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Forge Tips and Tricks from Horatio.
Tip: Placing items on an incline
Circular objects placed on an incline will not stay at their original placement. Instead they will roll to the bottom of the incline. If you need to keep an object on a hill you will need to create barrier for the object to rest against. Once the object is at rest you can remove the barrier and the object will stay in place.
Tip: Placing underground objects
Placing any large object in an enclosed space (any area not outside) can be troublesome. When you create an object in an enclosed space it may not appear on screen. You will still have the indicator that you are holding the object but the object itself will manifest somewhere directly outside the enclosed area or sometimes not at all. To work around this create the object where there is space for the object to manifest and then carefully guide it to the enclosed location.
Tip: Teleporters maintain the player’s momentum.
The speed you enter a teleporter is the same speed you will exit. Try placing sender node on the ground then perform a high dive right onto it. You will be sent flying out of the receiver node. For even more fun try placing several two way nodes so that one feeds the other continuously letting you pick up falling momentum.
Also remember to inactivate the teleporter you are placing. Accidentally porting yourself through the teleporter you are trying to place is just a pain.
Tip: Fun with explosives
Raining fusion cores or setting off a propane tank chain reaction is fun but the shortest re-spawn timer is 10 seconds and that hardly is enough death and destruction. For a constant stream of explosives set the “Run-Time Minimum” for your object equal to the amount currently on the map. What this will do is tell the map that there must always be a minimum number of fusion coils on the map and the instant one is destroyed another will appear. How long until you all create a constant rain of fusion coils over the only red team re-spawn point?
Tip: Not all GoTo points may be active
If you place all 12 territories on a map and start the game, only eight will appear as active. This is by design. The extra territories are so you can create different asymmetric game types.
Tip: Control the spawns and starting locations.
Make sure you have enough re-spawn markers to cover multiple players dying at once. Make sure you have enough for each team as well. If you leave any neutral markers on the map it is possible for a player to spawn at the neutral marker even though the team specific marker is available.
Tip: Limiting access
You can create some interesting game types by blocking off entryways and setting the gravity to high so they can’t be scaled.
Tip: Clean maps types
The first map type most people will create is the clean map with all objects removed.
When creating a clean map remember to remove all the goto point for each game type. Meaning switch to VIP and remove all the VIP markers then switch to territories and remove all those markers and so forth.
Finding those last few spawn points and GoTo markers can be tricky. To find those last few hidden objects, save your map and start it in a custom game. Take note of any waypoints you missed then commit suicide and note your re-spawn location. (note that even after you remove all the re-spawn points there are hidden ones that can’t be removed) To verify you found them all check your summary for the item and take note of the “Placed on Map” count
Tip: Custom power-ups are not defined in Forge. You can only place them in forge. You define their abilities in the custom games menu.
Tip: It is possible to suspend every object in the air. You will need two controllers for this. Either with another player or you switching between both controllers
Teleporters, GoTo points and spawn points are the simplest to place.
1. With the first monitor create a supporting object (crates work best) and move it under where you want the final object to appear
2. With the second monitor create the object you want to suspend and place it on top of the supporting object (remember you have to release this second object before step 3)
3. Now remove the supporting object. The final object will now stay suspending without the supporting object. Teleporters are more fickle to suspend than other objects. Just make sure that the teleporter is not swaying or moving at all before deleting the support.
Note: This can also be accomplished with one controller by placing all supporting objects on the ground and then placing the final object.
Scenery objects are more complicated
You can suspend a scenery objects in the same manner as before except that a scenery object will only stay suspended while in forge mode. If you save the forge map and start a custom game the object will fall once the game begins. To keep a scenery object suspended in custom game you will need to place it on a supporting object that can stay suspended by itself. (GoTo Points, Teleporters, Weapon Holders)
1. Create your supporting object
2. Place the objects you intend to use to support the final objects (Make sure you place these objects in a pattern that can support something being placed on top of them.
3. Remove the supporting object
4. Create your final object so that it rests on the items placed in step2
Vehicles are even more complicated.
Vehicles will pass through the objects you used to support the scenery. So you will have to place the vehicle on top of the scenery objects that are placed on the supporting objects.
Finally there are objects you want to spawn in the air but drop once the game starts (probably fusion coils on the only red team re-spawn point). Just follow the same steps used to place a goto point in the air. Your coil will fall to the ground but re-spawn where you originally placed it and fall again.
Here are some map/game examples that were a lot of fun during testing.
Excalibur: Players cannot pick up weapons. There is a single sword resting on a custom power up that grants weapon pickup, extra speed and damage resistance. The sword and power up do not appear at start so there isn’t a mad rush to the center. Too keep players from camping the sword spawn, place fusion coils around the spawn. Best results on Guardian.
TerraSnipe: Played on SandTrap. Using three territories, suspend four crates high in the air at the four corners of the map. Each team’s spawn area has a teleporter that takes them to a hub of teleporters that can reach any of the crates. All teams have a shield generator at there spawn area. Players start with sniper/pistol. Players located on a crate that they already control receive substantial damage resistance.
Anti Hill: Teams lose point for any players in the hill and gain points for any player outside the hill. Most respawn points are in the hill. The fun twist is that players in the hill have no shields and if you kill them you are doing them a favor. This also encourages betrayals since you want to kill your own teammates who are in the hill in the hope that they will re-spawn somewhere else.
Sky King: King of the hill where the hill is suspended in the air and each team can only earn points with a banshee.
Team 3 Rocks: Slayer where team 3 has special spawns on suspended crates with much better weapons and power ups
Chiron Assault: Use crates to block off sections of the map keeping everyone underground and there is only one path for the bomb. Best results on sandtrap/Isolation/narrows. Make sure attackers have far superior weapons for balance.
VIP Race: Place VIP markers in a pattern that will define your track, making sure to increment the spawn order. Set starting locations and mongooses for each team. Create a custom VIP game and set capture time to instant and next location to sequential. That's really all there is to it. It is easy to create a basic race variant but the good variants take some time.
Fun thing to do
See if you can keep an elephant airborne permanently.
See if you can build up enough falling momentum with teleporters that the final teleport hurls you across all of sandtrap.
Most importantly remember to test, test,test. Don't just dump a map to your share after you complete it. Invite your friends to play the map repeatedly and keep refining it until the map is ready.
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