Hey everybody, and welcome back to ForgeHub! Recently we got a lot of information about Halo Infinite Forge and Halo Infinite's Season 3! So let's jump right into the news!

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Season 3 Greetings
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With Season 3, we're still getting the stuff we were promised on the roadmap ( 1 Arena map, 1 BTB map, and Forge on Dev maps), but we also recently got some gameplay of the new BTB map!



This map looks excellent; with this gameplay, we also received two forms of information, one apparent and one not so apparent at first glance. The apparent one being the shroud screen and how to use it



The Shroud Screen is used like a smoke screen/smoke grenade in other games; unlike other games, though, people within it have perfect visibility of other players within it! This is interesting as it kind of plays on the aspect the bubble shield had with bubble fights, with the new exception that you can shoot through the shroud. Once inside the Shroud Screen, your radar flickers a bit, so you can't camp inside it as quickly.

This will be a neat piece of equipment, especially for BTB and other modes that involve large spaces; maybe some short-spaced maps would be good too.

On top of Season 3 news, the fan-favorite Halo 5 map "Plaza" will be remade as one of the remade Forge maps they're working on. Fantastic news for all of you who missed Plaza!

With Season 3, the Watchdog coating will also be Updated, except you'll have both versions available to you, the old Watchdog and the new Watchdog Neo (picture below)! Finally, all of us 152 Grinders will be given exactly what was advertised to us all the way back in 2020!



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Forge News and Standards
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With this update, we also got a lot of Forge news, including matchmaking standards from the Forge Lord himself, Michael Schorr! Click the picture below to be taken straight to that form post detailing all of the matchmaking requirements and recommendations! We'll list a few major ones here.



Some significant take-aways for matchmaking standards:
- All Microsoft family devices (Xbox One, PC, Xbox Series) Need to have a consistent/stable framerate
- Intro cameras must be set up to at least sequence 6
- Nav mesh must be adequately set up around the map; this is important for Spartan Bots to function properly
-Equipment and Grenades must be on static selection, and Power Equipment pads must have their nav marker turned off for BTB
-Blockers (Both Projectile and Player) Must be placed on the map to smooth out the navigation and to prevent mode objects from going out of the map

These are just the major things you need to know; there are many miscellaneous things for mode-specific items, spawns, and more, all in the article. Be sure to give this article a look for all those details!

Now for more forge news:
Forge playlists are set to start popping out at some point with Season 3. This is your moment, forgers; start prepping those maps!

For season 3 it seems to be mostly bug fixes. However, there are some things that were mentioned to be coming down the pipeline:
Water objects will be coming in Season 4!
Forge PC input will be improved soon.
Object Browser Search Bar!
Campaign A.I. Spawning tools
Advanced Camera Controls (3rd-person camera, top-down, sidescroller, etc)

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Contingency a plenty
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Lastly, here is our headlined piece of the article (what we used for the thumbnail) The winter contingency 2 event will be happening soon; with it, you can get a Santa hat for your Spartan and many other cosmetics. This was the image I found floating around the most, so here is what we'll be getting!



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Closing out for the Holidays
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Thank you, everyone, for another fantastic Year. Some of you may have wondered where our newest episode of Creators Spotlight is; sadly, we have to postpone it for some stuff has come up for a member of staff. Please keep his family in your prayers! I did want to thank everyone for the support on that series; the 15th of December marked its 1st anniversary here on the site. The series has been so popular to the extent that even 343i copied the idea for Community Spotlight (I See you, Alex ;P ). It's been great to highlight so many forgers, some you may not have heard of and others that you definitely have. This coming year we're planning to ramp up production not only to showcase more creators you haven't probably heard of, but also to bring you more creators you probably have and give you their backstory into this community, cataloging the history of Forge 1 step at a time haha!

This year has been a special one, though; from ForgeHub getting its new site (Very Soon), meeting so many of you at HCS Events, and starting our first contest for Halo Infinite, this year is turning out to be something! We hope you all are ready to get right back into the groove of things this coming year, as we have a few surprises up our sleeves for everyone!

Tonight will also be our last Saturday Gamenight for the year (7pm EST to 12am), So be sure to come and hop in and have some fun! We'll be posting another feedback thread soon so be on the lookout for that!

That's it for me, hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year! And good luck with the remaining month and a half (roughly) of time for the 2v2 contest! Can't wait to see you're awesome creations!
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See you Starside
-Crush​

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