No doubt. This is the kind of map where you've bitten off a lot - not more than you can chew, I don't think (based on the last map of yours we tested I have ample faith in you as a forger), but it's going to take a lot of chewing before it's safe to swallow. That took a weird turn. Anyway, I think just combing over and over the map and making little trims here and there will get you where you need to go. I've been going through that with both of my new maps (the ones we just played) - they're both structurally complicated and involve lots of objects, so I'm regularly going back through to see how I can simplify and make the architecture better-looking yet also more economical... it's a pain. But you'll get there, I have no doubt. For a first pass at such a complex design, this map was really good. Bottom mid was completely redone and will look even more different next time. Also top mid was changed from a 5-unit-wide bridge-ish thing into more of a big platform - octagonal and fully 12 units wide. It radically changed that area from less of a way to get from side to side, to more of a fully-fledged place for battles and setting up camp sometimes. I guess that probably made the map feel pretty different. There are also ceilings above two large chunks of the second level that weren't there before, so that also probably made it feel pretty different. Oh, and the mancannons have moved - they are downstairs, and where they were before on the 2nd level there are now just easy jumps to the middle (which is the main reason I expanded that platform in the first place). Overall, the core design is about the same, but superficially a lot of it looks very different.
Interchange Plans Here are my early plans for the map. There are a few minor differences between the actual map and these plans, but overall I was able to get everything I had initially wanted layout-wise. It just took a lot more budget than I was hoping. I'll try trimming it down over the next few weeks and keep testing it. Upper Level: Lower Level:
That sketch looks just brilliant. Clean the map up a bit (it felt rather cluttered in areas) and that should be a winner. I must say, I didnt know what to expect from you, but this is one marvelous creation. well done, good sir.
Wow. If anybody wants to see how you put together a complex map that feels like it flows properly from end to end, there it is, laid out for you. Graph paper or even just a basic sketch on regular paper will give you something that is hard to achieve if you just improvise in forge. (And I say this as a regular improviser!) The classic figure 8 design that works so well for flow is beautifully realized; when you see the layout overhead like that, it's clear as day why it works so well. Thanks for sharing. On the same subject, here are overhead drawings I did (based on an initial sketch on paper) of Octave, showing the top and bottom levels and how they integrate with the mid. This will need a little editing if I use it when I release the map, but the layout is still fundamentally the same as shown here.
Epic maps last night. Most of which wouldn't have been outta place in the forge test playlist. Usually I bail about 2 but I had to stay til the end cos the maps and games were so much fun. Seems like this is the premiere customs lobby on FH now. Sorry that I missed your map Jade, Audience, but I'll be ready on time next week!! Please remember that anything I say is only my opinion and I don't really know what I am talking about. Most of the negatives in this recap were me really scraping to say something, cos the maps were all so goddam good CHIMERA +unusual and different layout +fun mix of gameplay styles from different map influences -lots of cleaning up to do in regards to the basic forging (gaps, mis-matched floors) -not sure if areas were well defined enough Presumably called Chimera as it is a mix of styles, and positive influences from other maps, this played fun but it was as stated, a little unusual. When I spawned I thought I was outside the map, I was suprised to be on such a grassy spot. I moved up and around to get into some action almost straight away- my Dmr was handy as the LOS was quite long and straight but had plenty of blockers and good escape routes and drop-downs, just incase you were getting hammered and needed to withdraw. I can see the guardian influence now, but one part I was on hit me with a smack of Pinnacle. And Lockout was also representing, but perhaps there were too many narrow bits for my taste. Defo make a few alterations like smoothing out the grassy part and fixing the gappy and unfinished bits inside, and it will be great! BLACK BRIAR MANOR +aesthetics and overall appearance was sweet bro +gametype was very fun -obvious few exploits and camping spots -not much cover in the streets for either team Wow this is the first infection game I have enjoyed since Halo 3. I actually found the powerful and fast zombies genuinely creepy and scary. I got a spook when I saw one of the zombies shooting through the main tower block, a genuine shock moment! Well done! I have previously espoused my dislike for Infection of all kinds but this was a lot of fun and you might have changed my mind on the whole thing. INTERCHANGE ***JUANEZ SANCHEZ MAP-ENVY AWARD*** +constantly suprising +deceptively massive +just like a goddamn city street +multiple routes for vehicles and foot traffic -some bits were a little confusing at first I loved this. I dunno how you made it within budget and no lighting glitch but it is great. At first our team quickly got pinned down on the first shotgun corner outside our base and I was like 'wow this is gonna get stale' but as soon as we pushed back a bit, I discovered the route through the building and was able to put a little flanking on the other team. The alleyways are a good addition and crucially allow seperation of infantry and vehicles which is a tenet of good BTB maps. I am absolutely not a wheelman so this was very welcome to me. I dunno what I was doing but For half the first game I was just walking around observing the architecture, then in the second game just shooting and nading and didn't realise that I had an objective to cap! Such was the immersion in urban warfare. I continued to be amazed as I realised that it was gigantic and symmetrical, but I didn't think it seemed empty, I always got into trouble in a few seconds of looking. Want to play some slayer on this next week for sure!!!!! It reminds me of turf, and a little of 'port authority' by Psychoduck offa Reach. And you get the first ever, highly prestigious, fake-mexican's envy award. BLEACHED +retained the best bits of white lodge +awesome to have the incineration cannon on the map (i love it) +verticality was just enough +lots of varied routes for flag running -nothing really So glad that you revisited the white lodge project- you seem to have scrubbed that map up and added more verticality and scope. The first fight over the incin. cannon and sword were a lot of fun, and from then on the incin. cannon was fought over regularly. I got killed a lot by people camping on the flag with the sword. Nothing you can do about that though- the weapon is played best that way. I reckon Hill will be a blast on here. Lets play again next week! OCTAVE +much better than last week(?) +excellent object use for structure and the ravine canvas suited it well +clever touches like the small drop down gap onto the hills near the bottom level added to the map movement -KOTH was a bit too much of a crazy slaughterhouse but still dead fun Last week I didn't get this map really, but on this second playthrough I got it fine and it was sooo much fun. The hill movement really got folks moving and I must have visited every part of the map. Perhaps KOTH is the best game to run to allow folks to experience all of a map and explore it. If you add more cover to the bottom hill area then it won't be possible to simply destroy with the BR from the side windows, which I did a lot. Map movement was very fluid and I didn't struggle to get from A to B at all. I think we played with maybe too many people, but then you at least know it plays great even with that inflated number of bodies. More please. POO POO FACE +suprised that all the spawns worked and were inside the map +suprised that no-one spotted the lack of any killzones whatsoever +combat seemed to be fairly even between the green top mid corridor and the yellow room -the bottom end of the map and my awesome mancannon didn't get used -wanted the fighting to be mixed across the bottom area a little too Firstly, you guys were WAY too kind. I am glad you enjoyed it though, It did seem to move kinda nice in parts. Secondly, it turned out funny-as-**** to call it this cos you all had to write it in your recaps LOL Spawns were chucked down soo fast and I just tried to get folks spawning safely and in productive positions. The basic Idea for the map was to create a room that could be held and controlled by a team working together. IMO, a map with an area that is holdable(campable) is a map capable of generating great discussion and controversy, but also can be very fun. Thus the yellow room. The mancannon fires a guy straight from the bottom of the map in to the yellow room and directly (and hopefully a little surreally) through the green hallway, alarming the occupants of said hallway. Not sure if that dynamic was realised in-game. lol. Thanks again for the kindnesses. WINDSWEPT +very fast and encourages aggressive plays +multiple routes for attack and defense -personally I found the big room a little campy(probably due to being a man down) A fun game on this sweet map but can't really say it's a fair test cos one of our guys was AFK, and that pulls spawns and gives kills to the other team for free. I had a hell of a job getting the other team outta the big room, but then not easy again with only three playing. Hopefully we'll get some more games on here with straight teams before you finish it! QUASAR +lots of power positions and flanking routes to counter them +very good looking and nice object use -no real issues Lots of fun and very fast- the bottom layer had some nice forging and alowed for some creative plays during the closing minutes. It did go very fast though and I need some more games on it to come to a solid opinion. HOARDING ACTION +theme was original +some nice ideas in the forging -the bases were too far apart for shooting between them meaningfully -too much stuff going on in the zero-G area, and plasmas were getting stuck in there -radar became very confusing cos of all that action TBH it was nearly 230 in the morning and I was too tired to try and play much during this game. It would have been 100x better if the bases were a low-G jump or 1 XL bridge apart rather than half a mile and at the very limit of sniping. It is a massive pain to move half a map to a different area, I have done it myself, but it would make this playable if you can be bothered to make that move. Also lots of plasma nades were getting stuck in the zero-G well. Unique but needs a fair amount of work. Thanks for a good evening and thanks for reading. Looking forward to next week already!
Please excuse the poor grammer i had a long day and didnt go back and edit Jade- First i would like to say that i like your other map opal much better, This might be because i wasn't into the game or whatever. Some issues i have with this map are. While strifing at the main area, The area with the turret moniter that over looks the arena, I fell at the corners 2x2 three times when i didn't want to. I would suggest putting railings there. This also brings me to my next point. I felt that area of the level was to powerful. I don't really know how to mitigate that, but one thing you could do is have a two way teleporter at both ends of the level. say the double window and the large platform by the ocean. I just kinda felt helpless attacking that area most of the game. I really liked how you used the antenna satellites that looked cool aesthetically. You could clean up some of the rocks at 28.6w and 53.2d. i think it would look better if the rocks either fully merged with the existing rocks or you deleted this rock entirely and lower the 3 by 4s so you could use the rocks as a ramp. the rocks by the double window should be the same height. Sorry for nitpicking but um yeah. you don't have to do these things but they are some things i would try For my maps ill give you an background idea of how i was thinking and then in the next post ill respond to your critiques Chimera This maps was originally a three sided structure that had different bases hence the name chimera. However i added another base to increase to ability to move around. I also build this to be similar to guardian but have completely different stuctures to make it original. I did notice in the gameplay that it was extremely difficult to move around through the bottom layer. I had previously tested this in a four person free for all and it was very easy to move around. I also built this entire map the day before we tested it without any kind of plan besides the fact that i want three bases and i wanted to merge one into the natural terrain. And for a rough draft i think it turned out good. I also want to make this level one where you could make cool jumps. but with the fact that most of the combat was in the lower level it was difficult to even use most of the jumps i created. I will address possible fixes in my next post Black Briar Manor -This was initially going to be forged as an aesthetic piece. I wanted to build a level that had a city feel to it. I worked hard on trying to build a circle track for the cars to move around on but it was too difficult to achieve with the number of gravity zones and the size of the manor. I found that making one turn was easy but the second turn was hard because you cant really turn the hogs. I was also very frustrated with the fact that i used all of my money as there are some other aesthetic structures i wanted to add. i would have been happy if i could of had 12000$. then the inside of the manor would be amazing. But as of now the aesthetic pieces i have in the manor are Lounge/kitchen 1 couch 1 fan 1 coat rack 1 table with chair 1 cabinet 1 cubby hole for backpacks Bedroom 1 bed 1 nightstand 1 clothes cabinet 1 Plasma tv Machine room 3 Manframes with connecting wires Entertainment room 1 couch different from other one 1 tv 1 computer and seat Community room 1 pool table 1 bar Outside 2 park table Flower garden Rock cave Street with moving cars Two teniments surrounding the manor with alleys I am sorta happy but i really want to add some more things Like a shower costs 600$, a long table made from railings, a full kitchen and some more things. This plays horrible in slayer as it is impossible to walk across the street without getting killed by someone standing on one of the main lookouts. As for the gametype it is very similar to flood except that the alphas are slightly faster and marked and the last man standing gains an 4X overshield with no rechage. Also it puts vehicles on the map. Interchange- This map was awesome and it played ridiculously good on ctf. The only thing i didn't like about the maps is the center warthog ramp. the way you approach it is from the bottom and it is difficult to se were your going. i think it would be wise to move the xlarge bridges together. I would also like to see ghosts but i am a big fan of more toys equals more fun. This map is 100% better then camber Bleached- I also did not go towards the beam rifile side. i didnt even know there was a lift until i brought this up in forge. this might not nessicerally be bad and might be because of the gametype being capture the flag. as all gametypes offer different experiences. i would like to try hill 150 on this Octave v3- I found this game to be entirely too long. I am not a big fan of the 300 point score as 150 would be enough. all that aside i barely recoginsed this map as it looks like it went through a complete overhaul. I liked this better then the previous version. the hill on the bottom middle level has no cover and was a complete grenade feast. i would eliminate that as a hill area Poo Poo face- I really liked this map. the heavy grav lift is epic. This map resembles a finished map more then a first test. I want this in forge test playlist. how do we get maps in that anyways windsweept- i really think you have a finished product with this map. nothing bad i can say. i didnt really notice anything different from last week quasar- It seems you forge in a similar style on your maps. i liked this one as well but not as much as windsweept. i didn't like how the lower bottom area didnt have any way to get up to the top level. i think you should put a grav life or something in there or something that goes up in the lower center area Hoarding action- this was my least favorite map of the night. for one thing the structures were two far apart. In the beginning nobody knew where the enemy was. I found myself wishing i could go down the grav lift. maybe use trait zone and grav lift combo to achieve this. I felt like you should put teleporters on each level.i dont know why you put aa's on the level. i have no idea where the binary rifle was or is.
Makes it really messy-looking and hard to understand. That's what I started with, and ended up separating them.
BIOC Lobby Round 1 - The Last Stand Lobby with Elliot Lobby Details Hey everyone! Welcome to my lobby for BIOC Round 1! The Last Stand Lobby with Elliot Host's Forge Hub username: Elliot Host's Gamertag: [gt]El Trocity[/gt] Lives in: United Kingdom (Europe) Day of hosting: Saturday 2nd Feb 2013 Start Time: [10:00 PM] [GMT+-0] = [5:00 PM] EST * End Time (approximately): [12:00 PM] [GMT+-0] = [7:00 PM] EST Description: On the night of my lobby we will be making an epic last stand in a great range of Holdout Flood maps. To keep things fresh we will also play a couple of Free Roam & Linear maps along with some testing. Schedule: 1. Airliner 007 - Spoiler "Airliner 007" - YouTube 2. Badlands - Spoiler Halo 4 Forge Maps - Badlands - YouTube 3. Floodlight – Preview will be coming soon 4. Ravaged Relay - Spoiler Halo 4 Forge Maps - Ravaged Relay - YouTube 5. Infinity Simulation Rural - Spoiler Halo 4 Forge Maps - Infinity Simulation Rural - YouTube 6. Outpost Zero - Spoiler Halo 4 Forge Maps - Outpost Zero - YouTube 7. Dreamers Folly - Spoiler Halo 4 Flood Maps - Dreamer's Folly - YouTube 8. Destitute in Chains 9. Testing of my unnamed linear map 10. Testing of Submitted maps Testing According to BIOC standards, you can also submit your maps for testing at the same time as signing up for the lobby itself. We have four major rules that you need to keep in mind in order to actually see your map tested: 1. Your map has to be a Survival Infection map. Click for more information. Pretty much it means: No mini-games. 2. You need to submit your map in the same comment as your sign up. 3. You have to attend at the lobby in order to get your map played. This is essential! If you don't appear at the lobby, we will not play it. More information can be found in the FAQ. 4. You have to make sure that the map is in your fileshare by the time of submitting it, so we can download it. If you need to change things and will put newer versions in your fileshare later on, just tell us in your comment down below so we can keep it in mind. Not in your fileshare in time? Then we cannot play it in our lobbies. The rules 1. Signing up means showing up, unless you give us a warning in the comment when you don't know if you can be there or a warning in time if it turns out that you couldn't be there when you already signed up. If the lobby is already full, we won't blame you for not showing up, don't worry. 2. Attend at the lobby in order to get your testing map played. 3. Submit your map down below and make sure it's in your fileshare by the time the lobby starts. Otherwise, it will not be played. 4. You can only submit Survival Infection maps. No mini-games. 5. You may not ask to be promoted to leader. (This does not count for co-hosts.) 6. Players that are in a different party chat or do not have a microphone are more likely to be kicked. Having a mic is a lot more fun for all players, including you, if you can talk with each other and with the host. This will also increase the enjoyability of the games, because you can work together as a team or tease your opponent after you killed him. How to join In order to be able to join this lobby, leave a reply in this thread stating you want to attend. Include your gamertag along with any info about the map if you want to test one. Finanlly you must make sure to send the following message to me on Xbox Live, 15 minutes before my lobby begins: inv BIOC So make sure to send this message via Xbox Live to my gamertag, which is El Trocity. Why 15 minutes? First of all, that way I can see who of you is actually online at that moment so I won't have to invite people that are not going to show up anyway. Secondly, having 15 minutes gives me enough time to set up the lobby and invite the players so we can start exactly at the starting time. That is all! See you in my lobby! - El Trocity
BIOC Lobby Round 1 - Oh Mighty Flood with REMkings Hey everyone! Welcome to my lobby for BIOC Round 1! "Oh Mighty Flood" Lobby - Details Host's HaloCustoms username: REMkings Host's Gamertag: REMkings Lives in: Netherlands (Europe) Day of hosting: Sunday February 3rd, 2013 Start Time: 1:00 PM EST (=GMT-5) End Time (approximately): 3:00 PM EST (=GMT-5) Description: In my first BIOC lobby in Halo 4, we'll just start casually: we'll be playing several free roaming Flood maps that were already finished and released onto the interwebz. Expect some balanced carnage going on! Schedule: 1. Destitute in Chains - T(esting) 2. 8 O'Clock Reminiscence - T 3. Emerald Mine 4. Airliner 007 5. FE: Compound 6. Ravaged Relay 7. Badlands 8. Bacon City 9. Floodlight - T Testing your maps According to BIOC standards, you can also submit your maps for testing at the same time as signing up for the lobby itself. We have four major rules that you need to keep in mind in order to actually see your map tested: 1. Your map has to be a Survival Infection map. Click for more information. Pretty much it means: No mini-games. 2. You need to submit your map in the same comment as your sign up. This means you should simply copy the testing part of the sign up template as well, other than just the regular sign up part. More information down below, under "The template". 3. You have to attend at the lobby in order to get your map played. This is essential! If you don't appear at the lobby, we will not play it. More information can be found in the FAQ. 4. You have to make sure that the map is in your fileshare by the time of submitting it, so we can download it. If you need to change things and will put newer versions in your fileshare later on, just tell us in your comment down below so we can keep it in mind. Not in your fileshare in time? Then we cannot play it in our lobbies. The rules READ, IMPORTANT! - Signing up means showing up, unless you give us a warning in the comment when you don't know if you can be there or a warning in time if it turns out that you couldn't be there when you already signed up. If the lobby is already full, we won't blame you for not showing up, don't worry. - Attend at the lobby in order to get your testing map played. - Submit your map down below and make sure it's in your fileshare by the time the lobby starts. Otherwise, it will not be played. - You can only submit Survival Infection maps. No mini-games. - You may not ask to be promoted to leader. (This does not count for co-hosts.) - Players that are in a different party chat or do not have a microphone are more likely to be kicked. Having a mic is a lot more fun for all players, including you, if you can talk with each other and with the host. This will also increase the enjoyability of the games, because you can work together as a team or tease your opponent after you killed him. How to join In order to be able to join this lobby, leave a reply in this thread stating you want to attend. Include your gamertag along with any info about the map if you want to test one. Finanlly you must make sure to send the following message to me on Xbox Live, 15 minutes before my lobby begins: inv BIOC So make sure to send this message via Xbox Live to my gamertag, which is REMkings. Why 15 minutes? First of all, that way I can see who of you is actually online at that moment so I won't have to invite people that are not going to show up anyway. Secondly, having 15 minutes gives me enough time to set up the lobby and invite the players so we can start exactly at the starting time. That is all! See you in my lobby! - REMkings
Writes essay about my levels . Posts. You are not logged in anymore. hits back. essay gone. Becomes infuriated. Throws computer against the wall (figuritively)
Oh man, I've been there before. I think I actually took a week off from recapping after losing a good 45 minutes of typing up map comments one time. Good rule of thumb: if you type five million words on any subject, on any internet site EVER - select all and ctrl-C before hitting any button that will make the page you're on disappear. Just in case.
Who are you? A thread where you can introduce yourself. I know some of our attendees pretty well, others not so much. Say as much or as little as you like. -- Hi - I'm Nutduster. My real name is Eric. In all likelihood I'm older than you - I've been playing Halo since CE, and I was out of college when that came out, so that should give you some idea. Back in CE and Halo 2, we had a LAN group that gathered around tiny, cheap, flickering TVs for 4v4 splitscreen action. It was incredibly fun. But XBox Live is a pretty good (and certainly more convenient) substitute. I've been forging since Halo 3 introduced forge. My first attempt was to make a map on Last Resort where players were confined to the beach area. Unsurprisingly, the map sucked and players were NOT confined to the beach, if they were even slightly tenacious. But for some reason I kept at it. Since then I've been honored to be featured on this site once and have placed in Forge Hub Favorites a few times. So I've evolved, I guess. Still learning though. Our weekly games and recaps teach me new things about how to make maps literally every time out. I joined Forge Hub during Halo 3 as well, and posted one of my first decent creations (made on Foundry) as my first thread. Been here ever since. I was just recently made a staffer and journalist (probably through sheer persistence and posting thousands of times) so if you guys need anything from the site, hit me up and I'll see what I can do, or at least I'll pass the request up the food chain to the people with real power. I also co-founded and co-hosted TCOJ with GrenadeGorilla8, who sometimes still appears in our lobbies, but not much. Hopefully he will return to the fold eventually; if not I'll carry on in his absence. Right now my co-host in xAudienceofone, who is also a great guy and will hopefully describe himself in here soon.
Well here is a shortened version of what i wanted to write but yeah not doing it as long again Since everybody posted about this I am going to try and redo this. What do you think about me adding a grav lift in the center area where the sword currently spawns. I am open to opinions on how to make the levels more accessible. As currently I don’t have many ideas on how to make this less linear I plan on keeping this area of the maps as it fits to the niche of my main idea. I do agree that it needs a lot of work. I am going to switch out the grav lift for a teleporter for a more favorable place to go. Also I am going to try and even out the top of the base. While still trying to keep that natural feel. I feel the current weapon setup works great for the no ordinance gametype. I have reduced the ammo in most of the power weapons to reflect this Sniper- 8 rounds Covie sniper- 8- 10 rounds Fuel rod cannon- 5 rounds Rocket launcher 4 rounds Binary rife- 4 rounds 2 Needler- normal spawns Sword- Possibly removing If you feel that the weapons are still too powerful I can reduce the ammo further. How would you recommend me setting up my weapons for this level. Here are some additional thing I am changing for this map. 1. I will be removing the sniper tower where the sniper is locater and using ramps instead. Also moving the sniper 2. I will place a man cannon at the second stairway at orange base in order to reach the green base. 3. I will add a teleport to the bottom of blue base to reach the area on top of the hole in yellow base 4. I will make green base a lot more accessable and desireable I am going to be adding soft kills to all the exploitable areas. The floor issue might be attributed to the fact that I used magnets and then tried to use the same height for all the pieces. Well apparently the magnets make the pieces go in between heights and I was unaware of this. I am not sure why I can’t duplicate the height levels with unmagnetized pieces. Anyways I am thinking of moving around some walls and trying to use wall coliseums as flooring and this will probably fix this issue.. Which rooms were cramped. It was kinda hard to forge inside the 3 room structure with the piece limitations 343 gives you. Which room has only one entrence. I thought I made it so every room had 2 ways to get into it. This is why I didn’t play slayer on this. I was actually thinking about making two versions a wide street for flood and a small street for slayer. I found this difficult to achieve as the hogs need to drop from a high level in order to move as the gravity levels are low in order to not effect player movement. I could try and drop the street and make a sidewalk type effect. But then you would have to jump across the street. I also have no money left over and it may be very hard to make an inaccessible area. Additionally I like to share my future ideas for maps. 1. A race that is actually good. Right now I find all the race maps to be too boring or too hard. I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised by what I a have in store. 2. A hill map, were the hill moves consistently with 1 or 2 hills. I cant decide if I want to make it 1 or 2 levels but this will be a rather simple design
"I am sure you will be pleasantly supervised by what I a have in store." I, for one, prefer my supervision to be as unpleasant as possible. I can't speak for the others in our group, however.
apparently the edit feature is not working for me either This is what happens when you have to type something over. you care much less about it
I refuse to divulge my real name ☺, but I'll mention a few things about myself. Like Nutduster, I'm a bit older. Fortunately, I've kept my maturity level in check and still enjoy Halo immensely. I work in architecture. In essence I am an architect, but not licensed, so I am not allowed to call myself one. I have all the required schooling and experience, but haven’t taken my licensing exams yet. That should explain why most of my maps have a bit of emphasis on the aesthetics and architecture. I really want to eventually come up with some maps that perfectly combine gameplay and aesthetics, but it’s tough with the system restrictions. There are always compromises to be made between the two. I’m married to a great wife and have two kids, a girl and boy. They both enjoy playing Halo with me. Due to the family, I am not able to forge as often or as much as I’d like, but I’ve found a nice balance for my family life. That balance involves hanging around with my family as much as possible and then sacrificing sleep in order to forge. I’ve been forging since Halo Reach came out. I tried a bit in Halo 3, but because I use CAD so much in my job, I couldn’t stand not having coordinates and snaps and simply found forging a chore instead of a joy back then. That’s all the important stuff. I look forward to reading about the rest of you.
Nice, thanks for sharing. I'm glad to hear there's another senior citizen among us - I'm married also, no kids, but that's by choice. I have the same dilemma as you nonetheless - gotta squeeze in forge and Halo time at odd hours. I'm not the night owl I used to be though so a lot of times that means if I happen to wake up early, I'll haul myself out of bed and forge at 6:30 AM. Gorilla (hopefully he'll pop in here) is also a dad, but I believe he's the only other TCOJ regular who is. Not at all surprised to hear you're an architect - that makes perfect sense. I'm also interested in trying to balance gameplay and aesthetics/architecture, but usually am quick to compromise the latter if it will help the former. Ultimately I'd love to make maps that feel like real spaces (not just piles of blocks) and also play like a dream, but forge is not a robust enough tool for that yet, unfortunately.
That's fine, I didn't really want a choice to do this or not anyway. Honestly, I don't know how to describe myself too well. I think the best way to get to know somebody is to simply spend a long amount of time discussing things with them. I suppose I'll give it a shot though. I'm basically a self deprecating narcissist, and it affects everything I do. Fortunately, i am one one might call an artist, and so this works perfectly for my talents. My mind is a cavernous pit of chaotic splendor and action, romance and evil, theories and invention. Thus we come back to the artist thing. I can draw, paint, create digital designs and works, but all of that I feel rather poor at (compared to others who actively work in art). What I feel my best skill now is, would be my writing. In the last year i suddenly seemed to have hit my stride with literature and have gotten about 230pages of my estimated 700 page novel finished. I have written short stories and in creative writing assignments (I'm still at university) I go above an beyond. Not because I want to, but because I have to. When it comes to Forge, I am a horrible forger. The reaction to some maps I have made may contradict that, but i firmly beleive that I am awful at it. I hardly sketch anything meaningful and when I do I ignore it. My process is emotionally destructive, beginning with nothing but a single concept (such as a building or a shape) and go from that point on a whim. In about 40 maps, I might keep and finish 2 if I'm lucky. Atop that, most creations I intend for 4v4 play (I really like that game size), but they always become 2v2s. I only show the ones I view as decent, and even though I may have downloaded 12 maps (estimate) in Reach, my library had over 120, despite me releasing only about 10 (about 4 of which I immediately regretted releaseing, and 2 were minigame maps that may or may not count). I played around in forge on Halo 3, but when I joined Forgehub in Reach is when I really got in to it. The system was just better. Over time I've learned about map design a fair bit, and now I know which of my maps to throw away and which not to. However Halo is a very, very small part of my life. Realistically, im only playing still for forge, playing all of your maps, and the great friends I have made through Forgehub and TCOJ. I know that sounds silly, but its all damned true. While I'm not on, I'm most likely playing Pokémon (2nd gen forever), writing my seemingly endless novel, planning new works to write, or making some other art. I wish regert a lot in my life, so I'm trying to make up for it now by doing these more productive things, though the best games always steal me away from time to time. I even started a local pokémon tournament with a bunch of friends over the summer- that was an absolute blast. I think that's about all. I have to go work on more studying though, the school is back in session and this semester is already punching me in the face.