Thanks for the lengthy thought out response. I wasn't very clear with my feedback, and I'll admit it was entirely too brash/ quick and emotional. I apologize for that. I don't mind the maps layout, and I think sik did a good job on the visual fidelity of themeing the map. I want you both to know I have respect and appreciation for your talents, and so I definitely set very high expectations and higher standards when critiquing your work. By the way, I wasn't speaking of world building when I spoke of the theme and layout working in conjunction to provide a better user end experience for the players. I don't care if maps utilitlize narrative world building or not, I appreciate it, I enjoy it, but its not necessary or something I really even judge a map on. My main concern I have with alot of these co-forge designs where the layout and theme are done independently, is that the overall potential of the combination of those two elements never reaches it's full potential imo. Obviously I was a bit ignorant, and it's good to see that there was some consideration for theme before the map was designed. That's good too hear.. That being said, the issue I see with the space from just running around on it is that geometrically and artistically speaking, the shape language and theme of the map are very uniform in there presentation.. this leads to a very "samey" feeling and space in which visual/spatial orientation becomes difficult for the wrong reasons. Rooms feel the same, the art has the same proportions and distribution and everything seems to follow a too uniform rigid pattern, almost like a computer level design algorithm designed the space. Its a big problem I also have with the way 343i does there themeing/layouts, which imo is a big step down from the methodology of bungies level designers and artists for Halo 2, 3 and Reach. Here is some reference to what I'm speaking on, irs a bit lengthy but take the time to watch if you can find it.
Wow i just started using this new Forge like last week, this is tight. There's a lot of potential. When you guys co-forged, did it keep forcing you both to be in monitor/spartan at the same time? I was messing around in there with a friend and we were not able to be in Monitor and Spartan modes independently. Idk The overgrowth detail looks like it was incredibly fun to do.
Between the NLD's WAYWO thread's convo about "alpaha" influencers and forgehub's WAYWO's about salty's grievances over blaze's and sik's map (lol) I am DEAD
This is a concept I find quite perplexing. The map in question, while not revolutionary, looks great, and feels like a true “Halo” map. I’m working on something, its theme is a little more “basic” but something that fits well in the halo lore (what if The Pit was made during the Reach era). Should every map be some wild concept based in fantasy or is there still room for classic “Halo” feeling maps?
As I mentioned in my lengthier post, I was being a bit of an azzhat. The layout and theme of the map are definitely up to 343i standards for Halo, and it feels like a 343i "Halo" map. It's forged cleanly, has good visual fidelity and looks to be enjoyable and approachable for what I'd gather a large part of the population. Where I think it misses, is the deeper application of Bungie core artistic and design principles that really made there maps special, it's hard to put into words, but for me that's thats holding the map back from feeling like a Bungie Era Halo map in it's theme and shape language. I encourage everyone to check out the previous video I posted and the one below, there is many lessons to be learned from both.
I totally get what you're saying and I actually agree for the most part from the artistic perspective etc... but i also feel like it's just not that serious bro.
I just want to say that the reason I started forging was because I thought putting mounted machine guns on the dorsal pieces of cover on Narrows was the coolest **** ever
Just out of curiosity how does everyone feel about the shroud? Here's a repost of what I said on twitter: Not a fan. The Bubble shield offers far better/smarter engagements, This is just a blind run situation and is of no real benefit to either party. Sure as a community toy it's ok but not as a serious piece of equipment. Bubble shield or Invisibility, the Shroud sucks. Now I'm not saying the Shroud can't be fun for minigames or stupid **** but as a base piece of equipment no, just no.
I was thinking about the textures and how it's kind of annoying that we can't slide them around and mess with their sizes but then I thought more about what we could do with them so I decided to figure out the exact size of them which happens to be 8x8 for those like me that hadn't bothered look at that closer. What I decided to do was break them down into easily to manipulate sizes (and a couple that are less so) with a few simple ideas right out front. Even though I found a few neat ways to reimagine the individual textures where this really starts to get interesting is when you think of combining multiple textures into completely new textures all together. Sure this may not be the smartest move when thinking about frame rate issues but it still might have a lot of potential when used sparingly. Anyway here is just two textures the, Forerunner Floor and Forerunner Panel B Forerunner Floor Forerunner Panel B
This was actually my issue too. Had a couple of playthroughs with some friends. Although the environment looked very convincing and naturally cohesive, it was hard to recall exactly where I was and where I was going. I might have to do another walkthrough, but I can't remember If there were any major color-theme changes/landmarks/alterations in design other than elevation shifts that made a section of the map memorable and unique (in comparison with other sections) or give it a label useful for a callout. Really liked it otherwise!
Can we even share prefabs yet? I think it seems like a neat idea to have them as prefabs but you either end up with 50 prefabs or alternatively you group together certain texture prefabs and drop them in. The catch is the dirty work still needs to be done first and I don't know if I'm motivated enough to provide it. I've done some more and there's definitely some pretty interesting stuff in there.
Its good to have people like salty around, to push us to do better, truth is its also possible to accomplish all those goals in a single map, a deep gameplay space that makes sense with the theme and has world building/ environmental storytelling to back it all up. obviously though all those extra steps make the process more time consuming when most players wont appreciate it... still, when those kind of spaces are brought to life they are always my favorite and inspire me