Ever since Halo Infinite’s Forge arrived, we have been continually blown away by the creativity of the community-made maps, modes, and experiences that have been crafted. Our goal is to continue supporting Halo’s community cartographers as much as possible, and CU29 aims to deliver some of the most highly requested features—new toys and enhanced tools that will help to further unlock and unleash Forgers’ creative potential.
CU29 brings with it the addition of the Covenant object palette, the new Mode Creator feature, AI Toolkit enhancements, along with additional quality of life updates, and more!
Read on below to learn more about the latest update to Forge, and check out some of it in action from our stream last week.
[previewyoutube=9aV4pIIz2p8;full][/previewyoutube]
Covenant Dance
“When we joined the Covenant, we took an oath…”
Since Forge’s arrival in Halo Infinite, we’ve continued to build on making the object palettes and aesthetics of the Halo universe available to the player—from the UNSC, to the Forerunners, to the Banished… and now, CU29 will update that list once more with some fashionable purple pieces.
The Covenant palette is coming to Halo Infinite!
Over 70 new structures pieces, primitives, accents, and decals will be available for Forgers to create exciting experiences that harken back to Halo’s roots. Let’s take a look at some pretty pictures of those objects…
Forge Mode Creator
The Forge Mode Creator is a new functionality that lets players script modes in the Node Graph, then save, share, and play those experiences—just like you’d share a mode created in the Custom Game menu.
Our goal with the Forge Mode Creator was threefold:
- Make it easier for modes to be shared and played
- Make it easier for modes to hook up to community maps (and vice-versa)
- Free up map budget, as mode logic will no longer come with a map budget cost
We have created new assets in Forge to enable this: the Mode Brain and Mode Prefab.
Mode Brain
Similar to a Script Brain, but this is specifically used for Forge Modes. This can be accessed in the Scripting section of the Object BrowserMode Prefab
A Prefab dedicated to holding Mode BrainsMode Brain
Here’s how the Forge Mode Creator works:
[olist][*] Create a Mode Prefab Out of Mode Brains: To create a Forge Mode, the first thing players should do is place two or more Mode Brains and then create their mode in Node Graph with them—players will need to create a Mode Prefab out of the Mode Brains that contain the scripting for your mode. With multiple Mode Brains selected, bring up the Action Menu and select “CREATE MODE PREFAB.”
Mode Prefabs function similarly to object prefabs, but these can only consist of Mode Brains. Conversely, regular object prefabs cannot use Mode Brains.
[*] Mode Prefab Settings: You can cycle the parent Mode Brain in the Object Properties menu after selecting a Mode Prefab. Since the Node Graph loads the parent Mode Brain when going into it with a Mode Prefab selected, this will allow you to control which Mode Brain scripts you want to edit after you have created a Mode Prefab.
The Mode Variant value is important as it tells the game if you want to create a mode based on existing official mode logic or want to build all the logic from scratch by selecting Minigame.
[*] How to Save Mode Prefab to My Files: After creating a Mode Prefab, there is one more step to actually create the Forge Mode. With the Mode Prefab selected, open the Action Menu and select “SAVE MODE PREFAB.”
Saving a Mode Prefab does two things:
- Saves the Mode Prefab (the Mode Brains)
Saved Mode Prefabs can be found in the Object Browser – Modes category, where you can place them in a map and then edit in the Node Graph.
- Saves a Forge Mode based on the logic in the Mode Prefab’s Mode Brains
Saved Forge Modes can be found in My Files and the Custom Game Editor Mode List. After saving a Forge Mode, you can then publish and/or play your Forge Mode.[/olist]
NOTE: If you want to create a NEW Mode Prefab from an existing Mode Prefab, break apart the Mode Prefab FIRST and then create a new Mode Prefab from the ungrouped Mode Prefab. Ungrouping a Mode Prefab breaks its connection to the saved Forge Mode and Mode Prefab.
With this approach to mode creation, we can’t wait to see what the community is going to create with this new addition to Forge!
Material Swap
Another highly requested feature from the community is material swapping for foliage and decals, which is another improvement added to Forge in CU29.
Foliage
Players will be able to adjust up to three colors on select foliage objects to add a greater variety of visual flair for their creative vision.
Decals
Players will be able to mimic stains, foliage overgrowth, and other forms of discoloration to add more set dressing to their creations.
Halo Infinite Material Swaps
This opens up even more artistic options for Forgers when adding layers of detail to a map.
Forge AI Toolkit
The Forge AI Toolkit made its debut with Season 5, and in CU29 we are continuing to update and enhance this feature to help build the best experiences possible with Halo Infinite’s AI units.
New Squad Behavior – Wander When Idle
Wander When Idle is a new squad behavior available on the AI Spawner object. When set to ON, AI units in this spawned squad will wander around their assigned AI Move Zone when idle, which will make them seem a bit livelier.
I don’t know about you, but I could spend hours watching Grunts waddle around!
New AI Trait Nodes
Players will have the ability to give AI units certain traits which can help to spice up those campaign-style and PvE experiences you have been building.
AI Traits include:
- Bonus Health
- Bottomless Clip
- Damage Resistance
- Health Recharge
- Movement Speed
- Movement Speed With Turret
- Prevent Weapon Firing
- Vampirism
- Weapon Damage
Quality of Life Improvements
Improvements to single axis selection on both the scale and transform widgets
It’s now easier to grab a selection axis of the movement and scaling widgets when using a mouse
Added "On Player Infected" node to Node Graph
This event node fires when a player is infected and returns both who got infected and who did the infecting
Added “On Repair Field Heal” node to Node Graph
This event node fires when a player or object is repaired. Returns the Repair Field Object, Healed Object, Healed Amount, and Full Regen Completed
Added Infected Energy Sword and Mythic Sandwich as weapons
Some weapons are just too powerful, too terrible, and indeed too delicious to even contemplate letting folks use them. The Mythic Sandwich in the wrong hands could spell doom for the entire galaxy, a weapon more devastating than the Halo Array itself… but do you know what these are? The wrong hands!
The Infected Energy Sword and Mythic Sandwich will be available in the power spawner, weapon pads, weapon trunks, and as individually placed weapon objects.
Future Forge Updates
As we have said, we are committed to the continued improvement of Forge and we’ve got more to come on that front this year. Of course, we can’t just tease you like that and stay quiet—how uncivilized that would be!
Coming in future Halo Infinite updates will be a Flood-themed palette and an alien-themed palette for you to play around with. Let’s take a look!
That brings us to the end of this Forge Overview for CU29, which is just days away from launch on January 30!
We can’t wait to see what you make this year. We’re coming up on almost thirty issues of Forge Features, which has showcased and spotlighted what is ultimately just a tiny fraction of what you’ve been building—so don’t forget to share your maps by tagging them with “343ask” in-game.
Happy Forging, we’ll see you next week!
For more on CU29 of Halo Infinite, check out our other blogs:
- LIVESTREAM RECAP – Catch up on our livestream about all things Halo Infinite in 2024
- MAP OVERVIEW – Take a guided tour of Illusion, the new Arena map coming in CU29
- CUSTOMIZATION OVERVIEW – Get a closer look at the Mark IV Armor Core, customization improvements, and upcoming Operations
