A new Forge map has just been announced at PAX named Forge Island. - Additional forge pieces - All forge pieces from the three current canvas's - Similar aesthetics to Ravine's pallet - Comprises of three islands; small, medium and large - The islands are very flat - The islands are grassy and bare - Launches April 11th - Free! - You can forge in the water - New rock pieces including huge ones in the buildings pallete - Trees - Green Screen for Machinimas This is good. Faith in 343 Industries restored? Along with the upcoming title update, it may well be. [Update] Q&A on Forge World from The Halo Bulletin 28/03/2013 How big is the play space of Forge Island? –Lord Zedd The largest of the three islands is as long as the playable space of Ragnarok, though it’s wider since it’s cylindrical. The others two islands are medium and small by comparison, though I don’t have exact numbers offhand. We also let you build away from the islands in any direction and in the sky with an extremely large range as well. Using the length of the large island as a unit of measurement, you can get between 6-10 units away from the cluster of islands in any direction before hitting the boundaries of where you can build. –Kynan Will there be hill/more rock pieces included in Forge Island? What about tree pieces? –M0aHerder We don’t provide hills but we did include new rock pieces. These new rocks and trees are available in the “Natural” palette but we also included 2 extra-large rock objects in the “Buildings” palette so you can make a much more natural map. –Kynan Actually Kynan, some of the larger rocks are so big that I've used them as hills and ramps –made some really sweet Warthog jumps, too. Heck, I built a whole level made solely from rocks. So many rocks! Trees, too. I made a giant forest! It was so... necky. –Vic Will the Forge budget be greater on Forge Island than other maps? –petetheduck As you know, there are limitations on the quantity of objects that can be placed due to max object count limitations and lightmap memory. The budget hasn’t been expanded, though there are changes to where objects are located in the palettes now. Most of the larger pieces from other palettes and some new larger rocks have been placed into the “Buildings” category. The quantity of “Buildings” objects that can be placed has been increased from 12 to 20. The other categories object quantities have stayed the same. Technically, it is a minor increase, though you will still have to manage your object counts just as you did in the original three Halo 4 Forge maps. –Kynan To what extent can we use the water to build on Forge Island? Is the kill boundary set in a way that we can place objects and play underwater? –HappyHog You can build along the surface of the water but you will die if the water level reaches above the waist of the Spartan. There were limitations on what we were able to do with water, based on many different factors, including the size of the level. The water is opaque, so while you can place objects below the surface, you won’t be able to see them unless they are poking out –Kynan Will the Forge pieces from Ravine, Impact and Erosion be available on Forge Island? –brain01648 We used the base object set from Ravine for Forge Island. There have been some additions and improvements to the Forge palette, including trees, new rock types and a “green screen” object Machinima creators have long asked for. –Kynan
I imagine the panel will be uploaded to YouTube shortly. It hasn't been included in the live stream which is gay.
OH MY GOD WTF BARBECUED GOAT SHRIMP ... can you believe it? They obviously are trying to give us what we want. Awesome news, there may be hope yet. I can't believe Microsoft is allowing this when there is no money in it for them.
There is hope for sure! The title update looks super ****ing sexy too! They know they made mistakes, but my god they are making up for it.
The fact that it's free will mean I can't be too disappointed with this new forge map. If its good, great, but if it's not we've not wasted any money on it. 343 have made my day.
yeah I'm super happy we are getting a new forge map... and not to sound ungrateful, but I wish it wasn't so similar to Ravine, a map we already have. Something totally different would have been much better so we have more forge map variety and I would have gladly paid for it. But... I'm still surprised we are getting not only a forge map but a free one, really shocking. I wish it was like Sandbox themed though, that would have blew my mind.
Honestly, it wouldn't have made much sense to charge for a Forge map. Otherwise, they'd literally be forcing anyone who ever wanted to even play on that forge map to buy it as well, even if they don't necessarily have any intention of forging on it.
I am surprised to see this, but not that it's free. It just makes sense for forge maps to be free considering the extra importance of widespread access for a forge map to really be worth it.
This is some ****ing amazing news, but Ravine's pallet is too sunny for me. Still, I do not want to be the grumpy dolphin here, so hoo-****ing-rah! FREE! POSSIBLE USABLE WATER! MORE POSSIBILITIES! FORGE UNITE!!!!!!!!!!
According to forge hub members that are at PAX, they have completely overhauled the pallet, removing annoying gaps in the pieces and adding many other pieces too. I expect lighting of the objects will be better as well.
I came. The water must be useable solely based on the fact that they're islands IN THE WATER. My inspiration to forge is coming back already!
More pictures! I get the feeling we can forge up to halfway towards those mountains in the background, and that because the islands aren't that high up, we get access to the water, too.
This map is essentially a blank slate. The only similarities to Ravine are that it is outside and has some grass on the islands. Considering the map will have all forge palettes available, plus new items, and I don't think variety will be a problem