I came back to Halo 4 after a long break to check out the weapon tuning update, which I really like. However I’ve noticed that there are A LOT of player-made maps in matchmaking. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for rewarding the success of the creative community in Forge, but every time I go into matchmaking the three maps to vote on are almost always 3/3 player-made and sometimes they’re 2/3 player-made. In 10 games I think I played official maps twice. It’s too much. They all have the same appearance, they’re all built similarly, and it gets really stale, really quickly. I kind of just wish they’d tone down the number of times I’m forced to play them.
As someone that can barely stomach the default maps in this game I have to disagree. Aesthetics don’t matter to me, only game play does and I feel the forge maps play much better with few exceptions.
The Forge Maps look far better in Halo 4 than the ones in Reach, that’s for true. Not to mention that the community-made maps just tend to play better than the on-disc ones.
Since Forgers can now color different pieces, the maps are GREAT for people like me who aren’t that knowledgeable about call outs. Anyone on, for example, Simplex can use call outs relatively effectively(ie, “He’s top purple!”).
On-disc maps, however, tend to be more difficult for callouts.
“He’s on the sniper balcony. Which side? Um, the side with the cave I think?”
I am NOT really a fan of all of these maps. I don’t like ones such as Opus.
I wouldn’t mind the Forge maps if they weren’t in such abundance. The way I view it, it’s just unfair to consistently drop players off in unknown environment.
I love the forge maps, but I think people would like em more if there was an actual image for the maps when you were voting instead of just the default forge template image.
> I wouldn’t mind the Forge maps if they weren’t in such abundance. The way I view it, it’s just unfair to consistently drop players off in unknown environment.
How exactly are they dropping players in to an unknown environment?
> How exactly are they dropping players in to an unknown environment?
A large portion of playing Halo (or any game for that matter) is a familiarity of the board that the game is played on. I like to make forge maps as well (I even put a few on my file share), but when I introduce the map to my friends it is always in forge mode. Why? Because when I introduced them to the map with out any sense of what the map is like I rofl stomp them because of my superior knowledge of the terrain.
That just isn’t fair is it?
Now we find ourselves repeating the process every time yet another forge map is shoved onto us.
> > How exactly are they dropping players in to an unknown environment?
>
> A large portion of playing Halo (or any game for that matter) is a familiarity of the board that the game is played on. I like to make forge maps as well (I even put a few on my file share), but when I introduce the map to my friends it is always in forge mode. Why? Because when I introduced them to the map with out any sense of what the map is like I rofl stomp them because of my superior knowledge of the terrain.
>
> That just isn’t fair is it?
>
> Now we find ourselves repeating the process every time yet another forge map is shoved onto us.
So how exactly is that different from a new map pack coming out or the release of the game in general. Everyone starts with being unfamiliar with the terrain on every map at some point, no?
Play and learn.
"So how exactly is that different from a new map pack coming out or the release of the game in general. Everyone starts with being unfamiliar with the terrain on every map at some point, no?
Play and learn."
Difference: everyone is on equal footing in that scenario. Also, everyone has an opportunity to visit the maps before going to the playlist. That’s not entirely true with the forge maps is it?
> “So how exactly is that different from a new map pack coming out or the release of the game in general. Everyone starts with being unfamiliar with the terrain on every map at some point, no?
>
> Play and learn.”
>
> Difference: everyone is on equal footing in that scenario. Also, everyone has an opportunity to visit the maps before going to the playlist. That’s not entirely true with the forge maps is it?
If people played the forge map testing playlist before they are implemented into regular playlists then they would have played them already. They are also listed on this site and are free to download from fileshares and playable in custom games. If someone has never played Halo before and goes out and buys a copy of Halo 4 then they are completely unfamiliar with any of the maps while the rest of us have been playing them. Maybe I don’t get what you’re talking about here but to not include forge maps because some players would be unfamiliar with them at first is a little ridiculous IMO. If you can’t pick up the flow of a map after a few games then you have some other issues at hand. Especially with the forge maps as they are all relatively simple.
I get random suicides when I spawn on these maps from time to time, it’s annoying…
> Since Forgers can now color different pieces, the maps are GREAT for people like me who aren’t that knowledgeable about call outs. Anyone on, for example, Simplex can use call outs relatively effectively(ie, “He’s top purple!”).
>
> On-disc maps, however, tend to be more difficult for callouts.
>
> “He’s on the sniper balcony. Which side? Um, the side with the cave I think?”
This is a great point.
I wonder if 343i actually designed the maps with the Reach-era compass in mind, before they removed it from the HUD. It would explain why most landmarks are either way too subtle, or not there at all.
> Also, everyone has an opportunity to visit the maps before going to the playlist. That’s not entirely true with the forge maps is it?
I think this is a fair point, but there are better solutions than simply taking the maps out.
I think that 343i should create an official File Share (or some other resource) containing every file currently used in Matchmaking. In addition to allowing players to familiarize themselves with maps outside of Matchmaking, it would also ensure that content creators can work with the latest map and game variants.
> I get random suicides when I spawn on these maps from time to time, it’s annoying…
If you’re speaking from memory and not recent experience, I can tell you that that map has been fixed. :\
If, on the other hand, you’re speaking from recent experience, and you’re still suicide-spawning on maps in Matchmaking, then please report that here so that 343i can identify and fix the problem.