Wicked. I'll be playing this tonight. Excellent Geo-Merging and it looks great gameplay wise. By the way i agree with Gun Down.
For some reason the castle seems to remind me of Ascension, but maybe it's just me. I'll download (if I haven't maxed out my limit) and see if I can get a game together.
Really! It took 423hr to build? Not to be a jerk cause the map looks awsome! But having myself built a map that took months upon months to build I know that after about the first hundred hrs that you lose all perspective of how much time it took to build. Having the build time down to the exact second only adds to the sense of complete exaggeration. If this map was built in a month and your caims are true that would mean that you either forged for 24hrs a day for 18 days out of the month. Or for 14hrs a day including weekends without rest or food! NICE ONE DUDE! You should have just claimed that it took the entire month 720hrs. Also you might want to go take a shower now! Im back after a forge through. I only assume that your numbers on build time are inaccurate because short of having a stop watch and journal there is no possible way to even guess within a hundred hr mark of build time on something this big. I personaly would remove that from the post because it only hurt the integrety of an awsome map! As for the map itsself, amazing work this is the first time I've seen color coded geomerging, while still appearing neat and clean. It looks like adding this much play space to AV will make a some what boring map ten fold more fun to play. Great work no matter how long it took to build. Hope it plays as good as it looks. NICE WORK 5/5
You can ask anyone on my friend's list how I was on 24 / 7. This project started in November. I am a major insomniac. That should answer most of your time concerns. The final numbers I have posted are accurate. I am not exaggerating at all. I actually have decreased these numbers. I really wish I had you as one of my testers. You would have realized off the bat. I don't bs. As well, my build time is not down to the exact second. It's down to the minute.
Hard to believe things when said online isn't it? I can atest to this map's greatness, and to exactly how long Spade here forged on the map. Though i personally think that the hardest part with the map was getting people who would help test it and not leave. And it was fun just roaming around, and finding mistakes.
I downloaded and played with a large group of buddies, the general feeling among us is that this map is damn impressive. Forging is great, layout is superb and its alot of fun.
Wow this map is very neatly done and the amount of merging is very impressive. The castle really doesn't look like a castle sometimes though. But that's beside the point, i like your choice of play space in avalanche. 4/5 good job keep on forging
I had a ton of fun playing it myself. I just wish more people would see this is more of a gameplay involved map. Thanks for bringing up the gameplay though, I'm glad someone enjoyed it. This map is not intended to be for aesthetics only, it's main priority is for gameplay. Could you be a bit more specific as to why it does not look like a castle sometimes? It really could help me out here. - Toxic Spade.
Yes, the building was timed with a stop watch. Review of Castlanche - Toxic Spade Gameplay: To begin, the gameplay on Castlanche is superb. I never got bored of it and returned for all of the testing sessions I could. The improvement of gameplay just kept getting better and better over the months of forging spent on this map. Even with only a 4v4 capture the flag or territories game, the gameplay never failed. I would have to guess that with a big team battle size of teams, this map would play so well for one flag ctf. Score for gameplay: 9/10 Aesthetics: I know how much time you spent on aesthetics on Castlanche and you really deserve some credit for that. The towers completely reworked on the outside was a surprising change early on that shined later when they were used more and more. Another thing that I love on Castlanche's aesthetics is the ceiling inside the cave. The angled, geomerged boxes are a nice aesthetic feature that slightly alter the cave's color which is very cool. Score for aesthetics: 10/10 Durability and spawns: Ah yes, the durability of Castlanche… most people say, “Omgee! I can walk away from teh mapzorz!” Well yes, you can. I honestly don’t see why you would though. The beautiful aesthetics of Castlanche and the objective based gameplay hold you close to the map at all times. It took me a while to realize that you don’t even have a wall to keep players in. I was focused on the map at all times and looked for improvements during testing. I know you’re not lazy and didn’t want to spend time on a wall because on your new map, that wall is beautiful. Spawns have been reworked on this map so many times it’s not even funny. After almost every testing session, you went into forge and reworked the spawns. I was never spawn killed in the final versions and you even made three receiver nodes so no one could camp the cave. Score for durability and spawns: 9/10 Weapons: I have to start this section off with the sniper rifle placement. In the first version of Castlanche, the sniper rifle was somewhat hidden behind the large man-cannon in the base, and I even needed you to tell me where it was and I couldn't even find it then. The next test, I looked there and it was gone, so I looked in the one other place I thought it would be; the sniper tower. It was there of course, and I was really glad that I didn't even know where the sniper was on this map and I still found it within 15 seconds of the match start. Outstanding change. Now for other weapons. I like how you placed the weapons in plain sight, yet concealed them a little if you understand what I mean. Take the hammer for an example, it is in plain sight if you go over to it, but otherwise you wouldn’t see it clearly. You did the same thing with the sniper rifle for the attacking team. It is in the small indent of the entrance to the cave and you wouldn’t normally see it unless you go to the attackers tower. It was a very creative feature that I noticed during the later versions of Castlanche. Score for weapons: 9.5/10 Feature? Definitely, this map is the best Avalanche map I’ve ever seen and is truly deserved of a feature. With over 400 hours of work from Toxic Spade and about 20 hours of testing myself, I have seen this map “grow” into the best Avalanche map on FH. Amazing job Toxic Spade, you have a feature coming your way.
Thanks for the comment. It seems you have put a ton of time into writing it, which from writing this post, I know can be painful. Thanks again for coming to the testing sessions. We really had a blast! - Toxic Spade
WOW! THIS MAP HAS EVERYTHING! feature worthy for sure, next time maybe try to clean up the geomerging (yes i know its almost impossible), but besides that 5/5! great job man!
clean up the geomerging? this map has perfect geomerging. everything is smooth and perfectly placed. PLAY this map, and you will see it is everything you dreamed of for a One-Sided Objective game and more.
I did a forge through, and it kind of concerns me that you didn't block off the other side. Unfortunately I couldn't get a game together because no one ever seems to be on when I am. So I won't do an extensive review without playing it.
Nice build. I like the looks and aesthetics. I haven't played yet so I can't comment on gameplay, but as soon as I get a big enough party I will try it out. It's too bad you couldn't close off the other side because even though it technically doesn't give you any advantage by going over there, I don't see Bungie putting a map into matchmaking that has such a huge amount of area open. The fear would be people unfamiliar with the map will go over there in a state of confusion, not knowing what to do or where to go. In other words, how many Bungie maps do you see with such a large area of unused land? I do have to comment on your claim to over 500 hours on this map. Personally, I don't think it is possible. I can see you have dedicated a lot of time to this map, but that number is just crazy. I am by no means calling you a liar so don't take it that way, just that I think spending that many hours in the time frame you have given is a bit impossible. Lets say I give you the benefit of having forged this in 45 days with the inclusion of just sleep, not counting school, work, family or friends. I'll use an average of 8 hours of sleep a day. 45 days = 1080 hours. 45 days - sleep = 720 waking hours 720 waking hours - 515 claimed forge hours = 205 leftover hours 205 leftover hours / 45 days = 4.5 hours a day 16 waking hours a day - 4.5 leftover hours a day = 11.5 hours a day spent forging this map. You expect us to believe you spent roughly 11 hours a day for 45 days straight on this map? And I went back through your custom games history in your Bungie Profile. I clicked on every single Avalanche link all the way back to October. I found maybe a handful of games in which you actually got a 4v4 together. Most of the games were 2v2, 3v2 or 1v1. Hardly true testing conditions. And ALOT of them were 1v1 with chimerathe5th, roosterillusion and others. Even then it doesn't come close to your 63 hour claim. Look, the math is give or take, but it all seems damn near impossible. I am not trying to be an ass here, it just didn't add up to me. I suggest getting rid of the time taken claims because as you can see here, some people do research. Your map is well forged as it is, no need to make ridiculous claims or have your friends back them up to get noticed, your forging would have been fine.
I guess your right. I just don't know how you can be researching my account, when I play games offline with some of my friends who don't have xbox live. I find it's much easier that way, then actually waiting for people in a lobby. I will take the times out because people keep worrying about them more than the map.
i really like the main base shape - it looks very cool. nice job with the interlocking also. you might want to add a little bit more to the open spaces though - the fairly random boxes look kind of wierd, however, im sure they work great for gameplay, so you can disregard that