One of the greatest benefits of building in forge is the ability to immediately share and play our creations with others. Easy access to file shares (console + web) and stability within custom games is a top priority. The forge community noticeably declined when these essential features were removed from the launch of both Halo 4 and MCC. Based the recent community update, downloading maps via console will be possible yet impractical as it requires you to follow the person you would like to retrieve files from. "At launch, Forge will allow you to bookmark and share maps created by players on your active roster. This requires you to follow the player you want to grab a map from. From the player details page, you’ll be able to view a player’s files. To grab a map or mode, bookmark the file and it’ll be ready to play in custom games or Forge. We’ll be making updates to expand File Browser functionality over future updates, based on your feedback." - Halo Community Update Thankfully, 343 has plans to support online file sharing in the future but it will not be available at launch. While we wait until an online file sharing system is built with cloud support, 343 is asking for feedback and taking suggestions from the community. Lets take this opportunity to band together and help shape the best file sharing system to date. Please provide your suggestions below and we will make sure to include them in the feedback we provide back to the team. SUGGESTIONS: FOLDER / ALBUM CREATION Providing an ability to save and group maps together in folders will not only organize the content we save / generate, it will make custom games faster and easier to host. From beginners to prolific forge veterans whether you have a few or many projects, the ability to save and organize them in a visually simple way will make it both easy to store and access your content. The most dedicated and involved forgers tend to store hundreds upon hundreds of maps, players sitting in custom game lobbies grow impatient waiting for the host to make their selections. Similar to how “game modes” are filed and organized, I believe the same treatment should be given to maps. Use Case Examples: “My Maps” 12 files “HCS” 9 files “Contest Submissions” 160 files “Infection” 19 files “Mini-Games” 12 files “Favorites” 34 files LINK CUSTOM GAMETYPES TO MAP FILES Map files and gametypes are traditionally downloaded and shared independently from one another. Attaching compatible game-types to map files will streamline the process of downloading and playing content while ensuring that the correct / intended gametypes are being played. Game-types are commonly named differently than the map title, so it is often times hard to remember which one to load if you have hundreds to sort through. When players are invited to custom game lobbies, they often save maps via recent map history and neglect to grab the corresponding gametype because they often fail to realize the necessity. Users can attach a single game-type to their map file called the “primary game-type”, one that they believe is the primary intended experience. This will automatically download with the map file when shared and the choice for selecting the primary game-type in custom games. STORAGE Cloud storage and dedicated servers are great tools and resources however to fully maximize the their potential, we will need more space or reallocate existing space. With local storage available in Halo Reach, forgers saved around 300 maps. MCC Cloud Storage: 50 - Local 50 - Recent Map History 50 - File Share Allocation Suggestion: 80% - Local 0% - Recent Map History 20% - File Share Local storage space is the most important as it is the main access point for users to retrieve and play content for custom games. It is also the primary location for saving works in progress. For this reason, it is prioritized as our main storage location, maximizing storage capacity here as much as possible would be beneficial. Recent map history auto saved maps should only be saved to the local hard drive on the console. NOTIFICATIONS Ability to view notifications for new map releases or updates from your friends list. When people in your ‘watched’ list post updates to their maps or create new ones entirely, this will show up in your notifications feed. When you download a map you have an option to subscribe for updates on this map. Any changes the original author makes on their map will automatically update your file.
"At launch, Forge will support a basic implementation of File Browser, which will allow you to bookmark, play, and share maps and modes created by players on your active roster. This doesn’t require a “mutual” friendship, but only that you follow the player you want to grab a map from. From the player details page, you’ll be able to view a player’s files and their bookmarks. To grab a map or mode, simply bookmark the file, and it’ll be ready to play in custom games or open up in Forge. Similar to Forge itself, we’ll be making updates to expand File Browser functionality over future updates, based on your feedback. We can’t wait to see your creations, and I’m rather excited to sneak top community maps into some awesome social community playlists as soon as they let me." 343 have said they are open to feedback to improve file browswer. Well, lets start on the feedback. What do yo guys want to see from forge/file browser/general ability to share content. Post the feedback and we will pass it onto 343. Go!
One request, a search function, why the hell would they implement a browser where the creator has to be online and followed to have their content downloaded?
There already was a perfect example of a great file share with Reach. So basically the search is needed. Should not have to be "following" a player in order to download. At least you dont have to be friends with them to grab their files.
A fileshare/browser on par with bungie's is as important as any new feature forge could have. It's great to be able to forge new and better maps, but this sounds like the same thing as MCC, which was a biggest turn-off for me other than the obvious forge restrictions. Finding fun maps and gametypes was mainstream back in the day. I remember finding fun infection games and jump maps in Halo 3 all without participating on a forum.
I voted for browser-based fileshare, however I think searching for someone's GT from the game's file browser should also be implemented. Personally, I would consider Reach's fileshare to be the perfect example of a bare-bones fileshare. The ability to search in-game for maps (most downloaded, most liked, tags, GT), along with a web-based fileshare. I'd be content with just that. Having to follow someone just sounds like a bad idea; too hard to get noticed. I like the idea of linking gametypes to maps, but I'd be ok with that coming in a later update.
No, no, no. Don't you get it 343 I will not nor will most players ever be willing to take the time to find certain cartographers to follow and only be able to download their maps. That is a completely useless and idiotic feature. This system must be search based and it should never require any further action than typing in the name of the map you want and downloading it through the GAME'S MENUS. You can implement this on Halowaypoint as well but I should be able to go on my console and easily find maps there as well. Also THERE MUST be a most downloaded and most recommended page IN THE GAME'S MENUS because many, many people do not want to have to traverse the internet just to find a few maps to download that they might not even end up liking or only using one time. Also one improvement that could have been made to Reach's file browser that you would be smart to integrate is having a filter of maps made for a specific gametype. Simply have the ability to filter searches, most downloaded, and most recommended to only show maps made for a specific gametype, like race for example.
Just make it like Halo 3 & Reach. You can go online & click to DL. I'm fine with searching on the console by gamer tag AS LONG AS WE CAN POST LINKS LIKE THE OLD DAYS as well.
I agree that both a search function and a web-based browser are necessary. However, there is one important difference between this and the MCC file browser. Halo 5's roster displays all friends, not only the ones currently online. So, using the Xbox friends app to find someone, adding them, and downloading their file share will be pretty easy.
Current integrations kills our potential for map contests. For people in different timezones, organising forge sessions is a nightmare too.
This all looks great so far. I was about to suggest being able to pair gametype with map, especially for unique modes like Conquest, or really any minigame, but then I saw you had it up there already. The Folder idea sounds amazing as well. Imagine being able to look on someones page and instantly see what you are looking for. In a really simple way of saying it; I want to be able to download maps on the web, syncing to my xbox. I want to be able to search for maps based on different tags. I want to find maps from people in my Fireteam, people I just played with, my friends list, and even be able to search gamertags. And I would like all of this to be fast, with as little menu-shenanigans as possible.
Pretty much this. If they could just make it work like it did in Halo 3 & Reach, that would already be a big improvement (is it ironic that I'm calling that an "improvement"?). Having to "follow" people, just to get access to their File Browsers, is not as convenient as I would like. I find it odd that 343 won't at least launch Forge with the same File Browser support (Gamertag lookup to the Player's Profile) that they eventually did with MCC. But as long as they do intend to make rapid improvements in this area, then that's fine. It is absolutely true that an easy-to-access File Browser is an essential feature for Forge's community. The fact that one was available to us right out of the gate with Halo 3 has, I feel, always been underestimated. Barring any major bug/issues, having the smoothest File Sharing experience possible for Halo 5 should, in my opinion, definitely be the next top priority. I'll admit that I'm already starting to get concerned, since we won't be getting that experience out of the gate, alongside the launch of Forge. Also, I'm a fan of the idea of having a "primary gametype" associated/linked with a map - great suggestion. And finally, being able to store as many maps/gametypes as we could want locally on our consoles shouldn't even be a "feature" or require us to request it, it should simply just be expected functionality...
It's been said before in this thread but I feel like I should reitterate it incase anyone at 343i is watching this thread. Currently this "basic integration" of a File Browser, which should be called File Share in my opinion, is such a step back from what we deserve. To make this a successful File Browser we need; When creating a map gametype allow us to tag them with keywords In game UI that allows us to search using tags In game UI that shows us most downloaded maps and gametypes, a bonus from this would be filtering this with most downloaded today, this week, this month and all time In game UI that shows a "Developer Recommends", which would update every week In game UI that lets us search Gamertag and view their Bookmarked files without adding them as a friend Waypoint integration that mirrors in game UI so its a unified experience Allow queuing of maps and gametypes from waypoint to the console, bonus from that would be if instant-on settings for the Xbox One is turned on the files download automatically Allow us to save maps and gametypes for offline editing Again this may be repeated requests from the thread already but I feel like we all need to vocal about this in order to get our message across.
Wait, so our maps aren't saved to our local hdd's anymore? That's annoying, though I suppose I can live, as long as the map saving system & the fileshare are at least separate features/entities. If I save a WIP map to the cloud, I wouldn't want it available for anyone to download (ie, I wouldn't want saving map to be equivalent to publishing it to my fileshare). I think the best approach would be to have maps saved to your hdd, but also create a cloud backup. That way we can still edit offline. However, seeing how they've done things this time around, where you have to be online & gold to do anything other than solo campaign, I doubt they'll let us forge offline. Forge will probably be a gold-only feature from now on (I'd definitely prefer otherwise, though).
There was a quote a while back where I think quinn said that anything with gametypes and maps are cloud/dedicated server based. So if there is an issue with the servers you won't be able to access your files. The worry some people have is that if the servers go down while working on a map you'll loose anything you haven't saved.
If map saving is indeed entirely cloud based, that could still work, as long as there is some sort of backup system in place. Perhaps there could be a manual save-to-cloud, but a separate autosave feature that saves a backup copy to the cloud every x minutes. Then, if the servers crash & you lose your progress, you could go into the menu nd select "restore from backup" as soon as the connection to the servers was restored.