I think it would be cool to launch an air strike on AOTCR from one of the bridges. Can you imagine looking down from a bridge and seeing covenant forces get obliterated? I think that would be pretty cool. It would be cool to call an airstrike while saving a UNSC team that is pinned down.

Or obliterate said UNSC team.

>:3
Edited by Dumb AI on Jan 5, 2014 at 11:35 PM

Well, I don't know what you've really played other than SPV1 and SPV2 A10 Beta, and SPV3 T&R. Half of the "SPV2" stuff out there isn't even made by us. Pacing the introduction of content is something we've focused on here, and we have a clear roadmap of things we want to introduce and explore from A10 all the way to D40. You are not the only one who feels the missions may be getting overly long, but we have to walk a fine line of not adding enough new areas, and having a long mission. Overall, people enjoy having new areas and encounters, but we do try to keep the levels under 2 hours. Hour and a half is the sweet spot IMO.

The Longsword is there because it is the only mission large enough to fit it, and we wanted to toy with the idea of taking that firefight esque section, and giving people a firefight bonus right like experience if they choose to. It's the last time you'll see a Longsword until D40, and unlike other implementations of the longsword I've seen, this is not a set piece that you observe where all the ai are scripted to blow up or attack you, this one actually does save you from the overwhelming amount of enemies you are fighting, which to me is something pretty interesting and judging from everyone's responses but you, a surprise and exciting.

Maybe this project isn't something that's really for you which is perfectly fine, hopefully you'll enjoy B30:E more than this if that is the case.
Edited by Masters1337 on Jan 6, 2014 at 03:03 PM

the second mission is that I believe that it would take 2 hours or more to complete than first and I was wondering if you can change things in halo as the Longsword or the POA in A10 and D40 in the first cinematic showing that they found HALO


Edited by UHWArby on Jan 6, 2014 at 09:43 AM

er D40*

It'd be interesting if recharge stations actually dispensed plasma batteries, and the player could press E by a station and a battery swapping animation would play. But as long as the battery gets recharged at the station, it doesn't really matter as to how save for aesthetics.

A question I have is, is there a certain amount of energy a station can give to weapons before it becomes disabled or is it just going to always recharge the weapon fully regardless of how many times you've used the recharge station?

Like say it only can charge the equivalent of two plasma rifles and then the station cannot be used again. I think that would be an interesting mechanic. It would make the player have to decide whether he wants to fully recharge one weapon over another (let's say he's using a brute plasma pistol and an elite plasma rifle), and then probably swap the empty weapon out for a new weapon off the ground, or if he wanted to partially charge the two plasma weapons, so he could continue using them both conservatively. Would be interesting for late game against enemies that don't always use plasma weapons, or weapons at all, like the flood, where perhaps there wouldn't be replacement weapons strewn everywhere for the player to swap for. Then of course if he encountered a recharge station he could keep one or both of his weapons at least partially charged.

And yes I'm aware that I'm drastically over thinking this.

considering how quickly the levels got done in vanilla halo, I doubt recharging stations would be necessary as weapons are almost always scattered about and it's more convenient to a player to pick up a weapon on the go rather than sitting and doing nothing while their ammo replenishes at a snail's pace. if there aren't enough enemies dispersed throughout rooms evenly or a player stays too long in a room to be forced to use a recharging station, I would blame poor level design rather than being unable to reload.

@Delicon, we could look into it.

@Master Noob: That is true, but unlike H1 where there were 2 weapons in the game that used batterys, we have 10. Although granted not all those weapons are in every mission, nor would they be in the same encounter area. Most commonly in a room you will have the 2 PR's, the 2 PP's, and one of the two Carbines in Covenant heavy areas where you fill find the recharge stations. Most of these places being Covie camps (Alpha Base, T&R, staging areas in B30 and B40, etc)

i like delicon's idea quite a bit, but i was thinking why not have the recharge rate slowly decrease as the station is used, and the rate will go back up when given a break. i feel it would be more fair because it allows players to recharge as many weapons as they choose, if they're willing to wait. other players could use it as cover to recharge their weapon and wait for their shield to return and leave when their weapon is charged enough to kill the enemy.

I really like your take on Delicon's idea, Greg -especially in a Firefight-like encounter, it'd be good to have a single place you can kinda fall back to like a base, and the recharge station would make a nice "base". Having the station recharge would both let players not have to waste weapons (some of which, you only may have because you carried it over from an earlier part of the level) without camping there all the time, so I think it's a great idea :)

It would also really help to be able to tell how much charge a station has by looking at it... like having some sort of flare or a set of lights. Nothing so distracting that it becomes an easy target for bombrunning Longswords, though *cough cough*.

excellent idea to add an indicator, and since a meter isn't very alien, and since t3h lag and CMT figure "just add electricity to make covie stuff cool", why not have the number of lightning particles decrease to indicate charge rate decline?

Or they could just simply change the color of the hologram or lights to red when depleting or depleted.

TU TU TU TU TU TU RRRU
Edited by MEGASEAN2812 on Jan 6, 2014 at 09:36 PM

I just realized that the spv1 assault rifle has the melee of the old demo for xbox halo

Yeah, it was left in the anim tag along with the alternate firing animation we used. I actually really liked that slower assassination melee on it, especially since it did 2x the damage of a regular melee on the other guns. Maybe we'll find a way to bring it back someday.

or have ODX/Lag redo it like what lag had for his Shotgun Melee. That slow as hell AR melee completely deterred me from using it at all (I use melee a lot with the AR)



I already have it ingame, had it about a week after lag actually posted that video too :x
Edited by R93_Sniper on Jan 7, 2014 at 03:42 AM

It would be better to do it but as melee alternative and make it more faster because that has many disadvantages since it lasts long and the enemies have the advantage of take off everything the shield

could be good to bring it back as long as theres some kind of way to alternate melees say like holding melee for a quarter of a sec
Edited by rcghalohell on Jan 7, 2014 at 02:03 PM

as you could spend long this little detail


Edited by UHWArby on Jan 7, 2014 at 03:45 PM
Edited by UHWArby on Jan 7, 2014 at 03:54 PM

That would be like the charged melee attack in Crysis 2, which is actually pretty useful. However it might end up like an assassination from whatever angle you're standing at which might seem pretty OP.

Yay for USB HUB
Yay for being able to hook up things other than mouse and controller to my laptop
Yay for being able to hook up a keyboard to use console in bootcamp
Yay for cradle that lets me use my desktop HDD's as external storage
Yay for a week of non stop bug fixing
Yay for stuff I'm not going to tell you about
Yay for being able to make videos again of said stuff I won't tell you about

Don't tell us. Show us.

lolwut

what bugs... what videos
What laptop (okno)

If the damage was toned down to something less than a one-hit kill, it would be less OP. Increasing the time it takes for the melee to happen might also help.

Maybe if the charged melee actually lunged the player towards an enemy before impact. Not ridiculously far like an energy sword, but like halo 2 and newer halo games' melee mechanics. Then tone down the damage so it isn't a one hit kill but is only a little stronger than an actual melee. That way it could be used to finish off enemies that manage to slip out of vanilla melee range.

This is me trying to slip in the possibility of melee lunging in halo 1 again. Broken record ftw

The thing about an airstrike is, it feels more satisfying if it actually prevented you from having to do a firefight you would otherwise have to do. However, it also only feels satisfying if said firefight was against enemies that actually pose a challenge to you. I remember in Lumoria, the airstrike took out three wraiths. This was a little disappointing seeing how three wraiths isn't that dangerous and the encounter right after that was comparable in difficulty. The player doesn't want to feel cheated out of an encounter after all.

There was also the issue of processing intensity. So how about instead of "40 AI running around" have much fewer but stronger units in the crossfire. Like phantoms carrying wraiths and hunters. Or a scarab...

Which brings me to:


My Solution for Implementing a Longsword Strike Meaningfully in a Firefight Scenario

/douche


Implement Masters' idea of an optional scenario at the end of a30 in which the chief has to infiltrate and destroy a small Covenant anti-air establishment. Much like this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=593rDkeAW_A from 4:16 - 5:25.

Upon succeeding and leaving the structure, an overwhelming force of Phantoms carrying heavy units drops in. At which point, the player has the choice of trying to beat the encounter, or call in the air strike.

Now this is the interesting part; this whole scenario is about choice.

A) If you choose to skip the optional final encounter, the anti-air embankment is still a problem. You're leaving in pelicans after all, which makes it relevant to the story. Thus, right before or while the level ends, there should be a cinematic in which the longsword you would have called in, takes out the AA gun, but gets shot down in the process. This should motivate the player to do the optional encounter in a second play-through.

B) You destroy the embankment and use the airstrike afterwards. You wasted an airstrike, but the longsword lives to fight another day.

C) You (somehow) beat the odds all by yourself. Longsword lives, and you just saved a lot of of that ever scarce ammunition.

The second two options don't seem very fleshed out, but there's certainly a lot of room to work-in story with these kind of scenarios that are based on choices.

Just because there is no element on the hud saying beta build must mean it's final.

Masterz release noa

Not too difficult if you happen to be a supersoldier with a nice arsenal of deadly weapons.

Supersoldiers are still human, and they can't freeze time, though :3

not even doomguy could freeze time

Okay, let's add an OP Mantis to the mix.

Masterz made a new vid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKx6VTAI-vk&feature=c4-overview&list=UUTzBnTiXmsrbffBPn3NsYvg
.
.
.

Passeger ? interesting....

I totally missed this when I watched it on my phone

Oh, hey, it appears to have rear-facing Marines sitting on the back edges of the fins. That's kinda cool.