News First Look at Halo 2 Anniversary's Forge

Finally, the long awaited forge gameplay has been released in the new IGN First video. There are a lot of things I'd like to say regarding the footage, but words are simply not enough in this situation. You just have to see the video for yourself:

See Forge in Halo 2 Anniversary - Halo: The Master Chief Collection - IGN First
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Some of you may have trouble loading the video due to heavy site traffic, but fret not! I'll summarize the main points from the footage:

• New forge canvas: Awash is a 1-foot deep open ocean with small islands in the backdrop. You can walk anywhere on the water's surface.
• New natural objects: You can now spawn natural terrain including flat land and cliffs as shown in the video. Trees and rocks can also be placed as in the previous titles. Placed terrain is seamless.
• Precision object rotation: Precision editing now includes precision rotation, allowing players to rotate objects as low as 1 unit increments.
• Lighting Generation is fast: No apparent lag when switching from monitor to player when generating lighting. Also, very fast generation when loading the map in a standard custom game.

Breaking off of this list, here's the big thing about the video: SCRIPTING IN FORGE!


Control consoles act as buttons/switches used to trigger player-set events on a map.

You can now press buttons to :

• Blow up all vehicles or within a boundary (not specified in video but all vehicles in plain sight were destroyed)
• EMP all vehicles within a boundary (all vehicles in plain sight were disabled, dynamic element from Coagulation usable in forge and linked to button)
• Open doors like the one in Zanzibar (Zanzibar gate, another dynamic element, usable in forge and linked to button)
• Spawn in vehicles (A hornet is spawned out of thin air)
• Spawn in structural geometry (In a toggle effect, a bridge is spawned between two of the islands in the preview map. Also, it is mentioned that an entire racetrack was spawned while testing out the new forge with the push of a button, confirming that multiple structural objects can be linked to one button)

Also:

• Variant of button switch that can be shot to be activated (in the video, the button is shot to open a gate while piloting the hornet).
• You can spawn in a Heretic Banshee, like the ones from the last campaign mission from Halo 2.
• Beaver Creek has been recreated in forge and is seen at the end of the video.

It's a lot of information to take in. The forging community is definitely excited about the news though. It's safe to say we can expect some great things coming from the forgers in the near future.

We'll keep you guys updated on any further forge news assuming anything else is released before November 11th. Feel free to share your thoughts and excitement both here and in the Master Chief Collection Discussion Thread. Forge is back!

 

Hopefully I can not only complete a forge map, but also make it playable, not just an abomination of blocks and natural

 

GGWP I'M DONE.

 

GOLLY GOLLY I'M COMING BACK FOR THIS BBY

 

I also hope that when spawning in objects, one can set it so that the object then can't be de-spawned just as quickly. One resolution would be creating a block over the terminal, but that's just ugly.

Yeah, I was hoping that might be something available... however, if not, it could just be a case of potentially setting Console A as a disappearing piece from Console B, and vice versa as well as having say Door A closing upon Console A button press, and Door A opening upon Console B button press...

So, player presses Console A, door A closes, Console B spawns, Console A despawns... Console B is pushed, Door A opens, Console B despawns, Console A spawns.
If that makes sense?

In terms of labeling, I'd assume doors / consoles have a starting option, whether it's closed or open (for the door) and whether it's set to spawn at start or not (for consoles)... if you assign them all to the same "script", they should all act in unity.

My problem based on what I have a map design on (the use of doors actually solves a problem where one route for flag capture is too short) is that I'd need a Console in each base to opens/closes the corresponding bases door, and a console in the central point of the map that opens/closes both doors. So teams have to control the whole map, to utilize the fastest flag cap route.

 

That's a load out camera...

However judging by the lighting change, and how lighting is rendered in game anyway, I'd assume daylight effects are an option.

Yeah, that's unfortunately a loadout camera . BUT, I kinda wanted to point out that when he put on the map in Custom Games, there was two versions of the IGN Demo. It could've been a new feature showing the old version and the modified version, but it's still possible that one's for the Demo in Forge and the other for the Custom Game section hiding something, maybe a daylight option

Yeah, forgot about loadout cameras. Kept trying to think what it could be and thought it couldn't be a soft kill.
lol Guess I went a little Halo Follower there. But hopefully they still have some sort of time of day option.

 

Yeah, I was hoping that might be something available... however, if not, it could just be a case of potentially setting Console A as a disappearing piece from Console B, and vice versa as well as having say Door A closing upon Console A button press, and Door A opening upon Console B button press...

So, player presses Console A, door A closes, Console B spawns, Console A despawns... Console B is pushed, Door A opens, Console B despawns, Console A spawns.
If that makes sense?

In terms of labeling, I'd assume doors / consoles have a starting option, whether it's closed or open (for the door) and whether it's set to spawn at start or not (for consoles)... if you assign them all to the same "script", they should all act in unity.

My problem based on what I have a map design on (the use of doors actually solves a problem where one route for flag capture is too short) is that I'd need a Console in each base to opens/closes the corresponding bases door, and a console in the central point of the map that opens/closes both doors. So teams have to control the whole map, to utilize the fastest flag cap route.

Yeah that makes sense, I assume one terminal can spawn or de-spawn another, if not that's a major flaw.

And that's made me think, when a door opens, (the gate gowns down), does the gate vanish at is goes or is it realistic in the sense that it's still there but bellow the floor now, if you get me. If so, you could have all kinds of things like have one tunnel above another, and you have to switch between which one can be used.

And then that made me think, can we rotate doors so that they open to the left or right? Not Just Down?

-> I assume you can, because the falcon flew out of a horizontal gate, however that opened from the centre instead of the top like the vertical one, so there are definitely variations of doors. Are they all the gate theme? And still, this hasn't answered if we can rotate them, having 45 degree doors to create an amazing bunker effect would be 'gamsic...

OOOOOOOH, tooo many things to think about.

 

-> I assume you can, because the falcon flew out of a horizontal gate, however that opened from the centre instead of the top like the vertical one, so there are definitely variations of doors.

Potentially... I actually thought they may be two doors placed horizontally and triggered by the same switch. The fusion coil detonation obviously demonstrates that multiple items can be affected by a single switch.
I'm assuming the script syntax would probably be something like;

Switch1_event_button_press
If FC1, FC2, FC3, FC4 exist = true
Event = detonate
FC1, FC2, FC3, FC4 exist = False
end if

In a nutshell... much like the horizontal doors would be Event = open (or close) and the items affected would be Door1, and Door2, based on the principle of being already open, or closed.

 

I'm assuming the script syntax would probably be something like;

Switch1_event_button_press
If FC1, FC2, FC3, FC4 exist = true
Event = detonate
FC1, FC2, FC3, FC4 exist = False
end if

I agree. Every other Halo's forge has had gametype labels in the advanced settings on objects, I'm assuming the scripting is probably dealt with in there, if so there would be the opportunity to manipulate multiple objects at once from one terminal as there are multiple gametype labels. Though, I hope it isn't, cause that could limit the possibilities for assigning actual gametype labels.

Come to think of it, it probably isn't dealt with in the gametype labels. That's a whole other side of forging. I guess the menu when pressing X on a block would go "Object Settings -> Advanced Settings -> Script Settings" or skip 'Advanced Settings'...

Meh, who cares. It's gunna be da bomb however we script it.

 

I've got my Clue remakes covered. My plan is to create my two Clue maps within the same save, right next to each other and I will replace the rocks blocking the tunnel with the Zanzibar gate (which will not open and the other side you're not playing on will be inaccessible in that version of the map). Hard to explain but my mind is bursting with ideas. This forge opens up so, so many possibilities that it's endless.

Once again, thank you, based 343.

 

I've got my Clue remakes covered. My plan is to create my two Clue maps within the same save, right next to each other and I will replace the rocks blocking the tunnel with the Zanzibar gate (which will not open and the other side you're not playing on will be inaccessible in that version of the map). Hard to explain but my mind is bursting with ideas. This forge opens up so, so many possibilities that it's endless.

Once again, thank you, based 343.

I get it. Had thought about having multiple maps viewable from the other maps. Like islands, so I get what you're saying.

 

yussssss

 

I've got my Clue remakes covered. My plan is to create my two Clue maps within the same save, right next to each other and I will replace the rocks blocking the tunnel with the Zanzibar gate (which will not open and the other side you're not playing on will be inaccessible in that version of the map). Hard to explain but my mind is bursting with ideas. This forge opens up so, so many possibilities that it's endless.

Once again, thank you, based 343.

Why not just have a simple starting spawn point for everyone with 2 switches? Each switch loads up one of the 2 maps so you don't have to have the other map loaded and eating up processing power when it's not in use.

 

Why not just have a simple starting spawn point for everyone with 2 switches? Each switch loads up one of the 2 maps so you don't have to have the other map loaded and eating up processing power when it's not in use.

I considered that but the two areas would be way too big for Clue especially since sprint doesn't exist in Halo 2: Anniversary.