The Fabled Map Pack A final gift to you, the Forging community, from Benzu. Not a lot of you probably don't know me, or if you do, it's negative. But I've spent a lot of time off of my XBOX, and after getting on it... Spoiler After starting back up my XBOX I took the time to finish Final Fantasy XIII. Or most of it at least, because the final boss Orphan is a *****. Instead of putting some extra time and effort into that, I returned to Halo. I decided that I should post those maps that I never got around to, and finish my final maps. All maps support all gametypes. SUPPORT. That doesn't mean you can play Conquest and I recommend leaving Fat Kid on the shelf, forever. Just your old run-of-the-mill standard gametypes, plus standard gametype remakes. So here it is to you: The Fabled Map Pack (+3 extra maps) Or you could also call it: The Big-Ass Map Pack War-Zone Map Size: Large Party Size: Medium What it is: I think that War-Zone can be considered the highlight of the map pack. What it is in a nutshell is this: You spawn in the sky, pick up weapons on your fall down, then you fight and pick up weapons from other dead players. This is a way of giving everybody a loadout. There are 8 loadouts total (Thus 8 spawn areas), each with a Power Weapon, secondary weapon(s), and an equipment. It DOES get a bit hectic, but overpowering is out of the question and completely relative to the location of battling one another. It is surprisingly well-balanced for gameplay, just an intense gameplay. Pics and Download below Spoiler Overview Over-side-view Overview Defender's Base Attacker's Base Objective Outpost The Cliff Passing - Gets quite hectic The Middle Pass - A dangerous one Attacker's Base looking out Inside the Objective Outpost Inside the Defenders Base, shooting at the pole to get to the top DOWNLOAD Elevation Map Size: Medium Large Party Size: Medium What it is: Elevation was my first attempt at Ghost Merging --a startling success. I found out its true capabilities, and decided to only use NONMOVEABLE objects for this map in my craze of Ghost Merging. The map generally has 2 bases, and a huge, interwoven and intertwining mass of platforms. A key part of this map is movement, you can move between any two points within 15 seconds if you're a good jumper, whereas you can add at least another 5-15 seconds if you're only by foot. Also, there's a gametype twist. In CTF, you take a CENTER placed Flag to the Enemy base. In Assault, you run across the map to get your bomb, and then blow up YOUR base. Senseless but unique. Also, be sure to use HEIGHT ADVANTAGE, because shooting from above makes you harder to hit, the enemy easier to hit, plus you can hide in a moment. Pics and Download below Spoiler Overview Center Overview Center Overview Center The Back Alleys Attacker's Base Defender's Base Defender's Base viewing Out A legit invisible ramp - THIS WAS NOT MODDED, IT HAPPENNED WHEN MY XBOX WAS GLITCHING OUT, THIS WAS THE RESULT DOWNLOAD GarBage Map Size: Medium Party Size: Medium Small - Small What it is: GarBage is the opposite of Elevation. Garbage is a map that utilizes no immoveable objects whatsoever, it uses only items that can be thrown about to make its structures. This map was a recreation of Garage (a map released further on), only I decided to use ALL of Foundry, absolutely NO immoveable objects, and more creative structures. Also, the weapons of GarBage are BORING, don't expect Rockets or Bruteshots to absolutely tear down EVERYTHING. I made sure to implement bullet weapons ONLY. This map looks prettier in forge-over than gameplay, where it tears itself down relatively fast. Pics and Download below Spoiler Centerpiece-area Overview Another Overview Attacker's Area Defender's Area DOWNLOAD Three Extra Maps Spoiler Castle Oblivion What it is: A map purely inspired by Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories' Castle Oblivion. This map HAS been released on Forgehub before. It has some virtually unnoticeable changes, BUT, here it is. It has sub-par gameplay, because it IS primarily supposed to be an aesthetic map, but it does support all standard gametypes. This map was not inspired by any Halo 3 maps. This map has a striking resemblance from the front view (must be in Forge), but a throne was added, accessible by teleporter, so you can get a view AND harass other players from a distance. If you are a Kingdom Hearts fan, it is your duty to have this map on your Hard Drive. ENJOI Garage What it is: A random doodling of free time one random day. I avoided Ghost Merging because I was lazy. I retuned it up after finishing it, and I'm quite surprised by it. It may not be prettier, but it has better gameplay than GarBage. ENJOI Forgery What it is: Using grav lifts to distort the playing field. You can throw them on the boxes and get insta-cover, or you can instantly remove cover from the opposing side. This map is inescapeable, so even with 3 gravlifts ontop of one another, the invisible roof keeps you in. The map is symmetrical, a rarity for me, and it plays quite well. It is for CASUAL fighting, and above all is meant for more than 2 people, or else you'll find that Spawn Snipes are not uncommon. A quirky map, yes, but in a good way. ENJOI The Maps of Lore Heroic - Foundry, Standoff, Rat's Nest Legendary - Avalanche, Ghost Town, Blackout Mythic - Sandbox, Assembly, Orbital Fabled - WarZone, Elevation, GarBage Thanks for your time, see you at Reach!
: ( Dude...we all remember you. Spoiler Yur da guy who maid Cave Freaks!...no? I might not have been active, but I still remember you and some of the maps you made. ... Well, as far as goodbyes go, this is bittersweet. You've left Forge, but you've also left us with some amazing maps. I don't think there's any real point in critiquing seeing as how your done with Forge, so I'll just skip right to the praise and other such stuff. Warzone Holy -Blam!-...It's big, it's merged, and it's pretty! The amount of time you spent making it look like an actual, crumbling warzone will not go unnoticed. This map also has some stellar, fast-as-hell gameplay to go with the insanely stellar aesthetics. If anyone here is pondering which map they should dpownload (though I'd download all three), it should definitely be this one. A perfect win, IMHO. 10/10 Elevation One of my favorite-er maps in the six-map selection you've given us (not sure why the last three were "Bonus Maps". You could've just made all six part of the "Map Pack" : P). I like the odd Gameplay it gives us. Were essentially still playing regular CTF and regular Assault, but I'm glad you took the time to flip 'em around. Even though this map was made eons ago, it still boasts the aesthetics, gameplay, and jumping Skillizage of modern-day maps. One of the crazier maps in this selection. 9/10 GarBage This is probably one of the most unique maps I've ever seen. I can't really comment on gameplay as I haven't really played on it yet, but I can tell you that it's a diamond, aesthetics-wise. Your commitment to making something playable out of ussually overlooked objects is noted. Eveything seems to have been thought out very well, from bases to weapon choice (explosive weapons were something I didn't even think about untill you brought it up). I can't even imagine how much time this took. Congrats. 7/10 (Sorry if ya' think it's too low, but I have only your own comments on gameplay to go on)
This is the best map pack I have ever seen! The layout of the maps are great, weapon placement looks really good too. 10/10! You have a DL from me.
Warzone is the only decent-looking map here, and even it doesn't look nearly as good as some of the other maps being released these days. I mean sure, it looks clean and may be forged really well, but there's nothing that pops out at me and says "Wow! I've never seen that before!" Elevation could've been good if you hadn't tried to be so "Benzu original" with it. Using the sides of the boxes just made every walkway bumpy due to the fact that boxes on Foundry glitch sideways. Plus, the weapon choice on the map is absolutely horrific. Things like the Flamethrower just completely ruin any chance that this map had at playing good. Furthermore, you spent no time on making sure that people traversed the entirety of the map. During every game I've played on the map, people don't stray very far past the default Foundry wall, because there just wasn't enough incentive to go out that way. Garbage just speaks for itself. There's no difference in elevation and the entire map is made of movable objects. The map will just become a giant garbage dump a little bit into the game, with everything respawning awkwardly and people just jumping over piles of crates and wire spools. I must say, the name fits perfectly.
I really wish objective spawn settings could be set within the gametype and not permanently baked into the map. I also did a reverse one-bomb setup on my Nexus map back in September of 2008. I like the way it plays but I wish I could flip it back around without needing to have 2 versions of the same map. Anyhow, I'll check these out and get back to ya.
Benzu, what you have done here is re-released your maps and I'm really wondering why you felt a map pack was neccesary. I've seen literally all of these maps posted aside from garage/garbage. Also, I really wish you would try to consider elements other than originality when it comes to map making. You try very hard to be unique and original and put all the emphasis strictly on those things, I wish you would have considered the criticism you've recieved, both good and bad, and focused on more than uniqueness when it came to forging. I'm sorry to say, my friend, but you could have done a lot better in map making and could have been a well respected forger if you did consider all the elements of map making.
All right. A couple of decent comments and remarks, but some haters just gonna hate. Excellent question indeed. Garage was the original, but it was a slacker's project. While it may be a bit more fun to fool around with, I didn't quite see it as artistically worthy to be included in the Map Pack. While it does have better gameplay, that alone is outclassed by the rest of my maps. GarBage (pronounced "Gar-Baaj") on the other hand was constructed more as a project to test my artistic side, so I wanted it to have more attention given to it. I made the design to be a sort of CoD/Halo hybrid. It goes along well with the loadout scheme. If you find another competitive map with no exclusive gametype(s) that plays loadouts better than this, and has a prettier design, then be sure to let me know. Well, being different is what I try to do. Some people can appreciate this, others don't. While weapon placement (the flamethrower isn't that bad) and gameplay flow (I admit this isn't my specialty) could have been better, you'll just have to realize that I hate making a map that's been made before. You have to realize that the ForgeHub crowd hasn't seen 2 out of the 3 Fabled maps. As far as the ones you HAVE seen, I've made some tweaks to some and improvements to others, so don't be stingy. The Map Pack was my goodbye, so I don't see why not leave behind anything I felt gave a nice representation of my forging style.
Warzone 9/10 Very welll built look s good from all angles, a couple crooked pieces Elevation 7/10 well built again, couple crooked pieces, weapon placement a little off GarBage 8/10 Love the weapons, giant room full of excitement, gets destroyed to easy