In a change of events, I am deciding to drop the entire Plato's Cave Series/Story/Maps altogether. Who Cares? I'm moving on to an idea I've had for months. I like BTB playlists for the scale and beauty of the forge world maps. I love Hemorrhage. Always have, ever since it was called Bloodgulch. I prefer the ability to approach gameplay from a multitude of gameplay styles and preferences, including vehicular combat, stealth, sniping, and teamwork. BTB gameplay offers this. And so, I will be creating a game that I actually want to play, not just create. Everything that I have made previously has been what I projected onto other players, you. I was making maps that I thought you would want to play, or it was some half-assed idea I had, or my idea was based entirely on making a level LOOK cool rather than PLAY cool. Forge, for me, I have learned, is a tool to place objects onto an already existing template, Forge World, not make a completely new and grey template. The reason I get so tired of all these grey floating maps is because there is only so many ways you can make objects look fluid, while also allowing for good gameplay flow. The rigidness of blocks and their angles is not natural. Halo has always been an outdoor, natural game. We all hate the original level Library from Halo 1 for this exact reason, or at least I do, it's gray and unnatural. Forging levels entirely with forge pieces is a thing of the past I feel. With the massive plethora of Forge levels on this and other sites, literally hundreds, possibly thousands go completely ignored, lost in the shuffle. This is due in part to other factors like power, and the leaders who tame it. But even besides that, the overwhelming amount of grey maps has bored me. They are a dime-a-dozen. Mini-games are fun. But you have to have a lot of free time to learn the nuances of that certain game, and for almost every mini-game thereafter. This is why I stick to competitive gameplay maps. They are what I enjoy, and mostly all I enjoy in Halo. I want to have more kills that you, every time. But there is something missing lately with Halo. I am getting tired of the manusia of having the Wraith blown up 20 seconds into a match, or having the Scorpion Tank blown up in the first 10 seconds. I am wanting a more tactical gameplay experience where teamwork is key and makes for a fun exhilarating gameplay experience. I want the game to be more slow-paced, yet large scale, many vehicles. I want war on epic battlefields....
Halo has succeeded at being both an interior and exterior-based shooter. Iconic levels like Hang em' High, Citadel, Construct, Midship, The Pit, Elongation, Lockout, Turf...the list goes on and on for amazing enclosed/floating, vehicle-less (save for the Warthog on Turf, but those never last long), 4v4 competitive maps. What you dislike is the Forge palette, which just about every single member of this site would agree with you on. However, I heavily enjoy these kinds of maps, more-so than most maps with vehicles on them. Good forgers work very hard to try and make you forget about he grayness and keep you immersed with original aesthetics, cleverly used pieces, and colors. To me, Halo isn't about "being outside," it's about a certain play-style and layout that caters to the unique physics and weaponry used. It just so happens that you have more control and freedom to forge a map that's floating because you don't have to work around the landscape provided. The natural environment screwing with piece color certainly doesn't help either. I can assure you we'd be seeing a metric ****-ton of outdoor maps if we could sculpt the landscape as we see fit. Even then, some forgers like myself would simply prefer the indoor arena (which can also do vehicles just fine if desired).
You're right. Halo isn't just about being outside. But there is a reason 343 decides to reveal The Silent Cartographer remake before the opening Pillar of Autumn level, it's not ugly and gray and boring. Having the gray levels dispersed throughout natural levels provides good dynamic in aesthetics. The only way to have a reveal of a ring world is exiting a gray pod, of course. But being able to go back and forth is key. A buddy of mine makes the best gray maps I've ever seen though. I'm not opposed to gray maps but if I don't know you and you're making gray makes I probably don't give a ****, unless you manage to absolutely make something amazing, which is unlikely. (When I say 'you', I am referring to anyone, not someone in particular.)
Personally, I've never had a problem with the palette or the grey. But then, that's probably because one's state of mind affects one's ability to perceive color contrast... In any case, I don't think Halo's focus is entirely natural. Most of the maps are a mixture, where the map is a largely-indoor structure bordered by natural scenery -- Blackout, Citadel, Cold Storage, Construct, Epitaph, Narrows, Rat's Nest... Even if you don't incorporate Forge World's natural scenery into the map itself, you can still achieve some relatively pleasing aesthetics by conforming the fringes of your map to the terrain, and by setting things up to grant a good view of the natural paradise you're building the map in. You can also kick things up a notch by using the pieces themselves in a manner that hasn't been done before, or at least not often, but that's a lot harder...
I love the way you think. Maps aren't something that should be just lazily tossed together in a half assed attempt to create something that causes mass hysteria. It should involve teamwork and give you obstacles to be overcome in order to Reach the objective. But the "grey" maps that look good are a longshot more of an achievement than those that just take a basic template. I fully agree with the final paragraph but the rest is the part i have to dissagree with. Some maps look good with the forge world skybox but because most btb maps have already taken the template from forge world, it is growing more and more difficult to be original with btb maps. Here is a little tip to distract players from any sort of lazy (no offense) template that you use; Make some massive aesthetic peices that just look amazing. Like maybe make a AA gun somewhere or use some Silent Cartographer type structures.
Or because Pillar of Autumn is more of a Prologue than a full mission. Everyone knows Silent Cartographer and Halo are the most well known campaign missions, so of course they'd showcase one of those first.
Ah, yes, the grey pieces of forge does indeed get boring, and i want it to change, like nearl all of us on FH. A full map-maker would be awsome, but for reach i think it's better to wish for something that 343 studios could make for us. Like: A new forge palette, civilian vehicles, dead bodies, the ability to change the skybox, day and night filters etc...
because they had a mix of vehicluar combat and infantry combat and are both perfect examples of the main gameplay theme in Halo, choice. You can choose in Silent Cartographer whether or not you take a warthog or go on foot. You can either take a rocket launcher or just go with the standard weapons.
Halo and The Silent Cartographer aren't popular because they're outside and are nice looking. They're popular because they've got a great level and enemy encounter design.
That is the most obvious quetion i have ever seen. Where the enemies are coded to spawn and move. the great level design comes from the layout, use of AI encounters and the weapons and vehicles that allow better gameplay and increased manueverablilty.
The great level design is mostly seen in the fact that you can do the mission in any order you want. The great enemy encounters are mainly the beach assault in SC and the parts near the Forerunner structures where you need to save marines.
outside, was the answer... Q: where does the great level and enemy encounter design occur, primarily? A: outside There is grey in Silent Cartographer level as well. It accents the island, not dominates it. Even once you go down and down into the island you come to a lot of grey, aka Assault on the Control Room, (my favorite Halo 1 level.) Although, in AotCR you also go outside into some of the best vast, outside areas in all of Halo. The Outside and the Grey accent one another. What I am saying is just that. If there is gunna be grey in the level you want me to play on you better have some awesome ****ing Grey or accent decent Grey with Natural/Outside. [br][/br]Edited by merge: Awesome primarily grey map by a buddy:
That map isn't particularly grey as it has plenty of colour. Simply stating questions like: And frankly, you're wrong. Halo is not about outside gameplay. It's about individual experience and the connections YOU pull out of the game. The Silent Cartographer is the first mission where YOU take the fight to the covenant and where YOU understand what the covenant are looking for. YOU have to save the marines and locate the "map room". YOU finally slip into that sense that YOU are the HERO of the game... Before that point, you are just another marine in another ordinary game where you're clearly more superior than the AI. The game then pulls that all together and makes you understand that you're not an ordinary soldier, and the reason why they're all dying and you're still progressing through the campaign isn't because you personally can play the game better, it's because your character IS better and you fulfil the role you're intended to as an elite warrior who is destined to do great things... That is why that mission is such a milestone mission in the H:CE campaign. Starting to make sense? Other iconic levels would probably be Assault on the Control Room for your first encounter with the Scorpian, and first opportunity to fly the Banshee. 343 Guilty Spark, what's more iconic than the release of the flood? That mission was the most intense mission of ANY video game of that era. That was all interior based except the leading up to the facility and the exiting of the facility. Two Betrayels; one of the first levels across multiple games to have an all out 3 4 way war break out and you're evidently retracing your footsteps from before to fix the problems 343 GS is generating. Halo is made by YOUR choices and YOUR emotions towards the game, do not forcefully think that because your emotions were at their peaks during outdoor encounters, it does not mean that everyone elses were. If I had to make a choice, Halo is completely the opposite for me. It's about competitive 4v4 action in an enclosed, forerunner space where the surroundings are beautiful yet alien at the same time. The play space has to remain competitive, and the visuals have to look like they serve the purpose of something else entirely and that you're just fighting there because you have to.