By, ShortkidPena DOWNLOAD(UPDATED) MAJOR UPDATEOVERVIEW(OLD): I originally started this map because I wanted to create a different type of race map. From what I have learned is that races become boring very fast because one person gets way ahead of everyone and people couldn't do anything about it. So what my friends would do is go the opposite way to take out the guy in first. This gave me the idea for this map Hex. You can choose whatever direction you prefer and maybe try and knock someone off track at the same time. The whole point of this map is to put a new spin on racing. This gets really insane when you get 16 people in a party. I recommend making it about 5 laps because the standard 3 is a little short, but it all depends on what people prefer. There are basically 4 checkpoints you can go through: One on each of the three turns and one in the center(there are actually in total 9 checkpoints, with 4 locations if that makes sense. Go into forge if you want to understand it better). I would love to have VIP so that you could play Battletracks on this, but Bungie kinda screwed us on that one. I still have about 6500 dollars so I'm open for any ideas. NEW STUFF: The new things are small but affect performance mostly. No central structure at all (except for a few pieces only in Rally/Rocket Race) to help performance. Also supports Rocket Race and Rally. The center is really only for a line of sight blocker. During Race During Rocket Race PICTURES(OLD): Center checkpoint overview Three outer checkpoints overview Underside detail Center structure detail Center intersection Center structure underside (look for the grass) One of the three identical turns Proof of how symmetrical the turns are View from a turn One last overview DOWNLOAD(UPDATED)
Now this my friend is a bad ass idea. Very simple to make. Very simple concept, put together brilliantly. Aesthetics are faily small but get the job done. Maybe some more aesthetics could be put in considering the track to be so small. IT's forged well, and the centre structure is cool. But, thos platforms in the middle of each turn could be cooler I guess. Maybe do something like having a 2 by 2 tall go straight up out of the platform, then turn 15 degrees toward the backside of the turn and do that until you have a half circle that goes into the water, idk, u saked for ideas. haha. Not bad though. Good idea, good forging. 9/10.
Wow, very cool first thought of this map: "downloadnowomgwtfbbq" looks very well forged and very symmetrical which would seem difficult, at least for m, to do with three separate parts. but as for aesthetics i love what u did to the center and the bottom of the track, but on those platforms you could add some sort of small tower or possibly an overhang that covers the sloped outside part, if u understand me ^^ 9/10.7
I wanted to keep things simple and keep the lines of sight open at the tops of the turns in case bungie releases VIP or something like Battletracks or snipes. I was hoping that with the noble map pack they would give us VIP back but no. Oh well. Also, had I added anything more to the center, it would have created framerate issues, I tested it with multiple different towers/aesthetic pieces and this is what ended up playing the smoothest and looking clean
UNOFFICIAL Review from Chung. Hex on Forge World by ShortKidPena Minor Errors: None that I could find, other than it being small, but that was sorta intentional. Impressions: Good idea, making use of the Race gametype ftw! Turns are well built and come together at the same angle in the middle which is kinda tough to do. Suggestions: Maybe try to stick with the same piece throughout an entire turn. It's nothing major it just feels off switching on and off from different pieces. Sorta. Final Thoughts: Great. I loved it. Made good use of the Race gametype. Good job. Final Rating: Difficulty - 3/5 Creativity - 5/5 Flow - 5/5 Smoothness - 4.75/5 Clarity - 5/5 Entertainment - 5/5 Overall -4.85/5
Great idea. If I don't have the lead, I'm usually one of the ones that go in reverse to "get to the finish line first". This map definitely makes things a whole lot easier.
This looks fun! It seems short but I like the idea of all the turns connecting in the middle, so good job!
Very wonderful concept and execution, as far as traditional race maps go this is the only one that will be staying on my harddrive. I only enjoyed them with the Battletracks mode, so I understand your overall build goals entirely from the outset. I only had five people to test it with but it was a blast, much more fun than I've had with any other race map in Reach or Halo 3 for that matter. I am going to add two little rabbit ears flat at 45' on each teardrop corner for off-track spawns to see if it is any fun with Rocket Race. I could see it playing out in a very unique manner with that gametype as well, although it is too bad about Battletracks not being available in the new version.
This is a very good race track, very simple but fun. Its nice that you can choose your path and knock people off.
My Personal Review Hex Enjoyment: Hex is a very unique Race track and it is also excellently constructed with perfect arching corners. The best part about the track though is that it isn’t just your typical race course; it’s more of a race arena! I had a couple of games on it last night and found it extremely enjoyable. Usually in Race, I find that playing through the track once is enough. However, on Hex, I immediately reloaded the game and played another match on it, this time with even more people. The fact that you aren’t confined to one particular route, and you can openly choose whether you want to go for the speedy route that utilises the full track, or simply work around one arch and ram your opponents off the track it makes some highly fun race games. Usually when playing race, you will have a couple of laughs, but I have to say during the races on Hex everyone was laughing repeatedly. This truly is an enjoyable race course. The only downside I have for the track is that it isn’t Rocket Race compatible. How this is, I don’t know… But I would have liked to have a rocket race on this to see how much chaos can be whipped up on this map. 9/10 Balance: Because of the intricate layout of Hex, the Balance of the map is absolutely key. Occasionally though, during start up, some players had a better chance to reach the first hill and gain that momentary lead… although they had to race the entire track flawlessly from that point onwards and this proved rather difficult when driving head on into people who want to ram you off the track. All in all, the track is nicely balanced. The corners are made perfectly and are beautifully flush against each other, and the race locations appear to be exactly at the peak of each corner. However, Spawning on these corners was a problem for some players as they just didn’t like respawning on an angle with an immediate slope infront of them. 7/10 Durability: Now this is a hard one to fill… Your entire map design revolves around the ability to “break” the map and break up the circuit so this category is extremely difficult to grade accurately according to typical race maps. You do have the map placed in the sea though, so any players who went off the edges of the track wouldn’t land and drive away like other race courses. The only potential break I can see, (and this didn’t actually happen in game and isn’t likely) is if a player was off their mongoose, they could be splattered (but not killed) by a mongoose on the corner and be launched onto the platforms in the centre of the turns. As stated this didn’t actually happen, but it would be possible. 9/10 Aesthetics: The maps aesthetics are very bland. You stated in your post that you have around £6500 budget left to spend… so I’m sat here wondering why you didn’t? If it’s just gameplay you wanted to gain feedback on you could have submitted your race map to the Tester’s Guild. The map itself gives an unbelievable ‘unfinished’ appearance and you could have drastically improved the maps aesthetics with the budget you have remaining. The good points to your maps aesthetics (and gameplay really) is that the entire map is perfectly smooth. I didn’t find any bumps in the track whilst racing and that is surely a feat in itself. The other subtle aesthetics, like the towers and the central structure do look rather nice though. They’re simple, but not overly simple, and they get the job done of glamorising the track a little more. Your greatest aesthetics though are the supports that hold up the corners from the base of each arch. These aesthetics look great, but they just don't get noticed in game at all... Include more noticeable aesthetics and utilise your budget accordingly (without adding any framrate lag!!) and your score wouldn’t have taken such a hit. I just think the map looks a little too plain. 4/10 Originality: The easy criteria for Hex. This is entirely unique. Through all the Reach tracks I’ve played, this is by far the most unique. The fact that you can’t even tell when you’re in the lead and you have a constant flurry of oncoming traffic that’s tempted to sacrifice their speed just to ram you off the course makes the gameplay ten times more enjoyable. I don’t think the racetrack has been done before, but I’d like to see more racetracks like Hex, like one with three intersection points! All in all, I think you might have just sparked off a new style of racing in Halo Reach. 10/10 Enjoyment: 9/10 Balance: 7/10 Durability: 9/10 Aesthetics: 4/10 Originality: 10/10 Total: 7.8/10 Ultimately, this an amazing race course. With improvement needed on additional aesthetics (if you feel that the map is too plain as well) this could be an exceptionally strong race course that can remain on a majority of players hard drives for a long time to come. It's just a shame you've released the map before entirely completing it. Ohhh.. and get it up and running for Rocket Race!!!
This is still my go-to map whenever I am rounding up players for a Rocket Race party and we have odd numbers, are waiting for another player, or have downtime for any other reason. Load up Hex and everyone is guaranteed to have a blast - even the guy who is down a lap at the start because he spawns into the ocean! Seriously even with a single spawn wrong, we still have more fun with this race map than any other, the concept and resulting gameplay is just that good. As far as adding any extra detail, I don't see that happening due to framerate concerns. It already dips down when you get 6+ people on there, I can't imagine exhausting more of the budget would contribute to anything but reducing performance significantly. I also enjoy the simplicity of the aesthetics, all the detail is in the center pagoda like structure atop the main intersection which you constantly loop back through to line up other players and your own checkpoints, so it feels appropriate to me. As far as my personal taste is concerned it outclasses all other style of race maps, henceforth known as the "wet noodle tossed into the sky, frozen in time" design philosophy. The design makes more sense, the gameplay makes more sense, and I would vote for this in matchmaking. Maybe not every time if it was between this and Rocket Race or some other vehicular combat focused gametype, but consistently nonetheless. Great job!
When i saw the thumbnail pic for this track, i just thought it was gonna be a small modest track with a few banked turns, but after looking at the rest of the pics, i realized what a sweet idea this was, and how well u executed it. From the pictures it looks like all the turns are completely symmetrical and smooth, which isnt easy to do. But u pulled it off well. Definately going to download. nice work
I have played this too many times in 16 player parties. I never win. I regularly get around 7 or 8 out 100. (We raise the lap limit) But, I am an expert at knocking people off. You play this with me, you will fall off.
This is a cool map ! I really like the symmetical lay out, perfectly placed. Excellent forging. I like how different pieces come in on different game types. And the game is great fun . Brilliant concept
I have to be honest, my friends and I do not try to race on this map, but we do set the gametype for racing. Basically, we set-up the game as such... laps 100 time 10 - 12 minutes use warthogs damage enabled player shields set to 110% player jump set to 90% player movement speed set to 75% no gunner allowed no assassinations one frag grenade primary weapon set to shotgun no secondary weapon ...and then we play Destruction Derby! The player who has the best K ratio at the end of the time limit is the winner. Most ridiculous form of entertainment ever, but one of the absolute best.
This course is great. I haven't tried the updated/rocket race version yet, but I did make a custom race type for it. It's some crazy amount of laps to win, then I also let people have 4 of each grenade. I also went onto forge and added some explosives that shoot in at like 5-10 second intervals on each of the loops of the track. It basically makes it absolutely crazy. Some people get behind in the points, so they just go to the middle and stick people. It gets insane. I love the concept of this map in general. One thing that's almost always lacking in Reach racing is the neck-in-neck, photo-finish type races. You're either behind or ahead until someone falls off. This track basically gives me the competition I desire in a race.... add in the stickies and the explosives and it's perfect.