Well, here it is. My final Halo 3 forge: Arizona Grind. I sincerely hope those of you who download it enjoy yourselves. It's been a hell of a ride. Reach, here we come. *Note, the final map has changed slightly from what is portrayed in the writeup. Mostly some cleaned up aesthetics and a few small gameplay tweaks. Iz much bettar! **Another note, this map was totally designed using MickRaider and Insane54's forging How-To. Where's my $5, Insane? Thanks to all those who helped test for being generally awesome. Oh, and if anybody finds any problems with the map, please feel free to berate me for them here. I would be much obliged.
This map was amazing, I may have only played it once but that was enough to reel me in. Being possibly the first successful big team dune map created while at the same time being the last map created by cosmic rick makes this a bittersweet day.
Why did you post without warning, the forums just might assplode. Seriously tho, it's been a while since I commented on a map, so let me get to it. The actual post is great, btw, just sayin. I love the reference to Waterworks, it really does resemble it. The gameplay has an interesting "island-hopping" field, which takes me back to 5th grade learning about the Pacific and Midway and such. Get one platoon to the sniper, another platoon to the middle, and converge at the enemy base was a common and enjoyable gameplan employed by my teammates and I way back when you first showed this to me. The teleporters at the end seem to funnel the gameplay towards a more linear path than what the map seems to be, for those who haven't played this yet. Aesthetics are top-notch, almost a bit distracting. But there's one thing that stands out to me the most. The atmosphere of the map really feels light night time. It's something that many maps attempt with FX and other ideas, but not really done convincingly. Using the natural darkened lighting and the imposing structures creates a glorious mix of long range BR and carbine shots expected from open maps, and the claustrophobic frenzy of plasma rifles and SMGs in close range urban-like environments, all while under the cover of "night". I got a similar feel from Kentucky Tango, just without the sand. And of course, nice DL/emblem pic and haiku. Now, I gotta DL the final to replace the testing version.
Wow this map is nothing short of stunning. I haven't been this excited since I first heard of conquest. Dude you made a masterpiece and thus made halo a better game for all of us. I speak for everyone when I say thank you.
Haha, so you finally made a map where you didn't run into the budget issue? I'm amazed! I'll be sure to check it out sometime tonight, and we can hopefully get some games on it during customs. Maybe next time we meet I'll actually have something good to say about your maps
An epic asymmetric map, which seems to popular these days. I might have to go forge one myself... Anyways, I enjoyed testing this. The red base is great and all, but sometimes can be hard to navigate when you're getting into it for the first time. I was on the bottom floor of the red base, and the flag was on the second floor. I went up a grav lift and it sent me to the top floor. I dropped down, and went up a set of stairs which also sent me above the flag. I wasted about 45 seconds of the whole other team not knowing I was even in their base. Also, I just found out where the Banshee spawned from looking at your pictures. It was right above me the whole time... Overall, another great map that has some random State and some random form of dance.
I remember you texting me that you were testing this. And then I was like, "I'm busy, but tell me next time you're testing!" And I never heard from you again. Some friend. So then I wanted to see what everyone was talking about so I downloaded the really early version from your file share. The red base looked amazing. The rest of the map wasn't that impressive. That's when I remembered that it was an early version, and that you can't tell **** about how a map plays from a Forge-through. I'm looking forward to a chance to play a game on this beautiful baby. But if I can't, I'm still looking forward to seeing what you can do with Reach. Reach is going Cosmic!! I called it first.
I didn't realize this map isn't still amazing... Anywho, cool map bro, but needs moar ghost merges. lol. I think, or at least, would like to believe that I was one of the first peeps to see this... and even back then I was like, oh hey, look, another awesome map by Rick. Well, go figure... it turned out to be one. Of course I haven't played the most up-to-date one yet... but I don't need to to know this is good enough. Hope that was enough "go gush about how awesome Arizona Grind is over at FH." for ya'. LOL!
SO THAT'S WHY IT WAS DOWN. Rick, you really have gotta give us warning... And give me a kleenex. It's been a while since I posted on a map. SO yeah. The map looks amazing. I'll que this for download, like I do to the rest of your maps, but I'm questioning when the next time Halo will be inserted into my Xbox. Either way, it looks stunning.
Looks epic Cosmic, sad to see it is your last map though. I haven't played it yet but from the pictures it looked epic/amazing but i have never seen a map made out there that has really played well for me. Hopefully this will play as good as it looks. I shall try to get a game on it whenever i get my xbox back. Really nice post btw, it really caught my attention. Reach FTW
My God. Just by looking at the base pictures, I saw enormous scale and incredible architecture. If it's anything like Utah Mumbo (which I'm sure it is ;D), I'm sure it will not disappoint at all. Do come back to us Cosmic. Every game needs a great player. See you in Reach! DL
Hey cosmic nice to see a recent post from ya and what a post it is. I must say im confident in your abilities as a map maker cuz i knew about your maps before I ever joined a forge website.DL now. See ya in reach.
Fantastic. Huge fan of Utah Mambo, and this map is even bigger! This doesn't look to disappoint either. Ima download this and check it out Hopefully I can give you some positive feedback!
I dont care much for competeive maps but this one is absolutely EPIC! Everything about this map makes me cringe with excitement. I have only played a few competitive maps but nothing that looks or feels this amazing. I really hope you do a map pack or a v2 of all of your maps.
So one day I was sitting in a cold dark forge lobby all by myself just stacking blocks on top of each other, and I got this crazy game invite from some dude. Out of curiosity I decided to accept the game invite and stumbled in on this secret operation named Arizona Grind. And then it hit me like a cow tossed up in the air by a tornado, "COSMIC RICK!" Just by the name "Arizona Grind" everybody can tell that it is in fact a Cosmic Rick map. So good for you Cosmic, you've got this great theme going on and I'm lovin' it. I love Arizona Grind like a baby. This means I could care for it, feed it, and wait a second! I'm downloading this version to see if there is still a chopper outside the map... Cuz if there isn't, so help me Cosmic I will kidnap you and take you to my home where I will then force you to forge for hours on end until that chopper is once again on the map... GUD MaP! 5/5
The issue with this map is we customed like 5 games on it last night and the bad thing is the red base is dope but the blue base is terrible and very off balance . did u run outta budget ? the center is cool but the rest is all over the place and the sides are so open we found that people just got on a mongoose and drove like 4 eva around the map thats the problem with having a map outside the boundry, while it may be cool to do it doesnt work... 3/5 for me i would suggest eraceing some of the things .. like the tunnel thingy it really serves no purpose and put the budget in the blue base.. this map would have been dope in the center of the map ...ya ya it sucks bungie doesnt let us put barriors up to close in our maps....////////////// utah kicked this maps asssssssssss
Thanks for all the positive comments, guys. It's always nice to have a good reception. And yes, Vorp, that was excellent. I still have to get some games in on this bad boy. @twisted: I dunno, I actually think the Blue Base is stronger in symmetric games due to the ease of movement/weapon pickups. The obvious solution if you don't like the symmetric games, though: don't play symmetric games on it. It is asymmetric after all... And what tunnel thingy? If it's what I'm thinking, it serves a purpose... oh, does it serve a purpose. Anyway, I challenge somebody to make a bigger competitive map before reach. No, really, I wanna see.
Regodamndonculous!!! Flawless as usual. Played great as multi and single flag. Love that you left some options in the sky bubble. We brought down one of the choppers and a rocket launcher. You would have loved the gasps and ohhs and ahhs this map got when I showed it to my usual suspects. 10 of 10 that makes like a couple of dozen for you. Cant wait to see what you do with reach. MANRAYX SKYDIVE CONVOY LV-426SIETCHHAIL MARYSHADOW-ASSAULT