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Alright, since Minecraft is a pretty popular game on the 360, and since I seem to be the expert on explaining how to get achievements, I thought I would go ahead and teach you how to get all the achievements for Minecraft. A good chunk of the achievements you can get from playing the tutorial, so I won't spend much time on those. There are a few, however, that are a bit difficult. There are 20 in total equaling 400 Gscore. Here are the super easy ones, they can be done on any difficulty: 1. Taking Inventory - Open your inventory by pressing Y. 2. Getting Wood - Punch a tree until a block of wood pops out by holding right trigger. 3. Benchmarking - Craft a Workbench with four blocks of wooden planks. 4. Time to Mine! - Craft a wooden pickaxe. 5. Hot Topic - Craft a furnace using 8 cobblestone blocks. 6. Acquire Hardware - Smelt an iron ingot. You do this by putting Iron Ore into a furnace with some coal (or some other fuel). You can find Iron Ore in almost any mine you make. 7. Time to Farm - Craft a wooden hoe. 8. Getting an Upgrade - Craft a stone pickaxe. It has to be a stone pickaxe, can't be iron, gold, or diamond. 9. Time to Strike - Craft a wooden sword. 10. Cow Tipper - Hunt and kill a cow and harvest leather from it. 11. MOAR tools - Craft one of each tool (Pickaxe, Spade, Axe, and a Hoe). You can make them from whatever you want to make them from, but wood is cheapest. To do a two birds with one stone (pun) here, craft a stone pickaxe and wooden everything else. See? Over half of them are super easy. Now for the ones that take a little bit of doing: 12. Bake Bread - Turn Wheat into Bread. Break several tall grass blocks (which grow on dirt blocks, above ground) until you collect three seeds. Use the hoe on three dirt blocks to create farmland using left trigger (grows faster near water) and plant one seed on each block of farmland. Wait for the wheat to grow. Gather the wheat once it finishes growing and go to the crafting table and create some bread. Furnace is not required. At all. Another way to do this is to find a village and harvest their wheat. You only need 3 to make bread. 13. The Lie - Bake a Cake. Collect 3 Milk Buckets. You will need three buckets, and will need to use each bucket on a Cow to obtain Milk. You can milk the same cow three times. Grow 3 Wheat from Seeds (or find a village and harvest from there). Find or grow 2 Sugar Cane and go to the crafting table to make sugar. Follow a Chicken around for 4–5 minutes or, if you are lucky, you may stumble upon an Egg laid by a Chicken already. You should now have 3 milk buckets, 3 wheat, 2 sugar, and one chicken egg. Go to a crafting table and craft a cake using these ingredients. 14. Delicious Fish - Catch and Cook a fish. To get this achievement, all you really have to do is take a cooked fish out of a furnace's smelted slot. So, if you've got nice friends, you don't have to learn how to fish. If you do not know how to fish, then I suggest you use the tutorial to learn. Then you can just cook the fish you find in the tutorial for this achievement. 15. Monster Hunter - Attack and Destroy a Monster. This achievement has to be done on at least easy difficulty. And YOU have to be the one to kill the monster. If you attack a creeper with a sword and it explodes, you will not get the achievement. If you've got dogs and they do the dirty work, there's a chance you won't get the achievement. If one of your friends does most of the damage on the mob, there's a chance you won't get the achievment. 16. Leader of the Pack - Tame 5 Wolves. You will need quite a few bones for this one, which can be got by killing skeletons. You will need to find five wolves, and feed each of them bones until a collar appears around their neck. There will be hearts as well. Another way to do this is to find one wolf, save, tame the wolf, then reload the save five times. Breeding wolves does not count towards this achievement. You can tame four wolves and breed them one thousand times and you will not get this achievement until you tame another wolf. 17. Dispense with This - Craft a Dispenser.The reason this is here is because it takes a bit of doing. First, you will need a bow (made by three string and three sticks, you get the string from spiders or by using shears on web found in abandoned mines). Then, you will need some cobblestone and redstone dust. Redstone dust is actually more common than one may think, you just need to look for it. If you are having major difficulty finding some, try either switching worlds, playing on a friends world who has the ingredients, or mining in a different area. Okay, here are the three more difficult ones. These ones will probably end in tears for you at least once or twice. Well, here they are, as best as I can explain them: 18. Into The Nether - Construct a Nether Portal. For this one you will need a flint and steel (which can be made with flint and iron one for each) and Obsidian, which can only be mined with a diamond Pickaxe. However, there's a little trick you can do with a few buckets of lava and water. Here's an AH video explanation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCJ0RmiYixM Note, in the video he uses more than two buckets. You only really need two buckets to do this, but that's up to your imagination. 19. When Pigs Fly - Ride a Pig using a Saddle and make the Pig take Fall Damage. Okay, for this one you will need to find a dungeon then find a saddle in one of the "dungeon chests" near the Mob Spawner. This is mainly a matter of luck. However, World Seed 9000000000800000000700000006000000500000­40000300020010 has a dungeon located at X: -309 Y: 51 Z: 199. Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx6Lz-gfiZs Once you find the saddle, you can find a village, get some carrots, get some string, and some sticks and make a carrot on a stick. This makes the achievement much easier. You put the saddle on a pig, get on the pig, press R with the carrot on a stick equipped to hit (or "tame") the pig, and you can lead it using the stick. Bear in mind that if you kill the pig with the stick, you do not get the achievement and sometimes they will not drop the saddle. If you lead the pig into water, you will lose control of the pig. Best thing to do is get off the pig and let it get to land. Then, just lead the pig off a cliff that won't kill you. 20. On A Rail - Travel by minecart to a point at least 500m in a single direction from where you started. This one requires A LOT of materials, and some know how with how to make an effective railway. All you have to do is make the railway straight. No turns at all. You can make it go up or down, but it needs to be straight. 500m = 500 blocks. So you are going to need quite a bit of iron and gold. Best practice is to have one powered rail per 10 iron rails. So Powered - Ironx10 - Powered. Remember, Powered rails need to be powered by redstone torches. If you need it, here's an Achievement Hunter guide. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tihfx6DunZs Well, there it is. The complete list of achievements for Minecraft. I hope this helped most of you who are reading it. I have changed X-Box's so I no longer have my old achievement help maps, so I can no longer offer personal assistance over XBL. Everything above has been confirmed for the X-Box 360, but may also work on the X-Box One, PS3, and PS4 versions of the game. This achievement guide was last updated 7/28/2014. Number of people helped with achievements over XBL so far: 158

WARNING: Wall of text incoming. __________________________________ Hey guys, Zan here. As most of you know, I'm a forger in Halo 4. I've made plenty of competitive maps, one Flood map, and one mini game. I have 4 competitive maps that are all works in progress and I also started my second Flood map. From that, you can tell that I'm very involved in the Forging scene. But like a lot of things in life, forging can bring you difficulties and may sometimes bring you a lot of frustration. And that's pretty much what I'll be discussing in this write-up. I can safely say that I've grown a lot as a forger and what I'll be discussing in this thread are the things I learned and picked up along the way. This write up will not be a tutorial. I won't be telling you how to place spawns, manage map flow. This write up will talk about P.S. This is mostly for competitive map forgers. P.P.S. English is not my primary language so excuse any grammatical errors, mistakes in sentence structure, etc. P.P.P.S. This is mainly for aspiring forgers. The pros experienced forgers would probably already know most, if not all, of what I'll be discussing. __________________________________ The Beginning of a Map Now, when you decide to forge a map, how do you start it? Do you just place random pieces around until you find an idea for your map. Do you start with one idea and then expand from that? Do you choose a map from a previous Halo title and then use it as inspiration for your map? I. From idea to piece You can use any one of those ways to start a map. We all have different styles of forging and this results in different ways of starting a map. I myself mostly use two ways to start a map. One if these is placing about 4 blocks side by side, transform into player mode and try to figure out how I want the map to be from there. While in player mode, I think to myself "Would a ramp here be good?", "Maybe I should have a lift here", "This could be a good spot for a power position" From there, I experiment. I turn my ideas into forge pieces and then see how everything works. But it doesn't stop there. Once I have figured out the general layout of the map, I don't stop thinking in player mode. While in player mode, I walk around what I have created so far. This allows me to expand my creation in the right direction resulting in a well built and well thought out map. Remember, you can't always determine how a certain area would play while you're in Forge ball mode. That's the method I use when I don't have an idea to start from. Give it a try. For all you know, it'll help you start your next creation. II. From inspiration to creation Another one of the methods I use when I start a map is, as I've stated above, expanding from one idea. This is very similar to using a map from a previous Halo title as inspiration. Let's say that you wanted to make a map that is similar to Narrows from Halo 3. Now, what's one thing in Narrows that makes it unique from the other Halo 3 maps? The bridge. You can use that idea to start your map. Simply build a simple bridge and then decide how your map will go from there. You can use the "walking around in player mode" method I stated above to help you continue your build. Take this picture for example. That entire map started from one idea. The Forerunner structure in the middle made of the banks. I wanted to make a Forerunner-themed map so I created that diamond looking structure and eventually, an awesome 2v2 map happened. Here's another example That entire map also started from one idea. The bridge. What's funny is, I was inspired by Narrows yet the map has almost no similarities to Narrows. I simply built a simple bridge, expanded from that and eventually made an original map that looks nothing like a map from a previous Halo title. From that one, simple idea, I was able to build what I think is my best map in Halo 4 so far. It's still a work in progress though. But don't forget that it's important to be original. Show people, through your maps, who you are as a forger. It's not a bad idea to take inspiration from other maps but making all your maps remakes or rehashes won't help you grow much as a forger compared to making original maps. The first piece has been placed. An idea has sprouted. The map continues. After you've figured out how you want your map to be in terms of layout, gameplay, theme etc, the harder part comes. And that would be continuing and, eventually, finishing the map. You have to take many things into account when you continue your map. This includes finding a good area for the initial spawns, the power weapon spawns, the power postions, making sure your map will flow well, etc. If you take these things into account, your map is bound to not have many issues in its layout and structure. If you just continue forging your map without any real thought process, the map is bound to have several issues that could possibly be unfixable without a complete reforge or redesign of the map. I know this from a certain experience of mine in forging. Forger's Block As far as I know, everyone gets it. No forger has ever gone through in his forging carreer without experiencing forger's block. Now, what can you do if you're hit with forger's block? What I do is take a break. I find this to be the best way to remedy this issue. By putting my mind at rest, it allows me to think properly and lets my brain absorb ideas better. You'll always need a break when doing something. Forging a map is no exception. After that time of rest, I don't go back to the map immediately. I look at other maps first. Community made and developer made. This usually gives me more ideas and inspiration that allows me to continue my map. The map is done. But is it though? Congratulations! You've finished your map. But not really. You've simply finished its beta. A playable version. Not the final one. All maps will need feedback. All forgers will need feedback. You and your map are no exception. Once you've finished your map's first version, it's time to test it. This is crucial in the development of your map. But to some people, this is the hardest part. It's not easy to receive feedback. A lot of people would view your map post, say "Looks cool, bro." or "Nice aesthetics" and then ignore it forever. Some wouldn't even comment on it. Let's face it, "Nice aesthetics" doesn't help very much. It may make you feel good about the map but it won't be much help if you're trying to fix some issues. So how do you get feedback? a) Give feedback. A lot of people also have maps that lack feedback. It's time for you to step up. Giving feedback will make some people remember your name and, if you're lucky, they'll give you feedback right back. Request it. There are many groups and individuals out there who are willing to help you with your map for free. Some of them would be - The Librarians of Forge Cafe - Master Debaytes' Review Crew at Halo Customs - Fated's Forge Lobby at Forge Hub - AbleSir Thomas' TNT at 343i Community forum - And many more! Give these guys a shout and I'm sure they'll be willing to help you with your map. c) Join some customs This will help you in testing your map. The best place to go to is Halo Customs. Join some map testing lobbies and hopefully, you'll get the feedback you need. This will also help you spot issues in your map, if any. __________________________________ This essay write up of mine is almost done so I'm going to leave one last piece of advice for any aspiring forgers reading this thread. Don't give up. Most likely, your first map won't be the best. It could turn out horribly. At least, that's how my first few maps turned out. To get better at forging, it's very important that you like forging. You're not going to get any better at something if you don't enjoy doing it (You can apply this in real life ). To get better, you'll need feedback (refer to the ways of getting feedback as seen above). Once you get feedback, it's important that you don't take offense. Some feedback that you'll receive may seem harsh but these are the feedback that will truly help you grow as a forger. Take the feedback into account and use it to improve your map and yourself. Of course, you must be able to determine the difference between feedback and flaming. Another thing you must learn is this. Knowing when to give up on a map. (Not contradicting the "Don't give up" above. That tells you not to give up on Forging. This tells you to know when to give up on a certain map) Not all issues in a map are fixable without a complete reforge/redesign. And sometimes, the issues are still not fixed. You should be able to determine if the core layout and design of a map dooms it to unfixable problems. This means that no matter how much you change some things in the map, it will never be something that will truly shine because of it's main design. I know this from my own experiences in Forge. The best thing to do if this happens to your map is to make some final adjustments to it and move on with a new project while applying all that you've learned from your previous creations to your new map. __________________________________ Anyway, that's pretty much it from me. I hope this write-up helps any aspiring/beginning forgers with their maps. Zan out.

The battle rifle ruined swat for me because not only does it appear to have the same accuracy as the single shot DMR but more damage. It causes most people to use the the battle rifle instead causing the DMR to only see use for long range in which everyone prefers the covenant or promethean weapons thus making the DMR almost useless and you hate the people who use it during swat or ect because its been an OP gun that should not realy since its a basic enough weapon.There is no swat game type for only DMRS as well which annoys many of my friends and I who find it to be overpowerd in swat and would prefer to have classic only DMR only games but theres no game type,The same with flood the new game types fine for some I suppose and fresh and a nice idea but many of us prefer hivemind as its closer to the flood were used to and would also like a game type for that as well so were not forced to be in games that we don't enjoy waiting till it ends and voting hoping we will get the one we want and thus causing many people to quit and give everyone a black screen.The main reason I enjoy halo 4 is doing custom games and Spartan ops with friends and the roosterteeh easter eggs those are very fun and I enjoy them a lot and thank you for them(A side note but why add oceanic armor and not let us get lower than knee deep water when were standing?in halo reach and 3 you could forge to almost be completely immersed in the water and get fairly deep into it but theres no such maps in 4 and no air vehicles for humans and its very annoying so please new maps or dlc?).Halo 4 almost feels like a version of halo one but different,yes its continuing the story but instead of adding very much they almost mostly replaced most things and took away all the human air vehicles which many of us are very intensly annoyed and agrivated by.A simple side note is that in reach you were six in halo 1-4 your maste chief but in Spartan ops your thorne or crimson and it just annoys me because I cant get immersed in the story six is a nickname we can all adopt we can all pretend to be masterchief in story but crimson or thorne,and being called different things in different episodes,it made me feel very far from the story and I was almost never immersed and only ignored it laughing from the roosterteeth easter eggs. I understand your attempting to tell your story of the future of master chiefs story and that but it seems a bit too forcefull almost and that your too willing to lose fans along the way sure of yourselfs you will gain more than you lose so that makes it ok.I enjoy the story and want to see more of what your doing with it and trust you but hope this does not become or already is just a money gig for you. You have my trust and my loyalty and my awaiting of what your going to do with the story and I hope you have heard my feelings opinions and advice. A loyal fan (gamertag) DiabolicMadDOG (name) Chris If anyone else has any ideas or for dlc or updates or things theyd like to say id enjoy to read about them and hope I did not offend anyone by simply stating how I felt because I did it to simply help and make sure it was known.

WARNING: Wall of text incoming. __________________________________ Hey guys, Zan here. As most of you know, I'm a forger in Halo 4. I've made plenty of competitive maps, one Flood map, and one mini game. I have 4 competitive maps that are all works in progress and I also started my second Flood map. From that, you can tell that I'm very involved in the Forging scene. But like a lot of things in life, forging can bring you difficulties and may sometimes bring you a lot of frustration. And that's pretty much what I'll be discussing in this write-up. I can safely say that I've grown a lot as a forger and what I'll be discussing in this thread are the things I learned and picked up along the way. This write up will not be a tutorial. I won't be telling you how to place spawns, manage map flow. This write up will talk about P.S. This is mostly for competitive map forgers. P.P.S. English is not my primary language so excuse any grammatical errors, mistakes in sentence structure, etc. P.P.P.S. This is mainly for aspiring forgers. The pros experienced forgers would probably already know most, if not all, of what I'll be discussing. __________________________________ The Beginning of a Map Now, when you decide to forge a map, how do you start it? Do you just place random pieces around until you find an idea for your map. Do you start with one idea and then expand from that? Do you choose a map from a previous Halo title and then use it as inspiration for your map? I. From idea to piece You can use any one of those ways to start a map. We all have different styles of forging and this results in different ways of starting a map. I myself mostly use two ways to start a map. One if these is placing about 4 blocks side by side, transform into player mode and try to figure out how I want the map to be from there. While in player mode, I think to myself "Would a ramp here be good?", "Maybe I should have a lift here", "This could be a good spot for a power position" From there, I experiment. I turn my ideas into forge pieces and then see how everything works. But it doesn't stop there. Once I have figured out the general layout of the map, I don't stop thinking in player mode. While in player mode, I walk around what I have created so far. This allows me to expand my creation in the right direction resulting in a well built and well thought out map. Remember, you can't always determine how a certain area would play while you're in Forge ball mode. That's the method I use when I don't have an idea to start from. Give it a try. For all you know, it'll help you start your next creation. II. From inspiration to creation Another one of the methods I use when I start a map is, as I've stated above, expanding from one idea. This is very similar to using a map from a previous Halo title as inspiration. Let's say that you wanted to make a map that is similar to Narrows from Halo 3. Now, what's one thing in Narrows that makes it unique from the other Halo 3 maps? The bridge. You can use that idea to start your map. Simply build a simple bridge and then decide how your map will go from there. You can use the "walking around in player mode" method I stated above to help you continue your build. Take this picture for example. That entire map started from one idea. The Forerunner structure in the middle made of the banks. I wanted to make a Forerunner-themed map so I created that diamond looking structure and eventually, an awesome 2v2 map happened. Here's another example That entire map also started from one idea. The bridge. What's funny is, I was inspired by Narrows yet the map has almost no similarities to Narrows. I simply built a simple bridge, expanded from that and eventually made an original map that looks nothing like a map from a previous Halo title. From that one, simple idea, I was able to build what I think is my best map in Halo 4 so far. It's still a work in progress though. But don't forget that it's important to be original. Show people, through your maps, who you are as a forger. It's not a bad idea to take inspiration from other maps but making all your maps remakes or rehashes won't help you grow much as a forger compared to making original maps. The first piece has been placed. An idea has sprouted. The map continues. After you've figured out how you want your map to be in terms of layout, gameplay, theme etc, the harder part comes. And that would be continuing and, eventually, finishing the map. You have to take many things into account when you continue your map. This includes finding a good area for the initial spawns, the power weapon spawns, the power postions, making sure your map will flow well, etc. If you take these things into account, your map is bound to not have many issues in its layout and structure. If you just continue forging your map without any real thought process, the map is bound to have several issues that could possibly be unfixable without a complete reforge or redesign of the map. I know this from a certain experience of mine in forging. Forger's Block As far as I know, everyone gets it. No forger has ever gone through in his forging carreer without experiencing forger's block. Now, what can you do if you're hit with forger's block? What I do is take a break. I find this to be the best way to remedy this issue. By putting my mind at rest, it allows me to think properly and lets my brain absorb ideas better. You'll always need a break when doing something. Forging a map is no exception. After that time of rest, I don't go back to the map immediately. I look at other maps first. Community made and developer made. This usually gives me more ideas and inspiration that allows me to continue my map. The map is done. But is it though? Congratulations! You've finished your map. But not really. You've simply finished its beta. A playable version. Not the final one. All maps will need feedback. All forgers will need feedback. You and your map are no exception. Once you've finished your map's first version, it's time to test it. This is crucial in the development of your map. But to some people, this is the hardest part. It's not easy to receive feedback. A lot of people would view your map post, say "Looks cool, bro." or "Nice aesthetics" and then ignore it forever. Some wouldn't even comment on it. Let's face it, "Nice aesthetics" doesn't help very much. It may make you feel good about the map but it won't be much help if you're trying to fix some issues. So how do you get feedback? a) Give feedback. A lot of people also have maps that lack feedback. It's time for you to step up. Giving feedback will make some people remember your name and, if you're lucky, they'll give you feedback right back. Request it. There are many groups and individuals out there who are willing to help you with your map for free. Some of them would be - The Librarians of Forge Cafe - Master Debaytes' Review Crew at Halo Customs - Fated's Forge Lobby at Forge Hub - AbleSir Thomas' TNT at 343i Community forum - And many more! Give these guys a shout and I'm sure they'll be willing to help you with your map. c) Join some customs This will help you in testing your map. The best place to go to is Halo Customs. Join some map testing lobbies and hopefully, you'll get the feedback you need. This will also help you spot issues in your map, if any. __________________________________ This essay write up of mine is almost done so I'm going to leave one last piece of advice for any aspiring forgers reading this thread. Don't give up. Most likely, your first map won't be the best. It could turn out horribly. At least, that's how my first few maps turned out. To get better at forging, it's very important that you like forging. You're not going to get any better at something if you don't enjoy doing it (You can apply this in real life ). To get better, you'll need feedback (refer to the ways of getting feedback as seen above). Once you get feedback, it's important that you don't take offense. Some feedback that you'll receive may seem harsh but these are the feedback that will truly help you grow as a forger. Take the feedback into account and use it to improve your map and yourself. Of course, you must be able to determine the difference between feedback and flaming. Another thing you must learn is this. Knowing when to give up on a map. (Not contradicting the "Don't give up" above. That tells you not to give up on Forging. This tells you to know when to give up on a certain map) Not all issues in a map are fixable without a complete reforge/redesign. And sometimes, the issues are still not fixed. You should be able to determine if the core layout and design of a map dooms it to unfixable problems. This means that no matter how much you change some things in the map, it will never be something that will truly shine because of it's main design. I know this from my own experiences in Forge. The best thing to do if this happens to your map is to make some final adjustments to it and move on with a new project while applying all that you've learned from your previous creations to your new map. __________________________________ Anyway, that's pretty much it from me. I hope this write-up helps any aspiring/beginning forgers with their maps. Zan out.

Hey there! Welcome to Astro's guide to Creative Writing! On 343i.org, my main focus is roleplaying, especially in the Militia Roleplay. It's all I ever really do, and it's what I complain about the most. So now, whilst I'm waiting for posts, I think I'll try to assist some of the members who want some help with their writing. To sum up how to improve your writing, you have to flesh out everything. You describe things in different, interesting ways, and make your post interesting to read. It doesn't come easily, but you eventually get used to "overdoing" your posts, to the point you realize "Hey, this is a pretty nice read.". Let's take an example, and work on it. I'll use one of my Militia characters speaking: "sorry, staff sergeant." said oliver. What's wrong here? Well, for a start, the grammar is poor. Let's fix that. "Sorry, Staff Sergeant." said Oliver. Now that the grammar is fixed, we can flesh it out. Right now, the statement is pretty boring, so let's add something to it. "Sorry, Staff Sergeant." said Oliver, looking down at the floor. As well as stating what Oliver said, we show what he was doing at the time. In this case, he was looking down at the floor. Let's continue to expand. "Sorry, Staff Sergeant." stammered Oliver, looking down at the floor with a dumb expression on his face, realizing his mistake. Why didn't he just keep his mouth shut? Here, I've added a lot more to the example. Oliver stammers and looks dumb, and he's made a mistake. He also reflects on the events, regretting speaking up. You can see that the character seems more human than when he was just apologizing to his superior. The expansion is also more interesting to read, and the word count has been increased from a measly five to a whopping twenty-eight! That's the most important rule when it comes to writing, in my eyes at least. Flesh it out, flesh it out, and if you think you can't flesh it out any more, flesh it out! The more detail, the better the post. Okay. Moving on from posts with speech. Occasionally, you have to write without saying anything. Perhaps because your character is supposed to be being quiet, or the character doesn't speak at all, or for any number of reasons. When there is no speech, your ability to describe surroundings and feelings is really put to the test. I'll use Oliver as my example again. This time, it's a quiet training mission, where he is trying to be stealthy: oliver walked through the forest. it was dark. he was scared. Okay, same drill. Let's fix the grammar again. Oliver walked through the forest. It was dark. He was scared. These three sentences are pretty boring. Let's expand. Oliver crept through the forest. He couldn't see a thing in the darkness. He'd do anything to be out of here. Now it's a little more interesting. Once again, we flesh it out. Oliver crept through the rustling, creaking forest, his heavy combat boots careful not to tread on loose twigs. He couldn't see a thing in the dark of the night, every leaf that blew with the wind causing his heart to hammer harder in his chest. Right now, he'd do anything short of killing himself to escape the clutches of this godforsaken, ODST-ridden hell. As you can see, it now sounds a little over-dramatic, but that's what you want! You can really tell what Oliver is feeling, how damn scared he is. If you think about it, when people are scared of something, they're usually overreacting. This is similar, as Oliver refers to the training ground as hell, when it's really only just some trees at 2300 hours. See how that works? Base your writing style off of real feelings, and you'll go far. That's just some basic tips for now. I will probably update this thread in the future, with more tips and pieces of advice. In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions about writing, whether it's for class, just for fun or you're considering writing as a career. I'm happy to answer anything you throw at me - I'll try my hardest to help ya.

I'm now out of school and have yet to acquire a job, so there's no schedule in my life right now. Even so I'd like to wake up somewhat early but it seems impossible. I have some bad habits, I like to play xbox and watch shows on the computer, and sometimes I won't be able to sleep and I'll spend hours doing these things then I'll go to bed sometime around 7 AM, and wake up at 4 or 5 PM. Two days ago I stayed up over 24 hours straight in order to make full circle and go to bed early, it worked at first, but yesterday I couldn't go to sleep until 6 AM, and today I woke up at 4 PM, so I'm right back where I started. I know there's people with far worse problems like failing school and not being able to get it up, and some people would even call it a blessing but I hate having my schedule off. Has anyone else had similar problems, on maybe any advice?

I have made this topic in reply to Total Mayh3m's speech over the change of the Community Forums. http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/23323-a-message-to-the-community/ Just Like Old Times, eh Bud- Alright, so I see a bundle of you guys all in the Shoutbox everyday or in the forums making posts. I also see some of you guys getting your names mentioned, or maybe I see you post a status update. Well, sadly, whenever I look at the Status Updates, which is the only place where it's the same as always, everyone acts as the Community did way back in July 2012. It seems that everyone is friendly in the Status Updates, why you ask? I think it's because people only reply in Status Updates if it's their friend, if they're not your friend, then they most likely ignore the entire thing, which brings me back to the topic itself. There's no such thing as a bad game, only a bad player- I see a bunch of you guys, let it be ANYWHERE on the forums, let that be as it may, but I do see some really ugly creatures out there as well. I'm not talking about Covies either, I'm talking about Insurrectionists. I see a lot of people flaming other members, what has happened, may I ask? You guys were all so well, and so nice to each other a long long time ago. What has happened??? I know that you guys are going to reply saying things like “It's the way I am, deal with it.” or maybe something like “Shut up, you don't mean a damn thing to me.” or there's those of you who say things like “Pffft, why the hell do you care about me? I don't care about you. Now beat it.”. But we all know that deep down on the inside, you have something else going on. Let it be family problems, stress, school, school work, work, bullies, or just something that is bothering you. Don't let that stuff get to you, geez, I mean, we all do hate things like that, Absolute Dog is a real good example at against bullying. Just keep it down, don't let it out on your friends, or any of us. If only it were so easy- This site is a Community, what do we do? We work together and help each other out at the best of our ability. As Mayh3m posted, he sees people redirect them to halo.xbox.com, but I would like to know; why do we do it? If people come here to 343 Industries Community Forums looking for help, then they are here for OUR help, telling them to go to halo.xbox.com is just a waste of our time and their time. How about instead of redirecting them, we do it this way: “These aren't the official forums, but I will try to help you out the best I can, if I can't, maybe another member can.” or something like this “We can try to help you out, what is it that you're having problems with?” But if it's something no one can answer, one person just needs to say “None of us know what your problem is, wish we could help, but you'll have to try Halo Waypoint; you might get lucky and find an answer there. If you don't have the link, I can give it to you if you wish.” Just simple things like that will make it look better for us. - now we all like to troll here and there every once and awhile. I'll admit, even I do. But I think it's time we put the trolling down a tad bit. I mean, if it's during a time when the Shoutbox is quiet, and you guys want to mess around, I mean sure, go ahead lets have some fun. But constant trolling and flaming isn't good for us. Imagine this, there's a 12 year old child with leukemia and all we do is troll him and flame him. Later on, the kid writes a Status Update that day- “I came to this site to get help, I only have two months left before I die of leukemia, and all people on the internet do is bully me and think it's funny. I am crying in tears as I type this, I have my mother holding me and my older sister trying to calm me down, thanks you guys.” Haters gone Hating- Alright, so yes we get it, this is a Halo fan site; but I guess you guys haven't read the section called 'Other Games', so that means we must at LEAST talk about one other game. A really good example of this would be Call of Duty, one of Halo's most competitive games made. I have noticed that some of you guys talk trash about it to other members just to flame them, but truth is, it's not that bad of a game as people say it is. Many of you who talk trash about it have a copy of one of the games anyways! So there's no real point in flaming other members over it, who knows? Maybe one of your best friends on here love that game, but they see you talking trash and then they ease their way out of the friendship, and then turn around to your enemies side. Theater Talk- One of the most popular things that happen in the Shoutbox is Back Seat Moderating let it be accidental or intended. Doesn't matter. If you have noticed, which I bet you have, members get really upset when you back seat moderate, especially the Moderators, it's not your job so maybe it's best we all keep away from it. When someone back seat moderates for breaking a rule, not only do they break that rule, but they do cause a disruption. In order to back seat moderate, they have to break a rule, so you are yelling at them for breaking a rule, whilst breaking it yourself. But we all know, once one member gets upset after this an argument occurs and sides are taken in the fight. Which then causes more trouble for our beloved Moderating Team, so I say we just keep it clean and leave it where it lay. Saying something occasionally like “Hey, I'm being nice about this, but please don't do that, it's actually against the rules, we'd hate to see a member like you leave.” If they get upset, just ignore it, let a Moderator handle it if they see it go out of control. Fun with some keg- Alright my last one, TM did say we don't have much fun anymore, right? Like making threads and having fun with Absolute Dog, Spectral Jester, or Twam. Now how about we get something like that set up again? Get some fun going with the moderators? I mean, the Mods have fun with you, changing your name and that, I even think it's fun when they do do that. Don't complain about it, they'll change it back. But that's not everything, you guys remember in any Halo game when you got an adrenaline rush over something exciting? Well if you are having one of those and so happen to be here, why not let the fun explode right out of you? As long as it's not to critical, doesn't kill someone, or breaks any rules; then give it a go! I mean, everyone loves to get involved, you just don't know it. How to ignore someone: Go to top right corner of the website > pull the drop box down by your name > click Ignore | Preferences > type the name of the person you wish to ignore > add them to ignore list. This is how you ignore someone, but keep in mind, you can still see their shouts and all of that, but just like ignoring someone, you can choose to listen to them. But this is at your very own risk, no one else. How to report someone (via post/topic): Go to their post > on the bottom right of the post it says 'Quote' 'Multiquote' and 'Report' > Click report > submit how the post affects YOU. Also, please don't swear or break any rule, make a simple reason explaining why you reported it so you don't get in trouble as well. How to report someone (General): Go to the users profile > under Latest Visitors will be a button saying 'Report Member' > Once you have clicked it submit explaining what the member has done, it does not display quote for quote what you are submitting about; but you can copy and paste it. I advise you do it the same as if you were reporting via post/topic, that way you don't get in trouble for that either. My Personal Advice: “Watch out for Hammer, Bro.”

Hey everyone. So, I have a friend who needs a Xbox 360. I'm thinking of getting him Halo 4 edition. I heard though, that special edition consoles have many problems/glitches. Now, I want my friend to have the best first Xbox 360 experience ever! So, you guys probably got the idea. I need advice and info.