Forge must NOT be neglected.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

Forge has always been an exciting and highly anticipating feature throughout it’s existence. From it’s start in Halo 3, we’ve seen Forge grow from a simple object editing tool to something that users can spend hours in crafting a perfect map. However, come Halo 4, things took a turn for the worst…

The Good Things…

With Halo 4, new Forge mechanics can offer users the ability to easily/quickly make maps. Players can now duplicate objects instead of being forced to constantly “surf the menus” and players can also use the Magnets to snap objects together. Trait Zones can be used to add dynamic features to a map, and a total of 4 Forge Maps are now offered to the player.

The Flaws…

However, despite Halo 4’s “additions,” it removed MUCH more than it added. The three new Forge Maps offered at launch, despite seeming really promising when they were “advertised,” offer Forgers a whooping uneven terrain, nearly Draconian death boundaries, and enormous (enormous) lag. Even worse, most of the maps have non-editable structures that “could” be functional, but all of them are either rotated at an odd angle, or completely irregular in design.

Not only are the Forge Maps terrible, but so are the Forge Pallets. All of the structure pieces are far too decorated, making them nonfunctional in general. While it is true that Forge World had dull, grey, and depressing objects - they were perfect in shape, and they would fit together seamlessly. To make matters worse, the map specific pallets (such as Impact’s highly anticipated Space-themed pieces) are next to broken. Most, if not, all of them have some slight inconsistency that cripple’s their effectiveness as an object. Try making a Space-Station on Impact and tell me that you “can’t finish the damn thing because of pieces not fitting together.”

Along with broken maps and broken objects, Forge has taken a serious beating when it comes to function in general. Extremely useful mechanics like Editor Zoom and Fine Editing were removed, and the Magnet system, as promising as it is, is broken and inconsistent with the global coordinate plane (did I mention that the only way to make an effective map is to use the Coordinate Plane?) As if it couldn’t get any worse, the way an editor holds an object is relative to it’s size… Meaning that you’re going to have one hell of a time trying to effectively use “Wall Colosseums”

And still, persistent glitches that ruined Halo Reach’s Forge appear to have gotten worse in Halo 4; and now, whenever you exit Editor Mode, you’re stuck in a “Generating Lighting” screen… That’s annoying to deal with in Split-Screen. The map-overwrite glitches that happened when your chose “Save Map” now happens more frequently, and we’re still getting bugged by a global rotation system instead of a more efficient local one.

How to Fix it…

ITT, it is your task to come up with ideas on how we can save Forge in Halo Xbox One. If you want Forge to become a Map-Editor, bring it on! If you want to be able to change the weather on your map, or change the time of day, raise your voice!

If we don’t want Forge to suffer again in Halo Xbox One, then we’re going to have to continue to scream in 343i’s ears. We will NOT be neglected!

Special Thanks to:

#2

COMMUNITY FORGE SUGGESTIONS

In-game Virtual Testing - Andycu5

Destructible/Dynamic Objects - Stubborn Barren

Mapshots - ran and shai

#3

CONFIRMED FEATURES FOR HALO XBOX ONE

#4

I greatly appreciate the time you took to make this thread. I myself love to forge and have come across inconsistent terrain in the aforementioned forge maps upon halo 4 release (Impact, Ravine, Erosion). The forge islands map release was a greater step for forge, using blank canvas per say but as a start and not as a finish. 343 Industries should continually develop forge to ultimately give players the design, creativity and control that the developers of Halo have.

1. Weather and Terrain Control Feature
2. Objects Design and Different Textures
3. Gadgets and Unique Features

1. Weather and Terrain Control Feature

Okay so most forgers have stated, or agreed at one stage, that what forge needs, to improve, is the ability to change the structure of the map. Literally mold the land to how the designer wants it, making every single person map unique and interesting, before even placing an object.

Were talking about ability to raise or decline terrain making hills, cliffs, waterfalls, rivers, streams, trees, rock formations. This would greatly be welcomed by many and all forgers. Having said that 343 Industries, we forgers do thank you for the added feature of trees and rock in the current pallet, letting us know that you are listening to some of the improvements we want. A little extra to add would be once the developer of the map is satisfied with the terrain he should be given the option of the layout or texture of the map, ie sand, snow, grass, forest, swamp, beach etc.

Once the land and structure of the map is molded we would like to add different weather and time elements like rain, hail, snow, sunny, night, cloudy etc. I am sure this could be possible as unique features already exist in the gadgets pallet.

2. Object Design and Different Textures

Once all the base features of the map have been made, the designer would want to create his structures and different bases, buildings and objects.

So creating objects should be much the same as it currently is with pallets, money, number able to use but with the added feature of different textures. So when a forger chooses his piece he can then choose the iteration or design spec of what he wants it too look like. In other words maybe a default base design; UNSC base design; Covenant base design; Forerunner/Promethean base design; and Precursor/Flood base design. This could lead to a unique feel for different base types because with similar shape and structure and then different designs this could make a fundamental difference on the map outlook.

After all that designing has been done perhaps a unique feature for objects depending on the weather and time feature, should be whether the object is brand-new, weathered, rusting, or in ruins; Making a piece have sub pieces.

3. Gadgets and Unique Features

Forge could always use some new added features that make a map interesting, competitive and most important of all, fun.

I would like to discuss perhaps adding switches. An option for teleportation channels exist and we have already seen some interactive elements in multiplayer maps ie. High Ground Door (Halo 3), Zanzibar/Last Resort Large Door (Halo 2/Halo 3). So what if we had switch channels, perhaps an object could be a light bridge with switches either side; or a door that can be open/closed; or a teleporter receiver that could be switched off/on. The possibilities are endless and would guarantee more fun and longevity out of each player created map.

Another added feature could be destructible environment like trees falling down or window objects actually breaking rather than invicible object window pieces.

So these are my thoughts or rather a hopeful wishlist for where forge should and can go in the future of Halo games.

P.S. Perhaps as a reward to the forgers a dlc pack that allows forging around with prototype weaponry and vehicles that didn’t make it into the full game?

#5

I agree with both of you! Great posts!

If only 343 would read this and not turn Halo X1 into -Yoink-. :[

#6

A few nice additions that I had in mind were:

[/li]- Being able to run a virtual Custom Game Test during a Forge Game. A very irritating thing about making a legit Forge map was that you had to jump between lobbies in order to test the map as it would appear in gameplay. While obviously, it would be very demanding on the game’s engine to essentially have to run two games at once, but with the Xbox One’s hardware - it could be possible.

#7

I mostly agree, with the exception that I found Dynamic Lighting to be a really cool addition, I just think the lights should only generate when you save the map because having to stop the gameplay every few seconds when testing things was extremely annoying and co-op was unplayable. The execution was flawed, but the idea is golden.

On topic of what I want to add to Forge… I’ll separate between what has to be included, what could/should be included and ideas that may be just a little bit crazy and/or unlikely.

WHAT HAS YO BE IN HX1 FORGE

  1. Lighting should not generate when we switch between player mode and monitor mode. It should be much less frequent, and players shouldn’t have to suffer from it constantly. Like I already said, combining it with the “Save” button is an option that IMO should be considered.
  2. Fine Editing/Zoom should return. It was an absolutely necessary feature and trying to line things up in Halo 4 is damn near impossible when your camera gets thrust back a thousand meters away from the objects. Simple problem, simple solution,
  3. Maps should be more flexible- more flat playspace but only alongside some shaped, preset terrain like hills/mountains/ravines and the like. Each map should offer enough room to build whichever map you’d like to build.
  4. A bigger budget, and a greater cap on the maximum number of placing a of each specific object.
  5. The Natural objects should be much more varied than vanilla Halo 4. Forge Island was a step in the right direction (trees!).
  6. A despawn timer. Such a simple feature that has the potential for a lot of mind-blowingly genius creations. I think we should have this option.
  7. Most of the custom games and their options from previous games should return. Halo 4 stripped away the game, and no level of forging could possibly bring back that magic. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again- without good Custom Games, Forge is a useless tool. And that’s why Halo 4’s Forge wasn’t a success.

WHAT SHOULD BE IN HX1 FORGE IMO

  1. Object Skins- all of the objects in the game should come with multiple different “skins”- UNSC, Forerunner, Covenant, Stone, Wood, Colonial, Flood, Snow… The possibilities are endless. If these options aren’t available in all maps, each map should have its own pallet at least. I am tired of samey looking maps, that has been the one major aesthetic issue left in Forge now that we have dynamic lighting and it could finally bridge the gap between community maps and real maps. IMO this is a must.
  2. Mapshots- these would be a screenshot of the map taken by the monitor after clicking a specific button that would be automatically set as the map’s in-menu screenshot. No more seeing Forge World in all of your Forge maps. If it couldn’t have been done before for networking reasons, I’m sure the X1’s cloud could help, but then I don’t know :confused:
  3. Custom Objects- entering a specific “glue mode” will allow the player to combine multiple objects into one. This means the mega-object can be moved as one, spinner on their axis and duplicated, which would obviously be very helpful. A combined object can then be saved under a specific tab in the X menu, and can be placed again whenever you like, even on a different map. These custom objects can then be uploaded to your Fileshare for everyone to use. Built an amazing Frigate replica? Fret not, you can use it again and let the whole world use it too. I had this idea since before Reach…
  4. The big no-brainer… Buttons! My twist on it, however, is that each and every object in the game could be able to interact with buttons, in many potential ways. The two basics which all objects would have are spawn and despawn (which are fairly straightforward) but other objects (like weapons, explosives and specifically dynamic objects like the Zanzibar turbine) would have additional options. Weapons would shoot, turrets may even aim and shoot at enemies, explosives would (you guessed it) explode, turbines would spin, doors would open and/or close (there should be an option to allow a second button-press to revert to the previous state). Maybe we could even set a Mantis to become an AI or to give objects specific motion paths to react with buttons. In any case, there should be a lot of fun things here :slight_smile:
  5. Time of day effects (day, night, dawn, twilight, noon and evening would be more than enough). They really help set the mood. Even if it’s just Day/Night, I think this feature could add a lot to Forge.
  6. Weather Effects (clouds, rain, thunderstorm, fog, sandstorm, snow…). Again, this is one of those features that can really help set maps apart from one another.
  7. A new object setting alongside Normal, Fixed and Phased. This would allow the player and the environment to interact with the object- monitors, pallets and glass panes would be breakable, crates would be pushable, walls could topple from explosions, buttons could be activated by getting hit or shot… That kind of thing could be really fun to play with and I would expect many a crazy gametype to sprout out of this.

THE ONE CRAZY AWESOME AND A LITTLE UNLIKELY FEATURE THAT WOULD MAKE HX1 FORGE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING…
Terrain editing. From scratch would be best, but it would also be great otherwise. Look no further than Project Spark for the details!

P.S.
Sadly, I had to break the 7 bulletpoint shenanigans with that last one :frowning:

PPS
I’ll edit the post when I get to a computer, it’s almost a wall of text now and I don’t like that.

#8

> A few nice additions that I had in mind were:
>
> [/li]1. Being able to run a virtual Custom Game Test during a Forge Game. A very irritating thing about making a legit Forge map was that you had to jump between lobbies in order to test the map as it would appear in gameplay. While obviously, it would be very demanding on the game’s engine to essentially have to run two games at once, but with the Xbox One’s hardware - it could be possible.
>
[/quote]
Yes! This is everything I never knew I wanted :’ )

#9

Let’s neglect Theater again.

#10

> Let’s neglect Theater again.

Theater also took a serious beating in Halo 4… It was almost nonfunctional.

Non-solid Objects such as any Shield Door and the Kill Ball would “helpfully” force the camera out when one would try to enter them.

Saved Recorded Films now other allow viewers FULL movement and control when watching it, thus making it impossible to make a legitimate video that someone would actually “watch.”

The effects AA Abilities such as Promethean Vision and Active Camo now obstruct the camera’s view no matter what, even if they are in free-camera. (You won’t be able to hear sound when someone in your film enters camo, and the screen will distort in alien ways when someone in the film enters Promethean Vision.)

The lack of Campaign/Spartan Ops Theater.

Death Messages and other in-game notifications will now show up regardless of what mode you’re in, meaning that your perfectly crafted Screenshot will have “Andycu5 killed you” written on the screen (there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.).

Finding a recent saved game in Theater now requires some serious “Menu Excavation” since there is no temporary history list in the “Select Film” list.

#11

> > Let’s neglect Theater again.
>
> Theater also took a serious beating in Halo 4… It was almost nonfunctional.
>
>
>
>
> Non-solid Objects such as any Shield Door and the Kill Ball would “helpfully” force the camera out when one would try to enter them.
>
> Saved Recorded Films now other allow viewers FULL movement and control when watching it, thus making it impossible to make a legitimate video that someone would actually “watch.”
>
> The effects AA Abilities such as Promethean Vision and Active Camo now obstruct the camera’s view no matter what, even if they are in free-camera. (You won’t be able to hear sound when someone in your film enters camo, and the screen will distort in alien ways when someone in the film enters Promethean Vision.)
>
> The lack of Campaign/Spartan Ops Theater.
>
> Death Messages and other in-game notifications will now show up regardless of what mode you’re in, meaning that your perfectly crafted Screenshot will have “Andycu5 killed you” written on the screen (there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.).
>
> Finding a recent saved game in Theater now requires some serious “Menu Excavation” since there is no temporary history list in the “Select Film” list.
>
>

You forgot to mention the absolute worst part: you can’t film Campaign and Spartan Ops videos in Halo 4.

#12

My biggest problem with Halo 4 forge was the “generating lighting” message. I’m sure that’ll go away with the XBO, though. Good points Andy!

#13

On a side note guys, please try to limit your suggestions to ONE per POST. It makes it one hell of a lot easier for me to add them to the list.

#14

> On a side note guys, please try to limit your suggestions to ONE per POST. It makes it one hell of a lot easier for me to add them to the list.

Oops :confused:

#15

> 1. Weather and Terrain Control Feature
>
> Once the land and structure of the map is molded we would like to add different weather and time elements like rain, hail, snow, sunny, night, cloudy etc. I am sure this could be possible as unique features already exist in the gadgets pallet.

I’ve always wondered if this were implemented, would these “effects” be present in the actual Forging session? I always imagined that some of the more prominent ones (Fog, hail, etc) would be quite distracting to the Forger’s eye.

Perhaps it would help to have these special effects only show up during actual gameplay, and you’d be able to test them with my “Virtual Game” idea.

#16

> > 1. Weather and Terrain Control Feature
> >
> > Once the land and structure of the map is molded we would like to add different weather and time elements like rain, hail, snow, sunny, night, cloudy etc. I am sure this could be possible as unique features already exist in the gadgets pallet.
>
> I’ve always wondered if this were implemented, would these “effects” be present in the actual Forging session? I always imagined that some of the more prominent ones (Fog, hail, etc) would be quite distracting to the Forger’s eye.
>
> Perhaps it would help to have these special effects only show up during actual gameplay, and you’d be able to test them with my “Virtual Game” idea.

It’d sort of be like ordinance would be my guess. You see where the drop is, but it doesn’t actually drop. The same would apply to the wheather settings. You see the settings, but you don’t have to worry about it at the time.

The main problem I can see coming with rain/snow would be Frame Rate lag, which could put some problems into forging. There’s also the problem that they’d have to make sure when rain interacts with a solid forge block that it doesn’t simply pass through it, and thus make things like indoor rainy maps impossible.

#17

> > > 1. Weather and Terrain Control Feature
> > >
> > > Once the land and structure of the map is molded we would like to add different weather and time elements like rain, hail, snow, sunny, night, cloudy etc. I am sure this could be possible as unique features already exist in the gadgets pallet.
> >
> > I’ve always wondered if this were implemented, would these “effects” be present in the actual Forging session? I always imagined that some of the more prominent ones (Fog, hail, etc) would be quite distracting to the Forger’s eye.
> >
> > Perhaps it would help to have these special effects only show up during actual gameplay, and you’d be able to test them with my “Virtual Game” idea.
>
> It’d sort of be like ordinance would be my guess. You see where the drop is, but it doesn’t actually drop. The same would apply to the wheather settings. You see the settings, but you don’t have to worry about it at the time.
>
> The main problem I can see coming with rain/snow would be Frame Rate lag, which could put some problems into forging. <mark>There’s also the problem that they’d have to make sure when rain interacts with a solid forge block that it doesn’t simply pass through it, and thus make things like indoor rainy maps impossible.</mark>

That’s another thing to take in account; and with the weather effects in general, would the player be able to set the dimensions for them, or would they encompass the entire map like how the Special Effects currently do?

A potential fix that could prevent the rain from just passing through objects would to implement a new kind of collision model on each object that signifies that particles (rain, mist, etc) cannot pass through it.

#18

> > 1. Weather and Terrain Control Feature
> >
> > Once the land and structure of the map is molded we would like to add different weather and time elements like rain, hail, snow, sunny, night, cloudy etc. I am sure this could be possible as unique features already exist in the gadgets pallet.
>
> I’ve always wondered if this were implemented, would these “effects” be present in the actual Forging session? I always imagined that some of the more prominent ones (Fog, hail, etc) would be quite distracting to the Forger’s eye.
>
> Perhaps it would help to have these special effects only show up during actual gameplay, and you’d be able to test them with my “Virtual Game” idea.

You could always just activate the effect when you’re done building your map.

#19

Another good idea for Forge:

Dynamic Switches and Traps

Imagine being able to have a jet of fire shoot out of a wall when a hapless player makes the unfortunate decision to walk by. Imagine being able to have scripted events in your map that would include an industrial-sized piston smashing the floor every 10-15 seconds. Imagine being able to have the gravity in a certain area of your map randomly shut off.

That’s the power of traps and switches, being able to turn a once static map into a battlefield that sings songs of tactical advantages gained from dynamic features.

There are several kinds of traps and switches. Basically, you would take a “marker” object that would come in the form of a sci-fied pressure-plate/tripwire, an pressable button, or the traditional “shoot me” button (think of Vertigo). After placing the marker, you could now link the marker to another object that would spawn/activate when the player interacts with the marker.

An example would be to have a damaging laser-grid activate around the door to a base when the player presses a button. You would place a “Button Marker” and link it to the laser grid object with a “parent-child” reference. This would add a strategic way for players to defend their base in your map.

Another example would to have the floor collapse beneath the player after they “accidentally” stepped on a pressure-plate. You would take the “Pressure Plate Marker” and link it to the object that should collapse (we’ll use a Bridge-Small). When the player steps on the pressure plate, the Bridge-Small will instantly despawn, leaving pieces of it falling to the ground.

Of course, with traps already explained, you can also have random events take place. You could take a Fusion Core and make it “explode every 12-16 seconds.”

Also, you could make a Gravity Volume activate randomly, adding an unpredictable effect to your map that will keep players on the edge of their controllers.

#20

All of the above. It would be cool to have AI play on the map. And have the AI like Forza 5’s “Drivatar”. Study Player patterns, and See how they react. Also Fine editing, and Since it’s gonna be pretty big with xbox one let’s be ablt to select pieces via smartglass. Less time trying to locate that right piece, and less time to make maps. And in the pysic menu, let there be an Item durability option. Either Indestructible, strong( Regular weapons can make bullet holes, and power weapons like rockets can make huge holes, and eventually after like let’s say 8 shots, can be destroyed.) and weak where about two to three clips of an AR can obliterate it. Also, I want a Glass object to added in.