Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Weather Effects/Time of Day - Forge - Check it out... KEWL STUPH!
  • Subject: Weather Effects/Time of Day - Forge - Check it out... KEWL STUPH!
Subject: Weather Effects/Time of Day - Forge - Check it out... KEWL STUPH!

Posted by: xAssault12x
I've allways wanted to play Halo in a Blizard, Hurricane, or Sand Storm. Sounds fun if it can be pulled off. The best way to make it work would be to have the weather only effect people, vehicles, and visibility.

For Example:

High wind picks up accross the map. Running into the wind is hard, but running with it will give you a speed boost. Jumping into the air would get you blown the direction of the wind.

A true Blizard is a virtual white out. Visibility would be like 10 to 20 feet. Now long range weapons are almost useless. Close range is where it is at. Also, you can now sneak around maps very easily too. It now becomes important to defend your base by having people in the base.

Hard rain at night would make for an interesting match. You can still see across the map but it is harder to make out figures and get clear shots. Rain masks sounds and makes the ground a bit slipy for vehicles and people.

You start a match in the tail end of a Blizard. Snow is everywhere when the Blizard stops piles of snow have changed the map. The sun comes out and begins to melt the snow. The snow turns into slush that is extremely slippery. Jumping into a slush filled area would be a disaster for a player because they would hit it and just stide.


See I would have fun with this at first but I think the effects you are talking about are too drastic. I would just like slight weather changes. In addition to the time of day of the match (night/morning/day) this would keep each map fresh every time you played it.

Yeah you just played Longshore in the day, dry.. but now this time your playing at night with rain.. then again with snow on the ground and light snow showers in the early morning.. same map, different effects.. I could keep playing the same map over and over and not get tired of it like I do now..

[Edited on 10.22.2009 12:59 PM PDT]

  • 10.22.2009 12:58 PM PDT

Not many computer programmers visit the forums eh?

  • 10.22.2009 2:20 PM PDT
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Posted by: Homeboyd903
Not many computer programmers visit the forums eh?

Nope, mostly ten year old kids. :P
I would like to help you, but I only am a Forensic Scientist in training. :D

[Edited on 10.22.2009 2:33 PM PDT]

  • 10.22.2009 2:32 PM PDT

Intro
Well thier has been alot of threads regrading Campaign & Multiplayer wants and ideas, I for one also want a amazing Campaign and Multiplayer equally. But what about the upgrades for the likes of forge & theatre? Are Bungie going to even include them again? These two additions were innovative additions to Halo 3.

With a awesome campaign & multiplayer , these two features should be also upgraded entirely , to make one spectucular Halo package. Also of course any new ways to innovative the Halo francise. Thats what Bungie needs to think of. I think Halo forge mode should be upgraded into a full map editor so our creative minds can run wild without the limitations with the current forge.

All though we thank and apperciate bungie for giving us forge, which many other FPS dont even have this ability to customize like this, so heres my Full Map editor ideas, which are from the likes of other editors such as Crysis Map Editor.

Interaction / Hud

Movement

Similar to Halo 3 Forge Mode, the movement and Hud can be enitrely the same, You play as yet again the Guilty Spark. The movement was easy to grasp and control and gave complete free-roam. Only thing for improvement, is the ability to increase the movement speed so we can traverse the huge maps quicker.

Toolbox

Similar to Halo 3 by pressing a button should bring up the toolbox, where again everything is categorised, but of course the new map editor will have more categorise then the forge we know.

Object Placment & Modification

You place objects as normal, but this time thier is a snap tool to piece together similar objects like walls and blocks.
Also a Brushtool, which can be dragged to highlight multiple objects at once, and can be shaped into many shapes, for later enviromental purposes. the Brushtool will also will be helpful for copying and pasting multiple Objects. Great for creating symmetrical maps. You can also modify the objects sizes by using scale tool ( Not includeing vehicles and weapons, no gaint Warthog ) and objects that can be rotated to any direction .

Axix System

A object can be move along its axis x ,y ,z ,simlar to more higher end map editors like Far Cry 2 or Crysis. This will result to users placeing the objects the exact position he/she wants, also this tool will allow objects to float in the air with minimal effort, right now in forge, just to get a object floating is a hassle. Place a object then one on top, then delete the bottom one. But once moved it doesnt float anymore and falls to the ground.

Redo & Undo Tool

Simple a button to undo / Redo, in Forge its painful accidently deleteing a object. Simple Redo or Undo button will solve this problem.

Enviroment / Level

Randon Terrain/ Texture Generator

Similar to the Full Map Editors, This should be useful to start with a already made and randon terrain and enviroment. You will able to choose what terrain you what, let it be sandy, ice/snow , earth , grass and so on.This will generate pre made landscape so people can start from there.

Modify Terrain

All though Forge is not a full map editor and cant modify terrain geomatry, woudln't it be better if we can make our
own terrain geomatry instead of having the same themed map but with objects rearranged. Halo Reach we should able to modify the terrain, with the brush tool we should able to flatten , smooth , rise/lower, in any way to want. This will equal to unlimited maps and unlimited fun , and hey we can recreate Bloodglutch.

Painting Terrain

We can choose any real life terrains to paint with, such as grassy, mountains, earth etc, but we should also have the ability to choose any colour we want to paint the terrain with.

Vegetation Tool

With a selection of vegetation we should able to place vegetation like forests or plants, With combining the brush tool we can place single trees or multiple trees at once.

Cave Tool

With combined the terrain tool we should able to use this tool, to create holes inside the mountains to create caves like Valhala.

Road Tool

This is the one for people who love making racetracks in Halo 3. This will allow you to place roads with different textures. Not only normal roads you can place ramps etc and combined with other tools, you can make them float easily, and make them tritons twist racemaps. What probaly takes days in forge, with all these combine tools, equal mere minutes and hours with a full map editor.

River / Sea Tools

You can place river or sea in the enviroment you created. You can adjust the seas wave hieght, or sea level height,also applying the direction of rivers and where they flow.

All the customisation From Halo 3

This you can adjust the speed and gravity as usual from Halo 3. All there options should be included in the Halo Reach Map editor, this way it will be even better then Far Cry 2 Map editor.

Solid Objects Tool

This tool will be useful for creating building and structures which support lets say bridges or any walkways, this can made into any shapes or you can make the exact shape you want it to be, and then add textures to the final shape. This way you can make unique objects, rather then relying on the objects which Bungie gives us.

Weather Effects

You can place Clouds , Rain , Snow , Lightning , Wind, Fog, Earthquakes, Tornadoes ( Yes dynamic weather system ). You can adjust the density of these options such as how heavy the rain should be, to personal the feeling of the map. Also when it happens,you can set a time where the rain will start and stop for example. Dynamic Weather system in Multuplayer should
change multiplayer to amazing ways. Fighting in sunny enviroment ( Sandtrap ), suddenly a downpour.Change of feeling in multiplayer,and the triple AAA engine should make the rain particles bounce of the spartan armour and vehicles.

Multiplayer

Again all the mutliplayer objects in forge should be the same with Halo Reach Full Map Editor, with spawn points starting points, and spawn areas, multiplayer objects such as flags bomb spawn points and so on. All be the same with the Full Map Editor. But of cousre this will be a new multiplayer experience better then all previous Halos we are accustomed to so cant say what to expect right now.

Campaign Level Editor

Scene Elements

Ok your not going to create the whole campaign of Halo Reach. this is going to be separate to the actual campaign, This will be more like a mini level creator, first building the maps with the Full Map Editor, then placeing simple Scene elements, such as spawn this much enemies, when a player enters this place, or play sound or text, when player reaches this point or goal. Then you can share these levels with your friends via fileshare, for your friends to play. Simple text story and goals, or you can record sound with your xbox 360 Mic. Which then can be used with scene elements. I.e when player reaches this point play this sound.So this is noway a Campiagn creator,
a simple tool inside the actual Map Editor which allows AI behaviour. you can place camera objects and time them when to record, so you can activate some small cut scenes. E.g Set grunt to walk forward for 10 seconds follow grunt with camera. At this time. After the player has created there level the player then is able to UPLOAD there level to there file share for others to download, similar to LPB?

Bot & AI Tools

The full map editor will have Bots that can be placed, like any species of the covenant and flood and some new ones we dont know of yet in Halo Reach. Then you can adjust difficulty level Easy Normal Heroic Legendary. You also activate the skulls to affect thier AI to different way, all usual and same here, but one way it will be different you can set routes that you can simple tell them to follow which are trigger by certain things such as time. This can be used to make patrols and individual AI behaviour. E.g who played Kudo Lab here?

Firefight Level Editor

addition fan idea, now i didnt even think of this awesome idea! Ok this wouldn't get you achievements, as you will have to do it legit, but this can be useful for custom games fun. Imagine building a fortress to see if covenant AI can find a way in or kill you. All the editing tools can be used to manuplilate the levels making them your own varient survival level. Or brand new survival level for use with firefight.

Conclusion

99% of these ideas on this forum will end of just a fan dreaming, but hey cant we dream? Since Reach probaly late in development these ideas may not be included even. So all these threads we createing having hopes etc all just wishing Halo will be a spectucular game. This above idea maybe be replied with its to complicated and that, i think with Bungies user friendly approach they can make a map editor which is user friendly, Far Crys 2 map editor was not hard, but used with properly can achieve great results, shame about the community and game these maps are left in the dark, but this is Halo! If we get this equals Halo taken into a whole new level! No need for map packs, people will make amazing maps! Which can be used in matchmaking. I mean forge was easy to use, making it into full map editor will do no harm, but more benefits! Atleast keep this thread alive, with some many poll votes, and maybe Bungie can take notice. Full map editor in Halo is epic win. Good bye.

  • 10.22.2009 2:37 PM PDT

I'm xAssault12x, and I love the Halo Universe. Discussion please!

Posted by: Homeboyd903
Posted by: xAssault12x
I've allways wanted to play Halo in a Blizard, Hurricane, or Sand Storm. Sounds fun if it can be pulled off. The best way to make it work would be to have the weather only effect people, vehicles, and visibility.

For Example:

High wind picks up accross the map. Running into the wind is hard, but running with it will give you a speed boost. Jumping into the air would get you blown the direction of the wind.

A true Blizard is a virtual white out. Visibility would be like 10 to 20 feet. Now long range weapons are almost useless. Close range is where it is at. Also, you can now sneak around maps very easily too. It now becomes important to defend your base by having people in the base.

Hard rain at night would make for an interesting match. You can still see across the map but it is harder to make out figures and get clear shots. Rain masks sounds and makes the ground a bit slipy for vehicles and people.

You start a match in the tail end of a Blizard. Snow is everywhere when the Blizard stops piles of snow have changed the map. The sun comes out and begins to melt the snow. The snow turns into slush that is extremely slippery. Jumping into a slush filled area would be a disaster for a player because they would hit it and just stide.


See I would have fun with this at first but I think the effects you are talking about are too drastic. I would just like slight weather changes. In addition to the time of day of the match (night/morning/day) this would keep each map fresh every time you played it.

Yeah you just played Longshore in the day, dry.. but now this time your playing at night with rain.. then again with snow on the ground and light snow showers in the early morning.. same map, different effects.. I could keep playing the same map over and over and not get tired of it like I do now..


I was just listing extreme examples. I agree that minor weather conditions should be the normal thing. I think this might be a good percentage of chances of the different weather conditions and the time of day they happen in. Extreme Weather = Blizards, Sand Storms, and Thunderstorms. Mild Weather = Light to Medium Snow and Rain. No Weather = No Rain or Snow.

3% Extreme Weather Day

2% Extreme Weather Night

23% Mild Weather Day

22% Mild Weather Night

28% No Weather Day

22% No Weather Night

Mild to No Weather during the Day is most common at 51%

Mild to No Weather at Night follows at 44%

Extreme Weather only has a 5% chance of happening.

  • 10.22.2009 2:49 PM PDT

@ FinalJewel..

Wow.. I actually read through all of that. I dont know much about programming but all of these ideas are great and I would love to see them. The recurring problem will be disc space. Like I said Im not a programmer so I dont know what could or couldnt work. But Far Cry managed to make it work.. well some of it anyways. I think we could at least start there.

  • 10.22.2009 2:52 PM PDT

Posted by: Homeboyd903
@ FinalJewel..

Wow.. I actually read through all of that. I dont know much about programming but all of these ideas are great and I would love to see them. The recurring problem will be disc space. Like I said Im not a programmer so I dont know what could or couldnt work. But Far Cry managed to make it work.. well some of it anyways. I think we could at least start there.


Thanks. Yeah Far Cry 2 did it, So why cant Reach? Also i like your idea aswell, weather effects would be so cool! Say playing a match on BTB, in a sunny map...then suddenly the wind picks up and goes cloudy and a huge downpour, would change Mulitplayer in great ways.

  • 10.22.2009 2:55 PM PDT

Hey great idea although i could see myself getting very agitated over debri hitting me in the face while trying to snipe o_O
great idea though i'd enjoy it

  • 10.22.2009 2:59 PM PDT

I'm xAssault12x, and I love the Halo Universe. Discussion please!

A good way to solve disk space problems is to have 2 disks. 1 campaign, 1 multiplayer. Then there would be tons of room for weather effects and nice looking maps and anything else they can make work.

[Edited on 10.22.2009 3:27 PM PDT]

  • 10.22.2009 3:27 PM PDT
Subject: Weather Effects - Forge - Check it out... KEWL STUPH!

RIP Halo 2 Multiplayer

Sort of like in the Far Cry 2 map maker, where you can change the time of day and weather... I think it'd be a fantastic idea to put that functionality in Forge!

  • 10.22.2009 3:44 PM PDT
Subject: Weather Effects/Time of Day - Forge - Check it out... KEWL STUPH!

Posted by: xAssault12x
A good way to solve disk space problems is to have 2 disks. 1 campaign, 1 multiplayer. Then there would be tons of room for weather effects and nice looking maps and anything else they can make work.


Its more people with shotty connections causing problems for gameplay than disc space. Im not sure how this would affect gameplay but I would imagine with dynamic properties such as rain, snow, and wind.. that it would cause slower internet speed and would cause lag.

  • 10.22.2009 5:49 PM PDT

I'm xAssault12x, and I love the Halo Universe. Discussion please!

Posted by: Homeboyd903
Posted by: xAssault12x
A good way to solve disk space problems is to have 2 disks. 1 campaign, 1 multiplayer. Then there would be tons of room for weather effects and nice looking maps and anything else they can make work.


Its more people with shotty connections causing problems for gameplay than disc space. Im not sure how this would affect gameplay but I would imagine with dynamic properties such as rain, snow, and wind.. that it would cause slower internet speed and would cause lag.


Putting the multiplayer on its own disk might help a tiny tiny bit. Wind might have to be cut because it would be a very dynamic program that would effect everything. Wind might have to be just for looks. The rain and snow would be managable but difficult. The new game engine they are using is a really good one so it could be done. It would only cause lag if it had to effect the map and players. The only thing it should do is effect visibility.

  • 10.22.2009 8:19 PM PDT

Just for looks works for me. Keeps it new and different each playthrough.

  • 10.22.2009 9:47 PM PDT

Fear my Pink Mist...

Posted by: MADCOW5549
I love your idea you might wanna check out this thread for some ideas:

LINKY!


Yea, keep forum alive... give it CPR!!!

  • 10.23.2009 5:34 AM PDT

Its a thread yo

  • 10.23.2009 1:24 PM PDT

and im confident it would work

  • 10.24.2009 12:15 PM PDT

Chances are that Reach will use dynamic lighting and it'll unevitably be full of particle effects (halo 3 uses a good amount as is) so those are more likely for reach.

  • 10.24.2009 12:48 PM PDT

so why not weather effects then

or at least the time of day/match feature?

[Edited on 10.24.2009 1:04 PM PDT]

  • 10.24.2009 1:04 PM PDT

"I believe that the sound of racking the pump of a shotgun is universally recognized as ‘kiss your ass goodbye’."
— Unknown Marine

This would be great but Bungie would have to use a completely new graphics card but bungie has done amazing things in the past

  • 10.24.2009 1:08 PM PDT

Posted by: Ringtail11
This would be great but Bungie would have to use a completely new graphics card but bungie has done amazing things in the past


Other games do it. Not sure about over LIVE multiplayer.. besides madden. I would think if anyone could do it, it would be the most successful series creator in gaming history.

(Nu Uh, Mario Bros is better) No its not, kiss my blammity blam blam.

  • 10.24.2009 1:10 PM PDT

OK. So lets start with the main Idea. I think it is great. I do like the constant curve idea even though I know that would make me suck even more lol. With the nightime stuff I would say bring back nightvision on the snipers and have flashlights. Armor automatically puts off some light so unless you are using a sniper you shouldnt have much trouble shooting at someone. Keyword there is "at".

Now with the weather. Great. I like it. I know it would be a pain but I feel that it would make the game more enjoyable and less boring as you play it longer.

Onto space. I think that the campaign being on one disc and the multiplayer being on another would be a great idea. This gives programmers a whooping 8.5GB of space for coding, movies, textures, sounds, and much more. I know that code can pile up quick and when you add the rest it can be even more so. Also something to think about would be to make the maps downloadable instead of having them with the game. This would make it so that people couldn't mod maps as easily making it so that bungie would be happy with their maps being more under lock and key. Don't flame me for saying that.

Now lag issues. I think that writing a subroutine that pinged all players before setting up the match would enable the weather to actually not cause much lag. This subroutine would send out a ping that would measure how long it takes to get back. Basically if the lag is 1 ms to 25 ms (High end connections ie....college dorms, businesses, or Fios or High speed comcast) then the extreme weather could be possible but still only 5% as someone before me thought up. From 25 to 40ms this would only enable the mild weather. Then 40+ms would only be able to do the no weather option. This would make the lag controllable to a point.

I think that is about all that I have to say. I dont know what engine bungie is working with and have very little experience in programming but I am learning and I can understand to a point how complicated this system would be to make.

But I also understand that it would be completely BAD -BLAM-!

  • 10.24.2009 1:50 PM PDT
Subject: Weather Effects - Forge - Check it out... KEWL STUPH!

"Thoughts are the shadows of feelings; always darker, emptier, and simpler."

Wouldn't Bungie then have to create multiple versions of the same maps? I don't think you can have all of these random effects occur on one version of a map. Of course, I'm not a game developer, so who knows?

  • 10.24.2009 1:53 PM PDT

Posted by: BrenMan 94
Wouldn't Bungie then have to create multiple versions of the same maps? I don't think you can have all of these random effects occur on one version of a map. Of course, I'm not a game developer, so who knows?


No. Same map. Different weather effects. However with different terrains, not sure...

  • 10.24.2009 1:59 PM PDT

Well with the physics you could probably change the grip and speed easily since speed is already a built in customizable option. It would just take a bit of programming to assign the correct value to the different terrain....

deep snow.....50% speed....
light snow....85% speed....
into light wind .......90%
into strong wind ......50%
away from light wind ..125%
away from strong wind..175%

anyway that the idea. Also to correct my other post before flamming commences. What I meant by ping is something along the lines of this test Here I know that I was refering to pings but then I thought about it and pings wont tell you bandwidth. A test light the one above though would test bandwidth and say if you have a 2.5Mb, emphasis on the lowercase b since that what internet transmission is measured in, or higher then the full shabang of weather. 1.75Mb to 2.4Mb will get the moderate weather and anyone below 1.74Mb will get no weather.

Like???

P.S. it take 8 bits for 1 Byte. 2.4Mb = 300KBps

  • 10.24.2009 2:15 PM PDT

Posted by: FMA Wrath 2069
Well with the physics you could probably change the grip and speed easily since speed is already a built in customizable option. It would just take a bit of programming to assign the correct value to the different terrain....

deep snow.....50% speed....
light snow....85% speed....
into light wind .......90%
into strong wind ......50%
away from light wind ..125%
away from strong wind..175%

anyway that the idea. Also to correct my other post before flamming commences. What I meant by ping is something along the lines of this test Here I know that I was refering to pings but then I thought about it and pings wont tell you bandwidth. A test light the one above though would test bandwidth and say if you have a 2.5Mb, emphasis on the lowercase b since that what internet transmission is measured in, or higher then the full shabang of weather. 1.75Mb to 2.4Mb will get the moderate weather and anyone below 1.74Mb will get no weather.

Like???

P.S. it take 8 bits for 1 Byte. 2.4Mb = 300KBps


Interesting.. the only problem with the wind thing is you would have to "see" the wind going a certain direction so you know why you are running slower or faster at all times. Unless they added a wind reader of some kind like in Tiger Woods.

  • 10.24.2009 2:27 PM PDT