I'm working on a small-medium 1v1 map (that will hopefully also be able to handle 2v2) somewhat based on Anchor 9 from Reach. I'm using a lot of the dark metal textures, so I'm really hoping I'm not hit by a framerate bomb. The map's almost done and it still seems to work fine so far.
I guess I can give you guys a sneak peak of what I have been working on for the past few weeks. Should be reaching the point where I can test with people in the next week or so if I can figure out how I want to build a small corner of the map. Anyone interested in testing with me?
Hey man, I've been thinking about something like this recently. I was designing a castle though. Does your map rotate or are these game principals?
@SecretSchnitzel Hexogen got placed on the back burner because I don't really have that much free time and I wanted to design and build a map for the contest so that has taken top priority. @WARHOLIC I wish it could rotate but no the arrows are indicative of routes, only some of which have actually been implemented. @A 3 Legged Goat The general idea is a prisoner like map but more condensed to play like an arena. Fight your way to the top and then reign death down on your opponent until you need to drop down to get a powerup. Its an interesting design that I had been toying around with in my head for quite a while that I don't know if it will work out in practice.
Damn that map looks awesome, and massive compared to the one I am working on, which is very small, but it looks very fun to play. It also reminds me how much I miss the Reach pallet.
yea it is interesting indeed. it seems conceptually similar to a design i've been messing with for a while so i'm kinda interested to see how you pull it off. i like those kind of designs with very obvious and tight-knit flow, but where it's also not overdone.
Considering that this is a ForgeHub contest after all, it only makes sense that we should have aesthetics taking top priority. With that in mind, here's a little snip of what I've been working on lately. (See the tree? That means I get a feature, right?)
Said it from the day of the forge reveal, the H2A pallet is atrocious. Why the **** is everything pink. Even the trees look like they want to kill themselves.
I suppose it's about time I share a couple of things I've been working on: Making Epicborough Keep playable with a full party - Significantly reduced object count (down to 480) - Widened the doorways that connect the outer and inner portions of the map Video - http://xboxclips.com/a+Chunk/dfa3564a-99dc-4d9d-b2bb-7a6e9c21c47c Designing 1v1 maps in anticipation of the contest - Strange Vitality is inspired by the classic Quake map House of Decay, and is basically complete. I have two versions in my fileshare. The version in the video I'm going to link is currently an alternate version that changes the tele's from two way to one way and has different weapon placements. Video - http://xboxclips.com/a+Chunk/20762946-1677-4d37-810a-0bf1521ceb59 - Joy (temp name?) is inspired by a Halo: Reach forge map that remains one of my favorite forge maps ever (Angst by xzamplez). I just finished rebuilding it because I wasn't happy with the scaling of the previous version. I'll hold off on polishing it up aesthetically until I'm satisfied that no more changes are necessary. Video - http://xboxclips.com/a+Chunk/a8946bf6-0b32-4894-86de-a7a13e0bc55c The first two maps are in my fileshare (a Chunk). You can also find me on the leaderboards if you add me as a friend. Halo CE - Pillar of Autumn - Heroic - Timing
a really cool idea for a map just popped in my head but it doesn't look good on any of the canvases. skyward's lighting makes the blocks look too pink, and there's a certain disconnect with deathpits over the halo ring. awash has the 30 second lighting glitch and the lighting is uneven. sometimes rocks side by side will have different shadows and the foreruner glass window is completely white. it's transparent on the other canvases i tried to build it on nebula but the map is too poorly contrasted even with nova and i don't want to spam white lights to brighten up the map and risk framerate problems. i also don't like how the light source is from the red side instead of the blue side i really dunno how you guys do it. ive forged primarily on awash but my awash ideas are more suited to 4v4. it doesn't look like many people are doing 1v1s on that canvas either
Well I thought about & even started a layout on skyline for the 1v1 but I can't hold interest. I've found it harder to stay focused on the forging like I used to do so well. Plus everything I build starts to lose the spark I'm looking for even though I haven't had others look at it its probably all in my head but who knows. I've seen the pics floating around with the great aesthetics but no layout shown, lol, & I fear that it's not going to be a good turnout for me if I don't try to keep up with that. My problem is I'm too lazy to experiment with new aesthetics because it's hard enough to find time to forge in the 1st place. I miss the old days when I had less going on & I could forge for hours at a time. Now there's family, work, & call of duty advanced warfare, lol.
It may be blasphemous of me to say this on this site given its history, but aesthetics will have virtually no part in determining which maps are chosen as winners. Gameplay trumps everything.
Not to say aesthetics aren't important though. There's a trade off between the two, and frankly, some degree of aesthetic quality is needed. A map could be the best playing thing in the world, but won't get any traction if it looks like a bag of ass that no one except the ultra hard core would want to touch.