Continuing my quest for making formidable AI that aren't just mindless killers or robotic aimers, the Brutes are going to be basically as they are depicted in Halo fiction and a bit of Halo3. Therefore, instead of "Smart" Brutes, I put "Aggressive" Brutes. These Brutes are very ferocious and they're modeled after the ones during the Great Schism.

I have a basic foundation for the actors and the actor variants. These Brutes, instead of being based on rank, are based on weapons. However, they're aggressive side isn't buried in the weapons, but instead buried in their berserk and unopposable sections. They'll be tough, but I haven't gotten them in a playtest yet. When I do, I'll be back with more.

Credit for basic brute assets and basis for the current foundations of these Brutes goes to CMT.

Finish the elites first, k?

I think you're a bit ahead of yourself. Once again, this modding AI.

For the first time in my life, I agree with pakar D:

The Elites are done. Sorry for not mentioning it. I fixed up the Ultras and they're more than capable of not only stripping you of your shields, but also taking out remains of your health as well. The Carbine Elites are going to be changed from Specialists to Standards. I have better plans in store for the Specialist class.

Basically, the Elite class is wrapped up. I just didn't get another video out due to my being lazy and other stuff. Did anyone even think that maybe I was done with the Elites?

Do you plan to do anything with all of these AI?

first gamma releases something and then he agrees with pakar? what' the world coming to?!

but yeah nice idea about aggressive brutes you are the ai king!

In due time. I'll release the Elites, the Brutes, and then the Specialist Elites. I'll also release the Sparrowhawk variant I modded from CMT, plus maybe some other things depending on if I feel they're ready to be released.

I'm about to test the Brutes again. First time, they were WAY to powerful. This time I'm hoping they'll be a bit more balanced.

you should make sure that they're set up to be killed by a plasma nade in one explosion, makes them easier to kill.

d4rf brutes arent supposed to be easy to kill since they have no shields

@dark halo

Cmt's actor variants i have are agressive they will melle you if u get to close and when they have not much health left the roll at you and when they roll and hit u they hurt! let me see if i can find my vid of it

oh, i thought that in halo 3 the brutes were instantly killed by plasma grenades?

nope if there were like 8 inches away from it they would and in h3 they roll or run if a plasma nade is way close.

WOW! I'm contacting Higuy now, these DESERVE to be in Lumoria!

You should fix up the Marines, next.

If you're not being serious, get out of my thread.

The Brutes die in one plasma grenade. I still need to make it so they die in one needler explosion, but everything else is practically fixed. CMT's basis made it very easy to make the Brutes more aggressive and also very pack based.

http://www.xfire.com/video/34cb27/

http://www.xfire.com/video/34cb2d/

Enjoy. The first time I fought them (not these two times) they were very formidable. I just sort of caught them on a time where they didn't own me every second I was out of cover, or I just did too good myself. Either way, the Brutes are actually very close to being finished. I'll get another vid of them later, when I remove the scenery behind them and have better FPS (and a few fixes they need).

I also realize the Brutes throw plasma grenades like kids throw bread at geese. I'll fix that too, as well as making them berserk more (which they did when I didn't film).
Edited by DarkHalo003 on Aug 28, 2010 at 09:49 PM

Good point. I'll give them a whee bit more health. I was primarily at a distance so they couldn't really berserk a lot in the video.

I'm not sure if this is possible, but make it so that the brutes dodge fire when berserk like a chieftian in Halo 3 would.

I don't have a video, but the chieftans run/jump side to side when charging as to not take fire. This may mean that you need to make animations for it.

@ ice
brutes dont have shields

actally some of the brutes does have sheilds... for example: Tartrus (or the big fat monstrous white ape) and the ones near the engineers :P

but yea... you are still right after all... they have a power armor, which kind of acts like a sheilding. So... when the armor takes enough damage, it will glow and vent some blue smoke thing, and be destroyed completely if you continued firing at it, if not then... they still have the armor.

So... as what i am saying... just make the brute have the power armor, and when it gets enough damge... the armor lights will glow, or soemhting... and then be destroyed completely (if you ocntinued firing), causing the brute to berserk if your within range... and if not, then they won't.... but then they'll be much more easier to kill by headshot... for they'll have lower health (since they have no shields to protect them)...

to replace their shields they got armor to protect there self more os :D

@Ice: I'm getting that covered. I'll have another test later today maybe. If anything, the berserking feature is was I'm testing.


Brutes have power armor that, instead of absorbing impacts, deflect projectiles. Brutes do have shields in ODST though, so I'm modeling their shield types based off of that.

turn their shield's material into skin so they won't look like they have shields but can't be headshotted

Materials are based off of metals and weapons in my book and I don't want to mess with a system I made. By the way, the materials won't affect anyone who has original weapons (mine are modified to correctly correspond to the material settings in the collision tags).

The Brutes finally got their Berserking back in the most recent playtest. However, the ones using Carbines still have horrible aim, so that leaves me with only a couple of things to do.

Meh, I don't like the idea of a carbine brutes. Shouldn't Brutes be more like close ranged shock units, instead of being the longer ranged foes that Elites/Jackals are? Brutes would be far more formidable when they are in close circumstances, where they can quickly overpower their enemy. In addition, their berserking would be far more effective.

carbine is crucial to show differences between brutes and elites, one of the few weapons they have in common

Ok so here's my idea:
After the Brutes go wild or "berzerk" maybe you should add a temporary over-shield and if you could a temporary boost of their speed. And to make them sound more intimidating, you could make them groan or shout while the Brutes are trying to kill you (this is for those kids that are afraid to kill Brutes). And finally when you try to run away make the Brutes throw grenades all it's grenades on you.

I hope these are possible.

I'll add random increases of speed for their bipeds to imitate that. Unfortunately, the speed is not determinable inside the actor_variant or actor tags, so I'd have to manually tweak them in the model_animations.

you CAN.its fairly simple too.

CMT did it for their brutes.

I think he means shoot you have to shoot the helmet before you kill the brute, and when you shoot again pops a headshot, otherwise it won't kill them. that's what bungie's doing for reach

Umm.. Halo 2 did it first.

i neva said anything bout who did it first :/

Actually, that's only with weapons that have headshots. Normal weapons can strip a Brute of its helmet, but eventually the shield would recharge if you wait long enough.

He means that the helmet can have shield properties, ie it must be depleted before allowing head damage. Like the jackal's sheild 'must' be gone before you can shoot its hand. But the shield covers the head.
I think you can simply make the helmet-shield not recharge.
E: Yeah, you can.
Edited by SlappyThePirate on Aug 31, 2010 at 11:01 AM

I'll try that when I look into their tags again. I know it's in the collision, but I don't know if you can just end energy shielding to the head region. When the Brutes' shields recharge, the full body shields cover their heads and their entire body.