Thursday, October 31, 2013

Bungie approved Questions and Answers on Forge World.









Thanks to HBO for the heads up, here's some more Bungie approved Questions and Answers on Forge World. It's epic in length!





Posted by:Gordon 3man uk
what will you do in forgeworld


I flew around for a bit and mainly gibbered. It's just an interesting place to explore.

In the vein of last night's QA thread, I'll see if I can field a few more Forge 2.0 questions. Two rules: only going to answer questions about the Forge, and only ones that haven't already been answered in the Weekly Update.

First off, one that got asked a bunch last night was about "The Bump". I didn't miss the question, but I had to ask the experts. The Good News: apparently "The Bump" is diminished. The Bad News: but impossible to completely eliminate. That said, a lot of machinima props can now be set to "Fixed" physics, and that does completely eliminate any chance of bumping.


Posted by: Grenades hurt
Small question for Ferrex and I know you've had a ton, but the Blood Gulch part and the island, spire, colosseum and cliff all of it, or is there more?


Those are the major landmarks, but it's basically all one contiguous space. There's beaches, a variety of good sized clifftops, lots of cliff faces (the Lockout remake is built in one of those in particular), so it's sort of misleading to say "there's five spaces".

It's actually been kind of challenging to pick out a good spot to build some of the maps I'm interested in doing, mainly from a scenery POV.


Posted by: H0STILE WAFFLE
In Forge World, are there still items that have yet to be discussed?


There's still a few neat objects we haven't explicitly shown off yet.


Posted by: Hayabusawarrior
Is their anything on callouts? Can you disable them for custom maps and stuff? Or even better place your own?


Can't place your own, unfortunately. That was something we wanted to do, but didn't make it through the final trim and polish process.


Posted by: Homeboyd903
Ferrex:

The tunnel in the rock on the island (@ 2:19 in the Vidoc).. does it lead anywhere within the rock? i.e. interior rooms? or just the other side of the rock?

Also, will all Forge World objects be available for all multiplayer maps? Or will there be map-specific objects?

And finally.. are you guys working on any more Forge World variants that will be available Sept 14 that we havent seen?


The tunnel leads to the other side. It's not a major interior structure (that's what the Coliseum space is for!)

Not all of the Forge World objects are available on all of the maps, mainly due to memory limitations (remember, physical size != memory. Forge World was very intelligently built and optimized to be large but leave a lot of memory free for objects.) But the other maps still have a ton of build potential.

As for more variants, we'll see. :)


Posted by: Mestizo X5
Hey ferrex

When making hemorrhage did you guys keep the travel times (ex walking from one base to another) close to the original blood gulch?


That was not a specific requirement, since I believe the movement speeds are different between Reach and CE. But you can tweak that in custom game settings if you're shooting for a very classic feel (jump height too.)


Posted by: deathknight2601
Hey ferrex

I have a question for you;

In Halo 3 there was an object limit aswell as a budget limit, how many total objects will you be able to place in Forgeworld? Has it been removed and you must now simply stay within budget?


The absolute object limit is still there, but it is higher now. I can't remember exactly where we left it, because it really ultimately depended on how much memory we had available.

Note that objects originally on the map no longer permanently count against that limit (which is why some clever authors would save and re-use those original objects.) That old bug is fixed.


Posted by: SnideDeemonator
if there was A.I, i would make a huge battle scene in forge world with the covenent spawning in the gulch and you(the humans) spawning in the indoor place with the humans attacking the empty base by falcons and the covenent fighting back.

thats a sign for I NEED A.I!!!


Hate to burst any bubbles, but Forge is an MP only mode, and that means no AI of any flavor. Sorry!


Posted by: spawn031
Ferrex:

In the Red V Blue video released on Bungie day, there is a portion in the background that is a giant wall. Later in the same video the wall doesn't appear there. I assume this is because of a teaser from Bungie (go figure :D), but my question is there even MORE to this forge world that we havent seen?

IE Going down that path we haven't seen yet?


If my memory serves me, that wall was blocking off the path out of Hemorrhage, which leads down a tunnel, onto the beach, and across a stretch of shallow water to the Island.

All of which is drivable on a land vehicle, of course, and makes for a terrific setting for an epic length race course.


Posted by: welshy
ferrex!!.
can i divert the flow of a waterfall so that i can make a waterslide.
seriously i need to know if you can divert/dam the water.


Afraid not. It's just part of the decor, not actually physically simulated water. Heck, if we could do that, it'd be all over the place! :)


Posted by: Homeboyd903
Ferrex:

You mentioned wanting to have weather effects but didnt have time to add them:

For future DLC purposes, is it possible to offer new Forge Worlds built in different environments with new tools (like weather effects) added?


It's possible. The DLC guys on H3 added some sweet new stuff like the screen filters and lights, and we hadn't been planning on those.

No guarantee that it'll happen, though.


Posted by: ballsofsteel
Okay,
Hey ferrex!Do we still have those small scenery forge objects like in halo 3 (unsc backpacks,barrels,camping stool,radio sets...)?


I believe those are on some of the maps. I can't recall offhand if Forge World has them, though. More of a Forerunner palette there, and the top priority for object memory was including structural pieces (and lots of them.)


Posted by: Hayabusawarrior
@Ferrex: Are their guardians on Forge World


The Guardians are everywhere.


Posted by: CheatcodeDelta32
the weekly update didn't really answer the question of how deep does water have to be to kill you, because the definition of shallow varies depending on how you look at it.

so, can your SPARTAN be fully engulfed in water? or is it to the chest, as in, your head is sticking out.


Our rule of thumb is that if your camera (head) goes under water, you're in too deep and we want you dead. That usually means water is either shallower than that, or deeper than that (like Relic, it doesn't slope away smoothly, it drops off sharply.)

This is more due to our desire to avoid having players hiding under water during MP games as anything technical.


Posted by: Tiny ninjaa
ferrex, do grav lifts and mancannons still affect other objects when you're placing them?


They do.


Posted by: lex255
2 questions XD
1- Can we remake Zanzibar aka Last Resort on Forge world??

2- Troop hog and civilians vehics we will able to forge them on Forge world?

sry for my bad eng


1. I'm sure someone will do a pretty credible job of it.

2. Unfortunately, the civilian vehicles didn't make the final Forge World palette. Including Forky. On the upside, every combat vehicle did (except the Saber. Forge World is big, but not "outer space" big. Sorry to burst that bubble.


Posted by: deathknight2601
I have another question Ferrex

In the ViDoc you can clearly see the large Forrunner building in the far distance on the big mountain, is it possible to reach there? Or are there "Return to Battlefield" Borders everywhere?


I think that structure is actually out of bounds (it's right beside the edge of the geometry, which we vainly but determinedly try to hide from equally determined explorers. Gotta make it challenging, at least!)


Posted by: Hylebos
Are there are objects like Sandbox's "Large Block" in Forgeworld's object list? If so, what are their dimensions in World Units? Knowing how long, wide, and high one of these cubes are would help me plan out maps prior to Release (thanks to the coordinate system)


There are analogues of pretty much every Sandbox piece, I believe. I don't have the exact dimensions, though. Multiples of 10' would be a safe bet.


Posted by: linkfan107
for ferrex

1 of my questions from last night was can you put health packs into object wile still being available to use
ex put a health pack in a cardboard box.


I don't see any reason that wouldn't work, but you wouldn't be able to see if the Health Pack was there or not.


Posted by: Dont pass gass
question for ferrex, in the new forge world and other places when you phase an object through the ground say for example and open container does it still have that big opening or does the ground just fill it up?

Ex tunnels under ground... that would be cool if you could.


The ground would fill it up. Doing boolean operations on the environment based on object placement would be really cool, but probably also really hard. :)


Posted by: Gamer Stix
Ferrex,

How big is the quarry area (the "small outdoor pocket" above the colloseum) compared to areas we've played on before?


Precisely as large as Sanctuary.


Posted by: Saxophone18
To FERREX:

Will there be different themes for different maps?

What I mean is will there be covenant scenery in a covenant map, human scenery in a human map, etc..


Generally speaking, yes. There's a lot of shared objects, too.


Posted by: Boss of OWNAGE
Ferrex, is there any special options we get with the weapons?
I.E Halo 3 we could change the amount of extra clips.

What is in the Gadgets category?

EDIT Another question. Can you change the spawn time of teleporters now? So they spawn later?


You can still set the number of Clips for placed weapons.

Gadgets contains stuff like Teleporters, Man Cannons, and other toys.

And yep, Teleporters can be given a spawn time, if you want to mark one as "Not Placed At Start" and have it spawn in after that spawn time.


Posted by: Bionic Juice
What percentage of the Forge objects are "movable"?

(As in I can go up to it and move it with several melee attacks.)


None (or almost none) of the big structural objects. Smaller sandbox objects, like Fusion Coils or Space Crates, can be moved around as long as they're not set to Fixed or Phased physics.


Posted by: Zomechin
How far away can you go out of the main map? Is there a non-deletable death barrier or invisible somewhere out there?

Also, does the Forge moniter travel much more quickly now, or is it going to take you a while to travel across the map?


There is a non-deletable boundary + soft ceiling barrier, but it's pretty far out there. There's lots of room to build almost anything without bumping into them.

And the Monitor's boost has been greatly increased, which allows him to cover the map pretty rapidly. Shish verbally abused me every time I talked to him until we got that in.


Posted by: Alex048
Ferrex, can we still make SAW maps using powerups? If they're gone, is there something to replace the Custom powerup?


Custom Powerups are still available. I think you can even place more of them now.


Posted by: Tiny ninjaa
Is the lack of terrain editing because the reach engine wasn't built for it (dynamic lighting and stuff) or just because there wasn't enough time to implement it?


Both. Wasn't built for it, and there was no time to change that to implement it. Would sure be nice, though. I loved the mesh editing tools we had on Myth, makes terrain editing a snap. Not this time around, alas.


Posted by: P3P5I
Hello Ferrex,

Is the respawn limit for objects increased?

i.e. the max time an object would disappear for in Halo 3 Forge was 180 seconds. Has the time increased?


Believe it's the same as H3. I don't recall increasing that number.


Posted by: d Fusion b
Lil question for ferrex just to specify. I read in the weekly update how lighting was one of the main limitations of Forge World, and Objects within it. Is that why Objects (Other than interactive ones like Vehicles and Flags) don't cast shadows?


Technical limitations. Shadow casting is relatively expensive and so we can only do it on so many objects at a time. We find the best use of them is for moving objects, so things like vehicles and flags take priority.

If you're only looking structure pieces, though, they will shadow normally. There's also some sweet self shadowing based on a different bit of technical magic that is always applied to them, and really helps make the bunkers and interiors look sweet.


Posted by: Slayer Lord
Ferrex, just wondering, can we apply colour settings to any vehicle to specify them for, say a teams base?

Or does it only apply to mongooses in rocket race?


I believe only the Mongooses got the color change treatment. I gather it was sort of a whimsical thing that one of the artists did on his own time, and not how the rest of the vehicle art was set up. :(


Posted by: linkfan107
whats the fastest way to get around forge world?


Teleporters. But until you've set those up, the Monitor's boost is pretty fast now.


Posted by: xIguana117x
Is there a certain limitation to how far an object can be phased into the geometry or other objects? So, could I push a block all the way through the terrain? If so, how would one go about deleting it?

Also, could you place an object and fix it into the sky, then set it to normal so that it spawns in the sky and falls?

Thirdly, can you take a picture of your creation and set it as the map icon that displays in the pre-game lobby?


Once an object is completely out of the environment, it can't be pushed any further. If you release it, it'll actually just vanish (since you wouldn't be able to select it again to delete it.)

And yes, objects can be placed in the sky but left with Normal physics so that they fall.

No preview images, unfortunately. We had a plan for that (using screenshots), but didn't get to do that one. :(


Posted by: Ronald_W_4
Dear Ferrex,

In the Gadgets menu, I saw a thing called explosives. Does this mean fusion coils and mines? or does this mean that I can make an explosion happen every 10 seconds here (for example)


Just Mines, Fusion Coils, and their ilk.


Posted by: DannySpud
Hi ferrex =)

What's the difference between the vehicle man cannon and the regular man cannon?


The vehicle one is quite a bit bigger.


Posted by: in the Krutch
Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions, Ferrex.

Here's my question:

Is it possible to forge "beyond the canyon" in other maps, such as Powerhouse?

For example, in theory, could I create an entirely new map beyond the death boundaries of the default Powerhouse map?

Is there enough budget to do this?


Unfortunately, other maps like Powerhouse weren't built with the sort of wide-open spaces in mind that Forge World was, so their boundaries are quite a bit tighter (and for gameplay purposes, inaccessible. I'm sure some adventurers are going to manage to get out there and take sweet screenshots, though.)


Thread is almost 20 pages long, and I'm only on page 5! Yikes!

Going to have to cut it off here, and try to answer questions up to this post. Sorry guys!


Posted by: Plasma Prestige
Ferrex, you're awesome. Thanks for answering questions.

There are two features of Forge that really have me confused, and no one has provided me with an adequate answer. I'd really appreciate it being answered:

How do the rotation snaps and coordinates work exactly? For example, when the rotation snap is to 90 degrees, is the object "un-rotatable" and will say fixed to make it easier to align? I'm having trouble grasping the concept of rotation snapping. Also, what do each option under the coordinates do? I saw pitch, yaw, roll etc and had no idea what it was.

Thanks in advance.


Rotation Constraints basically lock the object's orientation (on all three axes) to a multiple of that number. So if you set 90 degrees, then the object will rotate in 90 degree steps. It's really pretty simple once you use it.

And under Coordinates, you can directly adjust the rotation on the pitch, yaw, and roll axes too. Makes some things easier, like building curved ramps.


Posted by: Paradoxed
Hey, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.

What makes you determine how many of a certain vehicle/object are on a map at once. I saw that you said that only 4 scorpions can be on forge world at once, yet 8 falcons could be on it.

Why couldn't their be 10 tanks, for instance, so long as you have the room and budget for it?


Different vehicles have different performance profiles. The tanks, for example, have lots of contact "friction" points with the ground that causes them to be relatively expensive. Four tanks, for example, are more expensive in terms of CPU time than 8+ Warthogs.

Rendering-wise, they're also a bit more expensive.


Posted by: Plasma3150
C'mon Ferrex, is the Covenant Lookout Tower Forgable or not?


I don't think it's on the Forge World palette, but it might be on one of the other maps. If not, it's purely a memory related omission--they're cool objects, but all of the maps are pretty much packed up to the memory limit with good stuff.


Posted by: SonOfTheShire
Hey ferrex, what is Forge like on other maps, such as Swordbase?

Could I go on to Swordbase and spawn up some crates and ONI black boxes, and maybe delete the mancannon in the centre of the map? I noticed that while playing CTF on Swordbase the lifts were turned off and blocked at the top; was this something done in Forge?

In Halo 3 maps with loads of airspace -such as Snowbound- rarely had air vehicles; has this been rectified in Reach?

Finally, some people more observant than I noticed a Shade turret in one of the Forgeworld screenshots. Is there a UNSC counterpart?


Forge World vs. some of the other maps is really very much like the differences between, say, editing Sandtrap and editing Sandbox. Fewer (but still lots of) options on the normal maps, in exchange for a more unique and custom environment.

And sadly, there's no standalone UNSC turret like the Shade. The art for a fixed Warthog turret base was one of the casualties of the late stage cut and polish phase. There are some clever ways to use Warthogs for that purpose, though.


Posted by: BandicootIsWhite
@ferrex

Will we be able to customise more things in forge like jump speed and loadouts (weapons and AAs)? I'm asking because this would make the testing of my jump maps 1000x easier :D

Also, i'm sneaking in another one... are power-ups available in forge like custom, overshield, camo etc...?


Yes, and yes.


Posted by: II swepower II
Hey ferrex,

As seen on THIS video, whenever the grabbed object reaches a certain level there is is yellow "pointers" showing up, what is that for?


Debug geometry from an internal build. I don't think you'll see those in the final game.


Posted by: TorontoFan14

Can we spawn non-drivable vehicles for scenery in Forge? Ex: Pelican, Scarab, Longsword.


No, we didn't really have the memory to spare for vehicles which couldn't be driven. Even Forky didn't make the grade. :(


Posted by: Crashkon
2 questions.

Can you still place normal powerups like the overshield/custom powerup?

Do the map effects (juicy, gloomy, etc) have an option to a effect only a part of the map?


Unfortunately, and despite a great last minute suggestion by Shish and Cam, the filters remain map wide. (Their suggestion was to limit the effect to the Object Boundary, which was ingenious but too late for us to add the new feature. Dang.)


Posted by: Bionic Juice
I noticed some "Camera" looking objects they where above spawns and usually the same color....what are those?


Those are the viewpoint you see from while selecting loadouts. Sort of like the pre-game view of the map.


Posted by: External Memory
One burning question on my mind also, which was a late query by titio1300in SkaterSnake19's thread from last night:

Will we be able to restrict editing to the party leader/host only for real this go around, and can we make ourselves actually invulnerable to anything a mere Spartan can throw at us while in monitor mode?

I know I'm not the only one who'd love to be able to leave the party and game open while a work's in progress so friends can drop in to give feedback (without having worry about griefing too much).


While you can make yourself invulnerable to the puny Spartans, we didn't set up the "Host Editor Only" feature this time around. It was a non-trivial addition, and, well, H3 ended up doing alright without it (man that was embarrassing.)


Posted by: menotyou135
If you drop a ball off of a forge map, does it sit on the bottom floor and do you have to wait for it to reset, or is there a way to actually make a gametype where you can play ball?


The Oddballs, Flags, and their ilk now reset when they hit a kill volume. The MP team had strong sauce this time.


Posted by: DannySpud
Hi ferrex =)

This is a kind of Forge question. In some videos we can see a new vehicle, like a cross between a wraith and a ghost. And in the vehicle creation menu there a vehicle named Revenant listed. Are these the same?

Also (not sure if you're able to answer this) did you guys use a special build of Reach for comic-con to keep unrevealed stuff secret?

Finally, what's your favourite thing you've seen created so far in the new Forge? (Like a whole map, a section, or even just an interesting use of the features.)


Yes, that's the Revenant.

I'm pretty sure the Comic-con build was a special one without all of the maps (I saw a screenshot that only listed four maps, which is too few. Scandalously few, in fact.)

My favorite thing in the new Forge so far is the remake of Lockout that Shish has been building. It's crazy how close to the real thing he's been able to get it.


Posted by: Reykjavik
A couple questions:

Is the 'earthquake' effect fixed (where when you rotated on object, saved the map, and reloaded it, it would be rotated slightly differently)?

Will all vehicles be available on all maps? You might not think it is a good idea to put a scorpion on lockout, but others might want to.

Will there be a decent amount of objects for every map, not just Forgeworld (compare Sandbox to Standoff in terms of available objects)?

Forge was pretty glitchy in Halo 3, especially when it came to the objects that originally spawned on the map, have those issues been addressed?

Thanks for all the answers, I appreciate it.


The "earthquake" (a quantization error) is fixed.

Not all vehicles will be available on all maps, but we try to get all of the relevant ones we can on as many maps as we can. It comes down to memory constraints more than whether or not we think a vehicle is appropriate for the map (exception: flying vehicles are limited based on whether or not we think the map boundaries can support it.)

All of the maps have a pretty wide selection of objects, but not on the order of Sandbox or Forge World. Maps like that need to be very light on memory footprint to make room for all of the objects, and the main way we do that is cutting down textures and lightmaps, which doesn't work for every space.

Most of the issues I'm aware of with objects already on the map (especially their counting against the object limit despite being deleted) have been fixed.


Posted by: Rand0m TAG
so ferrex, can we adjust how weapons spawn? such as if we want the weapon to spawn exactly every 2minutes, instead of having it done the way halo 3 has it setup


Afraid not. It's not how we really intended to handle weapon spawning, so the object respawning logic isn't really built with that in mind.


Posted by: DannySpud
Hi ferrex =)

What's the biggest thing that got cut from forge, and why?


Probably support for devices (doors, lifts, switches, et cetera.) The feature came in very late, wasn't tested to our satisfaction, and when we looked at all the maps that had already been built without requiring lots of doors, switches, and stuff, it became very hard to justify creating and testing a lot of device objects to our level of satisfaction. So, that feature got pruned so that we could concentrate on more important stuff (like camera controls.)


Posted by: nick19100
Will objects that are selected with physics move every time a force is applied, or only when being placed?

For instance, I place an object with physics properties, will it continue to move after I place it?


Many large (like, structural) pieces will not move once you place it and let it come to rest. Smaller objects, like crates or fusion coils, will move if you set the physics to Normal, but won't move if you set the physics to Fixed.


Posted by: welshy
ferrex,are health packs placable or is there a set "wall with healthpack on it" ?


They're placeable.


Posted by: GD27 ShOckWavE
In Halo 3, making floors out of multiple objects resulted in a "bump" whenever a player walked on it. Is this fixed in Reach? Are walkways made out of multiple objects smoother?


That stuff is smoother now, partly because of how the objects are authored, and partly because you can line them up very precisely using nudges and build a perfectly planar floor.


Posted by: halo3genius
I'm sorry if this question has already been asked before, but are the FX included on every map now?


Yep.


Posted by: Cewpar
Did you guys test this stuff on split screen? I know merged stuff freaked out all the time and those red and blue lights on sandbox rarely worked on splitscreen in halo 3.


We did. And the reason the lights didn't work consistently is because splitscreen culls out lights way more aggressively (for perf reasons.) I believe that is less true now, but don't quote me on it. (Hah, right.)


Posted by: DannySpud
Hi ferrex =)

Is it possible to designate an object and objective so that you have to get it to a certain place. I'm thinking like football (soccer), you have to get the ball to the goal. Kind of like objective but you don't carry it.


Would really depend on the game type. I can't think of a gametype offhand that would let you do this, but stranger things have happened.


Posted by: Z105
I like how this thread has gone completely off the topic of "What will you forge" and more into a "Ask Ferrex questions" topic.

Anyway, Another question; Did you guys fix that "Ignore the money limit" glitch they they used in Halo 3? I'm not sure it would be need to be used, but I'm curious as to whether you fixed that or left it there for people.


Yes, we fixed it. But, I have a lunch bet riding on the community figuring out some other glitch that lets them do it anyway. Never underestimate the community, IMO. :)


Posted by: Crashkon
I was wondering, The rotational nudges, do they apply to the object's axis, or the map's axis. For example, if you were to rotate an object 30 degrees on x, will this affect further rotations, such as a rotational nudge on y? I would hope they're based on the object's axis, and thanks for answering so many questions.


The constraints are on the map/world axes. The smaller constraints can get a little strange when you're rotating on multiple axes, but that seemed like a fair tradeoff to us for the improvement to the much more common case of single axis rotation.


Posted by: Hayabusawarrior
1. If you choose phased, place object in ground, let go, but without picking it up put it on fixed or normal will it pop out.


Nope, it'll stay fixed in the ground, unless you grab it (in which case it'll pop out.)


Posted by: Conkerkid11
Will there be a limit towards how many credits we can earn during forge?


There is a limit per session, but not a lifetime limit.


Posted by: Pedrg 93
Ferrex! Are Elephants forgeable???


Been trying to dodge the Elephant questions, but they keep coming up. Time to face the music: no Forging Elephants this time around either. Sorry guys. :(


Posted by: HARDCOR3 H3RO
ferrex The grid item, do items snap into place along the lines?


No, it's just a visual and physical aid. It's really handy for lining things up though.


Posted by: JABBERWOCK xeno
I'll repost my question since it was 5 pages ago, and no body has asked it yet and it is fairly useful to know:

Lets say I had a boundry set around the canyon, but I have a teleporter that goes to the rock.

Could I set a second kill zone there, so the teleporter would be the only usable means of getting there?


Yep. You can have multiple Safe Zones, even if they're disjoint. As long as the player is inside one of them, he's Safe.


Posted by: A Soul Gone Bad
How large is the interior? And how many separate areas/rooms are there in the interior?


I think it's around 3x as wide as a Grifball court, and 1x as long. It's pretty large, but there's large wall objects to block off parts.

Square walls, floors, and joins too! Yay!


Posted by: deathknight2601
In Halo 3 when the lights were introduced in DLC, they were very limited and you could only place 2 In Forgeworld can you place more than 2? Plus can you edit the light radius? Just like a hill?


Still limited to 2, and of fixed radius I'm afraid. Lights can be really expensive depending on the scene, and we really didn't want to have a situation where lots of overlapping lights were killing framerate (while the author wondered why. "But it worked fine when I'm the only person there!")


Posted by: a Recovery
@ FERREX

When you enter a Teleporter, do you exit facing the same direction you were walking in? Say for example you were walking in backwards, would you exit facing the receiving teleporter? This was really bugging me and a bunch of players in Halo 3.


Yes, teleporters now work this way (instead of the Halo 3 way of always aligning to the receiver facing.) I do worry that this is going to be confusing for novice map authors, but Jon convinced me that it was for the best in the long run. He's your man.


Posted by: SlayersBane
If you wanted to forge on a completely flat landscape larger than the coliseum, what would be the best way to approach that? Would you simply forge the ground in the water? Or would it be best to phase ground objects into bumpy terrain and level it out?

Also, how large exactly is that giant wall forge piece? Knowing this will give me an idea of how easy it will be to create a flat landscape and remake maps such as The Pit. (Assuming The Coliseum is too small of a space for it. Is it?)


Probably your best bet would be to use the large wall pieces to create a flat field out over the water, or extend the Coliseum space out.

But The Pit might actually fit in the Coliseum. I've never measured, but it seems like it ought to.


Posted by: Mastre Ceef
Ferrex!
are you able to place ammo for weapons without placing another weapon?
like if there are 2 players and one has an assault rifle and the other only a magnum, have only magnum ammo instead of an actually magnum so mister assault rifle wielder can't have himself a magnum


Afraid not. But, what you could do (depending on your game type) is just set the player traits to No Weapon Pickup, and then let the players choose their weapon via a customizable Loadout. Might accomplish what you have in mind.


Posted by: Plasma Prestige
I'm really curious Ferrex, please:

Are we given enough freedom in Forge with dynamic objectives as to assimilate an Invasion map with proper settings?

Furthermore, can we force people to be Spartans/Elites for certain teams/roles?


You should be able to completely set up (or re-arrange) an Invasion map. And Invasion itself has a bunch of sweet options to change things up too.

Can't force teams, though. That's handled by the game type, not Forge.


Posted by: xxBoba Fettxx
Hello Ferrex, I have a question pertaining to if you can be an elite in forge or custom games? Or if you are forced to be a spartan?


Depends on the game. You can be an Elite in Forge though.


Posted by: Bionic Juice
How many variations of custom powerups are there.

Before, we only had the one yellow kind. Is it possible that there's a second or third custom power-up with it's own separate traits?


Just the one Custom Powerup I'm afraid.


Posted by: SleepingDeath
question for ferrex thanks for reading and answering if you do...

Q: Do you already own a copy of halo reach or do you play forge at bungie hq?


I do not. In fact, I'll probably only get my copy of the game a day or two before the entire world does. :

And probably a few weeks after players in France do, but c'est la vie. ;)

I do have access to development builds, though, and I do play around when I have time.


Posted by: Conkerkid11
Ferrex,

Will the target designator featured in Invasion become an item in the forge pallete, or is it limited to just Invasion?


It is not limited to Invasion (it's in Firefight too), but it is limited to certain maps. It's not in Forge World, unfortunately.


Posted by: RH Shade
Hey Ferrex, i have a few questions about forge world.

1. In the Vidoc, there looked to be some giant walkway-like structure under the water, is that moveable? It was at about 3:19.
2. At about 4:46, There is someone who looks like he's walking around a sphere or something. Kinda like walking around a small planet. Am I just seeing things or is there some kind of artificial gravity object. (Same thing at 5:05).
3. Also are those red shield things one way shield doors, like on Boneyard on invasion?


1. Yep.
2. Just looks like it, there's no gravity changes going on.
3. Yep.


Posted by: JustBiscuit
Hey Ferrex, is the glitch where objects start spazzing out and going crazy still around when you bring objects into tight spaces or near barriers?


Kinda sorta. An object with Normal or Fixed physics will act a little squirrely if you try to put it somewhere too small or near a barrier, but a Phased physics object should behave just fine.


Posted by: thesuperhaloman
Ferrex, what is your biggest worry for the Forge mode?
Do you expect the Forge community to use Forge 2.0 to it's full potential or barely scratch the surface?


I don't think I have a biggest worry. I'm pretty optimistic about what kind of cool stuff is going to happen this time around.

And yes, the community will use it beyond its designed "potential", no doubt. The actual potential of the Forge is really pretty much defined by what the community ends up doing with it.


Posted by: A Soul Gone Bad
I'm seriously tired of asking, and asking really good questions that should be answered, and that not be answered. And then I see someone who says "can man cannons still move things" be answered, and I just about killed someone. I seriously would just like to know if you can create your own death barriers!


I've been skipping because it was answered in the last thread. Yes, you can create your own Kill Zones.


Posted by: Armyman918
Ferrex: I have a question about earning credits via forge. So I know from the update you get credits based on the amount of time you are forging but will we earn a nice bonus of credits if our map makes it into Bungie Favorites, and we will received credits for each time our map is downloaded? Basicly, what other ways can we earn credits with forge, if any?


Afraid not. We don't want to incentivize spamming or stealing maps any more than we already do (for simple bragging rights.) If people were uploading and recommending maps because it got them credits, the noise could drown out the signal (e.g., quality maps and recommendations.)


Posted by: a Recovery
In the Comic-con panel video, 2 objects were shown. One looked excactly like the Sniper Tower from Lockout, and the other looked like the BR Tower from Lockout. Are there many other cases were scenery items are chunks of classic maps?


Yes, there are a couple of these pre-fab pieces, taken from Lockout, Ascension, Sanctuary, et cetera. Basically, some shapes are way too hard to make from primitives, so we cheated a little. But, we made it so you guys can cheat too. :)


Posted by: a Recovery
This ones New

Is it possible to set the ending location of a mancannon? Say for example you put the mancannon down, set a marker for where it will make the player land, and choose the maximum height the object / player traveling through reaches before touching down.Sort of like Guardians??


Afraid not. Man cannons are simple throwers of objects, heedless of where they might end up. Real clever, those Covenant engineers.

But, there are a few different power levels available this time, so you should be able to adjust your trajectories more easily.


Whew, I finally caught up (on page 18) with my cutoff (which I posted when I was on page 5.) That's it for now guys, going to cut it off here because I'm a) starving and b) need to catch up on reading the rest of the thread.

Make sure to send your cheers to Urk too. He organized these QA threads!

Cheers!

Reflect in the perfection of Reflection!

Reflect in the perfection of Reflection! A straight swipe from Grunts R Us, here a flash new pictures of three new Halo Reach multiplayer maps - Reflection, Spire and Zealot!






Spire Map:





The Covenant-themed map, Zealot:




Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Have you caught the Halo fever yet?


I know what the ladies like....

Anticipation for Halo Reach is getting feverish, writes Irish writer Joe Griffin.

UNLIKE FILMS, videogame sequels and prequels usually equal and often surpass the originals. From two-fisted classics ( Streetfighter II, Grand Theft Auto III ) to recent home runs ( God of War III


, Modern Warfare II


), game sequels are traditionally blessed with superior graphics, smoother gameplay and better characterisations.

The main reason is probably that the developers themselves are better equipped to exploit the platform. Uncharted II, for example, capitalised further on the PS3's engine. Also, game developers are in touch with their fans like no other media, largely thanks to online gaming.

There was certainly excitement among game journalists at the Halo Reach press event in London. After allowing us to play the game, Bungie community director Brian Jarrard and campaign designer Niles Sankey sat down to chat.

" Halo was one of the first games on a console that let you customise game types and game rules," says Jarrard. "Community and social interaction have always been a big part of Halo , and it's just gotten bigger with each release. It's a large part of what makes Halo what it is today. We love seeing awesome stuff that people have built and that we didn't know were possible. It gives us plenty to work with."

Sankey, however, is aware of the inherent difficulty of sequels.

"People like the familiar fun and experience but they don't like to repeat things too much. The nice thing about Reach is that we feel like we've done a good job of making new experiences and a more fleshed-out story. We're doing stuff that we've never allowed players to do before. So even in the campaign, every mission is unique and the story is definitely more fleshed out and impactful than anything we've done before."

The Halo franchise is Bungee's signature, but Jarrard promises that the series will soon end.

"Every day we work on this project it's a step closer to the last Halo game. But it's also a source of inspiration to go out on a high note and set the bar for what a Halo game should be, to leave something that we can be proud of and our fans will enjoy.

"We don't really spend any energy thinking about what other people are doing," he adds. "Bungie has always been more heads-down and coming up with ideas we think are interesting and listening to our fan community itself."
-
That first sentence of the last paragraph is amusing. It's basically a fuck you Microsoft, we don't care that you're making a Halo bastard! Still, I'm gonna buy that game!

Halo Waypoint to be released on Windows 7 Mobile Phones



Ohhhh this is our 404th post. Don't say Halo Reach Game News doesn't deliver cause we are like the Mailman and always deliver! Keep reading and if the ending of the Reach game sux, I might just go postal!

Ne ways word on the streets of Germany is that Microsoft announced that a whole lot of games are going to be release on sell phones that have the Windows 7 platform.

Included in that list of games was a Halo game. Queue fan boys opening new savings accounts.... well that's what some shite websites reported. Maurico who runs an awesome tech blog, Geekzone has the list of Windows 7 games - and the Halo game? It's actually Halo Waypoint!

This totally makes sense as part of the hype with Windows 7 being on phone devices is that the games you buy will be connected to Xbox Live and your own XBL account - thus you can rack up gamer points on your commute.

Still, I'm not gonna ditch my iphone for anything!! I can't wait to download Taylor Swift's Speak Now to it! ;)

Monday, October 28, 2013

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Why is he acting so casual?

Gamestop asked if I could promote this Red Vs Blue video. I had nothing better to do so...





Basically the premise is if you order the Reach game from Gamestop, say by stopping in, you get a piece of customizable Armour for your Spartan.

Unlock some emblems....


Flair....


Some news from Bungie on the Flair....


If you missed the news in the Weekly Update, (scroll down to the section with the orange block of game UI), players of classic Bungie games get a head start on making their Reach lobby appearance shiny by unlocking some special nameplate images.

Two of these need a few extra clicks on your part to become active, so we're letting you get started now - Halo 1 for PC/Mac, and Marathon 2: Durandal for XBLA. To unlock these emblems:

1. Make sure you're signed in to Bungie.net with the account that's linked to the gamertag you want to tie your Halo PC key to. If you tie it to one account, but only played Halo 2 and 3 on a different account, we CAN NOT help you combine them later to get the emblem for playing all 3. Choose wisely! Obviously, this also has to be the gamertag you'll play Reach


with.


2. Visit your Bungie.net account page , then click the Game Settings tab, then the Nameplate Settings link below that.

3. Follow the instruction there to unlock your stuff!

4. Wait an agonizingly long 20 days until 9/14 when you get Reach and play it online

5. Return to the same Nameplate Settings page , where you'll be shown all the nameplates available to you, and you can choose one to use. Return there whenever you feel like changing things up

Friday, October 25, 2013

Extended Cut of Deliver Hope

Here's the extended cut of the Deliver Hope promotional video for Reach


:





What I don't understand is how was Kat going to get the bomb up in the ship? She didn't appear to have a jet pack on..... and don't you think she was pretty athletic for a Spartan? (well compared to the way they seem to play in game anyway!).

Bungie hates Justine Beiber


Who's the baby now?
So Bungie had a Reach release promo event and Justin Bieber turned up.He's the guy that apparently takes up 3 percent of Twitter. Presumably invited and then Marcus lets loose with this on Noble Actual:
"No, he didn't deserve to play or even be there. So, to make things better, Nathan Fillion and his buddy kicked Bieber's ass. That was the best part of the evening.

-Marcus"
Kinda mean huh?

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Dr Halsey Easter Egg: The Package

catherine-halsey-halo-reach



Watch this video for a pretty awesome Halo Reach Easter Egg that shows Dr Halsey's lab in action.

http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=219975&player=kornmanOO\

In a blatant steal from the forums at HBO, here's what user korman00 has discovered - basically it's Dr Catherine Halsey's secret lab:

This cave is not in natural formation...and neither is a certain control found hidden away in a remote part of The Package.

Film Clip


What is this control I speak of you ask? Bungie's last hoo-rah towards some of the major highlights in Halo's community over the past decade. It's a shrine I guess you could say, and it's kind of hidden in plain view.

To get to this magical control and shrine yourself you'll need to follow a couple of steps.


1) Have two players. Yourself and someone else, or just a second controller.
2) Play "The Package" on legendary. You *can* start the game at Rally Point Bravo, don't worry.
3) Defeat all of the AI which gets thrown at you until the very end. At which point the control should magically appear. Note: It may appear earlier, but I only found it after I had killed all of the AI so that's all I know. It's easier to explore when no one is shooting at you :P
4) Grab a jetpack. It may be possible to pull it off without one...but I wouldn't try it.
5) Watch the video and see for yourself where the magical control spawns at. Follow my steps and you should be able to activate the control too. You'll see why you need a second person too :P.

Now, once you make your way into the shrine you'll find seven terminals. Just like the datapads you can find all through out the game, you activate them and up pops a little display plus a couple of pages of information. Since the game doesn't capture the terminal view, you'll have to view them via the image captures I took.

Image captures folder

---

Nice work Bro, nice work.

Weapons Guide for Halo Reach



Shake Appeal has done a handy guide to using some of the weapons in Reach: I've borrowed it to help you get your kill /death ratio up higher.....

1. Melee
It's your fist. You punch them. You can always do this, unless you are dead.

How to use:
Punch them. Make sure to do it up close, though there's a slight lunge to it. A punch always knocks down a shield, if they have one, but unlike Halo 3, that's all it does if they have any shield left -- whether it's 100% or 10% -- so have something ready to finish them (the stylist in me hopes it's a precision headshot). A punch to an unshielded enemy is always an instant kill, however, so you can just punch them twice, where possible. Also, a melee to an enemy's rear (now called a 'beatdown') causes instant death no matter how much shield they have, and you can add flair to this by holding down the melee button to perform an assassination animation. Melees are best used in conjunction with other weapons, but they are an essential part of your armament nonetheless.

Watch out for:
The close-range power weapons like the shotgun and sword are your worst nightmare; don't go for melees against opponents carrying these unless you are very sure of what you are doing. And everything that works outside melee range (read: everything in the game) likely has you beat, though a combination of Sprint and two quick punches will still take some enemies by surprise. Importantly, because of the changes to how the shield works (i.e. you have to 'break' it as detailed above, with no damage carrying through), you'll want to think your melee attempts through a little more than you did in Halo 3. The old-fashioned 'AR-charge-with-closing-melee' will leave you dead, more often than not.


2. DMR
One of the most flexible weapons in the game, and the go-to midrange gun; you'll probably want to grab one whenever available, though it is the default weapon for many slayer types and in the Arena.

How to use:
Four shots anywhere on an enemy will drop a full shield. A fifth shot will kill, provided it is to the head. Reticle bloom is very manageable; at reasonable ranges, you can spam or close-to-spam the first four shots, then pause for a moment before bagging the essential headshot. You also have a scope for long range, and the gun works surprisingly well even at extreme distances.

Watch out for:
It simply doesn't fire fast enough at very close ranges, especially against enemies who are better equipped (packing shotguns, ARs, pistols, etc.). It also won't kill fast enough at any range to match up consistently against properly-used power weapons.


3. Pistol
Perhaps the most flexible weapon in the game, and you will almost always have one when spawning as a Spartan.

How to use:
It does the same damage and behaves similarly to the DMR; they fire the same round, in fact. However, the pistol suffers more from bloom, meaning you will have to pace your shots at range. On the upside, it can fire much faster, so at close ranges you can spam it at the body to drop shields, and then either melee or pause for the killing headshot. Has a scope, too.

Watch out for:
At mid-to-longer ranges, a decent DMR user will shred you because of their relative lack of bloom. Also, the clip is pretty shallow (only eight rounds, and it takes five to kill a healthy enemy), so facing down multiple enemies at once with it is inadvisable.


4. Assault Rifle
While you will often spawn with one of these, it's use at range is questionable, and against decent players this should usually be the weapon you dump when you find something better.

How to use:
Fire it in bursts at close or medium ranges. As with all human, bullet-based weaponry, it is more powerful against enemies witohut shields. The classic 'AR charge' still works, but remember that you have to take down an enemy's shields in Halo Reach before you can do any damage to their health.

Watch out for:
Skilled pistol users will dong on you if you charge straight at them holding down the trigger. Half-decent DMR users will dong on you at range. And the close-quarters power weapons (sword, shotgun) will dong on you too.


5. Needle Rifle
The Covenant's answer to the DMR, this fires faster and suffers less from bloom, but takes more shots to strip a shield.

How to use:
The Needle Rifle is actually automatic, unlike the DMR and pistol, meaning you can hold down the trigger to fire constantly, though again it's best to pause and wait for the reticle to settle before going for a headshot, which kills just the same as if fired from a DMR. Reload time seems comparatively lengthy to me, but I don't have a list of times, so it may just be my perception. The NR also has a hidden bonus in that three rounds to an unshielded body will 'supercombine' and explode, killing the enemy. The rounds don't have to come from the same gun, either, so this gun is even better in the hands of coordinated teams. Also has a scope.

Watch out for:
The same things that will beat out a DMR beat out a Needle Rifle. The DMR is also arguably the more efficient weapon in the hands of a skilled users. I say "arguably" because as far as I know, nobody has run the numbers on time to kill at various ranges yet, and so whether the DMR is preferable to the Needle Rifle is sort of open to debate.


6. Grenades
You usually spawn with a couple of these, and they are useful in any number of situations. Despite a post-beta nerf, they are still very powerful in Reach, and it's worth learning where they spawn on the map.

How to use:
With frag grenades, try to throw them to feet, or anywhere enemies might be. They worth great to deny service to areas, to buy time when retreating with shields down, to ambush a guarded position, to clear out unshielded enemies, etc. Bounce them off walls to hit people around corners! Bounce them off the ground in front of you so they explode in charging enemies' faces! Bounce them beside you just before death, hoping to kill onrushing foes: it's just like Martyrdom! With plasma grenades, you'll want to 'stick' your enemies where possible (i.e. peg them directly), as the resulting explosion brings (almost) unavoidable death. They work well when thrown on the ground, too, and sometimes their lack of bounce makes them more useful in a given situation. Because you don't have to switch weapons to use them, both grenade types work best in conjunction with melees and your actual weapon.

Watch out for:
Armor Lock is your nemesis, as a skilled user will simply shrug off your grenades. And because betrayal bootings are so rampant right now, watch out for your teammates, too.


7. Sniper Rifle
What you would expect. This is a grade-A power weapon, and if you can use it at all you will want to take it wherever you find it, if only to deny it to the enemy.

How to use:
A headshot will always kill, no matter the target's shield. If you hit an enemy anywhere else, you'll drop their shield instantly, if they have one. If they don't, a single shot anywhere on the body will kill. Even if you hit them in the toe. It has reticle bloom, though, so pace your shots. You can also 'no-scope' enemies by using it like a pistol, but this should be considered an 'advanced' technique.

Watch out for:
Getting hit with anything will knock you out of your scope, so weapons that are serviceable at long range (DMR, Needle Rifle, even the pistol) will make your life difficult. And if you get caught out with the sniper at close range, just about anything will likely beat you unless you can pull out a no-scope. Remember, also, that you are very vulnerable to ambush while scoped.


8. Rocket Launcher
Self-explanatory. It's really powerful. Don't leave it lying around for the enemy.

How to use:
Don't necessarily aim at the target; it's easier to aim at the surfaces around them and rely on splash damage to kill. Rockets are a grade-A vehicle killer, by the way, and you should be aware that you can 'target lock' flying vehicles like the Banshee or Hornet by holding your reticle over them for a few moments before firing.

Watch our for:
Rockets fly slowly, so targets at range will often dodge and destroy you, especially with precision weapons. Also, the reload time is lengthy, so it's usually better to switch to your other gun if you miss with both rockets. Timely Armour Locks and even timelier Drop Shields will deny you kills, too.


9. Shotgun
A close-range power weapon, seemingly beefier than it was in Halo 3.

How to use:
Fire at extremely close distances. If you are at point-blank range, you should always follow up with a melee to make sure the job is done. Like all weapons save the 'precision' ones (DMR, Needle Rifle, pistol, sniper) the shotgun makes no distinction between head and body, so aim centre-mass for best results.

Watch out for:
Just about everything outside your fairly short effective range.


10. Sword
The other close-range power weapon, slightly neutered in Reach.

How to use:
When your reticle is red, the sword will dramatically lunge you toward an enemy with right trigger (as if you were 'shooting' it), killing instantly no matter their shield or health. The exception is if they time a countering melee to block you; get around this by attacking from the side or back where possible. If you press the regular melee button instead of pulling the trigger, the sword will give a quick slash (without the lunge), which is particularly useful in sword duels.

Watch out for:
Your nemesis is the shotgun; you will typically die when lunging at a shotgun user head-on. The melee block mentioned above is also a danger. Otherwise, at close range you trump just about everything. Outside that range, everything trumps you.


11. Plasma Pistol
A very useful supplementary gun. It's default firing mode, while seemingly improved in Reach, should be rarely used. The real meat is the plasma overcharge.

How to use:
Hold down the trigger to charge up a glowing green bolt of energy, and then release the trigger to fire. If your reticle is red (over a target, inside the right range) this bolt will home slightly. If it hits an enemy, it drops their shield instantly. If it hits a vehicle, that vehicle is immobilised for a precious few seconds. You can actually use a plasma pistol as a makeshift shotgun at very close ranges, releasing the shield-dropping bolt and then following up with a killing melee.

Watch out for:
The gun by itself is not very effective; it is only in combination with other weapons, notably the precision headshot guns, that it becomes a danger. Consequently, just about everything beats a plasma pistol by itself.


12. Plasma Repeater
New to Reach, this is the Covenant answer to the Assault Rifle, and works just like the Plasma Rifle of the earlier games, only on steroids.

How to use:
Same as you would the Assault Rifle, but with concessions for the travel time of the projectiles. As you fire, the gun overheats and the projectiles start to slow. Pressing the 'reload' button vents this heat and restores the rate of fire. As with the plasma pistol and the needler, you will see a 'ghost' reticle while firing this at an enemy that shows you where best to aim to hit them. As with all plasma-based weaponry, it is better against shields than against flesh, so often you should use this to strip shields before switching to something else to finish the kill.

Watch out for:
Same as the Assault Rifle, above.


13. Needler
Everyone's favourite wacky pink death machine returns in Reach.

How to use:
Try to use it within its optimal range, and only when your reticle is red; like the plasma pistol, it homes slightly when used in the right way. The actual needles themselves do little damage; what you are aiming for is to get enough of them into an enemy that a 'supercombine' occurs and kills them instantly. Unlike the Needle Rifle, the needles stick into shielded targets too, so this thing is near-instant death to unsuspecting targets.

Watch out for:
Aware targets will simply strafe out of the way of the needles, and the further out you get, the more likely you are to be donged on by someone with a 'proper' weapon like the DMR. Use this knowledge when facing needlers yourself: don't ever stop moving, and get to cover where possible. Most people will empty their needler vainly and then you can punish them, but your first priority is to dodge, not to counter. Curiously, the needler is also pretty useless at close range, too, unless someone charges you head-on, in which case you will melt their face. But at the right distance, it's a beast.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Legendary Mode: Of Mice and Men


I found this on B.net file share. It reminds me of Voltron...


So playing Halo: Reach on legendary mode is probably the best thing you can do for yourself as a gamer because it's at true test of your worth. Are you a man or a mouse? Are you up to the challenge? Given Bunige reckons only 5 percent of players have completed Reach by themselves on legendary mode, there are appears to be entire fields of mice out there, just whimpering at the thought of an extra set of Hunters to rain down the pain on Noble 6.
It's not hard to see why this is the case - Bungie's Urk outlines how legendary mode is actually structured to pan out:
Here's a rundown of the major aspects that separate Legendary from the lesser difficulties:
*Warning - there are a few spoilers down below!*

Damage - THE most challenging trait for Legendary is the increase in damage that ALL of the Covenant will do. For perspective, playing on "Easy" results in enemies doing a measly 22% of the damage done on "Normal" difficulty. On Legendary, prepare to get blasted by projectiles, explosions and melees that do 77% more damage than Normal difficulty. OUCH.

Projectiles - Not only do those plasma bolts hurt more but they're also harder to avoid. On Legendary difficulty, the projectile speed is anywhere from 50% to 100% faster than Normal difficulty (it varies depending on the projectile/weapon). In general you'll also find that the number of projectiles per burst is greater, the length of each burst is longer and the time between bursts is shorter on Legendary than the lesser settings.

Upgrades - The higher the difficulty setting, the greater the chance that an enemy in an encounter will get upgraded to a higher version. On Legendary there is a 50% chance that any enemy will be upgraded to the next highest version - so that Minor Elite you fought on Normal or Heroic now has a 50% chance to become a Major (or a 25% of becoming an Ultra). Enemies will also have more health on average than the same enemy would have on a lower difficulty.

AI Behavior - I was surprised to learn that the AI actually does NOT evade more or have a greater awareness on Legendary compared to the other difficulties (with the exception of a greater likelihood to see Active Camo or less likelihood of falling for Hologram). However, the AI does behave differently by generally having a better aim, a greater chance to fire plasma pistol overcharge shots and a shorter time between melee strikes.

Customized Encounters - In addition to everything listed above, which applies to every single enemy in the game, sometimes the designers have done extra, specific things to beef up an encounter solely on Legendary play-throughs. Jerks! For example, in "New Alexandria", Dan Miller will throw more Banshee patrols at your Falcon as you fly around the city and on "The Package", he added a fourth Hunter Wave that appears before the final wave. On "Nightfall" you'll have to contend with four Hunters instead 's of two. And so on.
So that's the deal if you want to man up and tackle Reach in legendary mode. As with all the Halo series, plasma pistols are your best friend - use them to disable the enemy shields and then follow up with a head shot using the DMR or pistol or equivalent weapon. You'll also get more points for having done a combo.

Any one else got some tips for playing Reach on legendary? Leave a note in the comments!

Halo: Cryptum is the new Forerunner novel



A press release just out has formally announced the title of the first in a new series about the Halo forunner.

So named Halo: Cryptum, this will be the first of the Halo novels that goes really in depth as to the history of this race. I imagine things only hinted at in the games and other novels will be revealed as the seriies goes forward.
Here's the release:

New York, NY - Friday October 8, 2010 - Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC-the largest publisher of science fiction in the world-is pleased to reveal the title, cover art, and release month of Halo: Cryptum, the first in a trilogy of novels by Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Greg Bear in the New York Timesbestselling "Halo" series based on the hugely successful "Halo" video games franchise for the Xbox 360. Halo: Cryptum will be published in January 2011. An unabridged audio book edition will publish simultaneously with the new novel.

Halo: Cryptum will begin the first deep exploration into the time of the Forerunners, the creators and builders of the Halos. Almost nothing is known for sure about this ancient race. Worshipped by the Covenant as gods, their engineering relics pepper the galaxy, and their connection to humanity remains unanswered. Devoted fans of both the books and games will finally get to delve deep into the era of these enigmatic beings, and discover for themselves the epic story behind one of the great mysteries of the "Halo" universe: the complete disappearance of the Forerunners from existence.

"The enigma of the Forerunners is really at the heart of the drama and mystery of the Halo universe," says Frank O'Connor, Franchise Development Director for 343 Industries. "In all the games and the books so far we've only scratched the surface of the terrible events that engulfed the Forerunners and the Galaxy they protected 100,000 years ago, and we're very lucky to have a writer with Greg's experience and creativity to help us finally shed some light on why the Halos are really here."
Karen Travis' Halo novel, is presumable still underway

Monday, October 21, 2013

Reach could have had space ship multiplayer



This brief article from The Escapist talks about the goal that Bungie had to get space ship battles as part pof the Halo Reach multiplayer experience but that it was ultimately dropped. Marcus Lehto lets us in on the plans:

Remember that sequence in Reach when you have a dogfight in space against the Covenant? It kind of plays like those parts of the old Nintendo 64 space combat sim StarFox 64 where Fox McCloud would whisk around a relatively small area trying to take down a specific enemy.
The space fight mission in Halo: Reach is definitely a far cry from the more open space battles of, say, Tie Fighter, but it was a nice departure from the run and gun gameplay of the rest of the campaign. Bungie's Creative Director on Reach, Marcus Lehto, said that the space combat was a darling of the studio and almost made it into multiplayer before the team ultimately decided that it was probably better saved for a different game.

"We joked about it from time to time and even had a rough version of it working very early on in development," said Lehto. "But the mechanics of it were pretty silly and we very quickly realized that the resulting gameplay experience wouldn't hit the bar we were aiming for, nor justify the amount of work required.

"With so many features and so much content already committed, Reach was an incredibly ambitious project on an already aggressive schedule," Lehto said.
-
So maybe something will come of Bungie's Aerospace Teasing soon....

Noble Map Pack is now availabl




As per the Bungie site, the Noble Map Pack is now available:


If you've been itching to try out our three newest maps, the Marketplace switch has been flipped and the DLC Grab Bag Playlist is up and running. Of course, you should feel free to continue playing in your routine hoppers, too. Our matchmaking algorithms will automatically search for other players with DLC weighted to give you a nice blend of old and new.

Download the Noble Map Pack

Thanks for playing!


No Bungie, thank you for being fricking awesome.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Just Bounce With Me....

Fans of the Gears of War series will know Cliff Blezsinski as the mouth piece for the producers - basically it's because he's in charge of the whole shebang. He is a constant and amusing twitterer (follow him / follow us!) and recently he let slip that Gears of War 3


is probably going to see the return of the infamous 'bouncing' ability:



Uh hey Jimmy, what's wall bouncing? According to the wikia: What some veterans do as a tactic is what they call wall-bouncing , doing a repetitious way of bouncing off the walls to evade the opponents attack. It is a good maneuver in many situations but if used incorrectly it can get you killed in an instant.

So what might this mean for GOW3? Will it look any thing like this? What's your thoughts on Gears 3 having a bit of bounce? Will it ruin or improve your multiplayer experience?

Gears of War 3 Wall Paper

There's nothing quite like having some glorious images of Gears of War 3 on you computer as desktop wall paper is there? Wall paper, it's like better than collection stamps!

Here's some pictures from Gears of War 3


that you may wish to use as wallpaper on your PC. But first, how do you make wallpaper? First you cut down a tree....

Oh wait, here's the easy version:

With your mouse or trackpad, click on the image you like so it enlarges. Then right click on the wallpaper image and 'save as'. Once the file is saved to your computer, open it up Window's Control Panel and select change desktop background (or some variant) select the saved file and the wallpaper will be up on your desktop faster than you can say "Bring It!".

Some programs might offer the short cut that when you do the 'right click' you get the option to make the Gears of War picture your desktop background straight away. Do it!



The above wallpaper image is of Baird, the angry and bitter member of Delta Squad.



Next up is Anya Stroud sticking it to the locust horde.



Mr Gear of War himself, Marcus Fenix, taking down a lambent critter.



Get Some! Below: Some exploding guts as your wallpaper..



Marcus quickly determined the locust ate worms for breakfast.



The final piece of wallpaper you may like to use on your PC is one of Marcus armed to the teeth:




Check out my Gears of War 3 review or how I think Gears of War 4 could play out.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Gears of War: Exile - Kinecting with fans?






Gears of War: Exile - Kinecting with fans?

The interwebs are begging to report that Epic has a new ace up their sleeve in the Battle for Sierra called Gear of War: Exile.

Just as Bungie recently got found out re their new IP, Epic Games has filed a trademark application for an IP called Gears of War: Exile and additionally has registered the logo pictured above.

Is this the game that Cliff Bleszinksi was going to announce at the Spike TV's VGA Award Show some months back? (And does this all remind you of the whole Halo: Recon / Halo: ODST fiasco that Bunge and Microsoft unleashed?)


Is this the oft discussed but never publically announced Gears of War game that will use the new Xbox Kinect


system?

Given that Gears of War 3 is in the pipeline for a Fall release, it's unlikely that Gears of War: Exile will get a 2011 release - particularly so confirmed for 2011 is Gears of War 3


, which will include Gears 1 and 2 and the "Road to Ruin" campaign that was cut from the Xbox version of Gears 2, and a selection of 38 multiplayer maps (19 which you can download right now from Xbox Live).

So what do you think? What is Gears of War: Exile going to be about? Is it going to be Gears of War 4 or some other spin off like Halo: ODST was? After all, as Epic have shown with all the novels and comics, there are a lot of Gears stories to be told....

Halo: In 8 Bits and Bytes



So like there's this guy called Eric and he clearly has WAY too much time on his hands - his hobby is to render modern games into the classic 1980's era video graphic format known as 8 bit. Don't ask me what 8 b it means, it's probably something to do with the number of pixels on the screen - just google it! Anyway's Eric has given Halo the conversion treatment.

Any ways, here's the screen shot for Halo in 8 Bit format:


Inn't that grunt just the cutest wee devil?
It's amusing to note that Eric's previous 8 bit effort of DJ Hero earnt him a cease and desist notice from the IP rights holder. Shessh. Talk about stirring it up! Here's a snippet from an interview with Eric from Pikigeek:

PG: So, let's get this out of the way, after we wrote about how your previous Pixel Force game, DJ Hero, got cease and desisted, there was quite a lot of buzz and fan outcry. What can you tell us about that whole experience?
ER: Well, it was a bit of a headache trying to reason with an industry rep whose ultimate goal is his paycheck, and not what's actually right or wrong. Other than the email exchange, the whole situation boded well for me and landed me a lot of great press. News sites that don't even deal in video game news even reported on the ordeal. Overall, I'm surprised to have dealt with a negative stick from UMPG since the project was most likely beneficial to them monetarily. Oh well. What can ya do?
So will Microsoft send in the legal eagles? Time will tell but down load the game for your PC right here, right now in case Bill Gates doesn't see the awesome side of HALO IN 8 BIT GLORY!
Here's the original Halo ring as a comparison:




Friday, October 18, 2013

Top Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles of 2010


I read that sex sells so here you go.
Major Nelson has put together his list for the top Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles of 2010

The Major wants you to note 'that the rankings are based on the games' first seven days of activity on the Xbox LIVE service and only include games released in 2010."
Seven day's hardly seems like a worth while length of time to assess a game's online popularity but I guess it's one way to balance out games that got released earlier in the year than others etc.

Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles of 2010 (based on Unique Users during the first week of launch)

1 Call of Duty: Black Ops



2 Halo: Reach
3 Red Dead Redemption



4 Fable III
5 Battlefield: Bad Co. 2
6 Medal of Honor
7 Mass Effect 2
8 FIFA Soccer 11
9 Fallout: New Vegas
10 BioShock 2
11 Madden NFL 11
12 Splinter Cell Conviction
13 Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
14 Dead Rising 2
15 Kinect Adventures!
16 NBA 2K11
17 Crackdown 2
18 Aliens vs Predator
19 Mafia II
20 Army of TWO: TFD

It's amusing to note that Kinect: Adventures made it onto the list - I expect that it is because it was bundled with the initial roll out of the Kinect. Further amused to see the number of sequels in there!

www.kinecthalo.com registered by Microsoft



So sometimes I'm a lil bit slow - I ony just realised that Microsoft has registered the domain name 'KinectHalo.com' This happened half way through 2010.

What's the big deal you say? Well it potentially suggests that Halo will indeed be developed with the Kinect technology in mind.

That's a maybe as the who is look up shows that Microsoft has over 482,304 other domains registered and I'll guarantee most of those are unsued and simply there to protect against cyber squatters using Microsoft's Intellectual Property such as Halo. As an aside - imagine the yearly bill for all those domain name renewals!

Microsoft has made no formal announcements about the next Halo game but Frankie from 343 Industries who is in charge of Halo did recently say "I think that there are a lot of questions that fans of the series want answered, and we'll certainly be in the business of answering those questions" which is a good lil bit of double speak if you ask me!

So what do you think? Could Kinect enhance the Halo playing experience?

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Beautiful Halo Cortana Body Paint [Cosplay]


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This beautiful Cortana from Halo body paint features cosplayer Evie Evangelion at her finest. Evie talked a bit about her choice of Cortana,



Cortana was always a character that I found interesting and who I wanted to try and portray but with her being made of light it was very hard to figure out a way to bring her to life while staying true to her appearance. I did this body paint based off of her appearance in Halo Combat Evolved where her colour changes between green and purple, this was mostly because I don't have a short blue wig, but also because I do not have the body type of the model used in Halo 4. All the same I hope you enjoy these images as much as I do!"



Photography by Artistic Curves.



See more pictures after the break...





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Send your cosplay pics to tips@fashionablygeek.com.



(via Geek X Girls)