I apologize in advance for the long post.
Here is what I personally want changed in Forge for Halo 4 (some of these things have already been said, and I am just explaining in greater detail; figure someone is more likely to listen if a solid case can be made):
- Fix the rotation so that rotations are stable (ie, no more unwanted rotation shifts), and so that objects are easier to rotate without going askew (annoying how 90 degrees on the pitch seems to cause the engine to essentially confuse yaw and roll). Should also fix rotation snaps so that they donât do weird, unexpected things (no reason for something already snapped to 90 degrees to suddenly rotate another 90 degrees when itâs grabbed). For that matter, I personally think that rotation snaps should only take effect if/when you actually try to rotate the object, and not just because you grabbed it, and it would be nice if you could somehow have only certain rotation values snap & not others (so that you could take something with a rotation of say 90, 27, 12 & rotate the pitch by another 90 without affecting the other two).
2)Fix the file save system, so that you never, ever have a map get saved over another random file. I recently had a friend lose a map to this. Thankfully he had an older, unfinished version, but he still lost quite a few hours of hard work. Also, Iâve noticed that you pretty much have to select a map from the file menu each time you want to open it for editing, even if it was the last map you edited, because often it will load up an older version of that map from the cache, prior to the last save. Would be nice if that wasnât a concern either.
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An undo (accessible through the start menu, maybe?), hopefully with some sort of back history (although even an undo without a back history would be a major improvement).
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More precision for nudging, using perhaps a âprecision snapâ system where you can choose how many decimal points you want for coordinate accuracy, as well as a toggle for slow hand-nudging (itâs awkward to hold the left stick down while nudging; would rather click it to toggle). There should also be more compatibility between free-hand and coordinate, so that a free-hand nudge isnât completely destroyed by going into the coordinate menu. This is all the more important for free-hand height nudging, since the bumpers arenât pressure sensitive like the thumb sticks (even with holding down the left stick, the bumpers are still too inaccurate.).
5)The ability to temporarily lock specific objects from editing. For instance, this would make it easier to forge inside a structure without worrying about accidentally moving or deleting the floor instead of the weapon. Locked objects should still allow read-only access to the coordinate menu, so that you can check the coordinates (like if you wanted to copy or mirror the rotation and/or position) without worrying about accidentally moving it, it or snapping the rotation, or undoing a hand-nudge. The ability to lock down specific position and/or rotation values apart from the others would also be nice, so that for instance you could do free-hand nudging that would be guaranteed to only affect what you want it to (eg, so that you could free-hand nudge up or down without worrying about errors creeping into your carefully placed width and depth).
6)Group select, so that a group of objects can be moved/manipulated all together (remaining in the exact same positions/rotations relative to each other)
7)Copy and paste (should only allow if the source & destination map were both created by the player, to discourage using it for map stealing)
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More variation in Forge objects, both in size/shape & texture. Would be nice to have more possible textures to choose from, other than all gray
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More standardization in size/shape, mainly in how âflatâ is defined from object to object. I personally find it annoying how a 2x2 flat is so much thicker than a 5x5 flat; IMO, this makes them incompatible for many applications.
10)Lower framerate issues by giving forgers more control over getting rid of z-fighting, as well as control over lights & glass (IMO, glass should only be there if itâs the point of the object, like a window or glass cover or something). Perhaps lights could be toggled for each object, so that they would still be there if wanted. Hopefully, we will be able to get more objects on the screen without having lag. And I really hope they get rid of the disco glitch; I personally find it a lot more obnoxious than just plan lag. Basically, they need to give forgers more tools for optimizing performance on their maps
11)Some sort of find & highlight feature. Some objects can be a major pain to find once placed, either due to being obscured by another object, or due to being very small. This is especially a problem with things like killzones (you have to be right on top of them before theyâre visible). Itâs also a major problem when you need to empty out a map that doesnât come pre-emptied, where you have to track down every little weapon scattered around (a problem with any map other than Forgeworld, although for such instances, it would be nice to have a simple âclear out mapâ function). Combined with this, it should be possible to somehow grab an object that is embedded inside another object (where normally you would have to either move or delete something to get at it). On a similar note, it would also be nice if you could somehow view more than one boundary shape at a time. This would make it a LOT easier to coordinate various safe/kill boundaries.
12)Less open space required for the monitor to manipulate an object (or at least some way for the game to lower the space requirements based on what is actually available nearby). This would make forging in tight spaces easier, so that you donât have to worry so much about getting bumped around, or worse, having the screen shake violently when you get stuck in a tight spot. Similar to that, I personally hope we get more control over where we can be looking/focusing on while rotating an object. Sometimes, while rotating something large like say, a coliseum wall, I would like to be able to focus on one particular edge, so that I can match that edge the edge of some other object. The way itâs currently setup, Iâm forced to view the wall as a whole, and itâs hard to see what how close the edge is getting to where I want it. This sometimes forces me to stop rotating, fly over to the edge to see if it looks right, rotate a little more, check again, etc.
- Some way to view the total number of objects on your map, as well as how many of a specific item you have on the map. Currently, you can keep track of how many objects from a certain category you have on the map, but sometimes it would be helpful to know how many of a specific object youâve used.
