Works every time and looks freakin' sweet to boot.


For the second week of our Community Cartographer series, Sikamikanico steps in to tell us all about his Forged Sandbox space, Tartarus.  If you're still looking for great community-crafted content to check out for your Custom Games night, you should definitely add this one to the roster.  But before you do, take a few minutes to dig into the building process, straight from the map's creator.

Map Variant: Tartarus

Q. What’s the core concept behind Tartarus?

A. Putting aside the obvious homage to everyone's favourite evil Brute Chieftain, I wanted to create a fast paced, action packed arena map. In my humble opinion, the one thing I find Halo 3 to lack is smaller arena maps – so this my little attempt to fill that gap. I wanted something that played well with either AR or BR start, and still celebrated the wonderful variety of weapons that Halo 3 employs. The one thing that sets this map apart from most is the options available to the player for movement. I love those Man-Cannons and little jumps to get around!

Q. What gametypes should players looking for options on your map check out?

A. I’ve managed to Forge Tartarus with all gametypes in mind, but it plays best with Team Slayer, Team KOTH and Team Oddball in my opinion. It’s pretty sweet for SWAT and Snipers too, and you can find especially created variants for those gametypes in my File Share.

Q. Is this your first crack at Tartarus or have you been working at it for quite some time?

A. Believe it or not, this was the 30th iteration of Tartarus! I had a lot of help and feedback from a variety of players of all skill levels, and it all helped. The map wouldn’t be as good as it is without their honest feedback and suggestions. I’m pretty sure they began to hate me after playing nothing but this map for days on end, but they all rock regardless.

Q. So, what worked from day one and what needed tweaking?

A. The central area and surrounding walkways haven’t really changed since the map was started. The biggest changes were made to the bases and the Overshield and Active Camo spawns – one of my pals in particular commented that getting around just didn’t feel right in that area, and that it took to long to get back up on top – so after a lot of thinking, the Man-Cannons were brought in to help the player get out of trouble. The bases also saw a roof added to prevent base to base grenade spamming, as well as a nifty little prison bar section straight out of Sidewinder to house the Regenerator, which can be grabbed from either side. (Thanks Ash!)

Q. What was the most difficult element to get right?

A. Without a doubt, the Man-Cannons. I’m sure most Forgers can tell you, the Man-Cannon doesn’t always send you where you want it to send you. It all depends on so many factors – if you walk or jump in, walk backwards, or sideways – it can all make a difference to where you end up. It took almost a day to get the design quite right for them, and I’m pleased to say after plenty of testing, they just work – every time. That and they look freakin’ sweet to boot.

Q. What drives you to spend so much time with the Forge?

A. Seeing people having fun on something you’ve made is an awesome feeling. That, and I find Forge weirdly therapeutic. As my friends can attest to, I spend literally hours in there just trying different things out. I’m currently trying out the Sky Bubble, but it’s very different to most other workable areas – it’s taking a little getting used to.

Q. Advice for anyone looking to get used to the Forge and build their own therapeutic map? Wanna make some shout-outs?

A. Hmm. On the advice front – when it comes to maps, in my opinion it’s all about flow. You need to give your players reasons to move, advantages to get to and hold, and above all, a fun environment to play in. I always work to that ethos, and it hasn’t let me down yet!

It would be totally wrong if I didn’t take advantage to shout out to some of my pals, so first of, special thanks to KingBartlett for being my Forge comrade in arms, and Vinnie13, Mini Waz and ash 55 for all map advice and suggestions! Secondly, big thanks to the cool folks in OMG (Check them out if you live in Europe people!), Halo 3 in the Work Place, and Atlas/Test Pilot. I’m sorry I made you play this map so much, but you know it was worth it! And lastly, thanks to the guys at Bungie for making Halo 3 of course.

"Final Cut" - Fly-through Video

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Thanks to Sikamikanico for dropping the knowledge.  If you've come this far with is, reward yourself by scrolling back up to the top and downloading Tartarus - you done good.  After giving it a good spin, make sure to drop back into the discussion thread attached to this interview and let the mapmaker know how much ass it kicks.

"We will not go quietly into the night!"


Today is our Independence Day!

Okay, so we're still a few days away from the 4th of July. That's cool.  Let's start the celebration early.  Go ahead and fire up your copy of Halo 3 and jump into this week's Double EXP Weekend Playlist.  If you're underage, make sure you have some adult supervision - we wouldn't want you to lose a finger because you pointed that Laser the wrong way. 

4th of July is a 5v5 playlist featuring primarily Flag gametypes, with a splash of Rocket/Splaser Slayer and VIP. Available from 11am today until 2am Monday. Requires Heroic, Legendary and Mythic.

Preempted, but still pretty successful.


We pointed you in the direction of Hawty McBloggy's Fundfax Fairrasier for Marissa and Infantile Spasms just a short spell back.  It turns out the charity event had to close up shop earlier then anticipated.  While that's not ideal, the charity was still a pretty huge success.  Hit the link below to get up to speed.

Fundfax Fairraiser Update

Donate to Marissa

Back for one more lap.


We made the fine folks at Major League Driving wait so long for their time in the Community Spotlight that the original Map Variant their write-up covered deteriorated, decayed, and crumbled into so much dust.  My bad.  But that's okay, while we don't have any extra words to offer on their behalf for MLD's second week in the Community Spotlight, we do have twenty Bungie Favorite slots refueled and ready to rumble.

If you're the type of player that enjoys the roar of an engine and the chatter of a turret as it tears the opposition into tiny shreds, you should definitely be firing up your Xbox 360 and Halo 3 to check out MLD's offerings.  They've got them revved and ready to go.  Of course, if you just want to check out their group, they've got a nice space right here on Bungie.net up and running as well.  Gain access 'em both by clicking the links below.

Major League Driving Bungie.net Group

Major League Driving's Favorite Files - Week Deuce

It's so-and-so from Bungie.net!


Butane123 drops in this week to deliver a brief glimpse into his personal life, talk about his time here at Bungie.net, and sadly reveal that some of you jerks have been sending him death threats.  We know it's sucks to get banned sometimes (looking right at you, Shishka), but honestly, you're definitely taking it too far if you're issuing threats of physical violence.  In fact, you should be thanking this man for giving you a break. 

To help you sort through your anger, take some time to read through Butane123's interview below.  He's pretty relaxed, has some cool hobbies to highlight, and he even has some good things to say about you and the community-at-large.  Check it out.

Q. Without revealing your real identity, who are and what you do when you’re not busy banning jerks?

A. Whether any of this is true or not is up to personal interpretation, but my name is David, I am 22 years old, and a student at the University of Oklahoma going for an energy management degree.

When I’m not targeting people from the shadows of B.net, and not doing work for school or my job, I’m either hanging around with friends or enjoying one of my many, many hobbies. Most of them are rather normal. You know, I play videogames, I have since I was around three. My parents say that the worst thing they ever did raising me was allowing my grandparents to get me a Super Nintendo for Christmas in 1991.

I enjoy playing Ultimate Frisbee with friends, and lately I have been interested more and more in photography. Part of it has to do with the fact that I love to travel to scenic locations and find the best views, the other part has to do with something else I do, and I know a lot of people don’t do this, I storm chase. Oddly enough, when I was young I was petrified of storms and would go into hiding. Now whenever I get the chance I’m outside trying to stay up with them. Sadly, I never get to do it as much as I would love to because chases usually take up the whole day, and I just don’t get that amount of time anymore.

Other than those, I’m always trying new things. Last year I went white water rafting on the Snake River in Wyoming, and this summer I’ll be bottom fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

Q. Sounds like quite a schedule.  How did you do spend your time here on Bungie.net before you took up the moderator mantle?

A. Not the most original answer…but I posted a lot on the forums. Eventually I found my way into the Mob of Angry Peasants chat and Halo 2 clan as well as the Bungie Jumpers chapter. From those places I met a lot of good friends that I would talk and play games with often. Later Stosh asked me to join HFCS, which was weird considering I was essentially on a month long hiatus from the forums, and several people knew before I even did about me being chosen.

Q. Now that you've been chosen and you have a pretty packed personal schedule, do you ever feel like you just need to get away from your Banhammer duties?

A. Fortunately, I’m more of a lurker anymore, so it’s relatively easy for me to just disappear. I always find it funny in pre-game lobbies to hear the other team say, “Oh, its so-and-so from Bungie.net!” and I get completely left out.

Q. Ninjas do their best work from the shadows.  When you do slip away, what other online spaces do you check into for rehab?

A. Usually I am hanging out in #moap (Mob of Angry Peasants) chat room on irc.adelais.net. Other than that, I spend my time in The Frozen Minority, which is just a group of close friends from Bungie.net, and lately I have been posting on Neogaf more.

Q. And what brings you back to Bungie.net?

A. Mainly the people and the conversations that spring up. Yeah, a lot of threads might be repeats, but there’s always new ideas going around if you look hard enough. I also come back because I like looking for maps through the files system. Especially now that Sandbox is out, I like to see what other people have done on their maps so I can improve mine and find inspiration for the next one I might make.

Q. Since you've taken up Banhammer duty, how has your view of Bungie.net changed?

A. My view of the community really hasn’t changed at all. Now my interaction with it definitely has. Instantly I went from looking for the good threads to searching for the bad. I also went from one private message in maybe a month to probably 25 a day. Most of them being foul, of course, but I always enjoy a good death threat after a hard day’s work.

Q. Be honest, how awesome is it to swing the Banhammer? (Answer or I'll kill you.)

A. Pretty awesome. No more do I have the thought, “Man, will someone ban this spammer!” Now I can just do it myself. Thing is a little too heavy though. After a few swings in one day my lower back starts to ache. All the older mods tell me I’ll eventually get used to it, and then they just kick me back into the masses.

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Before you get too used to Butane123, we figured we better kick him back out into the masses.  Since he's been kind enough to let you get to know a little bit more about him, you should think about being a bit nicer to him.  If you see him in an Xbox LIVE lobby, you should shout, "Holy -blam!-, that's so-and-so from Bungie.net!" and if you want to send him a Private Message, make sure you haven't penned a death threat.  Remember, it's always good to give your electronic communications a second read before sending.