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Lights:
More color choices in lights or at least be able to place more than 4 down (8 perhaps). Not only that but the lights themselves need improved aura given off. Besides just the aura being improved, how about having the light bulbs be invisible during game but still giving off its aura, just like the FX orb disappears in game but still has the FX appear. Also maybe have an adv.option to increase/decrease intensity of a given light, or one to turn on/ turn off the light either by using light switches or by stepping in a given radius of light. Also maybe implementing some laser lights that will move back and forth (or dormant) that once crossed could activate traps such as explosions, flames, or cause doors to shut. -
Civilian Decor:
Ability to place down dead bodies for increased map ambience. There will be different positions such as; lying down; sitting up against the wall, or even torn apart. Why not have some ammo boxes and health packs like in past halos (even if we can’t use them), suitcases, forklifts/civilian cars. Remember, humans aren’t the only species in the universe so don’t forget about Covenant, Forrunner, Brute, Flood, and other new species that are in the new game as well. -
Increased Armor/Weapon Texture:
An additional armor/weapon texture that interacts with lighting appropriately such as actually having a darker spartan in dark areas and vise-versa for lighter areas… especially weapon). Nothings more annoying than trying to hid in a dark corner or bush and you and you’re weapon are super effin bright O_o… Additional to the new texture your armor will now show dirt, mud, water, blood, plasma etc. whenever the given condition occurs. -
Lighting:
Effin fix Dynamic lighting to where the FX actually work correctly (Juicy is fine; Nextgen makes things look too metallically; Nova is too effin bright; Pen&ink is pointless, and Old Timey… well, it’s old
haha). Sun flare needs to just be removed or lessened it’s a cool concept and all but extremely annoying especially when you’re not even looking at the sun and your screen is all blurry and it screws up the colors and lighting of a given area. Personally I thought the colors of Halo Anniversary maps were perfect. -
New FX Additions:
I think having the ability to add weather FX such as Raining, lightning, fog, snow, sandstorm, Storming (combining rain& lightning), etc would be awesome. In addition having an adv. option to increase/decrease intensity of each either by just placing more/less down or in extra options. It would be nice if you could set more FX down as well this way you could set your map to start raining 5 min in, then start storming at 10, then snow at 15… and then stop at 20 where fog will roll in or switch from night to day. There would be endless possibilities. -
Object Reflection:
It would be amazing if you could have asymmetrical objects be reflected upon its axis such as the staircase(most asymmetrical pieces are platforms/buildings). If you place two staircases down there’s no way to have them reflect each other making it impossible to use in a symmetrical creation. Picture having the staircase reflect upon its access where the top platforms touch and the stairs split out opposite of each other enabling more creative map layout/pathways… It would be pretty sweet. -
Block Pieces:
There needs to be more unique “building block” pieces such as the pieces in sandbox on Halo 3. They were more unique (the pyramidal pieces were my favorite). I miss the edge/corner pieces, tunnel/tube pieces, unique columns, arcs, platforms, etc. Having access to more unique building block pieces we would be able to create better decorative/creative maps. Hopefully they can implement more of more unique block pieces/platforms/buildings for all the maps in a addition to the much needed unique map pieces. -
Forge Pallet Textures:
There needs to be an adv. option for texture pallets for forge pieces which is an option to change blocks/buildings etc from concrete to sandstone or vise-versa. (other ex; concrete, sandstone, Forrunner, futuristic, ancient architecture pieces, jungle pieces…etc). This would just change the appearance but would allow you to help distinguish the different areas/bases easier. Think how awesome it would be to have a sandstone/mountainous base and a jungle base as its counterpart? -
Forge Map with Different Pallet Themes:
Think of a forge map that you can choose a different theme (sub-map category) depending on what feel you want on your map. Picture this, you have a nice blank map with different islands/mountains/areas sort of like in forge world. Now let’s call the basic map Vunderin which happens to be an all natural theme with traditional walls/buildings/blocks so you would just chose Vunderine. This time around you want a desert looking map so you choose Vunderin-Desert (which is a sub-category under Vunderin) and now the maps theme changes from a natural look to a desert looking map which changes all the pieces to a sandstone/adobe look. NOW you want a snowy icy map so you choos Vunderin-Icecaps (again as a subcategory under main map vunderin) and now the map is snowy/Icy with snowy/Icy/glacier pieces. Some other examples could be jungle, spacey, ancient architecture, Forrunner, concrete, etc… you get the idea. Also maybe a choice for night or daytime map. -
Disappearing or Moving Pieces:
Okay so there’s already the option to have pieces appear at whatever time you set it too, but what about the setting to have it disappear? It be awesome if you can set pieces to disappear just as you could have it appear. It would also be pretty awesome if you could set a pathway for a piece to slide or twist/rotate after a given time (also set speed). -
More Wood/Glass:
There needs to be more wood/glass walls, doors, walkways, crates, etc, with an adv. option to be destructible. With the destructible wood/normal walls it would blow a hole in it big enough to fit adding a secret doorway to your map or, even better, a hidden weapon room :D. With the destructible glass it would shatter leaving glass behind (I’m tired of having glass not breakable… or even able to shoot through O_o). -
Opining/Closing Doors:
Building doors in general or a specific door that will open/close. There would be an adv. option to set doors on a building/door to open/ close when in a given radius or maybe by pushing the “open door” button. It would also be nice to set a door to either stay open or stay closed (you may want the building there but don’t want players to enter or exit).
-
Structure, Building, and Block Lights:
The lights on buildings/structures/blocks need actually give off an aura rather than just to distinguish each base/area (well…if there’s a light on the piece and not just a line O_o… sigh). It would be pretty awesome to walk down a dark tunnel that has blue lights that light up the path.
Apart from that maybe have some of these lights (or pieces to our disposal) be destructible. For example maybe half of the lights on a given piece will shatter if you shoot it or if a grenade/rocket blows it up making the given area a bit darker making the ambience better even further. -
MORE VEHICLES!!:
NEEED MOOOOORE VEHICLES…especially FLYING(not enough air battles)… and not just for use but to have as some crashed/explosive decor. I loved putting crashed falcons in trees in halo anniversary… well tried too anyways (I had to secure them with sandbags so no one could flip them and use them for their demise. O_o… but it was still AWESOME!! -
Weapon Holders:
It would be nice to have actual weapon holders that we can actually use correctly. For ex: a UNSC weapon rack/shelf that you can select which weapons will spawn/re-spawn. You would select the weapons that spawn just as you do on weapon drops in Halo 4. Also have customized ones for Covenant, Forrunner, Brute, Flood, or any other new enemies that come to play. Not just weapons could be placed in the holders; can’t forget about ammo boxes. If ammo was available it would actually show the ammo boxes. It would look sweet and would also save time/resources rather than having to place weapons everywhere or trying to make a custom weapon racks and such. Also have different size weapon racks. For ex; a small one that holds 2 weapons/ammo (for side base or crashed pelican decor)and a larger one(for main bases) that could hold up to 4. -
Bigger and Better:
Being a next gen console and is powerful enough to handle amazing capabilities, how about having the chance to put down …hmmm, let’s say… umm ALL the items we have to our disposal… or at least 4x as many as in halo 4: with 8 Gb of RAM and the awesome AMD processor… it can handle it. Also maybe a bigger scaled battle perhaps? Maybe 32 players (16v16,or 4 teams of 8, or 8 teams of 4… OOORRRRR stick to the norm 16 players but add in 16 AI’s (Covey, Flood, Brute, Forrunner, etc. to make it seem like a massive war going on). Maybe just have a select playlist/maps for it would be amazing (also having the capability to forge this game type as well. Personally, I would like to see more multi team games in general but with the capability of bigger/better maps you can have 4 bases/4 flags easily with even more on the side. Remember Invasion from Halo Reach? Well picture a huge scale invasion map, either all players or players mixed with some AI. Also picture not just being UNSC vs. Covies, but picture UNSC players or AI; Covie players or AI; Forrunner players/AI; Brute players/AI; Flood players/AI !!! Now picture all on the same map frantically fighting to recover an ancient artifact while maybe Flood players/AI attack, or maybe everyone has their own distinct race/specie base CTF (but with an artifact of their given race). Now that would be INSANE! -
Fix CTF
in general, like where you can actually set the game up where the flag spawns… it doesn’t work in halo 4(There’s no setting to have it spawn here and you take there… it’s only it spawns here and u return to same place as your flag spawn)… i gave up on it… the flag returns are pointless… I want asymmetrical map that you get a neutral flag from here and you take here or you obtain a lost artifact from this location and you return it to its place to activate defense mechanisms to fight off other players (not returning to the bases either) also have multi flag, have neutral flag. -
Switching between Game Types During Forge:
Have it to where you can switch between game types while Forging “In game” like in halo 3… it’s so annoying to have to “End Game,” then “Swap game type,” then again for another game type. Well, that IS if you even have enough space to put more items down for another game type :/… -
Bring Back Assault:
Muchly missed Assault… I want it back :*( It had some super intense games back in halo 2 on Offense/Defense assault. -
Terrain Cutouts:
Lets say you have a mountain terrain or hill in the way of where you want to place a base but if you merge it into the mountain/hill you are unable to enter… well what if you could place a hollow base/structure into the mountain/hill and it would actually carve out the
mountain/ hill to where it would not create a tunnel/building that you can now go inside the mountain you could not before. So basically no more rocks/dirt/snow/water blocking your way inside the base/tunnel. I would love to have a base underwater on one side of map and the opponents base is in the side of a mountain or hill… It would open up soooo many more opportunities for unique looking pathways, areas, and maps. -
Music:
How about having the ability to select music to set the mood on your maps. For example you could have intense music playing on some intense game types. You could set eerie music for your infection map. You could set some melancholy music (Like in Halo ODST night time when you’re exploring the city) to a map that’s deserted and stormy. A lot of opportunity here. -
Extra Map Animation:
Wouldn’t it be awesome setting some more action in your maps by having some animations you can set such as flood fighting UNSC or just unleashed out into your map and you have to defend yourself not only against your opponent, but raging flood … or covenant ship flying in and start shooting down some explosions… Depending on the map of course. It would be nice to see some background battles already going on, but to set it to happen inside your map at certain times or a certain area would be unbelievable. -
Adding NPC’s to Your map:
What if you could set some A.I. into your map which you could set to be passive/aggressive/defensive. Some examples could be banshees flying around and you can set them to just fly around for atmospheric presence or have them flying around attacking you if you get close… or just straight up bombarding your base. You could do the same with Flood, Forrunner, Covies, Brutes, or other species to set the mood and extra pressure on your maps. -
Underwater Forging Map:
How about having a dedicated underwater forge map!!! Where you can forge underwater and it doesn’t kill you as long as you’re in forge mode. Once you go into a custom game the water will now kill you if you go outside the base. The base pieces will have a magnetic gravitational pull to your Spartan that keeps you from floating off the platforms. If you wondered off it would have an anti-gravity space feeling to it where you sort of float around slowly and it has a soft kill boundary. This map could include sharks/fish/whales etc. and even underwater VEHICLES!! The map pieces would be rocky/seaweed that has moss and shells on the pieces themselves. Some unique pieces could be sunken ships and consist of globe-like/airlock tunnels and structures. The Spartan suits should be advanced enough to filter O2 from water and be able to swim for crying out loud… 
-
Oracle Ball Zooming:
Ability to ZOOM in while holding an object like you can in reach so you’re able to fine tune your movement when placing a large obj. Ability to move closer/further to object you’re holding. For ex; it pushes you TOO far when holding a giant wall or building, and it makes you TOO close while holding a light which you are unable to see how the lighting is from farther away and different angles without letting go of the light. If you let go of the light it would now be stuck in the wall and you can no longer grab it. It gets annoying. -
Forge Map in Future DLC’s:
Tired of the same ol pieces and maps well how about actually having a “Forge map” in each DLC map pack that’s dedicated for Forging (Like the good ol days back in Halo 3)which includes new forge pieces and unique forge pieces not only for that particular new map but how about for ALL the other forge maps as well. Now THAT seems like a baadaaazz idea, eh? -
Grouping/Saving Custom Forge Structures:
Now for my favorite idea that I wish would be implemented into Halo Forge…
Okay, so picture this… you’re forging and you end up making some cool structure or building and you spent 2 hrs fine tuning it and finally got it, but come to find out its off-centered form your map. Now you have to go and move ever effin piece… or even worse you want it in another spot and you forgot how to put it together and your idea is now screwed up… I guess you can spend the next 6 hrs moving the structure piece by piece to where you want it…: /… Don’t you wish you could have just selected all those pieces, group them together, and move the entire structure you just spent all your time investing in? I SURE WOULD! Wouldn’t that be AMAZING?! It could easily be implemented in with the locking/duplicating pieces with the D-Pad. For ex. you lock all the pieces that you wanted grouped together and you can now scroll over the locked pieces and a new option pops up to group selected locked pieces together.
Now take that even a step further… so you spent all that time making a badazz looking building/structure and now you wish you could implement it into another map. As of now you’re stuck trying to remember how to rebuild it and aughhhh not worth your time right?.. Weellllll, how about an option that once pieces are grouped together you can…“wait for it”…
…
… SAVE it!!!
!!!
GENIUS IDEA!! You could select to save the structure you just made! Once objects are grouped together you could highlight them and on the D-Pad there could be a new option to saved grouped object like you can a map or game type. Your new creation could be stored in a “Forge art” or “Creations” subcategory, sort of how the categories are Blocks, Buildings, Gadgets, etc… Well there would be one that has your own personal creations saved so that you can implement them into any map you make in the future… or even better… any map you join of your friends as well!!! :
Well that’s about all the ideas I have… for now ;D. Hope ya’ll enjoyed some of these ideas and would hope to see them in future forging as well. Maybe some of my ideas will help you come up with some other ideas I’ve missed and would like to share to the community later.
Thanks again for taking the time to read, I know it was a lot
What is the greatest map you have ever forged? Go into great detail about it.
While I love all of your ideas…I find it better to just have all of your suggestions in <mark>1</mark> thread and not be split up so much. It’s just very difficult to find it all over time…
Please please please just use one thread for your ideas instead of multiple ones.
Thanks!
This is future of right here. I don’t anyone could add a single idea that won’t tie into something you’ve already said. Although a lot of them are great ideas, I doubt 343 would even put a quarter of them into the next forge. After all, they do need to leave some room for forge, and all other aspects of Halo, to evolve further after the next instalment of the series.
That would be a Forge of that I’ve always dreamed about since Halo 3.
Though of course from a realistic point of view it’s unlikely that such an advanced Forge mode would be shipped with the regular game.
However, what I would like to add to your fantastic list is advancement of assistance.
Disregarding the fact that a controller is an annoying equipment for forging maps, what often takes me endless hours is to find the “perfect” proportions since you haven’t any tools that could assist you.
So, what I would like to see are some standard measure/proportion guidelines and models after that you can scale your map and hence increase the constructional quality of it.
I.e.:
Spartan models/guidelines: body height (standing/crouching), jump height, distance per second, etc.
Weapon models/guidelines: effective ranges (scoped & unscoped), blast radius, etc.
I would love to have put it ALLLLLLL together but unfortunately it wouldn’t all fit 
… It was TOO much greatness for one post I guess haha. You could do what I did and just bookmark each page haha. That or search for the posts the only difference is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
I did think of another fix they need to do:
Fix magnets:
The magnets mess up once you leave and reload the map/save again which throws off the map into bumpiness from helllz.
To: “Swift 806” great idea, sounds like a great implementation. But first they need to fix the pieces themselves how they are off when you flip them around. It’s annoying.
To: “shootin sammy” THAT is an extreeeemly hard decision since I put copious amounts of time on my maps to perfect them as much as possible. I try to make every map unique in its own way and some I put in certain key signatures ;). Some of my fav maps were on halo 3 believe it or not, then reach, then halo 4. Unfortionately I lost most of my Halo 3 maps during transfer to a new xbox :*( … However I have some of my favs up on my file share if you want to go check them out. I have a lot more to put up as well just haven’t got around it to. It sorta takes too long to put them up haha. My Gamertag is “Storiedsquire” ;D If you do, hope you enjoy them and shoot me a friend request. My buds and I are alllways lookin for people to join in on some Awesome customs :D.
To: “Didactic J” I definitely understand that hah :P. It’s not like I’m asking for all of these to be in the next halo (well I sorta am :P) but if they were to just fix some of the core issues and add in just one idea it would make forge a whoooooole lot better. There’s just PLENTY of room for them to improve and I just want to get ideas out there to hopefully have them see ya know?
To: “the rest that responded” thanks for the likes! It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one out there wanted more forge
Take care
…
I’m all for new Forge additions and improvements. It most cases, it benefits the game more than it hurts.
Interactive Objects.
This could be opening and closing doors.
Gates, Bridges, Elevators etc.
These should have switches that can activate or deactivate.
Think on the gate on Zanziba/ Last Resort, Highground and Containment. I think we need more things like this which are forgable.
Good idea Thomsy. That would be like a one time activation to change aesthetic of the map terrain. Oh Zanzibar… muchly missed 
> 27. Grouping/Saving Custom Forge Structures:
> Now for my favorite idea that I wish would be implemented into Halo Forge…
> Okay, so picture this… you’re forging and you end up making some cool structure or building and you spent 2 hrs fine tuning it and finally got it, but come to find out its off-centered form your map. Now you have to go and move ever effin piece… or even worse you want it in another spot and you forgot how to put it together and your idea is now screwed up… I guess you can spend the next 6 hrs moving the structure piece by piece to where you want it…: /… Don’t you wish you could have just selected all those pieces, group them together, and move the entire structure you just spent all your time investing in? I SURE WOULD! Wouldn’t that be AMAZING?! It could easily be implemented in with the locking/duplicating pieces with the D-Pad. For ex. you lock all the pieces that you wanted grouped together and you can now scroll over the locked pieces and a new option pops up to group selected locked pieces together.
> Now take that even a step further… so you spent all that time making a badazz looking building/structure and now you wish you could implement it into another map. As of now you’re stuck trying to remember how to rebuild it and aughhhh not worth your time right?.. Weellllll, how about an option that once pieces are grouped together you can…“wait for it”…
> …
> … SAVE it!!! !!!
>
> GENIUS IDEA!! You could select to save the structure you just made! Once objects are grouped together you could highlight them and on the D-Pad there could be a new option to saved grouped object like you can a map or game type. Your new creation could be stored in a “Forge art” or “Creations” subcategory, sort of how the categories are Blocks, Buildings, Gadgets, etc… Well there would be one that has your own personal creations saved so that you can implement them into any map you make in the future… or even better… any map you join of your friends as well!!!
First off, all of your suggestions are great, but this one… THIS one…
You know what, let’s just cut to the chase. 343i should just hire you and put you in charge of Forge. All problems solved.
Consider yourself saluted.
Ha-ha! Stardriver…Now THAT would be my dream right there!
Thanks
yup… 
I like this thread, except for all the bumping the OP is doing. Anyhow, nice work. If they implemented this, I would be quite happy-I’ve been wanting to make a functioning replica of SO many maps with the same aesthetic feel, so this would be a great help.
Although, I can’t help but voicing some of my own ideas;
-Adding a wider variety of plants, like reeds, as well as other natural objects.
-Adding in ‘water areas’ with flowing angles, so it can look like there is running water over structures, like waterfalls.
-Ability to add in ambient noises and perhaps songs from the start menu.
-Ability to change time of day without placing objects.
-Adding in some terrain objects like hills, sand dunes, beaches,and water would be awesome.
-Going off the weather thing, they could add in wind.
-Also, it’d be nice if it was easier to make caves/tunnels.
-Maybe be able to add in fauna. (Moas for example)
-Pipes that you can actually go into.
-Things like cranes and conveyor belts.
-Stalagmites and stalactites, which can fall down if shot at.
-More kinds of stairs/inclines.
-More kinds of buildings.
-Roads and more kinds of barricades.
-Maybe add in a block that you can change the shape and dimensions of.
-Signs that you type in what they say. (New Mombasa 10 km, or the sign on Longshore with the fish tacos for example)
-Billboards like on that one map in Halo 2/CEA.
-Ability to set areas so they have zero gravity, and have some objects float around in these areas.
On the zero gravity thing… How would that even work? That said, it should have an optional muffle effect.