Dear All on this Forum,
I was highly active on Halo forums in the past, but this post marks my first post in a long, long while and as such this is my first post here with this account. I think it’s worth my first post being of some substance.
We are the most direct voice of Halo Community, and as such we may affect development more than we believe - a group’s voice is inherently overpowering. My interests lie largely in the creative side of Halo, but I feel an inherent wish for the game play to return to stellar, and the beta gave a good impression. We as a community have a certain responsibility, for two commercially successful but communally panned Halos lead the franchise into dangerous territory. A failing to sustain a community until the inevitable sequel will mark a low point for the franchise and bring detriment to the studio, and the reputation of the game competitively and casually.
Making your opinions clear is essential to the future of Halo, and these are my opinions on the further evolution of Forge, at Forge 5.0.
Firstly: Scripting needs an increased focus.
In Forges 1.0 through 3.0 (Halo 3, Reach, 4), forgers were forced to manipulate vehicle flips to imitate switches, fusion coils to keep doors in place etc. In Forge 4.0 (H2A) we became able to forcibly script the manipulation of objects.
Objects that can be manipulated include lights, explosives, garage doors, EMP devices, console panels, and vehicle spawns (although these seem not to work correctly in the current build).
These could be triggered by several methods.
-Switches, which can activate the alternate state of the object, deactivate it, or toggle between, upon player interaction.
-Timers, which can activate the alternate state, deactivate it, or toggle between them, all either infinitely or as a one-time thing.
-Triggers, which can do the same as switches, except upon players entering, exiting, or remaining in a trigger zone. Alternatively, there is a special trigger that can activate the alternate state of an object upon being shot.
However, these are all very limited in their application. Maps wishing to create an interactive environment have very limited options - EMPing vehicles, moving see-through doors up or aside, and lighting or darkening areas. Although useful in their applications, producing an environment which is unique or producing a story within the map’s applications is far, far more difficult. A forger cannot produce a destroyable bridge, for instance, except in the standard Forge 1.0 to 3.0 way of balancing crates upon fusion coils.
We need Halo 5 to make it possible to manipulate any, and all objects upon the forge palette. It needs to be possible to produce all manner of situations using these scripts.
-Glass shatters upon the broadcast signal. (Some glass should also be easy to shatter by default, but that’s a different conversation.)
-Warthog engines fail upon the broadcast signal.
-Walls move, or fade out upon the signal.
-Rocks crumble upon the signal.
-Bridges lift, or lower, or extend, or retract upon the signal.
-Doors open or close, sirens sound, lights flicker and go out, generators fail, shields switch off, weapons spawn, upon the signal.
In general, it must be easy to recreate something similar to the map-manipulating effects on maps like Shrine or Vertigo on Halo 4. More player agency is almost always very important in a creative endeavour.
Does the community support this? Make your opinions clear. I fully support manipulative maps, and feel it must be simpler and more effective for forgers to create completely organic maps.