Over the last year, Forge has become an incredibly powerful editor, allowing us to build nearly anything we can imagine. And as Forge has grown, so too has the community's creativity and understanding of level design. So how would you say you have changed over the last year? I've personally learned a lot of valuable things: Let There Be Light Forge's lighting engine is surprisingly very powerful, and something as simple as a color change or falloff ratio can allow the player to create near photorealistic lighting. Since dynamic lighting was added to Forge in Halo 4, I've been Forging with lighting sources in mind, but Halo 5 is the first time I really had to think about how I wanted to set dress a map. I've learned a lot about local lighting and ambient lighting and how it influences the mood of the map and captures a player's attention. It's much easier to experiment with lighting on a dark map, but even a brighter map can still play around with light sources and different illuminated areas, and I enjoy watching the map come to life when it reaches this stage. Geometry Is Art Before Halo 5, I was always experimenting with oddly shaped maps because I wanted to create something that looked cool. But due to the limitations of Forge back then, I often found myself stuck working with a specific shape or formula, and it took me a long time to break out of that. I'm still focused on creating interesting shapes that characterize my maps, but now I'm introducing more variation and making use of the budget to make maps "off the rails". Another improvement I've made in this area is that I'm starting to make different areas of the map have unique visuals and geometry to separate them. While this is not necessary for every map, there are some maps that benefit from a differentiation in structure, and I enjoy thinking of ways to blend shapes to facilitate that. Piecing A Puzzle Together The most noticeable improvement in my Forging is in my piece usage. My terrain is much cleaner and my structure tends to focus more on large, simple shapes as opposed to wasteful detail. Scaling With Scope Changing my pieces has also helped me with scaling. Halo 5 has a weird, claustrophobic field of view that makes maps feel smaller than they actually are. This was a challenge early on for me because all of my maps ended up being massive. Once I learned how to keep maps tighter and found a scaling template I was comfortable with, everything started to feel cozier. So instead of making my maps physically large, I've learned to make my macro shapes larger and simple to give the map depth. I also started to experiment with aspect ratios to help direct players and keep their eyes trained in the map. Color Is Crucial Color influences the mood and emotions of a map and it's by far my favorite aspect of Forge. I always look forward to making a new color palette for a map and it's something I've really improved in, especially since Tidal and Barrens have better lighting than the original canvases. I used to worry too much about the way things looked, but with the lighting updates (which have mostly helped) and new pieces, I'm able to spend more time realizing my ideas and less time planning them. Pathfinding I was a very macro Forger when Halo 5 launched and this meant that my Forging was very barebones. But I began experimenting with more micro pathing and splitting routes into different connections; now I feel like my maps are becoming more intricate and my encounters will be more dynamic. Second Guessing I've never spent too much time working on one map without branching off into a new concept or design, but I was never confident in my designs and I would second guess every decision I made, leading to stagnation. Everything I've learned over the last year has given me a solid foundation, so even though I still doubt my ideas and criticize my work, I've gotten better at following my instincts and solving problems. Feeling reflective? Look at your work from last year compared to now and see what you've gotten better at, and perhaps what you may need to focus on next.
It took me the entire year to finally start using magnets regularly; finally breaking my ancient Reach habits.
I've started forging a year ago and I've learned that making maps is far more difficult than I thought. I have very little understanding of maps and even though this community has a huge deal of talent my timezone is so awful for all those lobbies here I just gave up on becoming a better forger or 'map designer'. I really enjoy being creative with forge and I just build and share. But I do enjoy the maps people share, the piece usage, themes, lighting and just the general creativity of this community.
I haven't finished a map and actually been happy with it since Halo 3. So I would say if anything I've remained the same.
All my maps where trash before H5, I can now come up with good layouts, alongside passing/good aesthetics. All around i think i'm a 4/5 Post H5 Which is a huuuge improvement I just don't understand why my maps don't blow up like some other less than stellar maps do. Like my Sangheli map is def the best all around Sang map out there atm but might as well collect dust at this point
Man where to even begin... I've learned a ton about layout building for sure. Before Forge was just a creative tool for me to kinda flesh out all the wild ideas in my head. It was like that ever since Halo 3 really lol. But over the last year I've learned a bunch about map design, flow, etc etc and for the most part, I feel like I've applied that knowledge. Art art art art art. I recently played Reach again and peeked in at some of my old maps. There was a mix of Nostalgia and disgust lol. Halo 5 may not be the best looking game around but this Forge far surpasses any other in terms of how good you can make a map look. At first I really relied on primitive, detailed pieces, had no idea what light map meant and I only would use natural lighting because playing with the light emitters didn't seem worth it. I think I've really improved and I can more easily get what's in my head on the canvas. I gotta give love to my early stuff though. Maps like Rust Garden, Moros and Ares are ugly as ****, but ironically enough are still some of my most bookmarked maps. Here's to another great year!
I feel you bro. I put a lot of work into my maps and I see maps that aren't as interesting or sometimes don't even play well get way more attention. But that's why now I just forge because that is what makes me happy. I try to improve for myself. I'll give your maps a look.
I still am finding it pretty hard to come up with an original designs I'm very happy with. I've only finished two maps, Tremont Square very early on, and Aerocrest, a remake. I like my ability to actually use forge to create structures I like, but the designs I make are all blah to me. Also, scaling in this game is still ****ed because of the stupid movement mechanics we have.
Every map I come up with I trash. I don't see it as being worthy to play on at all. Right now though I'm remaking Warlock from Halo 2 with the Sangheili pieces, in Halo 5's scale. It may end up scrapped too.
Making note if taking the WHOLE year to branch out into new territory, I finally started making terrain maps. Believe it or not I always felt that using terrain pieces would be too easy, and that I didn't want to cater to the asym craving community. That kept me trapped and, with all my different renditions of Reconciled, I noticed I was starting to grow bored of the semisymmetric land I called home. Enter Goat Man No matter how un-prolific you feel, I've kept your use of terrain on a backburner in my mind. The very fact that you're so harsh on yourself contributed a great deal to my first chunk of Reverie; I found myself asking "would goat scrap it?" a lot, especially with the center enclosure. TL; DR Aesthetics were curbed greatly I'm not as pompous Terrain is my friend, not foe Tough love gets the job done
I think I've improved a bunch since Forge came out. This was my first map in Halo 5, pretty awful: These are a few of my more recent maps: I still have a long way to go. I'm not great at layouts and I have a tendency to over-design things a bit. I also often value visuals more than gameplay on certain maps a lot, something I'm desperately trying to change. I also take forever to finish maps these days. But I think I, and a lot of other forgers here have improved their work tremendously!
Thanks man! That's Navigator. I made some huge changes on it based off of feedback I got, and I also re-did the art with the Sangheili pieces. It should be posted soon, along with a pretty big update to my Forerunner BTB map Recluse
I was actually looking forward to seeing what you said because I remember Bastille and how different it is from your later maps.
For me it was more about self discovery that expands beyond Forge. While I was never good (and to be honest still am not great) at making detailed buildings/structures I found part of myself in Terrain and Landscapes. I learned that for me its more about the environment and immersion rather then the detail. You can see that in Dispelled, it has very simple structures but a deep atmosphere. One of my favorite parts of forging now has become the research. I spend a significant amount of time just flipping through pictures on google looking at our beautiful nature and mysterious ruins, and/or watching documentaries about places I didn't even knew existed. Heck I don't even need to be preparing for a forge map to do some research, I think it is more of a hobby now. I guess you could say I fell in love with what's out there beyond our screens and consoles. I even decided to take it one more step and am going to Sweden/Norway this year with a friend so I can just see more about what's out there and not behind a screen. When something really captivates me however, I want to put it together in Forge so I can experience it in some shape or form. I learned nothing is perfect, so don't be afraid to turn off magnets and go crazy, mother nature doesn't use magnets either. I also learned that you get the best results if you ask other forgers for their opinions, sometimes you are just so blinded by your high effort and hard work that you don't see the elephant in the room right in front of your monitor face. I really do owe a lot to Forge as it has truly opened my eyes. Thanks Forge!
I remember when forge first came out my maps felt so empty because I was expecting the frame rate to crash. I was also didn't join forfehub until last year. All because xdemption encouraged me and then I started to meet a bunch of cool people and learned a lot about layouts mainly from playtesting and playing other well designed maps. I'm thankful for this community and honestly learned a little of everything because of other helpful forgers and now I try to help out others. But now it's not enough to make just a good map; now I feel like my maps need to incorporate fresh concepts. Goat I'm so great full that you looked at my maps and now that I have more experience I am now planning for how art and gameplay come together in unique ways rather than trying to make a map out of just one idea like a crashed pelican.
I stopped forging lol Edit: Many of my forge maps are being remade in Unreal for my game design portfolio. I need one to apply at Gearbox. I live only about 30 miles away form their Frisco, TX location, so their's that.
bastille was my best map of all time it was so good that I had to delete it, the community wasn't ready yet