My first proper go at a race track for Halo 4. I've tried my hardest to make the track interesting and provide a lot of different challenges for the player to navigate; for example tight corners, a mine field, incredibly thin tracks and even a small forest. Despite this though I still feel like there is more I can add to this track. Any ideas/feedback? Note: This track is meant to be used with the "Race V1.1" gametype made be "Synth". Map: File Share Halo Official Site Gametype: File Share Halo Official Site Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I've not played race games before, so take all of this with a grain of salt. What I would suggest for improvements are: 1. Falling always equalling dying may not work as well with a map this challenging. At least 3 times I spawned right when someone else spawned, which either damaged the mongoose, kicked me off the track, or both. If you can figure out a way for falling to sometimes equal a delay (so either takes a while to drive back up to where you fell, or you fall to an alternate - but longer - path), then it would remove the respawn issues. 2. The teleporters are not oriented properly. The receiver nodes pop you out with the orientation about 120 degrees off or so. 3. Some challenges are cool, but some I wasn't sure add to the play. The ramp bunkers, in particular, just seem to pile up traffic. If that was not your intent, you may want to consider replacing them with wider paths. 4. The catwalk was a bit frustrating. This may benefit from suggestion #1. On the other hand, my frustration could have been simply because I'm not a good driver. Anyway, it's something to think about. Also, I got stuck on the catwalk once. I could not get the mongoose all the way back onto it, nor could I drive it off. I had to get out of it and wait for a new one. 5. There is some really bad Z-fighting on the coliseum windows where the trees are. Also, once, I turned invisible there. After thinking about it, I suspect it was because the camera was forced inside the mongoose. Anyway, it was really strange. 6. The gravity trait zone was really neat, but also unpredictable (at least to me). Maybe put a grav lift on the back wall to help force people out? Dunno. Something to think about.
Hi. Thanks for the feedback. 1. I’m not quite sure how to tackle the spawning issue. I could maybe increase the size of the checkpoint boundaries to allow more than one mongoose to spawn in one area, which might work. But as for making falling off lead you on to an alternate route that’s longer than the original route. I like the idea. But in order to execute something like that it would require another track to run under the original track just in case someone falls off, and given that I’ve almost maxed out the budget, it would be impossible on this track. 2. I think I will have to experiment with the teleports a little bit as, I think, the angle that you enter the teleport affects the angle that you come out at. Not sure on that one, I may be wrong. 3. I’m going to replace the ramp section with something else completely as the whole section is flawed in my mind, and it doesn’t really add much to the track anyway. 4. That’s largely a good thing as I intended it to be a hard and frustrating section. And as for you getting stuck I will look through the replays and see if there is something I can do to stop that. 5. The Z-fighting I spotted myself and have already changed that. You turned invisible! First time I have ever heard of that happening to anyone I will look back through the replays to make sure that it wasn’t anything to do with the track, and if it is I will modify it. 6. The gravity lift thing is going to be a hard thing to perfect. I will play around with it and see If I can make it smoother, or I may in fact just replace it with cannons, I don’t know yet. Also there was a hidden shortcut on the map, and I'm surprised no one spotted it.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. It was less a race and more some kind of endurance challenge, but fun. My only real beef was with the one-way shield section - that would randomly slam you against a wall and kill you, and after not doing so on my first 4 laps, the fifth one (when I was in the lead) it did it twice and cost me the race. I don't feel like that kind of random frustration adds much, and the only "skill" is learning the hard way that you should jump off your mongoose there just in case. I'd re-tool that section to not be fatal. I also do agree with Maximus that some of the narrow turns seemed a bit pointless other than creating pile-ups; if you can find alternate solutions for one or two of those sections, I would. Apart from those things, really enjoyed this and wouldn't mind running it again. Oh, about the hidden shortcut - I didn't ever see it, but I'd suggest to ditch it. It doesn't serve much purpose except for letting people who know the map well cheat against people who don't. Once players learn it, they'll all use it and then it may as well be part of the course design, anyway.
The nodes have a pointy end at the bottom. For the sender node, have that end point at the player as he is entering the teleporter. For the receiver node, have that end point at the player as he leaves the teleporter. That should take care of it.
RACE TRACK EXTREME - BETA 2 (working title) Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback. It was really helpful. Anyway I’ve edited the track and made some improvements. Below I’ve noted most of the changes I’ve made to the map and underneath that are the download links for the updated map and game type. 1. I’ve replaced the railings on the big slope with invisible walls in an attempt to prevent people from falling off the sides. 2. Redesigned cat walk with no 90° turns. This change was to stop people getting stuck on the sides with no way out. 3. I’ve played around with the teleports in order to stop people coming out at weird angles. 4. Ramp section has been changed drastically to make the track much smoother to drive and to prevent pile ups. 5. The cannon just after the ramp section has been revised, again to make the track smoother to drive on. 6. Grav lift has been revised to stop people from coming out upside down. 7. One way shield section has been completely removed due to it blowing up mongooses and adding absolutely nothing to the track. 8. Hidden shortcut has been removed because the idea is flawed. 9. Checkpoints have been deleted and replaced in better positions. For example there is now one just before the mine field so if you get blown up it won’t take you as long to get back to where you were. 10. Finally I have changed the points system to make it easier to track who is in the lead. Basically now you get a point for each checkpoint you pass through as opposed to getting a point for every lap. Download map here ---> http://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/p...&details=973461de-b21d-4a59-b715-3f3359b10fd9 Download game type here ---> File Share Halo Official Site
Thanks dude! I'm hoping to test it in the TCOJ lobby next Tuesday. That's if I can bring myself to play Halo till 3 o'clock in the morning again, completely messed my sleeping pattern up last time.
This is a fantastic race map. I played just last night, before you did your last update, and I friggin loved it! I first tried to hit the huge down hill going fast and boy did I get some serious air. I suggest slowing racers down right before they enter the sender node in the forest, maybe with a shield wall or just an obstacle or some sort. I kept coming out full speed into the wall on the receiving side of the track. you've fixed everything else I had issues with. I love how you made the invisible wall using flag stands or what ever they are, but sadly a shortcut that skips the whole land mine area kind of sucks, but I see you say you removed that. I was going to suggest moving a few mines onto the short cut to make it more challenging and hopefully take only a few seconds less to complete than the actual mine field. I like short-cuts and alternate paths, but only when they take similar amounts of time. I also liked the stairs that drop down and then do a 180º but I agree with removing the second building on that section which only caused problems. I was able to complete the map a couple times in a row with out falling off and I actually liked the 90º turns which seemed to be the only really challenging section. EDIT: Hey I was messing around on BETA 2 and it seems you've removed one of the dishes on accident.. I drove off into the grass and couldn't get back on the track. I really don't like the walls on the big hill. You say in your post you made them invisible so hopefully the coliseum walls are just place holders. It kills the view, and I liked that you're required to slow down a bit in order not to crash and burn at the bottom, or worse - fall off.
I would agree - when we ran it I had troubles on the first lap (can't remember if I fell off or just flipped over a few times), and thereafter remembered to slow down just before going off the top, and never had a problem. I think the hill was cool the way it was.
I just downloaded the map from my own fileshare and found no problems with the dishes and the walls were invisible! It sounds to me like you were using the map on forge. Delete the map from your console and then re-download it along with the game type, Use those two in custom games and it should work.
Played this again last night on TCOJ. Removing the shield walls, fixing the reverse-gravity lift, and reworking the catwalk were noticeable improvements. I still did not like the circular bunker ramps, though . . . I think the map would be more fun without them. But the other improvements were nice. The teleporters are still a bit messed up. I think you need to spin the receiver nodes 180 degrees to get what you want.
I agree with you the teleports were terrible last night. Some people came out of them ok but I kept coming out backwards, I think it could have been some kind of lag issue. And as for the bunker ramps thingy I kind of like them, they're fun to drive around imo. I'm gonna try and add some more sections for the next lobby.
Yah . . . it was backwards for me every time. On the ramps . . . if you like them, that's what really matters.
RACE TRACK EXTREME - BETA 3 BETA 3 is here! Since, in my mind, Beta 2 went quite well I've only made a couple changes, plus some other minor tweaks. I've listed most of the differences below, feel free to download and tell me what you think. 1. The entrance and exit to the dishes has been modified in an attempt to make them smoother to drive around. 2. Dunno what to call this section, but its been completely changed to make it less clunky and more fun to drive around. 3. Teleport at the end of the catwalk has been replaced with a glass ramp. This was so I could remove some teleports to try and reduce the lag experienced during the test of Beta 2. 4. The map now has 25 checkpoints instead of 10. Download Links; MAP: File Share Halo Official Site GAMETYPE: File Share Halo Official Site Note: Both the map and the gametype must be downloaded and used in custom games for the map to work.
Either I'm getting used to the map, or your changes have been great, or maybe both . . . but I thought this went very well last night. The only negative was the teleporters - they still seem to be oriented incorrectly. I may take a look at it in Forge to give you some better advice than the general "well, if you orient it right it will work." But the map is cool. That dual glass ramp was a nice addition - kudos on that.