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Halo |OT19| 793 Posts, And None Worth Reading

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gAg CruSh3r

Member
Hey HaloGAF, hows things?

I've not been around here for a few months, I'm sure you were all worried about where I'd gotten too. >_>

I've had a whirlwind few months - had a baby, moved house, got an awesome new job, had to move house again (and towns this time), all in the space of about 12 weeks.

It's been crazy, barely had time to get online, haven't played any Halo at all. So.. what's been going on with you guys?

Congrats! HaloGAF has been about the same except for the crazy console wars going on.

1517396_10201021813483289_1592478506_n.jpg

He's only 15 days old, so it might be a little while :p

Aww man that's very cute :D! My son is turning 15 months this Friday and he is always wanting to play with Daddy when I play video games lol. I let him put on my headset and play with the controller. For example below lol...
8CD53322-AD73-4280-87A7-7B21695DFABD.jpg


Edit:
RIP Tashi. How did I go? Hopefully like the Rookie in Reach.

Nope just like Kat but it was a plasma pistol instead of needler rifle.
 

Mistel

Banned
I approve of the Laura Dern avvy.

Smart, cute, gets her hands dirty and fights velociraptors? Ain't no common woman.

In terms of the Flood, assuming they come back in Halo 5 (they'll come back *eventually*, the question is when), what would you like to see changed for their gameplay?

I appreciated the insta-convert abilities of them in Halo 3, but I felt that dual-wielding and melee had the effect of making them feel more disposable and weak. I liked the tension of not having melee as a fallback if they got too close, and I appreciate the tension of having your allies susceptible.

Grenade sticks should kill the Infection forms inside of the carriers.

I'm not opposed to the pure forms returning, but I think the ranged forms were just not fun to fight. Make them more mobile and weaker, rather than semi-invulnerable stationary turrets. Maybe giving them another form besides the stalkers who mostly just seemed to get in the way during speedruns.

More multi-faction fights would definitely spice them up, but obviously that requires some story allowances.

I'd love it if they went further with Flood Mode and combined it with Reach's Generator Defense so that the Alpha Zombs have something like an arsenal of Flood carriers and infection forms to provide cover. (It would be great if they left regular Infection for customs too though.) Maybe tie "reinforcements" into an ordnance-like system where kills give you more options for stronger enemies to drop on your foes.

What more you could ask for in a woman ?

A greater selection of flood types would be great especially if the newer console allowed for scenes like this:
640px-Annivesary%2C_conflict.jpg

To occur in the game a multi faction fight between UNSC, remnant, brute and flood forces would just be an interesting concept with cut flood forms like the juggernaut used as an anti vehicular flood, or a giant transport like a scarab.

Pure forms where good in tank and stalker forms ranged forms generally sucked specifically on Cortana, a refinement of how they transform would be interesting to add maybe the thrasher as a kind of flood berserker pure form.

Tashi your pelican was shot down or you where let near the controls so this time you hit the ground instead not the ceiling. Everybody seems to have cute children in halogaf.
 

Trey

Member
when did the bold happen? The flood are not technically precursors, that is explained in Silentium by the Primordial/gravemind.

They are the legacy of the Precursors. Which is pretty much the same thing. The Flood are the Precursor's response to the Forerunners getting bold.
 
What more you could ask for in a woman ?

A greater selection of flood types would be great especially if the newer console allowed for scenes like this:
640px-Annivesary%2C_conflict.jpg

To occur in the game a multi faction fight between UNSC, remnant, brute and flood forces would just be an interesting concept with cut flood forms like the juggernaut used as an anti vehicular flood, or a giant transport like a scarab.

Pure forms where good in tank and stalker forms ranged forms generally sucked specifically on Cortana, a refinement of how they transform would be interesting to add maybe the thrasher as a kind of flood berserker pure form.

Tashi your pelican was shot down or you where let near the controls so this time you hit the ground instead not the ceiling. Everybody seems to have cute children in halogaf.

Didnt that screen was taken from this scene in particular?

I wonder if they will reuse the halo wars flood forms in a later future, a flying flood dropping infectious bombs will be interesting to fight.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Didnt that screen was taken from this scene in particular?

I wonder if they will reuse the halo wars flood forms in a later future, a flying flood dropping infectious bombs will be interesting to fight.

From what we know about the Flood it seems likely that the Thrashers and flying bombers were corrupted variants of local fauna on the shield world. Would be cool to see local animal life get absorbed and mutated too though. The artist TDSpiral did a really horrific Flood elephant based on a Visualizing the Halo Universe prompt of what the Uplift Preserve animals might look like Floodified. I did a zebra, myself:


Halo Wars would be my bet.

Seems to be a mishmash of Halo 3, Wars, and Reach, and the Elite animation from Halo 1 (it seems so spot on… I don't think it would make any sense for them to rip it out of the game but it's so accurate I'm amazed they would spend the time replicating it.)
 

Mistel

Banned
From what we know about the Flood it seems likely that the Thrashers and flying bombers were corrupted variants of local fauna on the shield world. Would be cool to see local animal life get absorbed and mutated too though. The artist TDSpiral did a really horrific Flood elephant based on a Visualizing the Halo Universe prompt of what the Uplift Preserve animals might look like Floodified. I did a zebra, myself:

The elephant is quite a site to behold:

The flood forms that were encountered on shield world 0459 where exclusive to that place as they where from local fauna, I think it was done to expand the types of flood that you faced.
 

Skull Confirmed mode on Headhunter 1.1 WIP, skull physics are set to static by default when the skull confirmed option is enabled so skulls float in the air.

I did this by spawning a forge monitor, making it invisible and attaching the skull to it.
 
Halo Legends: The Babysitter

I would like for 343 to tap more into this. This little clip is a good showing of the dynamics between Marines, ODST's and Spartans. Hopefully we get to see something similar with Spartan IV's, but judging off Palmer and the other S-IV's, it doesn't look like anyone has respect anymore. It seems the only way we can reach a similar point is if any remaining S-II's appear and/or through MC.

The background dialogue that took place in Halo 1-3 was great; "I-It's.. a Spartan!" Just the way they treated MC and the Spartans in general made the player feel important.

I'd love it if they went further with Flood Mode and combined it with Reach's Generator Defense so that the Alpha Zombs have something like an arsenal of Flood carriers and infection forms to provide cover. (It would be great if they left regular Infection for customs too though.) Maybe tie "reinforcements" into an ordnance-like system where kills give you more options for stronger enemies to drop on your foes.

Sounds fun.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Are the grunts and other vehicles based on Halo 3 assets in Halo Spartan Assault?

It's a mix of reference geometry from all the 360 games, although some things had to be built from scratch. One of my favorite things about Vanguard engine and art team is how gorgeous the textures look. The geology and flora sometimes makes me just stop and stare at it. I'm an old school scrolling shooter fan and don't mind admitting this was something I always wanted us to tinker with.

The game works great on the Xbox One, and the trigger-to-shoot mechanic (as opposed to geometry wars/robotron) takes a while to get used to, but once it clicks as a "Halo" game rather than a derivative coin-op, you start to really appreciate the way the Halo mechanics apply to the top-down view.

In the future it would be great to do more vehicle and set piece stuff, but I am having a blast with this on the One.

This was a cool little labor of love.

Things I'd like to consider in the future:

Straight up forced scroll Moon Patrol hog mode, complete with jumps and co-op turret shooting.
Easter egg to let players Geometry Wars their way through a more frenetic wave density, with the turret gun effect applied as a weapon.
 

Mistel

Banned
Holy shit. Yeah, 343, do this. :)

Spinosaurus flood taking design cues from the gaping dragon in dark souls would be cool along with Utahraptor flood, any creature mutated by the flood would be cool.

g9.gif

Gaping dragon gif for reference

Everyone left playing halo 4 is absolutely terrible, I love it.

Exploit mid range with the BR and carbine few people seem to have the ability to counter with the DMR or light rifle they have got, most of my deaths come from power weapons or being swarmed.
 

Caayn

Member
Frank I don't know who did the hints/tips for SA but they are genius.
For example:
"Killing Elites is like peeling an onion. You blast through the shields, then the armor, then the skin and bone. Alright... maybe not exactly like peeling an onion"
and:
"Elites can dodge just about anything you shoot their way. Luckily, seeker drones don't care much for gymnastics"
The elephant is quite a site to behold:


The flood forms that were encountered on shield world 0459 where exclusive to that place as they where from local fauna, I think it was done to expand the types of flood that you faced.
They can be used in a mission were you explore an Flood infected area, were they infected the wild life of that area. We already had those Flood fishes(?) in Halo 2 on the level "The oracle". And the Flood birds in Halo Wars.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Frank I don't know who did the hints/tips for SA but they are genius.
For example:
"Killing Elites is like peeling an onion. You blast through the shields, then the armor, then the skin and bone. Alright... maybe not exactly like peeling an onion"
and:
"Elites can dodge just about anything you shoot their way. Luckily, seeker drones don't care much for gymnastics"
They can be used in a mission were you explore an Flood infected area, were they infected the wild life of that area. We already had those Flood fishes(?) in Halo 2 on the level "The oracle". And the Flood birds in Halo Wars.

I dunno if we ever figured out what the Flood-like seamonkeys were supposed to be. I know Bungie commented on them at some point, I'll hafta' dig around.
 
It's a mix of reference geometry from all the 360 games, although some things had to be built from scratch. One of my favorite things about Vanguard engine and art team is how gorgeous the textures look. The geology and flora sometimes makes me just stop and stare at it. I'm an old school scrolling shooter fan and don't mind admitting this was something I always wanted us to tinker with.

The game works great on the Xbox One, and the trigger-to-shoot mechanic (as opposed to geometry wars/robotron) takes a while to get used to, but once it clicks as a "Halo" game rather than a derivative coin-op, you start to really appreciate the way the Halo mechanics apply to the top-down view.

In the future it would be great to do more vehicle and set piece stuff, but I am having a blast with this on the One.

This was a cool little labor of love.

Things I'd like to consider in the future:

Straight up forced scroll Moon Patrol hog mode, complete with jumps and co-op turret shooting.
Easter egg to let players Geometry Wars their way through a more frenetic wave density, with the turret gun effect applied as a weapon.

Cool to know. I really like the design and style that was used in the vehicles and characters. I hope to see something like this in Halo for xbox one.
 

Mistel

Banned
I dunno if we ever figured out what the Flood-like seamonkeys were supposed to be. I know Bungie commented on them at some point, I'll hafta' dig around.

Flood tadpole things? I think they where an early stage of flood spore that metamorphosis into the infection forms, I don't remember an official purpose for them.
 
I kmow it was just a single line of dialogue, but the "decommissioning the Halo array" plot got me really hyped for some reason. It'd be awesome getting to go to the unexplored Halo installations and have to fight your way through Forerunner sentries and Jul's fanatics.

Oh, and I'm Wahrer, Stormtrooper. Wahrer wasn't banned, sadly.
 

Caayn

Member
Flood tadpole things? I think they where an early stage of flood spore that metamorphosis into the infection forms, I don't remember an official purpose for them.
No I don't mean the flood spores. I mean these creatures
They have about the same size as the infections forms but aren't the same flood forms. And they only appeared in Halo 2 on The Oracle.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Flood tadpole things? I think they where an early stage of flood spore that metamorphosis into the infection forms, I don't remember an official purpose for them.

Ah, here's the story for them, courtesy of a BWU:

'm not sure if my memory is accurate: alpha gas giant was Halo 2 right? Well here's a funny tale regarding that mission. As we were making that mission we came up with the back story that the forerunners were studying the flood in that facility. We even thought it might be cool if players thought that maybe this spot was ground zero so to speak. So we built these containment units or pods that you'd see in movies about aliens and put dead flood lifeforms in them.

And some point during the waning moments of work on that mission a few of us came up with what we thought was a cool idea. It was Vic DeLeon, Chris Barrett, and I if I recall properly. Anyway our idea was this:

We should have a little fish tank like thing that had little flood tadpoles in it swimming around. We affectionately called them the "flood sea monkeys." Now why we never asked ourselves how these sea monkeys survived all this time in an abandoned facility and never evolved past the tadpole stage I'll blame on the lack of brain power during the crazy halo 2 crunch. So we always viewed this as a special little touch that we would get to if we could. As it turned out Vic, who is an avid fish tank guy, really got into the idea and in the last day of work leading up to content complete he tried to make it happen.

I remember Harold clearly told us we were going to be locked out of the source depot at 6 am. Well Vic is trying to get these things to animate in a cool way keeps making tweak after tweak to them as we're hurtling toward 6 am. At this point everyone's slap happy because we've been crunching so hard and for so long. Somehow at the last minute that we're checking in we notice that Vic's last tweak to the sea monkeys totally breaks their animations and now they were floating around in their tank it a hilariously ridiculous way, but it's 6 am and Vic is freaking out. We run over to beg Harold to let us check in a fix but Harold's holding firm about no more check-ins. It's not helping that I'm chanting "Vic broke the sea monkeys, Vic broke the sea monkeys" while C Paul Johnson and I are laughing uncontrollably.

Meanwhile everyone else in the test/audio room is wondering what the hell are the sea monkeys? Harold eventually let us check-in a fix, but once we got some rest after the project was finished and looked a little more critically at the sea monkeys we realized the idea was never as cool as it in our minds at the time. There's a lesson to be learned in this story about the line where crunch starts to really affect your judgment.

I was getting them a bit confused with these creatures Loftus discovered hidden in the game code that were theoretically ambient life for Threshold.

No I don't mean the flood spores. I mean these creatures

They have about the same size as the infections forms but aren't the same flood forms. And they only appeared in Halo 2 on The Oracle.

We're all talking about the same thing :)
 

Mistel

Banned
Ah, here's the story for them, courtesy of a BWU:
I was getting them a bit confused with these creatures Loftus discovered hidden in the game code that were theoretically ambient life for Threshold.

That's cool I though they where just an unfinished Easter egg in the game amibinent life would be intresting feature especially if the flood could infect it.

I kmow it was just a single line of dialogue, but the "decommissioning the Halo array" plot got me really hyped for some reason. It'd be awesome getting to go to the unexplored Halo installations and have to fight your way through Forerunner sentries and Jul's fanatics.

Oh, and I'm Wahrer, Stormtrooper. Wahrer wasn't banned, sadly.

Oops my bad this gif should cheer you up :p.
I also got your friend request as well.

The pioneer armor was field tested on instillation 03 so some resistance must have been encountered probably.
 
Spinosaurus flood taking design cues from the gaping dragon in dark souls would be cool along with Utahraptor flood, any creature mutated by the flood would be cool.

g9.gif

Gaping dragon gif for reference



Exploit mid range with the BR and carbine few people seem to have the ability to counter with the DMR or light rifle they have got, most of my deaths come from power weapons or being swarmed.
Flood forms of Monster Hunter monsters would be hype.
 
Spinosaurus flood taking design cues from the gaping dragon in dark souls would be cool along with Utahraptor flood, any creature mutated by the flood would be cool.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bdbCKrJQD2Q/Tm2HjRzilwI/AAAAAAAAB7Q/oILNNUV2aGM/s640/g9.gi
Gaping dragon gif for reference



Exploit mid range with the BR and carbine few people seem to have the ability to counter with the DMR or light rifle they have got, most of my deaths come from power weapons or being swarmed.[/QUOTE]

Wow. That enemy design is nuts! Look at the animations! I love it. I guess I need to play Dark Souls...

[quote="Sub-Zero at a Starbucks, post: 94596499"][B]I kmow it was just a single line of dialogue, but the "decommissioning the Halo array" plot got me really hyped for some reason.[/B] It'd be awesome getting to go to the unexplored Halo installations and have to fight your way through Forerunner sentries and Jul's fanatics.

Oh, and I'm Wahrer, Stormtrooper. Wahrer wasn't banned, sadly.[/QUOTE]

Me too. Honestly I would play a game that just follows Lasky and company on their galactic adventures aboard Infinity doing just that. A big budget TV series could do that justice, too.
 

Mistel

Banned
Flood forms of Monster Hunter monsters would be hype.
That is a feature in monster hunter four with monsters that get an infection and go on rampages.
action_img_14.jpg

Queropeco infected and
action_img_13.jpg

Rathlos as well

Wow. That enemy design is nuts! Look at the animations! I love it. I guess I need to play Dark Souls...
It fun and all but i'm crap at it and have died about 50 times and i'm no where, near it so best of luck if you decide to get it buy the prepare to die edition for the the included dlc.

We're all talking about the same thing :)
I take part blame I meant infection form not spore sorry.
 
That is a feature in monster hunter four with monsters that get an infection and go on rampages.
action_img_14.jpg

Queropeco infected and
action_img_13.jpg

Rathlos as well


It fun and all but i'm crap at it and have died about 50 times and i'm no where, near it so best of luck if you decide to get it buy the prepare to die edition for the the included dlc.


I take part blame I meant infection form not spore sorry.

I can't wait for MH4 to come to the US.
 
Halo Legends: The Babysitter

I would like for 343 to tap more into this. This little clip is a good showing of the dynamics between Marines, ODST's and Spartans. Hopefully we get to see something similar with Spartan IV's, but judging off Palmer and the other S-IV's, it doesn't look like anyone has respect anymore. It seems the only way we can reach a similar point is if any remaining S-II's appear and/or through MC.

The background dialogue that took place in Halo 1-3 was great; "I-It's.. a Spartan!" Just the way they treated MC and the Spartans in general made the player feel important.

Spartans IV becomes a living propaganda for the USNC now, they are no longer a myth on the fronlines anymore which is kinda sad but it is natural for the UNSC to show up they are no longer vulnerable.

I found the S-4's lack of respect and ego being unnatural for a perfect soldier.
 

Karl2177

Member
Sure...but none of that was prevented by going with the Forerunners as an active antagonist, though. You still fought a watered-down Covenant faction, and all that was gained were three enemy classes that were more or less just robot analogues to Grunts, Elites, and Engineers with some interesting abilities attached.

I think you can still make the Covenant a fun enemy. Give some of the Elite bigshots the Knight teleportation ability, expand on Engineers to make them more than an AOE Overshield generator, and generally just expand on the action verb pool that each enemy has at their disposal. There are more than enough ways to expand the abilities of the huge roster of enemy classes that the Covenant brought to the table to keep the action fresh while maintaining that really unique identity each of them has. I think yeah, you eventually need to introduce new enemies to keep it all fresh. Even then, if you're looking for enemies of the Forerunner variety, the series has already introduced autonomous Forerunner enemies with Sentinels and Enforcers, both of which were completely ignored outside of a couple of noncombat Sentinel cameos.

I should clarify my position, I feel that the Halo 4 enemies were poorly done as well, I just also feel that the Forerunners are the next step after the Covenant for enemies. I'm all for having the Covenant as enemies in Firefight, but story-wise, we should be done with the Covenant aside from stragglers still clinging to the religion. Why we were fighting so many Elites (and other Covenant in general) in Halo 4 doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but it's whatever. As for gameplay, I like the little addition of the Grunts having a mini jump using the methane and other stuff like that, but I'd prefer each enemy have very clear roles. The best example I can give would be the Engineers providing defensive AoE options to their allies, while a Watcher 2.0 could give more offensive AoE options like higher RoF or damage.
 

derFeef

Member
Halo Legends: The Babysitter

I would like for 343 to tap more into this. This little clip is a good showing of the dynamics between Marines, ODST's and Spartans. Hopefully we get to see something similar with Spartan IV's, but judging off Palmer and the other S-IV's, it doesn't look like anyone has respect anymore. It seems the only way we can reach a similar point is if any remaining S-II's appear and/or through MC.

The background dialogue that took place in Halo 1-3 was great; "I-It's.. a Spartan!" Just the way they treated MC and the Spartans in general made the player feel important.

The smaller stories and conflicts are always better than those big universe-spanning pseudo dramas. That's why ODST was best.
 

Mistel

Banned
I can't wait for MH4 to come to the US.

It also has introduced a couple of new weapons and the ability to climb on monster ala dragons dogma. There is a lot of new stuff and game play mechanisms as well (you may already know this and i'm making myself look stupid) .

I meant images.

So many images.

Isn't there a 360 release for Spartan Assault? It looks like fun, but I don't have an Xbone yet.

There is a 360 release in January but that is non confirmed for the date though . As for the images the only appropriate response is Dr Wier going crazy in event horizon i'd link it but it is NSFW but its on youtube and in GIF form.
If you want to see what I like google ballerina boots

Flood Zebra and Elephant are awesomely terrifying looking..it would really be cool to see Flood forms like that.

The best flood forms we have the flood juggernaut and the combat forms in breaking quarantine:

And
 

Mix

Member
For the first time in a while, I agree with Funknown, if Arby doesn't make a come back, I'll be really upset.
 
I'll be devastated is Arby doesn't return for Halo 5.

Devastated.

Agreed. I'm actually more interested in his story than Master Chief's. Something really gripping about the Arbiter side of Halo 2.

How would you guys feel if he came back but the writing was shit and you in turn feel you would have been better off remembering Arby as he was in the original trilogy?

I mean just look at what they've done to Halsey, and how they've written characters like Palmer, her Spartan-IV's etc.

So basically what happened with Halo 4?
 

Madness

Member
How would you guys feel if he came back but the writing was shit and you in turn feel you would have been better off remembering Arby as he was in the original trilogy?

I mean just look at what they've done to Halsey, and how they've written characters like Palmer, her Spartan-IV's etc.
 

Mix

Member
How would you guys feel if he came back but the writing was shit and you in turn feel you would have been better off remembering Arby as he was in the original trilogy?

I mean just look at what they've done to Halsey, and how they've written characters like Palmer, her Spartan-IV's etc.

HOPE
 

Mistel

Banned
How would you guys feel if he came back but the writing was shit and you in turn feel you would have been better off remembering Arby as he was in the original trilogy?

I mean just look at what they've done to Halsey, and how they've written characters like Palmer, her Spartan-IV's etc.

Arbiter is a character with a good foundation for decent story usage, unlike Palmer and the S-IV who have no personality what so ever . Hasley is a good character for story as well but Traviss work I don't like personally so my opinion against that is biased.

Stinkles in the Q&A you mentioned that halo 4 still has easter eggs to be found got any hints?
 
iDfXGRJ1Qbxx1.png


I drew some shitty Flood concepts. I'm surprised the Flood haven't used grunts to turn their methane tanks into big Flood spore generators.
 
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