Download "Open Flat Zone" About It: So as I was messing around in Forge World, trying to find a good place to start remaking some of my maps and conceptions from Halo 3, I noticed something that was tragically missing: a large, open, flat zone. Don't get me wrong, the Colosseum is great, and the area above it is phenomenal for smaller, low-clearance games, but when it comes to having a perfectly level area for forging on, I found Forge World to be suspiciously lacking. That's where this map comes in. Like the name suggests, Open Flat Zone is a large, open, flat zone situated at the bottom of Forge World. Colosseum Walls were used to construct the floor, and then railings were place to line the edges. While it is frustrating that such a realm required budget to create, there still should be more possibilities in this space than there were in Halo 3's Sandbox. Here's an overview of what it looks like: Note how at the back of this, you can see the spawn points that were originally set in the starting point of the Colosseum. I also added a respawn point, in case you should happen to jump off and die. There are also soft kill barriers set around the various pieces of map geometry that are within running/jumping distance, to ensure that people don't try and break any maps you might create on this canvas. "But Jpec! I don't want to use the soft kill zones that way!" Don't worry, my good friend, everything is going to be okay. If you want to delete/move/modify them, I've got the technical information about their locations (as well as a few other goodies) right here: So all that said, here's the download link again: Download "Open Flat Zone"
Why would I want to use a canvas map that you created when it would have you as the original creator of any map I create using it? I'd rather spend the extra 5 minutes making the platform myself to have my own name as original creator.
Took a lot longer than 5 minutes to create, dude. The pictures don't really do justice to how big this thing is (bigger than the main floor of Sandbox), nor how long it took to place all of the railing elements. Besides, why wouldn't you use something that already had a good chunk of the work done for you already?
I've gotta agree with Jpec here. That flat zone is IMMENSE, and would take quite a while to recreate. If I had any reason to forge on a flat zone instead of one of the cool other pieces of terrain (yay for phasing!), I would download it. There were ways to change the original creator in Halo 3, I gotta assume there are ways in Reach too.
Thumbnail images must be an unedited picture of the map. It's a small thing, but it does need to happen. I'll go ahead and make the first picture the thumbnail, but if you want to change it feel free.
Oh, no worries, and thanks for correcting it for me. I just assumed it was the same here as it is over at XF, seeing as how we came up with it first. But yeah, that's the only jab I'll make. It should be useful to anyone looking to do remakes of their Halo 3 maps. Enjoy!
No thank you. I would rather build it myself. I don't even see why I wouldn't want to. I don't care if it saves me 20 minutes. I could then call the map something that I made, rather than something that I made and a giant platform that somebody else made for me.
I'm not sure whether the original creator gets renamed...I feel like it does, because of the high rate of people trying to steal maps (in other words, they often succeeded by simply editing a bit and then resaving). If so, then this is a GREAT idea, and Jpec07, you ought to be highly commended. If not, then I'm terribly sorry...you wasted a great amount of time making a flawless flat thing...Here's to hoping your hard work pays off! P.S. For the people complaining about someone else getting the name as "creator," if this is something changeable by merely resaving once edited, at least have the decency to credit the author of the flat space...he may be saving you tons of time and work. =)
This looks very clean and well done. Having said that, personally, I don't think many maps could be made on a giant flat surface. I mean, I think the community's over and done with flat surfaces and is exploring slopes... or at least multi-levels. We had foundry and sandbox to explore ginormous flat... surfaces. I just feel like ideas would be very limited for that size of a thing. Plus, you could just use the Colosseum or the area above it... Just seems kind of an irrelevant, exaggerated idea instead of a useful, sensible one. That's not even mentioning the fact that your name would be on everyone's maps who build off of this. Nice effort... but I just don't think it's that great of an idea. :S
For everyone worried about their custom maps not having their name on them, all you need to do is "Save as new map" and it will say that you are the creator of the map. This is pretty sweet. If I'm ever looking for a HUGE flat place to build I'll definitely use it. Thanks!
Actually, that's not my experience. I had someone use this to make a map, and they then sent me the finished product for my examination. While I won't get into the particulars of the map they constructed, I will say that when I looked at the map details, it read as follows: "Map Constructed by: Forgotten Wing Map Modified by: >>>insert guy's name<<<" Had I known that would be the case, I probably wouldn't have made the canvas. I don't mind the credit, but I only did a small portion of the work for any map. Unfortunately, I can't think of any way to correct this...
I personally think everyone should be happy that Jpec posted this. Even if you want to make your own, for whatever reason, this is still posted for people who might be a little more lazy, or people who don't have the patience to make this. He just as easily could have not posted this and only use this for himself, but instead he put it up here for people who want to use it. It doesn't matter how many people don't use it, if just one person uses this, then it was worth posting.
really great job. this can be used for most things because forge world lacks a great flat zone it can also be great for alot of invasion maps good job man and its also nice that its not ruggedy floored.
I used this to quickly lay out the original version of my Map Seafort, which I will be posting here. Unfortunately, none of your work has made it to the final product, and your name is still on the map. I don't mind too much, but I figgered I'd thank you anyway, as I used it for some period of time.
I'm not going to get into the issue of whether or not this canvas is a good or bad thing, but I had a suggestion/comment pertaining to budget. The railings that you used around the edges may look nice, but those pieces come from the DECORATIVE menu and cost $50 each. With the amount of railings you've got on there, that's quite a bit of potentially "wasted" budget. As an alternative, pieces from the BUILDING BLOCK or WINDOW/DOOR/WALL menus usually only cost $10 each. For the most cost effective fix, using the fewest amount of pieces, I'd recommend using Coliseum Walls (90 degree vertically oriented) along the edges, sunk down into the floor and the water below, so that just a long "railing sized" portion is left above the floor. (For anyone who's curious, you can see an example [5th picture down, foreground] of this simple technique on my map VESUVIUS.)