As a very experienced map maker for various games (including Portal, Half Life, Call of Duty, Minecraft, and of course Halo), I spend a lot of time in Forge because I enjoy the feel it has for testing, designing, and building maps, and I most CERTAINLY need to see its return in Halo 5 (a deal breaker for me if its absent). I do however have quite a few things that I hope to see added/changed in Halo 5’s version:
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On release I want there to be (at least) three canvases on which to forge, all of similar size (about the size of the valley from Forge World in Reach). However, I’d like these canvases to be themed differently, such as each being foresty, snowy, deserty, etc. Halo 2 Anniversary took a step in the right direction with blank skyboxes as options, but personally I enjoy also having pre-made terrain that won’t eat into my budget (or, as its been changed, performance bar).
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More dynamic map elements such as the Garage Door from Halo 2 Anniversary. This is one thing that I believe 343i has done well with for Halo is the introduction of these elements to forge, however there is a stunning lack of diversity for them at the moment, and the potential for them in nearly entirely untapped.
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BRING BACK PRECISE EDITING! A feature missing from Halo 4 which should never have left IMO, and needs to be brought back. We were happy to see it return for MCC, I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have it in Halo 5.
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Tying in with bringing back precise editing, I’d like to see more precise co-ordinate mapping. By this I mean that most pieces in forge use the co-ordinate from the center of their mass, which can make it much more difficult when trying to use solely co-ordinates to get an exact fit. This could be improved by having there be mapping points at, for example, the four corners of an object as well, and then allowing the player to select which point they want to use, similar to the way that rotation selection is done. Whilst this has been improved on from Halo 4 to MCC, it still is a bit buggy and has a lot of room for improvement.
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The extension of the “Scenery” palette to include things such as destroyed vehicles, flaming barrels, benches, tables, etc. (potentially dead bodies for Flood maps). Similarly, it would be nice to see the addition of having basic scripting for vehicles to enable banshees to across the map without the use of many gravity volumes, or have a Scorpion fire off a round every so often without the use of timers and explosion volumes. I enjoy aesthetics in my maps as well as gameplay and currently it is very difficult to create such things without wasting massive amounts of pieces and jeopardizing your map’s framerate.
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The ability to adjust with precision the strength, trajectory, and landing location when setting up gravity lifts and man cannons. If not this, then at least a projected landing symbol so repeated testing is not needed to determine if you’ve placed the object successfully.
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The ability to permanently LOCK a map so that when you publish it to your fileshare, you can choose whether you want players to be able to download and modify your work or not. Too often I would run across maps which were just slightly modified versions of another player’s map being passed off as their own work, less so in Halo 4 because of the hit the custom gaming community took due to the issues, but certainly had it occur many times in Reach.
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The ability to have texture preference over “Z/fighting” (the term given to when two textures occupy the same object space and glitch out, flashing between each). This would help up map quality immensely just by having a simple “bring texture to front” option. I cannot stress this enough as there have been many times I would have to fiddle for literally an hour to get the textures to line up appropriately and not interfere with gameplay by physically moving the item out of place.
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As has been mentioned in many other posts, I too would like to see the addition of atmospheric characteristics (be it weather, lighting, etc.) One recent post put forth the idea of having these elements be tied to balls as the various filters are. [credit: SlashedTortoise ]
These are just my personal desires for the upcoming game’s forge, but if you have any comments or concerns, I’d be glad to hear them
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> In full agreement except for the map-locking feature. Forge is supposed to be an open pool of creativity, and a lot of neat stuff bubbles to the top by way of indirect collaboration. It’d be better if separate credits existed for Creators and Editors. Locking maps will negatively impact creativity in the long run.
I can see your point, however I still feel it would be nice that after spending what is quite often weeks or more of work on a map there should be some way to stop players from downloading it, changing one or two things and then claiming it as their own work. The only conclusion I saw for this was to add a lock feature, but I’m well open to suggestions 
Terrain editing needed! This and a texture painter would be amazing! All I want is farcry editor in halo.
> 2533274803562826;4:
> Terrain editing needed! This and a texture painter would be amazing! All I want is farcry editor in halo.
Personally, I would love if they gave us the ability to access an editor like Valve’s Hammer for Halo with an access code from the disc so that we could make really amazing maps on our computers then download them from fileshare but I think that would be asking too much xD
I love the new circular pieces, and the overall esthetics that we’ve seen so far. I can imagine the final version will look much better than it currently does.
A few things I want:
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Object Group****ing / Multi-Select: Allow us to select several objects at once and save them as a single piece for use in other maps, as well as adding them to your file share.- Improved Gravity Volumes: Gravity Volumes existed in Halo 4, but they were very limited. I want these to have a magnitude and direction, instead of just a direction.- Undo Button- More Physics Options: Including icy surfaces (just like CE’s Sidewinder), destructible pieces, etc.- More Interactivity: Switches to open/close doors and windows, activate light bridges etc.- Liquid Blocks: Instead of just having solid blocks, I want to be able to place water, lava, acid, etc.
Would be awesome to have something to change wat time of the day it is… and to put in like weather to!!!
> 2533274833164531;6:
> I love the new circular pieces, and the overall esthetics that we’ve seen so far. I can imagine the final version will look much better than it currently does.
>
> A few things I want:
>
> - Object Group****ing / Multi-Select: Allow us to select several objects at once and save them as a single piece for use in other maps, as well as adding them to your file share.
> - Improved Gravity Volumes: Gravity Volumes existed in Halo 4, but they were very limited. I want these to have a magnitude and direction, instead of just a direction.
> - Undo Button
> - More Physics Options: Including icy surfaces (just like CE’s Sidewinder), destructible pieces, etc.
> - More Interactivity: Switches to open/close doors and windows, activate light bridges etc.
> - Liquid Blocks: Instead of just having solid blocks, I want to be able to place water, lava, acid, etc.
Object Grouping is something we’ve been asking for for a while with no headway. I hope it makes an appearance but because of the limitations of controls I’d be surprised to see it. Perhaps an option to bind a select function to a bumber or button, that when held you could then select multiple pieces?
Gravity Volumes have always been a weak point for me in Halo 4 but I found myself making use of them in MCC, who knows, hopefully they’ll continue to be improved!
Hell yes, Undo Button would be SO amazing.
Agree with the physics thing entirely!
Interactivity has been increased, but could definitely be better!
I think a good counter to the liquid blocks idea would be to have pieces of terrain with preset rivers and lakes etc to manipulate rather than full blocks
> 2533274803562826;4:
> Terrain editing needed! This and a texture painter would be amazing! All I want is farcry editor in halo.
No. This is not how forge would or should work. It originally started out as a map editor to change weapon locations and settings, but since then it is just a way to edit canvases that have been given to use in creative ways. Halo wouldn’t work with a FarCry style editing system because of the way Halo works.
I also know a lot of people what covenant pieces or scenery, but that is difficult in forge because of the way covenant architecture is rounded it will not be able to blend with any piece like the current pieces do.
Also I don’t think weather would work, because there isn’t weather on any Halo map to date, and it would just strain an already strained system especially after a map has been fully built, and will likely be on the border of playing smoothly. Also to be honest I think that would affect gameplay a little bit as well.
> 2533274836815839;9:
> > 2533274803562826;4:
> > Terrain editing needed! This and a texture painter would be amazing! All I want is farcry editor in halo.
>
>
> No. This is not how forge would or should work. It originally started out as a map editor to change weapon locations and settings, but since then it is just a way to edit canvases that have been given to use in creative ways. Halo wouldn’t work with a FarCry style editing system because of the way Halo works.
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> I also know a lot of people what covenant pieces or scenery, but that is difficult in forge because of the way covenant architecture is rounded it will not be able to blend with any piece like the current pieces do.
>
> Also I don’t think weather would work, because there isn’t weather on any Halo map to date, and it would just strain an already strained system especially after a map has been fully built, and will likely be on the border of playing smoothly. Also to be honest I think that would affect gameplay a little bit as well.
I hear you with your concerns about different types of editors between Forge and FarCry, and I do have to say I agree.
I would disagree about the covenant pieces comment however. Whilst maps like Midship exemplify curves and the like, in Campaign levels we’ve been exposed to pieces of covenant architecture which could easily be pieces. Hell, even if the curves are harder for some to use, I would love them to exist for those of use that are willing to go the extra mile to use them effectively.
Weather shouldn’t be a strain any more than the lighting filters we already have had for years, but even if they are it shouldn’t be too bad thanks to ‘Next-Gen’ scoffs. In all seriousness though, basic things like rain/snow/ash wouldn’t strain terribly if implemented properly.