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  • Subject: My Idea For Forge in Halo: Reach
Subject: My Idea For Forge in Halo: Reach
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WARNING WALL OF TEXT, FLAMERS NOT WELCOME
I would like to say that these are just a few of my ideas that I would like to implement into the game, and good sensible suggestions are taken into consideration.

Forge Tweaking

Bungie, you've done a great job, I love forge, but I think with the new engine for Reach, you could do better. Hear are some things I would like to change, from the forge we have.
I would like it to start on a completely blank map, with just the ground, no themes, or Guardians, just pure blank white. The ability to move faster in monitor form, its very annoying back when I was forging on Sandbox and had to fly across the skybubble to get to my creation and it took SO long. No Budget limit, please, no Object limit either, I've heard of so many maps ruined by this Object Limit(I know it's to prevent overloading of the map with too much stuff, but come on!)




Extra Features

One feature I have been dying for is a snap in place feature, the ability to instantly make the object go from 180 degress to 90, so theres no need for all the rotation. What also find quite tedious is when I put a wall down and it just tilts slightly, or falls over, I would like an Option that once you let go it instantly locks into place.

You know the feature called Geomerging/Interlocking, there both glitches. But what if they were an actual game feature, no more starting new rounds to interlock, or using doors to geomerge!My Idea: Just like the classic Forge, you bring up the menu using X while in forge mode, select the object, press X again while your holding the object, go down to ability and change it to ghost mode. Ghost means it's pretty much passable by all objects(passes through objects and other scenery). Using this you can easily interlock or geomerge into your surroundings without a glitch.

I love the idea how you can respawn items, or make them not place at start, but there were always limits, like 3 min was the max anything could be placed not at start. I would like to change it to 10min, and be more flexible with the time, being able to make it spawn in at any time in between 10min. I also want a Feature that makes items despawn at certain time inbetween 10min(Example: 3 min into the game, the block will disappear, revealing another entrance)

You know how some maps had themes to them? Like snow or sand, or something ancient or futuristic looking? Well what if you had all these themes at the ends of you fingers! For instance, spawn a warthog, press X and change the theme to snow, and BOOM, the warthog now has a light snow coating and white camo! But it won't stop there, just like the FX effects in Halo 3, i think you should have themes, you spawn them(looking similar to what the FX items looked like) and BAM you instantly have some snow fall on your Map, or with a different theme a raging sand Storm! You could also change the background theme, from maybe out in space, or in the middle of a desert, on a mysterious planet ETC.

This idea is simple and not all that complicated, I would just want an AI that you could spawn and place, whether it be flood, marines, elites, brutes, hunters, ETC. Even if the AI didn't have the ability to fight, a simple clone would be okay with me, just to decorate a map, like putting to brutes in front of a door to "guard".

Finally something I've always wanted, A FULL MAP EDITOR! the ability to grab the landscape and pull it up to make mountains, or to indent the landscape and make deep gorges, and rivers, something like Farcry 2, but in Halo Style.

Here is also something that I just thought of, objective skins, like maybe make the ability to make the Flag in CTF a katana, or a suitcase, you know to mix it up a but or just make it Funner! Maybe make the oddball, a spartan helmet, or a rubber red ball, and there still more features that could be added to this game. And the shade from Campaign, seems like a reasonable weapon why not implement it into forge?

Suggestions
Posted by: DebatingBoot
Great ideas. They would be very useful. However, if Bungie was to include a Map Editor in Reach, they would most likely move all of the Map Editor functions of Halo 3's Forge in this new Map Editor. For instance, I believe that in Reach, we won't get maps like Sandbox with static items like Block, Doubles on them.

Also, I have several ideas that I've been trying to get around as well. Perhaps if you agree with them you could put them in your topic. Here they are:

Map Editor Ideas For Reach
-have object library composed of only 4 geometrical primitives (cube, triangular prism, cylinder, sphere) that are relatively low-polygon so we can place many of them, as well as height maps, water, death barriers, soft ceilings, gravity lifts, etc...
-ability to edit color, texture and opacity on an object.
-ability to resize objects (x,y, and z individually)
-ability to position the x,y,z coordinates of objects
-ability to change the roll, pitch and yaw of objects
-ability to edit the last three properties of objects using a keypad type thing
-ability to create bump maps/height maps (whatever they are called)
-ability to create water
-ability to turn physics on or off for anything so we can make our own crates, barriers, etc...
-ability to cut certain geometry out of other geometry
-ability to place 'death barriers' as mentioned by Zorinth, but they should be transparent like on every other map
-ability to place customizable gravity lifts with different effects and heights/diameters
-ability to give objects basic scripting capabilities so we can make buttons, drawbridges, giant rotating things, etc...
-ability to enable/disable the more advanced options so new users aren't overwhelmed by them
-give us a completely blank map to build on. No preexisting objects at all.
-limit our maps to numbers of polygons total, not by some predetermined value
-fix the 'glitch' that causes walls to be uneven to conserve file size. Videos can be 16 megabytes easily, so why is Bungie trying to keep map sizes so low?
-allow us to have more than 100 items of user-created content
-ability to group objects together
-ability to change the weather and atmosphere of the map
-ability to copy/paste objects or groups
-ability to place soft ceilings to keep people from leaving the map
-ability to create 'zones' that give certain teams different base player traits
-allow us to place the objective objects without changing gametype
-put in as many Halo Wars vehicles in forge as you can. They'll be like the Fuel Rod Gun and Incendiary grenades.
-allow us to alter the power and abilities of vehicles. Bungie did this on Avalanche with the Transport Hornet
-more specific spawn characteristics, ie: VIP, Juggernaut spawns, etc.

In my greatest Hopes I wish Bungie would read this, and maybe give it 3 seconds of thought.

Suggestions are welcome, and this thread will be changing constantly

[Edited on 09.13.2009 10:28 AM PDT]

  • 09.13.2009 7:43 AM PDT
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reserved

[Edited on 09.13.2009 9:08 AM PDT]

  • 09.13.2009 7:44 AM PDT
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reserved

  • 09.13.2009 7:48 AM PDT

that would be difficult to make but it sounds very cool

  • 09.13.2009 9:08 AM PDT
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Posted by: the n00b pwner
that would be difficult to make but it sounds very cool

finally someone replied, i thought i would of written this for nothing.

  • 09.13.2009 9:10 AM PDT
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Posted by: Viet Honor
Posted by: the n00b pwner
that would be difficult to make but it sounds very cool

finally someone replied, i thought i would of written this for nothing.


once I have written a 9000 character long thread.
it got 5 replies. so dont complain...

  • 09.13.2009 9:38 AM PDT
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Check this Halo Reach video out!

  • 09.13.2009 9:47 AM PDT
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Posted by: z0rgy
Posted by: Viet Honor
Posted by: the n00b pwner
that would be difficult to make but it sounds very cool

finally someone replied, i thought i would of written this for nothing.


once I have written a 9000 character long thread.
it got 5 replies. so dont complain...

save the thread, keep bumping every couple of ours.

  • 09.13.2009 10:19 AM PDT
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  • Senior Mythic Member

Proud frenchie, elite fan, anthro artist not hellbent on yiff convention/pics/whatever, mature and intelligent forum guy, 4chaner, halo 2 lover and halo 3 hater.

people on this forum can't read more than 5 sentences in a row, that's the problem. that's why your thread gets like no reply except from mine and a spammer's...

:| too much words is too hard for them to understand.

  • 09.13.2009 10:22 AM PDT
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Great ideas. They would be very useful. However, if Bungie was to include a Map Editor in Reach, they would most likely move all of the Map Editor functions of Halo 3's Forge in this new Map Editor. For instance, I believe that in Reach, we won't get maps like Sandbox with static items like Block, Doubles on them.

Also, I have several ideas that I've been trying to get around as well. Perhaps if you agree with them you could put them in your topic. Here they are:

Map Editor Ideas For Reach
-have object library composed of only 4 geometrical primitives (cube, triangular prism, cylinder, sphere) that are relatively low-polygon so we can place many of them, as well as height maps, water, death barriers, soft ceilings, gravity lifts, etc...
-ability to edit color, texture and opacity on an object.
-ability to resize objects (x,y, and z individually)
-ability to position the x,y,z coordinates of objects
-ability to change the roll, pitch and yaw of objects
-ability to edit the last three properties of objects using a keypad type thing
-ability to create bump maps/height maps (whatever they are called)
-ability to create water
-ability to turn physics on or off for anything so we can make our own crates, barriers, etc...
-ability to cut certain geometry out of other geometry
-ability to place 'death barriers' as mentioned by Zorinth, but they should be transparent like on every other map
-ability to place customizable gravity lifts with different effects and heights/diameters
-ability to give objects basic scripting capabilities so we can make buttons, drawbridges, giant rotating things, etc...
-ability to enable/disable the more advanced options so new users aren't overwhelmed by them
-give us a completely blank map to build on. No preexisting objects at all.
-limit our maps to numbers of polygons total, not by some predetermined value
-fix the 'glitch' that causes walls to be uneven to conserve file size. Videos can be 16 megabytes easily, so why is Bungie trying to keep map sizes so low?
-allow us to have more than 100 items of user-created content
-ability to group objects together
-ability to change the weather and atmosphere of the map
-ability to copy/paste objects or groups
-ability to place soft ceilings to keep people from leaving the map
-ability to create 'zones' that give certain teams different base player traits
-allow us to place the objective objects without changing gametype
-put in as many Halo Wars vehicles in forge as you can. They'll be like the Fuel Rod Gun and Incendiary grenades.
-allow us to alter the power and abilities of vehicles. Bungie did this on Avalanche with the Transport Hornet
-more specific spawn characteristics, ie: VIP, Juggernaut spawns, etc.

  • 09.13.2009 10:24 AM PDT
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Posted by: z0rgy
people on this forum can't read more than 5 sentences in a row, that's the problem. that's why your thread gets like no reply except from mine and a spammer's...

:| too much words is too hard for them to understand.

Too many good threads die to quickly, its guys like you that'll keep it up maybe... And you still havn't replied about the actual topic yet, care to state a suggestion or opinion?

  • 09.13.2009 10:25 AM PDT
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well there isn't much to say XD most of it is true and makes sense.
you forgot to add "delete all" button, and "lock my map so it doesn't get stolen" button too.

but about the full editor that can change terrain .... forget it.
you see, Halo is M$'s cash cow, everybody knows it. they make money like this : you buy the (incomplete) game, then they sell like 4 map packs for 10$ each (yuropens (these guys accross the sea where the queen lives and stuff) have to pay 10 Euros which is like 15$ but whatever).
you buy map packs with MS points, that you buy with real money.

so you spend ~100$ (100 Euros for us, which makes like 120$ ............. :| ).

but if they give us a powerful tool to make our own maps, then they won't be able to sell map packs anymore.
why would anybody pay for map packs when they could make their own maps that'll be just as good? even if they make matchmaking REQUIRE map packs, then we'll only play custom and have infinite fun anyway.

MS won't be gaining more money anymore. so they won't give us such a tool, ever ever.

  • 09.13.2009 10:32 AM PDT
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It's not difficult because the number of the developers involved in the project.

  • 09.13.2009 10:45 AM PDT

truth of forge

[Edited on 09.13.2009 12:08 PM PDT]

  • 09.13.2009 12:05 PM PDT
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Posted by: mini Watson360
LINK TO A -blam!- SITE I VISIT BECOME IM A LOSER


jeez, you again?
changed account though. congrats.

  • 09.13.2009 12:15 PM PDT

You have some fairly good points and ideas that I agree should be added in the editor mode of reach(assuming reach will have one, hopefully)
Well seeing that I am here I wish to state one of my ideas I once had, that I made into a thread but never caught on.

I called it the record action ability, and what it would do is, when you turned on the record action ability it would record what ever your doing with an object when your in monitor mode, some examples of how this could work are, maybe you want a bridge to slowly rotate connecting different paths at a time. So what you would do in forge is turn on the record action, and slowly rotate the bridge and once you are done making the bridge rotate the way you want it, you just simply turn it off(turning it off/on could be made easier by maybe making a button on the controller do it).Or maybe you want to make a maze were the players have to run away from something, maybe a killball? You could even make platforms moving about in the sky and you would have to jump from platform to platform.
These are just some of the many things you could do with such a tool.

  • 09.13.2009 1:13 PM PDT

Of Course I will help you beta test your sweet software :3.
<3 Bungie.

I'm all for a 'Beastly' editing tool for HALO : REACH...
Myself, and many others made many threads similar to this for HALO 3...
So i've gone and pulled some stuff from my old thread, feel free to add it to the op ;)


:::::


Mechanics

If anyone has used a Mapmaker before- you will perhaps know that there are many tools, provided to make the best possible map.
So first we must guess what kind of tools the HALO 3 Map Maker could have.
I have made a short list compiling possible tools we will see:
Paint Brush
-Is Used to paint textures onto the map and objects
-Opacity of paint, Size, etc
Bump Brush
-Used to create Hills or Dips in the ground
-Used to create possible Mountains, or drops on the side of the level
Structure Tool
-Used to place different structures into the map- from walls to bunkers.
-Can be used to change properties of structures on maps, such as allowing them to be destructible, inaccessible; ONLY if they already have the correct destructible properties.
-Also used to place down, 'death barriers' - 'invisible walls'
AI Placement Tool
-Allows user to place AI Bipeds
-Customise AI biped properties; Aggressive, Defensive, Hunter, Ally, etc
-AI Squad implementation- like Et Tu Brute Video
-AI Zones, where AI act differently
-AI Triggers, and effects
-AI Paths, Dialogue, Animations
-AI Spawns and Objectives
Scenario Mode
-Allows user to use a 'wizard' to build scripts and triggers
-Example: Timer-30_AI Unit1_Move To_AI Zone 3
-Allows 'mini' cinematics to be placed, using theater.
Environment Controller
-Editing of Environment; Bushes, Trees, Wildlife, Rocks etc
-Editing of Weather, Time of day
Water Brush
-Allows water to be placed, with properties being able to be edited, to allow it to look like a river (moving+direction) Sea (waves+end zone)
Detail Pick
-Contains smaller versions of many tools
-Including Bump Brush, to make sure those Hills don't all look the same
-Mini Structure Tool to enable the user to place down those finer structures.
Master Author Tool
-Contains functions allowing the Creator, to choose how many people in the lobby can assist in creation+their roles
-When the map is finished, is it editable
-When the map is finished, Place names of players who created on+description+name of map


Obviously thats a big read of features, and evidently an even BIGGER list. It would be foolish to think even half of that would be contained in a map editor due to complexity. But anything is good.

And this second section is just about smaller parts to the map editor

When Holding 'items'
-use D-PAD to select item properties; Sink through floor- Merge With other objects- freeze in that position, 45 Degree 'snap'-
-Ability to change size of the object (both width+height)
-Ability to scroll through different versions of the item, including Presets of the item: Example- Wall in a Jungle environment, with weeds, plants on etc- or Door which has plasma burns from battle, etc.
-Ability to Create Presets.
Extras...
-Ability to copy and paste areas
-Ability to Undo/Redo at least 3 steps



And finally the specifications of the map editor:


Maximum Players in Lobby: 4 / 6- To many players may overload the game.
Ability to Switch between Forge / Map Editor Easily
Indoor/Outdoor Mode
Themes for levels: Snow, Urban, Military, Sand, etc
Users able to choose a select number of items, which are allowed to be used on Forge on the map

==
==

AI Models+Bipeds
Cortana
Flood-Marine, Brute, Elite, Prophet, Juggernaut
Marine
Jackal
Brute
Grunt
Maranda (REVIVED!)
Cpt Keyes (REVIVED!)
Sgt Johnson (REVIVED!)
Master Chief
+SPARTANS
Elites
Drones
Lord Hood
ODST
Prophet
Scarab
Hunter

AI Transport
-Pelicans: Have an AI driver with designated picku[/drop off points
-Phantom
-Shade
+All can offer AIR support, or perhaps triggers which activate reinforcements; CINEMATIC, AI SPAWNS, THROUGH AIR SUPPORT!

Vehicle Camouflage
-Ability to change CAMO on vehicles, such as SNOW Hog, Normal Hog, TIGER Camo Hog, Forest Hog,etc :D


Community Ideas

Chamboozer: A Region Brush, to place down 'Guardians' Invisible walls, etc

tiger7: Gates / Switches, etc. In Game Mechanics for players to interact with.

Chamboozer: When editing the size of object have the Height+Width LOCKED so it always makes it evenly scaled.

Smithmonkey: Ability to create 'Skyboxes' in another smaller editor, or perhaps edit already existing ones (the picture/sky that surrounds the map. Such as Valhallas just being sky+space and some mountains.)

NDcards13: With Gates/Switches and in game mechanics, have them work similarly to teleporters, with how they coordinate; Teleport 1 opens gate 1 etc...

GruntSquash:How about the map first starts as a floor? no walls. Just a floor. you can add tiles of different textures which will blend to other textures touching it. This can have tiles like:
Grass
Dying grass (the grass on isolation overtime)
sand
snow
Human building textures
Covenant Building textures
Forrerunner building textures
Cliff textures
etc.
So you can have maps similiar to when the environment suddenly changes on some levels like 'The Covenant'.

Plus a tool that 'hollows' out a wall so a hole will be made without the top of the land being deleted. This can be used for a natural bridge kind of thing

Plus there should be sub categories.
Like in 'Scenery', there will be another category thing that says stuff for specific types like
"Human architecture pieces"
"Covenant architecture pieces"
"Forrerunner architecture pieces"
"Flood Hive Architecture pieces"


tiger7: And while we're at it. For the A.I.'s, how about a Scarab. It has it's own, could be used in some wicked maps. Just a wish.

J900:I think having certain AI being able to use certain weapons and vehicles; example: Elites can use more weapons than marines but marines can use more vehicles than elites....So you could have special AI to drive certain vehicles :D

Yivo: Don't forget weapon reflecting mirrors, equipment/ vehicle maker, and of course AI difficulty levels.

Saint Demon96302:You could have a Camera to be placed along with a TV so that you could see things from far away, and hence not have to leave your base, to scout out :D

Mortificus:You could put AI into multipplayer maps, and put the campain scoring into it, so it becomes a points based game, not a kill one, maybe

bulldogs10:Click to see bulldogs10's major idea that is too big for here!

:::
:::

  • 09.13.2009 1:30 PM PDT

http://all-the-exgirlfriends.info/?uid=1894 she is hot

nice forge idea, bungie, make it happen!!!

  • 09.13.2009 1:34 PM PDT

Warning: You may find that my, or someone else's opinion does not comply with yours. Side effects of disagreement may include (but are not limited to): flaming, irrational behavior, broken keyboards, and/or nervous sweats. If you experience any of these symptoms refrain from communicating with others until the symptoms have subsided.

http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=36541448&p ostRepeater1-p=1

  • 09.13.2009 2:05 PM PDT

I like all of your ideas and I think that most of them can be done.

What I would like to see most in Halo: Reach is the ability to place AI. That being said, I don't think a map editor will conflict with Microsoft's ability to make money through DLC. Most in-game map editors are pretty limited. For example, you can't create new objects or structures. You're limited to the preset objects available to you. Bungie would be able to make completely new maps that could easily be better than what you could do with any in-game map editor.

It would be great if they would release their map development tools, but since this is only for the 360, it's not going to happen.

  • 09.13.2009 2:08 PM PDT

Signatures are for squares.

Your idea makes it sound like a map editor, but Forge is just an object editor.

  • 09.13.2009 2:13 PM PDT

I don't see you doing anything to help our country.
Except sitting at home, naked, eating twinkies, rubbing your hands together going "Heh. Target Destroyed. Mission Accomplished." Oh wait. that's not helping.

1.No object Limit
2.No Budget
3.No singular object limit. Its so annoying to run out of walls!

  • 09.13.2009 3:40 PM PDT
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Posted by: z0rgy
well there isn't much to say XD most of it is true and makes sense.
you forgot to add "delete all" button, and "lock my map so it doesn't get stolen" button too.

but about the full editor that can change terrain .... forget it.
you see, Halo is M$'s cash cow, everybody knows it. they make money like this : you buy the (incomplete) game, then they sell like 4 map packs for 10$ each (yuropens (these guys accross the sea where the queen lives and stuff) have to pay 10 Euros which is like 15$ but whatever).
you buy map packs with MS points, that you buy with real money.

so you spend ~100$ (100 Euros for us, which makes like 120$ ............. :| ).

but if they give us a powerful tool to make our own maps, then they won't be able to sell map packs anymore.
why would anybody pay for map packs when they could make their own maps that'll be just as good? even if they make matchmaking REQUIRE map packs, then we'll only play custom and have infinite fun anyway.

MS won't be gaining more money anymore. so they won't give us such a tool, ever ever.

You do realize that many people will still buy the maps anyway? The obviously will have much more polish, and won't suck as much as the ones we make. Besides, if they charge for a decent map editor, they could make even more.

  • 09.13.2009 4:41 PM PDT

You have no rights, play nice.

Also, if a good map is truly made, bungie could always ask the creator(s) if they could sell them in a map pack(but the creators would need some share of the profit, because they designed the maps) Then, bungie makes money and so do the people who designed them.

  • 09.13.2009 4:44 PM PDT

Warning: You may find that my, or someone else's opinion does not comply with yours. Side effects of disagreement may include (but are not limited to): flaming, irrational behavior, broken keyboards, and/or nervous sweats. If you experience any of these symptoms refrain from communicating with others until the symptoms have subsided.

You guys do realize that I addressed this problem in my thread, I guess people don't like to click links.

  • 09.13.2009 4:55 PM PDT