Maestro

And you don't get additional experience for beating Spartan Ops on higher difficulties on your own. Save yourself the trouble, play on Heroic if you want a challenge; leave Legendary for when you're playing with your chums.

UPDATE Good news, everyone! First off, you read that in Professor Farnsworth's voice. Second, I have updated Halo Gear Solid 1, its European Extreme version, and the gametype itself. Thirdly... Second... The Empire of Alexhstan, long ago, forged an alliance with the Republic of Holy Gamelon, much to the dismay of the Gamelonian people. The people saw their nation as the opposite of Alexhstan... why did the government sign their land away to a tyrant? As such, border towns in Holy Gamelon often form anti-Alexh militias. Lotorium is no exception; Holy Gamelon Route 666 is a hotspot of rebellious activity. Sometimes relations between the Gamelonian people and the Alexh Empire break down enough that not even diplomacy can patch things up... This region has problems. I don't know what's with me and putting city infrastructure in my maps, lately, but this is Holy Gamelon Route 666. As if the route number itself isn't ominous, the fact that rebel activity takes place here is... among other things. The map is built with two gametypes in mind, the first and foremost being King of the Hill... ...with the Maestro twist added. ...where two of the hills are Gauss Warthogs. I tinkered around with the gametype and made sure that everything worked. Until I resolved the respawning hill issue, the vehicles were indestructible and you could teleport back up to the top of the map if you were driving a regular land vehicle. Since that got solved, the Warthog hills are destructible, yet respawn without a hitch. You can only control the hill by hopping in the Warthog or awkwardly standing by one of the corners. The reason behind the Warthog hills is to encourage vehicular warfare. Sure, you can stand by one of the corners or on top of the vehicle, but where's the fun in that? There are a few other vehicles to use as well, which gives this map that "protect the leader" feeling. You can start a convoy of war machines and rip around! You can also have some team members control the straight stretch of Route 666, which is the third hill in the map. The red team's spawning area. Each team starts in the wreckage of military transport. There are various weapons from each faction strewn about and a few vehicles. Your initial spawn points are also strewn about, to simulate that you're the survivors of an ambush. The only weapons absent are snipers, which appear as ordnance, the DMR, which is a loadout-exclusive weapon, the SAW, and the Needler... the latter two tend to be noob tubes. Semi-power weapons, such as Shotguns, Scattershots, Railguns, and Concussion Rifles spawn at each base. Heavy weapons appear as well, but are well hidden and difficult to get to. All of these semi-power and power weapons have a longer respawn time than the normal weapons. Gamelonian Transportation Depot I want to talk more about this area. The depot is not a particularly important area, but beside it is where Route 666 got destroyed by rebels. There are a couple of vehicles for anyone to use there; however, it's not necessarily a stronghold in King of the Hill. You can lay down some suppressing fire from the turret on top, though keep in mind that it is not a power position. Under the control of the right players, though, it could be. Rebel curs! (If you get the reference, you are a champ) It is possible to use this as an onramp, but it's not the best path onto the freeway. Use the actual onramp if you can. There are a couple Mongooses overturned, which can be used in a pinch to escape from the depot. I was thinking of hiding some weapons here, but I decided against it. Anyways, this map is compatible with regular King of the Hill, but I concocted a special gametype for it, which will allow for three hills to be active at once and also has game-specific loadouts. You also get invincibility frames upon respawning, as part of my anti-spawn-killing campaign. The other gametype I had in mind for this map was Flood. It is compatible with regular Flood; but in regular Flood, you cannot pick up weapons and vehicles don't appear. In this map, that can be a pain in the derriere. I also remedied this with yet another special gametype. Also the time limit of three minutes may not be optimal for gameplay since this is a large map with lots of hiding spots, and vehicles speeding around don't make things easy. Instead, the time limit is set to ten minutes. If you are a zombie, you have your work cut out for you... although, the Gauss Warthogs are exclusive to King of the Hill, and will not appear in Flood, which will make your life easier. I get the feeling that a lot of people will be hiding underneath the bridge or near the depot while playing Flood. Like I said, you can use regular King of the Hill and Flood, but the gametypes I made work best on this map. Anyways, thanks for looking, and if you gave this map a try, I hope you fueled up in Lotorium! ...trust me, the next gas station is located across the border. P.S. If you get the reference within the annexed nation's name... I'm scared.

Is there a chance that someone downloading this could get the banhammer?

That is all.

UPDATE In this update, I present... well, an update. Redundant Maestro is redundant. Anyways, I have released Kappital Imperial Stadium v1.1. As proud as I was with the original edition, which functions just fine, there were a couple of mistakes I made in the building process. First off, I discovered a minor error during gameplay. While "skating" on the ice, I found that there are very thin gaps between each dominion shield where one can stand on solid ground. I have moved each dominion shield closer, and had to add one-way shield doors on the red side of the rink. Since they appear red, they fit in better there than where I originally had them set up in the middle of the arena. Unfortunately, this feels like an aesthetic sacrifice in favour of functionality. Although, it is difficult to find these gaps if you are skating at a decent speed. Second, one of the skyscrapers outside just stops abruptly midair, and could be seen from one of the benches just floating in the sky. Do not want. Finally, v1.1 is compatible with regular Grifball thanks to a trait zone which decreases damage output and resistance. The original version was compatible with Grifball, but one could break the ice effortlessly. Also, I am proud to say that the stadium has had a relatively large amount of downloads compared to my other maps. Note how I said "relatively". Halo Gear Solid 1 has the most amounts of downloads with 22 since April 5. Kappital Imperial Stadium has had 7 since June 5, which means it has clawed its way up to second. The gametype Grifhockey is my most downloaded gametype with 12 downloads, and Space Invaders has had 9. I find it weird that my most downloaded map doesn't use my most downloaded gametype. On the topic of numbers, I'm disappointed that Halo Gear Solid 3 and its European Extreme counterpart have had no downloads since their completion in May. Did I do something wrong with them?

Halo 2 and 3 were my favourite campaigns. They had a wider variety of objectives: go here, destroy that, find this, press a button, defend this, etc. Halo 4 seemed to have the same objective over and over again: press a button/insert Cortana into a computer system. I also liked 2 and 3 for story as well. 2 was a more serious game; you thought you defeated the Covenant. Think again. They're back and meaner than ever; and then, you get to play as them and experience plot twist after plot twist. 3 was the end of the war, and it truly felt like it. The ending was brilliant; Halo 4's announcement actually annoyed me from a story standpoint. Then, Halo 4's story didn't really intrigue me. As I said, it was get Cortana to the next place over and over again. Cortana creeped me out, and so did the bond her and the Chief had. The ending didn't make me sad. If you want a good ending to a game, play Chrono Trigger.

If he is alive, hopefully he'll be a better antagonist.

I absolutely hate it when this happens in Grifball. I'll join a match in progress where I always join the losing team and wind up being spawn-killed.

UPDATE Two posts in one day, what is this? Anyways, I just wanted to let my three or so readers know that my next few maps will be geared towards the two gametypes I have grown an appreciation for lately: Grifball and Flood. I may also re-release Kappital Imperial Stadium with a few minor fixes and make it compatible with regular Grifball too. Of course, I'll also come up with strange minigames and put the Maestro twist on some other gametypes. In other words, my forge reign of terror has just begun!

For some reason, completing a campaign challenge shows you get no experience, yet it adds however many experience points the challenge gives you onto your total.

So as summer draws closer -- in this hemisphere anyways -- it's getting warmer and warmer here. 'bout time, too, as May was soggy instead of warm like usual; nice change, but not what I'm used to. May usually gets to that temperature that draws the line between when to use the A/C or not, so I kinda don't like that month. I'm also that kind of person who wishes it was winter in the summer, and snowier in the actual winter season. The dog loves it, I love it, and it's Canada, damn it. Hence, if anyone here plays the Facebook game called "Nations" (which with a player base of only 90 people now, it's pretty unlikely), my nation's climate reflects what I like: COLD. It's also space-faring and rivals Forerunners in terms of tech, but that's a different story. Moral of the story is: I LIKE WINTER! But I suppose summertime is the perfect time to post a stadium, hmm? This is Alexhstan's premier Grifball stadium, called Kappital Imperial Stadium, located in the capital of Alexhstan. It's your typical Grifball stadium; a bunch of players spawn in a large room and rush towards the ball in the middle... Uh, boss? We got a problem. ...oh, wait, what?! The stadium's AI didn't turn the heater on! There's ice on the floor! And it's somehow in the colours of Alexhstan's flag!! Darn computers, anyways... we'll have to improvise... This is Alexhstan's premier Grifhockey stadium, Kappital Imperial Stadium. As I was saying before, it's your typical Grifball stadium, composed of a large room where players two teams spawn on opposite sides and charge towards the ball in the middle while slipping and sliding on ice... or bouncing on Dominion shields. The Emperor rarely visits. He's too busy watching Blernsball. But, a couple of days ago, I was playing Grifball, and eventually the other team started spawn-killing like there was no tomorrow. Let me tell you, it got old reeeeeeeal fast. So to combat that, players respawn on a bench above their side of the rink in a soft kill zone to prevent camping. Can't camp, can't get spawn-killed. Balls can't get stuck up here. In addition to respawning out of reach of the enemy team if they are badgering your end of the rink, players also have "invincibility frames" when they respawn. Basically, you get a couple seconds of invulnerability to get onto the field and back into the game. You will have the speed boost visual effect during this time. Grifhockey also gives you a couple of tricks to use, or armour abilities. There are still only two loadouts, Assault and Guard. The Assault loadout now has a Thruster Pack to be used while on offense, while the Guard loadout has a Hologram to distract your opponents. If you are holding the ball, you cannot use armour abilities at all. Finally, damage and resistance have both been scaled down. You inflict 25% damage, while you can only take 10% damage. This number modification makes it much harder to break the ice, which each piece has a respawn time of one second; it's the same trick I used in Space Invaders to prevent the tanks from making the aliens fall through the floor. Yet, there will still be a lot of smashing and one-hit kills like in normal Grifball. Terrific! And to end the presentation, you may not notice this in gameplay, but let's look outside of the stadium. Monoraaaaaaail! Monoraaaaaaaaaaaaaail! Cityscaaaaaaape! Even in the summer, there's no vegetation outside in Alexhstan. I thought -30 Celsius was plant-friendly? Ah well, I guess that's why I don't work in the seasonal department at work. Anyways, thanks for looking, and if you gave this map a try, I hope you put on your wool socks and long johns first!

We could test Halo Gear Solid if we have eight people online right now. o.O

My initial idea didn't work, so I have something else up my sleeve. But it's nowhere near completion right now. :/

I'm up to some new forging antics... perhaps the rest of the ol' gang can help test it once it's done? Also, a gift from the Guardians.