Presented by: UCC:Forge In collaboration with: Max Extra, Duke of Mearl, SZR iParanormal, xDemption, and Creative Force A group of lobby hosts, forgers, and gaming pros working together to create a stable testing environment and QA pipeline for the Halo 5 Forge Community. The goal of ATN is to enhance the forge community by providing services to help forgers hone their skills, improve map quality, and showcase polished creations. HOW THIS WORKS: Content is submitted to public lobbies for testing and feedback, if this content is greenlit for advancement by two public lobbies, it can be submitted to the queue for the pro team lobby. Experienced Forgers are on hand to guide feedback sessions and, on occasion, assist in polishing content that the original developer is struggling with. Should the content reach the level of refinement expected of matchmaking content, we will endeavor to bring it to the attention of the Community Cartographers. We are by no means the gatekeepers to the CC's or Matchmaking. We provide 5 services: Hosting Lobbies, Testing Content, Providing Feedback, Assisting with Refinement on a Case by Case basis, and Promoting Content pursuant to Matchmaking Consideration. We do not play favorites, merit trumps influence. The Alliance Testing Network is very excited to announce some awesome new additions and changes to the network. We are proud to announce the addition of xDemption as a network lobby host! Spoiler: ABOUT XDEMPTION _ Demption’s work in halo 5 forge extends back to the early days. He’s had multiple matchmaking features and has come to the forefront of halo 5 forge with his recent 2v2 works, Shurima, Illadris, and an impressive co-forge with MultiLockOn, The Shire. Xdemption has made a strong commitment to work directly with forgers new and old to help foster maps through the testing process. Working one on one with such an experienced member of the community is a privilege and we are thrilled to have him on board. _ Introducing BTB! Spoiler: MATCLAN X MT & BIGTEAMBATTLE.NET _ Many of you have been requesting a BTB map testing and QA pipeline that would have a similar ladder system to the one we have put together for 4v4 core. Our first offering is now available. MATCLAN, the man behind bigteambattle.net and all around btb-badass has been running a BTB lobby of his own on Saturday evenings for some time, and it gets sweaty. The lobby regularly sees very high level players, many of whom are household names in the halo community. MATCLAN’s lobby is now an ATN affiliate and he will be pulling BTB maps from a short list and testing one or two of them for us each week. MATCLAN’s lobby has its own list of projects to get through and so we are grateful that he is willing to make the time to help us out over here at Alliance. Moving forward BTB map makers can enter the pipeline via Max Extra’s Forged Friday test lobby. Once that lobby green lights your map it will be put on a short list for bigteabattle.net testing that MATCLAN will move through at his prerogative. Ultimately we are working towards more dedicated BTB lobbies within the Network but for now, those forgers who enjoy their experience with our lobbies and want to work on larger player count maps this option is for you. _ The ATN Database is now Public! http://bit.ly/ATN-Database Spoiler: ATN DATABASE _ We are pleased to announce that the ATN database is now available for public viewing. By following the link below you will be able to see the exact database that all of our lobby hosts use to enter maps into the pipeline and manage the progress of each. By looking here you can see exactly where your map is in the process, who has tested it, and any feedback notes explaining why it has it’s current status marker. There is also a map-flow breakdown for anyone who confused about how the Network moves map around in the pipeline. _ Looking back on our first month. The Alliance Testing Network has been live for just about a month now. So far we’ve seen really impressive maps go through, but even more impressive has been the progress we’ve seen from so many of the maps that come to us in the early stages and make their way through the process and on to greatness. When we started our network our goal was very simple; create a comprehensive map QA pipeline that would be available to all and free from bias or politics of any kind. We wanted to be map-centric and offer up the resources we had for ourselves to the entire community. In order to hold ourselves that much more accountable to that mission and to provide a further level of transparency, we have asked @WARHOLIC to act as a community advocate within our group. If any forger ever feels they have been treated unfairly or unethically by any leader or host within the Alliance Testing Network, you can bring your grievance to Warholic and he has complete access to everyone and everything within this organization. Further, he will be able, should he see fit, to make his findings public record on forgehub. You can be confident that you and your map are being treated objectively and fairly within our network. This step is meant not simply to bolster community confidence, but to give you all real tools and real power to audit our process and investigate our practices. We’re so pleased with how everything has been working since we got this up and running and we can’t wait to see what you guys come up with next! - Merder Smerf (XBL: Seems Dangerous) The Banner for each lobby is a link to their respective submission thread, should one be available. Host: Max Extra (XBL) Twitch.tv/Max_Extra Spoiler: FORGED FRIDAYS _ - Flexible Player Count, Play Till the Lobby Dies (6 Hours on Avg.) - Queue capped at 35 items - Tertiary Game Types Allowed - After Queue, lobby capped at 8 for focused testing (FFA, 4v4, 2v2) - Mics preferred - Map Order Determined by Post Order and Player Count - 1 Games/Map _ Fridays 8pm CST (Invites at 7:45) Convert to your timezone Host:SZR iParanormal (XBL) Twitch.tv/iParaTV Spoiler: iPARANORMAL's CUSTOMS _ - Flexible Player Count, Lobby Usually Full - Tertiary Game Types Allowed - Competitive Core PreferredS - Mics strongly preferred, maturity expected - Usually 1 Game/Map - Dev chooses Game Types - Map Order Determined by Post Order/Host Discretion _ Saturdays or Sundays 4PM EST Convert to your timezone Host:Duke of Mearl (XBL) Spoiler: DUKE AFTER DARK _ - 4v4 [ENFORCED] - Core Game Types Only (Oddball included) - Mics strongly preferred, maturity expected - 2 Games/Map, 3rd at Dev Request - Dev chooses Game Types - Map Order Determined by Join Order _ Sundays 8pm EST Convert to your timezone Host: xDemption (XBL) twitch.tv/redemption1272 Spoiler: INTO THE FORGE _ - Mics preferred - Map Order Determined by Host - 5 Maps, 3 Games/Map _ Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays 7:30pm EST Convert to your timezone Host: MATCLAN x MT (XBL) Spoiler: MATCLAN'S BTB _ - 8v8 Games - Mics preferred - Submissions Not Accepted, Host Curates Queue _ Saturdays 9pm EST Convert to your timezone Host:Merder Smerf (GT: Seems Dangerous) Twitch.tv/iprimedevil Spoiler: UCC PRO TEAM LOBBY _ - "Using Cheat Codes" Pro Team - Requires a pass from any two of lobbies 1-3 for entry - 4v4 [ENFORCED] - Core Game Types Only - Mics Required, maturity expected - Closed Lobby, testers are UCC Members - 3 Games/Map - Dev Chooses Gametypes - Queue Order Determined by order of acquisition of second greenlight - 15 minutes dedicated feedback session _ Wednesdays 8:30pm EST Convert to your timezone Spoiler: ABOUT UCC _ Team Captain Lady Vanquish a.k.a "Foxy" twitch.tv/lady_vanquish A m1le High twitch.tv/amilehighdenver iPrimeDevil twitch.tv/iprimedevil JustNaxxis instagram: @just.naxxis _ Spoiler: CREATIVE FORCE INVOLVEMENT _ To mitigate the overhead that the Lobby Hosts have to deal with, they have partnered with Creative Force to leverage their established processes, standards, and experience. Creative Force will be participating in this partnership in the following ways: - Thread Design & Formatting - Curating Content - Moderating Feedback Sessions - Structuring feedback into actionable suggestions - Creating/Curating Reference Materials - Working with Content Creators on UCC Tested Content as Needed and if Available - Promoting content to CC's Spoiler: REFERENCE MATERIALS _ SURPRISE! This isn't ready yet! _
No offense to Demption, but he's pretty far away from being a "master of trade" here. He's a good guy that means well, but he's a very far throw from being an expert.
@Captain Punch killing it as usual with the gfx. This guys does this while he's at work. For free, and ATN isnt even his thing. Huge props.
No this is just an info post but if you look at the individual lobbies listed they all have links to their individual submission threads. The lobby on Friday is max extras forged Friday start there.
I just wanted to say it is a privilege to work among you guys. The professionalism you guys bring to the table is outstanding and something I wish to continue for a long time to come. Good to see matclan up there as well, too excited for words to see this grow! Xdemption
Just wanted to share that I was in one of Duke's 4v4 lobbies a couple weeks ago or so- I was invited through someone else. It was a fantastic experience with skilled players who know how to play the game and act right in a party. Since that night of testing I've been joining testing lobbies hoping to recreate the good time we had in that lobby. It was fun and eye-opening to just how many things actually are being Forged out there but aren't getting recognized. I've also been in one of Matclan's BTB lobbies before-unfortunately the turnout wasn't that good last week. Pretty great that you've got a pro team that plays competitively on the maps as well. Oddly, and sort of unrelated, I used to match with Lady Vanquish in Halo 3 on MCC almost often so I know from experience that she's a kickass player. This group is awesome and I got to meet some cool players like Schnitzel, Duke, Chesus, and Scrub Meee. Keep up the great work, I think this is something community needs right now.
Thread's been up since April and I didn't even know I/my lobby was listed. Oh well, I'm not planning on changing anything in the foreseeable future and I'll give you guys advance warning if I do decide something needs to change.
As of right now ATN does not have a BTB map process but there are lobbies that play btb maps. Forged Friday, and The Thursday Thirteen both do btb. some new lobbies from other non ATN people also btb like TheLast Ravager