Q: What is the purpose of these articles?
The main purpose is to present extremely accurate information and models on spawning so that people can learn how things work under the hood. Teaching others how to use the tools of Halo: Reach forge is what this site is about. Giving step by step instruction on how to make something work is not teaching. They may be successful, but if unexpected problems arise, they need to understand what they are seeing to correct their mistakes.
Q: Why focus on Spawning most of all?
A: After spending so much time learning the subject matter and seeing even today so many maps that demonstrate a misunderstanding of how to apply Respawn Zones, there seems to be a real need to continue pushing the word out there to the community on how the Spawn engine works.
Q: What about the accuracy of the articles?
A: Accuracy is key to what I publish. If I don't know for certain, I let people know up front so I don't misguide them as well. If I say something and need to note any additional information, I usually add a foot note.
All of my material that I present as fact is based exclusively on what I learned from JonnyOThan (a Bungie employee). He was the person to share with us inside knowledge of the source material. He also reviewed the first two articles I wrote for accuracy, Respawn Zone Tutorial, and Respawn Points Tutorial.
Q: What other topics are being considered for Forging Reach?
A: Well, there is The Awesome Guide To Forging on configuring every game piece for every game type, and duplicating that massive work is not necessary. But from time to time, an in-depth study of some of those game settings may be valuable to write about. For now, any topic not presented by The Awesome Guide is a good possibility. The key for any article here at Forging Reach is that they demonstrate depth and not just breadth of the topic, so that people can understand how something works, not just follow a set of steps.
A recent topic was Coliseum Wall Flooring Issues, which seems like a very valuable topic. It did not just say, "Do step 1, 2, and 3." It included a discussion about what was wrong with the game engine, cited a Bungie Halo 3 article on this very topic, and then taught briefly about truncated rotation values to teach why we rotate just past the truncated value that we want the wall to rest at. Once that principle is understood, then a forger can compensate for any problems they see using the work around presented in that article.
Q: What if someone finds something wrong with one of the articles?
A: Then I absolutely want to hear from them. I want the map they found the problem on, a film clip if they have one to show the problem, and any additional information they may have. But I simply don't have time to hear people's theories - those conversations almost always go no where.
Q: Why the new series of lessons for Invasion?
Lately, I have developed a passion for Invasion, as it is the greatest challenge I have found as a forger. And I have had the wonderful opportunity to learn about Invasion from HWM Sarge and from forgers who are also passionate about Invasion. My lessons are my notes from what I have heard spoken and seen in game play, things I do not see written anywhere else.
I try to focus on explaining what Invasion is about, so that the forger understands what their goals should be. I don't want to produce another check list, but a real discussion of what Invasion is. I don't want to tell people what they must forge to yield a valid Invasion map, but show them through the Play List Maps what Invasion is all about so that they can see for themselves what is necessary for a good Invasion map.
Q: Do your lessons on Invasion have the same approach to accuracy?
No, and they cannot. The only articles from Bungie/343i on forging Invasion discuss only how to configure the forge objects to function with the Game Type. There are no official articles that describe what game play should yield from Invasion. I didn't want to publish the material for the lack of official information, to tell you the truth about it. But I decided there was something to be said, things people should read about if they wanted to make an Invasion map.