I'm not too sure that they mean its coming soon or anything. Talking can mean a lot, which includes it not coming out. I wouldn't get your hopes up for it coming out anytime soon.
I still say they need to have a map of white, the floor with a grid pattern, stretching for a great distance. But you get unlimited of most objects, like boxes and stuff, just you get a budget to keep things from getting laggy, and texture creators for the floor, and make barriers/death barriers for walls, or use premade wall structures, from metal walls to rocky mountain cliffs to creat a boundary around your map.
What bungie really needs to do is make a map editor for the computer and then bungie.net users could upload them to their xbox360's. The Map editor could let you put in stuff from mountains, to blades of grass. Also, Mabe a item creator to make walls with your own textures and stuff.
There's a problem with it though. It makes sense not to give players a white canvase, and let players choose where grass grows. Why? Business. If you doo this, no one will download new map packs. People will just get good map forgers to buy the maps, then they would just create them in forge for free. So and exact is a no-no. However, I am excited that they are talking about it, as I want to make a BTB map on forge. I would use geomerging to make interesting floors, and have full out vehichle maps. This is something to watch people.
I highlighted the parts that stood out to me. You know how tricky bungie is, so they've found a way to make us think it'll happen, when they say there have been 'discussions.' Many things are discussed, but then disagreed upon, or maybe bungie is just deceiving us. I really want this as much as you do, but knowing bungie, it's gonna be a let down.
Actually it wouldn't be too bad, I've been thinking along the same lines for how I'd like the Halo Wars editor (if there is one) to work, it would mean much more editing capability. BUT It would not work for Halo as an FPS. You need to be able to switch into player mode to test stuff, to look around, and you need to be able to do it instantly so you can test if an object is placed right before moving on. The beauty of forge is that its barely more than a gametype, you are subject to the game environment, which not only means that you can see how your map will look as you build it, but means that forge itself isn't a massive addition to the game, but more of an extended gametype. Controls, physics, and environment are all already in the game, you just have the ability to spawn and move objects. To have a full editor would mean that Bungie would have to build it from the ground up in an xbox friendly form (it couldn't be PC for the reasons above). This is much more to ask than a map pack, and has much less mass appeal. Its not gonna happen, and I think forge is a great compramise in itself. Its not perfect in some ways, but has other distinct advantages.
How bout a map creator like the one in far cry? that would be something possible to do and VERY cool.
no no, not in halo... but i remember before bungie shelved the e3 announcement, people were talking about a halo expansion pack that was rumored to have a better map editor... it's obvious it wont be done now... but in future halo based games... maybe.
As Orangeremi was so quick to point out, the text simply points to discussions of larger Foundry-style maps--this in no way confirms the fact that it will be there. Yes, I would love a new blank-slate-canvas, but I'm not going to get my hopes up until it is confirmed. Another point, what does Bungie think of the glitches that we've discovered and methodized? Judging by the fact that most geomerging and interlocking maps are still available for download, it's a pretty safe bet that they're taking a laissez faire attitude, but what if some bitter programmer decides to get in the way, and make interlocking or geomerging nothing more than a fond memory from simpler maps? Conversely, what if the map Bungie creates is a perfect cube, and all the objects contained within can be evenly stacked/spread across to fill it, thereby making everyone in the forging community fall in love again? How I see it, it'll go one of two ways: either Bungie will cater this map even more to the forging community than they did for Foundry, or they will b****slap us all in the face...
i dont think it would make any sense for bungie to take interlocking and geomerging away from us... they havent once shown anything against those glitches... if anything they are actually for it. they let MLG put forged foundry maps with geomerging and interlocking in a worldwide playlist, they are advertising forgehub on their blog, the most recent advertisement they put was on the video tut. for interlocking... im not expecting these glitches to be taken away from us at all...