I just wanted to point out the faulty logic with this statement. Less maps equals more repetition, because you are playing each map more often. It's common sense. What has more variety: A game with 25 multiplayer maps, or a game with 50 multiplayer maps? Clearly the game with 50 maps because you spend less time on each map. You are looking at the forge maps wrong. The problem wasn't the number of maps, it was the fact that they all looked similar (compared to shipped maps). The more maps with similar visuals, the more repetitive they will become.
I wanted to interject that I strongly agree with what you're talking about here. I'm a fan of SC, WC3, SC2 and custom content is so prevalent in these popular titles. Many of my favorite games were the simple ones that I could recreate with editor triggers. Custom games were the entire reason I wanted SC2. Custom games are still played on SC and WC3 which is why I purchased the battlechests twice. That is a good example of community/free development attracting money. It's also a testament to gameplay over graphics. When I saw Forge in Halo 3, I thought of trigger editing in WC3. When I saw the gametype labels for Invasion it really demonstrated how possible something like that is in Halo. This is why I don't understand the digression of custom games in Halo 4, it was a pretty good step from Halo 3 to Reach for gametypes in what was available. Thinking about it, it appears that 343 / the development of Halo has focused on story and competitive multiplayer in Halo 4. Halo being old is probably the reason for this. Bungie noticeably put more effort into improving the functionality and power of Forge between 3 and Reach, as custom games were very popular in Halo 3. But like you said, development has not fully committed to the idea. TL;DR I wonder why that is. Feeling threatened is a likely reason. AA's in Reach and the gameplay was quite a contrast from Halo 3 and COD activity started doing a lot better as a result. It's possible that they are gearing up for the next big thing, whether it's a new game or next-generation. By saving the amazing concepts you can use the great ones now to build momentum towards legendary concepts. It's all about efficiency and monopolization at this stage. That said, we can haz precizion movez?
The sad thing about H4 forge is that there was no progress, 343i ignored this community and they should have given forge the time that it deserves so that progress can be made. I think it's horrible that they have decided to not listen and improve this game mode that has seen improvements all the way through H3 to Reach. I don't understand how they think they can ignore Forge and hope to compete with CoD. It would be like Treyarc not improving zombies for Black Ops 2
Im sure they ignored the community and will continue to do so because there is no money in it. This planet revolves around profit... that is the only reason anything is made in the first place.
I'm not sure how up to date this may be, I haven't read all 9 pages of this thread however - I've been taking to Certain Affinity, they seem really open to suggestions. I gave them a few and they picked out the ones they liked and said "We'll run these up the chain"
How did you talk to them? Like sent them emails? I want to work for these guys when I get my degree in about 9 months! Good to know that they're responsive.
I've heard from some other people who have been in contact with CA and generally they have been very open to community feedback and suggestions, and they are aware of all the glitches and problems in forge because of this feedback. I also heard rumor that we may get precision editing back after all. Don't quote me on this but I heard that they had planned to simply port Reach's forge over and add to it/ put it in it's current setting and that a few things were lost in translation. Whether this is true or not or if it leads to us getting this tool back I don't know, but I dearly hope so. Precision editing being back would solve one of my major issues with Forge.
If they're fixing forge functionality, Shoe, we need the return of precision editing, the ability to zoom when holding ALL objects (it still works with some, usually smaller ones), and turning off this dumb auto-centering thing when you grab big pieces. If you want an instant migraine, just try building a fully enclosed, fairly tight map and then grabbing or spawning a coliseum wall inside of it.
Someone here mentioned the other day that we can still have precision editing by holding the object, moving the camera all the way up or down (looking at the sky or ground), and then simply moving the object precisely. I went in the other day and can confirm that it does work. It may take some getting used to, but precision editing is still here. Another method you can use (my preferred method) is one I think I learned from Titmar. When trying to precisely move an object on the Z-axis, hold the object, push LB/RB and then immediately after press the A button to let go of the object. To precisely move in the X/Y-axis do the same thing but instead of pushing LB/RB, flick the left joystick in the direction you're moving. I always used this method in Reach and hardly ever used the method everyone says is "gone".
It's a reasonable workaround for some objects (big ones mostly) but it doesn't work for vertical movement, only horizontal; and you can't be close enough to the object to actually see the type of precision you need a lot of times. So it's helpful but hardly a substitute. No need for sarcastic quotes, as precision movement is, in fact, gone. I use this workaround too (bumper and near-simultaneous release) but it can be finicky, requiring lots of taps up and down to get the object in the exact right place. Actually it seems more finicky to me in Halo 4 than it was in Reach, but I may be imagining that since I don't have any other way to do it and am constantly fighting with this one.
A thread on the waypoint forums is fighting for better custom game options. We should support them, and they support us as well Custom game thread
That's a shame if it's a bit harder to do in H4:/ I haven't started a map yet so I haven't had a chance to notice this. I guess it would be nice to have back, but I feel with these two methods we should be able to accomplish everything we need.
Yeah, it seems like the initial movement speed is perhaps quicker, so you have to be REALLY fast on the release. Like just a thousandth of a second apart kind of fast, if you're trying to just barely move something.
Very cool, thanks for the info, that's awesome you've been talking to them! Once I get a little bit more info together, I would like to have more of a conversation with you. Are you able to tell us what suggestions you gave them? What suggestions do you feel like they were open to? Thank you, thank you! Threads like this are exactly what I was looking for. I'm still working on my own list of custom gametypes I would really like to see brought back and added. This will help. I do plan on posting over on this thread, and I encourage other to do the same. Once I get my list done, I'm actually going to message it to this guy. And btw, to everyone in thread, sorry it's taking me a couple of days to get said list done. I've been, and am going to be, really busy with work and traveling. Hopefully I'll be able to get a bit more work done on organizing info later today and tomorrow. Also, has everyone seen this really good article about forging by gamestop about Certain Affinity? Mick Raider/ Vincent Torre just sent it to me. : Halo 4 Not Built By Microsoft Alone - GameSpot.com Couple of key points: - "Forge, we did the majority of the feature work for Forge. And pretty much all of the content." - "The majority of people aren't going to get into Forge, but the vast majority of people benefit from the creations of those people who are really willing to invest in it." - "Hoberman: There's just something that we overlooked that allows you to move objects around with intimate detail that…like I said, it's just an oversight on our part and we're already talking about getting it fixed." Very good news I think. I'll be including this article at the beginning of this thread soon. What do you guys think?
I've spoken to CA as well. I will try to summarize what their response was. It's obvious that you are passionate about forge, and we really appreciate that. We admit that the lack of a precision editor feature is a problem, and are looking to bring it back. The way the forge systems is programmed, it makes it much easier for us to provide updates when necessary. I can't wait to see what you guys come up with! All of this sounds nice, but I'm skeptical that he is just telling me what I want to hear. Time will tell, I guess. It seems he skipped the part of my message stating that I choose not to purchase the game, due to the current state of forge, lol.
Lol, Way to make a stand man! Have you really not bought Halo 4?! That's definitely cool you spoke to them. Did you bring up any other points beside the lack of a precision editor? Like the lack of game type options? Or the 3 forge maps being a little disappointing?
I wonder if they would remove the annoying monitor noises too. It seems nit picky, but after a couple of hours in forge you start to go insane from that odd whirring sound. The TV has never stayed on mute so much before in it's life.
To be brutally honest, I think 343's main focus was on all this Infinity bullshit, making it all tie into the story and all that, and then they slapped on Customs and Forge at the last second. Forge is literally a blatant copy of Reach's Forge, except with a few retextures and three terrible Forge maps instead of one good one (Forge World). With Customs, it's like they diliberately took a **** on the casual customs community. No zombie settings! Are you kidding me? Infection has ALWAYS been the centerpiece of casual customs! Really, how can they NOT know that? They REALLY f***ed up imo.
Noted. I've seen a few other people ask for that too. They'll also admit that it's not a huge deal, it's just kind of ridiculous to mute the TV all the time. I'll have to add that to the list, after the other bigger problems. Thanks.