Lucius Aelius

There's also a section called Forge World on this site with different categories (Competitive, BTB, Aesthetic, etc.) in which people can post maps they make, not a whole lot of people have yet but I know I joined this site specifically for that purpose what with the File Search not working yet.

I've actually yet to dabble with Ordnance Drops. Do those really still work on Flood (you've tested it and it lets you swap weapons)?

Hard kill zones are the same as soft except they don't warn you first, they're placed throughout on finished maps and the easiest way to remove them is be making a new one and selecting "delete all of these."

I've had a change of heart regarding the excessive ammo I had initially given to all the heavy weapons on Observatory (it gives too much power to the center of the map), so I moved the scattershots out to the docking ring and cut down all the ammo to 2 extra clips (down from 5). It wasn't sitting right with me, as usual I rushed through setting up weapons and didn't give enough thought to how it would play. I'm uploading the replacement file to my fileshare now.

You may have to delete some hard kill zones as well, which maps are you having trouble with?

No weapons appear on the map when the gametype is set to Flood, neither Spartans nor Flood can switch weapons, only loadouts (and those are preset and unchangeable)

Flood doesn't allow the use of weapons besides those granted by loadouts, and the loadouts are fixed (a lot of people have been complaining). It seems odd to me that they'd set it that way, but maybe they'll flesh it out with DLC at some point.

I agree with everone here who wants bigger maps, but the ones we have are definitely great as they are (my one complaint regarding impact being that it has any land at all; I want a map like impact eith no land whatsoever to be the go-to canvas for building free-standing maps). The old Forge World was awesome but impractical and unnecessarily large, and while I'm all for having more Forge maps big and small to work with, something the size of Forge World isn't going to happen in Halo 4 (system limitations). So by all means 343i, bring on as big a map as you can (if you haven't already), and give us as much to work with as possible. These 3 maps are a good start, but I think we'd all like to see more.

Halo 4 Forge definitely doesn't suck, admittedly it's not as much of a step up as I wish it were (and even a step back in a few ways) when compared with Reach, but there's a lot more that's better than is worse. I do miss the awesome size of the old Forge World, but Impact in particular offers plenty of space for stand-alone creations and I have yet to run out of room while building (it helps to carefully center whatever you're making from the get-go). I can't imagine why they removed certain functions, but the sheer size of the old Forge World was preposterous and I'm not the least bit surprised it was done away with. Sure it was fun making maps that were ludicrously oversized (and having all that terrain to choose from when making smaller maps), but I can live with having a more realistic size limit on my creations (and as it is these maps are all quite sizeable, small only when compared to the immensity of the old Forge World). I understand that Bungie spoiled people by giving us such an impractically large map (which even in Reach was pushing what the system could handle), but really it was a crazy (and foolish) thing for Bungie to do and 343 cannot reasonably be blamed for having not made the same mistake. No one would love having the old Forge World back more than me, but only if it could be done without pushing the system so hard as in Reach (which made anything forged prone to gltchiness and lag). As it is with the graphics upgrade, such a huge map is that much more untenable and won't be possible without upgrading the Xbox hardware (a.k.a. Halo 5 on Xbox 720). To all those going on about how much they want the old Forge World back, don't blame 343 for giving us smaller maps, and don't even blame Bungie for giving us something so impractically enormous in the first place; blame yourselves for forgetting how impractically huge Forge World was and for expecting something similar in Halo 4. The short documentary I watched way back when about Bungie's creation of Forge World made it abundantly clear that even they thought they were crazy for trying something like that, and that many people on the staff outright said it couldn't and/or shouldn't be done. Forge World was awesome, but it was also insane, and 343 choosing sanity was the right move. All that said, I haven't played any of the games with editors people in this thread have been praising so highly (besides Halo I haven't used a map editor since the original Starcraft), but they sound a lot better than Halo's and I can't deny I would love (at least in Halo 5) to have a completely revamped Forge made more like those, without any trace of the current system (which while I don't think it's bad, the current system is undeniably antiquated). Having a carbon copy of Reach's Forge was a let down, I was expecting more from Halo 4 than this. I can make do, but 343 definitely need to get their act together for the next game or I doubt I'll bother with it.

Okay, so these two maps are two attempts at building the same thing (i.e. a space station), the first attempt having fallen short of my initial vision. Both maps are symmetrical. I named the failed attempt Derelict and decided to finish it enough to be played in slayer (no objectives), compensating for the map's inadequacies by giving the whole thing a trait zone enabling double jump and half gravity (and quarter fall damage), removing the glass from all over to allow for the outside of the station to become part of the playable area of the map, and threw down a whole bunch of heavy weapons (none of which was intended at first). My second attempt is named Observatory and definitely lived up to my vision (albeit barely, 9,970 spent and I already hit the unwritten limit on total objects, and I had to go back repeatedly swapping decorative pieces for less expensive substitutes, not to mention delete a whole bunch of spawn points). The map is enabled for 4-16 players (Red, Blue, Gold and Green teams) on Capture the Flag, King of the Hill, Free for All, Flood, and Oddball. It has multiple levels in the middle with a pair of heavy weapons (Railguns, Scattershots and Concussion Rifles, in that order from top to bottom) on each of the lower 3 levels (4 total). The docking ring of the station connects to the 2nd level of the mid-section (2 levels above, 1 below). Sections are colored by quadrant to assist in navigation (internal walls are colored specifically to indicate which path leads to which quadrant, outer walls are colored accordingly with the color of the quadrant in which they reside).

I was definitely disappointed we didn't get more pieces (Level-specific pieces are definitely a nice touch, but didn't go far enough), I was big with Legos growing up and have a distinct appreciation for how necessary it is to have the right pieces to build something truly amazing or special. To some extent I'm most disappointed in the limit on pieces being left so restricted (and arbitrarily so, broken up into pointless categories which limit us unnecessarily), even without different pieces to choose from one can still simply use multiple smaller pieces repeatedly to build larger, more complex objects. Except of course that currently this tactic is costly, burning up supplies and reducing the scope of what can be built. A revamp of this system is long overdo, and thought should be given towards maximizing what we can build rather than pointlessly limiting it.

I agree that Reach's Forge World offered unique opportunities for forging a wide variety of maps with a wide variety of designs, sizes and locales, without which many things possible in Reach are not possible in Halo 4, but despite this I believe it goes overlooked in this discussion what we've gained. Namely, in place of one forge map, we have three, Impact, Ravine and Erosion. Ravine and Erosion are both rather small, but Impact at least is huge (made small only by comparison to the ridiculously huge Forge World of old). For small maps, the new possibilities far outweigh anything lost, and although Impact has relatively little solid land to build upon, it makes up for it (fittingly enough) with a vast amount of empty space, as well as a new category of pieces to build with. As nice as it would be to have the old Forge World to work with, the new forge worlds give more than they take, and I'm willing to live with it as is. If it's an issue of feasibility stopping them from implementing the old Forge World (as I expect), it's not something I'll lose any sleep over going without. If it could be done then by all means, but people should think about fully exploring this game's capabilities before writing them off as a downgrade. I would at the very least advocate for a more reasonable goal, a map the size of Impact (with the same vertical limit as well, which is huge) but with more land. I love Impact (the best map ever for making maps from scratch, i.e. separate from land which utilize only pieces you place), but the only way to utilize its enormous size is by building structures, whereas a map with more land can integrate that land and use pieces more conservatively, spreading out the area over which you can build and increasing the potential sizes and variety of maps (the draw of Reach's forge world to begin with). Even if a map the size of Forge World is impossible, having one as like to forge world as possible which is as big as possible would be a nice addition.

I've made 2 remakes of GoldenEye maps and one original map. Facility is loosely based on the original, Temple is a nearly exact remake, and Supply Depot was thrown together experimentally without knowing where I was going with it (though I think it turned out okay). My gamertag is Lucius Aelius, and they can be found in my File Share (along with a version of Ragnarok to which I added a few odds and ends, removing nothing).

Greetings, I'm posting here primarily with the intent of sharing my maps (and finding those made by others) made in the Halo 4 forge. I started making maps back in Halo 3, made a whole bunch in Halo Reach and now have begun working with Halo 4. I wouldn't say I'm amazing at forging, but I think some of my work is quite innovative and good, and I'm looking forward to feedback of one kind or another. My Gamertag is Lucius Aelius, and so far the only maps I've made in Halo 4 are two remakes of GoldenEye maps (Facility loosely based, made with "Tiny Bond" in mind, Temple is a nearly exact remake) and another map called Supply Depot I threw together experimentally without knowing where I was going with it, but I think it turned out okay. I plan to make a whole host of maps moving forward, and I'd love to hear what people think of them to guide me as I do so. That's about it, all I can say is I hope I'm at least half as good as I think I am at forging.