A Forging Retrospective, Part II of III
Written by TrueDarkFusion
What are the "Musings?"
Miss Part I?
Part II: The Foundry of Forge
Forge changed forever on December 11th with the appearance of the Heroic Map Pack for download via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. The purchase of the Heroic Map Pack wasn’t just any microtransaction that users were grifted into purchasing such as a certain set of horse armor that many of us know and love, but a set of new maps players could modify in Forge. Most important of all, the map pack contained what would soon revolutionize Forge forever, Foundry. Foundry alone can be attributed by some for converting a substantial number of downloads.
With the introduction of Foundry to the map making arsenal Forgers could now perform certain tasks that weren't imaginable before. Several important new features available to map makers were made possible thanks to Foundry. Foundry is unique when compared to other maps because ninety percent of the map’s geometry can be removed in Forge. Many well known forgers consider the addition of objects that are immobile by default the most important addition to Forge. Now map makers could efficiently block off areas of the map without wasting valuable teleporter nodes and weapon holders. Using the plenitude of containers and other objects made available to Forgers, users could create an entirely unique map to build their own geometrical layout in Foundry.
Initially following the release of Foundry and the Heroic Map Pack users pumped out a multitude of creative maps that blew what they had previously created on the older maps out of the water. A new standard had been set in Forge, and that standard was made available via the versatility of Foundry. Many of the early innovations included Grifball , The Labyrinth, Depot, Barrel Blaster, Bungie 500, and The Estate, among others. Foundry had provided a nearly perfect construction, minus the cranes and uneven walls of course, for Forgers to engineer new maps and gametypes on. What soon would follow would change the dynamic of map creation via Forge permanently.
Interlocking objects would become the most fundamental element of map making and ultimately what some consider a requirement for the purpose of aesthetics. The process of interlocking allows a Forger to merge objects together and ultimately shape the map geometry to their own liking. While this may seem like a simple concept, when it is put into practice complex maps result as Forgers can merge objects together to create any shape or design they desire. Soon complex maps such as Aqueduct and Unchained began to appear. Interlocking has become the standard for competitive maps and the use of interlocking continues to increase among the community.
Foundry has provided a nice playground for Forgers, but what of the other DLC maps? Many of the techniques that players learned for Foundry have been applied to the new maps, but do the new maps measure up well to Foundry based on Forgeability? Does the future have a place for Forge with the pending release of many hyped titles such as Halo Wars, Gears of War 2, End War, and Far Cry 2? We will visit these subjects and more in next week’s edition of “Musings of the Truth” in the third and final part of “A Forging Retrospective.” Stay tuned!
