Forerunner.map

Whew, it's been a few years, huh?

Some of you might recall this old "foreunner.map" project of mine. For those unfamiliar, I started the map back before I had half a clue what went into modifying maps - and the idea in the very beginning was to try and add a variety of new content with a forerunner aesthetic (vehicles, weapons, etc) to Forge World. This proved to be... difficult - and so it later became "Forge World Ultimate" - with the goal being to create the best forge canvas with as many goodies as possible. Drivable bipeds, campaign content, and so on.

For the first however many versions, though, the map eventually reached a point of no return - where me trying to add one more piece of content would irreparably break it. Each time, I went back in later and tried to start over - with the hope of avoiding those issues - but it was never meant to be.
 

However - as of writing, Halo: Reach tools for MCC have released. And so I can finally do what I've been waiting to do for a long time - re-create the map, on PC, with the official tools - and finally give it everything I've ever wanted to.

I had hoped to continue posting here, picking up where I left off - however sadly I hear that XboxChaos will likely be going read-only soon. As such, I've (with administrator permission to share) set up my own blog on my own personal website where I'll be posting updates about the development of this new version of "forerunner.map". I've also brought over my old posts as well, going back to 2015, so that all of the development and version history can be found in one place.

In the future, I'll be uploading the old, incomplete version of v5 that was never released for Xbox 360, just to get it out there - but for now, my main focus is making this map better than ever on MCC. I'll also be working on setting up a download portal containing all version of the map - all in one convenient place.

For anyone in the future who might stumble on this and want to check out (or download) the newer version of the map once it's out, check my personal blog here: https://haloman30.com/blog/category/forerunner/

After over a year of nothing, I think it's finally time to make one final edition of this hefty mod compilation. After 4 other major versions that all collapsed under their own weight, this time I plan to get this thing finished on my terms.

Unlike the past 4 versions, I'm doing something that really seems like common sense and using a test forge variant to ensure that no content breaks upon injection. Along with that, I plan to take some stuff from v3 and bring it forward as it wasn't present in v4. In addition, I'm using the latest (as of the time of writing) development build of Assembly (cloned and built from Github) which, bOy does it have some features that make life easier - like having an extract list instead of using bsdt or extracting things one-by-one.

I'm taking this one slower and avoiding any rushing around to hopefully ensure that the final product is cleaner and easier to use. If luck is on my side, I'll also be making use of custom sounds and bitmaps, no telling how well that will work though so absolutely no promises (I also have next to no skills in 3D texture work so that's also a limiting factor).

This will also be the final major iteration that I'm going to actually commit to in any shape or form. The past 4, I've always felt an obligation to make a newer iteration to fix the problems of before. This time around I want to actually fix those problems and just be done with it. I've got a couple other ideas for alternate variations of the map as well in addition to the standard base version (will reveal those once base version is ready). Once MCC on PC comes out (or if I'm lucky enough to be part of the insider flighting), I will also be porting this over to PC assuming that Assembly and the other things required all work as intended. If too much is different, then I'll do so once modding has progressed far enough - which I'm betting won't take too long. its too different so its gonna probably be a bit for a PC release, maybe not until official mod support

Screenshots

I'll be updating this blog post later as releases get made and as I gather screenshots, as well as making a proper post in the downloads section for a change. If you have any suggestions for things you want to see in the map, let me know! I cannot and will not promise that everything will be fully realized, but I'll do my best to try and make as many of your ideas work with what skills I have.

Credits

Portal Gun - SnipeStyle [Download]

Forge World Ultimate Edition now at v4.1 - with some issues.

Gonna be blunt, I don't really know how to continue at this point. Every iteration at this point has continued to reach a point where I am unable to inject a single thing without things breaking. V3 suffered from this hence the rewrite, and now v4 is suffering from the same issues. Brutes were working before, but now no longer function for no clear reason. What ends up happening is that as a result of the inability to make progress I end up redoing everything, running into the exact same issues, and getting discouraged. If any of you guys have any idea what exactly is causing this (and how to prevent it) I'm all ears.

On top of that, I am about to graduate from high school and start my own game company (which I will link to if the admins are cool with it). I have an incredibly ambitious project planned to start my company off with - a fan-made Halo project, similar to Contingency and Installation 01. My ideas are a great deal more ambitious than theirs, however - namely with the engine, as I plan to use being a custom engine as opposed to using something like Unreal or Unity. Granted, the nature and scale of this project is massive and will absolutely take a good while to complete, but also unlike the other Halo fan projects, my plan is to actually keep the team mostly together and continue to create games beyond just Halo fan projects.

So, yeah. That's the status of v4.1 of the map, as well as basically my life and future goals at the moment. Screenshots and downloads will be posted either tomorrow or the next day, so stay tuned!

Go ahead, have a look at the screenshots (nothing from 4.1 pictured yet, stay tuned):

More to come soon!

Downloads

Current Version: 4.1a

MP Compatibility: Unknown

Known Bugs:

• Covenant Carrier is a hog and stops things from spawning afterward
• Mill is unmovable
• Boulder is unmovable
• Civilians and Brutes crash
• Weird graphical issue on Sgt. Duvall's hat and ODST helmets

Planned Features

It's back! The insane forge playground has returned, now being titled Forge World Ultimate Edition.

Go ahead, have a look at the screenshots:

More to come soon!

Downloads

Current Version: 4.0a

MP Compatibility: Unknown

Known Bugs: Covenant Carrier is a hog and stops things from spawning afterward

Planned Features

Well, it's that time again. A third rebuild of Forerunner.map which still fails to live up to the name in any way shape or form!

Screenshots:

Download Link: http://www.mediafire.com/download/6vxndb5kvzdwbrk/forerunner_3.8a.zip

Current Public Version: v3.8a

ETA for next update: Unlikely to ever come without a full rebuild, I am busy with my gaming community and pretty much every planned feature is either already added or simply won't actually work due to the amount of tags being loaded (or map size idk). Also trying to learn some amount of programming and start developing games.

*This is uncertain, may or may not happen*WARNING: Upon the map's final release, the current forge menu layout will be merged into the default Forge palette. This will cause any maps created prior to break (assuming they work between updates). Because of this, there will be a version immediately before the forge menu redo with the final feature set to let those who have maps already to play them, and the MapID *may* be changed for the final release.  tl;dr, It isn't happening. Forge as you please.

Please be aware that I will not be making every version available for download. The public version will be updated when I feel there are enough changes that are worthy of an update (mainly because it takes a year to upload the files)

Multiplayer Compatibility: v3.7 and below confirmed to work (others are unknown, feel free to try it over LiNK and whatnot)

Known Bugs/Crashes: 1 (If you find any please report them)

• Space Banshee no longer works (was likely broken at some point down the road)

Changelog:

Planned Features

Previous Public Versions

I spent the night re-creating everything from scratch, and got all original stuff working again.

(THERE WONT BE ANY MORE BLOGS FOR A BIT SO I DON'T SPAM THE BLOGS BLOCK ON THE FORUMS)

(I'll just update this one)

Motorcycle now works:

This plane whose bitmap didn't work even with the new tool (2sad4me)

Hey look I can inject things again:

"Hi, Marty."

Whenever I finish stuffing as much as the game will handle into the map I would like to possibly host a "Forge Night" over LiNK (and make the map downloadable ofc)

However since I have had issues with LiNK I may need to have help in testing everything when the time comes.

Beta Releases: http://www.xboxchaos.com/files/file/176-forerunnermap-beta/

10-12-2015: Attempting to identify a bug with my game files, no Reach maps I have uploaded work for anyone besides me.

Update: Welp, time for Rebuild #3 (I am now crashing too, maybe everything will work on this third attempt?):

Changelog

--[ v2.5

- Added Marty Plane

--[ v2.4

- Added Scarab Gun

- Added Corvette Gun

- Added more Planes (Lava, Ash, Snow, Molten Rock, Dirt)

- Texturized Target Locator

- Added fully textured Pillar of Autumn scenery

- Added "$op_magnum"

- Added Golden Gun

- Added Gold Sniper

- Added Gold Sniper Ammo

- Added "Bench, 6 Seat"

--[ v2

- Rebuilt everything

- Added all previous content

- Added Warthog, Civilian

- Added Target Locator model

--[ v1.1

- Added 6 Terrain "Planes"

- Changed Sniper Rifle scope

- Broke the Motorcylce and AA Wraith

--[ v1

- Initial creation

- Changed Needler, Assault Rifle, Magnum and DMR

- Added Covenant Cruiser

- Added Motorcycle

- Made all Falcons, Shades, and Warthogs availible

- Added Supply Hog

- Added Rebel Hog

- Made gametype-specific equipment availible

- Added forge-able Bipeds

I promise it would be great (if it worked properly)

I am currently redoing the whole map because everything is breaking and it's making me hardcore rage.

Here are a bunch of pics of stuff that works:

Cores, Skulls, Flag, Bomb, Rocket, and the 'Named Location Marker' (that I never set any strings to because I can't find out where to add the strings)

Custom vehicles - Tankhog, Spectre (wip dont judge pls), Wraithhog, Supply Hog, Rebel Hog

Bipeds

A lot of Falcons

Warthogs

Rocket Ammo, Sniper Ammo (look to the left) and Ammo Boxes (and a neat sniper scope also wip)

Shade Turrets (and Halo 1 AR)

Wraiths

The 5 'Planes' - Grass, Rock, Water, Sand, and Forerunner

They are all Grid reskins but are neat nonetheless:

Things that broke:

- Motorcycle

- Improved AA Wraith

- Covenant Crusier

Stuff that never worked:

- UNSC Pillar of Autumn

- UNSC Frigate

- Covenant Capital Ship

Stuff that was going to be added:

- Snow Plane

- Random cool things from other people's maps (wasn't set in stone pls dont hate)

- Volcanic Rock Plane

- Lava Plane

- Ice Plane

- SUPER SECRIT PLANE

- Pelican

- Phantom

- Sabre

- Other random Campaign stuff

- Spawnability of all Spartan/Elite variants

- AI of some sort

- Flat rock made into more natural terrain flats (anyone know how to make the collision be upscaled along with model?)

- A lot of custom weapons (like 20 extra slots)

Unfortunately a lot of things were really broken and things broke as I added more. I am re-adding all the content into a clean Forge World, basically rebuilding the map.