My only complaint with terrain is that most of the time you can only build macro pathing, without the interesting little details that make structural maps unique and have replay value. This isn't completely impossible with terrain, but it seems to be the case with spellbound. There isn't much subtlety to how a player can outplay his opponent. Overall, terrain maps are beautiful, but generally don't deliver on the gameplay side for me. (except for seclusion)
The more I've thought about the micro side of gameplay, I've come to the decision that it wont be something I prioritize in my map design. This game's abilities are already too heavy handed in the way they change encounters and I'd prefer to keep the map geometry simple to avoid cluttering its readability. One reason why I don't like 4v4 in this game is because the abilities make it way too easy to lose people over railings and crates or other obstructions. A map with too many micro options makes the gameplay too random to me and I find that frustrating when the kill times are as long as they are. Spellbound is a pretty simple 4 lane asym. The design focuses on on door-to-door gameplay, flanking maneuvers and clean pistol duels. Moving around the map with the abilities changes the way those encounters play out, and I'm tweaking as many of the rocks as possible to encourage slide boosts and other movement exploits; however, I don't think I'll be adding things like doorframes, low rocks or sneaky ledges for players to hop around on. If the map plays too shallow, there are other ways I would address that first, like putting the atrium man cannon back or redesigning the whole thing to replace the flat tunnels with more jumping ledges. There was a point where I said I didn't want to have any horizontal gameplay on the map, but the art and pathing kept steering it in that direction and I eventually came to terms with it. So I don't think it's something I would want to hold against this map or try to squeeze in it. It's played differently every game I've had on it, but the encounters are always interesting to me because they are rarely interrupted by the geometry. Even when there's a long range encounter that ends in a stalemate, the map encourages me to find a different angle to tackle the encounter and influence the spawns. I think those strategies and counter strategies are what will keep the gameplay fresh. My other terrain maps will be different in that regard, but for now I'm glad that I've managed to make something I enjoy playing on. If a forger wanted to build more micro gameplay into their map, I don't think terrain would necessarily hold them back. You should be able to make a map with as much depth as Guardian out of terrain if that was the intention. Perhaps it would need some physical structure to aid in that, but that's the way terrain maps have always been done anyway. If you don't have any structure on the map, you're doing it wrong.
Good post Goat. I don't think micro pathing always equates to the geeky angles you're thinking of. Much more utility then most people give it credit for. Hard to explain over a post, but a nap design video should do the topic justice
I can appreciate your intentions, but I've had a change of heart over halo 5's lifespan. I like clean battles, flanking, and smooth flow, but forgers have been focusing on that stuff in maps since h3. I want to experience new things, even if it means being unbalanced.
That's fair. Personally I think Halo is boring period and I just want to play on maps that don't look like factories. After playing Doom and Overwatch I just don't have any interest in the way Halo is played anymore. The power weapon cycle is long outdated and they still can't figure out how to make the individual player feel powerful. Why the **** is the starting weapon the hardest weapon to use in the game if it's not the most powerful? @MultiLockOn is one of the few people trying to change the gameplay on a fundamental level, but he doesn't even play the game anymore. Starting to think I'll finish this map before you finish that video.
I've pretty much have finished up a project I've been working on (one of many backlogged projects) that was my first successful attempt at making an out-of-map playspace, having converted the area above Riptide into a jungle-like area that served as my first attempt at making natural terrain. Spoiler: Outlands (Build 7-15-16)
Honestly, my new map has a lot of what you could call "micro-gameplay", but like Xandrith said, I'm bored of the traditional style of maps we've been getting since H3. 343 gave us all of these new movement abilities, so I want to let them become truly apart of the meta.
Now that Tidal is fixed, I hear a cool new ridiculous mini game is coming out soon... it's about damn time.
http://xboxdvr.com/gamer/BOMBER BOY...c70e3339/1370999b-fca2-4c53-8ec5-73493bcb67e5 Hello everyone I've been working on btb map but I'm still new to the new Forge and it's more complicated than what I'm used to so I was hoping if any capable and willing forgers are able to help me out with this project If so please reply or message me on Xbox my GT is BOMBER BOY Z130
Progress on the real blockout I'm extremely happy with how this has turned out. I've tested some fog and weather effects to get that storm peaks snow storm feel and oh man, this'll look better than anything multi has ever made. Not to say that's hard But seriously, prepare yourselves.
I've finally got multiple maps in progress, again. Canal is being updated after multiple lobby tests. Mostly now these changes are visual-based to assist people with knowing the new pathways. And also just to give it a bit of a cooler look to it. Make areas pop out more. Make it less dull. Canal also got some cover changes and VERY minor tweaks that were bothering me that I doubt not a single other person would have noticed. Even fixed up some small lines between the breakout blocks. Some minor improved cover, as well. Mirage is a bit stagnant for my in-progress maps. Was waiting for feedback. Did get told that when the Ghost is active, people don't use the center of the map as much. This was actually intentional. The gender of the map and parts of the cave are the only areas the Ghost can freely travel through, and was intended to be a control point in which you use as if you had a power weapon. We'll see what happens with Mirage, I guess. Guru is in slow development. Will be requesting its test in some lobbies, soon. It's a Breakout map where flag running is a legitimate strategy. A good flag run can take only 7 seconds once you reach the flag. That pathway is a bit more open, but it means people have to be constantly on the move. Power Grid just got majorly overhauled, and is a fairly large infantry BTB map. To solve this, Ghosts and Gungoose vehicles have been added to speed up the flow. There are now two Wasps on the map, one for each team. This brings some low-flying strafing runs as a powerful tool, while still having buildings and walls to flee behind. The Wasp cannot fly that high compared to the map, meaning it cannot be easily abused and can even be taken down by small arms fire. This still needs some serious testing. Not my best map, but it's a fun one for customs. Terminal 17 is just a fun little casual map made. Works very well as a Husky Raid style map with some increased speed. People loved it when we played it like that. Mistaken is an Infection map based originally on Mirage, but now only shares the cave systems and red base. The rest of the map has been changed and shrunk to fit for Infection. It has been turned into a cave system to make it darker and spookier, and new pathways made and much more cover. Survivors spawn in the red base, which looks down on the map to a degree. The only issue with this is the better weapons spawn out in the map, and not in their spawn. This means that they have the choice to attempt holding out in the safer part of the map until they run out of ammo, or they can go and scavenge the dark wasteland for better equipment.
tbh I'm surprised you finished Cobalt with the way you delete all your maps. Seth has new maps in progress and all of a sudden Salty is forging 40 maps in a day. I guess the title of mapless stays on my belt.
You know what's funny? I did delete Cobalt, but a bunch of people had the map saved lol and If it weren't for seth the map wouldn't have made it to matchmaking, because I refused to get on and make the changes 343 requested, lmao
I've done similar things, before. Only no one had the map backed up to a point where it was salvageable when I realized I wanted to continue work on it. You got lucky, man.