I just don't understand some of the changes they made It's like they sat down, and said "How can we make this an ok game and net as much profit as possible" and someone else said "screw the players, but not so much that they give up on the game, but juuust barely" they integrated all of these "fancy features" at the cost of removing base functionality yeah, it all looked good in the previews, "Oh, new forge capabilities", but it seems like anything that was not directly showcased turned out to be terrible Call me a conspiracist, but I think they are intentionally trying to screw over forgers (and local customs in general) by making it as inconvenient as possible to do anything. Let's look at the facts (taking into consideration what is and is not working as of now) Control -multigrab camera angles - gone -flexible zoom when holding on to parts - gone -zoom feature - gone -fine tuning - gone -coordinate systems - broken -magnets - cumbersome to use at best Forge Objects -textures - hyper specialized -models - cluttered, hyper specialized -piece alignment - nope -collision geometry - unnecessarily complicated -"grab" geometry - only applies if you are grabbing the center of an object Programming -all shadows are redrawn every time you exit forge mode, no matter if no changes were made to the map -object physics no longer work correctly -map "disco" -map lag. -split screen - bad lag -monitor noise - probably not intentional (I hope) but it is annoying as hell. -custom game options striped down to almost nothing UI/functionality -Custom game option "conveniently" hidden behind the matchmaking option -Firefight (A free gametype you can play with friends locally) has been replaced with Spartan Ops, an XBL Gold exclusive feature that you cannot play offline -you cannot earn achievements offline -you cannot gain XP offline Fileshares -you must host the files you want to download -you then must remove them manually when you finish the download Updates -nope. Many people, including me, have talked about how they are taking one step forward, and <number> steps back but the reality is, that this could all be on purpose It's not taking steps back, It's just suffocating local gaming in general I'm sorry, but it seems to me that Halo 4 did not sell a game, Halo 4 sold XBL gold subscriptions. and why not? they have to make money. But it also means that you are no longer buying a game, you are buying a very expensive addon to Microsoft's multiplayer service, and it just doesn't seem right to me. This community is amazing, but in terms of Halo 4, the series this site was built around? I want to keep giving 343i a chance, a chance to believe that they still care about the gamer. over, and over, and over, and each time I crack open my LE case (Don't get me started) to give H4 another shot, I always walked way disappointed, and reminded of why I stopped playing it in the first place. Each time, these "issues" keep pointing in the same direction 343i focuses so much on the XBL Gold aspects, because the people who use it are paying them money on a subscription basis. Those of us who play local? They already have our money, why should they care what we think? I'm done. ~SilentJacket
Not trying to fuel any conspiracy's but What could they possibly gain by making forge and custom game options horrible to use so the only way to get new maps is though DLC? It's not like they where rushing out 2 DLC map packs before fixing fileshare to make sure if players wanted a new map they where funneled to DLC because of its convince. Most of Title updates they have done is primarily to fix DLC bugs and issues gotta make sure no ones getting them free(outside of 14day trails) and people that bought them don't lose it so there still willing to buy the next DLC. It's not like Spartan ops is online only JUST to sell XBL gold, There are commendations on servers and if you play it offline you wouldn't get the commendations, (Seriously who wants to miss out on commendations they speed up your grinding which is a huge part of why people play Halo 4) Could go on but my point is, It's not like the entire game was another rushed forced project by Microsoft(Bungie didn't wanna make anymore halos after halo 2) made by a inexperienced company that is just a filler to take our $60+DLC till Halo 5,6,7,8,9. Not that I'm trying to fuel any conspiracy's.
Quite a few of the things you mentioned were present in previous games. Object disco has existed since Halo 3 when Forge appeared, as has framerate lag. It has gotten worse with each iteration since then, but assuming that this is deliberate with Halo 4 rather than a by product of pushing the engine further each time on the same hardware seems a little childish. Like so many conspiracy theories, you forego giving a satisfactory explanation as to why this would happen, instead seeming to draw upon your own indignation. The majority of people seem to appreciate that 343 were pushed for time with Halo 4. Why not just axe forge altogether instead of spending the time to develop it again, with new functions and a new set of objects, as well as three canvas maps? Why go to the lengths of extensively inducting forge maps in to MM (MUCH more than Bungie had by this time in Reach's life)? Your assumptions are huge, and your explanations massively unsatisfactory. The whole idea of forcing people in to DLC simply doesn't stack up against what they did to include and use forge, even if you argue they did it badly. I think Hanlon's Razor applies here: Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.
It's mostly not intentional, not in the way you mean. What IS intentional is that they de-emphasize custom game options and forge in their development cycle, devoting less resources to it and farming it out to another developer without overseeing their work or running it by anyone experienced in forge. They know this is not the part of the game that butters their bread, and they act accordingly.
Well, the difference between 343 and Bungie, was that Bungie was already a developer when Microsoft sucked it into it's monopolistic corporation. Bungie had stronger control over what the product would end up like. 343, a company literally solely made to make Microsoft money, Does not have this control. Microsoft didn't make 343 because the big wigs up top really wanted to see further installments of Halo, they made it to make cash. First by making Halo Waypoint, to keep people playing and returning to the website to check stats. Then by making 2 map packs for Halo reach with CA, to rake in more cash. Then starting a new trilogy in a universe that could have ended with 3. So yeah, features that focus on making money, like DLC, and gold-only options (Spartan Ops and matchmaking) are emphasized. I'm sure if 343 was their own company, however, the game would be miles worse, since Microsoft pumped money into the project. So we have to deal with it.
Except there are a lot of conspiracies that are actually true and there are satisfactory explanations as to why they were done. It's just that you don't hear those explanations because people who believe them usually do not have all the facts, answers, information, etc. which is needed to connect the dots.... To get all that information takes a lot of time, resources, credible sources, etc. which most people just don't have the time for that kind of research when you live a normal life with school and work. Even if they do have the time, that's not to say they will find the information either as it's not easy sifting through a lot of BS. Anyway... With that being said, this is NOT a conspiracy. There isn't a satisfactory explanation here that adds up as to why they would do these things on purpose for Halo 4's custom games and forge. It just doesn't make sense, anyway you look at it. Microsoft certainly is suspect to be involved with conspiracies but only if it's going to make them money. Making Forge and Custom Games worse would not help with that at all. ^^^ This is what makes sense here.
That's a horrible comparison. Of course you need Gold to play with other people (Matchmaking), but you've never needed gold to play by yourself (Spartan Ops). This is as if they made it so you need Gold to play campaign, local custom games, or theater.