Panopticon

Well you have a lot of potential either way and just need to study good halo map design and geometry. Your aesthetics are good but you need to work on your layouts. Also, if you post here you got to prepare for feedback, that is the point, yes? There's nothing wrong with disagreeing with someone's opinions but don't explain yourself or try and get them to change their opinion b/c it won't happen and the whole thing will just get ugly. Do take what everyone says with a grain of salt b/c everyone here is a amateur map designer and your getting amateur feedback. No one person's feedback is better than someone else no matter how many maps they forged, they're still a amateur. Forge is designed to be fun and not taken nearly as serious as some take their forging here, I find it quite comical at times. I stopped forging maps myself b/c it just doesn't compare to making maps in actual map creating programs and not a lego sandbox like forge. Plus forging is just pointless anymore for obvious reasons explained below.

If you like your map and your friends have fun on it, cool... that is the point. But if you post it on here prepare for the forge judging ****'s to come after you with every single flaw they can find, and they will find them. I really can't take this site seriously anymore just b/c of that. If you enjoy making maps I would suggest upgrading to big boy clothe sizes and take on a real map editor. What the hell is the point of even forging for Halo anyways if you don't have a bunch of friends that play. No one really plays customs here anymore and the people that leave you criticism will never even step foot on you map. You spend many, many hours on a map and get maybe 5-10 comments on it. The only thing that is really positive about those many hours you wasted was experience in forging (a dieing thing). ForgeHub is focused on forging but everyone rather talk and argue about anything that has nothing to do with forge b/c maps are rarely posted. It's very obvious to me what's wrong here and that is everyone is bored, has nothing better to do than troll Forgehub and it's only going to get worse until Halo 5 revives this site or it closes shop.

My rant is done, points made here:
-Forge is ultimately a amateur editing program designed to have fun with Halo
-Watch out for the Forge Judging Nazis who have been in the 'forge biz' for years and take it very seriously
-Stop forging, you have potential, don't waste it on forge

 

are you black cloud? looking at this map in forge it looks like a re-visit of your slayer submission in reach, seriously, the only real notable difference is the inclusion of teleporters and shield doors! and how you present your self in your posts are practically identical.

bare in mind i'm only looking at this in forge but i would seriously hate to play on this map. the shield doors create a horendous gameplay effect of constantly popping in and out to shoot making you pretty much imune to the person you're trying to kill, where these shields doors are placed makes is in the doorways in front of every single damn spawn point that i can see, this makes a very very very advantageous strategy of sitting by the shields doors popping in and out killing people off there spawn. there is no counter to this, all you have to use against the people set up like this is an incredibly open, linear, flat outer ring that others no position, no weapon, no connection, nothing to push in and flush them out, all you can ever hope for is to just die over and over and over again off your spawn.

the center of the map is completely pointless, you may as well make it a damn death pit because even attempting to cross through it leaves you open from all angles with no cover and the only single option of dropping down and run to the bottom ring, how ever, going down there leaves you completely stranded, there is no lines of sight to push on the people up top, no useful, no connections of use, nothing. there are teleporters how ever they are very lazily thrown down to provide the much needed connection, but, because these teleporters weren't built into the maps design they will never work, going from bottom - top through the teleporters is going to be an incredibly bad idea because you come out in a corner that can be easily watched by 2 sides, the 2 paths you'll have available are a complete bottle neck to the people controlling the shield doors leaving you completely stranded.

i'd hate to be the team who lost the first few kills, looks like this map would be an incredibly painful, borderline torturous experience, in FFA things can only get worse because you'll be constantly spawning by other people with no where to move to, no cover, no options, absoloutly nothing so the players that get to and control the shield doors first control the entire game purely because these shield doors are in areas that over look the majority of the map, provide cover and an incredibly powerful tool.

there's my feedback, enjoy.

 

I would never tell someone to stop forging. It is wrong to say it is a waste of time just because its not a fully fledged map editor. Everyone here chooses to continue forging because it is fun, as is Orangedrone. Don't tell him to stop.

Orangedrone, I apologise for not writing any feedback. I just wanted to state my opinion on what Hulk said. Actually, I'll say something. I don't have time to hop onto forge and look around/play a game on it right now, but judging only from the pictures, it looks great. You have a good sense for piece usage creating a really unique building. I'll try not to comment too much on the layout, but from what I can see, I can imagine the map would be a lot more fun with some developed areas around the outside. I think the map would still play how you want it to; a strong emphasis on centre control, but elsewhere to fight over can't hurt. Again, I began this comment to reply to Hulk which is why I didn't look at the map in more detail, I hope you understand.

 

Working on your craft (making maps) in an actual map designer will take you so much farther than forge could even come close to. I don't really care if he or anyone forges until their heart is content and I'm cool with that. But if you really want to find a whole new love in making maps and not have your time wasted (by time wasted I mean no one will care about your map really and you will never have gameplay time add up to time spent on it forging. Professional maps are made in a few weeks to 2 months max and have millions of games played on them), I would recommend something else and it's not a crime to do so. I have worked with 5 full fledged map editors where really anything is possible. I've modeled and created Apaches flying just overhead through city streets that have been ruined by a zombie outbreak. Forge only allows you to move blocks around, an actual map editor you can create interactive environments with moving parts, sounds, and pretty much anything you can think up. The only reason I ever found forge fun is because I'm making maps for Halo and I enjoy Halo so playing on something I created in Halo is cool. Forge is a good place for very amateur map designers to make maps. Most don't stray away from forge b/c they're afraid of the learning curve of an actual editing program. The pay off is well worth it.

 

Okay, well you told him to stop forging, which I didn't like. I understand why people move on to better editors and why they are better. I wouldn't say most don't stray away from forge because other editors have a steep learning curve. Some, like myself, aren't interested in creating such things. I find the unique restrictions of Forge interesting to work with and what's more, its on my favourite game. Plus, I don't play PC games, it just wouldn't interest me to create things for them and spend so much time doing so.

 

You have to free hand it. The easiest way to do it is to take an incline and use its angle as a template to achieve your desired angle. The basic inclines can be spun horizontally 360 ° and you will always have the incline to guide you. Just lay your piece you're using for your ramp on top of the incline and tada, it is at the correct angle (or at least close enough). All that's left is to free hand the rest if need be. You can also flip the guiding incline vertically or invert it and it still spins evenly. Good luck!

 

it doesn't matter if the spawns are dynamic or not, all of them are on the outside of the map out in the open with no cover, this makes it incredibly easy for one team to just sit at the shield doors killing the other team off spawn constantly.

shield doors never really make for good gameplay because you can see people through them but not attack them how ever you can walk through them so all they're doing is unnecessarily interrupting gameplay. it doesn't matter if your middle area is unforgiving, they present a very powerful tool that a full coordinated team could easily exploit locking down the whole map causing a stalemate from just sitting at 4 points on the map, no real effort needed.

the center area being so un-forgiving is a bad thing because it discourages movements, destroys any gameplay structure around that area. in short everyhing about the map is bad.

 

Lmfao mighty good attitude champ

The screens look good and id love to see for myself how gameplay is so hit me up sometime for a game on it

 

well said. Orange, I think you are misunderstanding people giving ideas and things that concern them about the flow of your map with "bashing". Traumajunkie even kept cool after you complained a few times about his feedback. If someone wants to bash, they will make it very clear that is what they are doing.

MANY MANY people have given me feedback that I personally do not believe is well-founded, for whatever reason. But it is always a good idea to go to your map in forge and think about their comments and decide what you might be able to do to address them, or decide once and for all that you do not need to address them.

I understand the feeling of not wanting to change a piece of art that you have created just because someone said so. But remember thawt Forge is art AND a playable space and you want people to like your map, in the end. Many of us will not realize how someone else plays a map, and not realize that they personally have probably made the same forging mistakes that we are starting out making, thus when they make a comment about it, so long as it is not too rude or harsh, they are only looking out for your best interests.

Good luck

 

let me give a more accurate guess on how it will play then:

- players running through center dropping down with a direct attention on going through teleporters
- players going in and out of the teleporters to clean up kills and escape quickly
- players running around the outside avoiding the center because of how inforgiving it is and end up picking people off not long after they spawn
- players just sitting around the corners of the inner parts of the map cleaning up kills and cross maping

conclusion: overal a highly chaotic experience with no structure, focus or flow to it. people will just end up quite literally running around in circles trying to stay alive and get kills.

i don't care if you've watched gameplay in theater or not because it means nothing, more often then not when watching the gamplay in theater you will be seeing what you want to see instead of analyzing the gameplay. to use theater you need to understand how the game plays, how strategies work and why players make the decisions they do, otherwise all you will see is people just running around your map killing each other appearing to be good because you don't know any better.

just accept the fact that your map sucks, it sucks because it has horrible lines of sight, an absence of flow, absence of map structure, no power positions, no real strategies, no skill gap, no depth... nothing. there is nothing in the map that is worth a damn.

 

Forgehub. More focus should be put on map design than on aesthetics. Don't get me wrong, though. It looks nice enough.

 

Far Cry 3 is on the 360 and its pretty fun to actually make a map from scratch, but all in all, I love Forge, just wished that all the maps were forgable instead of just 4, but I agree with you dude, trying to figure out how to make a map with restrictions is a challenge in itself ^^

 

I ran a custom on Panopticon last night with a lobby of forgers, several of whom have maps in matchmaking. While the Forerunner inspired doorways to the center structure looked awesome, the aesthetic appeal vanishes very quickly once you enter the doors. The inside is very dull as a result of the layout, lighting and piece usage. Also, it seems you did not consider player movement when designing the hallways on the second level of the middle structure. There are several competitive design principles that you did not consider when forging these hallways, such as head room. When I jump, I should never hit my head on the ceiling. Jumping is an essential combat mechanic in Halo gameplay, and these hallways currently render jumping ineffective. Raise the ceilings so players have total freedom of movement during combat. Personally I am not a fan of hallway style combat, but that varies from person to person.

The combat area outside the center structure proved very underused as well. It takes far to long to travel the outer ring, and why would players want to go there anyway? All the combat happens on the inside of the structure. I've always considered placing power weapons in underused locations a result of a flawed map design.

To summarize, I applaud you for doing something different. The Forerunner doors are awesome and the general theme is unique. In its current state this map will not work for competitive play however. This heavy criticism is meant to help you improve your design, not personally attack you. I've been reading through the comments above and on the 343ICommunityForum, and you really need to work on taking criticism. I don't care who you are, how long you've been forging or how many maps you've made, NO forger is above receiving feedback on their designs. Consider all feedback, don't get defensive, and let those with competitive experience help you.