I've played some great Forge maps, but I understand your frustration completely. I think the key might be to only integrate the very best and to do so slowly, and make big announcements about them when you boot up the game, as if they are DLC.

It's all in the execution.

I mean, we're all playing never-before-seen maps at some point. Heck, when I jumped in H2 MP, it was already 2 years old. I was completely lost and people kept punishing me for that. Do I feel like injustice was inflicted upon me? Heck no, it's the nature of the game. One day I'll get to be the one punishing.

Now, a pre-match (either in the lobby or loading screen) would be very nice. Much more so than button configurations (though they both fall into the same logic, IMO).

And about your point of polish, yeah, I agree. We're paying top bucks there. However, with Halo, I usually feel like I underpaid for the amount of enjoyment, so I don't mind unpolish once in a while. Not that I wouldn't love a nicer map maker that allowed a lot more polish. ;)

Disagree? - HBO Customs w/ Forge Maps. I can't count the good times I've had since Forge was introduced in Halo 3.

Quite frankly, I think you are being abit harsh out of the sake of a rant. Its not the what - its the who. ;)

As far as the polish argument I think that if we have tools in Destiny they will be much more powerful than in Halo, but that could just be me being overly excited about a brand new Bungie game.

As far as the rest of it, I liked the way Bungie did it in Reach before 343 took over, very few Forge maps were introduced unless you specifically played in the Community playlist. I do wish they'd had more fully completed maps at the start instead of adding in a few made in Forge, but I'm sure Bungie felt the same way too.

TL;DR - Our maps are awesome. You should learn them. You might even enjoy H4. Maybe.
Discounting good maps because you haven't played them is the stupidest thing I've heard in a few days (since I saw a picture of some high school students attempting roman numerals that read "Class of II 0 I V").

Custom maps. Custom, random, never seen before maps. If I fire up Halo matchmaking it seems like all I end up playing are maps I've never seen before. Then I get beat, not by players, but by maps I can't possibly know. Where did those rockets come from? That shotgun? Those vehicles and sniper rifle? As an infrequent Halo player I'm at the mercy of trying to combat the enemy and the unknown maps.

And I want it all gone.

Sheesh, people complained about there being not enough maps, so Bungie adds Forge. Now you're gonna complain because there are too many maps. You don't play, so you don't know the maps. You could say the same thing about On Disk/DLC maps.

It's a much more cost effective way to give players more content, and community built maps generally play better than developer maps these days.

Just not knowing the maps isn't the only problem, even if it's the biggest. Forge maps. All of them. In every version of Halo. Look like crap. Don't I pay professionals with expensive custom tools to design me excellent looking and playing maps? Oh, that's right! I do! So why am I stuck playing ScreamingXXXboxXXliveboyNumb3rThrieve's randomly chosen map?

Forge is a limited tool. I imagine that will change with the Xbone, but for now, people can only use what they have. Generally I agree that forge maps look like vomit, but to say they all do is ludicrous. I can bring some pictures if need be. The maps that we (speaking as a Community Cartographer) put into MM are generally very good looking. The only reason an ugly map would get in is if it played excellently, which has happened before. They are never randomly chosen. We take the best content from the best forgers so that players can play the best maps. We spend weeks testing and refining them, so that people enjoy their time in MatchMaking. I think if you learned the maps, you'd enjoy them a lot more than the base maps.

So yeah. Hopefully with Bungie's seemingly much more powerful and quick map editing tools and Destiny's always on, always evolving nature, having to deal with lame Forge style maps will be a thing of the past.

Yeah, hopefully the community will get much more powerful creation tools (in Destiny and Halo 5). Then community maps will flourish.

Good riddens I say.

This is your worst post ever, I say.

Custom maps. Custom, random, never seen before maps. If I fire up Halo matchmaking it seems like all I end up playing are maps I've never seen before. Then I get beat, not by players, but by maps I can't possibly know. Where did those rockets come from? That shotgun? Those vehicles and sniper rifle? As an infrequent Halo player I'm at the mercy of trying to combat the enemy and the unknown maps.

You're complaining about something that is not exclusive to Forge as if it were. The first time you play ANY map--on-disc, DLC, or Forge--you must learn the map.

Just not knowing the maps isn't the only problem, even if it's the biggest. Forge maps. All of them. In every version of Halo. Look like crap. Don't I pay professionals with expensive custom tools to design me excellent looking and playing maps?

So you want to pay money for a handful of finite maps because you think they're prettier?

Forge is the superior way to deliver new content to players. You don't have to worry about all the things associated with DLC, like adoption rates. Not getting to play that DLC much in matchmaking because the matchmaking system isn't finding other players that have also purchased that DLC? Not a problem with Forge.

The tool can be improved, but in my opinion, Forge is the single most important element in the longevity of Halo. Infinite free DLC. It should be getting much more dev focus than it has in the past, which would address your petty concern about visuals.

So yeah. Hopefully with Bungie's seemingly much more powerful and quick map editing tools and Destiny's always on, always evolving nature, having to deal with lame Forge style maps will be a thing of the past.

This paragraph has no clear meaning that I can discern.

P.S. I'll take a "Basics" playlist in exchange for the elimination of Forge as well...

I was saying this back in Halo: Reach, that sometimes I just want to play on-disc maps, so I can definitely appreciate this comment. Better playlist management is the key to this particular gripe, not removing Forge as a feature.

I don't think Forge maps should be in every single playlist.

Forge in any execution is player expression, and to an extent freedom (it would have been true freedom if we fully had our hands on megalo).

So I do not know if custom mappings will make sense in Destiny, but player expression and freedom totally does. So much so I hope we can one day get a gunsmithing feature or vehicle tuning/creating. Giving the player tools to expand on your game is always awesome.

My only real complaint about Forge maps is the sameness caused by the single choice of textures on pieces. I understand the issue people have and it does seem like too many playlist become 90% Forge, but no way would I ever want it gone if there is a place for it. It does basically equate to unlimited free maps, even if they don't look as nice, on a console game. Plus, we'd miss out on all the crazy shit people like petetheduck make, the fun mini-games, and the really good normal maps that crop up too.

I won't be upset if it's not in Destiny, but if competitive stuff is as big as implied, I hope it's still there if only for customs.