8 O’Clock Reminiscence By REMkings Spoiler Darkness falls across the land The midnight hour is close at hand Creatures crawl in search of blood To terrorize y'all's neighbourhood Welcome everybody to my second map in Halo 4, named "8 O'Clock Reminiscence". The inspiration for the name comes from the fact that the map takes place at dusk, hence the "8 O'Clock" part, and that terrible events went down at that hour which may not be forgotten by the ones who lived through, hence the part "Reminiscence". Anyway, as you may already know, 8 O'Clock is another take on the concept I used for my Reach map "Deadborough", in which tall buildings with multiple accessible levels as well as warthog gameplay in and around the cityscape play a vital role. Be reminded of the fact that this is not a remake of Deadborough though, just a way of bringing back what worked in that map when it comes to gameplay technical features and the fact that it takes place in an urban environment. What has changed in 8 O'Clock in comparison to Deadborough: - The apocalypse is only starting up - The warthog track is a lot more unpredictable and focuses more on the streets through the city rather than a track around it - The buildings are not as tall but are more equal in size and strength, and traversing between one another has become a lot easier - There is ordnance on the map resulting in more available ammunition - which is mostly neutralized by more regular zombie encounters The changes above aren't necessarily changes for the better; I'm not stating these things weren't right in Deadborough. I'm only establishing what is different so you know what to expect. The beginning of a round The humans will initially spawn behind the tank station, facing main street with a Warthog lying flipped on its back. This is the focal point where most humans will also head towards when starting a round, after which the group usually gets divided into segments of players entering the many different buildings or driving one or two of the vehicles present on the map. It will definitely help to discuss with some of your friends which building to take residence in. I'll come back to that in the paragraph "Teamwork". Movement between the buildings is enhanced by the addition of many naturally looking shortcuts, such as street lights, traffic lights, phone booths and jersey barriers. Make sure to use these to your advantage in order to traverse the map in a faster way. Some of these objects are also very useful to hide from incoming bullets. The gametype 8 O'Clock makes usage of a custom gametype called "The Beast Within". This gametype allows for vehicular combat, and gives the humans an Assault Rifle off spawn, as well as the option to strengthen their weaponry by scavenging the field for more weapons. Humans can take two hits before being infected and will regain their health after 5 seconds of staying free from hits, which is a lot more balanced than it may sound, as turned out while testing. Be aware that although this gametype would've been legitimately possible in Halo Reach, modding was needed to enable some of these options in Halo 4. I did not do the modding myself but I'd like you to know that if you have something against modding, this gametype might not be for you. The Beast Within (gametype) can be found in my fileshare. Teamwork Teamwork is a great deal on 8 O'Clock Reminiscence. Defending a room on your own might work for a couple of minutes, but eventually you will get overrun. By communicating well with fellow human players and coordinating an organised defense against the horde, you'll stand a lot longer and might even be able to withstand the dead for an entire round, as I've seen happen quite often. The Warthog One of the most enjoyable parts of 8 O'Clock is definitely driving the Warthog. At first, this vehicle wasn't very appealing due to its usual early loss in the round. This was significantly improved after changing the health of humans from one to two hits, resulting in a quick rush at the beginning of the round between the many human players trying to grab a seat in this beloved vehicle. Even though your chances of survival are likely to decrease when entering the Hog unless you are a gifted driver and also have an intelligent gunner with you, it is most certainly a great way to distract zombies from humans holding out in the buildings and giving them a moment to catch up. Not to mention, it is also one suitable way of putting down a lot of the geeks before meeting your own demise. I mean, who doesn't like slaying zombies? Some more screenshots for your pleasure Spoiler lol another way to survive the apocalypse: Map review by HaloForgeNetwork: [video]www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC032nrhPKk[/video] Warthog Run: More videos will be added next week, such as an awesome Warthog run I had together with El Trocity. That is all, thanks for taking the time to read and I hope you will all download my map! Constructive criticism and other kinds of feedback are always welcome. Special thanks to: El Trocity PA1NTS Mr Pokephile Pol Wah NARB GUY Starship Ghost And many others helping me with testing this map numerous times and giving me any helpful feedback
This map can't be any more awesome than it has become after playing it during the beta. The only thing to complain about on this map has to do with the frame rate becoming slow at times with bad connection. All in all, this is a must download map. GREAT MAP
First of all, fantastic post Remco. You've covered just about every focal point of the map and even more impressively, the sheer feel of the map. And boy, its a unique one. In the early stages of 8 o'clock, it was held back by many frame rate drops throughout the map, often making the map really frustrating to play. It is incredible how much better it has become while still maintaining the difficult urban theme. The details are awesome. The street lights, random nature of the buildings with the dominion pieces & pallets and that ****ing telephone box man. Its just so pretty. Once the frame rate improved, I really started to enjoy the map. The buildings are expertly balanced, the roads are plenty and roomy and Flood spawns are situated well across the map. I particularly enjoy holding out in the two taller buildings in the centre, pairing the height advantage with a Sniper. I also enjoy patrolling those nice tarmac roads with the 'Hog. Some rounds I think, "**** surviving, I want to go out with a bang", haha! Whether I am driving or gunning I can really let my anger out, . Now, after you tweaked the gametype and playing my first game with it, I saw that this map really stands out. I'm not kidding, it is the best urban map I have played on Halo. The feel of the map perfectly matches what I imagine holding out in a cityscape to be which makes it a special experience. Urban maps are the hardest to master, but you have done just that. Well. Done. <3
Dem aesthetics. All that detail, those traffic lights, the buildings, the gas station, I love it. I've been absent from forgehub and halo for a long time, could you update me with some info about BIOC? I would like to join again.
Very awesome job! I'm not a fan of flood but I really want to play this map. I remember you posting a map preview way back and the map stood out then but now it just made my jaw drop. You have really made this a very impressive map and is on a whole other level of pretty much any map I've seen posted here in a long time. The map isn't lacking anywhere in gameplay or aesthetics, it's all very well balanced. The detail and playability you gave to each building is very impressive. The area for the hog to drive around in urban terrain is like perfect (not to small of an area and not to large) and very impressive. The map size is awesome. I don't really know where to stop giving you compliments. Great job and a must-feature!
Thank you so much Hulk! Means a lot coming from you, the guy who built the outstanding urban map Curb Stomp. I'm definitely glad with the way the warthog track turned out. At first the street from the second picture in the spoiler wasn't used a lot because the buildings were too close to each other, but I broadened it a bit and made it also a bit more aesthetically pleasing. This resulted in a lot more vehicular activity in that area and that, in turn, resulted in a more enjoyable warthog track overall. The gameplay of the buildings balances this out and makes for a fun alternative if you're not that much of a vehicle guy, or just didn't get the chance to enter it. There was a moment when I was almost fed up with this map because I just couldn't get the warthog to work right, nor some of the buildings. In the end I'm glad I was able to bring back this warthog-buildings concept from Deadborough after all and comments from guys like you make it worth every bit of time I put into this map.
Yeah, well you can tell a lot about the amount of effort you put into it. It just wasn't a map that was just built overnight, it took many hours of testing and fine tuning. Every path and object placement clearly states it was a developmental process and adapted to gameplay after long hours of testing. Even the aesthetics looked like they took some time to come up with and how to make them look prettier. You're phone booth and street lights are very original and very impressive. Not many people go to this level of detail, creativity, and just plan old effort placed into their maps and when they do and combine it with talent, something like this is born. Epic man. Only can imagine how far your abilities could go outside of forge.
Haha the aesthetics (that is the dumpster and the phone booth) were actually just completed in one try, by looking around in the Dominion section trying to find objects that would work. The street lights I had already thought of before starting the forge. Other than the fact that I like doing it (obviously), there's also a second reason for me to put so much time into these little things, and that's to make the map stand out and to make people come back to it after a first play, not juts because they liked the gameplay but also because they thought it looked pretty and want to look for more aesthetical touches. I already learned that someone used the street lights design in his own map so that's very cool to hear. In real life I'm **** with computers so when it comes to graphical design, I can't do much. But I do like to draw cartoons on paper and stuff, heh heh.
I can do stuff in Photoshop if you need it. Anyway, I love this map obviously and it is very beautiful. The special fx, dynamic lighting, and location on Ravine set the mood for 8:00am in an urban environment. The gametype is balanced and it's a really inspiring Flood map. Flood forging seems entirely different than making a competitive slayer map. I think I even learned more about Flood just playing this map 8 or 9 times. The first time I played it, the framerate was atrocious and I could not tell if it was someone's connection/location that was lagging everyone, or if it was an overly large lobby, or if it was just the outdated Xbox technology...or all 3. Since then the framerate has been much better and even that first time with the bad framerate the map was still a lot of fun, so that says alot. Great work my friend, I look forward to your next Flood masterpiece.
It's actually 8:00pm but whatever. Yeah, Flood forging is definitely very different. I've never tried a competitive map but I'm sure it would take some time getting used to. I'm glad you liked the map.
hahaha... well, it's usually pitch black at 8:00pm here where I live... my bad . I like all of your maps really. Destitute in Chains was amazing for Flood gameplay, I had a blast on that map too.
Hey guys, here is a video about the map. Hope it is good other then the fact that the thumbnail is spelled wrong.
Thanks, that's an extremely thorough review! You've literally covered about everything there was to say. Excellent job, I subbed. PS: The bumps in the roads won't actually screw up the Warthog's driving abilities, but the increasingly amount of zombies jumping down onto the streets eventually will.