Hey everyone! Before I get into the March Community Favorites results, I’d like to highlight a couple quick announcements:

• @AsinineDefiler is hosting a 3 Player Team Speed Golf Contest with some cool prizes. No forging required! Be sure to check it out here: https://www.forgehub.com/threads/3-player-april-may-contest-golf-world-quest-contest.157605/

• This coming weekend (April 13th-16th), Some of the ForgeHub staff will be meeting up and attending the Halo World Championship Finals in Seattle, WA. If any of you are also attending, let us know on any of our social media platforms so we can meet up! If you’re unable to make it but want to watch the event as it’s happening; times and schedule can be found here: https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/esports/halowc-finals-2018

With those two announcements out of the way, lets get right into March’s Community Favorites results! Here are our nominations:

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Inspired by maps like Valhalla from Halo 3 and Blood Gulch from Halo: Combat Evolved; Unsorted Guy has crafted Asgard; A map that takes aspects of both and merges them together to create a new experience entirely. If you need an easy to learn map that caters to a more casual-centric playerbase, this is a solid choice.

Scaled to perfection, Foge & Portaleer have seemingly brought Narrows from Halo 3 and directly ported it into Halo 5. Although they had to scale back on the aesthetic touches more than they would’ve liked, they still managed to craft up a convincing feeling and atmosphere of the original. What are you waiting for? Hop on and give it a play!

Phaseshift is not your ordinary 2v2 map; Teleport or “phase” between the Sun and Moon phases at will to get a leg up on your competition. Combining an always changing map flow with a beautiful map aesthetic creates a one of a kind experience that hasn’t been seen before in Halo. I chatted with CaptainDireWolf to get more information on what went into the map’s creation:

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0micron: Phaseshift is an unorthodox approach to 1v1/2v2 play with the inclusion of the teleportation ability; can you tell us how that mechanic addition came to be?

CaptainDireWolf: The movie Jumper actually inspired me to try and replicate teleportation at will. That and I played a similar mechanic in JoeAct20's portal-inspired puzzle map Sync where you could transition between stages. I thought, "why not make it for core gameplay?" since I hadn't seen it done before. Unfortunately trying to replicate what JoeAct20 had done for one person and translating it to 4 different players without breaking halo's scripting took lots of swearing and SexyMasterChief several months to perfect.

0micron: How does the teleportation ability impact gameplay versus a normal 1v1/2v2 experience?

CaptainDireWolf: Normal 2v2 gameplay tends to rely on reaching higher elevations than opponents, grabbing power weapons and powerups first, while circling around the map. I tried to counter all of this by giving EVERYONE a teleportation ability. By being able to shift between two practically identical maps, a fourth level of strategy is added. One where several routes are blocked and access to certain weapons can only be acquired only if you switch dimensions. Also verticality still matters, but those lower players considered at a disadvantage can still teleport and quickly turn the tide on the enemy from a flanking route. This, coupled with the ability to see where players are in the other dimension really helps teammates plan attacks to flush enemies out to finish them off.

0micron: Was the design of the map based around the added teleportation mechanic?

CaptainDireWolf: I designed the map completely with the mechanic in mind, but before SexyMasterChief finished getting the scripting to work. I had to literally duplicate the entire "Sun" world above itself, and replace every rock piece with a similar glacier piece so that the transition would be seamless. I also liked the idea of being able to jump off a cliff, teleport, and be able to clamber on a bridge that hadn't been there before. Everything was designed with the hope the teleport mechanic would work, but for a long time it didn't. At one point several months ago I actually almost scrapped the map, since we couldn't get the scripting to work as it kept breaking, and being able to teleport was the whole point of the map. I really have to give SexyMasterChief props for saving the function of the map and getting the vision realized.

0micron: In your map posting, you talk about this map being your FINAL Halo 5 map; if that’s true, what do you plan on doing going forward?

CaptainDireWolf: If I can keep the forge itch at bay long enough, it will be my last map in halo 5. My mind needs a rest from constantly thinking of new things to build in forge. I certainly plan to come back for Halo 6. Gotta push the limits of the new forge iteration. Still want to make halo Podracing a thing.

0micron: The contention of Moon and Sun is obvious with the dimensional switching, was that sort of theme always a plan from the beginning?

CaptainDireWolf: I always wanted some sort of theme to differentiate the maps (within a map) so players knew where the hell they were, but the sun and moon concept came near the end of building. The main theme was just having a frozen world and a thawed world, where certain states would be seen changed in the other world. I was just playing around with a bunch of trapezoid objects and accidentally hit the "magnet on" button, instantly forming this jagged design that looked like a sun. Thought it looked cool and made a moon to counter it. I even toyed with the idea that players could flip the dimension all players were in just by interacting with the sun or moon symbols. Originally I was also going to call the map Eclipse, due to this weird teleporting crossover between the sun and moon, but wanted people to know from the name itself that this map was different than normal core gameplay.

Thanks to CaptainDireWolf for taking the time to sit down and talk!
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And there you have it! Remember that what gets put on ballot is decided by the Forge Critics! It's up to you all to nominate maps for the vote! Not a Forge Critic? You can make suggestions for nominations to any staff member or any critic as well! Your voice matters too! Congratulations once again to all our candidates and winners!

See you next time! ​