- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Forge has too many limitations that prevent us from making decent maps. But, it's great at creating map variants. And that's why it should stay. One of my reasons for continually playing Halo 3 was because of the extreme amount of custom content and content creation. It's one of the features of the game that almost no other 360 game has.
I originally had a massive description of my ideal map editor in Halo: Reach. However, I managed to condense it down to this:
The map editor in Halo: Reach (if Bungie chooses to add this) should be simple, but also be powerful. It also shouldn't require that the player stacks up a pile of various sized boxes and wedges in order to make a map. When you first go into this map editor, you would be presented with a completely open area, absolutely nothing has been already placed on the map. There is, however, a small ball at the center of the map that would allow you to adjust the size of the map, and change the sky.
In this map editor, you would be able to set the X, Y and Z coordinates of the boxes manually to get a more precise placement. You should also be able to manually set the length, width, height, roll, pitch and yaw as well. You would set these by opening up the object properties box (the one that allows you to adjust the respawn settings of objects), press the right trigger to get to the location, size or angle tabs and then set the value by entering a number through an in-game number pad. You would also be be able to change the texture, color, and transparency. We should also be allowed to turn on or off object physics for a certain object.
The objects we are given in Halo: Reach's map editor should be basic geometric shapes with very few polygons so we can place many of them. We should also be given the ability to create height maps for terrain, water, lights and real gravity lifts. Again, all of these would be fully customizable.
The last thing I would like in Halo: Reach's map editor is the ability to cut a certain piece of map geometry out of another piece to create hallways and complex structures without having to interlocking several hundred Block, Huge and Block, Doubles together.
[/wishful thinking]
So, what do you think?
[Edited on 07.29.2009 2:54 PM PDT]