> I respectfully dismiss the notion that creative a forge map playlist will divide the community, there are many players who feel that;
>
> A.) They don’t know which forge map variant they are about to play because they contain no unique splash art.
>
> B.) They are not enthused by the blank panels that are used to build ALL of the structures on the maps
>
> C.) They are weighed in matchmaking just as frequently as the maps designed by the professionals at 343 (remember, these guys are the rightful makers of the maps, NOT the community)
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> D.) Many forge maps lack proper professional endorsement of what constitutes a fun and balanced battle arena.
>
> E.) You’re right about lockout, remove the elbow spawns.
While A is a good point, all it takes is for the player to play ONE game on it before they realize what the map is and where everything is.
This is easily to learn upon.
Same for B, the options for Forge are really limited and it was simply impossible to give us a straight up map creator for Halo 4. What we have now is great in terms of building and objects.
The point is, when you go back and play Haven for the second, third or even fourth time, it doesn’t change from the plain white colour it has always been, so I don’t see why players would prefer to play on Haven over a Forge map when technically, both of them look the exact same all the time.
As for C, I do agree that developer maps should be weighted a little more heavily than community created maps (There is actually going to be a change on Monday which guarantees an on-disc map always showing up in Slot A of the voting options for BTIS, IS & SWAT).
In terms of who are the ‘rightful makers of maps’, that’s just silly. Forge has gradually expanded into a map creator rather than a map editor. Hence why we have all these tools that make it easier to build maps such as Magnets, object duplication, etc. 343 & Certain Affinity can still make maps all they want, it doesn’t mean that from a competitive, heck even a casual standpoint that these maps are fun to play on and that they are a balanced in terms of player spawns, weapon spawns, etc because in a lot of cases, they are not.
Look at Exile, one team for the longest time had a Gauss hog spawn at their base which could instantly drive up to the Scorpion tank and destroy it before the driver could even move it. It was extremely unbalanced for the longest time and it took seven months to correct it.
Meanwhile you look at a lot of community made forge maps being added such as Simplex which has everyone starting off at a base which is symmetrical to the other teams. Both teams have an equal chance at getting the Overshield which spawns top middle, and the Sword which spawns bottom middle.
A map like Exile never had anything like that, one team would have an advantage over the other purely because they were randomly put on a team with the advantage.
As for D, this I completely disagree with and I’d pretty much be repeating what I said in my reply to C. The developers don’t always know best, Exile is a fine example of that.
Finally, E. Shutout’s elbow spawns aren’t the issue. It is the fact that one team spawns with the clear advantage in team based gametypes.
Lockout isn’t symmetrical and in my opinion shouldn’t be in a team-based playlist for Slayer, ever. Both teams should have an equal chance at getting the power weapons on the map. An obvious solution to this is to have for example, a Sniper Rifle spawn at the BR tower, as well as the actual Sniper tower, then both teams start off at an equal footing, but that won’t happen because Shutout is meant to be a remake of Lockout and Lockout didn’t have a Sniper Rifle spawn on BR tower.
