> I was very glad to actually get a glimpse of Forge yesterday as I had a feeling it was going to be revealed at Comic Con. While the graphics look amazing and the lighting is great, I felt they didn’t put as much as they really could have… A lot of you guys were really wanting multiple <mark>Forge Worlds</mark> but I wasn’t feeling that. I felt this would have restricted Forge yet again and probably have people complaining about the Forge environments and palettes in a year like <mark>Reach’s Forge World</mark>.
Forge in Halo: Reach was held back by the fact that there was only one map, and one pallet of objects to play with. Halo 3’s forge mode was so fantastic because we were given several maps, two of which were Foundry and Sandbox. These had fantastic pallets and environments. Even smaller, minor maps such as Avalanche had fantastic pallets and were fun to mess with in Forge. Seeing as how these three maps on Halo 4 will each have different environments and item pallets, I highly doubt they will fall inferior to Halo: Reach’s bland pallet of grey, grey, and grey.
> It seems selfish but ultimately all I was looking for was Texture Editing, Terrain Editing, and Weather/Day and Night changes. This would have given everyone unlimited opportunities to make the maps they really wanted to. Also, looking closely a lot of the items in the Forge menu were the same ones in Halo Reach: like blocks, bridges, etc.
I don’t see an overhaul such as this coming to a “map editor”. Remember, that’s all this is, it’s a map editor, not a map creator. While it’s very possible to include something like this in an Xbox 360 game (Far Cry 2, Trials: Evolution), it’s too much work for Certain Affinity. Honestly, what they’re giving us is enough. Of course we’re getting basic objects like blocks, bridges, etc… What did you want instead? The map they’ve shown us uses a forerunner pallet, as did Forge World. The other two pallets will look very different.
> 1)Since there will be multiple Forge Worlds will there be separate items exclusive to the map (if so that would suck, because there might be a really cool object but it’s only restricted to one Forge World.)
Can we cut the habit of calling these forge worlds? Was Sandbox a forge world? Was Foundry a forge world? Of course there will be items exclusive to a single map, but the look and feel of the objects matches the other objects in the pallet. I’m sure that a block on The Ravine will look different from the blocks on the other two maps, but why would you want to blend a Forerunner block with another type of block?
> 2)Will we actually be able to create a true scary, horror, dark map or will we have to pretend again with the FX’s like in Reach
Hopefully one of the maps will be naturally dark like Sandbox, but we won’t know until they announce it.
> 3)Is there going to be more scenery available to Forge or will houses, building, etc be left with pretend scenery made from blocks
In my opinion, pre-made structures such as houses and buildings remove the ability to make an all around different map that stands out. This is what I disliked about Halo: Reach’s forge pallet. Need to make a two story building? Don’t bother with blocks, you’ve already got that building. Need to make half of that bunker from Halo: CE’s Blood Gulch? Well that’s just plain strange.
> 4)Will there be a ton of CG options to create a real unique mode
343i really seems to be taking a lot of what Halo: Reach had, and improving upon it. I don’t see why they would reduce the amount of customization within custom gametypes, but who knows what they’ll do with that until they announce it.
> 5)Will they add more Forge Worlds as DLC separate from the War Games DLC?
I really hope they don’t. Right now I’m imagining The Ravine, a new, revised Sandbox, and a larger Foundry. I guess we could use a snow map and a lava map as DLC.
> Don’t get me wrong I’m still going to have some fun with Forging CG but, what do you guys think about these changes? Are they going to be worth it in the long run or just be fun for a couple months?
Well they’ve completely improved upon Halo: Reach’s forge mode, and the multiplayer is apparently better. The problem with Halo: Reach’s forge mode was that the item pallet was boring, and that the multiplayer itself was “eh”. Who wants to take the time to forge excellent maps for “eh” multiplayer?
