawned there, there was at least one enemy nearby to immediately start killing me. One time there were even two enemies not more than 30 feet away from me. Some of the forging seemed unfinished. The ramp up from the long ramp to the top of the central building seems unnecessarily angled. I don’t remember seeing anyone ever use a vehicle. What’s up with that? It also seems like things are slightly off center on the map, meaning that one base is farther away from the center than the other. For the times I didn’t have a crappy spawn, I had a good time running around exploring and fighting.


Pipe Dream by Tombo V1 – You got quite a bit of map out of a relatively small budget. It’s a very confusing layout for a first run through. I went through in forge and noticed that it’s a mix between a symmetrical floor plan and some asymmetrical pathways and ramps. I thought the top floor was well-designed. The lower floors felt very flat or sandwiched. There are too many small nooks and crannies and squeezed paths on the lower levels. The pipe theme was done well as was the large lift from bottom to top.


Sanera by tombo V1 – I like the space you created with this one. There were a lot of cool-looking pieces of architecture, and the layout was a little easier to understand than your other maps. There are still a few cramped spaces, paths and openings that detract from the gameplay, but not too much. I did like the high catwalks and how they integrated into the bases. One thing I noticed when I ran through the map in forge was that I never even played on the side of the map with the holes in the floor and the hog. I don’t know if that means there’s a spawn problem or what, but you might want to see if that happens to others. There were a lot of areas and ramps that weren’t very smooth, slowing down movement, like the upside down landing pads. I agree with Fenix Hulk. You should open up more of the ceiling to let in more light. Most of the map is a bit drab without some light to break up the monotone coloring.


Interchange by LEE C G – The Extraction game was a bit boring. I don’t know if it’s just that extraction is boring or if there’s something I can do with my map to make it more fun to play. I know I played extraction games that weren’t boring and actually exciting, but this wasn’t one of them. The CTF game was one of my favorites on this map. It felt like a very close, tense match throughout. I wonder if it would’ve been as close if Fenix hadn’t run our flag all the way back to our base from his. That was too funny. I remember tricking my friend into doing that once in a LIVE game on Halo 2. He hadn’t played CTF before and I had him run my flag back to my base after his teammate had almost captured it.

What do people think about the rocket hogs replacing the Gauss hogs? I thought it went well. I always feel cheated when killed by the Gauss hog out of nowhere, but I didn’t feel cheated when killed by the rocket hogs yesterday. Also, the Rocket hog didn’t seem to be as durable. I think this might just be that the rockets take a bit longer to reload and it’s a bit harder to kill on foot players. Unless I hear otherwise, I think I’ll keep the rocket hogs. I will still miss the Guass hogs, though.

Nutduster, where did that person get stuck? I think I’ll leave it where there’s no movement in that zone and just add a soft kill zone so they aren’t stuck up there for an entire game. I don’t understand how someone can get stuck up there, I made the ceiling low enough that they shouldn’t be able to get their feet onto any of the rooftops.

As for the faulty initial spawns, I’ve noticed a problem with it for the past few weeks and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Last night, I ran though in forge and was checking the settings. Everything seemed fine, then I noticed one of the forge pieces in the base next to the red spawn was blue. Then I noticed that all the base object were blue. Somehow I had failed to notice for two weeks that all the initial spawns in the blue base were Red. That’s why the blue team was spawning over in the green base.


Salvage by Nutduster – The game went well. I have the layout down now. My only problem is still with the lower area, and it’s not that I don’t like it or it’s not good for the map, but that I still get confused about where I’ll end up when I exit the teleporters. I just need some more runs through the map. The combat and flag runs seemed fine to me. I’m also beginning to appreciate the map’s theme a lot more. It’s looking more and more like a ship docked at a station to me than it initially did.


Bleached by Nutduster – I think there’s nothing left to do. It seemed like we all had strategies for running the flag and protecting the flag. I also noticed players calling out different areas and weapons for some effective team communication. Yep, this one’s done.


Freighter Map by UNSC Fenix Hulk – What a cool concept. It worked well, I thought. It really felt like one team was fending off an airborne attack on a freighter in the sea. The forging was solid. I think if you’re going to lessen the size, it will help you smooth out some of the rougher edges in the current forging. I had a blast moving from one end of the ship to the other, all the while feeling as if I were actually on a ship.

My only issue would be that the rockets are a bit difficult to get to without the jet pack even though you provided quite a few foot hold for jumping up to them. It’s just that you have to go through ha series of jumps and it’s hard to land them all in the heat of battle. I’d suggest figuring out a way to make it easier for on foot players to get to the rockets. Other than that, I look forward to seeing how you revise and improve upon the map.