With a brand new Halo comes an even bigger and better version of the Forge creator. New systems have been added to not just give would-be level designers more streamlined and intuitive interfaces, but some brand new modifiers that are sure to result in some truly astounding Halo 4 creations.
343 Industries may be handling the revolutionary take on online multiplayer with Halo 4, but it was confirmed at this week’s Rooster Teeth Expo that the construction of Forge is being handled by Certain Affinity. Having plenty of time with various Halo: Reach map packs in the past – not to mention being staffed by plenty of former Bungie employees – CA is the team to be trusted if 343 was to hand the duty to anyone, and the early details are promising.
According to Polygon, the event’s Halo 4 panel confirmed CA’s role as steward of map editing, and showed off a demonstration of some of the changes that have been made to the Forge tool set. Most of the changes detailed were related to user interface, with the new ability of locking one object to another permanently, and even magnetically joining objects and structures together. Being able to more easily clone certain objects and highlight one in field of many show that no amount of streamlining or intuitiveness is too small to be implemented.
The chance to now have shadows cast by in-map objects is a nice touch, but what has us most interested is what the developers are calling “Player Trait Zones.” These areas are ones in which, you guessed it, specific traits like speed and jump height can be reset completely. This addition is perfect for those Halo fans who have always dreamed of recreating the orbiting International Space Station, along with “The Grav Volume” which tweaks or completely inverts the gravity of any player within it. Provided they’ve got the hard drive space, that is.
The possibilities really are more limitless than ever before for fans who want to craft a map as finely-engineered as those the developers have ready to go. So far the most devoted and intense fans seem more than pleased with Halo 4‘s multiplayer, so hopefully the vibrant Forge community of Reach will continue on to the fourth entry.
Forge has already given us the absurd brilliance of ‘Speed Halo,’ so hopefully this new version will be able to do even better.
Halo 4 will be released for the Xbox 360 on November 6, 2012.
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Follow me on Twitter @andrew_dyce.
Source: Polygon
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I’m fine with the magnetic adjustments… it ought to help. I’m pumped about the trait zones and especially the lighting effects! I really want a weather effect set too though. That would be fantastic. Really though, all it seriously needs is some broadened pieces for “forge world” or whatever it will be called. WHy? Because some pieces got stale. We should be able to choose the dimensions of our block completely. (ex. 4 x 4 then choose height). I know they’ll do great… CA is trustworthy because 343 chose them. I certainly trust 343 after everything I’ve seen of Halo 4. Not a doubt in my mind everything will be great.
dont care what they do to forge as long as there is one GIANT map (or maybe more this time) and lots of different structures. i literally spent hours just building stages on forge. i loved it. Oh and maybe let us add more to the maps because you can only select a certain amount of structures.
Better. There are 3!
Wher did you hear that?
go to halo4nation.com!! (3 unique envirnments…
They posted the actual video, too!
They said in the video that there are 3 large forge environments.
Something a little misleading in the article…. It says “adjust lighting”. We cannot adjust it (no time of day settings) but there is dynamic lighting on each peice that you place in any 3 “forge worlds”. Just clarifying for you guys. Not blaming anybody for some dumb mistake. Happens! Figured everyone would want to know.
Good point, fixed