Does this even apply to BTB?

Yes

Are those respawn settings for weapons necessary? If so, well... I guess I'm not making any maps for matchmaking. Sword and Hammer should not need to respawn 10 seconds after they get used, that is just ridiculous.

It's because it is also set to respawn "on death/deletion" rather than disturbance.

That really doesn't matter for what I am saying, considering you should be using on death/deletion for all of your weapons anyways, unless you like multiple copies of a power weapon running around a map. My point is that if set that way, you can finish off a sword - wait ten seconds and then pick up an entirely new/fresh one. That is just stupid and should never happen.

why doesn't this game use static timers?

If you haven't noticed this by now then it must not be a big deal for game play. majority of the weapon are like this on game like the shotgun and Hydra for example.

please don't litter my post with this. if you have question about this make your own topic please. I'm not trying to sound rude but i just spent a lot of time on this to be help out the community and so far its just been negative replies...

Thanks so much for working hard on getting this out. I know this'll help me and a lot of other forgers.

Don't take it wrong, I do appreciate that you put all that together, and I am sure that others do too. It is just that I disagree with/am confused by certain things being mandatory - weapon timers like I mentioned, and also mandatory spawns for more than red and blue is kind of silly, especially for maps built for things like SWAT or doubles.

Like i said in my document you don't have to have your map set up like a on disc map. a on disc map has every game mode/ player count/ teams. if you are up for the challenge go for it! if not don't worry about it!

its mainly put there if you want your map to play for slayer, bomb, ctf then follow those and ignore everything else.

for example if you only want your map only to play for RvB then only set your spawns for it. but if 343 came to you and ask hey we want to put your map into match making for slayer, ctf and mutli team. now you have that information for those necessary changes.

Does infection have any requirements?

you know I bet there is, ill have to look into it. I'm sure its just the game type ill look into it if there is anything more to it.

Yeah........................... The new BTB maps don't even come close to that.

It's nice that you made a guide and all, but it'd be nice if there was some consistency on 343's part in making sure the maps they pick actually follow their rules. Also, I'm with @A 3 Legged Goat about static timers being ass, and a lot of the default weapon timers being retarded.

I could set up a map with less than 64 spawn points and have it play better than people who set it up with 100+. The problem is that most people cannot set up spawns worth a damn. 64 should be a requirement for BTB maps because of the number of players. Arena maps with more than 64 spawn points for the sake of having more than 64 spawn points is likely to cause more harm than good unless the map is larger than normal and the person knows what they are doing.

But you know all of that, so what am I even writing this for.

Whether or not you guys agree or like the guidelines, these are what is desired from 343i's end. It's a great resource for the community. Good job @black picture

Actually, because of how the spawn engine selects spawns, more points generally is better. While it's not too difficult to set up a map with less than 64 to perform well, its better to have more. There's a reason why my approach to spawns was used by Ghostayame in H4 for the circuit maps. I can't deny that there is a possibility that more spawns could potentially do more harm than good, but from my experience, more spawn points tends to improve spawn performance.

Bookmarking this page. Going into my 'extremely important' folder.
I've been needing a guide like this since I come from a Warcraft 3 era of level design.
Halo 5 is much different, and I've had some major challenges making my maps playable.
If someone wants to look and give feedback, Please, check out my work and I'll be there to listen.
My goal hasn't been yet to make a MM map, but I was hoping to try my hand at it later once I feel I can pull it off.
Thanks Creative Force, for posting such a detailed guide here.

So far this is a very helpful thread especially since it's just background stuff for forge maps, if there were restrictive guidelines on how a map is laid out or on how its structured, then I'd have a problem, but it isn't, and this thread has been very helpful, now I know what kind of settings I need to apply for when I finally start placing down the background stuff for "Takamikazuchi Horizon".

I agree that on most occasions it is better to have more respawn points if the map can support more, but people should only be placing respawn points in areas that won't cause a problem if someone spawns there. If a map is too small to place 64 neutral respawn points, then they shouldn't be placing more simply to satisfy a matchmaking requirement. Everyone's map is different and there is no one size fits all with the spawn system.

EDIT: Which is why I am glad Black Picture put "highly subject to map layout" next to that. If you knew your map's spawns worked perfectly but 343i told you to place more to meet some cookie cutter requirement, you wouldn't be happy.