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!