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[Demoncarnotaur]

The concept of touching is designed to show the frustration of being unable to connect except through simulation - that while he is her best friend, she could never really know him except through simulation. there's an earlier piece of Cortana writing somewhere where she muses on not being sure f what she's experiencing is real, or simply what instructions tell her is "reality." It's an age old human/AI question about reality/simulation and whether or not there's any difference. She's using better tech (Forerunner) to enhance her projection, but the moment is definitely a cypher for how PLAYERS feel about her in that moment too. Chest does not equal nipples. But I admit I LOLd at twerking.

Nobody is wrong to interpret it as romance if that's how they want to feel about it, but the intention is certainly something else, and much more complicated than either platonic or romantic love. Heart is a human construct with no physical connection to the soul - but a metaphorical one. Chest. Brain on the other hand is a chemical computer.

It's about existence.

Well said.

Do you think the overall playerbase interpreted the scene the way you mean it, or do you think the message could have been conveyed a little better? Overall, I understood the scene, but found it a bit heavy-handed in its visual execution.

 

[User 73706]

I'm still annoyed that Cortana was even entering rampancy in Halo 4.

There was a pretty popular theory going around a few years ago that Cortana had been 'pulled' out of rampancy by the Chief in Halo 3 when he found her in High Charity. I liked that theory

Hmm, interesting. Explain. Like how could she be "pulled out" of rampancy?

Not that I necessarily agree with the theory, since she wasn't near as old as most AI is when it goes rampant + she had human tissue in her, but still. I'm curious.

There was speculation about following Halo 3 that Cortana surviving her brush with the Gravemind gave her the necessary capacity to survive rampancy. Alternatively, she had already gone through it during the events of 3, and she was just going to be fine as of Halo 3's finale. The whole thing sort of fell apart once Human Weakness by Traviss came out, though.

Also, keep in mind Cortana had some weird anomalous qualities for a human smart AI, considering the wealth of information she had managed to store being plugged in to Alpha Halo's control room before presumably transferring that information over to human databases once on Cairo Station.

 

[Fracas]

The corruption thing is cool with me, but I wish they would have taken it further. Part of me was really hoping we'd see Cortana become a villain. Changed by the typical decay of smart AIs, but also corrupted by a Forerunner AI transmitted while on one of the Halo installations. She'd have detailed knowledge of all of human civilization and military, millenia worth of knowledge from the Forerunner, and access to long dormant Forerunner weaponry. She'd rival the Gravemind and the Flood as a threat.

And then we could get all kinds of cool emotional / moral dilemma from John as he wrangles with fighting (or saving?) his only true friend.

Mark my words, this will happen.

 

[Orochinagis]

Cortana reached metastability before dying maybe because most of her corrupted data was on the destroyed Metapod ship but still I wonder how Chief managed to get cortana chip on the Halo trailer.

 

[Chettlar]

The corruption thing is cool with me, but I wish they would have taken it further. Part of me was really hoping we'd see Cortana become a villain. Changed by the typical decay of smart AIs, but also corrupted by a Forerunner AI transmitted while on one of the Halo installations. She'd have detailed knowledge of all of human civilization and military, millenia worth of knowledge from the Forerunner, and access to long dormant Forerunner weaponry. She'd rival the Gravemind and the Flood as a threat.

And then we could get all kinds of cool emotional / moral dilemma from John as he wrangles with fighting (or saving?) his only true friend.

Why not both? Actually, that could be a pretty cool paradox. He's fighting her while trying to save her.

Cortana reached metastability before dying maybe because most of her corrupted data was on the destroyed Metapod ship but still I wonder how Chief managed to get cortana chip on the Halo trailer.

I wondered this too. Maybe he had it all along while she was doing her stuff with the thing in the place? So like when she approaches him in the simulation place (touching scene, I mean), he actually still has the chip in his helmet.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

There was speculation about following Halo 3 that Cortana surviving her brush with the Gravemind gave her the necessary capacity to survive rampancy. Alternatively, she had already gone through it during the events of 3, and she was just going to be fine as of Halo 3's finale. The whole thing sort of fell apart once Human Weakness by Traviss came out, though.

Also, keep in mind Cortana had some weird anomalous qualities for a human smart AI, considering the wealth of information she had managed to store being plugged in to Alpha Halo's control room before presumably transferring that information over to human databases once on Cairo Station.

Gravemind is a big point of interest with respect to Cortana but I'm now more curious about the Librarian & Forerunner/Requiem interactions she had during 4's campaign...

Cortana reached metastability before dying maybe because most of her corrupted data was on the destroyed Metapod ship but still I wonder how Chief managed to get cortana chip on the Halo trailer.

One thing from that trailer I can't shake is the chain around the chip, it's very dog tag like. You know when a fallen soldier's mate carries their dog tags around their neck. Sure there is the physical concealment issue if he just had the chip (or a spare) carried around in his head but it seems more symbolic with the chain around it. Perhaps like I'm doing this for her rather then her coming back? Flip side is I still see the Librarian as a backup or MB magic to having Cortana return in a previous or altered state.

 

[Zeouterlimits]

I feel like I'm the only one who saw that scene and didn't think it was sexual.

Frigid'ashi.

For me, it does seem to be an intimate moment, one that comes off as more sexual than likely consciously intended.

Not only does this human size naked computer lady slightly swish her hips as she slowly walks over to the Chief, she touches his chest. His, not someone else, she doesn't pick up a piece of debris and roll it around her fingers, that is the one thing she does before she dies.

If naked blue paint Greenskull walks up to Heckfu and touches his chest on tonight's DBOtv, I'd bet you'd call it sexual

I do like what seems to be her surprise/pain at having been able to touch [him].
I think it's an ambitious scene that they mostly pull off?

I'm still annoyed that Cortana was even entering rampancy in Halo 4.

There was a pretty popular theory going around a few years ago that Cortana had been 'pulled' out of rampancy by the Chief in Halo 3 when he found her in High Charity. I liked that theory

And I'm in the opposite camp. The built up Cortana rampancy was almost a maguffin in how quickly Bungie abandoned in that scene in Cortana.
The fact they resolved it in one short cutscene and just by the Chief sauntering up and dropping a one liner cheapened Cortana's whole rampancy in Halo 3.

 

[Stinkles]

Gravemind is a big point of interest with respect to Cortana but I'm now more curious about the Librarian & Forerunner/Requiem interactions she had during 4's campaign...

Sympathy for the Gravemind:


only galactic protagonist who expressed a desire for universal preservation of life, intelligences and universal equality.

methods questionable.

 

[kittens]

Mark my words, this will happen.

But then what's the point of Halo 4 introducing the Didact and stuff?

 

[Fracas]

But then what's the point of Halo 4 introducing the Didact and stuff?

The Didact will still be the main threat, but Cortana will be in the mix as well. No way they cut her character entirely, and bringing her back to normal completely ruins Halo 4's ending.

 

[Mix]

Elzar, did you see this Trailer For Episode 2 of Burial At Sea?

 

[Chettlar]

Sympathy for the Gravemind:


only galactic protagonist who expressed a desire for universal preservation of life, intelligences and universal equality.

methods questionable.

Question I don't know if you can answer. Are we likely to see Gravemind or a similar character in the future -- like, in a book, a game, a TV episode, anything -- in the next ten years?

Same with the Arbiter as well; I can't remember if you answered that before or not.

The Didact will still be the main threat, but Cortana will be in the mix as well. No way they cut her character entirely, and bringing her back to normal completely ruins Halo 4's ending.

You could even have them together some way. Like, have Didact "using" Cortana for his own means, while convincing her she is really the one in power, kind of thing.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Sympathy for the Gravemind:


only galactic protagonist who expressed a desire for universal preservation of life, intelligences and universal equality.

methods questionable.

Space communism is a good idea on paper too Jokes aside isn't that what the precursors/flood is all about? It is unique element to that Halo character, it would be nice to find out more in game from the books goodies we've been getting with respect to Gravemind.

 

[aHebrewMenagerie]

Sympathy for the Gravemind:


only galactic protagonist who expressed a desire for universal preservation of life, intelligences and universal equality.

methods questionable.

Interesting take on the character. The flood kind of reminds me like the Borg from Star Trek. They had a line something like "We will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own" that is in the same vein as this.

 

[User 73706]

Sympathy for the Gravemind:


only galactic protagonist who expressed a desire for universal preservation of life, intelligences and universal equality.

methods questionable.

Flood governmental hierarchy: utopian socialism.

What.

But then what's the point of Halo 4 introducing the Didact and stuff?

The Didact will still be the main threat, but Cortana will be in the mix as well. No way they cut her character entirely, and bringing her back to normal completely ruins Halo 4's ending.

Turn it into a clusterfuck of DBZ/GTAV/Marathon-level proportions where god-level AI evil Cortana is fighting against the Didact and his army of neo-Prometheans while (Primordium spoilers)

Spoiler

Bornstellar-Didact and his race of organic Promethean Warriors

come back and mean business. The Covenant Remnant (Halo 4 ver.) is building a new fleet while the Arbiter is leading a unified alien coalition allied with the UNSC, and ONI is attempting to harness god-Cortana for their own dubious purposes. The Insurrectionists and Flood come back, too.

 

[kittens]

think it's an ambitious scene that they mostly pull off?

Yeah, ultimately I'd agree. I think it was a little weird, but mostly great. The relationship between Chief and Cortana is one of my favorite story archs (arches?) in Halo fiction, and it felt like a satisfying conclusion (?).

Sympathy for the Gravemind:


only galactic protagonist who expressed a desire for universal preservation of life, intelligences and universal equality.

methods questionable.

Hah, this is great.

 

[Fracas]

Elzar, did you see this Trailer For Episode 2 of Burial At Sea?

holy shit

 

[Omni]

Space communism is a good idea on paper too Jokes aside isn't that what the precursors/flood is all about? It is unique element to that Halo character, it would be nice to find out more in game from the books goodies we've been getting with respect to Gravemind.

What else is there to know? The Forerunner saga has closed a lot of those doors that were once open and shrouded in mystery.

 

[Mistel]

Interesting take on the character. The flood kind of reminds me like the Borg from Star Trek. They had a line something like "We will add your technological and biological distinctiveness to our own" that is in the same vein as this.

The Borg had a whole origin trilogy done were they came from some nanotechnology enhanced race and one of them when crazy at the end and assimilated people as they were alone. At least I think that's what happened as I read it years ago.

 

[Chettlar]

Turn it into a clusterfuck of DBZ/GTAV/Marathon-level proportions where god-level AI evil Cortana is fighting against the Didact and his army of neo-Prometheans while (Primordium spoilers)

Spoiler

Bornstellar-Didact and his race of organic Promethean Warriors

come back and mean business. The Covenant Remnant (Halo 4 ver.) is building a new fleet while the Arbiter is leading a unified alien coalition allied with the UNSC, and ONI is attempting to harness god-Cortana for their own dubious purposes. The Insurrectionists and Flood come back, too.

Everybody comes back for a great big party! Even the Precursors, and then some random alien race that came before the precursors.

No.

 

[feel]

The concept of touching is designed to show the frustration of being unable to connect except through simulation - that while he is her best friend, she could never really know him except through simulation. there's an earlier piece of Cortana writing somewhere where she muses on not being sure f what she's experiencing is real, or simply what instructions tell her is "reality." It's an age old human/AI question about reality/simulation and whether or not there's any difference. She's using better tech (Forerunner) to enhance her projection, but the moment is definitely a cypher for how PLAYERS feel about her in that moment too. Chest does not equal nipples. But I admit I LOLd at twerking.

Nobody is wrong to interpret it as romance if that's how they want to feel about it, but the intention is certainly something else, and much more complicated than either platonic or romantic love. Heart is a human construct with no physical connection to the soul - but a metaphorical one. Chest. Brain on the other hand is a chemical computer.

It's about existence.

What a nerd.

 

[Orochinagis]

Sympathy for the Gravemind:


only galactic protagonist who expressed a desire for universal preservation of life, intelligences and universal equality.

methods questionable.

Elzar, did you see this Trailer For Episode 2 of Burial At Sea?

Spoiler

So Buker is an allucination? in that version?

 

[Mistel]

Spoiler

So Buker is an allucination? in that version?

That was a great DLC, I liked the bioshock reference.

Is a claptrap not entitled to the oil of his brow? No, says the man at Hyperion, it belongs to his owner. No, says the treasure hunter, it belongs splattered on the floor. But we choose something different. We choose the Robolution!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who likes the gravemind, I don't mind mecident bias either.

 

[User 73706]

Yeah, ultimately I'd agree. I think it was a little weird, but mostly great. The relationship between Chief and Cortana is one of my favorite story archs (arches?) in Halo fiction, and it felt like a satisfying conclusion (?).

"Arcs."

And yeah, agreed. It's funny that they've managed to make each of the mainline games emphasize the whole Chief-Cortana thing in a different way and still kept it fresh as a story mechanic.

CE: Pal around with Cortana.
2: You gotta leave her behind, man.
3: Get her back!
Reach: Get her back before you have to get her back!
4: rip

 

[Tashi]

Frigid'ashi.

For me, it does seem to be an intimate moment, one that comes off as more sexual than likely consciously intended.

Not only does this human size naked computer lady slightly swish her hips as she slowly walks over to the Chief, she touches his chest. His, not someone else, she doesn't pick up a piece of debris and roll it around her fingers, that is the one thing she does before she dies.

If naked blue paint Greenskull walks up to Heckfu and touches his chest on tonight's DBOtv, I'd bet you'd call it sexual

I do like what seems to be her surprise/pain at having been able to touch [him].
I think it's an ambitious scene that they mostly pull off?

And I'm in the opposite camp. The built up Cortana rampancy was almost a maguffin in how quickly Bungie abandoned in that scene in Cortana.
The fact they resolved it in one short cutscene and just by the Chief sauntering up and dropping a one liner cheapened Cortana's whole rampancy in Halo 3.

No I totally understand how a lot of people see it sexually. But in that moment, I didn't.

I already see Heckfu and Greenskull as sex icons so that's a given

 

[RoyalLaFlame]

I need some Halo 5 news... I'm desperate.

 

[Mistel]

Heckfu reminds me of the guy playing gregor clegane in the first season of game of thrones, for some reason.

 

[ElzarTheBam]

Elzar, did you see this Trailer For Episode 2 of Burial At Sea?

I did indeed, my friend.

Mind fuck.

 

[Chettlar]

"Arcs."

And yeah, agreed. It's funny that they've managed to make each of the mainline games emphasize the whole Chief-Cortana thing in a different way and still kept it fresh as a story mechanic.

CE: Pal around with Cortana.
2: You gotta leave her behind, man.
3: Get her back!
Reach: Get her back before you have to get her back!
4: rip

5: rip...but you still have to get her back!

 

[Domino Theory]

I love BioShock more than words can describe, can't fucking wait for Burial At Sea ep2.

edit: although the second half of Infinite wasn't my cup of tea since it got way too linear.

 

[Chettlar]

I love BioShock more than words can describe, can't fucking wait for Burial At Sea ep2.

edit: although the second half of Infinite wasn't my cup of tea since it got way too linear.

Hasn't Bioshock always been relatively linear?

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

What else is there to know? The Forerunner saga has closed a lot of those doors that were once open and shrouded in mystery.

I guess I wanted more precursor details e.g. anchors, orbital arches, star roads, dormant precursors or the defective flood dust. There is also the Forerunners leaving for somewhere?


A few more general lore loose ends off the top of my head:

1. Powder-like substance from the mysterious terminal ship (is this the defective precursor/flood dust?)
2. Guilty Spark copy
3. Extragalactic flood or dormant precursors
4. Spirit of Fire
5. Is the domain operating? Does Gravemind use it?
6. IsoDidact, is he dead?
7. John's accelerated evolution (mutation? geas?), he must have been altered from Human to something more akin to Forerunner as he survived the Composer blast. Also Halsey's comment about being the next phase of human evolution.
8. Return or repopulation of the original humans before devolution
9. Insurrectionists

 

[Domino Theory]

Hasn't Bioshock always been relatively linear?

Exploring stores, bathrooms, theaters, and other attractions didn't feel linear to me. Most of that goes away during the second half of Infinite.

 

[User 73706]

I went ahead and revised my UI demo a bit, consisting of a single screen. No accent colors, no crazy formatting save for variations in text size (of which I think there are only 3 or 4) and some bolded text.

Click to expand to 1080p. The Custom Game voting options are just my quick and dirty way of having icons for DPad buttons; that way you don't accidentally make a selection by browsing through party information, for example. I don't remember who exactly suggested it, but I added in an optional "Custom Game Playlist" option where the party lead can whip up an in-game mixtape consisting of maps and gametypes, which'll grey out after play and bold when they're "coming up next."

I know the little Party ditty is still probably a little too media-centric for everyone's liking, but considering how social Microsoft is trying to push their console to be, I figured a 100x50 space per person probably isn't going to be the worst one out there. Players in the party have their emblem, rank, and Spartan displayed - similar to GTAV, your avatar condensed into a smaller... well, avatar, or rather a secondary gamerpic. That way people can still pimp their suits without it taking up the real estate of a deck of cards. There are icons for both the party leader and the connection host, which are also listed under the gametype's settings bottom-right. Kudos to Stalker for the idea on streamlining the newsfeed. This one should be properly formatted and make use of most of the space in the HDTV safe zone.

Let me know what you guys think! It's also set up to be able to have multiple backgrounds, so it could do a Reach-style "moving picture" wallpaper that doubles as a slideshow. My other favorites:

There's a gallery with 8 extra UI demos with different wallpapers here.

 

[Chettlar]

Exploring stores, bathrooms, theaters, and other attractions didn't feel linear to me. Most of that goes away during the second half of Infinite.

I haven't finished Infinite all the way, so I didn't know. Sad. That sounds like the original Bioshock as well.

I think I like it better when games start out linear and then open up more and more, or like Metro: LL

Spoiler

where it just completely drops you. Wasn't sure if that should be a spoiler, since it doesn't say much, but yeah, the game coddles you until suddenly, you're all alone.

EDIT:

No, Wahrer. It's better, but still crazy messy. You've got to keep this stuff simple. For example, why is party leader why down in the bottom left? Why not have a simple picture of a crown or something right beside his name? And I also think the gamer pictures are unnecessary. That's something I'm probably not going to care about looking at the roster.

I do like your little news reel bit though. Masterchief would be a great character to play as.

EDIT: put simply, what Homeboyd said. Too much word stuff.

 

[Homeboyd]

Too much words, windex

 

[belushy]

Wahrer, that right there seems more suited to a PC game to be honest. That menu would be a pain to go through with a controller. At least for the host.

However I like some of the ideas you have. I really like your idea for a custom games playlist thingy. It would be pretty neat if after the all games are played, it compiles all the stats together and then you can see how everyone did through a long game series. Would be useful for tournaments.

edit: Reworded second and third lines because of my horrible grammar.

 

[Mistel]

I guess I wanted more precursor details e.g. anchors, orbital arches, star roads, dormant precursors or the defective flood dust. There is also the Forerunners leaving for somewhere?


A few more general lore loose ends off the top of my head:

1. Powder-like substance from the mysterious terminal ship (is this the defective precursor/flood dust?)
2. Guilty Spark copy
3. Extragalactic flood or dormant precursors
4. Spirit of Fire
5. Is the domain operating? Does Gravemind use it?
6. IsoDidact, is he dead?
7. John's accelerated evolution (mutation? geas?), he must have been altered from Human to something more akin to Forerunner as he survived the Composer blast. Also Halsey's comment about being the next phase of human evolution.
8. Return or repopulation of the original humans before devolution
9. Insurrectionists

10. Why does the UNSC not take aerial vehicles around with them?

I mean it's odd to have them and never use them, I mean they have at least 5 different types.

 

[FyreWulff]

So I've got a few questions.

1) iirc, AI actions in Halo games worked by having a "seed" that would essentially force each Xbox to do the same AI actions. So example being I shoot "Elite A" and he does "Animation 13" in response. I assume that would be the case, but what happens when someone joins in the middle? Are they simply sent the same seed and it continues as normal? Or is it all controlled by Azure, and the clients don't have to worry about the seed?

They are given the same seed. But all the actions accumulate, hence why they either need to be given the 1:1 state so that seed continues to produce the same results on their machine, or giving a film of the session so they can literally play back all the buttons to get to that state.

In asynch, the seed doesn't matter anymore. The server is literally "playing" the AI like they're normal players. Your client does nothing with them at that point. The slight downside to this model is the AI -will- have a bit of latency to their decisions and they'll be slightly dumber because they have to be able to work with up to 90-100 frames of latency rather than 1 frame.

2) If AI essentially acts as another player, what keeps the bandwidth low to the client when there are a hundred AI on screen(assuming they made a design decision to have that many)?

\

The server only sends the information each client needs to each client, and no more. If you cannot see a player or they're really far away, their updates will become less frequent. Since Halo 3's netcode is worse than Reach's, you can see this really easy in a BTB session of big maps like Sandtrap (it happens on all of them though): play a film on that session, follow yourself. You're all nice and smoothly updated, and anybody next to you is smoothly updated. Break out the free cam to the other side of the map, and you'll notice people tend to pop around and teleport a bit, or they "twitch" into facing new directions instead of turning smoothly. Then watch as you get closer to that person, they'll start updating faster and get really smooth.

Another way to think about this, if you play TF2 in Man vs Machine mode, it still works for you because the dedicated server is handling all the bandwidth of talking to each separate player for you. It does prevent you from having tons of AI though, even with a dedi, because you are still somewhat limited by the client with the least bandwidth.

3) What happens for things like cutscenes? I understand they are all triggered by either a button press or entering a trigger volume. The one time I played Spartan Ops co-op, we caused all sorts of bugs when we pressed the buttons at the same time(the funniest was when my roommate's Spartan would do the button animation even if he was no where near the button). Would something like this happen in an async setting?

Yeah, weird stuff like that could still happen in async. They'd just tell each box to play it's local copy of the cutscene or what the trigger volume does. You might be out of sync by like, 2 seconds at most. Instead of your box seeing "someone has pressed the button, time for me to play cutscene 33", it's the host box going

"client 2, please start playing cutscene 33"

"but i don't see them near the button at all host, it's pretty la-"

"PLAY THE GODDAMN CUTSCENE"

"yes sir"

 

[xxjuicesxx]

Congrats Wahrer. I didn't think it was possible to make a UI worse than Halo 4, but you've truly done it.

 

[Syphon Filter]

Congrats Wahrer. I didn't think it was possible to make a UI worse than Halo 4, but you've truly done it.

lol

 

[User 73706]

Boop.

 

[Devolution]

The concept of touching is designed to show the frustration of being unable to connect except through simulation - that while he is her best friend, she could never really know him except through simulation. there's an earlier piece of Cortana writing somewhere where she muses on not being sure f what she's experiencing is real, or simply what instructions tell her is "reality." It's an age old human/AI question about reality/simulation and whether or not there's any difference. She's using better tech (Forerunner) to enhance her projection, but the moment is definitely a cypher for how PLAYERS feel about her in that moment too. Chest does not equal nipples. But I admit I LOLd at twerking.

Nobody is wrong to interpret it as romance if that's how they want to feel about it, but the intention is certainly something else, and much more complicated than either platonic or romantic love. Heart is a human construct with no physical connection to the soul - but a metaphorical one. Chest. Brain on the other hand is a chemical computer.

It's about existence.

But she needs to be naked and fully sexualized then you wonder where it comes from?

 

[The Real Napsta]

Exploring stores, bathrooms, theaters, and other attractions didn't feel linear to me. Most of that goes away during the second half of Infinite.

Exploring bathrooms.

 

[Prinz Eugn]

But she needs to be naked and fully sexualized then you wonder where it comes from?

Precisely my issue with the scene. Someone a while back tried to say "but you hug your sister, and that's not sexual" ...well if my sister were in a skin tight body suit it, uh... gross.

It would be gross.

 

[Ora]

Exploring bathrooms.

And eating popcorn out of trash cans.

 

[xxjuicesxx]

And eating popcorn out of trash cans.

How else can he replenish his salt? They don't have Halo 4 and neogaf in Columbia.

 

[blamite]

Boop.

Much better. I'd drop the gamerpics by the names though, you don't really need to see those all the time. I'd probably also stick with emblems instead of Spartan headshots, as I don't thing you'd be able to pick up any meaningful details from such a small image.

 

[Fotos]

Boop.

Way better than your last one. I like this.

 

[Syphon Filter]

If it aint broke,don't fix. Even COD uses the Halo style layout that was invented with Halo 2.