I present you with version 1 of my forgtacular contest entry. The map is currently nameless, part of me posting this is for naming help, the other is to get constructive criticism from other forgers/players. Kinda lenghty post so scroll to the bottom if you dont want the TL/DR version. Current Name suggestions Complextion Complex This map is constructed out of the coliseum area of forgeworld. Originally designed for 4v4 TS, after the first game of play testing it might be better suited for BTB. If someone wanted they could also squeeze in objective games like ctf. Map Description Symmetrical map with 2 seperate bases. Each base has a big tower with a sniper nest and a small tower with a mg encampment. Each base has 3 floors. Each teams elevator can be used to go up or drop down a level. Man cannon and grav lifts can be used as "grenade launcher" to launch grenades into other base, or set a landmine over each sides tunnel system. Weapon set 3 DMR's per team 3 Needle rifles per team 1 human sniper per team 1 shotgun per team 2 needler's per team 2 plasma pistol per team 1 MG encampment per team 4 frags per team 4 stickies per team 1 sword 1 grenade launcher First playtesting feedback 1) A little complex in some areas. Some players were having trouble getting to the top floor or getting lost on the first floor. Some of this is I feel is a matter of not knowing the map, some of it I can understand. Want more than 5 thoughts about it tho. 2) No graphical/texture lag - highest praise came from the look and feel of the map. It looks extremely original, and no frame rate/texture lag issues in the map (took great pride in making sure there was none) 3)Might be a little big for 4v4 TS. Again only 1 play testing has been done, so my friends still don't know the map. First run started out with a huge fight, then slowed down drastically. Not sure If I should open some areas up, or if it was just lack of knowing where to look. 4) Angles - Lots of cover, yet lots of angles to put team shots on opposing players. One player loved how you could find so many angles yet still have enough cover to remain alive during a fight. (i know that was a long read. If you took the time to get this far, I thank you very very much.) (having problems getting the embedded images to show up) Screen 1 Screen 2 Screen 3 Playtesting video 1 - (un-rendered sorry - but link to video not FS) Bungie.net : Halo Reach : File Details Thank you for you're time and feedback!
This looks like a great map. I feel that the coliseum area is under used in Forge World and it seems to be the perfect size for 4v4 symmetrical maps...everyone seems to use the area above the coliseum. I can understand your concern for the map being too big for team slayer, I was afraid of the exact same thing when I designed the symmetrical map I made in the coliseum area but I found a couple of solutions to the problem. First is to make sure there are plenty to way to access every part of the map. I had to redesign parts of my map to add additional ramps and walkways to areas that people would either camp at or have trouble figuring out how to get to. Also, add functionality for objective modes, when I added the support for CTF, Stockpile, and especially KOTH the action became much more focused and fun. Anyways, if and when I can get a group of friends to play this map I'll try to leave some constructive feedback beyond what I can offer from just observation. Either way, this looks like a solid effort.
Awesome, thanks for the constructive crit. I was thinking that it would definitly play well as an objective based map as well as the traditional slayer type maps. However, being that its my forgetac entry I only made it for slayer at the moment. After I feel I've answered all the constructive crit about the map, Ill go back over it with objective stuff. Again, thanks for the response!
I like the map. It is, perhaps, a little confusing in respect to getting to certain places, but a lot of great Halo maps are somewhat confusing at first. What you said about "getting used to it" is right on... if there were serious issues with getting from place to place, it would be different. Everything seems to be carefully constructed, and it shows that you care first and foremost about gameplay. My main concern, for your sake, is that this won't really fit into any of the Forgetacular Contest categories. It seems like it could be too small for the SYMM category, as a 6-8 player free for all on here could be rather congested. The team slayer category might be better, but I worry that people will complain about it being too tight. You can, of course, make it more difficult to move from one end of the map to the other by sectioning it off a bit more and having certain "choke points," but that could also have a detrimental impact on your initial vision for the map. I think it's great for team doubles. Full-blown Team Slayer might be a little much. One other minor concern is that this map looks a bit plain. I tend to favor gameplay over aesthetics, so it doesn't bother me. But I could see others being unimpressed by the way it looks, whether that's fair or not. You can take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I'm just trying to offer any helpful tips I can so that you can feel better about your entry to the contest. People provided really helpful feedback/criticism for my entry, Mint, and I think it really improved the map.
originally it was going into the 4v4 TS entry. Its not you're typical symmetrical map if you look at it from base to base, but viewing from the side its pretty symmetrical (hard to do symmetrical stuff when the actual room seems off symmetry just a tad bit.) The first 4v4 playtest resulted in a pretty low scoring affair, I kinda think it was more a result of people not seeing/playing it before. However, I did take the critisicm they provided to me to heart. made a couple minor changes after that first playtest. As far as the map seeming a bit plain as far as aesthetics go, I can see where you're coming from. Is one of the reasons I tried to include the red/blue coloring of each side as well as a couple of yellow/green visuals to help make call outs easier. Red sniper tower, blue 2 story, green side tunnels, yellow side tunnels. Also being built into the coliseum limits the aesthetics little bit. All in all tho, ALL FEEDBACK is appreciated. Thank you very much for taking the time to respond and look at it!
I wouldn't worry about adding too many aesthetics, the map plays well and that's what matters, then again maybe that's why my map was largely ignored I like how the map is balanced on both sides and although there's a lot of cover on the map making it hard to longer range gun play, I never once had the problem of being spawn killed so kudos for that. At the same time I would try and experiment some with removing cover/changing it in some places to open up the playing field some, I don't feel its necessary but I think that it might help the map in the long run. I would also again like to emphasize the fact that I think objective modes would help the map, I know you were thinking of entering this into the team slayer forgetacular category, but you might want to reconsider adding CTF, KOTH, and even Stockpile and going for the symmetrical category since this is one of the better symmetrical maps I've played. Also, there were a couple spots I found weird where I had to crouch jump to get up onto platforms and you might want to try and fit some inclines into there.
Thanks for actually playing it out and testing it with others. I truly appreciate the feedback and glad you enjoyed it (assuming you did) after going back and watching my own playtesting video a noticed a few jumps that were not supposed to be crouch jumps but only worked with the crouch jump. Not sure if you got to play with the plasma gren elevator, but its one of my fav parts of the map. (side of the maps in the tunnels is a grav lift. Toss a plasma in it and it will go up and down in the lift for a loooooong time.. Haven't tried it, but I did get a random stick out of it when playtesting and after reviewing the video I had to fileshare it.) I think this next week Ill add some objective stuff and tweak the cover and update with a version 2. I've got a lot of great feedback, and no real negative feedback which is kinda of surprising. I expected a little bit of the negative. one of my main emphasis was preventing spawn killing while still allowing for some map control. Glad its worked so far. Thank you again!