Hey everyone! As an avid Forger in the community I thought I would put down my forge “Needs” that I share with other communities such as iForge, HSFN, and a few others. So today, this is a list of things that I can’t stress enough is either of things that are just purely something we wish for or is already confirmed but would like sooner than later in the life span. IF ANYONE has any ideas, leave them down below! I love touching base with the community and enjoy seeing other forge ideas that lend themselves. Let’s begin.
NON FORGE OBJECT FEATURES:
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SPAWN POINTS AND CAMERAS TO NOT COUNT TOWARD’S OBJECT BUDGET > Please count this as it’s own section. These are object that kinda don’t impact visible gameplay and need their own catagory of budget
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PREFABS****Prefabs are pre-constructed piece groups saved by the player and placed on their file-share for others to use. These would allow players to construct bases, set pieces, etc, and share them with other forgers. This is a confirmed feature that they want to add (source being twitter), and we don’t know when it will come, but it needs to be sooner than later.
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LOCKABLE MAPS****Lockable Maps is something that should have happened at LAUNCH. Forgers are getting scalped left and right and nobody can really stop it. The theft of maps is one of the hardest things about being a forger and if it isn’t fixed sooner than later, then we don’t have any security. Losing maps in the most dishonest way is one of the more suffered outcomes for forgers. This feature needs to happen.
HOW IT WORKS: When you save a map, it will automatically save to “Private Files” that only you and you alone can see. It is still a cloud based system, but it just allows more security so people can’t snoop, steal, or “edit to make better” your maps. You can still load these maps up with other players in a lobby, however these maps will not be available for bookmarking and will have a lock icon on them. The only way another player can save/download that map is if they are in a forge game with you and save a copy of their own just like before.
FORGE OBJECTS:
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Weather Volumes > Designate specific volumes of areas that have weather effects. These volumes would take effects budget but would allow to specify where you want weather to be.
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Anti-Weather Volumes > Designate where you don’t want weather while the primary weather effect is on in map settings. Perfect for interior spaces on maps.
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Additional Weather Effects > Falling leaves (such as the ones seen in Plaza from the trees near Hydra).
WEATHER was such an important addition to halo which gave and gives our maps more believably. WEATHER VOLUMES are not a stretch of imagination however, considering that, as an example on PLAZA, there are trees that have falling leaves around them and only around them. These effects being elusively around that area allows us to feel more immersed within that part of the map. ANTI-WEATHER VOLUMES would help for if people have brief sections of map that are indoors and have the illusion ruined by rain falling through a rough. This would add even more immersion and more depth to a map and allow a player to create more convincing and compelling areas that don’t have a leaky roof.
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Dev Built/Pre built Structures (like the good ol’ days!) - Facad buildings > These can either be physical or non physical and would mainly be for off in the distance operation to consume less budget and eat less frames.
> They would also have partials where some of them are complese and some of them aren’t. -
Additional Vehicle and Weapon variants from Warzone > It doesn’t have to be all of them, just some of them such as silenced weapons, Tundra and ONI variant vehicles, etc. Things that thematically would sell a map more.
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Custom Power Up - TRAIT ZONES TRAIT ZONES TRAIT ZONES TRAIT ZONES!!! FOR THE LOVE OF THE PRECURSORS, TRAIT ZONES!!! - A.I. - Scriptable > I hate saying this, and i mean I reaaaally hate saying this, but forge may need to had in forgeable and scriptable A.I.
This has been asked for for years, and lots of people wish for it and want it and I always said we didn’t need it, but after seeing DOOM’S Snap Map which is pretty much Time Splitters crossed with Forge, Halo isn’t the only modern map editor game anymore. Now it has to compete with DOOM, and DOOM is multi-platform meaning players from Playstation, Xbox, and PC are making maps in a game that looks like a bloodier version of Halo. The community is already struggling as it is and this is a shin kicker. 343, if you see this, I prey thee, consider what your options are for the competition at hand. You don’t want to lose your forgers. That is the last thing you need right now.
Anyways guys, I had more but I lost my notes so I will leave it here till I can edit it again. What do you all think? Any features you want to see? Let me know below! Love you all.
-MJ