> CURRENT: JULY 12 UPDATE CHANGELIST
The Active Playlist Fileset Project (APFP)
The Active Playlist Fileset Project provides filesets of the most useful game variants for forgers, playtesting or any custom game parties looking to enjoy an experience closer to the core Matchmaking experience. The game variants are organized into filesets entirely by their Active Playlist, unlike The Unnoficial Reach File Share (T.U.R.F.S.) maintained by JDHarbs19, or FyreWulff Rex’s Matchmaking File Repository, both of which are nonetheless excellent archives to look for anything not found here or in Matchmaking any longer.
The APFP began in June, has remained current through the latest Matchmaking updates, and, to the best of my ability, will be kept updated into the future. For a linked inventory of the playlists included in the project, check the Selected Playlists section below.
Selected Playlists: July 2011
As I’ve stressed above, the highest priority of this project is to provide custom map makers and public playtesters with easy access to the unmodified, Bungie-authored game types currently in Matchmaking. Working on the assumption that many are playtesting maps intended for consideration in Matchmaking, I’ve selected those playlists that seem to be most frequently updated and most relevant to custom maps.
Playlist Inventory
Arena + Team Slayer
Team Objective
Big Team Battle
Rumble Pit
Double Team
Multi Team
Team SWAT
Team Snipers
Curation
I’ve selected these playlists either because they’ve traditionally been considered for the inclusion of community maps or because they contain game types, such as Team Objective, or Multi Team, that are essential for testing the viability and versatility of community maps, even if the playlist doesn’t yet support their inclusion (with the possible exception of Joeski73’s Atom in Multi Team). To clarify, all playlists in the inventory besides BTB, Arena, Team Slayer and Double Team do not currently contain community maps besides Atom in Snipers and Multi Team.
That they don’t include community maps is likely because Bungie wanted those playlists acceptible to larger local parties, and multiple local players are known to cause performance issues on many community Forge maps due to the increase in the number of objects being rendered on a single console. That imposes a severe limitation on community map makers in the number of objects they can use while maintaining performance for up to 4 local players.
I’ve still included the non-community map playlists, not only because the max local players might be lowered for these playlists in the future (those of us that enjoy community maps can only hope) but also because I’ve never encountered a playtest or a serious map maker where support of objective game types or multiple teams wasn’t intended. Good maps are simply made better and more enduring by versatility. For similar reasons and just for good measure I’ve also included Team SWAT and Team Snipers.
I’ve intentionally omitted these playlists: MLG, Grifball, Classic, Invasion, Living Dead, Action Sack and Squad Slayer. These playlists either don’t support community maps, are specifically paired (one game type to one map), contain only a couple game types seldom updated and easily acquired, or are already archived and kept current by their respective communities: see the Classic Gametype Master Thread, Grifball Hub, and MLG Halo: Reach Settings for those.
Final Thoughts*
Project Goals
My plan for the project in the short term is to have enough additional fileshare accounts (4 or 5) to move the game types on my personal fileshare to free up space (for more playlists) or in case I ever decide to end my Pro membership. The long-term goal is to help 343i and Bungie.net community and Matchmaking authorities recognize the need for a centralized, official means of access to most current Matchmaking playlist game types as they are updated to aid map playtesters and makers. The official Active Playlist Files if you will, where all the game variants are clearly marked and named for quick retrieval and clarity. Your comments and feedback could help realize that goal.
D.I.Y.
If anyone is looking to start up a similar project, organized differently or to keep up with the other playlists, check my process write-up in my portfolio over on the Reaching Perfection Forums for a detailed tutorial on how to set up and maintain a bunch of filesets at little to no cost.
Credit Where Due
Psychosis687, whose dedication, knowledge of B.net fileset/fileshare magicks, game type and playlist lore really made this project happen, and all of you on Reaching Perfection, your friends and RP affiliates who helped with voting and finding all the game types from the past few updates and during the initial launch. Big thanks of course to everyone helping spread the word and posting this work online as well, particularly Noklu.
> Guys, we need to go play some Team Objective- we still never found Assault!