Let me first say that the biggest reason I'm posting this is not to draw attention to myself or my map, or to ask for testers (despite what the rest of my post may seem like), but to share the map that I had fun creating and playing in the hopes that others may have fun with it as well. I posted this map before, but the weapons, spawns, gametypes, kill/safe zones, and a plethora of other minor structural changes were made. Also I was forced to change the name, since a more successful map bearing the same name exists. Thus, I thought it justified to re-post it. I hope that's allowed. This is my first map, Research Facility G. This map needs YOU. My friend and I made this map, and we need help testing it. As far as we can tell, it's balanced pretty well, and the spawns work just fine, but this is from very limited testing with a very small amount of people. That's not good enough! So I ask you, Halo and Forge Hub community, to take time out of your busy schedules to download and test the map with your friends (only if you want, of course; I don't mean to sound pushy). The map is called Research Facility G. It's a facility in a state of utter chaos, sinking in the sea. What was once used to research possible ways to save lives is now ironically destroying them. Oh, the horror! I imagine it's sizable enough for 8 players (it worked well enough for 6). It was built to work with Team Slayer and 1-flag, but after seeing how it turned out, I imagine Infection might play pretty well on it, too. Regardless, it works with most gametypes, though I haven't tested all of them to my likings just yet. The map was built to generally be a close-quarters map with that clustered, "you're inside a building" feeling. There is plenty of dance room on the second floor and the roof, where most of the battles took place during my tests, but the bottom floor and the third floor didn't get much action, so I don't know how well they played. Oh yeah, it's three floors and a roof. I forgot to mention that. I designed it so that 1-flag would be a hard fight to the flag, but once the flag was achieved, an easy way back home. I don't know how well this turned out, though. And, consequently, this might have made Team Slayer unbalanced. I don't know. That's partially why I'm posting this. Now, the layout. Keep in mind, the pictures don't really do the map much justice, it being mostly interior and all: This is the roof. The red team spawns behind the dish to the north. There are two large ramps near the center and two smaller ramps down south, leading to four separate rooms. The large ramps both lead to similar rooms, as do the smaller ramps. The rooms that the large ramps lead to have nothing too spectacular in them, but the rooms the smaller ramps lead to both have teleporters to the sole sniper on the map. Under the lower dish, there is a tunnel. At the end is a shotgun, and a hole that leads here: The rocket hallway. This hallway is the key to the 1-flag escapes. At the end of the hallway (where the picture was taken from) is a hole that leads straight to the bottom floor, where one can capture the flag easily. But this hole is blocked in symmetrical gametypes. The only way into this hallway is through one of these two holes. The rocket is only on asymmetrical gametypes. Otherwise it's just a grenade launcher. This is half of the second floor. The two ramps you see lead to the rooms with the sniper teleporters. There's a hole that you can drop down to grab a sword to the right, and there's a plasma pistol by the center column. Where the picture was taken from (and the other subsequent corner) has a gravity lift that allows you to get here from the bottom floor. What you don't see are the other two ramps leading to the other two rooms of the third floor, and the other two gravity lifts leading to the bottom floor. Oh, and a concussion rifle. This is the bottom floor. As you can see, it has flooded due to the facility failing and all. Here you'll find four grav lifts to the second floor, the blue spawn (to your left), a couple spikers, and a grenade launcher. There's one medpack on every floor except the third one, and plasma nades and frags are scattered around the map. I appreciate any and all feedback (positive, negative, mournful, whatever) that would help me both improve this map and any maps I may choose to make in the future. I've submitted the map to ForgeHub's own review committee, but I don't know how competitive and serious that committee is, and I'd like feedback from "average joes" such as myself more than a serious reviewer. So, yeah, if you'd like, give it a download and play it with your pals. Then please, message me (my gamertag is TSNS) either on Live, Bungie.net, or here on ForgeHub with any critiques you may (and probably will) have. All criticism is appreciated! If you have any ideas for improvements, or suggestions, or anything like that, then message me those as well and I'll be sure to give credit where credit is due ("See that antennae there? [Insert gamertag here] came up with that."). Most importantly, though, download it if you think you're going to have fun with it. I don't want to sound like I'm pushing you into downloading a mediocre map that you might hate just so you can tell me how bad it is. That's not the point. I felt that Reach lacked close-quarters, enclosed combat, and many players (myself included) enjoy that kind of combat, so I tried to make a map that they (and I) would enjoy. That's my main goal with this map and this post.
For your thumbnail, click edit @ the bottom of your initial post. Now click "go advanced". You'll see an entry titled "thumbnail image:." Paste your picture's web address in there with nothing extra before or after the address. It should start with http and end with .jpg. At least that's how mine works. You don't actually have to use a thumbnail image. The link can be to any normal size image of your map. The site will automatically reduce it's size to create your thumbnail image.
Your map looks interesting. I like the pillars on the middle level and the use of the dishes. Honestly though, I cannot get a sense of the layout of your map. With no overview, I don't really know how the map feels. I' Dl and check it out anyways though. P.S.- To fix your thumbnail image, remove the tags from either side of the link. I had this same problem with my first posts. Never mind, beaten to the pop on the thumbnail part. Though I agree with leegeorgeton on the solution at least.
Thank you. Yeah, I felt that might be an issue, considering how the map is built. Perhaps a video fly through would be better? Though I'm having enough trouble as it is with thumbnails. A video might just be out of my league.
Sorry, but there's one feature that immediately stuck out as a problem. It's kind of long, so I'll put it in a Spoiler. Read if you want to improve your map. Spoiler There's one feature about your map, that I immediately noticed would be the kind of thing that adds mediocraty and poor gameplay. In your third picture, all the Red Team spawns are shown to be facing the wrong way, away from all the action. Placing spawns against a wall facing outwards and just hoping they'll somehow work might have worked on personal maps you'd only play with friends, but you're going to need some help for this to become a decent Competitive map. When a player spawns for the first time on your map, he/she needs to make hundreds of minor observations about your map (available paths, immediate weaponry, outlines of friendly bases, etc.), and the player needs to make those observations while playing. The general rule most people use is that when a player initially spawns, they should have at least four or five seconds of uninterupted observation (followed by at least a two second "free period" after every respawn). This means that every Initial Spawn Point has the potential to give players an immediate path lasting four or so seconds, where the player won't have to jump, make sharp turns or do anything else to move forward. Your initiall spawns completely defy that rule, along with several principles of common logic. If a player spawns facing the opposite direction of where the battle will take place, they'll end up being disoriented regardless of what steps you take to prevent that. And it's probably not just that. If you were able to overlook something this obvious, then you must not have much experiance with making Competitive maps. I'm not saying this just for the sake of being a ****. I'm trying to help you make your map better, a goal that you'll hopefully like to share. Read this thread on Competitive map design for tips on layout and weapon placement. Also, you should only post finished maps in the Map Forums. If you want people to help test, post it here. Cheers, Haris.
You mean the initial spawns? I was probably being overprotective of spawn killing, which I suppose doesn't make sense for initial spawns anyways. But I didn't want to place them on the edge of the building facing the ramp/dish, either, for fear of players backing up to their demise. Perhaps I should place them beside the dish, facing the ramps or the tunnel? Thanks for the advice. I think most of my non-initial spawns meet these requirements, but they weren't in mind when I made them, so I'll go rework the system. I figured since the spawns were initial, being out of the action wouldn't be a problem. But I'll move them so that weapon access/beginning game rushing will be much easier to perform and discern. Hence why I said it was my first map. Not at all. These kinds of replies are partially why I posted the map. It's finished. I thought I made that clear in the first post. I would just like people who play it to let me know what they did or didn't enjoy about it so I can improve on future maps. Thanks again for the advice.