"...if you confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your soul." (And your butt) The primary concept I had for this build was to do something that stands out from the crowd aesthetically and architecturally. I see a lot of good-looking maps now that the forge community has aged and matured, but I feel like 90% of them are coming out of the same template (especially using certain objects quite a bit). Due to performance issues it's very hard to get away from the standard object palette, I grant you, and building that map out of railings and glass sails is probably a horrible idea. But there are still objects I feel are less explored, probably because they're harder to work with - and one of my favorites is anything with some curve to it. Rectangles are boring. Beyond that, I wanted to make a symmetrical, small-to-mid-sized map for intense games like you might see on classic maps like Citadel. The layout here is simple and clean, inviting non-stop combat. So here are some screenshots. This is the just-finished first build; who knows where it will go from here? Budget is roughly 7100 and I have objects left in all categories, so there's plenty of wiggle room.
I don't think the pictures do this justice and I definately want to see more. Though I can say three things: I love that you are exploring lesser used peices and using commonly used ones in new ways, I hate the colosseum wall floors, and the 2x4 floor designs look awkward (img 3). Other than that I look forward to seeing this in person.
Yeah, sadly this map is small and enclosed enough that it's hard to give a full impression of it from screenies. The 2x4 floor thing was a last-minute addition (literally the last thing I put on the map before I took these pics) and that may change or go away. I may just keep the center one where the grenade launcher sits; haven't decided just yet. I know how you feel about coliseum walls, but I simply don't find it possible to build this kind of map without them; there is way too much floor, wall and ceiling to create with smaller objects that will end up hurting framerate. Plus the steel gray can give a very cold look, which I wanted for this particular project (unlike many of my maps, there is no natural element whatsoever and not even so much as a window showing the outside world). Personally, I think I'm more sick of 2x4 and 4x4 blocks, but they're almost as much of a necessary evil. Here's to hoping that the Halo 4 forge palette has a lot more large-scale objects to work with.
All good reasons to have the coli floors. Im still going to tell you that i want aliens to eradicate them from your map though
I agree with the first guy, its nice to see a map that is truly different, and that uses different pieces. I personally love the rounded walkways, and the structures like it. Great job, I'd love to play on this map!
That first picture really caught my attention. I like that you are trying to accomplish something different here with the liberal use of small circular inclines. I just wish you'd built the map somewhere else that didn't suffer from so many light-mapping issues :\ If this is a 4v4 map, then Coliseum walls are almost always going to be on the map as either floors or walls so I'm gonna side with you on that decision. Such is the way of life in Forge if you wish to avoid too many frame drops on larger maps. However, using them as both walls and floors is probably unnecessary unless you're going for split-screen performance. The only problem I have with the map from the pictures is that you've got a lot of 0.2 FU thick walls made of brace, larges. Paper thin walls like this break the illusion that your map is a real place with real structure. There aren't many walls in architecture that are this thin and it doesn't feel believable that they would be holding the place together. They're also kind of annoying when it comes to game-play IMO. If you can, try placing two of them together to get a thicker wall. I think you'll find that it just feels "right" in comparison. Other than that, looks solid so far. Can't wait to test it out.
WhYYYY this looks interesting. I hope you’ll add a few colors for orientation despite the dark theme. The light mapping doesn't that bad imo, since the darker pieces seem to be in logical clusters at least. Where is this forged? It looks so dark I'd guess its in the cove to the left of the waterfall, or is that just the normal darkness of these pieces? On another note, I wonder about those curvy inclines as ramps. Aren't they a little hard to traverse? Anyway, looks cool.
There's actually a lot less of that that might appear from the screenshots. Basically there are just two rooms on one end of the map with partial brace large walls, and a couple of support/cover panels on the adjacent bridge. But I have plenty of budget and decoratives left, so I may look into thickening them up if it seems appropriate - thanks for the suggestion. Edited by merge: I will be doing something with either colors or a large visual landmark, and I haven't colored up the existing colored pieces on the map yet either. It's coming though. I am good with the light mapping too. I'm not as sensitive to that as a lot of people are though. I mean, it's a fact of forge life - unless there's a really glaringly bad problem I tend to overlook it. Anyway this is trickery; the location isn't supplying the darkness, it's an FX combination (colorblind + next gen + juicy). I've been trying to find a use for that combo of filters for a while, as it's one of the few that I think is subtle and doesn't hurt the eyes. No, it shouldn't be, or at least it isn't for me. I specifically tried to keep the intended walkways clearly demarcated and bounded by railings to make sure that wouldn't be an issue. You can hop the railings and mess around in stranger places if you want, but that's just Halo for you. The section between the railings isn't problematic to walk on at all, and actually there's really just one curved walkway on the entire map (pic #2 and #4 show the same walkway from different angles). The rest of the curved inclines are used as either walls, or combination walls/tac jumps.
Wow you put this together fast. I really like the atmosphere you've got going here. Looking forward to seeing this again.
Here's a video tour to give a better idea of the layout. You'll notice this has already changed in a couple of particulars from the screenshots. Untitled Halo: Reach map preview - YouTube
Nut, you're making me want to play a 4 v. 4 slayer map. Stop it. I actually like how this looks. It has a darker feel and I enjoy seeing the new piece set. This made me think of both citadel and a bit of that new map Wraparound in Halo 4. I hope this works out, maybe some people will take a hint on part usage soon.
You sneaky bastard. It looks even more interesting in the video. I hope it doesn't suffer from what I shall now call cyborg syndrome, a symptom of a map on which you get all excited about supporting 4v4 only to find out it's not quite big enough or segmented enough to safely spawn with 8 players. Or maybe that's just my map designs, not a function of their size. It's not the size, it's how you use it. But that's just what forgers with small maps say, lol.Anyway, back on topic, I look forward to playing this, I assume on tuesday?
Yes, it is. I've done it. lol (download link is broken, but the screenshots should convey the inherent lagginess) But yeah - map looks amazing - the curved aesthetics are just beautiful. I can't believe this is on Forge World lol Have you stress tested it at all yet? Thinking of trying to get it into MM? I mean, I obviously haven't tried it yet, but I could see this aesthetic being a welcome change in Team Slayer. Awesome use of color filters too - definitely the least distracting combination I've seen, short of just using a next-gen and white lights.
Thanks - it actually looks a bit better now too, I've been polishing up the aesthetics and making a few piece replacements here and there. I have yet to play a game on it, but I've done a 2-player split screen and it was smooth as butter. (Which was a relief, i had no idea what to expect from it.) I'd love to get it in team slayer if it plays well - I'll be testing it hopefully starting today, or at the latest in the Tuesday night TCOJ lobby, and we'll take it from there if it's playing as I hope it will. [br][/br]Edited by merge: It very well may, and I'm concerned about that. The map isn't huge and though I tried to segment it intelligently and create 5 or so spawn clusters on each side, it remains to be seen how it will go in a real game. I also left spawning fully dynamic for non-objective games; that ought to help, I would think.
That's what I was hoping you'd say If you need a few scrubs to flesh out the testing party, me and a buddy or two should be on tonight at some point.
Thanks Whacky, I sent you a friend request. I may get on in a couple of hours and try to assemble a testing lobby.
So the map is bigger than the pics let on. I think it'll be great for 4v4. There seem to be enough spawning options as well. I'm not sure about the location of the bases both being off on one side; I wonder how certain gametypes are gonna play and how much of the other side of the map they'll use. Not saying anything bad yet, we'll have to see how it goes. For assault though, it typically ended up being a bad idea to take the ball through the teleporter because it took you way away from the objective and gave enemies times to catch up to you by cutting across the map. Don't take this too much to heart yet since the teams were uneven and that may not have been representative of how the gametype will normally play.
Thanks for the feedback, Cyborg! You'll find this out firsthand as we go deeper into testing (I plan to be running this map a lot in the near future, with the goal of putting it in The Library and submitting it to Blueprint) - but basically each objective game is treated differently. Flag spawn/return location for CTF is not in the room the bomb goal spawned in last night; instead it's more in the middle of the map on either side, behind one of those walls made of tall and thin blocks. For assault, the bomb goals are where you saw them, but the bomb spawn points (for one or two bomb) are in the same place as the flags in CTF. For neutral bomb, the objectives basically impose a triangle on the map - the two goals forming the base of the triangle, and the neutral bomb spawn being the top point. For stockpile, the flag goals are where the bomb goals are in those little rooms, rather than where the CTF flags spawn. Hopefully this won't get confusing, but the map design is supposed to be both unconventional and flexible, so I wanted to design each objective game experience to optimize that specific game. You'll just have to follow your waypoints! I will say that our team found the teleporter useful at least two times - I went through it with the bomb and you guys seemed confused, spreading out over the other end of the map and invading our bomb goal area (where none of us were). I managed to run it all the way to your goal unseen, but you spotted us just feet away from it and stopped the attempt. The second time was at the very end of the game - I did the same thing and that was how we got our last score while you guys were looking elsewhere. That is the kind of thing I'm hoping will happen - basically there will be a fierce territorial war over the bridge and the two rooms at the ends of it, but people will re-route sometimes for the element of surprise. Plus of course when the bomb resets, traffic is immediately drawn back to the other end.
Oh good, this got a bump. Now I can post my thoughts on it. The games we had were quite fun. Aesthetics were completely original and the FX was actually not much of a bother. A few things I noticed, though- The tele receiver node was easily campable with the shotgun. There was no way anyone would be able to see me sitting in the corner waiting for someone to come out of it, which I did. Another thing I noticed, is that Overdoziz and I had a fight in an area where we danced around some sort of small pillared structure for like a minute(I can't exactly remember what it was). Usually that isn't good for gameplay. It would be easier if I just showed you the ****in' thing, lol. Next time I'm on, throw me an invite. Overall, though, it was pretty enjoyable.
You layout is good for maybe a 2v2 map not a 4v4 . Also in your video i can see that your sniper have 2 spare clips ..... i think its too big for the map size .