I would have glady made a face if it was the right thing to do, but it isn't. The magic behind Spartans like Master Chief and May is that you don't see their head - you use your own imagination to see what you want to see; I believe once in a vidoc by Bungie, they called them "Ghosts in shells". In a way, it allows you the player to connect to the character you play as.
Edited by Higuy on Oct 12, 2012 at 02:47 PM

The problem with your number is we have nothing to compare it too. Are you just a very negative person, or do you find our campaign sucks compared to other projects on this site, which you do feel deserve 10/10?

Your scale isn't clear, don't throw numbers without specifying to what scale you are rating it.
If you're comparing it to triple AAA campaigns from major companies than great, 7/10 is fantastic. If you're comparing it to projects from this community that are using similar resources to us, then I'd be very disapointed.

And no, the tank is not ridiculously slow. Its very similar to that of later Halo games. The H1 default tank is just ridiculously fast, a big difference. Another reason why it was slowed down, aside from it being a racecar, was the fact that it made marines drive it alot more accurately.

Anyways, if you dislike our story (which you probably don't fully understand, assuming you neglected the terminals), you can always have some random kid write up his/her own story and post it on your wiki, and deem it the official "Lumorian campaign".

I personally disagree with this way of 'connecting to the character' in video games. For example I felt much more connected to Commander Shepard than I did Master Chief. Heck, almost any games I feel more connected with Master Chief if they talk and have a face.

Just saying lol

yeah, the strong, silent, faceless spartans aren't characters you can connect with well imo, they're more of just a catalyst to allow you to enter their virtual world by way of controlling their relatively empty husk of a being
Edited by Delicon20 on Oct 12, 2012 at 11:12 PM

well yeah, thats what I meant with no face. It allows the player to connect by imagining themselves in that body.

Mass Effect is a different story, where as, you get to control every action and speach the player syas, and allows you to mold them. where as with Halo, you play on storyline that unfolds as you finish encounters and such, you dont have that same luxury. ifd you were to play as a character with a face, built in emotions, etc it just wouldnt be the same

Noble 6 was better at being a character players can imagine themselves to be.
(Compared to Master Chief)

Edited by Dumb AI on Oct 12, 2012 at 11:30 PM

no offense to the halo story or lumoria's but

for example
Isaac Clarke from Dead Space 1 rarley saw his face and didn't talk, but then in Dead Space 2 you saw his face more and talked a lot. Yet I felt like Isaac Clarke was more of a character in DS2 then in DS1. I felt more connected in DS2. It's like watching a movie. You can feel connected to those characters. In DS you cant mold the player. It's a static story.

I was just using Mass Effect cause that game is always on my mind :P
Edited by MatthewDratt on Oct 12, 2012 at 11:44 PM

Being as neutral as I always have been since... ever (as a result of editing wikis using neutral POV), I seldom give out perfect scores for fan-made mods (e.g. Black Mesa: Source, for example, was 9/10 in my book). How I judge things is not by comparing one game from another (e.g. you can't really compare Mass Effect to Halo: two different gameplay mechanics of different shooting genre!). My rating scale changes based on production value, development and the direction the project takes.

That being said, I didn't compare your mod with any other mod or any other title. It's uniquely just based on what you've been working on and what has been released so far. The great risk that this mod took was trying to create a story, though it was not successful in pulling it off. That's the sole reason why the mod gets a seven instead of a perfect ten. For example, the Firefight map that was released a few weeks ago, if I recall correctly, got a 9/10 because it fulfilled its purpose: a Firefight map in HCE (with a cool loadout script, accessible features such as the nuke and sentinels, and fun gameplay... though Halo gameplay is always fun! Would've given it a perfect ten if the environment is more asymmetrical but I'll wait for the next installment to achieve that. :D ).

And you just admitted about the tank being slower than its original configuration, so I'll leave it at that.

And it's not my wiki: it's a community fanon wiki by the community. Seriously, still holding on that grudge? Just write your own story on the wiki. It's not like anyone is stopping you from doing so (unless you start altering other people's writings). And the story was weak (even with the terminals). You can interpret that as "it sucked" but my intentions is much more nobler than outright saying "oh, it sucked".

Looks like giving a proper review will only get me into trouble... might as well be one of the mindless zombies and give out perfect tens like the so-called "professional game journalists".
Edited by subtank on Oct 13, 2012 at 01:07 AM

Hmm... first time playing the full campaign. I'll point out some issues I found, which made it considerably less immersable and fun for me.

Music was way too loud at the end of ep 1. I mean, seriously, I could barely hear the scientist.

Terminals are too slow. After one, I disregarded the others.

First Auto-Turret had an insane damage. A second and you die, or lose half your health. Not cool.

Game was too easy. Nuff said; short of legendary, it was a cakewalk.

I absolutely, totally, truthfully hated the end cutscene. All the 'blood spilt' and other stuff made me mentally vomit. That is used too much in... everything.

I wasn't a beta tester (nah, jokes.)

Those are the things I really disliked. However...

Very well developed gameplay.

Kinda liked the firefight-esque scene.

Forerunner structures were awesome.

The last scene, where you fight to get to the control terminal, was absolutely mind boggling. I went through the door, and I turned away (IRL) while I was walking foward, so I saw the entire chamber in one glance. (However, it could have been a lot more challenging, that last scene.)


All in all... it was well crafted, but it wasn't as much as I was expecting. Sorry if you get butthurt, but I didn't like it enough to keep replaying it. And the story also felt bleh. Just saying.

7/10.

Subtank, please direct me to a project with similar direction and production values that you rate a 10/10. I will then use this as a reference scale to compare what we could have done better.

Of course, I know you cannot provide such a project, so I thank you dearly for wasting my time.

l loved lumoria but the sheilding is crap i have 1 bar of healf left after 1 minet seriously other than that i think its way beter than the defult h1 campahn and that 343 and microsoft have some competion and i wish you well on making take down project lawson

At least an attempt was made to provide supporting details to the opinions stated, rather than saying something was good or bad and not mentioning why. It was no more a waste of time than asking questions that you know have no answers.

Legion seems to have given it a 7/10 as well, so Sub must have been onto something.

I've yet to complete the campaign, because my laptop is slow and I've been playing it in short intervals, but from what I can tell, it's fun, it looks good, and it has more story than most other singleplayer maps out there. It's not perfect, but then again, nothing is. A 7/10 (which I may or may not agree with; I've never been good with numbers) is a respectable score.
Edited by Echo77 on Oct 13, 2012 at 01:03 PM

A 7/10 is by all means an average score, so scale is important. What this means is that rating this project a 7/10 means there is a project out there with similar "production values" that you'd consider is more worthy of a 10/10, I want to know what that project is.
Also Echo, if Legion and Subtank are "onto something", then what is the average score of 9.2 onto? Don't try to cause an argument just to feel cool, kid.

Basically, I don't appreciate people talking bull without being able to support their score. It's like they stick their finger in the wind and see which way it points. Sure you might not like the story, but how does it warrant the loss of three points. It's absolute bull. If you're going to pretend to be a "professional games journalist" then support your claims.

Simply, there is no other project that is similar to Lumoria's development but that doesn't mean I should overlook the obvious flaw of the game itself. The story element of Lumoria has features like Terminal (which takes a while to find and read), scenes involving the Forerunner AI as well as its own big model spinning around as we battle that cool-teleporting Elite. A lot of work put into the story as you can tell. While the effort is appreciated, the story was weak.

As Echo77 commented, the score is given and it is supplemented with reasons why it received that score (You got the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly). That is the score that I think the game deserves and I don't think it will change unless it requires another reviewing session. Again, 7/10 doesn't mean it sucks overall: it's a good score.

And the point I was making in my previous post is that there is no such thing as "professional game journalist". Sites like IGN, Gamespot, X-play (since 2009) and OfficialXbox are crap game journalism sites. They either obviously biased or getting paid to do it. If there is such a thing, they would have done it like Zero Punctuation.

Lodeman loves reading things out of context and taking his readings beyond what is intended. Looks like not having perfect scores would scar him for life... *shrugs*

...um... it might just be that you're not good at Halo..

A score such as a 7/10 is complete bull. The 'game' is a mod, and for a mod it surpasses much that has been done before it in the Halo: CE community. If your going to give it a "7/10", then back up your claim with a justifiable point scale system then a just "I think..." statement.

There is no commonly-accepted point scale system. What people think is the only response they can give. You already know what you've accomplished, but you must also understand thay no matter what you do, it will never fully please everybody. If you feel good about it, and you know there are other people out there who feel good about it, that should be all that matters.
Edited by Echo77 on Oct 13, 2012 at 04:40 PM

I'm not saying that I agree with whatever score he gives or what scale he uses. I just want to see some logical thinking behind such a score.

That's a fair point, I'll just leave it at that. It's indeed impossible to please everyone 100%.
Cheers.

Everyone has their opinion about what they enjoy, but I disagree with 7/10.

By modding standards this is 10/10. In comparison to other Halo games I'd give it 9/10. The -1 comes from the fact that it's too short. The plot development was good for two episodes, but you can't create a compelling story in that short of a game. Also, Ep. 1 didn't have top-notch voice acting or cutscenes, but you learned and improved for Ep. 2. I wouldn't expect you to go back and raise the bar on Ep. 1, I think you made the right choice to move on, and Ep. 1 is only 25% of the campaign anyway.

I consider this a legitimate Halo game. I don't know if this idea ever got tossed around, but I think this could be addon material on Xbox Live Arcade. I love the team's approach to level design and encounters, and I would love to see you influence the industry.

I gave the mod a 9/10 after playing it and generally Higuy and Lodex know me as a big critic of this mod series. The fact remains that the dedication going into it alongside the considerably fair value of gameplay equated a high score. It was innovative for Halo Custom Edition and it went above what most other mods have ever done in a very elegant manner. Though some of the dialogue and monologue was cliche or cheesy, it still was accomplished in a bearable manner, which for fan-made content is a great feat. The game simply deserves at least an 8/10. However, I think it's plausible to say that a 10/10 is something it is not. Very few games or mods, at least from my perspective, will ever receive that from me, mainly because there is always something that needs improvement. There was a lot that needed improvement, but there was too much done well and too much fun put into this for it to be given anything less than an 8/10. A 7/10 is just saying you were trying to keep it lower for the sake of putting it lower since you know most everyone will rank it high, which is basically the same as finding something wrong for the sake of finding something wrong. That's a terrible attitude for a reviewer in any situation.

I didn't penalised the game for having such quality of voice acting: that's a given since that as far as the mod can go. Hence why I did not compare it with any AAA title or any game in that matter. And you can have a compelling story in a short game: games such as The Stanley Parable ( http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-stanley-parable ) and Minerva ( http://www.moddb.com/mods/minerva ) pulled it off.



The score is not an objective score nor was it influenced by scores given by other players: there is no checklist to determine whether it meets the good standard nor it was not done because I want to be different. How I review things is by assessing everything and anything that happens in the game. Like the example I given previously, Halo and Mass Effect cannot be compared in terms of gameplay because they are of different pacing/shooting genre/gameplay mechanics and as such, scores will be different for both of them. Both have different scores but at the end, they are still considered good games to me.

Of course, by modding standards, it is a perfect ten. If it were about providing a good gameplay experience, it is a 9/10. If it's about the story, that's where it hits the low mark. At the end, the score is simply how good the game is to me.

Your last sentence was the kind of elaboration I seeked subtank, I thank you for the clarification.

No scale system would ever be accurate. Sorry if you're butthurt, and you expect everyone to be mindless zombies that acquiese to you and Lodex's every wish.

The points I offered are fair and valid, as are almost every point offered by almost everyone. You had over a year; I would have expected most major mistakes to be ironed out, and I do not know how you missed the terminal's being so slow. Catering to an illiterate audience is sweet, but not fun.

My point is, it was very fun. However, it was a lot less than I expected it to be, so that reduced the score by about 1.

It seems you want me to be butthurt by repeating yourself, yet notice how I never payed much attention to your post in the first place. Take your piss-poor posts somewhere else, I don't take posts that use the words "butthurt", "learn2...", etc seriously.

I bid you a good day.

Wow, thus I see the extent of my score's damage. Profanity? Amazing! And an inaccuracy? Oh well, nobody's perfect.

I was replying to Higuy's post, Lodex. A dependable and accurate score system that everyone agrees with is a dream. People base their score on how they enjoy/like/whatever the subject, and usually show why they liked/disliked things. Rather than being an arse-hole, take in what people say so you can make an even better campaign next time.

Oh, and I did like it anyway.

It appears you have been "butthurt" by my post. Perhaps you can learn from this :-)

A valid explanation for your choice. Glad to see you have fair reasoning in this.

Thought of this for some reason when I saw the title.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea0KMWewNNg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoM6sjM0Ti4 sick commentary from TM's cinematic director on Lumoria A

Cheers on the cool commentary.

E: that actually looks pretty fun to make, might be a cool idea to do one with the team together
Edited by The Lodeman on Oct 15, 2012 at 01:07 AM

one of the things that kinda bugged me (too late to change it, but oh well) is the tone and general intensity of the voice acting. while the voice actors did well, it sounded as though they were a tad afraid that they would wake up the neighbors.
just a thought for future endeavors :P

and the buggers. HRNG BUGGERS

Recording lines in a vacuum can lead to this kind of disjointed or mismatched intensity. When I recorded the HCEC machinima series even though each actor was recorded separately I ran lines for them so they had someone to respond to and was able to set the intensity or tone for each scene. An email can't do that.

Personally 7/10 seems reasonable. There wasn't much work to be done custom-tag wise, for it was all of the classic assets (excluding the ones from halo 2). And what was custom didn't really appeal to the eye (sage, and the sage in development). May uses masterchief's model and color, voice acting was mediocre, no new ground detail maps, etc. The gameplay was pretty great, it felt pretty classic aside from a few parts. However, the mod could've been appreciated upon a much larger scale if the assets were remade/modified to make them more modern. What was modified was modified in a manner to make it look like the Halo beta. Keep in mind that is going back in time in visual appeal.

BUT, for what you aimed for, a classic halo map, it pretty much nails it. It depends how you look at it. It is a great set of maps, but things could have been a lot better if your mindset was different. Either way. It was worth my play.

I agree with Dennis on that.
Edited by Dumb AI on Oct 15, 2012 at 10:37 PM