Ideas for Forge Improvement by an avid Forger

Hey guys, I just posted this over at Bungie.net, but I figured you would appreciate it as well. Enjoy

Dear Bungie,

As a long-time user of Forge as a creation tool, I have come to recognize many strengths, but also areas for potential improvement in the implementation and palette available to the creator; this post will discuss some of these. It is long, but should prove insightful for the experienced or aspiring Forger.

The first limitation on the creator, as opposed to the general player, is the need for the engine to run in real-time, with real-time physics, gravity, and other environmental factors at work. I recognize that this is a design choice to enable multiple players to participate in the Forge session; however, a setting for a no-physics Forge mode strictly for one player creation would be ideal. I realize adding options adds complexity, which is always difficult; perhaps an advanced menu available only in single-player Forge would prevent confusion.

Other options that would be useful to the advanced user include being able to turn on a no-collide mode, so that merging can become more organic and experimental. As it stands the process of delaying the respawning of objects and restarting rounds can become time-consuming, and is inaccurate at best when placing new objects. The lack of easily placed, immovable, and non-interacting markers creates a feeling of randomness when exact measurements are what is needed. Perhaps a ghost outline of all delayed-spawn objects on the map would allay some of the confusion.

An easily accessible coordinate system would also alleviate the feeling of "free space" that is often felt when placing objects, especially when trying to place at unusual but still exact angles, instead of the easier perpendiculars. This would allow the creation of more organic maps by streamlining the object placement process. Again, I realize that the addition of such complex information being given to the player can definitely lead to confusion, but I believe that the more advanced forgers would be perfectly able to use this information in order to create better, more polished maps, in turn benefiting the whole community, casual and hardcore players alike.

Other improvements could be made in the palette of objects available to the player; while the weapons, equipment, and vehicles palettes are essentially fixed by the design of the game, the scenery palette is open and the possibilities near limitless. However, these pieces must be designed early in the course of development of the map, in order to fit the theme, and because they need to be linked to the map. This limits the ability of the developer to foresee exactly which shapes the creator will need; the standard geometric shapes and variations thereof fit well enough, but they're not very exciting to create with. Without going into too long of a list, here are a few ideas for objects that would benefit advanced users and be more fun to create with:

- windows, small and large.

- a large variety of thin platform sizes for floor materials, and bridges/linkages. Often the floor of the level can be the hardest part to get right.

- a few different types of small blocks, including 2 foot, 4 foot, 6 foot, and ten foot cube and flatter pieces.

- more unusual pieces; obelisks and fins from Sandbox are excellent examples. Objects with relatively subdued lighting, lamps, computers, other installations, would allow for more exciting set pieces.

- more lighting and graphical effects orbs. However, I feel that more subtle effects are called for when the desire is to create a unique space to play properly in; existing effects are simply too dark or turned up too high to be practical to the forger with an eye towards gameplay.

- more of everything! Smaller decorative pieces, very large flat pieces, 4x walls, would all be useful.

- posts. I always find myself needing to fill one small space where corners don't meet up; two or three types of narrow, non-physics reacting, and attractive looking post or column would allow for much easier map polishing.

I find Forge to be a useful, effective, and smart toolset; however, with these ideas implemented, it could start to become an even more powerful creation device for the console user. I realize that the majority, if not all of these fixes are impossible in the current iteration of Forge; however, I believe Bungie has a head-start on the process of level design for the console consumer, and would strongly recommend that their next game have an even more robust toolset for this kind of creation.

If you have any other ideas for useful objects, please comment. I have more ideas percolating on what other additions I would like to see in Bungie's new 3D workspaces; I'll post once I have my thoughts in order. Thank you for reading! Happy Forging.