Archive of Test Night Recaps

This is what I've been noticing more and more each time I play on the map, although I've yet to memorize my way around the lower level enough to make it efficient yet.

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"Camber - Yay, Camber!"

Hey Nutduster, how'd you like the area where the sniper nest was taken out?

 

Interchange is now out as well. The only change from the versions we'd been playing is that the hills and extraction sites have been moved out of the triple room areas and relocated near the shotgun spawns so they aren't as campable.

For my next project, I'm going to try to make the most solid 4v4 map with the lowest possible budget I can. I have some really budget efficient portions worked out and now need to figure out how to connect them in an efficient layout.

 

You know, Nutduster, I know exactly what you mean. I've had a lot of maps that have a small budget even when the bulk of the structure is built, but then after doing a lot of required finishing touches, the budget jumps considerably. I'm probably being a bit overly optimistic, but I'm going to do my best to get the most out of each object I use. It's quite possible I'll end up using some natural geometry for some of the floors, some of the walls or a mix of both. I imagine it'll a be a few weeks before I can work on it in earnest. My job has me pretty busy lately.

 

Scattershot Pro - I didn't really like that we couldn't jump. However that may be because the quarters were too tight. I wouldn't mind not being able to jump if we could strife somewhere. Also i think it would be cool color wise to put a incernerator cannon as an ordinance. The colors of that gun look awesome with the color scheme you have going on here.

I also noticed with the respawn time people were winning games when the opponent still had lives because the respawn time wasn't instant

3.002 - I didn't really have any problems with this. It played much better then before however i do think this map is best played with 5v5 or 6v6.

Wetwork - while i do like the map. I felt like it was supper impossible to stop a flag run. perhaps you could put a touch respawn on the flag. Also many parts of the level were under utilized

Archway - This was fun however the outside edges werent used. I think it would be cool to test ctf along that axis but put the power weapons on the outside. If you do keep the flags were they are i think you should add in more cover. In fact more cover in the center will never be a bad thing


Salvage - I am happy this is released.

Camber - I think taking out the vehicles was a bad thing. if anything I would have added more vehicles it seems even more open without vehicles to move the flag

Pandora's Dream - Well i ran out of bullets and basically had no choice but to try and punch flood- not very effective. The rockets were a sad tease. If you commit suicide you should be come flood. i think the gametype was pretty balenced and i actually might steal parts of it

Avalon2.2 - I think this map was way better then the first time we played it which basically gave you no incentive to go in the center area. I do think you could put a few more flooring pieces near the outsides of the map. the center seemed fine with the pipes but if you fell of on the ends you were basically dead. The teleported area could be redone or removed


Mobilize - I don't think i will ever get bored on this map. It would be cool to try extraction on this

Diamondback - I was never really a fan of the center of this map. its still got a few campable places. This is really a 3v3 at most kinda map too. even thought it was choatic and fun. you cant really move in the map with more then 6 players


Octave - this was pretty fun. I always liked this map. Even the first version that was extremely different


LCG Eternum 1.2 - The athetics seemed a bit dumbed down from interchange and also i feel like i barely even played on the map. It was big enough to hold 4v4 at best 5v5 was a little much


Condemned - This map looked awesome. i wish we played a slayer game on this or at least a modified flood. this map was too small to play regular flood

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.. Start


Tombo- the 2by2 steeps were the only piece i could have used to give enough room to jump in and out of the stucture and still provide a roof.

Nutduster- I curious how come you want me to change your favorite part of the map, unless you like a different lower area. I don't have any walls left. i was originallly going to make it extend to the roof. maybe i can scrounge for pieces somewhere.

The small narrow area is kinda sucky but its hard to cover it up without makinig it look sucky. Maybe i will expariment with railings


.. Smileytest

tombo. I might move some things around to get rid of some the steep ramps

Nutduster. I guess you didnt notice the huge smiley face i forged when i ran out of ideas for a second lol. The main building is really the best way to go up from the lower points, however that building wasn't really used by anyone really. most people don't like the comfort of buildings i guess. This is where i have to 2 steep inclines. I don't really know what i could do to give easier access in this building maybe i could just put a teleporter ther and remove the floors. The building is very tall and it was the hardest of the natural terrain to transition to the other building

 

i was kinda forcing myself to find something constructive to say

my favourite of your maps

i was musing to put a 5x1 (or something) across just to make it seem that the parts are structurally sound - but its really tiny nitpicking that other people probably wont notice

i know that ramps are really quite limited in forge.

there are also no real usable stair options and any you forge using multiple blocks is a waste of budget (generally speaking....)

but the steep ramps seem out of place for actual use - well for me. i'll try to explain why and someone can tell me if i am in the wrong

as an fps, i like to be able to smoothly see where i am going when on a solid surface. the steep ramps break the fluidity of my movement, by being too short and offering no clue as to what you are facing over the top.

(maybe that is what they are intended to be used for but i just find them off putting.)

 

re: steep angles

it's because the field of vision (FOV) is so limited in Halo games. You only see a few degrees of what is in front of your eyes. In that respect, it would absolutely suck to be a cyborg super-soldier.

 

Scattershot Pro – I had my look sensitivity down too low to play effectively on this map. Even if I knew someone was somewhere behind me, I didn’t have time to turn to face them. Still really enjoy the premise though. I liked the gametype as well. Did I actually win one of those rounds?

Libertad 3.002 – I think this is a great map. The layout is so simple, it’s almost impossible to feel lost. The size is great for larger teams. My only problem is that the three corridors (middle and two sides) are not connected at enough locations. It seemed (and I may be wrong about this) during the game that they are only connected at the two bases and at the center. It can make you feel really disconnected from the battle at times if you’ve chosen the wrong path. It can take seemingly forever to get to the conflict, and by the time you do, the actions over. Get all those spawn points back in the map. Other than these issues, the maps is shaping up nicely.

Wetwork – Everytime we play a new gametype on this map, I’m able to grasp an memorize new portions of the layout. I had a lot of fun playing CTF on it, though I feel the run is a little too short and direct as is. I also think the teams were a little imbalanced on that game. Did anyone check out my funny jump to death with the flag. I was so close to not dying, but did anyway.

Archway – The game was great. Is there a reason there were no hills off of the central axis? I enjoyed fighting over the hill in front of the rocket launcher. There was a lot of room for combat there, while the interior locations were smaller and turned into grenade and close quarter chaos. I was so busy running from location to location that I didn’t have time to notice the differences in structure and cover. I think the removal of the exterior paths behind the bases is for the best and they won’t be missed. Not that they weren’t cool, but they weren’t very useful.

Salvage – Had a great time on the map as usual. I still get confused once I get to the bottom. I have a hard time knowing which side I’m going to come up on when I enter one of the teleporters. Besides that, I’m happy with everything else.

..Start – With the KotH gametype, it seems like it’s impossible to get lost on this map. The map has an open-ness that allows you to almost instantly know where you are and where you want to go. What’s nice is that even though it’s open, I never felt like I was being picked off from across ht map. The hill locations were all nice. They were fun to protect and fun to fight for. For as narrow as many of the paths were, the ghost was pretty effective at causing chaos.

Camber – I’ll add the ghosts back into CTF. I had set them to only spawn in FFA, but they have a usefulness in CTF and other team games that was missed in this last test. I’m thinking this is ready for release now unless anyone noticed any big issues. I am still concerned about the ordnance drop versus spawned weapons issue. With the ordnance drops, there is too much ammo in the snipers. Without the ordnance drops, people don’t know where the weapons spawn. I’ve seen a few maps that have both. They have the ordnance drop only at the beginning, then the spawned weapon throughout the rest of the game. This might be a good solution for Camber. Any thoughts?

Pandora's Dream – This was a fun Flood map. There were a lot of nice areas to hold, but none seem overpowered. It’d be nice if that rocket launcher was easier to get. After I saw what happened to the first guy who went for it at the beginning of the game, I never again considered trying to get it.

Avalon2.2 – Nice, simple and effective layout. It worked well for both gametypes. The aesthetics are interesting and really leave a strong impression of the map in one’s mind. I didn’t explore anywhere but the main level, so I can’t speak yet about the upper and lower areas. Maybe next time I’ll be more curious.

Mobilize – I thought CTF worked well. The paths from flag to flag weren’t overly easy to run. It felt like our team was playing fine, but fortune definitely wasn’t smiling on us. I have no issues with this map. It’s awesome.

Diamondback – So much chaos. The map is too small for so many people. I believe the layout is not too complicated, but when you are constantly in combat, there’s no way to get your bearings long enough to decide where you want to go. The one good thing was that we had a waypoint to our objective in the game we played. That’s literally the only method of navigation I had time to use. Either go to the flag location or go to the location of the enemy flag runner and kill him. I did have an awesome assassination in the central lift that made me happy.

Octave – I think this map is big enough for the team sizes we had, but maybe not for the gametype. Everyone focused on one location at a time was hectic, but crazy fun. Now that we’ve all played so many games on the map, it seems like we’re able to move along the most efficient routes to get where we need to be. I didn’t notice anything that stood out as a problem.

.Smileytest – I felt great running around through this map. The buildings were interesting and movement between them worked well. There were a lot of open areas, but it didn’t feel too dangerous to be outside. I’ll have to play on it some more and see it in forge to provide any criticisms. I had fun fighting Juanez over and over for a few minutes there.

LCG Eternum 1.2 – I definitely should’ve upped the kill count. Regardless, the game was more chaotic than it should be. For slayer, I don’t think the map will work well with teams more than 3v3. It ends up just being a couple of gangs running around till they find one another with large teams, and any tactical movement is lost. I believe if we had played CTF instead, the game would’ve been much more enjoyable with the team size we had. Then you’d at least have the teams split up between offense and defense. It’d also be nice to see how the flag run goes. If I don’t have anything new by next week, I think we’ll run CTF on this.

Condemned – You did a great job on the structure ad aesthetics. Flood was enjoyable. I found trying to kill humans out on the pier was pretty tough, especially when using the boost. I played Regicide on it afterwards and preferred that gametype (as I always do). I don’t have any suggestions for improvement.

Can’t Remember Name – The map looked nice and I liked the layout. I wasn’t able to take it all in because my kid was playing. Thanks for letting him join. He really enjoyed it. He’s only four and is sad every week watching while I’m playing with this group and he can’t join.

 

Sorry, I don't have time to go through the games just yet. Thanks for all the feedback guys, I like to tease the player in my maps, but yeah, that one is a little too cruel. I however have another idea on how I can tease, but without causing suicide I will add some ammo to the map as some of you ran out. I did notice that the spawn room was a little too easy to hold out in, I will be adding some rocks to the open area in there. Thanks again guys and my full feedback for every map will be up sometime tomorrow as I have the day off.

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What parts are you thinking of using?

 

Right, here goes.

SCATTERSHOT PRO
Glad you all had fun. The scattershot stays, it's funny as ****. Might rebuild if I can be bothered, but I am onto something else already so don't expect it.

I love the idea of an incin cannon dropping in the map. It's a must. It's done.

3.002
Fun as hell, this is nearly there. Glad you opened up the binary route, it just helped the map along. CTF very fun, maybe the binary has too much ammo, I was camping the flag a good bit. Not sure if I like the new rocket spot, it's a little too open for me, and now isn't worth using that part- it's too dangerous.

WETWORK
Yeah this worked I reckon. It's complex enough with a lotta routes but it did get a bit of a mess when the flag went down in certain spots. Maybe not suited to this gametyp that much. I had a lot of fun, but Might be better if you use that one-flag variant I made with multiple caps in two rounds. It seemed silly at the time, but all the MLG kids are running that gametype in custom lobbies, god's honest truth.

ARCHWAY
Games on here run like clockwork now, This is a super objective map. KOTH was an absolute blast and I love how you have constructed the paths and ways down to the lower hills. Hope we get another test before you release it!

SALVAGE
Well done! I freely admit when you first put this on I was like 'what?' but over the weeks you made it into a sweet thing.

START
For a first test this was great! Something about it suited my playstyle, and The hills seemed in good places. I occasionally ran into jumps or corners that I found awkward, but just a general smooth-over will make it sexxay. I was ****in' **** up at top mid- that is a fun hill, I think Nutty said that the bottom mid was his fave, and It worked great. You rush in and you die there; you have to peck away as a team in a battle of attrition (in a good way). Lets have some more!!!!

CAMBER
Such an epic game of flag, But I still get ****ed up on here as it's just not the type of layout I feel comfortable on. Gimme corridors and rooms- I just get killed on here a lot. But there were so many funny and satisfying moments during this game I don't mind getting creamed that much. You do seem to make very good small-big-team maps!
Is this nearly done? the changes seem very little and incremental if any.

PANDORA'S DREAM
I just can't get on with infection, so I can't really comment on this too much. It was nicely forged but didn't have a theme like most flood maps I have seen- usually they are a street or a shopping centre. I don't like flood gametypes as well where the flood can't kill with one-hit.

AVALON
This was like a whole different map from last time! I dunno if it was the fact we were playing ctf but It flowed better, had more routes, and generally was more fun. The Flag spot was very campy though, I sat there getting kill after kill with a shotty, which was actually disgustingly fun. I think you need to change the spawning though- I repeatedly spawned down over that ledge and had to jump up a couple times. It wasn't rubbish or dangerous but got kinda stale when you knew where you were gonna appear everytime. MOAR PLS

MOBILIZE
Works just as well for ctf as it does for slayer. I don't vehicle (EVER) but the infantry/vehicle fighting is fun and dangerous for both parties on here. This was just a competent and fluent flag game. I made an epic run from base to base with the flag too, only to die 5 feet away from our flag. *****. Sadly the Mantis got frigged quickly an didn't seem to be a factor in the game for most of the match. But that's the way this perplexing vehicle is. Devastating yet highly vulnerable.

DIAMONDBACK
I think this had too many ppl TBH. I couldn't discern a strategy or use the map as you intended it cos of the relentless killing. I still love the lift in the middle- but would be happier if there was 6 ppl on here or it was longer so the flag had to travel further or over a more complex route. A compact map can be increased in size by diverting paths, alternating height between objectives and making players choose routes based on there safety/risk.

OCTAVE
I had a wicked time during this game. The ball moved so quickly from base to base and so fluently up and down, that it was not possible to camp the ball but merely to hold it and wait for back-up, something that often arrived due to great spawning and pathing. Initially this map was a bit confusing, but after a few games I know it and love it now. During this game I actually thought to myself, "it's as if this map was actually forged for oddball, it's clearly one of it's best gametypes!" Is it possible you inadvertently made an oddball map!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

SMILEYTEST
I think this was the most unique and original use of the erosion palette I have seen thus far. You made a villlage, and enclave, a small town, and we killed each other on it. The buildings are beautiful and the terrain is used well. It feels massive but Didn't labour on for on for having only 8 folks on here. It'll certainly fit 10 folks, and may be a little better for it. I did struggle to orient myself for the first few minutes, but as the game expired I found myself wishing for a longer game, I liked it a lot. I can only imagine flag will be epic on here!!!!!!! MOAR PLS

ETERNUM
I was just getting heated up on here when it ended. You joined the club of TCOJ forgers that like to **** their gametypes up; you, me and grilla. I love it and wish to play moar halo on here. Something about the twisting complexity of the bottom layers and how it links to the top suits me down to the ground.

Condemned
This was better for me, It had a nice theme and the whole thing looked great. Fun stuff, even though I boosted to my death a few times!

Thanks for the great games you guys, I have something for next week that I think is shaping up niiiiicely.
You know what to expect from me by now. Enclosed arena maps, tight angles and defined spaces. But this is an MLG map, so that's what we will be playing. LOL.

 

Scattershot - I didn't quite catch on to the limited lives/hill thing at first but if you explain the gametype in the map thread obviously it won't be a surprise. I agree with the idea of tinkering with the pillar shapes and spacing them out a bit. It can get a little disorienting when you can barely tell how far into the ring you are.

Libertad 3.002 - this was a pretty close game. I never see the power weapons on this map, I guess because the other team was just waiting for em (ahem Nutduster). It seems to be pretty close to being ready with ctf at least. I agree about the hallways still feeling a little disconnected though but I'm not sure where this could be altered based on the pieces you've already been using.

Wetwork CTF - i will move the flag spawn and cap points slightly and try this again with touch return. I really thought the bottom would see more use with flag runs, but maybe the flag placement needs to be even more catered towards that route somehow. Then again I may want to move the flag further back into a more defensible area as well, maybe slightly into the narrow pipe room? I think if I move the cap point down the ramp towards the man cannon this may also make the flag runs longer and more varied. Thoughts on these options?

Archway - played great. i would switch up the hills a little though. Ordering them and putting some on the sides/corners might change it up a bit, though obviously not on the first hill spawn.

Salvage - CTF - great game even though we got crushed. I really like how the map shaped up before release and I will try to remember to comment that **** up at some point.

Start - this was an interesting layout. While it didn't matter for KOTH I wonder if that top mid was a little overpowered for other game types. The lower/street areas seemed a little vulnerable without much incentive except for the hills, making most of the gameplay seem to cater towards the upper levels. I of all people can't complain though, I've made a few maps with this syndrome lately. If nothing else, it doesn't hurt the map to have some more safe spawn points down below, right?

Camber CTF - really fun but soooo hard to cap with 4v4. I didn't notice the sniper towers were gone either, but it didn't seem to affect the map overall since the middle has decent elevated cover as is.

Pandora's dream - This looked quite impressive with the geometry and what have you. I didn't understand the rocket launcher though. I made it down there and still couldn't grab it. It seems you just die as soon as you get close to the water even if you land on the platform. Some of the teleporters didn't seem to work sometimes, and seemingly not because they were blocked by other players on the other side.

Avalon 2.2 - This looked unique and played pretty well. I believe there was a random soft kill down low where it seemed you should have been able to walk. The spawns on pipes without and railings were not really safe. I don't think I fell off them but I'm sure it will happen and frustrate those who like to come into this world flailing around. walking on pipes without anything below also a little frustrating. The only areas where I approve you having no railings would be were the power weapons spawned but everything else seemed needlessly risky. The middle was very open and slightly laggy. Also at the corners of the map there were some dead end spawn areas that had some platforms with soft kills that seems to come out of nowhere. Maybe you could just use a taller block so no one goes up there (damn ordinance won't spawn where I point it!)

Mobilize - I still have yet to have much of a close game on this map but as some of you have said that is the nature of heavy maps like this. If people have fun on this even when getting crushed, fine by me.

Diamondback - This played well for flag. Very fast paced, but I think it would be a totally different (and probably better) game type for fewer players though. I agree with what's been said about the steep ramps. I still think the map could use some more cover and possibly a little more interaction between levels. For some gametypes this map will probably just cater to a constant shootout on the top level rather than a mix of all levels.

Octave - oddball played really well for this layout which I did not expect honestly. Lots of fun. I still don't understand how this map plays so well for such a range of game sizes. Sorry to see it go out the door.

Smileytest - Nice layout and use of terrain. Some upper areas can show a huge portion of the map, which is not great for frame rate but also maybe makes those positions too powerful (in theory, although they felt fine and balanced enough in game since there were so many roofs to combat them). It seemed to me that some of the weapons were unfairly spaced. I couldn't see the rocket marker from my initial spawn although I certainly got hit with it later (and guess who was carrying it? haha). Maybe this was just my particular spawn that couldn't see it (and the map is huge), but you should be wary of asymmetrical maps that may at a glance seem to have an equal chance at major power weapons but in fact don't. There were a few areas that looked a little sloppy/awkward, such as the platform made of a string of pipes. Minimizing on pieces like that would also help with the map performance. Anyway I hope to play this again and get a better feel for all the details.

Eternum - Even though this map is much smaller than interchange it somehow manages to accommodate almost as large of a party, although it was quite hectic. This is not the map's fault per se but I hate playing no radar on maps like this (especially if I have to play without sound). Or perhaps the combination of sharp corners and short sight lines caters to people popping out and killing me without any warning, lol. Still, I like the map as is though so I wouldn't worry about it.

Condemned - Really neat layout and great for flood. I think this will be too open for some other game types though. I would avoid using steep ramps as mentioned above. There was a dead end or two which, again, was fine for flood but would be troublesome for slayer, etc.

Avalon ctf -Flag was pretty sick on this one. I didn't like that there were so many one way shields though, and reducing the number of those slightly were help a bit with the lag too.

Condemned Regicide - worked ok with this in small numbers but it also brought out the campier areas which I think might also be a problem for slayer. I think you would need to add some outer/covered routes to avoid either a campfest or a giant deathfest in the open middle of the map.

 

I joined late so i only got to play 5 of the maps, but ill post up what i thought anyway.
Mobilize: The action was intense, flag carrier had enough routes to choose from without being too hard for me to catch him even though we lost.. it took me a while to get used to gettin shot from the top parts, theyre pretty high up. Idk if id change that or not, cause its kinda cool. Overall the game flowed really nice, think i remember nut getting like 30 kills and we still lost which is a sign of a good flag match. lmao
Diamondback: i cant remember the map i need a pic! i drink alot =S
Octave: This was insane, in a good way Not much i can critisize about it, except this. I felt kinda jumbled in the very complex layout. And i didnt like the fact that it was forged on the ground, if it was in the sky i think itd be better immersed. Otherwise, it was damn awesome
Smileytest: i really like the design, think it could be cleaner tho, but its dope right now. Im infatuated with village/city/towns type maps. Anticipating playing it again
Eternum: once again im drawing a blank and i cant remember well enough to give fb...is there a thread with a pic??
condemned: I hate zombies but the map is sweet bro! turn it into a slayer/extraction/dominion map and we're in buisness! love the feel of it and it follows archetectural laws, which is a must for me to approve!

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as for avalon, thx for all your feedback and i will hopefully bring joy to you with v3

 

Here's Eternum for you, KRUS4DE

Eternum Preview Thread

Or I guess you could just click on the link in my signature.

 

So i took out all of the steep 2v2s and opened up the main build so you can shoot out of it on my erosion map.

I also closed up that hole in the unsc tower and edited the concusion rifle spawn time and added some spawns in the impact map. I also switched the hogs for gooses


Hopefully next tuesday i will have extraction set up for erosion and ctf for impact

 

it is a little bit of a flaw that you can get all 3 weapons so easily - but i assume that is because its not easily marked out through ordnance when you intially spawn (size of map, doesnt show up...) and most havent learnt where they are yet

due to the simplicity of the channels - flag to flag, (from Vacant, its first version) - i wanted an importance to holding the middle high ground in a straight to and fro battle.

i had also reasoned that due to limited options between sides that you could make a decent flag run whilst passing by said holding.

i'm happy enough with it, but im gonna go back to the drawing board and see if i can improve the idea at all.

its gotten bigger than i intended and rocket side is a memory of once what was an area i was happy to show juanez - i want more than happy enough

i have a few ideas - i'll see what happens.

prepare for whoring of your ideas in the next week or so!

 

YEa for customs. im in