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[Sibylus]

Alright, time to come clean. Forge World was easy to make. How do I know this? My uncle works at Bungie, he's a sanitation engineer trying to break into the industry. He has all sorts of stories to tell. I gather his pleas for attention have gotten a little out of hand over the years. He tells me Cortana used to be set in an iced-over series of natural catacombs, until he swapped out the textures at the last minute with hi-res scans of his latest colonoscopy results.

But I digress from the topic at hand. My uncle basically wandered into a cubicle one day and built all of the Forge World variants in one half-hour lunch break (he also did that one thing with the ending that you all hated). The Bungie staff were naturally furious once they found out and deduced his involvement. He figures it was the dab of lemon cleanser that somehow wound up in the dev kit. Fortunately for him, his impassioned mopping alibi threw them off his trail. That and blaming Shishka.

 

[Ramirez]

Not to mention it completely ignores Forge World itself, which at one point was literally five distinct maps before Cotton merged them in a fit of madness.

Why wasn't it kept this way, 5 unique maps would have been so much more appealing than one big world. Who cares if the world is huge, you're never going to be playing on the entire thing, it might be technically impressive, but meh. To think those 5 spaces could have been divided between a human, covenant, forerunner, etc. with unique forge pieces set to each one would have alleviated a lot of the disappointment in Forge World's same feeling in all of it's maps.

 

[Thagomizer]

Alright, time to come clean. Forge World was easy to make. How do I know this? My uncle works at Bungie, he's a sanitation engineer trying to break into the industry. He has all sorts of stories to tell. I gather his pleas for attention have gotten a little out of hand over the years. He tells me Cortana used to be set in an iced-over series of natural formations, until he swapped out the textures at the last minute with hi-res scans of his latest colonoscopy results.

But I digress from the topic at hand. My uncle basically wandered into a cubicle one day and built all of the Forge World variants in one half-hour lunch break (he also did that one thing with the ending that you all hated). The Bungie staff were naturally furious once they found out and deduced his involvement. He figures it was the dab of lemon cleanser that somehow wound up in the dev kit. Fortunately for him, his impassioned mopping alibi threw them off his trail. That and blaming Shishka.

Fixed.

 

[Ajemsuhgao]

Why wasn't it kept this way, 5 unique maps would have been so much more appealing than one big world. Who cares if the world is huge, you're never going to be playing on the entire thing, it might be technically impressive, but meh. To think those 5 spaces could have been divided between a human, covenant, forerunner, etc. with unique forge pieces set to each one would have alleviated a lot of the disappointment in Forge World's same feeling in all of it's maps.

That would have never happened. It's "5" spaces, combined into one, sharing the same pallet. You're talking about making 5 completely new maps, each with its own unique set of forge objects. That's ridiculous.

 

[Ramirez]

They need to replace Asylum with MLG's version anyways, it's more true to the original map, fixes the dumb sniper sight lines, and removes the framerate problems!

That would have never happened. It's "5" spaces, combined into one, sharing the same pallet. You're talking about making 5 completely new maps, each with its own unique set of forge objects. That's ridiculous.

A man can dream.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Details, girlfriend!

Here and here.

Tonight I played two games of Gruntpocalypse and two games of regular Score Attack (one Mythic), but only the first two moved over. Between last night and tonight, I've had five or six games never register in my Game History on bungie.net, which means the scores didn't register on the leader boards. Had a monster 33.5k game, too. In that second link is a screenshot and clip from a game I played this morning that's not in my b.net game history (stats never uploaded either). I could upload an entire film if that would be helpful.

In between the two posts I linked to, several others said they are having similar issues, with multiple games never showing up on bungie.net. It's as if they didn't happen. Annoying in many cases, but it undermines the entire point of Score Attack, so it's been disheartening.

 

[Trasher]

They need to replace Asylum with MLG's version anyways, it's more true to the original map, fixes the dumb sniper sight lines, and removes the framerate problems!

Get on. We need a fourth.

 

[Ramirez]

Get on. We need a fourth.

Dawg, it's bed time.

 

[Trasher]

Dawg, it's bed time.

That's a joke right? You've been going to bed at like 4am lately. :lol

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Completely agree. While AL doesn't piss me off as much, I do agree that it completely ruins the flow in most games. My biggest gripe with Reach is that pretty much all the maps aren't fun. At all.

I don't know, they definitely aren't the best maps, but powerhouse rocks, asylum is also great (but jetpacks are a bit annoying on this one if someone grabs sniper and goes above the base). Blood gulch iteration 100 or whatever is GOD aweful, that level hasn't been awesome since halo 1, it's like the 8th season of a show that was good for the first season.

 

[Mr Sandman]

Armor lock is too good in too many situations. Vehicles, nades, stickies, swords, etc. I really don't have a problem except with sticks and vehicles. It shouldn't insta kill them unless they're on fire or something; I don't mind it stopping or throwing the vehicles around. With swords it seems like the just tap the button when they see you lunge and it cancels (unless it was a glitch?).

The other load outs don't have nearly as many applications.

Meh I like Hemorrhage, wish they'd get rid of the tanks for CTF BTB. Turns it into a stalemate. Maybe some Falcons?

 

[ElRenoRaven]

That would have never happened. It's "5" spaces, combined into one, sharing the same pallet. You're talking about making 5 completely new maps, each with its own unique set of forge objects. That's ridiculous.

I don't think it's ridiculous but I do think it's not very plausible. Honestly I haven't hated a single Forgeworld map Bungie has made or put in matchmaking.

That said is forgeworld perfect? Hell no. I do agree that variety of textures for items is a bit limited. Maybe instead of an all forerunner theme they could have split some of the items up between forerunner steel and more traditional themes like human, covenant etc. After all it's all forerunner steel design minus the various rocks you can add. That is the one thing about forgeworld I don't much care for and think hurt it.

At the same time I do think that it's very unfair to not call forgeworld maps real maps. There is just as much work put into those maps as a "real" map. Sure it's not in the texture work. It is however in the actual piecing together of different pieces to make the map. Compare Bungie's ability to take buildings they have made and just plop them in. Now in forge you can't do that. You have to piece together ramps, buildings, etc to create the bases etc. Then you have the work done on populating the map with weapons, setting up the spawning and different modes. Then there is the testing that goes into the maps.

Hell look at the maps that the forgers right here at Neogaf have made and how much work they put into them. Look at the hours and hours put into Crossroads for example. You can't tell me that there hasn't been as much work and love put into that map then the maps made for the game. Forge users have to painstakingly go through and align piece after piece to make sure they fit together. Then god forbid they change something because if they do and it's a big enough change they again have to realign every piece that may have been connected to that area. So I think that it's shortsighted to say these maps aren't real maps.

That all said. There are obviously going to be more maps added as proven by the fact that more are coming in a month here. So in the end the shortage of maps won't last.

 

[LAUGHTREY]

The only reason that I would really like forge world to have been split in 5 is if it would help the framerate, but if that's not whats causing it then it's fine with me.

 

[Ajemsuhgao]

I don't think it's ridiculous but I do think it's not very plausible. Honestly I haven't hated a single Forgeworld map Bungie has made or put in matchmaking.

The reason I say it's ridiculous, is because look how many objects there are in Forge World. Just counting building blocks, and bridges/platforms, there's..probably about 40.

So, let's say they do the same amount for the two other types of objects: human and Covenant.

That's ~80 objects. And for each object they'd have to:
Design it
Model it
UV it.
Create textures(diffuse textures, normal maps, specular textures, illumination textures, etc.) for it.
Make materials for it.
Make collision models for it.
And test to make sure that there's no wonky collision, or make sure that things line up, etc.

That's why I say it's ridiculous. That's A LOT of work. With Forge World they had to make one single set of objects, and one single large world, that was originally cut up into pieces.


And that's JUST the objects themselves. For the other 4 Forge maps that he says should have been made, they'd have to do all of that again, except the map itself would probably be even more work.

 

[GhaleonEB]

One more mission and I'm done with my solo Legendary run. That ending bit on The Package...woof. Had some rough checkpoints.

Favorite moment: I managed to get the tank right to the very end, and got pasted by a Revenant, the last enemy left after I cleared the others and the turrets out. Between the explosions and the color of the Revenant blending into the red-tinted landscape, I couldn't see it well enough to shoot it, and I blew up. And right as I did so, the "Tank Beats Everything" achievement pops up. :lol

 

[Monocle]

Gruntpocalypse on Glacier is laaaaa--g-g---gg-g-yy-y. Nice-looking map, and decent layout, but the framerate kills it. Every other time I tried to target a Grunt that was flanking me the game turned into a slideshow.

Today's worst daily challenge (you know the one) taught me to hate the pistol for the first time since I played Halo 3. Trying to kill anything with it feels like snapping rubber bands at a group of stray cats on a windy day. I thought that thing was supposed to shoot bullets.

I wish I could get a refund for the stupid gauntlets I bought in a futile attempt to unlock Kat's arm. What are the requirements for that item again? I'm guessing by process of elimination that I have to purchase that 80000cR piece of rubbish at the bottom of the gauntlet menu before the arm appears in my Armory.

Spoiler

Please tell me I'm wrong.

My Spartan is sex on legs, but BungleNet™ hasn't updated my dad-blasted model for weeks so my profile is still stuck in a purgatory of lame. I expected my 1 1/2 – 2 hours of daily play would make the new model register, but apparently not.

I'm not quite ready to hop aboard the hate train, but Reach has a bunch of nagging little issues that really dampen my experience. (Campaign's still awesome, though. <3 )

 

[Kapura]

For up-and-coming forgers, I posted my small piece on basic respawn placement in the forging thread.

 

[NameGenerated]

Kat's arm is a chest piece.

Also Glacier makes the "survive a whole round of firefight" really easy. If you go to the right ammo dispenser and just sit there the whole time you probably won't die. There's a grunt spawn point you have to be careful of right next to you, but there's only one way for the grunts to get to you so they just funnel in.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Gruntpocalypse on Glacier is laaaaa--g-g---gg-g-yy-y. Nice-looking map, and decent layout, but the framerate kills it. Every other time I tried to target a Grunt that was flanking me the game turned into a slideshow.

Today's worst daily challenge (you know the one) taught me to hate the pistol for the first time since I played Halo 3. Trying to kill anything with it feels like snapping rubber bands at a group of stray cats on a windy day. I thought that thing was supposed to shoot bullets.

Aye, Glacier is a disappointment technically. My lone game on it was a very sluggish mess for the second half, which make headshotting lightning-fast Skirmishers very difficult. Pity, as it's a nice looking map with a unique layout.

As for the challenge, let's just say I'm glad it was worth 3500 cR. I felt like I earned every single one of them. Switching to the DMR to fuck shit up for the last 10 guys felt so good.

For up-and-coming forgers, I posted my small piece on basic respawn placement in the forging thread.

Nice read. I'm going to cover spawn design next week on the Forge blog over at FUD, so I'll try to hit a few different notes as well. (Posted a rather large entry yesterday.)

 

[GhaleonEB]

gah, DP

 

[LAUGHTREY]

Does anyone have a good Lockout and Wizard remake? I'm looking for ones with little to no frame rate lag or z-fighting.


Honestly, why don't we just get it over with and release the Greatest Hits Map Pack. Lockout, Midship and Warlock on one forge-world type map, and Battle Creek and Hang 'Em High to go with it.


The last map pack for every Halo game has always come out too late, Tombstone and Derelict. The ODST maps. Lets get these while everyone is still playing please.

 

[UltimaPooh]

The last map pack for every Halo game has always come out too late, Tombstone and Derelict. The ODST maps. Lets get these while everyone is still playing please.

wut

 

[Tashi]

wut

Midship

 

[Trasher]

So what's Mythic Attack? How is it?

 

[Photolysis]

Does anyone have a good Lockout and Wizard remake? I'm looking for ones with little to no frame rate lag or z-fighting.

I've got a Warlock remake if you want to try that. The little feedback I've had so far has been quite positive, and it's designed so that there shouldn't be frame rate issues or z fighting.

I'd release the latest version which has a few fixes, but I'm having major issues with the floor being misaligned. It seems the Coliseum Wall piece has a habit of shifting out of position.

If anyone else wants to try it, I'd love to get some feedback and saved films.

 

[UltimaPooh]

Midship

Oh rite the other half of Mythic.

 

[Trasher]

Does anyone have a good Lockout and Wizard remake? I'm looking for ones with little to no frame rate lag or z-fighting.


Honestly, why don't we just get it over with and release the Greatest Hits Map Pack. Lockout, Midship and Warlock on one forge-world type map, and Battle Creek and Hang 'Em High to go with it.


The last map pack for every Halo game has always come out too late, Tombstone and Derelict. The ODST maps. Lets get these while everyone is still playing please.

I noticed there was a decent Lockout remake as one of the top downloaded files.

 

[Gui_PT]

More than a Handful - 750cR

Kill 77 enemies in multiplayer Matchmaking

Covenant-cide - 1000cR

Kill 90 enemies in Firefight Matchmaking.

Office of Not Dying - 4000cR

Complete ONI on Legendary without dying

Fourth Horseman - 1200cR

Earn 5 multikills in a multiplayer Matchmaking game

 

[Trasher]

I'm gonna pwn all of these Challenges right now. Within the hour!

 

[Shake Appeal]

A few weeks after release I downloaded ~20 Lockout remakes, and the best one was just called Lockout by JOKER something. 'Odyssey' is also good, and I see it's been iterated on since I last downloaded it. There was also one someone linked a youtube to that replicated more Halo 2 jumps but wasn't quite as faithful in its basic geometry as a result.

I'll probably go through the mess of them again some time soon, because Lockout remains my favourite map in the series.

 

[Mr. Sam]

What is this obsession Bungie has with people completing ONI without dying?

 

[Thermite]

Office of Not Dying - 4000cR

Complete ONI on Legendary without dying

Again? Come on, Bungie. Enough with ONI Sword Base, already.. :/

 

[Willeth]

Hahahahaha we just found the most hilarious bug (or possibly feature, but I can't see how) while doing Office of Not Dying in Matchmaking.

Get an assault rifle (or a plasma pistol, or maybe any weapon that you can fire by holding the trigger), crouch, and pause. Your gun starts magically firing!

This even happens with an empty gun - instead of just getting the one click from the AR, you get a constant stream of clicks.

ONI Sword Base, Legendary, in Matchmaking Campaign, in a party with FyreWulff Rex, RatSult2, and NobleSixActual.

 

[Hydranockz]

To add my .02c to the Forge World, I am very hesitant to call them real maps. I say this because I perceive there to be less in a FW map than another map.

Hemorhage is a combination of a box canyon with undulating terrain and 4 FW pieces of terrain... or there abouts. More vehicles =/= more fun. Did Bungie playtest this map??? Seriously, to what extent did people play this map and agree it should be in MM?

Asylum, whilst a good remake, only serves to show how weak the playtesting and iterative design was for it. The gaping hole on one side of the map only serves as a place for strafing snipers to meet their demise. The lack of a soft ceiling means tat playtesters either never went out of their way to break the map or that they didn't consider it a problem. Therefore, one would deduce that there is something wrong with the quality/amount of playtesting.

The Cage is very odd for me. I don't like the flow of the map. It all seems to gravitate towards the higher point because the other side of the map is a bottleneck. Spawns are awkward and I feel as though this is mostly due to the Forge assets.

Pinnacle and Paradiso are maps I haven't played a whole lot of. On Paradiso, what is the benefit of the mancannons?? The way the map is set up allows one team to obtain an almost perfect view of the other base with little or no way to combat it. Pinnacle is just bleh anyway. (Personal opinion more so than something I can put my finger on)

In terms of resources put into the te maps, FW always will seem like the bottom of the barrel to me. FW was a tool developed for the community to use in order to create content post-release. It feels like Bungie is taking the piss by making far more FW variants than are on the disc instead of putting the time/effort into stable original content. Leave FW to the community.... after you explain how spawns work...

 

[Kentpaul]

the heart attack armor affect FTW

best 300-000cr i ever spent

 

[Trasher]

Again? Come on, Bungie. Enough with ONI Sword Base, already.. :/

It's your favorite. You know it!

Seriously though, I'm ready for some new challenges. I know there's a bunch out there. What's holding them back from releasing them?!

 

[MrDaravon]

They NEED to stop with the fucking Challenges that require skill that is beyond the average Halo player. I still have a ton of people that have been trying all week and literally cannot get the 30 kills in a match for the weekly. I'm currently losing my fucking mind trying to get the goddamn 5 multikill one, ONLY because you have to do it in one fucking game. It's bullshit, set goals that even someone who sucks at Halo can reach that can be obtained over multiple games or something.

 

[jizzlobber]

multi team is the best way to get 30+ and multi kills I find

 

[Mr. Sam]

multi team is the best way to get 30+ and multi kills I find

Multi-team Crazy King.

 

[Jedeye Sniv]

They NEED to stop with the fucking Challenges that require skill that is beyond the average Halo player. I still have a ton of people that have been trying all week and literally cannot get the 30 kills in a match for the weekly. I'm currently losing my fucking mind trying to get the goddamn 5 multikill one, ONLY because you have to do it in one fucking game. It's bullshit, set goals that even someone who sucks at Halo can reach that can be obtained over multiple games or something.

The way I see it is that you are not entitled to these challenges. If you have the skill then go for them, if you don't then sucks to be you (fyi I've not got the last few weekly challenges for this very reason).

Don't sweat the details man. Keep the challenges in mind but just play the game in a way you find fun.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

Hmm, not 100% with Hydra on the ForgeWorld maps.

My problems with Reach are what I see as .. a lack of polish or allowed jank.
-Spawning issues. Just last night Hydra spawned right behind a guy on Powerhouse or Boardwalk and was immediately able to assassinate him. Plenty of talk of other spawning "mistakes".
-The Forge World vehicle issues that Ghaleon encountered.
-The Host migrations (slightly better this week) At the start of every god damn game! The amount of black screen really does remind me of Halo 2.
-The random issues like this.
-The Elite weapon drops in Invasion Slayer, attacking in Boneyard. I dislike Spartan Vs Elite games now, because it's weighted in favour of the Spartans!
-The Framerate dips (seeing single frames on a custom Forge map at that LAN... jesus).
-Hemorrhage ... It doesn't work anymore, unless it's something like Snipers, where everyone is on an even footing, and I don't see how Bungie didn't realise this when making it.
Was it a "made just in time for 7/7", announced, and then playtested? To realise: "Oh bawls, this doesn't work anymore, but we promised it, we have to give it to them"

Don't get me wrong, I love the game. Had an especially good time yesterday, but.. these issues have been bothering me for weeks.

The way I see it is that you are not entitled to these challenges. If you have the skill then go for them, if you don't then sucks to be you (fyi I've not got the last few weekly challenges for this very reason).

Agreed. It's a "challenge" for a reason.

 

[Gui_PT]

Don't sweat the details man. Keep the challenges in mind but just play the game in a way you find fun.

Exactly. Challenges are supposed to be fun. We get a frustrating challenge every now and then. As soon as I start getting frustrated, I stop trying to get them.

For example, I just got all the challenges for today. They were fun and didn't cause frustration and now I have tho whole afternoon to study. Something I wouldn't be able to do otherwise.

 

[MrDaravon]

The way I see it is that you are not entitled to these challenges. If you have the skill then go for them, if you don't then sucks to be you (fyi I've not got the last few weekly challenges for this very reason).

Don't sweat the details man. Keep the challenges in mind but just play the game in a way you find fun.

I agree (and finally got the multi-kill Challenge), but Bungie is doing the carrot on the stick thing, but if the carrot is too hard/impossible to get to, people will stop trying and as I understand Challenges are the enticement to keep people coming back. So if you have players who are frustrated with the Challenges, they are less likely to come back.

Once you offer a reward for doing something, no matter how tiny, it changes player focus. I've said it before, I think they're just really mishandling Challenges right now. I got my multi-kill Challenge by completely ignoring the objective in multiple games because it was literally the only way I could get it; that's not good design. All I'm saying is that the Challenges need to be reasonably obtainable by an average player, and I don't think quite a lot of them have been. Having Challenges that only keep the hardcore engaged and coming back is pointless, as those people are already going to be playing anyway.

 

[Mr. Sam]

My own challenge is to get every weekly challenge for as long as possible. For the amount of games I was finishing with 25 and 26 kills, I really thought I wasn't going to get this week's one. Multi Team Crazy King and I got a good 35 kills - edit: and came second despite a worthless partner. Aw yeah.

 

[KevinRo]

I could care less about the challenges, I usually just get them by playing without even paying attention to them. I wish I could turn off the counting bar whenever I complete part of a challenge, shit gets so annoying seeing it pop up again over and over.

 

[Gui_PT]

Would you rather have people quit the challenges because they're annoying/frustrating or have people ignore a matche's objective for a game or 2 in order to get the challenge?

Besides, very few people actually go for the objectives in this game, unfortunately.

 

[Ajemsuhgao]

Would you rather have people quit the challenges because they're annoying/frustrating or have people ignore a matche's objective for a game or 2 in order to get the challenge?

Besides, very few people actually go for the objectives in this game, unfortunately.

The only objective game I actually try to win at is CTF. I don't give a shit in anything else, because they aren't all that fun to me, and there's no real penalty for losing, or reward for winning. I have no incentive to win in Reach. Kinda bothers me...

 

[Trasher]

:lol

I also have 500,000 cR saved up!

Side note: Exterminations are stupid now Bungie. I got two in this game, and never even got an Overkill. 15 second respawn kinda ruins the medal.

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/GameStats.aspx?gameid=254268783&player=TJ Trasher

 

[Neverender]

The whole carrot on the stick thing wore out very quickly for me as I had all the armour I wanted very early on. I have my carrot and now I don't care about completing the challenges. While all my friends are off playing Score Attack even if they don't want to I'm playing something I enjoy. Yay. It feels so empty to me.

 

[Ajemsuhgao]

The whole carrot on the stick thing wore out very quickly for me as I had all the armour I wanted very early on. I have my carrot and now I don't care about completing the challenges. While all my friends are off playing Score Attack even if they don't want to I'm playing something I enjoy. Yay.

I do the challenges because it will bother me if I miss one. Haven't missed a single one yet. :lol

:lol

I'm about 5200 kills away from that. But you play wayyyy more multiplayer than I do most likely. :lol