Messages

1

Theorizers / Re: SGP: Triplicate - Meaning - Crazytalks about the Y-shape

« on: November 18, 2020, 18:00:12 »

Hmm. After ten years, I got a simple idea that might sound as plausible for the triplicate symbol. (And no, I have no idea how I ended up with that name. )

The names of the achievements are describing different police "ranks", or at least distinctions between experience. In a way, the symbols of the achievements remind me of insignias - Junior Detective is a simple with little flair, Gumshoe has a bit of complexity to it, and Super Sleuth is straight up golden. Maybe they are meant as rank insignias of sorts - seeing something like that on a drone view wouldn't, maybe, be too much of a stretch.

2

Intel / Nine Levels Underground - an essay on ODST's relations Dante's Inferno and more

« on: November 15, 2020, 16:02:03 »

I found this well-written article about Halo 3 ODST and the connections it makes to Dante's Inferno, through some simple googling:

https://halo.bungie.org/misc/nine_levels_underground/

It's a good read, and is a good collection of references found before, some very fresh observations at least to me, as well as great conclusions about how this show's Bungie's skills to "weave game and world".

3

Theorizers / Re: QTA XII VI, Dante's Inferno, and Hollow Men - The Ultimate Theory

« on: November 13, 2020, 10:55:04 »

Oh, spam continues:

In the original unveiling of the QTA XII/VI, the discussion goes something like this:

Staten: This is a patch we made early up for the team, little secret numbers there, I thought it up for you guys.
...
Staten: How many weeks 'til the game comes out? Two? Three? ... See if you can figure this out by then *clears throat*
Marty: *chuckles*
Staten: Send your answers to Marty O'Donnel at...
Marty: Just tweet *points phone*
Staten: Yeah, just tweet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emzEyDLequI

So, I mean...

You should probably send in your solution, according to the instructions. 

4

Theorizers / Re: QTA XII VI, Dante's Inferno, and Hollow Men - The Ultimate Theory

« on: November 13, 2020, 10:10:20 »

Oh, also, haha, remember what's famously the last word of each of the books of the Divine Comedy, including Inferno?

"Stars". 

5

Theorizers / Re: QTA XII VI, Dante's Inferno, and Hollow Men - The Ultimate Theory

« on: November 12, 2020, 15:05:01 »

Man, the Engineer with it's open flaps has the shape of a 5-pronged start. Wow. 

I definitely agree that it's reasonable to think of The Hollow Men poem as a guideline for discoveries, especially since Marty hinted towards something like that. Then again, I wonder if it would be possible that this wasn't exactly a nudge, and we're just seeing it as one because we desperately want one?

No, it's so convenient it has to be a nudge. And even if in the end Marty was just using "cactus land" as an inside language to ODST, a nudge means there's something worthwhile to find.

What's worthwhile then? Well, even if there's no supreme easter egg, all these connections and references are definitely worthy of investigating. To me, it would already be quite the unraveling to have all of them mapped, and to see how far they truly seem to reach.

6

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« on: October 02, 2020, 12:59:39 »

I think the Oliphant angle is bunk, as these doors are everywhere and anywhere, including balconies on Kikowani and inside Squidhenge.

I mean, yeah, why would exactly autonomous vehicles need to read barcodes anyway in the year 2552? : D Or any tech for that matter? In many ways the angle doesn't make sense, but then again it might not need to make sense to create an atmosphere of "these people have barcode on their walls 'cause they're so automated and sci-fi".

I believe it is just a technique to use the same assets on multiple doors and not have them all (appear to) say the same thing. For example, if the sign read "Cafeteria" instead, you'd think "Hmm. Why are there hundreds of cafeterias in Mombasa streets?". Instead, you see a complex barcode, and you assume them to be different, providing the illusion of many different labels throughout the city. Now, we of course just see 3 J banners, but the average player is going to see them as unique to the door they are over, which provides great immersion.

Now, could a dev use this opportunity to shove an egg in there? Sure, but at this point I doubt that's the case.

Oh, that's a great point!! When you make a texture that seems complex enough, even if they're mundane and used a lot people might not notice. Also, it again is creating atmosphere in the sense that something could be written there that has a function, and that something is going on in the city, instead of just using "blank_concrete_slab_19" -texture and making a bustling city's walls look empty. Nice.

7

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« on: October 02, 2020, 12:33:34 »

Hmm, ok, you are right about the similarity (though it doesn't seem that all the gold dots are present in all of the banners?). Supposedly it could decode into something else than letters, but I agree that the simple explanation of "looks cool" is enough, though of course the world building angle of "This is something that the trash trucks [Elephants] could read" is also nice.

8

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« on: October 02, 2020, 12:10:41 »

Hmm, I can't quite read that picture...? What do the colors correspond to here again?

And, yeah, might definitely be just aesthetics. Wonder what sort of design process brought it back to Destiny. Just a shoutout to a game that marketed Destiny before it was a thing?

9

Intel / Rocket Sloth ODST Mysteries Video - Featuring SGP

« on: October 02, 2020, 10:01:49 »

Clearly many people who've revitalized here about a month ago knew about this, but me, I found this out just today!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBuP039tzjQ&t=1348s

Just think of the feeling, when a community you've been part of a decade ago (my god) is directly mentioned in the title of a video on your feed. Whoo.

Tepec, CIA, you guys are awesome for staying active seemingly for all this time! Good job for helping out these guys on getting the video together!

Man, I'm pumped!

10

SGP Task Force: The Librarians / Re: Halo 3: ODST & Dante's Inferno - New Connections.

« on: October 02, 2020, 09:39:40 »

Truly a great find! ODST is such an intertextual masterpiece - while the Nine Circles were known to be part of the aesthetic of the game, like for the Sadie's Story and it's ups and downs, to think that there would be connections this clear on top of that!

Though a few levels are more barren with connections, this is more than enough to make the connection clear. And like Scat said, maybe a different order could give a new perspective? Of course, it would make it seem less "perfect" than having the mission order timeline represent also the order of the rings. In a way, the roaming at Mombasa Streets is more clever menu-avoiding gameplay than proper storytelling, and might not have been planned in conjunction with the story and it's intertextual quirks.

11

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« on: October 02, 2020, 09:24:44 »

Look familiar to anyone?

God damn it. I knew this day would come. While for the longest time I had decided that it'd only be a decoration with a code-y look, there really is no reason for an artist to use some actual code generator for their props. This seems great! I wonder how much many who worked on ODST still are at Bungie?

I've been having a further look at this area, it's something that has really interested me being a Computer Science student.

Great stuff man! I also study cs - it could be an interesting project to write up something that could really crank through all those different comninations of transforms on this.

12

Report In! / Re: Anyone still around? Because I'm back into this \o/

« on: October 02, 2020, 09:18:07 »

After 11 long years, it looks like we're finally nearing the end. LLtSGP!

Scat, what are talking about, this is merely a new beginning!

Tepec, you're a monster - what an undertaking! I'd love to snag some time to chat you up at some point soon!

13

BOBs / Re: Tip of the Spear BOB Hunt (MAJOR UPDATE)(Solved)

« on: February 11, 2020, 07:46:47 »

Aah, new findings (or closures) at SGP! What a time to be alive!

Good to see you alive too Scat, or that you were half a year ago! 

14

Report In! / Re: Christopher Barrett AMA TBA

« on: August 24, 2014, 22:19:13 »

He should know something about the glyphs. Let's ask that.

15

Report In! / Re: The Engineer in Halo 3: ODST has a name.

« on: August 19, 2014, 17:17:50 »

Is there a video of that last part? I can't tell if he's saying that last line jokingly or not. If not, it would kind of imply that they didn't spend much time on it, nor even confirmed that the secret could be found. Perhaps they did mess up.

Can't find one, and there probably isn't one, since it sounds like it was a closed press conference.

Whether or not the line was a joke or not can only be confirmed by Staten itself: we need only to ask, right?

Now that I'm thinking that line more carefully, though, it's strange: Staten is actually talking about "clues" and "the mysteries of New Mombasa". Besides this, have we ever REALLY heard anyone from Bungie actually talk about any kind of mysteries in ODST? Unless Staten is talking about the story of the game itself or Sadie's Story/References to Dante, this is actually quite..big?

We're straying from the topic a lot now, though. I admit that the canonity of Quick to Adjust is a bit questionable, but if we were to pursue the QTA XII/VI mystery more, we should remember the possibility of it linking to Vergil's true name.

I also feel I should make a new post..

(By the way, I'm not sure if I was joking about the "ask Staten" thing. I mean, it would be pretty big itself to actually ask Staten if there really is a hidden mystery in ODST. Would we even want that?)