Edited by Moderator - Please do not discuss modding or hacking on Xbox.
*Original post, click at your own discretion.
So Halo needs a new revolutionary game mode like how Halo 3 added Forge and Theater. An idea would be to allow for a type of Forge to craft custom A.I. battles and community made “campaign missions.”
Here’s a modded, primitive example from Halo 3: [Link Removed by Monitor]
A player could have a set number of pallets or maps to forge on and create custom buildings, natural and artificial structures and objects, and general forge items. The player could program the A.I., both friendly and enemy, to do specific things or even go “on the rails.” The A.I. could be directed to go certain directions, guard areas, and even objectives like capture this or guard that could be made.
Custom maps would be shared with the community and easy to download like in Halo:Reach with its normal forge maps.
I would much rather take an A.I. forge system over Spartan Ops 2.0 or Firefight 3.0
This isn’t a bad idea. I dunno how well it would work in a straight forge map, but i can see this as a firefight-esque multiplayer mode. Maybe akin to invasion.
Now, given the customization of reach’s firefight i thought a spartan ops redux should bring that level of control to players.
Let us design mini campaigns with terminal access for story and so on.
I had the same idea a month back, and only two people commented… :’(
Oh well. Here it is, I guess, sense it contributes to the discussion!
> Howdy Waypointers! I’ve had this idea in my head for a while (and maybe you have too), but I was thinking… wouldn’t it be cool if you could Forge not only other gametypes and maps, but actually create your own Covenant or Promethean battlefield for other Spartans to tackle?
>
> You could select the foes from their class to their weaponry, put spawns in for everything from ordnance to drop pods, to heck, maybe even Scarabs! From Covies to Prometheans, it would be like creating your own Firefight or Spartan Ops mission.
>
> Select an objective for others to try and complete, such as active this, reach here, defend this, or simply fight your way to the end of the map or an extraction LZ.
>
> Select what others spawn with, right down to the ammo count (the ammo count however, wouldn’t exceed what the max ammo count on the weapon would be). Maybe even spawn them in with nothing, to try and melee for their weaponry, or encourage stealth. Who knows!
>
> If we also get the features like weather and terrain altering… we could make our own missions look pretty professional!
>
> So what do you guys think? Yay? Nay? Any ideas for this sort of mode? Please leave all the feedback you can think of!
> I had the same idea a month back, and only two people commented… :’(
>
> Oh well. Here it is, I guess, sense it contributes to the discussion!
>
>
>
> > Howdy Waypointers! I’ve had this idea in my head for a while (and maybe you have too), but I was thinking… wouldn’t it be cool if you could Forge not only other gametypes and maps, but actually create your own Covenant or Promethean battlefield for other Spartans to tackle?
> >
> > You could select the foes from their class to their weaponry, put spawns in for everything from ordnance to drop pods, to heck, maybe even Scarabs! From Covies to Prometheans, it would be like creating your own Firefight or Spartan Ops mission.
> >
> > Select an objective for others to try and complete, such as active this, reach here, defend this, or simply fight your way to the end of the map or an extraction LZ.
> >
> > Select what others spawn with, right down to the ammo count (the ammo count however, wouldn’t exceed what the max ammo count on the weapon would be). Maybe even spawn them in with nothing, to try and melee for their weaponry, or encourage stealth. Who knows!
> >
> > If we also get the features like weather and terrain altering… we could make our own missions look pretty professional!
> >
> > So what do you guys think? Yay? Nay? Any ideas for this sort of mode? Please leave all the feedback you can think of!
Wow you said it better than I did, that would be pretty amazing. No offense to the developers but the community kicks butt on creativity and smart design so the community could have a field day with all those choices.
If AI’s could magically function on a user-created map with just the snap of the fingers, I’d be all for this.
That’s not the case though.
In order for AI to actually detect the environment that they’re in, the map’s geometry is coated in navigation meshes that mark where it can and cannot walk, where it’s preferred paths are, and where it will generally avoid walking. Like all meshes, navigation meshes are composed of faces and verticies that often cannot be generated and will require manual placement.
This is a royal pain in the -Yoink-.
Imagine having to go to a city and coat it in ductape. That the general gist of nav-meshes — coat your map in small triangles — vertex by vertex — so that the AI isn’t walking into walls or off the edges and so that the AI knows what specific routes it should take in combat.
This takes forever…
…With a mouse and keyboard.
Imagine having to do that with a console controller. Imagine seething in rage as your attempts to place a vertex at the exact right location with the unpreditable motion of a joystick result in misplacement after misplacement.
It’s just not worth it in the end. 343i would have to devise a way for the player to be able to create nav-meshes with a console controller without jumping into kill balls from frustration, and they’d also be slurping a huge portion of resources into creating said ability that IMO would be better used in different areas of the game.
Thats all fine for forged levels. But the standard on disk maps- both campaign, spartan ops, and the multiplayer- could be equipped to allow the player created content discussed. Be they bots or campaign AI enemies.
> If AI’s could magically function on a user-created map with just the snap of the fingers, I’d be all for this.
>
> That’s not the case though.
>
> In order for AI to actually detect the environment that they’re in, the map’s geometry is coated in navigation meshes that mark where it can and cannot walk, where it’s preferred paths are, and where it will generally avoid walking. Like all meshes, navigation meshes are composed of faces and verticies that often cannot be generated and will require manual placement.
>
> This is a royal pain in the -Yoink!-.
>
> Imagine having to go to a city and coat it in ductape. That the general gist of nav-meshes — coat your map in small triangles — vertex by vertex — so that the AI isn’t walking into walls or off the edges and so that the AI knows what specific routes it should take in combat.
>
> This takes forever…
>
> …With a mouse and keyboard.
>
> Imagine having to do that with a console controller. Imagine seething in rage as your attempts to place a vertex at the exact right location with the unpreditable motion of a joystick result in misplacement after misplacement.
>
> It’s just not worth it in the end. 343i would have to devise a way for the player to be able to create nav-meshes with a console controller without jumping into kill balls from frustration, and they’d also be slurping a huge portion of resources into creating said ability that IMO would be better used in different areas of the game.
> > If AI’s could magically function on a user-created map with just the snap of the fingers, I’d be all for this.
> >
> > That’s not the case though.
> >
> > In order for AI to actually detect the environment that they’re in, the map’s geometry is coated in navigation meshes that mark where it can and cannot walk, where it’s preferred paths are, and where it will generally avoid walking. Like all meshes, navigation meshes are composed of faces and verticies that often cannot be generated and will require manual placement.
> >
> > This is a royal pain in the -Yoink!-.
> >
> > Imagine having to go to a city and coat it in ductape. That the general gist of nav-meshes — coat your map in small triangles — vertex by vertex — so that the AI isn’t walking into walls or off the edges and so that the AI knows what specific routes it should take in combat.
> >
> > This takes forever…
> >
> > …With a mouse and keyboard.
> >
> > Imagine having to do that with a console controller. Imagine seething in rage as your attempts to place a vertex at the exact right location with the unpreditable motion of a joystick result in misplacement after misplacement.
> >
> > It’s just not worth it in the end. 343i would have to devise a way for the player to be able to create nav-meshes with a console controller without jumping into kill balls from frustration, and they’d also be slurping a huge portion of resources into creating said ability that IMO would be better used in different areas of the game.
>
> They did it on Timesplitters 2. In 2002.
I’ve spent a lot of time in time splitters 2. Especially in it’s map editor. If you brought up that game you should damn well know why it worked and why it doesnt in Halo. We aren’t taking pre-made portions of scripted geometry with ai pathing overlays built into each piece. You couldn’t just forge those pieces into each other all willy nilly and spawn a ton of random objects to mess with the AI pathing.
> > > If AI’s could magically function on a user-created map with just the snap of the fingers, I’d be all for this.
> > >
> > > That’s not the case though.
> > >
> > > In order for AI to actually detect the environment that they’re in, the map’s geometry is coated in navigation meshes that mark where it can and cannot walk, where it’s preferred paths are, and where it will generally avoid walking. Like all meshes, navigation meshes are composed of faces and verticies that often cannot be generated and will require manual placement.
> > >
> > > This is a royal pain in the -Yoink!-.
> > >
> > > Imagine having to go to a city and coat it in ductape. That the general gist of nav-meshes — coat your map in small triangles — vertex by vertex — so that the AI isn’t walking into walls or off the edges and so that the AI knows what specific routes it should take in combat.
> > >
> > > This takes forever…
> > >
> > > …With a mouse and keyboard.
> > >
> > > Imagine having to do that with a console controller. Imagine seething in rage as your attempts to place a vertex at the exact right location with the unpreditable motion of a joystick result in misplacement after misplacement.
> > >
> > > It’s just not worth it in the end. 343i would have to devise a way for the player to be able to create nav-meshes with a console controller without jumping into kill balls from frustration, and they’d also be slurping a huge portion of resources into creating said ability that IMO would be better used in different areas of the game.
> >
> > They did it on Timesplitters 2. In 2002.
>
> I’ve spent a lot of time in time splitters 2. Especially in it’s map editor. If you brought up that game you should damn well know why it worked and why it doesnt in Halo. We aren’t taking pre-made portions of scripted geometry with ai pathing overlays built into each piece. You couldn’t just forge those pieces into each other all willy nilly and spawn a ton of random objects to mess with the AI pathing.
As many people said, there are still the developer made maps that could house this potential, I mean hell, that’s basically what half of Spartan Ops was. Just because it may not work in Forge maps doesn’t mean it shouldn’t or couldn’t be done elsewhere.
> > > If AI’s could magically function on a user-created map with just the snap of the fingers, I’d be all for this.
> > >
> > > That’s not the case though.
> > >
> > > In order for AI to actually detect the environment that they’re in, the map’s geometry is coated in navigation meshes that mark where it can and cannot walk, where it’s preferred paths are, and where it will generally avoid walking. Like all meshes, navigation meshes are composed of faces and verticies that often cannot be generated and will require manual placement.
> > >
> > > This is a royal pain in the -Yoink!-.
> > >
> > > Imagine having to go to a city and coat it in ductape. That the general gist of nav-meshes — coat your map in small triangles — vertex by vertex — so that the AI isn’t walking into walls or off the edges and so that the AI knows what specific routes it should take in combat.
> > >
> > > This takes forever…
> > >
> > > …With a mouse and keyboard.
> > >
> > > Imagine having to do that with a console controller. Imagine seething in rage as your attempts to place a vertex at the exact right location with the unpreditable motion of a joystick result in misplacement after misplacement.
> > >
> > > It’s just not worth it in the end. 343i would have to devise a way for the player to be able to create nav-meshes with a console controller without jumping into kill balls from frustration, and they’d also be slurping a huge portion of resources into creating said ability that IMO would be better used in different areas of the game.
> >
> > They did it on Timesplitters 2. In 2002.
>
> I’ve spent a lot of time in time splitters 2. Especially in it’s map editor. If you brought up that game you should damn well know why it worked and why it doesnt in Halo. We aren’t taking pre-made portions of scripted geometry with ai pathing overlays built into each piece. You couldn’t just forge those pieces into each other all willy nilly and spawn a ton of random objects to mess with the AI pathing.
Faaaaaaar Cryyyy 3
The AI were pretty damn good in that map editor. I’m no expert on how different game engines work, but if they could do it in 2013, it can most likely be done in 2015 for Halo.
There’s a game out in Alpha call “Space Engineers.” A recent update to this game allows for designating anyone or anything as an “enemy”. This means IFF on your HUD will show them as red, your automated defenses will attack them, and they will automatically attack you. Currently the only NPC’s are random ships, but I imagine human NPCs are forthcoming.
Since the game is in Alpha it’s a sure bet more tweaks are coming, but seeing as how it got into the game early, and there are only five people in the development team, it doesn’t appear to be a hard thing to do.
