I enjoyed each H2 BTB map quite a bit, Containment is no exception. I preferred it over Sidewinder, a little bit too vehicle orientated for me.
Thank **** there are no forge varients on release. Was bad enough in reach with so many bits that were only there to make the maps Bungie wanted without adding more useless bits like the satalite antena or blackout's buildings.
So true. Hopefully they'll do away with most of the garbage like those buildings no one uses and give us more variety of useful pieces.
I hope it's Valhalla, I had some great times on there. I can see why 343 would want to drop Mark V, trying to ween out some of the old Bungie Influence. But most of these armors do look like some shitty ATV Rider/Crysis outfit.
Seriously? That was the first structural Forge object we saw from Halo 4 lol And come on - it's not that nobody uses them - forgers here are just too invested in their egos to accept anything preconstructed. And they're not exactly optimal for FR, but that's a moot point, because nothing is. They're perfectly viable pieces if you can get past the "but you didn't design that" bull. I mean, if you use the same logic then we won't be seeing anything new in terms of the forge canvases, because nobody forged anywhere but FW in Reach. Obviously we want FW chopped into three chunks and the palette cut back to just blocks and platforms - because Reach was when everyone was happiest with Halo. Right? lol
The pieces given as full structural objects are designed with very specific purposes and only work well in very specific circumstances, with a couple of exceptions. For example, it's tough to make the base, round pieces work as anything other than a circular platform or a standalone base. They don't mesh well with other pieces IMO. The Lockout towers do that too. They have some uses, but not as many as say, a 2x1 flat or the oh so loved brace, large. I'd rather see more of those than prefabs. It's more creative.
I know and I was really disappointed when I saw that lol I agree. I actually tried using them a lot when people were bashing them. I even made a map based on the Room Triple. It was kinda terrible but a lot of fun to play on.
I've tried to use the room triple as well but it suffered from a lack of escape routes, at least on my map. Which is funny considering how much fun Battle/Beaver Canyon/Creek is.
Interesting Interview Scroll down to Part III, apparently CC's are going to build forged remakes that'll be ready for us at launch...or at least that's what it seems. Do they get the game early or something?
The flag information didn't explain their reasoning for not being able to drop the flag at all. It seems that not making sense is going to be routine with them. It's as if bs angel has had no communication with the people who make these decisions, and tries her best to write something about it without giving the concrete reason(s) why these decisions were made. warning: skip these 2 paragraphs if you don't want a tangent about H4 sprint.) Was I hallucinating when the only explanation in the bulletin about universal sprint was that, (paraphrasing), when they start running, you'll have sprint too, and you'll be able to chase them? Regardless of the distance between you and the cover that they just found? Just pause the battle until your sprint runs out, while your enemy can run to teammates or exploit your lack of maneuvarability/ability to back up with a grenade, or just recharge shields? The deceleration caused by shooting the sprinter, which is what actually helps, wasn't mentioned (although it reduces the ability to cross large BTB spaces under fire, which was important when sprint was a tradeoff as an AA. If it's a base ability however, it's always best that sprinters decelerate under fire). Another reason from a gameplay designer (video) that I would have never guessed from the bulletins was that they wanted more AAs to be used, as if people weren't choosing active camo or armor lock because sprint was better. AC forced players to crouch walk or camp to make use of it (which some people just don't find fun), and AL was just so annoying and unfun to play against that players who weren't new to halo wouldn't touch AL on principle, no matter how good it was on small maps. They added Pro vision (which Frank described as training wheels for the radar; I'm not saying that he's right, but if that's what they think, you can see how it might not be chosen over sprint if sprint was an AA) and the auto turret, which I do not know enough about to make a point on. I guess just a bit on the bulletin: "When you’re holding the flag, you’ve got a job to do – deliver it! You’ll become the center of attention as your teammates are charged with escorting you, and enemies with stopping you. To help reinforce this, you can’t drop the flag; this makes you the centerpiece of encounters as you move the flag to the delivery point, with teammates escorting you along the way." All of this would be true if you could drop the flag. Anyone who's ever played CTF, or even read the rules (game mode settings) of CTF and tried to imagine how such a match would play out would know that. It's as if BS angel just copied and pasted an ordinary description of CTF and wrote "to help reinforce this, you can't drop the flag" in the middle of it. Players don't drop the flag just because they stop feeling like playing CTF in the middle of the flag run, they did it to use their weapon to defend themself. Giving the carrier a pistol decreases the need to drop the flag, so why would they create such an unintuitive, restrictive solution to a problem that they won't mention? This doesn't increase reliance on teammates either, because you can defend yourself while moving more than you could before. I explained in a previous post why I think that this isn't a disaster for CTF, but I still think that it doesn't make sense. Also, THEY MAKE YOU PICK UP THE FLAG AUTOMATICALLY EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN'T DROP IT. What if you want the dead previous flag carrier's (your teammate's) weapons? ****! I picked up the flag! God damnit! Who can't press the ****ing weapon pickup button? Even with grifball, where you can drop/pass it, I understand even though it's so easy to pick up the bomb immediately anyway- you always want the bomb, and you would have to press the button frequently. But with CTF it's not really a hassle, considering how infrequently you'll get to the flag. One of the biggest rule changes to CTF is your team flag is no longer required to be at home to score; we found this keeps the flags moving across the maps through the flag lanes, and helps focus the flag defense, escort, and capture objectives. In a tie game with one point to win, flag carriers and teammates will have a tough decision of running the flag or stopping the enemy flag carrier. We’ve seen this lead to epic carrier vs. carrier [epic magnum vs. magnum] battles that were so exciting we even created special rewards for them (more on this later). Um, I haven't played much small map CTF recently, but the only time I remember the "flag must be at home to score setting" in H3 and Reach was when the phrase "classic" was in the title. I know exactly what Waylander meant when he/she posted: "Also their reasons for the flag not needing to be at home to score could very well be used to explain why it should be at home to score." The dilemma of protecting your flag carrier while killing theirs after the flags are traded is basically another flag (or VIP) game itself, that is, very similar, if not more complicated than, the decision BS angel mentioned. I don't enjoy it, and it couldn't work on BTB maps with hiding spots and boring long-term flag-holding, but they didn't argue against it at all. "Will there be a way to disable auto-pickup for Flag/Oddball? -CyReN CE At launch and in the launch playlists, we will be deploying CTF as-is. Although it’s possible in the future that we will give players more specific control and choices, this is something we feel pretty strongly about – and is in some ways a new mode, rather than simply an evolution of an existing game type. We understand the reaction this may cause, but there’s method in our madness and we ask your indulgence in the short term." In CTF, you now hold a Pistol with the flag. If I have a Plasma Pistol secondary, will it use that or still pull out a Magnum anyway? -goobot The Magnum, or “Flagnum” as it’s been dubbed, is specific to this mode. As we’ve mentioned before, this is similar, but ultimately a replacement for, rather than simply an evolution of, CTF. We understand this is controversial but are now pretty confident the changes will be enjoyed. And as we’ve said in this very article, we will have more information about options and customizability much later. This bulletin was not light on text, and the same substanceless response and doubling down was given twice (which I guess is tripling down)- so why wouldn't they give an explanation of their method and reasoning in either of these answers? It's like saying that one wouldn't or shouldn't expect to hear details about the plans, proposed bills, and political opposition, or a referral to such documented information, from any political party convention which lasts hours a day for three days- just sentimental speeches. How much time would you expect critics to search for information for, to justify not revealing specifics when you have their attention? And why is this a different game mode? Fighting with a pistol by itself doesn't seem so extraordinary, even though the change affects the gametype. When the enemy team drops your flag, the return timer will start. The timer is now clearly integrated into the flag’s navpoint, so it won’t be a surprise when it returns back to your base. Unlike previous Halo titles, standing on the flag will not speed up its return timer. We found this greatly improved the flag attack and defend scenarios as players can use more of the play space around their flag to defend it. It also helps to think of the flags as moving entities across the map, and your job is to keep the enemies moving, and yours in one place. So many games come down to the final moment, and defending your flag for even a few seconds can make all the difference. I like this change for small map/team CTF, and it's not terrible for BTB, but I think that, because some players actually have to pull the flag, and expose themselves in the same way that defenders would have to while standing by it, forcing defenders into vulnerable positions is pretty fair. If one or two defenders could reach it and stand by it, the rest of the defenders would be able to take safer positions. Allowing it to return after a certain time, however, makes it very likely that would-be flag runners will be the only ones at a disadvantage, or getting massacred. This is more true for one-flag maps, though, with 8 defenders and 8 attackers. In Last Resort, if this setting existed then pulling the flag just out of the base would rarely be progress at all; it would just turn into a shooting gallery for defenders. Most flag spawns are in a structure with an exterior which provides high, covered ground. There were bubble shields and regenerators then, armor lock/drop shield now, and hardlight shields and regen things for H4, all seemingly designed for the situation of returning the flag.
It only says that the CC's will have content ready at launch. Whateve that means. The CC's have their lips sealed tight. I tried asking a few, indirectly of course. Makes me wonder if it's got anything to do with the "Objective Contest."
So do you think that the CCs are getting it through their console or will they have to travel to 343i?
I couldn't possibly disagree with this post more. I could try, but I would fail. The anti-building bias isn't about "ego." It's about the fact that when you use a building (except in a purely aesthetic way) that part of your map is 100% designed for you, and 100% identical to every other instance of that building. In other words, you're in a unique environment with its own feel and strategy, and then you walk through a door and suddenly you're in part of Lockout, with a Lockout feel and Lockout strategy. It's disorienting and makes maps feel and play in a less distinctive manner. There are very few good competitive maps that use buildings in more than a superficial way (i.e. as part of a wall or floor, and you can't actually enter them), because most of the good forged maps of this variety are unique designs in which a pre-fab building would be wildly inappropriate. I've made a few maps with buildings in them, and one map of mine used all the buildings available. So I don't have a total irrational hatred of them; they have their uses. (Obviously they are also great shortcuts for remaking old Bungie maps, which is good too.) But were they to ditch them completely and add a new structure category of some sort, and/or just give us a much wider variety of bridges, walls and blocks, I'd be fine with it. Bridges/walls/blocks can always make a good room or tower, but a pre-fab room or tower will never be a good substitute for a bridge, wall or block.