Honestly speaking, its been a while since I have posted anything to ForgeHub- but, I'm here, and I'm back. This forum post will be dedicated to what people want in the next Halo's forge mode, After seeing the near infinite possibilities of the Halo 5 Forge- powered by creative mindsets of the player at hand, I would like to know what this generation of forgers would like to see in either a later update, or the newest releases in the Halo chronology. SO, lets cut to the chase- -"What Would YOU like to see in the next Halo's Forge mode?"
Cleaner and more adaptable/intuitive scripting (although I'm a programmer, I may be hardwired against the grain on this one), the possibility to use ALL weapons/vehicles/whatever that's already in the game in your map, better custom game options (Halo 3 + Reach additional options would be ideal, plus a few more options to improve from there), the ability to have "interaction" be not limited to just switches: aka, set an object's field zone to "interaction" mode and then entering it would activate the interaction, movable "constant" objects (like kill zones, brains, etc so they can move, spawn, and despawn like normal)... that's it off the top of my head.
Looking at my map Spellbound, I realize there are a lot of things I wish I had control over that I do not. So whether the next Forge is a full blown editor or another powerful step above where we are now, here are the things I wish I could do on that map: Full control over global lighting and shadows. The ability to move the canvas lighting source and angle it however will solve the majority of my lighting concerns. It will also allow me to change the design of the map in a few areas. The ability to change the skybox backdrop without changing the lighting Full control over the value of my terrain. This will allow me to properly gradate the light and dark areas of the map. The ability to tweak the radius sound travels from certain objects to EQ the atmosphere on my map Blocks that are "broken" or otherwise appear cracked and weathered. This way I can have parts of my structures appear eroded. More holographic effects with color changing. Butterflies, fireflies, bugs crawling on the ground, etc. More swirling trees with bulkier trunks, and versions without leaves. Also, the ability to change the color of the leaves. Placeable waterfalls that I can adjust the opacity and size of. Terrain textures, like gravel or sandy so some areas can be rockier The ability to overlay grass on top of rocks to make them look overgrown. A larger variety of bushes and flowers. Different kinds of lantern props and chains and wires to hang them from. Large dead vines and glowing orbs like the ones on Halo 4's abandon trees. Round invisible blockers and an option to hide all of them from view while in Forge. More simple primitives and simple rocks of various sizes. Placeable puddles, or at least a ripple gobo and a volume triggered splashing sound effect. Volumes to control where weather effects can be seen. More particle effects for light cones, and more consistent ways of viewing them so they don't disappear when you don't look at them. More consistent scripting so i can make stones rotate and lanterns sway in the wind. The option to ungroup every grouped object on the map The option to group and move the entire map The option to change the texture of all the rocks and terrain on the map without physically replacing the pieces themselves An S shaped movement for cameras so I can have a camera snake around the entire map The look of the classic power ups from Halo CE or Halo 3 back. Also, custom powerup That's all i can think of for now. The layout on my map is already solid, but I can make it so much more cleaner with some of these, and push the art that much further. I'd have puddles in each cave where water would naturally pool. I'd have a small pond near the blue spawn where the death pit formally was. I'd have roots sprawl downward from the tree in the middle and envelope the center platform. I'd have more lanterns lining each cave and blowing in the wind. I'd have waterfalls in more places throughout the map. I'd have the stone rotating on the teleporter exit. I'd have butterflies on one side of the map and fireflies on another. I'd have vines overgrowing red spawn and kudzu overgrowing blue spawn. I'd spend days mixing the sound so that every area on the map had a different ambiance. Perhaps most importantly, I'd be able to get some beautiful clouds or a starry sky in my skybox. Forge is incredibly powerful for it to produce a map like Spellbound, but I can only imagine how much more enchanting the map would be with the aforementioned changes. I'm tempted to recreate it in Maya just to see.
^ a lot of those inspired a couple more ideas. - reskinning objects. Rather than recoloring, I wish I could view the skins of any object and just replace or modify them. On computer version maybe? - being able to turn any object invisible. Comes with the reskinning, but basically why have a separate item for invisible versions of things when we could just change the skin to invisible? No need for blockers that way either, which means fewer objects to include. -this again sort of goes with reskinning, but "paint mode", where we can paint a texture onto an object. This could give us more detailed grass or rock or whatever on part of an object without having to reskin the whole thing.
Make glass a 'material' (texure) Ability to re scale primitive dimentions by 1 point 1x6 32x43 66x12 Etc...
The ability to create your own primitives (Brushes) 2D view complete with grid A plethora of textures that can be applied to any object All avalible stock prefabs and models A complex more "real" scripting system More geographical pieces and effects An enhanced and more customizable lighting system (God rays, speculars, opacity, size options, ect.) Plainer canvases (Or the ability to make your own) As many sandbox elements as possible even if they aren't available in standard MP Maybe a Steam Workshop sort of thing Not really Forge related but, a higher player count of 24 - 30 (?)
-The abbility to create volumes where the weather has no effect, like a weather blocker. Maybe even fog blockers. -More trees and lots of barren trees without leaves and with custom colors, not crazy colors but just a variety of natural colors. -All of the simple blocks the same amount of sizes as the detailed blocks. -Lights that stay visible, even from long range. -Spheres. Solid and hollow. Also 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 of spheres. I think I forgot half of the stuff I wanted 6 months ago lol
-The ability to remove all collision on objects of choice (that way creating backdrops on natural maps dont use up the physics budget) -Performance meter like from H2A forge -Larger choice of graphical/shader/lighting/render options PERFORMANCE ISSUES INCOMING -Custom render distance -The choice of rendering player shadows in global lighting -Choice for lights to cast shadows -Choice of more than one screen filter -Higher choice of screen filters -Bloom 'slider' (increase bloom threshold/intensity) -The choice to change player illumination for immersion reasons on maps such as The Crypt by WyvernZu. I'm sure i can think of more, but those should be taken with a grain of salt due to performance on current hardware. -More reliable welding and scripted movement (objects don't move consistently, they kind of shake while they move towards the end point). -EDIT1: Scripting movement that can ease in and out of a point so it looks organic. -EDIT1: larger selection of options for cameras for better cinematic shots. -Weapon welding so objects move as you hold weapons. -Creating welded groups that can have individual movement (eg. pelican door closing/opening as it's moving in a direction all through scripting). -Creating our own assets -To explain this, I'll first state that I have no idea if this is possible or not. The basis of this is that you can create your own structures with blocks/natural blocks then when you group and weld, you can use it as it's own asset so instead of using an approximate of 50 objects for a building, it can be crunched and considered one object. The way this can potentially work is if you have time before the match to generate collision geometry along with the generation of lighting. -(This one is popular, but) Place-able AI. I don't expect much, mainly stuff like the marines in WZ. This shouldnt be too much of a hassle even if we are required to add the firing positions and move positions on our own. -Follow up on the last one, scriptable movement for AI. I'm sure there's more that I can think of, but for now this is my list. These next few aren't Forge related, but these are things I hope they change for the next game. -Lower the amount of specularity and gloss that is on everything. It makes everything look plastic and inorganic. Best seen on forge canvases/WZ maps where no matter where you look/where you are, your weapon and arms reflect everything as if it were freshly cut steel. I don't want my AR to look as if it's fresh out of the factory coated with 14 liters of vegetable oil. Lowering the amount could also increase the performance of the game.
- I want terrain sculpting and painting like cryengine editors. Very simple and easy to use but extremely powerful. These rigid terrain blocks we have make for some very ugly and unnecessary transitions. Reference: - Scripting fix is a must for Halo 5. Rotation and smoother movement at least! - reskinning objects could also be implemented in Halo 5 easily
Better shapes palette. There should be simple and detailed pallets for all the shapes, and an actually decent number of simple primitives. I’d also like an easier to work with Detailed palette. Improved object texture and overlay system. Changing the global light brightness and shadow brightness.
Uniform scaling on objects. No more gaps in size options, significant decluttering of the object browser. Bonus points if it works properly when you apply it to grouped objects.
SMALLER BENCHES On a less serious note: Full control of skybox and global lighting Detailed lighting objects: flashlights, flares, covie light stick, glowsticks Color wheel or hex color code More animated objects: H2 birds/seagulls, covie/forerunner holograms Backround objects: buildings, ships, covie cruiser Spheres Expended ammunition objects Weapon specific ammo Desert world... Furge World That's all I can currently think of... Edit: Just thought of something, posable bodies/rag dolls and destroyed vehicles
-I would like an attraction system, where objects can be on numerical attraction channels that attract objects of the same number and repel objects of its inverse value. -AI, duh. If they are at all decent with pathfinding, it could work HSVA-RGBA color slider with all current colors as default. -Adjustable specularity, reflection, and a Matte/Metallic/Glossy system. -Script volumes. I find myself really hurting without those. -A proper Normal Physics. Trying to make a simple perfectly aligned wall with normal phys blocks is almost impossible. -Revamped lighting, allowing changes to global brightness, and several screen filters. -A looking various map properties to be changed with scripting. -Larger script limit per object(not total scripts, though that could work) -More than 26 channels, i.e. 1-100 or adding more numerics after the alphabetical channels run out.
Everyone always says “AI in Forge” but here’s the thing: AI in Forge are out of scope. Forge is a tool for making Arena maps, and Arena doesn’t have AI. Until we get Forge for a gamemode with AI (Firefight, Warzone, etc) I think it’s just out of the scope of what Forge is supposed to be.
Well, campaign is arena with AI and a story by your logic. AI isn't out of scope. I would think that all you would have to do is simply take regular AI and allow us to select them and place them somewhere else. There would have to be a dormant state so they wouldn't always be active, but that's beyond the point. Forge is Halo's answer to an editing program. AI is not at all out of scope. The thing you see is simply with the gametypes we get to mess around with, but even then I don't see how you reached your conclusion.
Forge is meant for more than arena maps. Some of the best creations in Halo custom games aren't core maps at all. AI is not out of the question, Far cry can do it well, Halo COULD.