Welcome to Fated's Competitive Forge Test Lobby. For those who don't recognize me from THC, I served as a member of the forge staff and ran the THC Weekly Forge Test Lobby. Seeing that THC shut down, I plan to continue this testing service at Forgehub. The goal of this lobby is to test works in progress that are designed for competitive play and matchmaking. I am in contact with several of 343 Industries' Community Cartographers and they often attend to observe maps and provide feedback. This competitive forge test lobby only tests maps intended for 4v4 and 2v2. If you have a map that needs testing, post following the format below. This lobby follows no formal structure, and while forgers are encouraged to attend it is not required that they do so. I am a huge advocate for modded competitive gametypes as well, and all testing will be done using modified no sprint gametypes such as Promod and Unity+. Modders and gametype creators are welcome to contact me privately or post their gametypes here as well. Testing will start around 8-9 PM EST several nights a week. I save all gameplays from testing and host them on my fileshare for a day or two after each lobby. Make a post within this thread or message me on XBL @The Fated Fire if you are interested in participating in testing. Map Name: The Ark Forger: The Fated Fire Player Count: 4-8 Primary Test Gametype: Slayer Download Link/Thread Link: Link Got it? Go.
Map Name: Palisade Forger: AnotherClaymore Player Count: 4-8 Primary Test Gametype: CTF Download Link/Thread Link: Link
Map Name: Artifact Forger: Maximus IL Player Count: 8 - 16 Primary Test Gametype: FFA (8 player); Team Slayer (16 player) Download Link (8 player version): Artifact FFA Download Link (16 player version): Artifact BTB Thread Link: Artifact Thread This map needs work before it can be tested.
Judging based upon how Fated has run this lobby in the past, if you are in the testing lobby you'll probably get feedback immediately after the match. Otherwise feedback is often left in the maps thread, or in the testing thread if there is no formal thread for a particular map. Of course there's no guarantee that people will leave feedback in threads, so it's always better if you can participate in the testing.
It's actually best when forgers are in the lobby as well as it makes it a lot easier to deliver the feed back while it's still fresh on our minds. I, for one, rarely ever post any feed back on the forums any more unless the map was notably memorable.
Fated, you can remove Artifact from the test request list. The TCOJ guys played with me on it last night, and based on listening to their comments during play, the map needs quite a bit of work. Thank you!
Preferably in the testing lobby. If the forger is not present, I either post feedback in the map thread or testing thread as Chunk explained above. The best feedback a forger can get is through observing player reactions during the game and in the post-game lobby. Forgers who post a map for testing need to keep in mind how testing is conducted. This is a competitive test lobby and all forge testing will be done on classic no sprint modified gametypes. No sprint is the future and the past of competitive Halo, and competitive maps need to be designed and scaled to empower players in a no sprint scenario. Expect reactions from testers to be negative if your map is scaled and segmented to account for sprint. There will be no Infinity Slayer testing in this lobby. Novus was tested last night and Palisade will get tested tonight. My representation of feedback from the testing lobby will be very honest and blunt. All feedback is meant to help forgers make improvements, just keep in mind that the feedback will be very direct and could potentially suggest fundamental changes to your map design. You will hate me for it now and love me later. Alright man. Once you feel the map is ready for testing again let me know.
Fated, do you have a description of the gametype, or a download available in your fileshare? I would like to make sure that the jumps for any maps I might make work with those settings. As long as the base movement speed is slower than sprint speed, then if I make the jumps for your settings, I know they will be doable on standard settings.
NS settings are universally accepted to be 120 movement. Use that to test the maps. There may however be a minor exception to the rule of 115 movement with 95% gravity and momentum shift enabled resulting in very similar movement.
We're not a unified front. I like to think that my own feedback is pretty discerning, at least. However, I admit we're not first and foremost a "competitive" style lobby - part of the charm of it for me has been accepting anyone who wants to participate, regardless of their experience or preferred play style. So some of us are going to be a lot less critical than others (or maybe just critical but coming from a very different point of view).
Did you ever test Palisade? I joined the lobby for a few games but had to leave early so i didn't know if you got to it?
Which is great. That type of testing lobby will always have a place. The nature of my lobby can be very intimidating to some forgers who aren't used to competitive customs. No sprint in combination with several dominating testers can be a very unpleasant experience for someone who can't hold their own and support their team at a higher level. It is very important to have balanced teams so I can achieve the most competitive environment for map testing. We tested Palisade earlier on. You suggested Palisade for CTF, and due to the CTF respawn zones being setup incorrectly, I had to end testing on the map after about a minute of play. Red players were spawning at blue flag and vice versa. Respawn zones for each team need to be triple stacked in order to make sure players do not spawn on the enemy side of the map. I plan to go into forge and give you some more feedback later on.
Map Name: Furlough Forger: Lametastic Player Count: 4-8 Primary Test Gametype: Slayer Download Link/Thread Link: Link My connection is garbage lately and my family is experiencing a crisis at the moment anyway, but if you guys find these maps noteworthy, I would greatly appreciate the feedback.
Map Name: Bankrupt Forger: Lametastic Player Count: 4-8 Primary Test Gametype: Slayer Download Link/Thread Link: Link
That's very odd… I've played many games of CTF on Palisade and have never had that happen once or heard of anyone else running into this at all. I have anti-spawns for both teams doubled in the opposite base and flag away spawns in the yellow/green bases. I'll take a look and maybe triple them if their needed.