Casually Competitive Customs and Testing

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Nondual

Be in the Now
casuallycompetitive1.jpg


This group will be dedicated to helping players find others to play “casually competitive” games with. Basically this type of gaming is kind of the “middle ground” between Flood/minigames and MLG. Similar to what people find in matchmaking, only better, because there’s more variety, and control over what people want to play (and usually more man cannons, vehicles and explosions.)

I’ve been hosting these types of games pretty regularly for about 4 years. And I feel like there is a large demand for them, but people don’t know exactly where to look. Hopefully this group will be that place. I will work to always keep things in the group really laid back, and fun. This group will also be a place for people to coordinate play testing for competitive maps that they’ve made.

I feel like this type of gaming is overlooked a bit because of the popularity of other types of custom games like Flood, Minigames and MLG. But “middle ground” custom games can be completely amazing.

How to join
Simple, just click "Watch Thread" in the upper right corner to start getting notifications about when myself and others are hosting games (or if you want to be really cool, click "like" down at the bottom of this post : ) And if you are a person that hosts these types of games, please read the "Hosting tips and guidlines" section, and then post links to your game lobbies below!


Skillz
All skill levels are welcome, but if you’re really good, or really bad you might not have the best time. Most of us are in the “middle” skill range. We like to play competitive gametypes, but we don’t take the competition that seriously. Although sometimes things get really intense, it’s all in good fun.


Behavior tips and guidelines
The main focus is just to chill out and have fun. A lot of people know how to do this naturally, but now and again people need some guidelines, so here are a couple:

-Racism, sexism or other hateful behavior will absolutely not be permitted. People need to be told it is not cool. And if they continue, they need to be removed from the game immediately.
-Players need to act maturely. (Please try to act like you are at least 17 years old. I’ve met 12 year olds who manage to do this, and 25 year olds who manage to NOT do this. Age helps, but isn’t everything.)
-No quitting in the middle of games. Please wait till the end of a game to leave. This should be common courtesy.
-Please try to be as polite as possible, say “hello” and “thanks for the invite” when people invite you to the party. Say “thanks for the games” when you leave. Ect.
-In other words just be cool! And absolutely try to be funny! Woohoo!

What to post in this thread
Because people will be getting notifications every time someone posts in this group, I think it would be best to avoid too much idle chatter. Let’s try and stay focused (this applies to me as well, lol.) So pretty much let’s just post about Game times and lobbies, and then Thanking people for showing up. Asking a few questions is OK too. People are also welcome to send me private messages on this site if they have a lot of questions or concerns.


Testing
Testing can be an enormous amount of fun and is one of the main purposes of this group. However, testing maps and gametypes that are “a little rough around the edges” all night can get a little bit old. So just make sure to throw in super fun and polished gametypes from time to time. It’s all about getting feedback from the people you’re testing with. If everyone is loving what you’re testing, then keep doing it! But if there’s not a lot of laughter and talking, it might be time to take a break. : P

However, this group is for testing your own maps and gametypes. Please do not post in here asking for others to test stuff for you. Most of us are already super busy testing what we’re currently working on.


Hosting tips and guidelines
Obviously people can play whatever they want, and I respect all types of gamers. However If people are going to post links to their games in this thread the “core” of their gametypes should be competitive. But obviously a couple of casual games aren’t going to kill anyone, especially if all the people in your party really like the gametypes. The goal here is just to help people know what to expect.

-Ratio of games.
In general 50% to 100% of games should be competitive. So basically Slayer, CTF, Oddball, KOTH, Regicide, etc. Something this is really fun and I usually do is to mix in 30 - 40% “casually competitive” gametypes as well, like Grifball, Rocket Race, mongoose KOTH, etc. And then Minigames and Flood should be done less than 10% of the time.

Some flood and mini games can be really fun, but it’s important to ask your lobby what they think about what you’re loading up, and to end the game early if people are not having fun. In general mini games go well with more competitive players, if they have lots of action. Unlimited lives are ideal, but if there are a limited number of lives players should only have to wait a maximum of 20 - 30 seconds, (no 5 minute rounds with one life.) And then the gametype needs to have a lot of movement variety, no running down a just one long hallway or path.

That’s just my experience though, I’m probably going to have to go into this in more detail . . . Just in general try to avoid them, unless everyone wants to try one out.

-Modded and Classic gametypes are totally groovy if people want to play them.

-Avoid matchmaking settings.
Matchmaking settings are for matchmaking. These are custom games, and they are all about variety baby! It’s pretty easy to take a match making setting and spice things up a little. For example, CTF on Exile with a Rocket Hog for each team instead of 1 Gauss for the blue team. Or mongoose King of the hill (the mongoose is the actually hill) on Haven? Amazingness!

-Time length:
Games need to be between 8-12 minutes long. The maximum length a game should be is 15 minutes. This really helps the pace of the games move along well. If someone doesn’t like a game too much, they’ll usually stick through 10 minutes of it. But they won’t stick through 30.

- Take suggestions:
I always like to have a list of stuff to load up, but I also remind players several times a night that they can make suggestions if they want. If you don’t know someone very well, just ask them to load up the gametype, and then give party leader back to you.

- Optimize Gametypes:
It's easy to make little tweeks to make your gametypes more fun in general. Things like making the score higher in Oddball an KOTH so that games last the full 10 -12 minutes. Making KOTH hill movement sequential so that hills move around in a more predictable and fair manner.

Additional Guides to hosting:
Short Bizzle's Ultimate Guide To Hosting

Tips and Tricks to Hosting by Spades N AZ

:titmar:


Casually competitive map and gametype list. This is a growing list of the maps and gametypes we like to play. This list is just an example, hopefully some of these setting sound fun to you. Hosts are welcome to load up whatever they want. Bizzle and I are working on getting everything listed. While things are still under construction, I also have a bunch of stuff listed below.

If you want to get a LOT of stuff another good way to share would be to meet up online and then I can load a bunch of stuff for you really quickly. This is also very helpful for explaining things, especially since maps and gametypes are constantly getting improvements.


-Gift Giver on Rat’s Nest (Amazing remake by Kazeroid on Impact) “Gift Giver” is a very fast paced game of KOTH. Where players are given a little damage resistance in the hill and the more players in the hill the faster the team gets points (like always.) This really encourages players to rush hill and this results in amazingly crazy awesomeness. Much like our Halo 3 version of this.


-Hopping Mantis Flying Warthog (by me) 16 Mantises, 7 Rocket Warhogs as hills for KOTH, 40 Mancannons (yes this is modded) and a teleport grid beneath this vehicle arena map that shoots the vehicle back onto it from as high as possible. Need. I. Say. More.
Gametype: Shield KOTH

-Rat Race remake “Rat’s Trap” By Vincent Torre (Impact) This plays all gametypes well, we especially like it for Oddball and Mongoose KOTH.

-Space Arena (by me) A circular arena specifically designed for smashing as many warthogs together as possible while playing KOTH. Gametype: Arena KOTH


Default Maps set to play differently

-Abandon 1 Flag How awesome would it have been if the game had ACTUALLY come with 1 flag?! Luckily we can make 1 flag work perfectly by having two rounds and having one flag be inaccessible.

-Complex Ghosts I know that a lot of players don’t like this map, but I feel like it’s mostly because setting aren’t that great. This setting has 16 Ghosts and we play King of the hill where each hill is optimized for said ghosts. Players also start with anti ghost weapons like hammers, railguns. We’ve played quite a few games of this and everyone always seems to really like it.

-Exile Asymmetrical Extraction Short Bizzle set up Exile to play completely differently by blocking off the “arch” area, and making the attacking team work around the map in a circular fashion. 10 second extraction. 3 sites can be captured at a time, 7 sites total. Capture 5 sites to win the round. Map: Exile Territories 4 Gametype: Extraction 5 Site

-Haven Goose KOTH Even though every other game in matchmaking seems like it’s on Haven, playing king of the hill with several mongooses as the hill makes this map surprisingly fresh.

-Longbow CTF Oh god, this plays so awesome already. A scorpion, mantis, 2 rocket hogs, 2 ghosts, 2 mongooses, FOR EACH TEAM! And a scrumptious pallet of power weapons to balance everything out, this is the way CTF was meant to be played on this map! Oh yeah, did I mention mancannons?! There is a system of 6 that help infantry move around very quickly. AND THE FLAGS ARE ACTUALLY IN THE BASES!

-Meltdown KOTH Race A very fast paced king of the hill setting with tons of vehicles and players are given the gift of overshields when they’re in the hill. This has been a ton of fun so far. Gametype: KOTH Race 50

-Meltdown CTF Simply give each team a Rocket hog, tweak the initial ordinances so they respawn and viola! You get something that plays completely awesome and again, isn’t in matchamking.

-Complete Meltdown EACH TEAM HAS 10 MANTISES! AND THEY FIGHT FOR HILL IN THE CENTER OF THE MAP! This still needs more testing, but it should be pretty fun.

-Ragnarok Rumble Always one of the highlights of the night. Each team has 4 mantises, 4 gauss warthogs, and a couple banshees, ghosts, and wraiths, then they fight for control of the moving hill in the center of the map. There’s also mancannons (of course) to help the mantises move around more quickly, and scorpion in the center open area that also can take the mancannons. We have arrived at awesome town ladies and gentlemen.

-Vortex CTF Again I’ve given each team more vehicles in the way of a wraiths, rocket hogs, ghosts and mongooses. Re-spawning power weapons, and the usual couple extra mancannons make this map play really well. Moar tests needed!

-Vortex 1 Flag The same thing as above, just 1 flag style!


Remakes (remakes are always fun, people already are familiar with the maps and they are some of the greatest of all time!)

-Rat’s Nest (remake by Kazeroid on Impact) While we mainly use this map for Gift Giver, it also is amazing for CTF.

-Lockout Remake by Vincet Torre and YamaMX (Impact) There are lots of Remakes of Lockout around, but this is the best, made by the best.

-Hangem' high/ Tombstone remake “Gravestone” by CenturionOmegaI on Erosion (lite version for improved frame rate and optimized for gametypes by Short Bizzle and myself) 1 flag pistols is always amazing on here. KOTH and Oddball are really good too. And of course there’s always Slayer and Regicide

-Citadel Remake “Refuge” by HCTF Reaper One of the few enclosed maps out there, so I would recommend Oddball on here, but it also supports CTF, and KOTH.

-Turf Remake by Darkprince909 Optimized for 1 flag with a Gauss Warthog.

-Desolation Remake “Forsaken” by Nillapuddin626 (Erosion)

-Pit Remake “PIT/Tartarus” by Randy 355 Optimized for Mongoose KOTH

-Longshore remake by Kazeroid on Erosion. Optimized for 1 flag by the one and only Short Bizzle!

(I would love to see more remakes, but they need to be really good, and not have any frame rate issues.)


Excellent Forge maps and gametypes by some of our regular players:

-Ultimate by Vincent Torre (Ravine) Ultimate frisbee with Halo!

-Renovazion By Vincent Torre and Teetmare (Ravine) Mid sized map, plays CTF, Oddball, KOTH, Slayer, and Regicide very well.

-Conjuncture By Vincent Torre (Ravine) Large map, plays CTF,Oddball,KOTH, Slayer, and Regicide very well.

-Invading Jupiter By Short Bizzle. (Impact) Somehow Bizzle figured out how to make invasion using the extraction gametype AMAZING! To be played with “Blitzkrieg” gametype

-Docking Canyon by Short Bizzle (Impact) Genius strikes again! This maps is specifically designed for dominion. There is a teleport system at each base that opens for a team when they control a base.

-Eradicate by Ott2own (Impact) Circular big team battle vehicle chaos!

-Armament by StainedWithRed (Ravine) Medium sized map that is similar to The Pit.

-Rush Hour by Gildersneeze (Impact) Look both ways before you cross the street! This map has an amazing twist that you’ll just have to see to believe! 8-14 Players. This maps plays CTF, Slayer/ Regicide and oddball really well, but KOTH is absolutely amazing.

-Epsilon (Impact) This is my Epitaph re-imagination. Bigger, and with ghosts. Mainly this was made for 1 flag, but KOTH, and Multiflag play really well too. 8-16 Players

(this is as much as I can fit within the thread character limits.)

If you are a host and want me to make a section for your maps and gametypes, just type one up and then let me know!

For video footage and screenshots check out the the recap thread.
Finally we're at the end of this massive description!:titmar:
 

Nondual

Be in the Now
Lol, I've always liked that Fry Money meme. Basically this is going to be a thread for people to promote their "casually competitive" custom games in. And then for people that want to join, all they will have to do is click "watch thread" in the upper right corner so that they'll get notifications when people post! Wooohooo!
halolz-dot-com-futurama-thelegendofzelda-shutupandtakemyrupees.jpg


This thread is brand spankin' new, give me a little bit to get everything fully explained and laid out.
 
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insanem0nk3

Novice
Feb 1, 2013
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I'm interested in joining! Can we suggest our own gametypes, or is it strictly up to the lobby leader. dont mind either really
 

Nondual

Be in the Now
I'm interested in joining! Can we suggest our own gametypes, or is it strictly up to the lobby leader. dont mind either really
Yup, suggesting your own gametypes and maps is totally cool. If you are hosting your own games, just try and follow the guidelines above. And if you're in a party, a cool game host will take turns loading up what people want, hopefully.
 

Nondual

Be in the Now
Glad to see this here; I played with the Nondual crew on one of the Casual Competitive nights and it was a blast. Looking forward to the next one, and this time I have some maps and gametypes to contribute!
Yeah that was a lot of fun having you in the games man. I'm glad you found this group already, I was going to send you a link. Looking forward to hopefully gaming with you soon.
 
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FragsturBait

Expert
Jan 22, 2013
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Colorado, USA
I'm in, I haz maps.

I'm willing to scrafice 20 of my 24 file share spots to be a hub for gametypes/maps. Then you can add my gt and what i have available for people who wish to have "-Multiflag on a variant of the map Meltdown that has awesomely different vehicles and weapons (Competitive)"

That's awesome, thanks!
 

FRYMEN

Proficient
Jan 10, 2013
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Good day Gentlemen,

First off, I must say, I am impressed with how this thread is setup. I agree with the rules and regulations, 100%.

I have a lobby for tonight. Dominion and Extraction maps that I found. Please join us, and have a great time.
ETA: 8pm, EST.

See you there
 
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Nondual

Be in the Now
Good day Gentlemen,

First off, I must say, I am impressed with how this thread is setup. I agree with the rules and regulations, 100%.

I have a lobby for tonight. Dominion and Extraction maps that I found. Please join us, and have a great time.
ETA: 8pm, EST.

See you there

Awesome man. Glad to have you in the group. Please feel free to also post an actual link to your game lobby as well, that way it's super easy for people to go and find. ( http://halocustoms.com/threads/feb-15-2013-buwan-and-star-wars-dominion-frymen.3771/ )

I'll see if I can join you for a bit, I'm usually busy eating dinner and hanging out with the fam during that time.

We are also starting customs right after yours are over, if you feel like playing a bit longer.
 
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