Forge Help

Community General Discussion
1

Ok, so first off… I checked the “The Awesome Guide to Forging” that I saw pinned in this forum… and couldn’t find what I was looking for.

Asked on B.net and didn’t get much help.

Anyway, my question is this:

How exactly do you set up respawn points in a forge created map? Me and my friend built a map in forge and have weapons, safe zones, initial spawns, etc set up… but we don’t know what the different spawn “zones” are for and if we should set respawn points to be red team, blue team, or neutral… or what.

Also, we’d like to know what steps you have to go through to get your map considered for matchmaking in Reach. There are some custom fan made maps in matchmaking… are there not?

Any help would be appreciated. :slight_smile:

2

No one knows about respawns?

3

Spawn zones are used so you can set respawn areas for teams but still keep it as a FFA map.

4

> Spawn zones are used so you can set respawn areas for teams but still keep it as a FFA map.

To elaborate: Your Respawn Points are Neutral-owned, and if they are inside of a team-owned Respawn Zone, then they will be converted to that team in team games. This allows you to make a spawn that belongs to X team when teams are enabled, but it still works in FFA games.

Note that Initial Spawn Points are not reassigned if they are inside of a team-owned Zone. Those must be specifically team-assigned.

Respawn Zone dramatically increases the probability that a spawn point will be used. Anti Zones decrease the probability, but only slightly. Weak Zones increase the probability, but only slightly. The effect is that you will only spawn on points that are inside of a Respawn Zone that belongs to your team.

(Zones determine spawn ownership indirectly, by changing the probability that a given team will use that spawn. Actually assigning a Respawn Point to a team in Forge determines spawn ownership directly.)

Zone stacking works like this, with a normal Respawn Zone being called “Strong”:
Strong + Strong = Strong
Anti + Anti = Anti
Weak + Weak = Weak
Strong + Anti < Strong
Strong + Anti + Anti < Strong + Anti
Strong + Weak > Strong
Strong + Weak + Weak > Strong + Weak
Strong + Strong + Anti = Strong + Anti
Strong + Strong + Weak = Strong + Weak

5

So basically you can either make the respawns a team color and they will always spawn in one of those spots or make them neutral and place different respawn zones over them?

6

> So basically you can either make the respawns a team color and they will always spawn in one of those spots or make them neutral and place different respawn zones over them?

yes

7

Basic Answer:
You’re best bet is to make neutral spawn points with team-owned Spawn Zones.

Spawn Zones:
Spawn Zones are best thought about when you assign them a numerical value. That’s right, math. Yay. Anyways, let’s say that a normal, or “Strong” Respawn Zone has a value of +500. A Weak Spawn Zone has a value of +100 and an Anti Spawn Zone has a value of -100. All respawn points have a starting value of null (0). Also, Initial Spawns are not affected by any Respawn Zones. So, if your map is only supposed to have spawn points at bases, then you can just use Respawn Zones owned by the team that the base belongs to. However, if your map has bases and then many “Side” spawn points (spawn points that are not supposed to be for a specific team) or if the map has no bases, then it’s a bit more complicated. In this case, it is usually best to cover your entire map with a Neutral Respawn Zone, as that will allow for all respawn points to be used. It is important to note that two of the same type of Zone do not add anything. For example, if I place a Weak Spawn Zone on another Weak Spawn Zone, that area still has a weight of +100, not a weight of +200. The only time zones add together is in the case of Strong Zones. If you place a Strong and a Weak Zone overlapping, then the overlapped area now has a weight of +600.
Strong + Strong = +500
Strong + Weak = +600
Strong + Weak + Weak = +700
Strong + Anti = +400
Strong + Anti + Anti = +300
Weak + Weak = +100
Anti + Anti = -100
Weak + Anti = 0
Weak + Anti + Weak = 0

If you don’t get it, then just take a screenshot of your map and I can give you some advice on that.

Spawn Point Advice:
The basic rule for placing Spawn points is that you should place them everywhere on your map that can hold them. However, when a player spawns from a point, they should be able to walk forward for 3 seconds without hitting anything.

Getting Maps Noticed:
This is the hard part. What you’re going to want to do is play the map and advertise it. Go to all kinds of sites, such as Reaching Perfection, ForgeHub, ForgeWorld, Forge Cafe, XForgers, any site you can, and make a thread for it. Once that is done, find custom game nights to play your map in. If people like it, they will show friends, who will show friends, etc until it reaches a Community Cartographer. CC’s are Bungie’s people that watch for community maps that are worth at least looking at. Your biggest goal is to impress them. However, I do not know if 343 is using their own CCs or using Bungie’s CCs.
Hope this was helpful, let me know how it works.

8

So I understand that initial spawn points are where the respective teams spawn when the game starts… and that placing a neutral zone over the map allows people to use all neutral respawn points…

I guess I’m still confused over what exactly strong, weak, and anti zones actually do…

like if you have a strong zone on one side of a base and a weak one on another side of the base… then we someone from that team dies they are more likely to spawn in the strong zone… is that right?

So, why would you need to overlap zones and what exactly are anti zones for?

9

Yes, that’s right. And overlapping zones are used for team maps that also have spawn points that are meant to be neutral. For example, if a map has two bases and then some more spawn points off to the side. It would be best to cover the entire map with a neutral spawn zone, which allows all spawn points to be used, and then add a Weak Spawn Zone to each base. The reason you MUST overlap in this situation is because if I use another normal respawn zone then that zone has no effect. If I use a weak zone, then players on that team are more likely to spawn there then other points on the map. Anti Spawn Zones are for anywhere that you don’t mind a player spawning, but it shouldn’t be often. For example, any respawn points that are very very close to power weapons should have an anti spawn zone there, so no one spawns next to the weapon easily. Another use is maps that are split in half. In other words, a map with a specific Blue Team side and a specific Red Team side. In this case, if you want Red team to almost never spawn on Blue team’s side, you should cover the entire map in a Neutral Respawn Zone, then add a Weak Respawn Zone to Red Team’s side and an Anti Spawn Zone on Blue Team’s side. This way, the weight for Red Team spawning on Red side is 600 while the weight for the team spawning on Blue side is 400. It’s a complicated system, but if it is used correctly it works well.

10

Ok, I think I’m understanding it now…

but I’ll take a screenshot of my map when I get home from work tonight and I’ll link it here. :slight_smile:

11

I wish you could edit posts… but I was gonna say, thanks for the help. :slight_smile:

12

No problem, always glad to help. :stuck_out_tongue: