Non-Euclidean Worlds

• small moons
• interior of rotating tor(i?) or cylinders
• actual flat worlds where you can get to the other side

I'm thinking of:

• Rama
• Valley Forge from Silent Running
• The World of Tiers from the Farmer novels
• Silent Cartographer style levels where you don't need invisible walls to constrain the player and there are multiple routes to objectives

Halo gave us a ring world and that was cool. But there are other really cool potential play spaces in SF.

It looks like 343 is investing in tools and engine changes to make the game better. I'm not really talking about graphics - let's just take graphics for granted. I'm talking about the improvements to Forge. It sounds like they put considerable development resource into that. I'm also thinking of the AI changes that they have put in to help with co-op play, and the warthog seat swapping that will help with solo campaign play.

Ally AI was a weak area that needed improving in Halo and was(still is?) an area that 343 could improve to make the game significantly better for campaign players.

I think that 343 should invest the effort to make the engine support gravity that isn't just -z is down. They should be able to support:

• -z is down (how things work currently)
• down is towards a point (probably in the center of a moon
• gravity away from a point (like in hollow spheres)
• gravity away from an axis (for hollow cylinders)
• torus gravity

The payback would be in the types of really cool levels that you could build.

• awesome Forerunner or Precursor structures
• asteroid interiors
• human orbital habitats
• space craft with geodesic hemispheric biomes linked by a network of transit tunnels
• small moons - perhaps in a gas giant's rings or orbiting a planet with the planet on one side and a UNSC cruiser hanging over the other side

Most of these could give you the benefits of the Silent cartographer level.

• multiple ways around
• no invisible barriers required

Imagine a human orbital habitat - a hollow, landscaped, cylinder where it takes a minute and a half in a warthog to drive round the circumference. If you were playing co-op then you could drive round 180 degrees and see your mates from above with your sniper rifle. Maybe the current gen can't handle a big enough cylinder but a torus would have a constrained area that wasn't all visible from one spot. Maybe it takes ten minutes to drive round the outer edge.

The cylindrical habitat could have starscrapers - buildings that grow outward from the shell. They could have hollow interiors like exotic hotel atriums (there has to be a waterfall in there). There would be multiple levels and exterior rooms would have windows that would overlook the outer shell of the cylinder, other starscrapers, the zero gee end-cap facilities, and an awesome sky box. Could you imagine the verticality? The slight disoritentation from moving from an area that is a wide cylinder on it's side to a narrow, tall cylindrical space that plunges down from the floor?

What do you think? Is there a thing that they could add to the game to let them make cool levels or cool experiences?