A Halo TC may be in the works

@crusader-alpha, on Nov 6 2007, 12:00 AM, said in A Halo TC may be in the works:

They can't make Halo 4. Microsoft kept the rights to Halo when Bungie split off, and they split off because all that MS was going to do was keep them making Halo games forever. Now I'm expecting them to do something that I tentatively refer to as "รผber-awesome".

Pimps at Sea.

Anyway, just an idea, you could always just make your TC be in the Halo universe at a completely different time. A lot of the years before the covenant showed up and started glassing planets there was all sorts of internal strife along the outer worlds. The Spartan program was originally intended to stop civil wars from springing up everywhere. You could always just do stuff in that time period, you'd have a lot of creative license, things would be a lot less polar (an independent ship owner could make a living, none of the bunker mentality of the covenant war with only two groups duking it out in space). There were pirates, rebels, and a lot more colonies, and nobody would ever really be able to tell you "that's not how things happened, according to <source whatever>".

Quote

Um, I will note that at the end of Halo 3, it leaves a lot of questions un-answered. Does the Master Chief get rescued? Does Cortana "die"? (To that last one, I think it would be a shame. After all, the Master Chief has killed about 50000000000000 flood to save her, she can't just go away and become rampant).

Please use spoiler tags, we don't want to have Halo 3 spoiled for us. Thank you.

Quote

I have recently begun reading the novels (finished the first one a week or two ago, just sat down and read it straight through one day). They are no masterful works of fiction, but they are pretty darn good entertainment, and they give a lot of information. I would say you should read at least the first one before you start making too much plot for your TC.

A lot of people have been saying this. Sounds like I should get them ๐Ÿ˜‰

Quote

One thing made clear in the books is that they exist in a realistic physical universe, and a lot of the tactics and weapons used depend on real physics. Your ships should not be inertialess.

I thought of using inertialess ships because in all videos I've seen with ships in them they maneuver like they would in star wars. Besides, I've tested it and it looks and feels right for the ships I have so far to move inertialessly.

Quote

Now I'm expecting them to do something that I tentatively refer to as "รผber-awesome".

Ubertastic ๐Ÿ˜‰

Quote

Anyway, just an idea, you could always just make your TC be in the Halo universe at a completely different time. A lot of the years before the covenant showed up and started glassing planets there was all sorts of internal strife along the outer worlds. The Spartan program was originally intended to stop civil wars from springing up everywhere. You could always just do stuff in that time period, you'd have a lot of creative license, things would be a lot less polar (an independent ship owner could make a living, none of the bunker mentality of the covenant war with only two groups duking it out in space). There were pirates, rebels, and a lot more colonies, and nobody would ever really be able to tell you "that's not how things happened, according to <source whatever>".

That's true. I had also briefly thought about the idea of making a Halo TC where the Humans had been welcomed into the covenant as the children of the forerunners. They probably would then be known as Reclaimers, much like the Sangheili are known as 'elites' and so forth. But ultimately I'd prefer to cover the space aspect of the Human-Covenant war.

I'm with mrxak on the inertia: it's possible to fly in an "inertialess" way in ships with inertia, by holding the thrusters down and turning at the same time, which is what happens in Star Wars and Halo, as opposed to a lack of inertia, which isn't very realistic or very fun to play. You could play with a ship's maneuver and thrust capabilities to make the AI appear to fly somewhat like in the videos, but inertia is pretty hard to just get rid of.

All your inertia is belong to us! Make your TC!

{The rest of this post is under construction. Please hold.}

Please note that this plug file is super small. You must download AbsoluteMinimum and put the two files into your plugins folder. Make sure to start a new pilot and empty your datafiles folder.

Why have I posted this plug? Well, mainly so people can try out the Longsword without inertia and tell me what they think.

This post has been edited by Shlimazel : 06 November 2007 - 02:30 PM

I like the effect of the slow acceleration, but I think you would have to decrease the maneuverability significantly to pull it off. It would also help to have very noticable banking frames while turning. I tried it with inertia as well, and enjoyed that a lot more, honestly, but it only seemed to work right if I increased the acceleration, otherwise it wasn't as fun. The low acceleration might have been fun in a fight, though - it adds a level of gameplay when it's difficult to get away.

Banking frames! That's a good idea, I didn't think of that. What'd you think of the Longsword graphic?

@mrxak, on Nov 6 2007, 12:26 AM, said in A Halo TC may be in the works:

Pimps at Sea.
Anyway, just an idea, you could always just make your TC be in the Halo universe at a completely different time. A lot of the years before the covenant showed up and started glassing planets there was all sorts of internal strife along the outer worlds. The Spartan program was originally intended to stop civil wars from springing up everywhere. You could always just do stuff in that time period, you'd have a lot of creative license, things would be a lot less polar (an independent ship owner could make a living, none of the bunker mentality of the covenant war with only two groups duking it out in space). There were pirates, rebels, and a lot more colonies, and nobody would ever really be able to tell you "that's not how things happened, according to <source whatever>".

That is even better. You could have it featuring Spartan I's, and the very first discovery of the covenant, or something.

@shlimazel, on Nov 6 2007, 07:28 AM, said in A Halo TC may be in the works:

Please use spoiler tags, we don't want to have Halo 3 spoiled for us. Thank you.

I tried to be quite vague. I fixed that, though, and will do so in the future.

Quote

That is even better. You could have it featuring Spartan I's, and the very first discovery of the covenant, or something.

It is a good idea, that just isn't the timeframe I'd wanted to cover in the TC. Though I'll probably start the TC a year or so before Reach is wiped out.

Quote

I tried to be quite vague. I fixed that, though, and will do so in the future.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

@shlimazel, on Nov 7 2007, 07:49 AM, said in A Halo TC may be in the works:

It is a good idea, that just isn't the timeframe I'd wanted to cover in the TC. Though I'll probably start the TC a year or so before Reach is wiped out.
Thank you. I appreciate that.

Hey, what about us folks who haven't played Halo 1? You're giving away the plotline! Anyway, when was the Spartan I program started? It might be interesting to put them in somewhere, like going to rescue them, and finding them all dead. Nothing like a mysterious mission ending and begining... (evil laugh)

Spartan Is were all retired well before Reach. Quite a few of them had children who were in their late teens by the time of the events of Halo 2... "Spartan 1.1s"

Phooie.

Quote

Spartan Is were all retired well before Reach.

Though there is apparently some speculation that Sergent Avery J Johnson (Johnson?) is a Spartan I.

Quote

Hey, what about us folks who haven't played Halo 1? You're giving away the plotline!

Mwaahhahahaha!

So, would it be possible for a general story update? What you are thinking about, at least for the beggining, right now? Please?

Except that Spartans can die, and Sgt. Johnson can't. You just can't kill a good man.

Don't worry, One Oh One, I'm working on the story. I'll post something soon. It seems to be coming along nicely so far. In case you are interested, the TC starts in 2551, February 22nd.

Man, I've been having a hard time getting on Ambrosia's site lately. It has been loading really erratically.

Quote

Except that Spartans can die, and Sgt. Johnson can't. You just can't kill a good man.

๐Ÿ˜„

This post has been edited by Shlimazel : 09 November 2007 - 01:33 PM

@shlimazel, on Nov 9 2007, 01:31 PM, said in A Halo TC may be in the works:

Man, I've been having a hard time getting on Ambrosia's site lately. It has been loading really erratically.

Same here.

@crusader-alpha, on Nov 8 2007, 08:24 PM, said in A Halo TC may be in the works:

Except that Spartans can die...

Die? Didn't you know that Spartans never die?

Ahem. Here's some of what I'm thinking of for the beginning. Warning, TC story spoilers!

Spoiler

As a UNSC fighter squadron commander, you start the game in 2551, February 22nd. You are a new pilot assigned to protect the colony world Glory, in the Ross 128 system. Alongside ten other pilots and one destroyer captain, your mission is supposedly to defend Ross 128 against any Covenant assault. The thing is that the forces in place could not possibly defend Glory against any real attack. The reality is that you are there to shoot down smugglers and gunrunners shipping weapons to rebellious colonies, in order to keep the UNSC running.

Start missions will be flown alongside of Andrew Michaelson, a more experienced Longsword pilot. Start missions will include;

Destroying smuggler craft.

Attacking smuggler bases.

Transporting SpecOps troops to assault on planet structures owned by smugglers.

Along the way you will learn how to fight in space and on land, how best to use secondary weapons, and how to defend yourself planetside.

This post has been edited by Shlimazel : 10 November 2007 - 01:43 PM

@gray-shirt-ninja, on Nov 9 2007, 04:22 PM, said in A Halo TC may be in the works:

Die? Didn't you know that Spartans never die?

On the contrary, gray_shirt_ninja. Out of the original thirty or so Spartan IIs to survive training and augmentation,* there's only about half a dozen to a dozen left at the start of Halo II.

  • In addition to being, as somebody else on this thread said (can't remember who and I'm too lazy to check ๐Ÿ˜„ ), the "cream of the crop genetically," the Spartans have been enhanced like this:

    • Muscular augmentation, making them much stronger than normal humans.

    • Grafting of carbide sheathes onto their skeletons, giving them the structural strength to A, withstand their own muscles, and B, go hand-to-hand against an Elite (much stronger than the average human, possibly due to a high-gravity homeworld) without much trouble.

    • Retinal implants, giving them much better eyesight.

    • Hormonal adjustments, giving them blindingly fast reflexes.

    • Probably others I can't be bothered to look up.

I should point out that there were about sixty Spartan candidates to begin with. Thirty or so survived the augmentation procedures intact. Side effects of the retinal implants, for instance, included blindness. The hormonal adjustments sometimes flatlined the recipient's libido, something I'm almost certain happened to the Master Chief. A number of the candidates ended up cripples after the muscular and skeletal augmentations, and about a dozen simply never woke up.

I think GSN was being sarcastic, and referencing ONI's policy of marking dead Spartans down as MIA rather than dead.

I have begun working on the Laden class freighter design on the side. Here is a link to some pics of the design I'm working on at the moment.

This post has been edited by Shlimazel : 10 November 2007 - 01:54 PM