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Flyingshoe ILR

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Flyingshoe ILR last won the day on April 23 2016

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  1. Beginning in Halo 2, Halo has always featured 1-sided, asymmetrical game modes. These have included simple variants like 1 Flag CTF, 1 Bomb Assault, and Territories, as well as the occasional full-blown mode like Invasion. Halo 4 introduced a departure from this for the first time in close to a decade, not shipping with any 1-sided game modes and never adding in any via updates. A few work arounds were made for this, like hiding one flag under the floor and using rounds to emulate the old system, or the Conversion game mode that I helped create in order to fill the Invasion gap (with limited success), and these helped the customs community get by until MCC brought back these options in Halo 2 Anniversary. With the bare-bones game modes introduced in Halo 5 and the frequent update schedule, may of us expected that 1-sides modes might make a comeback in this game. 1 Flag in particular is a simple variant of CTF, and should be fairly easy to implement. Unfortunately, 6+ months later even this most basic variant has not been released or made possible. This is a call to 343 Industries to dedicate the time and resources to make a few basic 1-side game mode variants. 1 Flag CTF, 1 Bomb Assault, and a 1 sided "lockdown style" Strongholds variant are the big three modes I would like to see. These base game modes already exist in the game, and so should take the least amount of effort to create. Even with the intricacies of game design and the amount of other content being created, I feel that this should be a relatively minor task for 343 Industries to achieve. There are already asymmetrical maps in Matchmaking that would support these modes with a few tweaks to spawn and weapon layouts, tasks that would take forgers a couple of hours to a day to complete. These game modes would not only add more variety to current playlists, but also would vastly increase the variety of maps produced in Halo 5's Forge. 1-sided game modes play very differently from their symmetrical counterparts, and this allows for more wild, asymmetric map designs that would just never work for symmetrical modes. This invigorates custom games and leads to the potential for more varied and interesting forge content reaching matchmaking. As a longtime member of the forge and customs communities, I can attest that the variety of types of maps in Halo 5 has been severely hampered by a lack of game modes to design around. Choices fuel creativity, and with just a few small game modes we could see a huge increase in variety, increasing forge activity, promoting variety in customs, and leading towards a better matchmaking experience. Please make your voices heard about this if you want to see 1-Sided Game Modes return to Halo 5!
  2. Unfortunately, the wheels in the picture (Xforgery and THC) are actually dead and done already. The front end (Forge Hub) might as well be dead and is pretty much a shambling corpse as of now. Forge Cafe I really never hear anything about. Halo Customs is going pretty strong, as is 343CF, THFE on the youtube scene, and Beyond Entertainment on the 343i/ competitive/ cartographer scene. Those 4 have at least some connection at this point, but the other links on this snake are either decomposing or about to start.
  3. The first 2 maps seem to make use of a lot of what we call "lazy cover." Basically, the maps are extremely flat outside of the base structures and lines of sight are blocked by random parts placed around the map instead of being segmented by structures and height variation. This leads to a maze-like map where players run around until someone pops up in their face. There are no defined routes between bases or parts of the map, simply a lattice of places you can walk with no distinct advantages or disadvantages, leading to sterile gameplay. A bit thing that developer maps feature is segmentation via large structures such as rock cliffs, arches, tunnels, or buildings. The maps in matchmaking are almost all split into specific areas by these structures, such as how the center area splits up Exile or how Meltdown is split by it's bumpy walls and the 2 central rock spires near each base. This way there are defined areas on each map that players can thoughtfully move through instead of just a maze of directions the player can go, forcing players to think about how they want to move through the map. On your first maps I only see a maze with possibly a few loosely defined routes. I'm not proposing that there is an easy way to fix this on these maps, and most likely they would need a full redesign to avoid this problem. It is more something to remember for the future. The structures on Diocese, the third map, look interesting, but the pictures don't really show the layout of the map very well, instead showing mostly interior close up shots. It can be hard on smaller or more enclosed map but I'd try to get a few good overview shots so we can tell how the map would flow.
  4. While the remake looks faithful Sandbox is not a map that transfers well into Halo 4. The lines of sight are extremely open across the whole map, as there is very little structure on the map at all. Sandbox had a lot of these issues even in Halo 3 and was more well loved as a canvas than an actual map to play on.
  5. ... definitely does not belong in the competitive submission forum.
  6. Invasion didn't work on any map. Dominion doesn't fit on just any map. Flood does not work well on just any map. Like any of these modes, you could set it up on some random map, but unless the map is designed for it it probably won't play very well. That is why we released maps with it.
  7. I took a look at the new version, here are my thoughts: + The bulged area with the yellow light is much better, looks very nice and breaks up the LOS well. Should create a few safe spawn points as well. I'd like to see a lot more things like this. + Red base is more developed, though I'd like to see a little more work in front of the base. The big open area doesn't really serve a great purpose except to make the base difficult to approach from the front. - I got a lot of frame rate lag in forge. Not sure how bad it will be in game, but looking out of red base dropped the fps quite low. - Blue hallway still had some very long LOS, as did other parts of the map. A lot of areas seem to have "lazy" cover in them, crates and boxes in an otherwise square, flat hallway. I'd like to see a lot more of what you did with the yellow hall, but not exactly the same. Take the concept of a turn in the path or a change in height and apply it differently and in a way that makes sense for the area. The map has some good in it but every area could be looked over and possibly changed to fit this design philosophy.
  8. Awesome to have this finally out! Thanks to all the testers, THFE, Dog, and of course my partner in forge (and bad puns) Psychoduck! It's been awesome working on this project man!
  9. I took a look around the map and I plan to run a 4 v 4 game or two as soon as I get the chance, but I noticed a few non-gameplay elements that could be changed: • Your weapon organization was rather confusing. Some power weapons are on drops and some aren't, leading to situations where you think you know where they are but then you are surprised with a weapon you didn't know was on the map. The random grenade drops also seemed a little unbalanced, with one side getting frags and the other getting plasma and pulse. I would put 1 plasma/ pulse on each side along with 1 frag drop. Finally, you occasionally had power weapons on the little plinths that held loadout weapons, which got confusing when you went up to one expecting a loadout weapon or avoided it because you thought it was a loadout weapon. To simplify things, you might want to make all of your power weapons be on initial drops and have the plinths for loadout weapons only. • Some spawns faced confusing or disorienting locations, like the blue respawn points on the upper level facing the struts. You should generally spawn facing towards the middle of the map so that you can get back into the flow of moving around the map quickly and so that you can orient yourself quickly. • There were a few very long lines of sight around the map, stretching all the way across. This generally leads to a lot of cross map fights where the player who shoots first wins, but I need to play a game to get a better feel for if it will be an issue on this map. There is also a choke-point by the DMR where you have to go down one of these lines of sight with no way to get out of it for a few seconds. I'll get back to you after I've played a game with more feedback. I like a lot of the map though and I'd love to see it become even better.
  10. I did not get a game on the map. I would have if I'd felt I couldn't get an adequate reading on how the map could be improved, but the map had enough issues that getting a game on it would be redundant for me, as I can see what the large issues are and so until they are solved the small issues are not important, and may even change by the time the large ones are solved. The map author on the other hand should get a game on the map so he can better see the issues we have found for himself. If he is having trouble getting games on it I would suggest posting a lobby Here. As for the teleports, players can also shoot anyone who comes out of them. Soft kills aren't a real fix as they tend to dissuade players from using them at all (soft kills should really only be used to set map boundaries.) The teleports won't fix the problem fully, even if they help, but you should test it and see that for yourself.
  11. I took a look through in forge, here are my thoughts: 1. The map has a lot of massive choke-points on it, where players are forced to move through the only door leading through to the next part of the circle or they have to go all the way back around. A few guys could hold an entire team at one of these doors and they prevent movement around the map. As Zandril stated above, this tends to happen because there is no way to move through the middle of the map, only around it's outer edge. Putting routes up to the top of the island will not help this, as the top area is so high up and powerful that it will overpower the lower areas and/ or become disconnected with the rest of the map. If the map were moved higher and the middle incorporated as a level slightly below the outer ring, this might work, though the middle could not be left open. As it stands though you should never have only one route through an area. 3 is about the magic number of ways to get through an area, with one being quick and open and others being longer but covered. Even if these areas were fixed however the map would not flow well at all without a middle area. 2. A large part of your budget was eaten up by a huge structure on the top of the island, one that could only be easily seen by the banshee and that was not used for any game space. This is a big waste of budget for something that most players will never see (players do not usually look up in a match as that is not where the enemy is for the most part.) This budget could likely be used better elsewhere. Not all aesthetics like this are bad, the small island you made is an example of one that works well, as it is in plain sight from the map and uses very few parts. 3. The layout and construction of the map had a lot of issues. Red base was actually much closer to the neutral Banshee than Blue team, an the two teams flags were not right across from each other but instead at a strange angle. Blue base was kind of a mess, with ramps and buildings leading all over and up to towers that really couldn't see anything. This map, like Paradigm, suffers from some severe clutter issues, where walls do not look clean and everything kind of runs together into a jumbled mess. One of the main tricks in making a map look clean and easy to navigate is to use only certain pieces, limiting yourself from using one of every part in your map. For example, some maps focus on using 4 x 4 or 3 x 3 blocks, or bridges. You generally want to select a few parts to make most of your maps basic structure out of and keep them fairly simple. Buildings should be used very sparingly, as they all are very complex and rarely fit well in maps. They can be used, but carefully and sparingly so.
  12. I took a look at the map and noticed a few things: 1. The lighting on this map is broken, which is caused by the enormous amount of high-polygon pieces you used on the map. There are a lot of ways you could easily cut down on this, such as by removing some of the structures outside the map. The courtyard and trees that could only be seen through blurry windows are extremely unecessary and should be removed, as players can barely see them and they use a lot of lighting budget. Other parts that are complex (buildings, decorative parts, trees, etc...) should also be removed. Do this until you can generate lighting again and the map will look much better. A few things like the crane were cool, but even that crane could be built using less pieces. You also could save a lot of budget by deleting the Coliseum Wall floor on the map. Your map is build literally right on Forge island, and the grass would add both color and contrast to the map while saving a lot of budget, especially if you reuse those walls elsewhere in a way that saves more parts. 2. The map felt very claustrophobic, with players often being stuck in maze-like tunnels with little direction as to where they were going. These tunnels also are hard to fight in as no one has anywhere to move or strafe if fighting inside them. Larger, more obvious corridors would work much better, no smaller than 2 units in width, and more than that is often better. You also had at least one dead end room on the map, something that does not work in a competitive mode because players have nowhere to go one they go inside, ruining the flow. You also have an extraction node in that room, which will lead to players throwing grenades in over and over to kill the players inside, with little to no chance of missing because the grenades have nowhere else to go. All rooms require at least 2 entrances and should really have at least 3 to play well. On a related note, your extraction zones were very small. Usually a radius of about 2 is good for them, as it allows players to plant the node in areas that may not be as difficult to hold. 3. Your weapons on the map seems a bit random or mistakenly placed. Red team spawns right next to a Binary Rifle (a powerful sniper) whilst Blue team gets a Light Rifle, a primary weapon that players spawn with. The other sniper on the map is then fairly neutral. It would make more sense if weapons were evenly placed on a map that is mostly symmetrical in layout, and to also mostly place power weapons. You also had a random drop with nothing in it in front of Blue base.
  13. I didn't get a game on here, but I noticed a few things in forge that could use some work: • There is a soft kill zone at the Sea Foam colored area that sticks into the map on the ramp to the bottom floor. This may be mirrored on the other side. • A lot of parts were merged sloppily, especially the blocks that make the floors at each teams spawn area. You could probably find a way to make pieces fit snugly together and not merge textures. Your map isn't very large and you could save some budget by removing a few of the Extraction crates. • On the topic of Extraction crates, you don't have to label an objective 4 times. There are 4 slots there so that objects can have labels for many different game modes, and labeling a crate "Extraction Target" 4 times is no different than labeling it 1 time. • Finally, there were some weird weapon drops on the map for it's size. Assault Rifles and Frags are normally weapons one can spawn with in almost any mode, and a sticky detonator is not so powerful that it would usually be the central power weapon with 180 second respawn time. You could probably fit 2 of them on the map with a lower respawn and rockets in the middle unless the map is designed for personal ordnance, in which case less makes sense. Other than that the map looked pretty solid in it's layout. I like the rock jumps a lot, as they were fun and increase player movement options to and from the middle.
  14. I like the new hallways a lot, now you have a lot more choice when running the flag/ you have to work harder to defend it. I'm sad to see the ghosts go but I don't think it was a bad choice for the map, as there is no real circuit to drive them on and you ended up having to take them through the middle. I'm pretty happy with the new version, though I see you still have those random drops in the trees. I'm not sure if it will make them that hard to see, but my point with those wasn't that there shouldn't be random snipers there, just that there shouldn't be weapons obscured by tree branches. I do like that they are sticky detonators now though either way.
  15. I took a look around at the map in forge, here are a few thoughts: • I actually really lied the pyramid pillars at the front of red base that you made with Y-Cross's. You had a few interesting structures on the map but that one caught my eye the most, very clean and original. • Unfortunately a lot of other structures didn't seem to fit as well. Right next to that you have the dish/ antenna large ripped straight out of Pinnacle in Halo Reach, which really does not fit right next to red base nor does it add much in the way of cover or structure to the area. A lot of the blue side of the map also felt rather cramped and maze like as opposed to having deliberate paths. Red base then had the opposite problem, being almost completely isolated from the rest of the map by a large flat area. I would suggest focussing on having specific paths through the map instead of lot's of maze-like ones in blue or a big open area like by red. • I'm not sure how useful those 2 mongooses will be, seeing as the only open area to use them in is right in front of red base. There isn't much of a vehicle circuit or any reason to get on them.
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