The Winter Update is right around the corner and the launch on November 8 will usher in the long-awaited Forge Beta for Halo Infinite! This is a huge moment that’s been years in the making and we can’t wait to put our most powerful editing and creative tools into the hands of the Halo community.
Forge will technically be launching as a “Beta,” but rest assured that it’s still incredibly powerful with immense functionality that will continue to improve and evolve over time. And don’t let the “Beta” moniker fool you—this free update will be permanently added to the game for everyone. Once it’s here, it’s here to stay (along with all the content being created).
As we count down the final days to release, we’ve put together answers to some community frequently asked questions (FAQ) and rounded up all the information to date to make sure you know what to expect when the Forge Beta arrives on November 8.
- Part 1: Building – what can I make and how do I make it?
- Part 2: Scripting & Bots – what is scripting, how can I use it, and how can I test my map with bots?
- Part 3: Lighting & Audio – what lighting, art, and audio tools can make my maps look and sound great?
- Part 4: File Sharing & Canvases – where can I build my maps and how can people discover them?
FORGE BETA FAQ
Since the announcement of the Forge Beta, you’ve had questions—lots of ‘em! While the Forge Fundamentals series did offer a lot of insights, there’s still no shortage of questions across the community.
Below is a collection of frequently asked questions gathered from Twitter with answers provided by Michael “Forge Lord” Schorr, Forge Lead at 343 Industries.
Will 343 be adding community maps into matchmaking regularly? How easy/difficult is that to do?
We want to do this as soon as possible but it will take a bit of time. It first requires content to be created by the community. Then, 343 needs to identify that content and work with the author(s) to make sure that content meets our functional requirements (works as expected, performs well, etc). Once the content has been finalized, we then need to add it to a playlist.
We do have plans for a Forge playlist that highlights only community created content. We’re eager to see how the community embraces Forge and will look for opportunities to continue evolving our approach to Forge content in Matchmaking as warranted.
When does The Pit hit matchmaking?
The Pit remake is targeted to land in Matchmaking before the end of the year, with other official legacy map remakes planned for further down the road. We’ll have more details to share later, but in the meantime, we expect no shortage of awesome throwback community-creations that could also make their way into Matchmaking (per the question above).
When do you think you’ll consider Forge out of Beta? Is it based on performance or the amount of content in the mode?
For the most part, the Beta label means that we still want to apply more polish and bug fixing to some aspects of the experience in addition to seeing what new issues and opportunities may arise as we release Forge into the wild at massive scale. Forge is an incredibly robust and ambitious feature, and while the team has spent years developing and iterating on it, nothing can truly equal the level of feedback and data we’ll get from players around the world.
There is also some work that just missed the November 8 Forge launch that we’d like to add before we consider removing the Beta tag. There’s a lot to dig into here—exponentially more so than any prior Forge—but we have more we want to get to including functionality to allow editing on dev maps (at launch, the Forge Beta functionality is centered around the 6 shipping canvases), audio acoustic fidelity improvements, and of course more content (including additional palettes).
Any ideas of implementing an “import geo” type thing into Infinite, so we could create custom assets in Maya/Blender or whatever DCC we’re using and be able to import them into infinite to use in forge?
There are content moderation and Forge object integration challenges in officially supporting this type of content. That said, we are looking at MCC’s approach to modding support as inspiration and will be listening to the mod community to better understand how to best support them. Who knows what the future will bring, but safe to say November 8 is merely the beginning.
When I permit others to make copies of my maps, will those copies restart at version number 1 and be saved separate from my own, or will theirs be alternate versions of my own map in my own version count lineup?
Cloned assets do not include all the versions of the original; they behave as brand-new assets except that map credits persist from the original to the clone. There is no limit on the number of versions an asset can have but non-locked versions are auto-deleted after 30 days. To prevent this type of deletion players can lock asset versions in the Version History menu.
Will there be any basic tutorials on how to Forge and will that happen through The Academy?
Our Forge Fundamentals video series is a nice overview of the (ahem) Forge Fundamentals and a great launch pad for your Forge journey. We also recommend chatting with any of the Forge community groups out there (Halo Waypoint forums, ForgeHub, The Scripters Guild); they’re supportive, positive, and a great way to meet like-minded folks who are passionate about Forge.
We’ll do our best to continue to surface and promote these great community resources and look forward to partnering with the Forge community to help enhance the experience for everyone.
Is it possible to add campaign AI in Forge? Are y’all working on it?
It’s possible and we are working on how to best bring those features from our internal tools into Forge at a later date. We see a lot of potential in allowing players to create experiences that lean into the cooperative/PVE space. Good news is that with the addition of Nav Mesh and the support of AI controlled Bots, we’ve already got a head start on pushing further into this area.
We’re not announcing anything today and this is long lead work, but it’s definitely an opportunity we’re interested in and excited to pursue.
Will custom game modes made using Forge’s new visual scripting be able to be shared independently from the maps they were created on as custom game modes?
At launch, any mode logic created using Node Graph will need to be contained within a map by using a script brain. That said, players can create prefabs that contain script brains and related mode objects to share with map makers. This will make it easier to integrate custom modes into maps.
Longer term, we have plans to allow mode makers to create custom modes using the Node Graph and share them just like you’d share a custom mode created in the custom game mode editor. This will remove the need to embed ANY mode logic in the map.
How can I download maps from other people?
Players can use the Community tab to find custom content to play. 343 will also be featuring cool community content in the “Recommended” menu and popular maps, modes, and prefabs will show up in their respective menus. You can then set up a custom game with that content to play with friends, etc.
Once Season 3 lands, you will also be able to find active games in progress via a Custom Game Browser. And, as noted up above, we’ll also be working to integrate suitable Forge content into Matchmaking over time.
Stay tuned for additional ways to find and share content!
Will you be looking at or taking submissions for maps to be added to the HCS rotation?
We’ll be looking far and wide for cool community made experiences to promote in our “Recommended” section and add to our playlists. Halo 5 had a couple of amazing Forge maps make it into HCS rotation (Fissure, Echelon, and Refuge) and we see the potential for that to happen again. Of course, the maps would need to be tested and iterated on thoroughly before making their way into rotation, but we fully expect that some of the maps made in Halo Infinite’s Forge will have what it takes to make into the HCS eventually.
In the meantime, the team does have plans to incorporate Argyle and the Pit remake—both built from the ground up in Forge—to the HCS lineup as a first step.
When will we see the Custom Game Browser?
Halo Infinite’s Custom Game Browser will land with Season 3 “Echoes Within” on March 7. Until then, you can find, bookmark, and play custom games on maps and modes that you find in the Content Browser or by looking at an individual’s files. If you’re LFG to play Forge customs with, jump into the Official Halo Discord Server or the Halo Waypoint forums and send up a flare.
How many players can Forge on the same map at once?
Up to eight players can Forge together in an active co-forging session. If you want additional players to collaborate with on an asset, you can add them via the Manage Collaborators menu. Just make sure any potential collaborators are friends; you both must be following each other to work together like this.
It’s worth noting that because of a bug we found close to launch, join-in-progress will be disabled for Forge sessions. This means co-forging will require everyone to enter the Forge session at the same time. Fixing this is a top priority for us and will be done as soon as possible.
Will we ever get Banished/Covenant structures en masse like Forerunner/Human pieces?
We are currently adding more objects to the Forerunner object set and will then move to creating the Banished palette. Other design palettes (Flood, Covenant) are top of mind, but we have not finalized plans for those yet. We understand how much variety and flexibility these sets bring to Forge creations and will add more as fast as we can!
Can we make Custom Power Ups?
Yes! In Node Graph players can place an “On Custom Powerup Used” event node and hookup any scripts they want to it. When someone uses that custom equipment, it’ll fire whatever scripts they have attached. So, players could apply a Trait Set that boosts movement speed and reload times. Or they could refill 50% of the player’s ammo. Players could make Fusion Coils fall from the sky at a point 20 feet in front of where the player is looking. The sky’s the limit. Players can also define weapon combos (like an AR that shoots Skewer ammo!) to really spice things up!
You say you’ll add more features once Forge is released. What features do you plan to add later on?
Right now, the team is focused on supporting the Forge Beta launch. Once we go live, here are the highly requested features we will be diving deeper into:
- Editing on dev maps
- Minigame game mode
- AI spawning tools
We will also be continuing our dialogue with the Forge community and integrating bug fixes, quality of life updates, content drops, and feature work based on that feedback. And, as noted above, we’re also actively working on additional palette offerings for future updates.
If possible, can we get more info on how it works when I download a map from someone, and they update it later? Would it download the changes as an update? Or do I need to manually download the new version? (By extension what about prefabs people made as well if they are updated?)
If you bookmark a map, you are bookmarking that map asset. If the player updates and publishes the map at a later date, the bookmark will point at the newest published version. Prefabs work differently—every time a player publishes a prefab it’s treated as a new asset. So, if you’ve bookmarked a prefab and the creator of that prefab publishes an update to that prefab, your bookmarked prefab still points to the version of the prefab you originally bookmarked.
Will the maps we create during the Forge Beta carry over when it leaves the “Beta” state?
Once Forge is out of Beta, all content created during the Beta phase will absolutely be supported in future updates. Invalidating player content is a total deal breaker for us, so we consider this with everything we add to Forge going forward.
What are the team’s future plans for audio features in Forge? Are there plans to include triggering music or VO from the Campaign?
In terms of audio, we are currently focused on improving acoustic fidelity in Forge. In an effort to reduce the amount of manual work on players when creating Forge maps, we employ a simplified version of the acoustics system. Because of these differences, audio traveling between different rooms will not be as muffled as in dev maps. Improvements in this area are in the works for a future update.
The ability to trigger VO lines in Forge is something we have discussed though and is definitely on our wishlist—it’s easy to see how cool it would be to create your own mode and trigger iconic Steitzer lines! Music trigger functionality is in a similar situation—no current plans but also something we know would be cool and it’s on our wishlist.
Do you plan to add water features at some point?
Yes, we are currently discussing the best way to bring placeable water into Forge. No other details to share at the moment but it’s clear that this functionality is very important to the Forge community!
I noticed you refer to Forge as a game engine rather than a map editor. When did it become clear that the next evolution of Forge would have to be the development of a game engine?
From the start, our goal was to create a version of Forge that was as close as possible to our internal tools. Early on in Forge’s development, we had this Tom French quote guiding our vision.
“If you give them a toy, they’ll make toys. If you give them a tool, they’ll make experiences.”
Based on what we’ve seen of the community and Forge Council creations so far, we feel like we are well on our way to delivering on that promise!
Are there any rules or restrictions around creating Forge content?
The use of our games and services is governed by the Microsoft Services Agreement (MSA) which you should definitely familiarize yourself with before you start creating and sharing content (please pay attention to the Code of Conduct within the MSA as well). The Xbox Community Standards also apply to anything and everything you do within Halo Infinite.