News Site Update: The Not-So-Great Journey

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Welcome, friends, to another exciting installment in the HaloCustoms site update series. Over the past few months, we've been filling you in on the changes underway to prepare everyone's favorite Halo community site for the new Halo game. The good new is, we were mostly prepared. The bad new is that the game's developers were not. Right now, Halo: The Master Chief Collection has numerous massive flaws, the least of which are all but preventing us from playing custom games. Right now, the best thing you can do is contribute to our epic bug thread and keep playing the game. It's only going to get better.

Customs!
The host reputation is one thing which we are still working on. This system will allow customgoers to rate their hosts, and for these ratings to incentivize hosts to continue to host better lobbies. This system is rather complex due to the nature of our events (customs) addon on the site, but it is in the works and will be ready to rock before long. Don't worry, we've got Insane54 on it!

If you're wondering exactly how this system will work, here's a brief explanation. All hosts will have an aggregate reputation score based on the number of positive and negative ratings they have received. This score will fall somewhere along a continuum of -50 to +50. Lobbies from hosts with a high enough reputation will stand out in the upcoming games tab, and host rep will be displayed alongside the RSVP box in lobbies as well as on each host's user profile. However, this reputation will not be permanent. Hosts who make mistakes and end up with a bad reputation will have a chance to redeem themselves, but good hosts will also need to continue to prove their worth to maintain a high reputation.

Details on things like the frequency of reputation decay and a timeframe for the full implementation of this system will be made available as they are finalized. This system is currently conflicting with everyone's favorite Like button, but that should be fixed before too long as well. For those of you new to hosting at HaloCustoms, be sure to read this helpful guide before getting started!

Maps!
Despite there being no web support for file sharing on HaloWaypoint just yet, your days as a silent cartographer are now over. The Halo: The Master Chief Collection maps section is now open and ready to be filled with your custom creations. Within each map category, maps will be prefixed by the title of the game they were made in. If you want to search for all minigames, you can do that. If you want to search for all H2A maps, you can do that. If you want to search only for minigames made in H2A, you can do that too! We can't wait to see what you create, and you can expect to see the occasional article spotlighting some of these cool creations on the front page.

With the maps section now open, the THFE Maps Submissions forum has been opened for business as well. Be sure to read the guidelines for each section carefully before submitting, and to drop a line to the THFE crew in the THFE Feedback subforum if you have any questions, concerns, or criticisms.

Events!
You can expect to see loads of exciting events coming to HaloCustoms in the coming months, but there is one which I am particularly excited to announce today. In the past, The Halo Forge Epidemic has teamed up with hosts from around the site to bring you exciting weekend-long custom gaming events. This type of event will continue in the Master Chief Collection, but this time Online Knights will be contributing as well. The crews from the two channels will work together to get these weekend events out to you relatively often in the future. Each channel will bring their own unique maps, hosts, and flavor to the events they host. The frequency and makeup of these events is not yet finalized, but these events will be posted on the front page and fully sponsored by and integrated into HaloCustoms. You can expect these events to start as soon as there is more stability in the custom gaming features in MCC.

Discussion!
Normally, the end of a site update is a place for us to ask you what you think about something. It seems a bit silly to ask what part of MCC you're all enjoying the most right now, but I am curious. What are you doing in MCC right now? Completing the campaigns? Building maps? Weigh in below with what you're working on and what you're looking forward to as the game becomes more playable. I've been working on a remake of one of my Halo 4 maps, and I'm looking forward to being able to play customs. Until next time, dudes!
 
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As I don't have an xbone right now, I am enjoying seeing what the community has already made when it comes to maps. I am absolutely blown away.

Me: Oh cool a ma-

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Seriously though, the maps look so good. I simply cannot wait to give it a go as soon as I can.
 
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I've been grinding Halo 2 and I made a map which still hasn't been properly tested but yeah. Also been starting grind on Halo 3 Legendary having done most of it solo already on 360. I figured I'd do it again. And I swear I was better at it then than I am now... "Time to get tactical marines!"
 
This score will fall somewhere along a continuum of -50 to +50. Lobbies from hosts with a high enough reputation will stand out in the upcoming games tab, and host rep will be displayed alongside the RSVP box in lobbies as well as on each host's user profile. However, this reputation will not be permanent. Hosts who make mistakes and end up with a bad reputation will have a chance to redeem themselves, but good hosts will also need to continue to prove their worth to maintain a high reputation.​
Can I request something? Could you make it such that we can view the rating of the host's past few lobbies? This could help discern between a first-time host, and a host who has a rating of 0 but it is because he/she was terrible at hosting lobbies before and has gone through steady improvement. Just a suggestion, I know it's a little late.
 
what about being voted a bad host when you don't deserve it? i hosted a game last Tuesday and was having allot of internet problems, i was eventually kicked out of my own lobby and never got to get a game going. and now one of the attendees have rated me a bad host, what can we do to counter abuse like this?
 
The Chief Collection Maps section doesn't work.

I had completed my map and composed a writeup, but I can't post it. When I hit the Submit button, it tells me I need to add a prefix, but there is no option anywhere for me to do so. A few other problems with posting MCC maps:
-There's no option for "Infected" under game types
-There's nowhere to paste the link to my file share
-Under the 'canvas' bar there are options for "skybox 1, 2 and 3", and the actual names aren't listed.

I was pretty psyched to be the one to post the first map in the new section, but it looks like that may not happen...
 
Can I request something? Could you make it such that we can view the rating of the host's past few lobbies? This could help discern between a first-time host, and a host who has a rating of 0 but it is because he/she was terrible at hosting lobbies before and has gone through steady improvement. Just a suggestion, I know it's a little late.
You can always view a member's posts to view their past lobbies (and the ratings there) if they have any.

what about being voted a bad host when you don't deserve it? i hosted a game last Tuesday and was having allot of internet problems, i was eventually kicked out of my own lobby and never got to get a game going. and now one of the attendees have rated me a bad host, what can we do to counter abuse like this?
The great thing about this reputation system is that bad ratings, deserved or not, will disappear over time. Unfortunately, we can't force everyone to be perfectly honest when they rate lobbies, but if you receive a rating that you don't feel you deserved you won't have to worry about it for too long. Particularly bogus ratings received can always be reported to staff for removal.

The Chief Collection Maps section doesn't work.

I had completed my map and composed a writeup, but I can't post it. When I hit the Submit button, it tells me I need to add a prefix, but there is no option anywhere for me to do so. A few other problems with posting MCC maps:
-There's no option for "Infected" under game types
-There's nowhere to paste the link to my file share
-Under the 'canvas' bar there are options for "skybox 1, 2 and 3", and the actual names aren't listed.

I was pretty psyched to be the one to post the first map in the new section, but it looks like that may not happen...
Ah yes, the prefixes were still set to be available only to staff members. This has been fixed. Obviously, "infected" is not a type of game types so there is no reason why that would be an option. The "Infection" category can be found right between the "core" and "Mini Game" categories, however. There is no webside file browser support for MCC at this time, so naturally there is not a place to post a link to your file share as such links do not exist. As soon as a file browser becomes available on Waypoint, the maps section will be updated to accommodate (and require) download links. The canvas options were created before the names of any of the three skyboxes were announced, and I forgot to update this once the names became available. This, too, is now fixed.
 
Obviously, "infected" is not a type of game types so there is no reason why that would be an option. The "Infection" category can be found right between the "core" and "Mini Game" categories, however.
Sorry, meant to say Infection.
My map was not designed primarily for infection, so I posted it in the 'core' category. However, it supports the Infection game type quite well (among the others), and I'd have liked to check the box to show this.
Glad to see it fixed, though.
 
It sucks that I'll have to wait at least 3 months before being able to buy an Xbox One if not even longer.
The good thing is, I can just sit and wait for people to discuss problems with the game and the Forge and keep them in mind while developing my map concepts.

One thing I can already tell is that my first priority would NOT to make a natural terrain only map like so many people are currently doing. xD
Well, I guess a remake of Lone Souls in a Lost Mine could be considered as such, in a way. Still, you get the point. ;)
 
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One thing I can already tell is that my first priority would NOT to make a natural terrain only map like so many people are currently doing. xD
Yeah, I feel the same way. The natural terrain pieces are getting used WAY to much.