Atty
September 18th, 2007, 12:25 PM
The following document is the work of Tyson Green, Bungie's Multiplayer Lead on Halo 3. Enjoy the first part of the Forge Trilogy.
What Is The Forge?
In the beginning, there was a single sniper rifle on Colossus. And it was not so good. One of the new multiplayer features introduced in Halo 3 is the Forge. The Forge is an object layout editor, a tool to allow players to rework the various weapons, vehicles, and scenery that Bungie’s multiplayer designers have thoughtfully placed around Halo 3’s multiplayer maps. Better still, the Forge is a multiplayer editor in every sense of the word: you can enlist the aid of a few friends to edit a map with you, in the same game, over the usual gamut of multiplayer situations (splitscreen, system link, or Xbox Live.) Of course, any gathering of friends inevitably devolves into shootings. Fortunately, the Forge also plays host to a variety of novel combat conditions, and even a couple of peculiar games made possible by the lax rules and on-the-fly editing.
Starting Out
Gathering a Game
Starting a Forge game is almost the same as setting up a Custom Game. Your first stop is the Forge lobby, accessed from the main menu or from any of the other lobbies via the “Switch Lobby” option. Once in the Forge lobby, you can choose the map you wish to edit, and immediately get started if you want to go it alone. If not, you can gather up to seven fellow editors (the Forge supports up to a maximum of eight players) before starting. Make sure the “Network” option (it’s right under “Switch Lobby”) is not set to Local, or else your friends will not be able to join you. Once you’re ready to go, choose “Start Forge” and you’re in business.
Player and Editor Mode
When the Forge loads, it should seem strangely familiar. You start off in Player Mode, which has all of the same controls and abilities as a normal player. You can move around freely, shoot whatever catches your eye, and use objects as you see fit. If you brought friends with you, you can get right down to business and shoot them up a bit.
But that’s not what you’re here in the Forge for.
Press Up on the D-pad. Your HUD will change, and you’ll find yourself in Editor Mode. In this mode, you assume the guise of a Monitor, a free flying ball of omnipotence with controls similar to the free camera in Saved Films, or flying a Banshee. If neither ring a bell, there is a handy control reference on the Start button.
Unlike that most famous of Monitors, 343 Guilty Spark, you’re still vulnerable to damage, but it takes a steady shot to hit a moving Monitor. Evasive maneuvers will serve you as well as a gun, but there’s a bit more to Editor Mode than simply dodging bullets. You see, Editor Mode is where the magic happens.
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Simple Forgery
It doesn’t take much to get busy in the Forge. Anyone can do it. But let’s start with the basics.
Object Manipulation
They key to the Forge is object manipulation. And the key to object manipulation is your crosshair, centered in your screen like any other weapon crosshair. All object manipulation is done in Editor Mode, so make sure you’re in that mode (if you’re not, hit Up on the D-pad to toggle in.)
Grabbing and Moving Objects
First, fly up close to an object, like a vehicle or a gun. Place your crosshair on it. If the object is editable, your crosshair will turn green, and a little hand icon will appear. This means the object can be edited, which is pretty much the entire point behind Editor Mode. With your crosshair on an object, press A. The little hand icon will close, and you are now holding that object. If you move or look around, the object will move with you. Piece of cake.
To release an object that you are holding, just press A again. It will drop and come to rest, and from that point onward, the object will appear in that location.
Tip: You may notice a small blue shape that moves with the objects you move around. This grenade-sized object represents the starting location for the object, and is the precise location at which the object will spawn (or respawn, as appropriate.)
Rotating Objects
In tossing around objects, you might wish to change the orientation of one. Doing so is simple, but does take a bit of practice. To rotate an object, grab it. While you are holding it, squeeze the Right Trigger. When you do so, your thumbsticks will change from moving you around to rotating the object.
On your Right Thumbstick, left-right will spin the object like a top, while up-down will roll it like a hamster wheel. Technical terms, I know.
On your Left Thumbstick, left-right rotates the object like a steering wheel.
Up-down is a little different from the others, and will push the object further away, or draw it in closer. This is handy when you’re working with large objects, or very small ones. Adept users can also use it to fling objects around, but more on that later.
When the object is rotated to your liking, release the Right Trigger, and you’re back to normal. Set the object down, and you’re done.
Creating Objects
Now, no amount of movement or rotation can turn a Warthog into a Scorpion, but that’s why Microsoft put more buttons on their controller. With your cursor pointed at empty space, press X. Behold, the Object Palette. Every map has its own palette of objects, carefully assembled by Bungie in accordance to mystical principles of balance and memory limitations. There are seven such palettes, and you can cycle between them using the Left and Right shoulder buttons. Most are self explanatory, but the last two (Spawners and Goals) we’ll come back to later.
For now, go to the second palette, Vehicles. Use the Left Stick or D-pad to choose Mongoose from the list. Press A. Viola, a Mongoose will appear, already in your grasp and ready to be placed wherever you desire.
There are some situations were you can’t create a new object, but more on that later.
Deleting Objects
Of course, you can delete objects too. There’s a good reason for doing so, besides removing every weapon from the map but Battle Rifles and calling it “balanced.” You know who you are. But more on that later.
To do so, place your crosshair on the ill fated object, and press Y. Without complaint or fanfare, the object will be dispatched, and space cleared to place more.
Saving Your Map
Object manipulation is all well and good, but ultimately, you’ll want to save your map to really make full use of it.
To save a map, press Start to bring up the Forge menu. Choose the appropriately named option “Save As New Map…”
Note: A stern warning will appear, graciously provided by our high powered law firm to disavow us of the inevitable cult classic map “For The Godwin”, but it should be of scant concern to most good intentioned users. Basically, it says you made it and you can share it at will, but you shouldn’t sue us for it. Please.
The keyboard will slide out, and you can name your masterpiece. Remember, proper spelling and capitalization is a sign of fine craftsmanship. And no, you can’t name your map BLAM!, or BLAM!, or even BLAM! Xbox Live won’t let you, and you didn’t need to anyway.
Hit Done, and your map is now saved to your storage device of choice. Which is a hard drive, right? Right! Good choice, sir. But a memory unit will work too, if for some strange reason you removed your hard drive. But who would remove their hard drive? That doesn’t make any sense.
Using Maps in Custom Games
Now, the real action is in Custom Games.
To play on your map in a Custom Game, head to the Custom Game lobby. If you came straight from the Forge, your map should already be selected, ready to go. If not, simply choose a map, and you’ll find your new map filed under the built-in version that your version was based off of. Just look for your neatly spelled, capitalized map name.
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Sharing Your Maps
Having refined your map from raw ore to a polished blade, you might be ready to unleash it on your friends. They had it coming, right?
Once your map is saved, and you’re in a lobby, hit Start to bring up the menu. Under the Media tab, choose File Share. This is where you can share files of all type for other users to download. In addition to map variants, you can share saved films, game variants, or screenshots. Best of all, the files go onto Bungie’s hardened subterranean servers, and can be downloaded even after you turn off your Xbox, or after the surface of the planet has been glassed.
It’s pretty simple. First, choose an empty slot to upload your map into. Then, choose the map you wish to upload. Map variants are tiny little things, and should upload almost instantly.
Voila, your map is shared for all to see.
Source. (http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=h3forgebasics)
Advanced Forgery
On the surface, the Forge is pretty straight forward. Create fusion coil, hurl at friend, repeat ad infinitum. However, there are some other things that you may choose to make yourself aware of if you wish to master your tools.
Inventory and Budget
The number of objects you can place in the Forge is ultimately limited by two things: Inventory, which is the number of a specific object that you can place, and Budget, which is an overall total that keeps things in check.
There’s actually a third limit that kicks in when you’ve got a whole heck of a lot of objects on the map, but really, you need to be looking for trouble to bump into that one. The Forge will just squawk at you and give you a polite error message if you try to go above it. Don’t bother, it’s not that spectacular.
Inventory
Inventory is tracked per object type. Think of it as the limit for that object type—no more than that number of those objects can be placed on the map, or allowed to spawn on the map.
The Inventory is shown to the left of the object name in the creation palette. That number tells you how many more objects of that type can be placed on the map. If that number is 0, you may place no more.
One important note: in addition to the objects placed on the map, the Inventory counts objects which could spawn in later. For example, if a single Spartan Laser is placed in the middle of Valhalla, but the maximum respawn quota for Spartan Lasers is 3, then the Inventory counts 3 Lasers as having been placed. Don’t freak out, there’s more on this later.
Budget
Budget is an overall limit on the objects placed on the map. A Warthog is more expensive to have on a map than a fusion coil. More expensive than several fusion coils, in fact. The Budget is what reflects this.
In your bottom right corner is a little meter, and a number. This is your remaining Budget. The number is the amount of Budget you have left to spend, and the bar fills up as you spend it. If that number is $0, you won’t be able to place more objects.
In the object creation palette, the cost of an object is listed to the right of its name, as a dollar figure. No, the dollar amount isn’t how much will be charged to your credit card if you place one such object. What would we do with such wealth? Instead, it is the amount that will be deducted from your remaining Budget if you place such an object.
Note: as with Inventory, the Budget counts not just the objects placed on map, but also the objects that could spawn in later. More on this later.
Object Spawning
Most objects that you can edit in the Forge can be told to respawn if some evil should befall them. The system that manages this (colorfully called “The Candy Monitor” by our engineers) can be complex, but is worth understanding.
Respawn Timer
When an object is disturbed, it starts counting down a hidden respawn timer. Objects are sensitive things, and consider themselves disturbed if they are moved, picked up, or destroyed.
Once this timer counts down to zero, the object says “hey, I want to respawn now”. But before it does, there is a check to make sure there is not already too many objects of that same type on the map. This is where the quota, described below, comes in. If there are too many objects waiting, then the object waits quietly until there is room before it respawns.
The respawn timer usually defaults to 30 seconds, but this is a property that may be set per object, as described below.
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Click to Enlarge
Respawn Quotas
OK, stay calm. This part will seem a little complex, but its really pretty easy.
All object types have a quota. That is, a maximum number of them that can be on the map, and also a minimum number.
When an object wants to respawn, it makes sure that doing so would not result in more objects of that type than the maximum allowed. For example, this is how you can make sure that no more than one Shotgun is on the map at a time, but still place three locations around the map where it could spawn at.
Likewise, a minimum number can be set, in which case objects will respawn immediately if fewer than this number are on the map. For example, we like to set minimum counts on Mongooses, to make sure they’re always available.
To edit the quotas, you can select the type of object in the creation palette, and press X to bring up the summary. This screen tells you how many objects of that type are on the map, what your minimum and maximums are, and also how much of your Budget is being spent by objects of this type. Only the “Run-Time Minimum” and “Run-Time Maximum” can be edited here, the other numbers are just for reference.
Remember: the Budget counts the “Run-Time Maximum” when adding up the cost. You might only place one Sniper Rifle on the map, but if your maximum is set higher than that, a new Sniper Rifle could spawn in.
Is that all clear? If not, don’t worry about it—the Forge always sets the minimum and maximum to safe default values, so you’ll never have to bother with this if you don’t want to.
Object Properties
Almost every object placed on the map has a few properties specific to itself that you can edit.
To do so, place your crosshair on an object. Then press X. This brings up an Item Properties window which contains a list of properties to edit.
This list isn’t always the same—a weapon has different properties than a vehicle, or from a piece of scenery. But there are some common ones:
- Respawn Rate: This controls how many seconds it takes for an object to respawn. You can use a very low number to make an object respawn quickly, or a very high one to make it less common. You can even tell it to never respawn, in case you want something that only shows up at the start of a round.
- Place At Start: This controls whether the object starts on the map, or if it spawns in later. If you set this to No, then the object will not be there when the game starts, but its respawn timer will start counting right away, so it will appear after a delay.
- Symmetry: This cryptic option controls which types of games the object appears in. A Symmetric gametype is generally one where both sides are equals, like Slayer or Multi Flag CTF. An Asymmetric gametype is the opposite, where the sides have different goals, like One Flag CTF or Territories. Clever use of this property will let you set up a map that plays great for Multi Flag CTF, but also works well for One Flag CTF.
Forge Options
Like Custom Games, the Forge does have a few options that you can set up in the pregame lobby. As with custom game options, you access these by pressing X in the lobby.
First, the bad news. That option at the top, the one called “Allow Editing”? In theory, this option would let you restrict editing to the Party Leader, and prevent everyone else from editing. In practice, ah… ahem… well, not so much. That’s what we call a “feature”. It’s like how sometimes, when a plane lands, the tires blow up. Halo 3 is that plane. This was one of those tires.
But the good news is that the other options work smashingly. The Editor and Player Traits are pretty straightforward, and offer a list of traits that you can apply to players in both Editor and Player modes. So if you’d like to go about your editing duties while your test subjects shoot lasers at you, you can tweak those Editor traits to make yourself invulnerable, or invisible.
And the Respawn Time option should be pretty self explanatory. It’s really only there in case you want to get really serious about playing serious games in the Forge, and three second respawns won’t cut it anymore.
Special Objects
At some point, players stop making piles of fusion coils, and get serious about setting up their maps. It is usually around this time that they realize that you can’t turn Guardian into an awesome CTF map just by changing where the weapons spawn.
Fortunately, more control is provided. A multiplayer map in Halo 3 is configured almost entirely using objects, and the overwhelming majority of these objects are editable in the Forge.
Goal Objects
Gametypes, like Oddball or CTF, have a couple of special objects which only show up in those gametypes. These are things like flag spawns, or hill markers. These are called Goal objects.
When you load a map in the Forge, Goal objects do not show up immediately. You may have noticed that the object creation palette for Goals is empty at first. This is because, by default, the Forge only shows objects which show up in ALL gametypes.
To show objects specific to a particular gametype, you can switch Forge over to that gametype. To do this:
- Switch into Editor Mode.
- Press Start to bring up the Forge menu.
- Choose “Change Game Type”, and select the gametype you wish to edit.
The round will end, and when the next round starts, objects specific to the gametype you selected will be present on the map, and in the Goal object palette.
Halo 3 needs certain objects to be on each map in order to function properly. If you accidentally delete such an object, and forget to replace it, it will be automatically restored when you save the map. So relax, you won’t break your map if you do something wrong, but you might see a goal object return after you thought you had deleted it.
Common Goal Object Properties
Goal objects have two common properties that are usually not found in normal objects, like weapons or vehicles. As with normal object properties, you edit these by placing your crosshair on the goal object, and pressing X.
- Team: This is the team which owns this goal object. This is critical for some gametypes, like CTF, where you need to place a flag stand for each team.
- Shape, Radius, Top, Bottom, et cetera: Some goal objects have an area, like a hill in King of the Hill. These properties control the shape and size of this area.
- Spawn Order: This property is used to control the order in which certain goals are used. For example, in VIP Escort, the goal point with the lowest Spawn Order value is the first destination, followed by the point with the next lowest value, and so on.
Assault
Assault has two types of special goal objects:
- Bomb Spawn Points, which are where a team’s bomb will spawn. Each team must have at least one. Also, one must be placed for the Neutral team, for Neutral Bomb Assault variants.
- Bomb Plant Points, which are the points a team must defend from enemy bombers. Each team must have at least one. You can place more than one per team too, making their job more difficult as they will have more points to defend.
CTF
Capture the Flag has two special types of goal objects, similar to Assault:
- Flag Spawn Points, which are where a team’s flag will spawn, which they must defend. Each team must have at least one.
- Flag Return Points, which are the points a team must return the flag to after they have stolen it from an enemy team. Each team must have at least one.
Juggernaut
Juggernaut only has one special goal object:
- Go To Points, which are points that a VIP must reach to score points in some VIP game variants. There must be at least one of these on the map. The Spawn Order property determines the order in which these points will be used, from lowest to highest.
King of the Hill
King of the Hill has only one special goal object:
- Hill Marker, which is the center of a hill, and around which is the boundary of the hill. There must be at least one of these on the map. The Shape and size properties define the boundary of the hill, and the Spawn Order property is used to determine the order in which the hills move (when the game variant is set to Sequential movement.)
Oddball
Oddball has only one special goal object:
- Ball Spawn Point, which is where the Oddball will spawn. There must be at least one of these on the map.
Territories
Territories has only one special goal object:
- Territory Marker, which is the center of a territory, and around which is the boundary of the territory. There must be at least one of these on the map. The Shape and size properties define the boundary of the territory. The Spawn Order is used to determine the numbering of territories, with the lowest one being labeled “Territory 1”, and so on.
Note that you can place more than 8 territory markers on a map, but only 8 will be used at a time. The extras are there in case you want to set a map up with different symmetric and asymmetric layouts (for example, like Valhalla.)
VIP
Like Juggernaut, VIP only has one special goal object:
- Go To Points, which are points that a Juggernaut must reach to score points in some Juggernaut game variants. There must be at least one of these on the map. The Spawn Order property determines the order in which these points will be used, from lowest to highest.
Spawn Points
When you load the Forge, you may notice glowing blue disks littered around the map, objects you don’t see when playing a Custom Game.
These are Spawn Points, and are the spots where players spawn.
Spawn Points of all stripes are found in the Spawners palette, and can be placed free of charge. Just mind your Inventory.
Respawn Points
By far the most common type of spawn point is a humble Respawn Point. These are the blue disks you see littered about.
The disk has an obvious forward facing, and when a player spawns, he will be facing in this direction. It is considered good form to not point a player at a wall when he spawns.
When Halo 3 needs to spawn a player, it takes into account a lot of invisible things, and chooses one of these points. You want to have a lot of these points. If you don’t, then there are limited choices for respawning, and you could end up spawning on top of a live grenade, or in the path of an onrushing Warthog.
Finally, respawn points have a Team property, which defaults to Neutral. You can restrict respawn points to a specific team by changing this, but you Should Not Do this—there is a Better Way, and that’s with Respawn Zones. More about those later.
Initial Spawn Points
Initial Spawn Points are special. They are game specific (like Goal objects), so you need to switch to the desired gametype to edit them. They appear similar to respawn points, but they have bright blue plasma rings above them. You’ll know it when you see it.
What makes them special is that they can only be used on the first spawn in a round. On top of that, a player is guaranteed to spawn there, unless it is blocked (for example, by another player.)
Like respawn points, initial spawn points have a Team property. Unlike respawn points, you should always set this to the appropriate team.
When Bungie’s designers set up a map, we place one initial spawn point per team, and place several ordinary respawn points nearby. That way, when a round starts, one player from each team starts off at these points. And then, because of the way Halo 3 prefers to spawn players near their teammates, the rest of their team automatically prefers to spawn at the nearby respawn points.
Respawn Zones
When Halo 3 tries to spawn (or respawn) a player, it takes a lot of things into account, like where teammates or enemies are standing, if there are dangerous things nearby, and so on. We call these influences.
When it is done doing so, it then chooses a respawn point for the player, based on these influences. There’s a little tiny bit of randomness, but that only really comes into play when all points are otherwise equal.
Now, when Halo 3 does this, it looks at ALL respawn points on the map. But in setting up your map, maybe you don’t want Attackers spawning in the Defender’s base. Or you want one team to only spawn on one side of the map. To do that, you want to restrict the search to only certain respawn points. And to do that, you use Respawn Zones.
Normal Respawn Zones
A Respawn Zone is an object which belongs to a team, and defines an area. All respawn points inside that area are strongly preferred when Halo 3 needs to spawn a member of that team. Very, extremely strongly preferred, so much so that a player will virtually never spawn outside of his team’s respawn zone (unless there is literally no choice.)
Respawn zones are gametype specific objects, like goal objects, so you need to switch to the desired gametype to edit them. They look similar to King of the Hill markers, a small object stuck into the ground, with a blue plasma field which defines their boundary.
These zones have a Team property, which controls which team uses this respawn zone. You should always set this to the appropriate team.
When Bungie’s designers set up a map, we often place a single large respawn zone for each team, making sure that it encloses many respawn points. Note that a respawn zone never prohibits an enemy player from spawning inside of it—they only affect the team they belong to. But if that enemy player has his own respawn zone on the other side of the map, you can be sure he won’t spawn in yours.
Make absolutely sure your respawn zone covers at least a couple of respawn points! If you don’t, respawning will be very predictable and unsafe. And if your respawn zones contain no respawn points at all, then they will have no effect whatsoever.
Respawn Zones are powerful tools. Use them wisely.
CTF Respawn Zones
Capture the Flag has two special types of respawn zone, in addition to the normal one.
- Respawn, Flag Home: This is a respawn zone which is only active when your team’s flag is safely on its stand. As soon as an enemy player grabs your flag, even if he’s killed a second later, this respawn zone shuts off until the flag is reset.
- Respawn, Flag Away: This is the opposite, a respawn zone which is only active when your team’s flag is not on its stand.
When Bungie’s designers set up a map, we might prefer to have a team spawn near their flag when it is at home, but spawn somewhere else if the flag is stolen, so that the thieves don’t have defenders respawning all around them. Last Resort is a good example of this.
Territories Respawn Zones
Territories is a special case worth noting. The territories themselves have a built in respawn zone which belongs to the team that currently controls the territory. It is invisible, and about 10 meters in radius.
So if there are respawn points nearby, you can in fact spawn at a territory you control, even if your team’s respawn zone is on the other side of the map.
Teleporters
Teleporters are great. You can use them to bypass walls, cover great distances quickly, and teleport your friends into the minefield on Sandtrap.
Teleporters are objects, and can be found in the object creation palette. There are three types of teleporter objects:
- Sender Node: This is the entry point to a teleportation link. You can only enter via this point, never return.
- Receiver Node: This is the exit point to a teleportation link. You can only exit via this point, never enter.
- Two-Way Node: This node can function both as a sender and as a receiver.
Each type of node has a clear forward facing. The facing is ignored for sender nodes, but used to determine the facing of the player when he arrives at a receiver node. It is considered poor form to point your receivers at walls.
When you first place a teleporter node, you may notice that it is dark and lifeless. That is because there is no other node for it to link up to. For a node to activate, there must be a valid sender and receiver (either of which could be a two-way node.) Once you place the missing node, they will automatically link up and flare to life.
If you want to have more than one separate teleporter link on your map, you will want them to be on different channels. Channel is a property of teleporter objects, and you can change it by placing your crosshair on the teleporter object, and pressing X. Teleporter nodes on different channels don’t link up, and in this way you can keep your links separate.
You might be wondering what happens when there’s more than one valid receiver on the same channel. Simple: your destination will be randomly selected from the valid locations, and your evil twin will appear at the other one.
Oh, wait, we cut the evil twin thing. Something about the goatee shader. Never mind.
What Is The Forge?
In the beginning, there was a single sniper rifle on Colossus. And it was not so good. One of the new multiplayer features introduced in Halo 3 is the Forge. The Forge is an object layout editor, a tool to allow players to rework the various weapons, vehicles, and scenery that Bungie’s multiplayer designers have thoughtfully placed around Halo 3’s multiplayer maps. Better still, the Forge is a multiplayer editor in every sense of the word: you can enlist the aid of a few friends to edit a map with you, in the same game, over the usual gamut of multiplayer situations (splitscreen, system link, or Xbox Live.) Of course, any gathering of friends inevitably devolves into shootings. Fortunately, the Forge also plays host to a variety of novel combat conditions, and even a couple of peculiar games made possible by the lax rules and on-the-fly editing.
Starting Out
Gathering a Game
Starting a Forge game is almost the same as setting up a Custom Game. Your first stop is the Forge lobby, accessed from the main menu or from any of the other lobbies via the “Switch Lobby” option. Once in the Forge lobby, you can choose the map you wish to edit, and immediately get started if you want to go it alone. If not, you can gather up to seven fellow editors (the Forge supports up to a maximum of eight players) before starting. Make sure the “Network” option (it’s right under “Switch Lobby”) is not set to Local, or else your friends will not be able to join you. Once you’re ready to go, choose “Start Forge” and you’re in business.
Player and Editor Mode
When the Forge loads, it should seem strangely familiar. You start off in Player Mode, which has all of the same controls and abilities as a normal player. You can move around freely, shoot whatever catches your eye, and use objects as you see fit. If you brought friends with you, you can get right down to business and shoot them up a bit.
But that’s not what you’re here in the Forge for.
Press Up on the D-pad. Your HUD will change, and you’ll find yourself in Editor Mode. In this mode, you assume the guise of a Monitor, a free flying ball of omnipotence with controls similar to the free camera in Saved Films, or flying a Banshee. If neither ring a bell, there is a handy control reference on the Start button.
Unlike that most famous of Monitors, 343 Guilty Spark, you’re still vulnerable to damage, but it takes a steady shot to hit a moving Monitor. Evasive maneuvers will serve you as well as a gun, but there’s a bit more to Editor Mode than simply dodging bullets. You see, Editor Mode is where the magic happens.
http://www.bungie.net/images/News/WeeklyUpdate/4stoshsrocket_ComTeamSatStoshU.jpg
Simple Forgery
It doesn’t take much to get busy in the Forge. Anyone can do it. But let’s start with the basics.
Object Manipulation
They key to the Forge is object manipulation. And the key to object manipulation is your crosshair, centered in your screen like any other weapon crosshair. All object manipulation is done in Editor Mode, so make sure you’re in that mode (if you’re not, hit Up on the D-pad to toggle in.)
Grabbing and Moving Objects
First, fly up close to an object, like a vehicle or a gun. Place your crosshair on it. If the object is editable, your crosshair will turn green, and a little hand icon will appear. This means the object can be edited, which is pretty much the entire point behind Editor Mode. With your crosshair on an object, press A. The little hand icon will close, and you are now holding that object. If you move or look around, the object will move with you. Piece of cake.
To release an object that you are holding, just press A again. It will drop and come to rest, and from that point onward, the object will appear in that location.
Tip: You may notice a small blue shape that moves with the objects you move around. This grenade-sized object represents the starting location for the object, and is the precise location at which the object will spawn (or respawn, as appropriate.)
Rotating Objects
In tossing around objects, you might wish to change the orientation of one. Doing so is simple, but does take a bit of practice. To rotate an object, grab it. While you are holding it, squeeze the Right Trigger. When you do so, your thumbsticks will change from moving you around to rotating the object.
On your Right Thumbstick, left-right will spin the object like a top, while up-down will roll it like a hamster wheel. Technical terms, I know.
On your Left Thumbstick, left-right rotates the object like a steering wheel.
Up-down is a little different from the others, and will push the object further away, or draw it in closer. This is handy when you’re working with large objects, or very small ones. Adept users can also use it to fling objects around, but more on that later.
When the object is rotated to your liking, release the Right Trigger, and you’re back to normal. Set the object down, and you’re done.
Creating Objects
Now, no amount of movement or rotation can turn a Warthog into a Scorpion, but that’s why Microsoft put more buttons on their controller. With your cursor pointed at empty space, press X. Behold, the Object Palette. Every map has its own palette of objects, carefully assembled by Bungie in accordance to mystical principles of balance and memory limitations. There are seven such palettes, and you can cycle between them using the Left and Right shoulder buttons. Most are self explanatory, but the last two (Spawners and Goals) we’ll come back to later.
For now, go to the second palette, Vehicles. Use the Left Stick or D-pad to choose Mongoose from the list. Press A. Viola, a Mongoose will appear, already in your grasp and ready to be placed wherever you desire.
There are some situations were you can’t create a new object, but more on that later.
Deleting Objects
Of course, you can delete objects too. There’s a good reason for doing so, besides removing every weapon from the map but Battle Rifles and calling it “balanced.” You know who you are. But more on that later.
To do so, place your crosshair on the ill fated object, and press Y. Without complaint or fanfare, the object will be dispatched, and space cleared to place more.
Saving Your Map
Object manipulation is all well and good, but ultimately, you’ll want to save your map to really make full use of it.
To save a map, press Start to bring up the Forge menu. Choose the appropriately named option “Save As New Map…”
Note: A stern warning will appear, graciously provided by our high powered law firm to disavow us of the inevitable cult classic map “For The Godwin”, but it should be of scant concern to most good intentioned users. Basically, it says you made it and you can share it at will, but you shouldn’t sue us for it. Please.
The keyboard will slide out, and you can name your masterpiece. Remember, proper spelling and capitalization is a sign of fine craftsmanship. And no, you can’t name your map BLAM!, or BLAM!, or even BLAM! Xbox Live won’t let you, and you didn’t need to anyway.
Hit Done, and your map is now saved to your storage device of choice. Which is a hard drive, right? Right! Good choice, sir. But a memory unit will work too, if for some strange reason you removed your hard drive. But who would remove their hard drive? That doesn’t make any sense.
Using Maps in Custom Games
Now, the real action is in Custom Games.
To play on your map in a Custom Game, head to the Custom Game lobby. If you came straight from the Forge, your map should already be selected, ready to go. If not, simply choose a map, and you’ll find your new map filed under the built-in version that your version was based off of. Just look for your neatly spelled, capitalized map name.
http://www.bungie.net/images/News/WeeklyUpdate/5stoshsrocket_ComTeamSatStoshU.jpg
Sharing Your Maps
Having refined your map from raw ore to a polished blade, you might be ready to unleash it on your friends. They had it coming, right?
Once your map is saved, and you’re in a lobby, hit Start to bring up the menu. Under the Media tab, choose File Share. This is where you can share files of all type for other users to download. In addition to map variants, you can share saved films, game variants, or screenshots. Best of all, the files go onto Bungie’s hardened subterranean servers, and can be downloaded even after you turn off your Xbox, or after the surface of the planet has been glassed.
It’s pretty simple. First, choose an empty slot to upload your map into. Then, choose the map you wish to upload. Map variants are tiny little things, and should upload almost instantly.
Voila, your map is shared for all to see.
Source. (http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&link=h3forgebasics)
Advanced Forgery
On the surface, the Forge is pretty straight forward. Create fusion coil, hurl at friend, repeat ad infinitum. However, there are some other things that you may choose to make yourself aware of if you wish to master your tools.
Inventory and Budget
The number of objects you can place in the Forge is ultimately limited by two things: Inventory, which is the number of a specific object that you can place, and Budget, which is an overall total that keeps things in check.
There’s actually a third limit that kicks in when you’ve got a whole heck of a lot of objects on the map, but really, you need to be looking for trouble to bump into that one. The Forge will just squawk at you and give you a polite error message if you try to go above it. Don’t bother, it’s not that spectacular.
Inventory
Inventory is tracked per object type. Think of it as the limit for that object type—no more than that number of those objects can be placed on the map, or allowed to spawn on the map.
The Inventory is shown to the left of the object name in the creation palette. That number tells you how many more objects of that type can be placed on the map. If that number is 0, you may place no more.
One important note: in addition to the objects placed on the map, the Inventory counts objects which could spawn in later. For example, if a single Spartan Laser is placed in the middle of Valhalla, but the maximum respawn quota for Spartan Lasers is 3, then the Inventory counts 3 Lasers as having been placed. Don’t freak out, there’s more on this later.
Budget
Budget is an overall limit on the objects placed on the map. A Warthog is more expensive to have on a map than a fusion coil. More expensive than several fusion coils, in fact. The Budget is what reflects this.
In your bottom right corner is a little meter, and a number. This is your remaining Budget. The number is the amount of Budget you have left to spend, and the bar fills up as you spend it. If that number is $0, you won’t be able to place more objects.
In the object creation palette, the cost of an object is listed to the right of its name, as a dollar figure. No, the dollar amount isn’t how much will be charged to your credit card if you place one such object. What would we do with such wealth? Instead, it is the amount that will be deducted from your remaining Budget if you place such an object.
Note: as with Inventory, the Budget counts not just the objects placed on map, but also the objects that could spawn in later. More on this later.
Object Spawning
Most objects that you can edit in the Forge can be told to respawn if some evil should befall them. The system that manages this (colorfully called “The Candy Monitor” by our engineers) can be complex, but is worth understanding.
Respawn Timer
When an object is disturbed, it starts counting down a hidden respawn timer. Objects are sensitive things, and consider themselves disturbed if they are moved, picked up, or destroyed.
Once this timer counts down to zero, the object says “hey, I want to respawn now”. But before it does, there is a check to make sure there is not already too many objects of that same type on the map. This is where the quota, described below, comes in. If there are too many objects waiting, then the object waits quietly until there is room before it respawns.
The respawn timer usually defaults to 30 seconds, but this is a property that may be set per object, as described below.
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Click to Enlarge
Respawn Quotas
OK, stay calm. This part will seem a little complex, but its really pretty easy.
All object types have a quota. That is, a maximum number of them that can be on the map, and also a minimum number.
When an object wants to respawn, it makes sure that doing so would not result in more objects of that type than the maximum allowed. For example, this is how you can make sure that no more than one Shotgun is on the map at a time, but still place three locations around the map where it could spawn at.
Likewise, a minimum number can be set, in which case objects will respawn immediately if fewer than this number are on the map. For example, we like to set minimum counts on Mongooses, to make sure they’re always available.
To edit the quotas, you can select the type of object in the creation palette, and press X to bring up the summary. This screen tells you how many objects of that type are on the map, what your minimum and maximums are, and also how much of your Budget is being spent by objects of this type. Only the “Run-Time Minimum” and “Run-Time Maximum” can be edited here, the other numbers are just for reference.
Remember: the Budget counts the “Run-Time Maximum” when adding up the cost. You might only place one Sniper Rifle on the map, but if your maximum is set higher than that, a new Sniper Rifle could spawn in.
Is that all clear? If not, don’t worry about it—the Forge always sets the minimum and maximum to safe default values, so you’ll never have to bother with this if you don’t want to.
Object Properties
Almost every object placed on the map has a few properties specific to itself that you can edit.
To do so, place your crosshair on an object. Then press X. This brings up an Item Properties window which contains a list of properties to edit.
This list isn’t always the same—a weapon has different properties than a vehicle, or from a piece of scenery. But there are some common ones:
- Respawn Rate: This controls how many seconds it takes for an object to respawn. You can use a very low number to make an object respawn quickly, or a very high one to make it less common. You can even tell it to never respawn, in case you want something that only shows up at the start of a round.
- Place At Start: This controls whether the object starts on the map, or if it spawns in later. If you set this to No, then the object will not be there when the game starts, but its respawn timer will start counting right away, so it will appear after a delay.
- Symmetry: This cryptic option controls which types of games the object appears in. A Symmetric gametype is generally one where both sides are equals, like Slayer or Multi Flag CTF. An Asymmetric gametype is the opposite, where the sides have different goals, like One Flag CTF or Territories. Clever use of this property will let you set up a map that plays great for Multi Flag CTF, but also works well for One Flag CTF.
Forge Options
Like Custom Games, the Forge does have a few options that you can set up in the pregame lobby. As with custom game options, you access these by pressing X in the lobby.
First, the bad news. That option at the top, the one called “Allow Editing”? In theory, this option would let you restrict editing to the Party Leader, and prevent everyone else from editing. In practice, ah… ahem… well, not so much. That’s what we call a “feature”. It’s like how sometimes, when a plane lands, the tires blow up. Halo 3 is that plane. This was one of those tires.
But the good news is that the other options work smashingly. The Editor and Player Traits are pretty straightforward, and offer a list of traits that you can apply to players in both Editor and Player modes. So if you’d like to go about your editing duties while your test subjects shoot lasers at you, you can tweak those Editor traits to make yourself invulnerable, or invisible.
And the Respawn Time option should be pretty self explanatory. It’s really only there in case you want to get really serious about playing serious games in the Forge, and three second respawns won’t cut it anymore.
Special Objects
At some point, players stop making piles of fusion coils, and get serious about setting up their maps. It is usually around this time that they realize that you can’t turn Guardian into an awesome CTF map just by changing where the weapons spawn.
Fortunately, more control is provided. A multiplayer map in Halo 3 is configured almost entirely using objects, and the overwhelming majority of these objects are editable in the Forge.
Goal Objects
Gametypes, like Oddball or CTF, have a couple of special objects which only show up in those gametypes. These are things like flag spawns, or hill markers. These are called Goal objects.
When you load a map in the Forge, Goal objects do not show up immediately. You may have noticed that the object creation palette for Goals is empty at first. This is because, by default, the Forge only shows objects which show up in ALL gametypes.
To show objects specific to a particular gametype, you can switch Forge over to that gametype. To do this:
- Switch into Editor Mode.
- Press Start to bring up the Forge menu.
- Choose “Change Game Type”, and select the gametype you wish to edit.
The round will end, and when the next round starts, objects specific to the gametype you selected will be present on the map, and in the Goal object palette.
Halo 3 needs certain objects to be on each map in order to function properly. If you accidentally delete such an object, and forget to replace it, it will be automatically restored when you save the map. So relax, you won’t break your map if you do something wrong, but you might see a goal object return after you thought you had deleted it.
Common Goal Object Properties
Goal objects have two common properties that are usually not found in normal objects, like weapons or vehicles. As with normal object properties, you edit these by placing your crosshair on the goal object, and pressing X.
- Team: This is the team which owns this goal object. This is critical for some gametypes, like CTF, where you need to place a flag stand for each team.
- Shape, Radius, Top, Bottom, et cetera: Some goal objects have an area, like a hill in King of the Hill. These properties control the shape and size of this area.
- Spawn Order: This property is used to control the order in which certain goals are used. For example, in VIP Escort, the goal point with the lowest Spawn Order value is the first destination, followed by the point with the next lowest value, and so on.
Assault
Assault has two types of special goal objects:
- Bomb Spawn Points, which are where a team’s bomb will spawn. Each team must have at least one. Also, one must be placed for the Neutral team, for Neutral Bomb Assault variants.
- Bomb Plant Points, which are the points a team must defend from enemy bombers. Each team must have at least one. You can place more than one per team too, making their job more difficult as they will have more points to defend.
CTF
Capture the Flag has two special types of goal objects, similar to Assault:
- Flag Spawn Points, which are where a team’s flag will spawn, which they must defend. Each team must have at least one.
- Flag Return Points, which are the points a team must return the flag to after they have stolen it from an enemy team. Each team must have at least one.
Juggernaut
Juggernaut only has one special goal object:
- Go To Points, which are points that a VIP must reach to score points in some VIP game variants. There must be at least one of these on the map. The Spawn Order property determines the order in which these points will be used, from lowest to highest.
King of the Hill
King of the Hill has only one special goal object:
- Hill Marker, which is the center of a hill, and around which is the boundary of the hill. There must be at least one of these on the map. The Shape and size properties define the boundary of the hill, and the Spawn Order property is used to determine the order in which the hills move (when the game variant is set to Sequential movement.)
Oddball
Oddball has only one special goal object:
- Ball Spawn Point, which is where the Oddball will spawn. There must be at least one of these on the map.
Territories
Territories has only one special goal object:
- Territory Marker, which is the center of a territory, and around which is the boundary of the territory. There must be at least one of these on the map. The Shape and size properties define the boundary of the territory. The Spawn Order is used to determine the numbering of territories, with the lowest one being labeled “Territory 1”, and so on.
Note that you can place more than 8 territory markers on a map, but only 8 will be used at a time. The extras are there in case you want to set a map up with different symmetric and asymmetric layouts (for example, like Valhalla.)
VIP
Like Juggernaut, VIP only has one special goal object:
- Go To Points, which are points that a Juggernaut must reach to score points in some Juggernaut game variants. There must be at least one of these on the map. The Spawn Order property determines the order in which these points will be used, from lowest to highest.
Spawn Points
When you load the Forge, you may notice glowing blue disks littered around the map, objects you don’t see when playing a Custom Game.
These are Spawn Points, and are the spots where players spawn.
Spawn Points of all stripes are found in the Spawners palette, and can be placed free of charge. Just mind your Inventory.
Respawn Points
By far the most common type of spawn point is a humble Respawn Point. These are the blue disks you see littered about.
The disk has an obvious forward facing, and when a player spawns, he will be facing in this direction. It is considered good form to not point a player at a wall when he spawns.
When Halo 3 needs to spawn a player, it takes into account a lot of invisible things, and chooses one of these points. You want to have a lot of these points. If you don’t, then there are limited choices for respawning, and you could end up spawning on top of a live grenade, or in the path of an onrushing Warthog.
Finally, respawn points have a Team property, which defaults to Neutral. You can restrict respawn points to a specific team by changing this, but you Should Not Do this—there is a Better Way, and that’s with Respawn Zones. More about those later.
Initial Spawn Points
Initial Spawn Points are special. They are game specific (like Goal objects), so you need to switch to the desired gametype to edit them. They appear similar to respawn points, but they have bright blue plasma rings above them. You’ll know it when you see it.
What makes them special is that they can only be used on the first spawn in a round. On top of that, a player is guaranteed to spawn there, unless it is blocked (for example, by another player.)
Like respawn points, initial spawn points have a Team property. Unlike respawn points, you should always set this to the appropriate team.
When Bungie’s designers set up a map, we place one initial spawn point per team, and place several ordinary respawn points nearby. That way, when a round starts, one player from each team starts off at these points. And then, because of the way Halo 3 prefers to spawn players near their teammates, the rest of their team automatically prefers to spawn at the nearby respawn points.
Respawn Zones
When Halo 3 tries to spawn (or respawn) a player, it takes a lot of things into account, like where teammates or enemies are standing, if there are dangerous things nearby, and so on. We call these influences.
When it is done doing so, it then chooses a respawn point for the player, based on these influences. There’s a little tiny bit of randomness, but that only really comes into play when all points are otherwise equal.
Now, when Halo 3 does this, it looks at ALL respawn points on the map. But in setting up your map, maybe you don’t want Attackers spawning in the Defender’s base. Or you want one team to only spawn on one side of the map. To do that, you want to restrict the search to only certain respawn points. And to do that, you use Respawn Zones.
Normal Respawn Zones
A Respawn Zone is an object which belongs to a team, and defines an area. All respawn points inside that area are strongly preferred when Halo 3 needs to spawn a member of that team. Very, extremely strongly preferred, so much so that a player will virtually never spawn outside of his team’s respawn zone (unless there is literally no choice.)
Respawn zones are gametype specific objects, like goal objects, so you need to switch to the desired gametype to edit them. They look similar to King of the Hill markers, a small object stuck into the ground, with a blue plasma field which defines their boundary.
These zones have a Team property, which controls which team uses this respawn zone. You should always set this to the appropriate team.
When Bungie’s designers set up a map, we often place a single large respawn zone for each team, making sure that it encloses many respawn points. Note that a respawn zone never prohibits an enemy player from spawning inside of it—they only affect the team they belong to. But if that enemy player has his own respawn zone on the other side of the map, you can be sure he won’t spawn in yours.
Make absolutely sure your respawn zone covers at least a couple of respawn points! If you don’t, respawning will be very predictable and unsafe. And if your respawn zones contain no respawn points at all, then they will have no effect whatsoever.
Respawn Zones are powerful tools. Use them wisely.
CTF Respawn Zones
Capture the Flag has two special types of respawn zone, in addition to the normal one.
- Respawn, Flag Home: This is a respawn zone which is only active when your team’s flag is safely on its stand. As soon as an enemy player grabs your flag, even if he’s killed a second later, this respawn zone shuts off until the flag is reset.
- Respawn, Flag Away: This is the opposite, a respawn zone which is only active when your team’s flag is not on its stand.
When Bungie’s designers set up a map, we might prefer to have a team spawn near their flag when it is at home, but spawn somewhere else if the flag is stolen, so that the thieves don’t have defenders respawning all around them. Last Resort is a good example of this.
Territories Respawn Zones
Territories is a special case worth noting. The territories themselves have a built in respawn zone which belongs to the team that currently controls the territory. It is invisible, and about 10 meters in radius.
So if there are respawn points nearby, you can in fact spawn at a territory you control, even if your team’s respawn zone is on the other side of the map.
Teleporters
Teleporters are great. You can use them to bypass walls, cover great distances quickly, and teleport your friends into the minefield on Sandtrap.
Teleporters are objects, and can be found in the object creation palette. There are three types of teleporter objects:
- Sender Node: This is the entry point to a teleportation link. You can only enter via this point, never return.
- Receiver Node: This is the exit point to a teleportation link. You can only exit via this point, never enter.
- Two-Way Node: This node can function both as a sender and as a receiver.
Each type of node has a clear forward facing. The facing is ignored for sender nodes, but used to determine the facing of the player when he arrives at a receiver node. It is considered poor form to point your receivers at walls.
When you first place a teleporter node, you may notice that it is dark and lifeless. That is because there is no other node for it to link up to. For a node to activate, there must be a valid sender and receiver (either of which could be a two-way node.) Once you place the missing node, they will automatically link up and flare to life.
If you want to have more than one separate teleporter link on your map, you will want them to be on different channels. Channel is a property of teleporter objects, and you can change it by placing your crosshair on the teleporter object, and pressing X. Teleporter nodes on different channels don’t link up, and in this way you can keep your links separate.
You might be wondering what happens when there’s more than one valid receiver on the same channel. Simple: your destination will be randomly selected from the valid locations, and your evil twin will appear at the other one.
Oh, wait, we cut the evil twin thing. Something about the goatee shader. Never mind.