FORGE FEEDBACK AND FEATURE REQUEST

Basically what I've been saying since Reach: Look at Trials Evo (or Trials Fusion), and implement every feature you can from that game.

Two examples:

Thumbnails! I seriously don't understand why we don't have this yet. A simple but huge improvement to forge, that should've been implemented since Reach.


Map Central: A hub where all content created automatically goes into certain categories based on its description. Some of the categories would be:

Recently created, aesthetic/artistic maps, infection maps, 8v8/large maps, 4v4/medium maps, 2v2/1v1/small maps, friends' maps, favorited maps, mini-game maps, Racetracks, etc.

There would also be a rating system, and categories meant to present the highest rated the community has to offer: Highest rated of the last 24hrs, week, month, all time, etc. The rating system has always been subject to being exploited, but the positives of the system outweigh the negatives.

And possibly a community feature section similar to 'Bungie Favorites', where 343 selects content they believe is a good representation of what's possible in the new and improved forge.

Lastly, a searching function that would present maps in an order that can be selected (highest-rated, recently created, most downloaded, etc.) based on the categories selected. Example: asymmetrical/2v2. Also the ability to search for maps based on their name, or to be presented with a person's map library based on their gamertag.

There would also be the ability for players to report maps based on offensive content.

I do understand this is a massive undertaking, but it would also be a massive improvement to the new and improved forge, and to the Halo series. If not for this title, then hopefully the next.

 

Honestly I love forge but there are still plenty of things that bug me. Something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere yet is the general lack of forge session options. You used to be able to set options for the player just like a custom games lobby with infinite ammo, invulnerability etc. Also...

- Why are primitives so detailed with beveled edges and grooves? There should be true primitives so we can block out a map proper, then add detail on top. This is my number one pet peeve.

- Peices based on multiples of 5 and 10, because well, math. There should also not be any ommissions in the primitives category. Why are there so many sizes of simple blocks that aren't there not to mention ramps that don't match up. Cylinders and rings don't always have counterparts either.

- Some peices are not the size they say they are. Planning on making a test level to document which ones.

- Spheres, domes, cones, pyramids: primitives more in line with 3d software. Shallower ramps.

- A by 5 and 10 grid snap (move and rotation) option.

- When move or rotation snap is on it should go to absolute whole values. Right now it's additive so if I have an object at 5.9 and snap by 2 it will move to 7.9. Helpful sometimes but overall not really. Maybe have a toggle in tool options for additive or absolute values.

- Be able to set default matte/metallic values in map options.

- Undo, redo, step back, and an option to toggle confirmation messages on/off. Like when deleting or welding.

- Ability to remap forge controls to our liking. Honestly all I want to do is swap A and B but fully customizable controls would be nice for not only forge but the main game as well. I despise presets.

- The ability to turn off shadows entirely while building my map. It can be done in 3d software and really makes it easier to see what you're doing. A wireframe view mode, wireframe on shaded, and x-Ray view.

- Many legacy assets are missing like prefab buildings, platforms, etc. Wish we had stuff from Halo 2 anniversary like palm trees and breakable glass .

- Expand the playable space in all existing forge canvases, give us more airspace. I feel boxed in. Also allow us to fly out of maps like eden, empire and fathom without the need for glitching. We should be able to delete the kill boundaries on those maps and have a large forgeable area outside. If this isn't possible, then maybe we could just have their skyboxes by themselves. That would be the same assets but with solid ground to stand on.

- Terrain editor as opposed to terrain peices. Farcry has a good system to emulate. I'm sure we won't see this in 5 but maybe 6. Same goes for setting our own dimensions on peices, probably not till the next game.

Well I'm sure there's more but I'm getting bored writing about forge, I just want to actually forge!

 

I agree with everything else you said, but please don't make us go back to this. The snap functioning relative to the object's position/rotation rather than world settings is far superior, especially for rotation particularly. Say I've got a piece at a weird angle that I want to duplicate and then flip 45, 90, or 180 degrees for symmetry purposes. I can just dupe it, set rotation snap, and flip it, whereas if turning on rotation snap snapped my piece to world rotation like it did in Reach, 4, and H2A, I can't do that. It's made things so much easier for me. Plus, you can just reset object orientation and then turn on rotation snap from there if you need even rotations.

 

Reclaimerx22 let me explain why it's messing with me. When I have a peice that's on a coordinate which is not a whole number, ex. 5.9 in the x axis. Instead of going into the properties and setting it to 6 manually I want to turn on snap by 1 degree and bump it to 6, without going into the dialog. Then every piece abutting it would go 7,8,9 etc. This is not due to lazyness. It's because snapping, magnets and the coordinate system is essentially flawed. Take a block and make sure snapping is off and move is on world. Set it's coordinates to whole values. Now turn snapping to 1 and go back into the position dialog. Chances are it's gone from whole numbers to adding or subtracting 0.10 on every axis without me having moved it. Things start to become askew by either overlapping or having gaps where there shouldn't be because trust me did the math. That's why I believe a toggle between an additive snap and absolute world snap would be helpful.

That same problem becomes exacerbated further with rotation. I have a flat block that is 0 pitch, 0 yaw, and 12.5 in the roll axis so I can use it as a ramp (preset ramps almost never work for my layouts) I want to duplicate and rotate it 180 degrees so the ramps are facing eachother. I need to use world rotation to keep it level. It looks correct but since my snap is still set to 180 the rotation now reads all zeroes!? Setting it back to 5 or 15 makes the coordinates display accurately again. So basically this is a lot of unexpected behavior, especially for a computer program. Numbers not doing what they're supposed to and forge basically being bad at math. If the coordinates displayed correctly regardless of what my snap was currently set to that would essentially clear up my problem. But I would still like that absolute grid snap just for ease of use.

 

Spawned Object and Spawn Location

Differentiation between the Spawned Object and its Spawn Location would be a MASSIVE boon to this Forge. That would not only keep us from accidentally relocating our objects when we think we're just messing with the spawned object in Forge, but it opens up some very nice possibilities. And it (should) go without saying that having a Spawn At Start property (or Spawn Time property that can be set to -1) would make some scripts easier or unnecessary.

If the Spawn Location could be scripted or welded, I could do all kinds of things like weld invisible blockers to each side of a die and then see which one won't spawn to know what number someone rolled on the die. It'd be great to move the spawn locations of weapons, vehicles, power ups, etc around.

I can see how welding Spawn Locations might be too chaotic. And maybe this request is too big of a change to add to this release of Forge, but consider it for the future.

Music Notes/Sounds

Just adding in some sounds that can be used for music (especially drums) would let me have a little fun with Timer scripting.

 

All objects seem to share the same friction coefficient (glass seems a little lower?)... It would be nice to have an option to lower / eliminate the friction value.

All objects are affected by gravity. It would be nice to be able to turn gravity off for certain objects. (Trying to create asteroids or space debris that flies across parallax... Farther than scripted movement will allow.)

 

I would ****ing kill for some grate objects. I like the way the custom-made grates look on my map, but I could do so much with the 100+ objects they take up.

 

Large mother ****ing chains like so...

 

I thought if it was fixed or phased it isn't affected by gravity. Isn't normal the only thing that takes gravity into account? I can see how friction would be a handy attribute, but I don't believe Halos physics are that detailed. I wish there were map defaults for everything including gravity and physics. That way if you wanted everything could spawn in as phased and you could change it later. Or as I mentioned being able to set your matte/metallic in map settings to save a bunch of time.

--- Double Post Merged, Feb 10, 2016 ---

Yes please to that. Wanted to fill in the pit on the rig but there's no grate that matches it. Ends up looking stupid and out of place.

 

I assume that we could be forever bogged down by listing tiny detail items, but... a mustache. There, I said it. Maybe googly eyes.

I totally second, third, fourth, whichever adding multiple sizes of pipes, especially ones that can fit (hold) together when set to Normal Physics. A few sizes of gears, bushings, shafts, Tinker Toys (TM), or some system like that could work some miracles for the movement & rotation scripting.

 

I aleady posted these ideas on another halo site.i know we have slopes that match the background but when turned to the side we loose the effect were after if i want to use as a wall.i would want item skins in the colour section.so i could have the wall cover in hanging grass but tight to wall as it just a colour.have filled and quarter fill with grass . So skins like moss , different stone effects , covenant , forunner , sand , grafftee skins , the list is endless so we can make more pro looking maps.also would like change colour off rocks and stones we already have

 

these would have been perfect for my junkyard

 

Some really cool features would be placable rag doll Spartans that could then be set to a fixed state to create 'corpse's for gametypes like infection. Imagine the hazop suit, except if all his limbs dangled free, allowing me to place multiple strewn across a room, shelves, tables, chairs, and each corpse would look different and be in his own position.

Another thing I'd like to see are one way Invisible blockers. Remember all those times one way shields have been used for Zombie entrances in the past? Lets get rid of the immersion breaking shield shall we.

With this also comes adding Music to the Sound Emitters, and allowing us to adjust the volume and the radius from which you can hear the sound emitter.

Also we need more dynamic and different types of tree's, vines, grass, and bushes, that don't react poorly to lighting (the current pine tree's will look bright and unnaturally illuminated even when in a dark, shadowed place.)

BATTLE OF NOCTUS TREE's PLEASE

 

I disagree with this to an extreme degree. The underwater texture on Alpine is a god send in my eyes and allows us to be capable of so many things we wouldn't be capable of if it were grass. My entire junkyard map, for instance, would be an unnaturally happy looking green color for starters. What we need are new canvas's, not to alter current ones. We need a LARGE flat ocean map (in which we can forge underwater) that gives us dry sand as it's 'underwater' texture (therefore giving us our sand canvas) and then have the other half of the canvas's texture fade in grass (even though it's underwater), therefore giving us the ability to forge grass next to water. Imagine an ocean only version of Awash with half of it being sand textured underneath, and half of it grass textured underneath.

 

Weapon pads in which we can customize the ammo count & also weld them to an object.

Welding objects & they stay phased or fixed.

Ability to keep the lighting of forge (before generating light) in custom games as well.