My Forge Story

AlexJ189

BK Forger Extraordinaire
Aug 20, 2013
221
168
76
Narnia
My Forge Story

Hey guys and welcome to My Forge Story. During this long wall of images and text I aim to not make you bored to take you through some of my best maps in Halo 4 and show you how they came about. I won't put all of them here, just the ones that stand out for me. Enjoy, hopefully.

Twisted (Race)

This was my first proper attempt at a racetrack in Halo 4. The first one was a noob-ish attempt that turned out more like a mini-game in the end. My aim was simple at this point in my forging life. Make a map that’s unique and fun.

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Pretty much the whole of this track was new ground for me. Up until this point I hadn’t forged any actual track I’d just been using bridge pieces and magnets to make track. It wasn’t great aesthetically and it wasn’t the smoothest thing in the world. But, the fact that it merged single-wide, double-wide and terrain all in one track made it fairly unique amongst Halo racetracks. Pretty much everyone that I tested this with enjoyed it. I was ecstatic with the reaction that I got.

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Personal Rating: 6/10

Small Fact: This track is my most viewed on YouTube with around 9,400 views!

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Collidact (Race)

By the time I came to forge this track my forging skills had improved slightly. I had begun to appreciate the value of aesthetics, I could forge turns that seemed impossible to me when making Twisted & I had a much greater understanding of what people enjoyed on racetracks. One of the things that I noticed people enjoyed most was battling with other drivers (overtaking, spinning them out, pushing them off, etc…). So to me it was a no brainer that I HAD to make a collision course.

The objective of this track was simple. Provide as many opportunities for collisions as possible. It started out with the far section where people would weave in and out of a column, turn around, and then go back. I wanted to make the track as hectic as possible.

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The second part of this track that I really like is the tunnel. Not only do I like the way it looks I also love the way it plays. Jumping down into a tight tunnel with drivers driving the opposite way towards you? This section has annoyed many people and caused many curse words to fly out of many mouths. Someone even rage quitted once, I was delighted!

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Personal Rating: 8/10

Small Fact: I’ve never played this track in a lobby of more than 8 people without someone getting lost.

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Singularity (Race)

Singularity. My first track designed for tournaments. This track was a bit weird for me to make as I was not longer just thinking “This’ll be fun, let’s do it!” I had to actually add sections that required skill and would give an advantage to the faster racer.

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Despite putting in a lot of effort though the end result was a bit ‘meh’. It had some nice turns but it also had some awkward turns. The jump was dodgy too.

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Personal Rating: 7/10

Small Fact: I got the space ship and satellite from a THFE video. Thanks Oakley!… Come to think of it, where is Oakley?

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Overlook (Race)

This map was huge for me. With this I wanted to make the perfect race map for a custom game. Inspired by Overpass & Racers City, I wanted a track that you couldn’t fall off and had plenty of overtaking opportunities. I decided that the track should be short and compact. I didn’t want racers to feel isolated if they were far behind or in front so I created this middle section that would allow people to see racers way out in front or behind.

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After I’d finished the track I was pleased with it but wasn’t sure what kind of reception it would get due to it being so different to other tracks. To my delight though it received a mega response. Ducain23 described it as “one of the best tracks in halo 4 right now” when he featured it on his channel. That alone was more praise than I could have ever imagined.

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Personal Rating: 8.5/10

Small Fact: This track has 8 90 degree turns.

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Underpass (Race)
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Soon after releasing Overlook I was keen to make something new and to keep pushing maps out at that quality level. I failed. I tried a number of things I hadn’t done before like terrain tracks, demo tracks & even a competitive/core map but none of them were up to standard for me, until Underpass or course.

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Unlike Overlook, Underpass wasn’t something that I planned out prior to forging. It was actually just a spur of the moment thing in to get a map into the Community Forge Race playlist. I just built some track, drove it, then built some more, and drove that. The whole thing was trial and error and it worked out brilliantly!

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Personal Rating: 9.5/10

Small Fact: Underpass has just been voted the best “General” track in Halo 4 by the HaloTracks.org community. Thanks guys!

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Shazzle’s Surprise! (Race)
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Shazzle’s Surprise is my most recent (co)creation in Halo 4, and actually my favourite. I and Jabbleston had around a month to create a track for the Courageous Co-forge Contest on HaloTracks.org. But being the lazy person I am I waited until the last two days to start the track with him. Sadly Jables wasn’t present for most of the forging because of some sports commitment, but he managed to forge the first jump before he left. After that I built it pretty much the same way as Underpass, trial and error. It worked out pretty neat in the end.

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Personal Rating: 8.5/10

Small Fact: There’s no surprise. :’(
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Checkrace (Race/2v2)
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And to finalize the race section I left the best till last. This is by far the best thing I’ve ever created ever. It’s an indoor racetrack built on Impact. I was planning to set this up for Slayer before Sgt x Slaphead edited the map and claimed it as his own. I was ok with it though as the race version is clearly better. ; P

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Personal Rating: 10/10

Small Fact: This was once played in a 14 player lobby with the aim of making players quit so we could do a 5v5. NO ONE QUIT!
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Drainage (4v4 Slayer/KOTH)
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Not quite sure where to begin with this map. It started out as a co-forge between me and Error 5577. We loaded up a forge session with Sgt x Slaphead and begun working on concepts. By the end of the session I and Slaps had drawn up something solid, and I was supposed to continue it with Error next session, but his Halo 4 broke meaning that I had to continue it alone.

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It took me nearly a month to build the rest of the map but it was well worth my time. Even from the first test it played pretty decent but after 6 months of T&D it has come out as a really great map.

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Personal Rating: 9/10

Small Fact: This is ChewyNutCluster’s favourite 4v4 map in Halo 4.

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I only started forging 15 months ago, but it feels like an age. All that time ago I never expected to come as far as I have now. I’ve had maps featured in tournaments & a map featured in matchmaking. I’ve had forgers that I respect hugely and look up to so much give me 5 star reviews. I’ve had a whole community of people vote my map as one of the best in the game. And best of all? I’ve met some really great people along the way. There are no words that can explain how grateful I am for all this great feedback and support. It means so much to me.

I won’t be getting an Xbox One until 2015, so don’t expect to see any more maps from me for quite a while. I’m excited to see what people create with the new forge on Halo 2A and I even have some designs of my own that I’m waiting to unleash on the game. But, until then, live long and prosper (in forge).


Bonus Things

  1. I am an Administrator on a Halo racing league called the "Octane Racing League".
  2. My favourite colour is red.
  3. I don’t like any spicy food.
  4. I am officially more MLG then Error 5577.
  5. My last name begins with J and I was born in the year 189.*
  6. I was a scum in high school. It earned me over 200 detentions! Still came out with A’s though. ;)
  7. When people on XBL ask whereabouts I live in England I say London just so they don’t follow up with “Where’s that?”
  8. I have 6 nephews and 1 niece despite only being 18.
  9. I’m 18 years old btw.
  10. I prefer Elder Scrolls to Halo. Don’t hate on me.
*: Ok maybe that wasn’t true. :/

This is basically a selection of my best experiences in a Halo 4 custom game. It’s all based on opinion.

Competitive/Core Maps

5v5 CTF on Panic Attack
2v2 Slayer on Checkmate
4v4 Slayer on Error’s Map
2v2 KOTH on Exin
3v3 KOTH on Cryptic

Minigames

Blaze Cave
Chase
Smashy Chase
Crash-up Derby
Trap Race
Beer Pong (8 Cup)

Infection Maps

Constellation
Cedricville Unleashed
When Running Fails
Favela Vengeance
Last Stand: Nuke Town

Racetracks

Chratos
PPL Park SX
Drop Off
Volcanic Panic
Indoor Race #3 Reverse
Coastal Summit Raceway

Thanks for reading!
:)
 

BlazeDillon

Proficient
Jan 25, 2013
92
40
33
32
Nice write up. I've never played drainage but I watched the gameplay and it looks like a well made map. The rest look good as well, keep it up!
 
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I remember when my Halo 4 broke and I could rarely play with someone for 3 moths, those were sad times :(. I guess we'll have to co-forge another time :). Also you have never been more MLG than me and we both know that, I mean do you even snipe bro?
 
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