Ranked rotational playlists only stick around for a month. While player retention and community sentiment was very positive, player acquisition was a bit of a struggle due to the unfortunate and somewhat unpredictable overlap of Reach's "ready when it's ready" release, as well as maybe not being the experience Halo 5's current player base is there to play, in many cases. As much as we'd like to have kept it as a permanent playlist, that and our current goal of consolidating Halo 5 as a whole meant it stuck only to it's original rotation plan. With that said, it will likely return just as any other rotational which will give it a new opportunity for promotion on the official Halo media outlets, the message of the day and other areas to regain interest and potentially get in front of more people who otherwise may not have heard about it.
I didn't play it that much, but i respect it and think its success with alot of og halo fans symbolized something positive for once in the halo community. Thank you for the response man
What about hcs doubles? As someone who can’t stand ground pound and spartan charge, the over powered AR that’s completely disproportionate to the pistol, and radar, I thought the last doubles playlist was superior in almost every way. I didn’t play it that much, but I was much more willing to want to go and search. Now I have to hope that it comes around in a few months, maybe? What happened to ranked snipers which was always a staple playlist? Head to head is probably the coolest thing h5 has had to offer that is new. Obviously rotational forge playlists being great as well. The mythic guys worked really hard and I just find it weird the playlist released basically with reach. A lot of the people who would really enjoy mythic were probably on reach. It should have been staggered to reap the most potential benefits (acknowledgment/feedback) Anyway hope Halo infinite is good
2v2 Competitive was made to support the H5 Doubles tournaments. Once the tournaments past, the population began dipping below the regular doubles offering and got swapped back out at the beginning of the following month, like other rotations. Ranked snipers is also not popular enough to warrant permanent offering but is another rotational provided in Ranked as well as shotty snipers as a social playlist. More or less everything is based off of population and how healthy of matchmaking we can provide with that population in mind. Glad you can appreciate Head to Head. That was my first solo planned sustain project. Tried to some special things with it and also resolve some issues that 1v1 has always had and would be particularly more obvious in a vanilla H5 1v1 experience.
My main focus currently is on my next btb map. It will be much smaller and better detailed than any of my other btb maps. I have taken time to work on the layout. Unlike most of my maps this one will be an arena style map. Depending on how well it goes it could be ready for testing this spring but it's still hard to say at this point. I will not rush this map or publish it unfinished in any way. Whether that means publishing it in March or publishing it in September.
In an effort to loosen up after taking design so seriously for so long, i made some maps with all natural physics blocks, its some good dumb fun if you ever want to mess around in open custom games https://gamerdvr.com/gamer/soldat-duchrist/video/85585729 I also made a plain canvas with natural blocks on the side if anybody wants to make one, its actually a satisfying/ annoying challenge trying to balance all the blocks on top of one another, especially since i made the base terrain a bowl XD there's a lot of room to make something better than my two examples, like towering block skyscrapers that contest one another or something like that DL: https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/games/halo-5-guardians/xbox-one/map-variants?lastModifiedFilter=Everything&sortOrder=Modified&page=1&gamertag=Soldat DuChrist
The Day of Judgement has come. @WARHOLIC Last night, after watching the 2v2 contest and watching the "game" on my map, after the judges moved my submission onto the the next round, I decided to DQ my own map. It was clear, we have massive problems. My submission was a map designed to test the judges, not a map to win the contest. I wanted to see how well the judges would be able to play and understand an atypical design, a design that is expertly crafted and extremely well designed. All I really wanted from the contest was to be able to watch some competitive games being played on my map, and receive intelligent feedback about my design. After watching @Max Extra gameplay and being forced to listen to some of @Blaze short sighted conjectures, it was quite clear that was going to be IMPOSSIBLE with Max on the judging panel. I am calling for him to be removed @WARHOLIC @Sethiroth. It's not about personal bias, its not about salt, its simply a FACT that we can not have a good contest without good play-tests, and he simply lacks the skill and design insight to provide anything meaningful to the contest other then "hEy LoOk I fOunD a WaY oUt of Ur MAp". If he was a good player, I could forgive his total lack of forge content. If he was a skilled designer, I could forgive his total lack of skill at Halo. Yet, he lacks BOTH of these things, and that is completely unacceptable as person who is supposed to JUDGE and play-test others maps. Simply put, your entire contest will be a botched, worthless and failed experience if you stubbornly wish to keep him on the judging panel. I am willing to be a replacement as I no longer have a horse in the race, contact me if youd like to make this happen. If he does stay on the panel, this will be my final post on forgehub. Shame on whoever appointed @Max Extra to the judging panel and shame on YOU @Max Extra for not being honest with yourself, and for taking a position you are so clearly not suitable for. PS: Max was one of the 3 judges that moved my map forward, it was his game-play the entire stream that made me realize how much of a joke this contest will truly be if we keep him on the panel and play-test team. @Blaze was the judge who wished to not move my map forward after one party chat run around aimlessly game, sighting there would be to many beat-downs due to the close quarters nature of the map. I should post some videos and or screenshots of what high-level games on this map consist of. Its primarily Pistol, Grenades, then beat-downs as the primary cause of death.
I see where you are coming from, @SaltyKoala . It isn't all about the high tier gameplay of these maps though. I definitely see the potential in the depth for the high-skill player only matches but realistically speaking despite 2v2 generally being a more competitive style experience those top tier players that would understand the map in all of it's depth would be a small niche. At least 3 of us played the map prior to this test/understood the layout and the goals you had for it; and one potentially lower skilled player in a party chat game turned the experience into one that obviously doesn't compliment the map. I didn't properly go into the feedback on the stream because it would've taken too much time overall and I was not directly communicating it to you. Anyone who knows me, knows that you can also ask me questions and I'll do my best to find time to elaborate. That said... To me, accessibility to all player skills is important. Easy to learn, hard to master as they say. In this case, the goals of the map fell apart when not being played at a certain level and that's a big negative, in my opinion. At least for a contest meant to find a best overall. It's just like we are saying no to maps that obviously fall short on art, performance or even at the opposite spectrum of being mind-numbingly simple. I personally hope that you don't consider leaving the website but even if you do, I hope you aren't taking any of my concerns of this personally. The map is cool and as well designed as I would expect being something from you. However, the concern of accessibility and limitations regarding player skill alone broke that map for me in a contest perspective. I'm trying to be as equally harsh on everyone's content. I think we did decide to play it for round 2. If we do, maybe we can switch up teams a couple times on those tests. Put me and Max (the 2 lesser skilled players) on a team and see what the better players can best cheese on us, knowing that they won't have much struggle beating us.
No offense, but this is a **** response. Any 2v2 map worth it's salt is absolutely going to fall apart when 1 of the 4 players is absolute trash at the game. If the entire game was a bunch of Max vs Max players, the outcome would be much different. What do casuals care about beating eachother down all match? They don't. What you like blaze, based on all your maps, are hot piles of mediocrity. Maps that don't have identitys, just giant bowls of combat soup where every choice has equal weighting. That is garbage to me. But maybe that appeals to the casual? Maybe that's exactly what casuals want? Not a five star meal, but a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with no crust that everyone will like. IF you wish to not evolve as a level designer/level evaluater, keep on the path. Seriously, put me on ANY map you consider "good" and I will make it play like absolute ****. This community will never evolve if we continue to feed this toxic ideology. Don't design maps for casuals, that **** is toxic and will only cause design to stagnant.
On another note, for those who do enjoy my more causal mediocre designs. Sikamikanico and I are close to releasing a new map together called Fate of the Morningstar. Might be getting some tests together in a week or 2. He posted a preview of it a few pages back. Here a little teaser gif I posted of it today featuring some rad free clip are and basic 'pirate' text. https://twitter.com/BlazeDillon/status/1219363183128768512?s=20
@Max Extra Just watched some of the 2v2 stream back, and there's a jump on US you missed a few times, and you concluded that "it looks like you can make it but you can't" and I just wanted to let you know, you can, although it's pretty tough. It's not meant to be a primary path, but it can be pretty rewarding to use if you can make the jump. Here's a clip of me doing it https://gamerdvr.com/gamer/xxandrith/video/85613849
Very nice! As we move to round two I'm going to have to practice this jump. I really wanted to make it work, but couldn't during gameplay. Thanks for the correction.
Since we’re getting heated, I have to get something off my chest. @Sethiroth I’ve heard you use the expression “just a map” multiple times during the judging process, and you also used it to describe Node To Joy, as you were talking to Canadian Echo about what you thought were the best maps. I know you didn’t mean to stream it, but I was watching when you said it. I’m interested in what that expression means to you. What isn’t “just a map”? I thought about not bringing it up, but it rubbed me the wrong way.
I want to give a congrats to the maps that made it to the next round. These are Mar Dunn Uncomfortable Silence With Love Sacral L'appel Du Vide Node to Joy Concrete Jungle Revolving Doors Cynoplis Eclipse Virtue Iceworm Catharsis Lost Growth Night Flight We have been streaming every Sunday and we plan on continuing this Sunday. Stay tuned for exact time. I'll be doing a personal stream of me walking around all round 2 map trying to figure the most I can about each map. If you want to join the stream chat and converse with me about these maps I would love to have you there. I will be doing this around 7pm EST. My channel is www.twitch.tv/isethirothi Hope to see you there.