Banner by Black Theorem
Hello friends; here we are once more with another edition Forge Hub's monthly contests to warm our spirits and keep our disc drives loaded with a copy of Halo: Reach. Well, actually as this contest has it you may be doing a little less of the second things than as per usual with our contests. You may also get an odd sense of Deja Vu with our contest title. Yes, that is correct: we are back once more with another of our renown F-Treasures series. However Foreign, unlike it's elder brother Forgotten, is not about the remaking of Halo classic but rather involves something you've already been doing quite a lot of; playing sweet maps from other shooters. So yeah, those six days of playtime in MW3 is gonna pay off big time.
The Low-Down
So for those of you who haven't figured it out already Foreign Treasures is a contest geared towards bringing the sweet success of other popular shooters and bettering the already best shooter with it. The goal of this contest is to remake, to the best of your ability, a map that is featured in another popular shooter (which is featured on the list below) in Halo: Reach's forge. The map must play a 4v4 competitive setting and at least be viable for standard Team Slayer. All else is a bonus. This poses a problem though, doesn't it? What exactly is a remake?
Defining a Remake
As a very wise and honorable man once said "a remake would entail a close to original recreation of already existing content. That means remaking Gridlock from Gears of War needs to look as close as possible to Gridlock" (chrstphrbrnnn, 99418). However, that same man also believed that due to the limited (arguably less limited in Reach) capabilities of Forge that one should be allowed certain creative freedoms. These creative freedoms could be both beneficial and costly and thus it is in the benefit of the crafter to remain as close as possible to the original (bonus points). Although, that same man did make that awful banner you see in the source cited, so I'm not entire sure I'd trust his judgement...
So Let's Get Down to Business...
So what do you need to know? I suppose a quick summary of the rules and of course, the all important map list are crucial to your success. So as follows:
The deadline for submitting maps is January 31st, 2012
All entries must have a creation date December 3rd, 2011
All maps must support 4v4 Team Slayer
Co-Forges are permitted with one (1) other person only
All maps must be submitted under the appropriate format detailed in the Submission Thread
Multiple entries are permitted
Maps must be remade from an existing map in one of the following games, or corresponding DLC:
Battlefield 3*
Call of Duty 4
Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Counter Strike: Source
Gears of War
Gears of War 2
Gears of War 3
Goldeneye 64
Perfect Dark 64
Quake Live
Shadowrun
Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
Unreal Tournament III
*Battlefield 3's maps are far too large for us to realistically believe that you could remake them. Thus, we are allowing you to create sections of these maps as they play in particular gametypes such as Rush.
Remake Standards:
All maps should be created to best resemble their original.
Bonus points will be given for weapon sets that "mock" the original. Keep in mind that gameplay is still a very important factor so attempt to balance between an original weapon set that works and a mock set.
All maps must play 4v4 Team Slayer
Contestants are allowed one (1) custom gametype which mimics the settings of the original game.
Some Final Notes
The game list above is final. Unfortunately, there are plenty of games that as individuals we would love to see as a possibility. However, the list above is a well planned and discussed list of the "most" viable choices available to both us as judges and you as the contestants. As this is the second time running the contest, we have seen some games bring about more potential success than we had original thought would come of them. However, there are others that proved our suspicions of them being unnecessary. So in the interest of keeping the contest running smoothly through there will be no further games added to the list.
Get Going
I wish all of you the best of luck in your endeavours throughout this contest. I hope we shall see plenty of success come from Foreign Treasure II given that the overall winner of Best of Halo 3's Forge was indeed Sentinel, the winner of Foreign Treasures, the original. So, no pressure but be sure to create the best map of Halo: Reach's forge. Oh and I apologize if I caused any of you temporary (or permanent) blindness by linking to my old banner, although I suppose you wouldn't be reading this now if that was the case. I promise you the redux of that banner for the results was substantially better.