Let’s dive in!
Third-Person Camera
Once upon a time, before it was an original Xbox launch title, Halo looked very different…
Before the series became the first-person shooter we have known and loved for almost a quarter of a century, Halo previously saw a period of exploration as a third-person action game.
Of course, there are elements of third-person that have long been part of the Halo gameplay experience, such as when the player gets into a vehicle. Adopting a third-person perspective has also been possible in Theater mode, where players are able to watch, record, and screenshot their previous matches, but—outside the realms of modding—there has never been a proper third-person experience in Halo.
That changes with the 2024 Winter Update.
The ability to change between first- and third-person perspectives will be available at a mode level in Custom Games options and as a scripting node in Forge.
Players will be able to get hands-on with this in matchmaking when the Third-Person Firefight playlist launches, helping you to get a handle on what Halo feels like in this new way to play.
Improved Forger Attribution
Since Forge launched as part of Halo Infinite, we have continued to build on this feature with continuous updates and improvements to the experience. We have also sought to improve how we highlight Forge creators, which is another element of the 2024 Winter Update.
To increase the visibility of Forgers who have created the maps and modes you’re enjoying, we have updated multiple areas of the game to highlight the gamertags and more easily allow players to bookmark their creations.
Starting next week, you will be able to see these updates on the following screens:
- Match intro camera
- Pause menu
- Scoreboard
- Post-game carnage report
Additionally, we have added the ability to bookmark maps and modes on several of these screens as well.
Commander Agryna Lines
In Halo Infinite, we were introduced to Spartan Commander Laurette Agryna, head of the Avery J. Johnson Academy where the multiplayer aspect of the game is centered.
Agryna also serves as one of the multiplayer announcers in Halo Infinite, and Forgers will be able to utilize her voiceover in the same fashion as when we added Jeff Steitzer’s voice lines to Forge.
And, to allow maximum control with this new feature, you can also ensure that only the intended players or team will hear each line set up in Forge’s nodegraph:
- Play Announcer Voiceover for All Players
- Play Announcer Voiceover for Player
- Play Announcer Voiceover for Team
These nodes will have Agryna’s lines for the following categories:
- Accolades
- Mode: Assault
- Mode: CTF
- Mode: Land Grab
- Mode: Lone Wolves
- Match
- Mode Titles
- Ordnance
- Score
- Mode: Stockpile
- Time
- Mode: Total Control
- Weapon Drills
You’ll be able to find these new lines alongside the existing Steitzer lines within the “Play Announcer Voicer” nodes mentioned above. Be sure to use the “Announcer Voice” custom game option to better control mode communication.
Global Lifepool
Lifepool (or respawn ticket) systems have been a staple of many heart-pounding gaming experiences. To help bring the intensity of that win condition to all our modes, we’ve now made it a global custom game option.
This means that players can now create modes with two different win conditions. If applied to Capture The Flag, the conditions could now be “Capture the flag or wipe out the enemy team’s forces to win.”
Additionally, we’ve paired this lifepool system with global revive systems, which players may recognize from Firefight and Attrition.
The new custom game options will be:
Health & Damage > Lifepool
- Lifepool Enabled for Teams
- Eagle Team Respawn Count
- Cobra Team Respawn Count
Revive
- Team Revive
- Auto-Revive
- Auto-Revive Timer
- Revive-Grants Over shield
- Preserve Revive Progress
- Revive Allies Action Time
- Revive Action Time Scales Per Revive
- Revive Time Scalar
- Revive Orb Lifetime Enabled
- Revive Orb Lifetime
The new nodes added to help Forgers control these systems even more include:
- Revive Player
- Revive All Players
- Revive All Players On Team
- On Revive Orb Spawned
- Get Lifepool Lives Remaining
- Adjust Lifepool
The mode possibilities with these settings are quite exciting, and we can’t wait to see what players are able to do with them.
Nav Marker Improvements
As more mode functionality has come online with Forge, we’ve also set our sights on improving how mode information can be communicated to the players during the match. In our Fleetcom update, we added a ton of improvements with Nav Markers, but we knew that there was still more to do.
The next improvement we wanted to go after was ‘docking’ of Nav Markers, which helps someone who is actively working on an objective, like securing a Stronghold. This will take a Nav Marker that is displayed on a capture zone and move it into a ‘docked’ position in a player’s HUD when they enter it. An example of this can be seen during our Winter Update Community Livestream.
To support this functionality, we’ve added over a dozen new nodes to Forge’s scripting nodegraph.
We’ve also added four new nodes to help support Volume Visibility to bolster modes that could benefit from the additional controls.
Additional Improvements
Alongside these new features, we have made some additional improvements to Forge as well. These have come as the result of feedback from the community as folks look to further expand their range of options to create on an increasingly granular level in Forge.
Music in Forge Controls
Mode creators will now have the option to turn off each mode’s default music in Custom Games, allowing them to take full advantage of the Campaign Music functionality added earlier this year.
To accompany this addition, new music control nodes will also be added to the Forge nodegraph:
- Fade Music Track for All
Get Generic Zone Progress Node
The default nav markers provided by Generic Zones are valuable in getting basic functionality into the hands of players. The major limitation in creating your own markers for Generic Zones is that there is no way for players to get the progress of Generic Zones themselves.
We have added a new node called Get Generic Zone Progress, the result of which is that it will show the capture progress of a particular zone and works in any game mode template for Generic Zones.
Minigame Mode Labels
When we previously released the minigame variants, we got some feedback from the community that these lacked specific mode labels. As a result of that feedback, we have added some new mode labels:
- Minigame Asymmetrical Include
- Minigame Asymmetrical Exclude
- Minigame BTB Include
- Minigame BTB Exclude
- Minigame Ranked Include
- Minigame Ranked Exclude
- Minigame Ranked Asymmetrical Include
- Minigame Ranked Asymmetrical Exclude
- Minigame BTB Asymmetrical Include
- Minigame BTB Asymmetrical Exclude
When an object has the “Include” label, it should only appear in that mode variant. When an object has the “Exclude” label, it should be available in all modes except the one selected.
That’s everything coming on the Forge front for the 2024 Winter Update to Halo Infinite. We’re always looking for further feedback to expand the options available to players and can’t wait to see what you make!
