Links within this page:

Slayer / Basic Setup
General Note on Forging Modes
King of the Hill
Capture The Flag
Assault
Juggernaut
Territories
Incursion
Race
Infection
Flight
Havens
Ricochet


Slayer and Basic Setup

    • For all team games, including Slayer, you want to place Initial Spawn points for each team. Create 8 spawn points for Attacker and Defender and 4 spawn points for the other 6 teams. Give them the Game Label: team_spawn
    • For Free For All games, add Initial Spawn points and set their team to Neutral. Give them the Game Label: ffa_spawn.
    • For all games, add respawn points around the map in sensible places for players to respawn. Set their team to Neutral.

  • In various other modes (e.g. Race) you may wish to remove team or FFA respawns or spawns. If they are not automatically deleted by the given mode, you can label them (for instance) race_delete to delete them in that mode.

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General Note on Forging Modes

    • You must enter Forge in the game mode you are working on in order to have access to the Game Labels for that mode. For instance, enter Forge in the King of the Hill game mode if you wish to set up King of the Hill. Once you’ve set up KOTH and now wish to set up CTF, simply save your map, exit Forge, then re-enter Forge for the map in CTF.
    • Each game mode has a Game Label which is simply the name of the mode. For example, race, or koth, or infection. Simply label an object with this label and set it Game Specific to ensure that it will only appear in the labeled mode.

  • Conversely, you may have an object you wish to appear in all game modes except for one or two. In this case, label the object race_delete, koth_delete, etc to have it be deleted in those specific game modes. Do NOT set it Game Specific.

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King of the Hill

  • Place a zone from Objectives / Zones / King Of The Hill.
    • Give it a Spawn Sequence number from 1-5 depending on if this is Hill A, B, etc.
    • Label the zone koth_hill, set it Game Specific, and size it appropriately.

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Capture The Flag

Note: flags and respawn zones should be set up for 4 teams (Defender, Attacker, Team 3, Team 4).

 

  1. Place an Objectives / Flag Stand for each team.
    • Set the team to the owner team. Enemies of that team will take this flag.
    • Set Game Label to ctf_flag_return, set it Game Specific.
  2. When placing flag stands for Vehicle CTF, do the same thing but label them mon_ctf_flag_return instead. Ensure these are accessible to both driven and flying vehicles. If you don’t place them the normal flags will be used in Vehicle CTF.
  3. Place another flag stand in the center of the map.
    • Set the team to Neutral.
    • Label it ctf_flag_return , set it Game Specific.
  4. Again, place a separate neutral mon_ctf_flag_return for Vehicle CTF if the ordinary neutral flag isn’t suitable. These flags are only used in the Neutral Flag variant.
  5. Place a Spawning / Respawn Zone for each team.
    • Set it to the team of the flag stand.
    • Label it ctf_res_zone, set it Game Specific.
    • Place it near, but not directly on, the flag stand.
    • This respawn zone will be active when this team’s flag is at home. This zone should not be too large, as generally this mode features end-to-end spawning when flags are at home. Defenders shouldn’t be able to spawn right on top of their flag, but the run distance to the flag shouldn’t be very great either. You can use multiple zones for each team when needed.
  6. Place another Respawn Zone for each team.
    • Set it to the team of its flag.
    • Label it ctf_res_zone_away, set it Game Specific.
    • This should be a much larger zone — typically up to half of the whole map — and will be used only when a team’s flag has been taken. This gives the team a better chance of stopping the flag carrier, while still keeping it unlikely that defenders would spawn in between the carrier and his own base.

 

Adding or Removing Objects for CTF Variants

  • Use the ctf_1flag Game Label for anything special you want in One-flag CTF, and ctf_1flag_delete for anything you need deleted in that variant.
  • Use the ctf_neutral Game Label for anything special you want in Neutral Flag CTF, and ctf_neutral_delete for anything you need deleted in that variant.
  • ctf and ctf_delete apply to anything you want or don’t want in all CTF variants as a whole.
  • Use ctf_res_zone_1flag and ctf_res_zone_away_1flag labels if you need to label respawn zones for defenders only in 1-flag CTF.

 

Vehicle CTF-Specific Anti-Respawns for Vehicles

In Vehicle CTF, players respawn and are immediately placed in vehicles. This can be a bad experience if they respawn inside a building, or amidst a cluster of rocks or on a narrow ledge.

  1. Set up a Spawning / Anti Respawn Zone, Force volume around each building or cluster of rocks, ledge etc where you wouldn’t want vehicles respawning in Vehicle CTF.
    • Label them ctf_gg_nospawn and set Game Specific.
    • When forging in Race, you can also label them race_nospawn to prevent vehicles respawning there in Race as well.

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Assault

Note: bomb goals, and respawn zones should be set up for 4 teams (Defender, Attacker, Team 3, Team 4). You don’t need to set up bomb spawns for teams 3 and 4 as these teams are only available in the Neutral Bomb variant.

 

    1. Place an Objectives / Zones / Assault, Goal for each team. This looks like a capture plate with a zone around it.
      • Set its team to the team who is defending this goal.
      • Label it ‘as_goal’, set it Game Specific.
      • Give a boundary of cylinder, radius of 1.3, top of 1.2, bottom of 0.1.
      • Give the goal a Spawn Sequence starting at 1. You can restart the sequence at 1 for each team’s goals. This sequence number is for using multiple goals, but also needs to be set to link each arm zone to its goal.
    2. Place an Objectives / Assault Bomb Spawn for each team. It should sit away from the bomb goal. The navpoint may or may not be shared between the bomb spawn and assault goal while the bomb is at home, depending on how close to each other they are.
      • Set the team, which is the team who can take this bomb and run with it.
      • Label it ‘as_bomb’, set it Game Specific.
    3. Place an Objectives / Zones / Assault, Arming near to / around each goal.
      • Set its team to that of the goal that it surrounds.
      • Label it ‘as_arm_zone’, set it Game Specific.
      • Set its shape to whatever size you want enemies to be able to arm the bomb in.
      • Give it a Spawn Sequence number matching the Spawn Sequence number on the goal it surrounds.

If the game options are set to “Use Map Zone”, this custom arming zone is what will be used. Otherwise this will be ignored and the boundary around the goal object will be used (and resized per the game options). You can have multiple arming zones for one goal, provider they all share the goal’s Spawn Sequence.

 

In general, Arm Zone size should be much larger than default goal size, since the point is to provide a more custom-sized area for attackers to hide in. It is recommended to use the Manual Arming setting in games using Map Zone, so that players can hide within the area while arming but then must make a run for the goal once the bomb is armed.

 

    1. Set up another Objectives / Assault Bomb Spawn in the middle of the map.
      • Set the team to Neutral.
      • Label it ‘as_bomb’, set it Game Specific.
      • This Neutral bomb will not need an associated goal (it can be scored in either enemy goal), so you’ll just need a spawn point for it. This only applies in the Neutral Bomb game variant.
    2. Place a Spawning / Respawn Zone for each team.
      • Set it to the team of the bomb spawn, and place it behind the bomb spawn.
      • Label it as_res_zone, set it Game Specific.
      • This zone will be used for respawning when a team’s bomb has not been taken from its home yet.
  1. Place another Spawning / Respawn Zone for each team.
    • Label it as_res_zone_away and set it Game Specific.
    • This should be a much larger zone — typically up to half of the whole map — and will be used once a team’s bomb has been taken from its spawn.

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Juggernaut

No setup needed, beyond standard initial spawns and respawn points for FFA (i.e. with team Neutral).

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Territories

    1. Place an Objectives / Territory for each territory on the map.
      • Set the team to Neutral.
      • Label terr_object, set it Game Specific.
      • The Shape should be set to the area you want players to capture within.
      • Set the Spawn Sequence from 1 to 5 to label the object A to E.
      • Place a minimum of 3 territory objects and a maximum of 5 on the map.
    2. Place a very small Spawning / Anti-Respawn Zone, Force on the territory capture area itself. This will stop players from respawning right into a territory.
      • Set the team to Neutral.
      • Label it terr_spawn_zone_core, set it Game Specific.
      • Set the Spawn Sequence to the same as its territory.

  1. Place a much larger Spawning / Respawn Zone, Medium positive respawn zone around the territory.
    • Set the team to Neutral.
    • Label it terr_spawn_zone_pos, set it Game Specific.
    • Set the Spawn Sequence to the same Spawn Sequence as its territory.
    • The core negative respawn zone for a territory should be within the larger positive zone. But multiple positive zones on the map should not intersect. If they do, players will become more likely to respawn in the places where the zones double up on each other.

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Territories: Incursion

Incursion is an asymmetric Territories variant where one team pushes forward as the attackers, capturing and locking territories in order, while the other team defends their territories. 5 Territories are on the map, and time is reset whenever attackers capture a territory, until either time runs out or all Territories are captured. Then the teams swap roles.

 

The order for territories in Incursion is set separately from their standard Spawn Sequences. This allows you to pick 3 territories for A, B, and C in standard, simultaneous Territories, but change the order in which they become available for Incursion:

 

  1. Place or use an existing Objectives / Territory on the map.
    • Leave all of its properties as they are for a standard Territory.
    • Set to the Scripting / Timer/User Data to a number from 1-5 to set the order of this Territory for Incursion.

 

Incursion-Specific Objects

  • Anything you want to only appear in Incursion, label terr_incursion and set Game Specific.
  • Anything you DON’T want to be in Incursion, label terr_inc_del.

 

This way, if you need to, you could even use completely different territories between normal Territories and Incursion, deleting the normal territories when playing in Incursion, and specifying the terr_incursion label on the Territories intended only for Incursion.

 

Incursion-Specific Respawn Zones

  1. Place a Spawning / Respawn Zone on the map.
    • Set it to Attackers or Defenders depending on who you wish to respawn there.
    • Label it terr_spawn_zone and set it Game Specific.
    • If you don’t want this zone to always be active in standard Territories games, then restrict it to Incursion by also labeling it terr_incursion (RECOMMENDED).
    • Set the Spawn Sequence on the zone. This number refers to the next Terrritory the Attackers should be attacking in order for this zone to become active for whichever team it’s set to affect.

For a basic setup, create a zone with team set to Defender near the final point, and create a zone with team set to Attacker near the first point, and give them both a Spawn Sequence of 1 (since they should be active from the beginning of the game, when attackers are trying to capture Territory 1).

 

If you wish attackers to start spawning further forward along the map as they capture territories – or for defenders to start spawning further back – simply add another Respawn Zone and set its Spawn Sequence to a later Territory number. For instance, to make a ‘forward spawn’ for attackers once they capture Territory 3, create a new zone beside Territory 3. Give this Spawn Sequence 4, and it will become available once the attackers have captured Territory 3.

 

  • Only when a new Spawn Zone is available will the old one be disabled. If you don’t create any new zones, both teams will continue using their starting zones throughout the round. You don’t need to create a spawn zone for each territory.
  • Defenders can be given ‘fallback positions’ in just the same way as Attackers can have forward positions. You could start by spawning Defenders at Territory 3 and then have them spawn at Territory 5 once Attackers have captured Territory 3. It just depends how many spawn zones you want to put in.

 

Timed Object Reveals and Removes for Incursion

 

You can label any object so that it is either activated (revealed) or deleted (removed) once a given Territory becomes the one being attacked.

 

  • Label an object terr_inc_reveal and give it the Spawn Sequence of a Territory if you want that object to start spawning once that Territory becomes the one being attacked.

 

  • Label an object terr_inc_remove and give it the Spawn Sequence of a Territory if you want that object to be deleted and stop spawning once that Territory becomes the one being attacked.

  • You may wish to reveal an object once a certain Territory is being attacked, and then remove the object once a later Territory is being attacked. To accomplish this, set both terr_inc_reveal and terr_inc_remove labels on the object. Then use the first digit of the number set in the Spawn Sequence to refer to the Territory for which it should be revealed (e.g. 2) and the second digit to refer to the Territory from which it should be removed. For instance, if you wanted a Rocket Launcher to start spawning after Territory 1 is captured, and stop spawning once Territory 4 is captured, you would give it the label terr_inc_reveal, and the label terr_inc_remove, and set the Spawn Sequence number 25, because once Territory 1 is captured, 2 will be under attack, and once Territory 4 is captured, 5 will be under attack.

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Race

 

  1. Place Spawning / Initial Spawn objects, at least 4 for each team.
    • Set its team to the team spawning here.
    • Label it race, set it Game Specific.
  2. Place Spawning / Initial Spawn objects for FFA Race, at least 8 of them.
    • – Set the team to Neutral.
    • Label it race, set it Game Specific.
  3. Ensure all other default initial spawn points on the map are either labelled team_spawn or ffa_spawn, or are Game Specific for other game modes. This will ensure that are not used in Race. If needed, you can label any objects from other game modes race_delete to make sure they are deleted.

Checkpoints

You can use any object as a Race Checkpoint, including a simple Generic Zone, but the best procedure is as follows:

  1. Place a Structure / Decorative / Race Checkpoint Arch or a Structure / Decorative / Race Checkpoint Arch, Large.
    • – As you can see, its shape has already been set up correctly for vehicles driving through it.
    • Leave its team as Neutral.
    • Label it race_checkpoint, set it Game Specific.
    • Set its Spawn Sequence from 1 to however many checkpoints you have. If you want a branching race, you can use multiple checkpoints set to the same Spawn Sequence to achieve this. In that case checkpoints sharing the same number will appear and disappear together when you drive through any one of them.
  2. Place one or two Spawning / Respawn Points underneath or very close to the checkpoint, pointing in the direction that vehicles will be travelling. Players will respawn at this respawn point, if they die after passing through the checkpoint. Without these respawn points, players may not respawn in the correct location. Note that there are a couple of issues with respawning in Forged Races right now, which will be fixed by an update soon.

 

Flying Checkpoints

Setting up Flying checkpoints requires a little extra work:

 

1. Place a Structure / Decorative / Race Checkpoint Arch, Large in the sky. We often use large checkpoints on larger maps, since it’s easier to fly vehicles through, but small gates in small spaces is fine too.

  • Set its Spawn Sequence from 1 to however many checkpoints you have.
  • Duplicate the arch, and rotate the second one so that they combine to make an O shape. Make sure Rotation Snap and Magnets are turned on to make this easy.
  • Label the top half race_fly_checkpoint, set it Game Specific.
  • Label the bottom gate race_flying, set it Game Specific.
  • Extend the Shape of the top half (the one labeled race_fly_checkpoint) by setting its Bottom number to 2.1 units.

 

What we just did is extend the boundary from the top object (the actual checkpoint) down to cover the whole O, so that flying anywhere will trigger the checkpoint. We’ve made the bottom half only appear in Flying Race, in order to complete the geometry of the gate, but it’s not actually a checkpoint so we won’t get overlapping boundaries or two checkpoint navmarkers in the same place.

 

Non-Gate Checkpoints

For maps (especially smaller ones) where you may want to use existing geometry or apertures as gates, without using the gate object, simply place an Objectives / Zones / Generic of the dimensions you want. Label it race_checkpoint or race_fly_checkpoint, set it Game Specific., and set the Spawn Sequence. Don’t forget to add a nearby Respawn Point.

 

 

Landmines

If you place a Gadgets / Explosives / Landmine or Gadgets / Explosives / Landmine, EMP on the map, simply label it race_landmine in order for a danger navpoint to appear above it when players are getting near. Make it Game Specific to restrict it to Race.

 

You may wish to use fewer explosive landmines and more EMP landmines so that players are not overly penalized for hitting a mine by having to wait for respawn.

 

Mines should be in fun places that will punish careless driving without ruining the best racing lines.

 

 

Fly-mode / Drive-mode Specific Objects

For objects you want to appear only in Flying race mode, label them race_flying and set Game Specific.

 

For objects you want to appear only in driving race mode, label them race_driving and set Game Specific.

 

If you need to ensure an object is invincible in Race (say, if your plan were to start the user with vehicles already on the map) you would label it race_invincible.

 

Anti-Spawns for Buildings

In Race and Vehicle CTF, players respawn and are immediately placed in vehicles. This can be a bad experience if they respawn inside a building, or amidst a cluster of rocks or on a narrow ledge.

 

  1. Set up a Spawning / Anti Respawn Zone, Force volume around each building or cluster of rocks, ledge etc where you wouldn’t want vehicles respawning in Race.
    • Label them race_nospawn and set Game Specific.
    • When forging in CTF, you can also label them ctf_gg_nospawn to prevent vehicles respawning there in Vehicle CTF as well.

 

Damage Switches

  • There is a Race option for “damage switches” which are created next to checkpoints. Because, especially in Flying Race, damage switches can be created in non-ideal locations, there is some configurability to where the damage switch will appear in-game. To set the offset of the location of the Damage Switch from its parent checkpoint, you can enter a number into Scripting / Timer/User Data field.
    • -1 means just don’t create damage switches on this checkpoint.
    • 0:   0 0 2
    • 1:   0 0 -2
    • 2:   2 0 0
    • 3:   -2 0 0
    • 4:   0 2 0
    • 5:   0 -2 0
    • 6:   2 0 2


Optional Labels

  • Label an object race_invisible to make it invisible. You could use this for invisible walls or any other structural elements that might improve your map.
  • Label an object race_invincible to make it invincible. You could use this for non-destructible vehicles or other map elements.

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Infection

 

Spawns

 

1. Place Spawning / Initial Spawn objects.

  • Set to team defenders for Spartans, and attackers for starting infected.
  • Label them inf_spawn, set it Game Specific.


Ensure all other default initial spawn points on the map are either labelled team_spawn or ffa_spawn. Another way to ensure these disappear for Infection is to also label them infection_delete.
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Infection: Flight

 

Flight is a journey-style Infection variant in which a group of survivors take a Payload object through various zones around the map, stopping a while at each.

 

Spawns

 

  1. Place Spawning / Initial Spawn objects.
    • Set to team defenders for Spartans, and attackers for starting infected.
    • Label them inf_flight_spawn and set Game Specific.

You can reuse existing Infection spawns (adding the additional labels) if the positioning is appropriate. Survivors should all start together in Flight mode, and they should spawn near the Payload spawn / Payload.

 

Payload

 

  1. Place an Objectives / Assault Bomb Spawn.
    • Label it inf_flight_pay_spawn, set it Game Specific.
    • The Payload will be spawned atop this object at the start of the match.
  2. Alternatively, you can set a pre-placed object in the map to be the Payload, for instance a Warthog. To do so, label it inf_flight_payload. Players will need to be able to move the payload one way or another around the map to get it into the arming zones. They will not need to hold the Payload in order to score with it, although scoring occurs faster when the Payload is held.

 

Flight Capture Zones

 

  1. Place a series of Objectives / Zones / Generic along the map.
    • Label them inf_flight_cp and set them Game Specific.
    • Set their Spawn Sequence to the order in which the Survivors have to get to them, starting with 1.
    • Ensure that Flight Zones are not the same zones as Havens.

 

Timed Reveals and Removes

 

Like in Territories Incursion, you can label any object so that it is either activated (revealed) or deleted (removed) once a given Flight Zone becomes the next zone.

 

  • Label an object inf_flight_reveal and give it the Spawn Sequence of a Flight Zone if you want that object to start spawning once that Flight Zone becomes the next zone.

 

  • Label an object inf_flight_remove and give it the Spawn Sequence of a Flight Zone if you want that object to be deleted and stop spawning once that Flight Zone becomes the next zone.

  • You may wish to reveal an object once a certain Flight Zone is next, and then remove the object once a later Flight Zone is next. To accomplish this, set both inf_flight_reveal and inf_flight_remove labels on the object. Then use the first digit of the number set in the Spawn Sequence to refer to the Zone for which it should be revealed (e.g. 2) and the second digit to refer to the Zone from which it should be removed. For instance, if you wanted a Rocket Launcher to start spawning after Zone 1 is complete, and stop spawning once Zone 4 is complete, you would give it the label inf_flight_reveal, and the label inf_flight_remove, and set the Spawn Sequence number 25, because once Zone 1 is captured, 2 will be under attack, and once Zone 4 is captured, 5 will be under attack.

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Infection: Havens

Havens are basically hills that grant Survivors special traits. They can also now be used to award points to either survivors, infected, or both.

 

  1. Place one or more Objectives / Zones / Generic.
    • Label them inf_haven, set them Game Specific.
    • Set the Spawn Sequence for if they are used progressively.

 

Most players will probably play with Havens set to random spawning, but you could create an interesting sequential order too for players who want to try sequential play. Ensure that Havens are not the same objects as Flight Zones. King of the Hill Hills could be reused, if not in the same place.


Havens can also award points to players in them if the scoring game option is chosen. In moving Havens mode, the default lifetime of a Haven in seconds, and hence also the number of points it can award (since it awards one per second), is 30. However, you can set the number of points in a Haven (and its lifetime) by changing the Scripting / Timer/User Data setting from 0 to whatever you want. If left at 0, it will default to 30s.

 

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Ricochet

  1. Creating Goals
    • Place an Objectives / Zones / Generic.
    • Set Team to the team defending it. Also create a Goal set to Neutral team somewhere central on the map. This will be used only in free-for-all, non-team, or multi-team games, and anyone will be able to score in it.
    • Goals don’t need a Spawn Sequence.
    • Label it rico_hoop so that players can score by throwing the ball in. Label it rico_endzone so that players can score by running the ball in. In traditional setups, all goals will have both labels set, but you can choose what you want to allow on your map. Set it Game Specific.
  2. Creating Ball Spawns
    • Place an Objectives / Capture Plate to serve as your ball spawn location. Note: You can use any object you like to spawn the ball, but many will exhibit odd behaviors.
    • Label it rico_ballspawn: the ball will spawn at this location. Set it Game Specific.
    • Set the Spawn Sequence to the order in which you want this ball to spawn, starting at 1.
    • User data: If you want to customize where the ball appears relative to the Capture Plate when it spawns, we have provided some numbers you can apply to the User Data to adjust the ball’s starting position. This will only apply when the Initial Ball Physics option (in the Ricochet game mode options) is set to ‘Fixed’:
      • User Data 0 = 0.5 units above the Ball Spawn plate (Default)
      • User Data 1 = 2.5 units above the plate – much higher
      • User Data 2 = 0.5 units out to the side of the plate
      • User Data 3 = 2.5 units out to the side of the plate
      • User Data -1 – the center of the plate
      • User Data -2 = -0.5 units below the plate
      • User Data -3 = 2.5 units below the plate
      • User Data -4 = -0.5 units to the side of the plate (i.e. opposite direction to setting 2)
      • User Data -5 = -2.5 units to the side of the plate (again, opposite to setting 3)
      • Any numbers not listed above will be ignored, and the ball will spawn in default location.
  3. Respawn Zones
    • Add a Spawning / Respawn Zone. If you want to ENFORCE spawning in the zone with no chance of spawning elsewhere (can result in brutal spawn-camping situations), you could use Spawning / Respawn Zone, Force.
    • Adjust the Shape of the Respawn Zone so that it encompasses the respawn points you want the team to use. You can use multiple zones for each team as they do not overlap.
    • Set it to the Team which you want to respawn in that zone.
    • Label it rico_respawn: this will force players to only respawn in zones marked for their team. Set it Game Specific.
  4. Optional labels (non-essential)
    • Invincible Objects: label objects rico_invincible to make an object invincible for the duration of the game.
    • Multi-team Ricochet Only: label objects rico_multi_only if you want them only to appear in games of multi-team Ricochet, and NOT in normal Ricochet. This label will only force this behavior if you also set it Game Specific.
    • Not in multi-team Ricochet: label objects rico_not_multi if you want them to appear in normal Ricochet, but not in games of multi-team Ricochet.
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    That’s It

     

    Thank you for exploring Forge in Halo 2: Anniversary!

     

    There are a ton of fun game modes to play with, including Flight, Incursion, Race, Epidemic, Velocity, Quickochet, Lowball, Kill from the Hill, Juggernaut, and many more.

     

    See you on the battlefield!

     

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