Messages

1

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: Upgading "From Niven to 9/11" to something greater...

« on: October 18, 2010, 19:52:42 »

That article about Alien was an interesting read.  Reminds me of some of the links I've seen between Alien and Starcraft, as well as Starcraft and Halo.  The comparison between Zerg, the Aliens, and the Flood is pretty striking, as well as the Protoss, Predators, and Humans/Terrans.

The research project seems pretty interesting, I've always enjoyed seeing how games influence our popular culture and vice versa, it really shows how much of an art form video games can be.

2

Halo Reach General Discussion / Re: Focus people.

« on: October 12, 2010, 17:52:12 »

I've been trying to work weith the Shotcodes, but I haven't got the focus...until now. Thank Enigma!

I had a thought today about shotcodes

I was thinking about how the outsides of the circles seem to be missing in a lot of them, and how you have been filling them in to see where they lead.  What if the outermost circle is a puzzle piece?  As in, maybe you have to match the missing sections from one shotcode with the black parts of the outer layer in a different shot code to complete a single shotcode.  We probably need a single thread to compile all the shotcode images we have found so far, like Enigma is talking about

3

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "Lone Wolf" (Mission 11)

« on: October 12, 2010, 17:10:45 »

Probable bogus theory:
Technically the campaign lobby can hold 16 people, but it won't let you start a game with more than 4 (other Halo games have been like this).  However, has anyone tried loading up Lone Wolf with 16 people in the lobby?  After all, there are 13 extra spartans on the map who aren't dead when the game starts, it follows that maybe they are player characters that load up to allow everyone to play?

The interesting part is that the usual 4 players + 13 dead = 17 spartans, not 16.  Who would the 17th Spartan be?

4

Halo Reach General Discussion / Re: Halo Virus Website was Real!

« on: October 12, 2010, 16:20:52 »

I looked into the sites, didn't seem to get any viruses.  From some google searching it seems it was an ARG done by Good Game Network.  Here is a link to the summary of how the game went:

Asch

I don't think there are any viruses here, but be sure to scan things if you visit the sites.

5

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "Winter Contingency" (Mission 2)

« on: October 12, 2010, 16:12:40 »

Also I was playing Halo CE the other day and Keyes seems surprised that the covenant were able to 'follow' them into the 'random' slipspace jump.  Cortana probably knew exactly where the Pillar of Autumn was going and why, but I don't know enough about what is going on to determine if the covenant were already there or if they showed up at the same time.  If they showed up at the same time, how did they have the location of the Halo ring as well?

I think the jumps are traceable: the Covenant seem to be able to locate the destination of the jump, and thanks to their speed, they can easily be there first.

Yeah they probably just have better tech

6

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "Exodus" (Mission 7)

« on: October 12, 2010, 16:09:15 »

Interesting find from the bnet boards, a secret pelican you can get into.

Forum post
Youtube video

Credit goes to FULLOUTASSAULTA and FULLOUTASSAULTB (going to try to start footnoting these).

7

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "Winter Contingency" (Mission 2)

« on: October 12, 2010, 16:03:29 »

Been pondering things today.

I've been thinking about how the 10th pad is being carried by an elite and why that would be so.  Has anyone considered that there may be some significance to where the pads are found?  Considering he is running away from the beacon it's probably just something he grabbed that looked important.

It seems pretty suspicious that all of the pads would be crossed during specifically Noble 6's missions without some kind of manipulation or big coincidence, especially if you consider that the AIs might be manipulating some of the covenant's actions as well.

There is also a striking parallel between the Elite Recon teams (the red guys from the cutscene) and the Spartan Noble team: the fact that they are likely carrying out secretive missions concerning sensitive data about forerunners.  Also they are both at the same place at the same time right after this Sorvad incidence, and Halsey is angry that the Elites got away.  It seems like the Elites sabotaged what the Spartans were really investigating by killing the Skeleton crew

Also I was playing Halo CE the other day and Keyes seems surprised that the covenant were able to 'follow' them into the 'random' slipspace jump.  Cortana probably knew exactly where the Pillar of Autumn was going and why, but I don't know enough about what is going on to determine if the covenant were already there or if they showed up at the same time.  If they showed up at the same time, how did they have the location of the Halo ring as well?

8

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "Long Night of Solace" (Mission 6)

« on: October 06, 2010, 10:24:42 »

Someone posted something strange over at bnet, I'll quote it

Posted by: GHXpert59
I was just checking around for anything hidden on the beach part of LNoS and noticed that after you go inside the facility and get the rockets to destroy the wraith, don't destroy it. Instead drop down and hijack it so that you can drive it. Take it, drive it in the water. Note how you DO NOT DIE in the water. Even though the water is more than twice the depth of your height, you don't die. Is it possible something is out in the water?

9

Halo Reach General Discussion / Re: One man, against all odds.

« on: October 06, 2010, 05:01:57 »

I heard this dialogue in a video I downloaded off fileshare the other day, I think I might be able to reupload it to my file share.

10

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "New Alexandria" (Mission 8)

« on: October 02, 2010, 19:14:57 »

They (Bungie) said that New Alexandria has more Easter eggs in it than the rest of the game combine. (sorry no link...or proof)\

Now, technically this is the 7th PLAYABLE mission so......

It's in the director's commentary @2:12 or so

As a side note, they mention a lot of the eggs in some way in the commentary.

11

Intel / Re: Shot codes....may not be shot codes at all

« on: October 02, 2010, 01:05:42 »

Maybe the shotcodes are specifically references to different areas of the game other than just WC?  By this I mean they may be pinpointing locations of datapads, bobs, etc.

Maybe we should start looking for 'shotcodes' that aren't circular to see if they're a form of cartography?  Some of them may point to areas of New Alexandria where the tall buildings viewed from above form a pattern.

12

Intel / Pan-Cam Guide, flying outside maps!

« on: October 02, 2010, 01:01:44 »

I haven't gotten this to work yet, but it seems like it could be a very valuable resource.  Someone named BlueNinja discovered a method to make your camera change to a different mode where you can fly much quicker and break through barriers.  People have found interesting models and other etc. outside of the regular areas in maps.  Here is the link

13

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "The Package" (Mission 9)

« on: October 02, 2010, 00:55:44 »

I'm reposting this from the events thread because this seems like a better spot.  A mod can delete my other post if they want.

I uploaded the results of our experimentation today on The Package into my fileshare, the gamertag being "DrKevoun"

We performed the banshee spawn trick as detailed in the video guides that people have posted and then flew around for about 45 minutes before finding something odd.  After crashing my banshee somewhere outside the map, I respawned onto Enigma's location while he was flying around.  Apparently there is an invisible 'floor' in the air the banshee can't go through that we were able to walk around on.  The location of the area we discovered this is in "Weird Banshee Spawn".  In this clip I spawn in the air, and then enigma circles back around and lands his banshee there. 

In the second clip, "Weird Banshee Spawn 2," we walk through a 'wall' of fire that Enigma claimed is impossible to go through in the banshee, and quickly start gaining elevation.  We discovered that this walking area extends pretty far in most directions, but there are also pitfalls etc. to fall into.

In the third clip, "Mountainwalk," I filmed a few different areas accessible after landing.  Enigma went pretty much straight north, where the floor begins to descend fairly rapidly.  I walked back toward the playing area and find myself on top of the burning building.  I also found places where you can walk around on top of the mountains as if they are solid, which I think would be a good area to search for switches etc.  You might be able to fly banshees directly to these mountains and land on them even with the boundaries negated.  I would advise killing off all of the enemies on the map before exploring because I was blown up by a fuel rod turret.

For reference, we were playing on legendary and destroyed the two AA guns before performing the trick.  Also, we had three players in the game.

I don't really know how to render videos or post them in any other way so if someone could capture some video or screenshots that might be nice for reference.

14

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "New Alexandria" (Mission 8)

« on: October 02, 2010, 00:46:05 »

- The objectives don't always go in the same order after the hospital objective, not sure if this is dependent on difficulty, some kind of trigger, or just random.  I don't remember if I've ever done any objectives besides the hospital first.

The objectives are random after the hospital on all difficulties but Ledendary. On legendary, All are random.

Makes sense, clears up some of my confusion.

- SinoViet (the office building for one of the jammer objectives) has a green arrow for a logo.  On top of the building and I think inside there are tons of these pointing in random directions.  Could be some kind of organization to them.

I will look into this

I have a small example of this on the top of the building before it becomes an objective.  There are large green panels with horizontal arrows on them, 5 on the first level and 1 on the second.  The rightmost 3 on the bottom all point to a particular door if viewed at the correct angle.  Moving up to the second level, the other green panel points at a gap in the ledge (you have to point your view back towards the entrance).  If you run over this gap right, the door below opens into an empty gray room that is a kill zone.  The guys in the other group (on bungie.net) explained this as a spawning room, but I haven't checked my videos to see if anything actually comes out of there yet.

The other two green panels on the first level point to the downward logo on the wall.  All of this could of course be coincidence, which is actually what I'm leaning toward right now.

- When you enter the hospital, it is possible to sneak by the initial sleeping grunts.  I may have a video of this saved, I've done it running in both directions.  However, the floating orb guy has spotted me multiple times, and I haven't made it to any lower levels without being spotted by something.  Firing guns inside or even around the perimeter seems to wake everyone up.  Active camo may help here if it's possible to get inside reflections before doing the hospital.

So the Engineers (The orb guys) will wake up the grunts?  

I'm not completely positive on this, but it seems like the only explanation a few times I was spotted.  I would sneak by, and in the video it looked like the engineer spotted me and alerted the grunts on the level below me.

- After closing down the jammer in the hospital jetpack elites spawned for me on legendary.  However when I played this mission on co-op with enigma (also legendary) they were jetpack brutes instead for some reason.

You sure about this?

I checked the video and I was wrong.  I think I died so fast I just imagined them to be brutes (they spawned right on top of me).  Thanks for the catch, going to edit this one out of my original post.

15

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / Re: All Finds: "New Alexandria" (Mission 8)

« on: October 01, 2010, 23:43:35 »

For some reason this mission specifically stands out to me, especially after you point out that it's the 7th playable mission.  There are a lot of random triggers going on in this map and the checkpoint is updated suspiciously often.  A few things I've noticed:

- The objectives don't always go in the same order after the hospital objective, not sure if this is dependent on difficulty, some kind of trigger, or just random.  I don't remember if I've ever done any objectives besides the hospital first.

- All of the loadouts spawn on this map (unconfirmed).  I think the only one that doesn't spawn in the hospital is the active camo, which spawns in the reflections portion of the map (also unconfirmed).  I know I've seen active camo though so if it doesn't spawn in reflections it probably spawns in SinoViet.  In fact, after writing up this post I realized that when I beat this mission on legendary I was actually using active camo in the hospital when the jetpack guys spawn.

- SinoViet (the office building for one of the jammer objectives) has a green arrow for a logo.  On top of the building and I think inside there are tons of these pointing in random directions.  Could be some kind of organization to them.

- I've found multiple gray rooms most likely used to just spawn marines and covies etc.  However, some of these rooms can be opened before certain objectives are met.  I don't think this is important but it could wind up being a part of something larger.

- At the beginning of the map when you enter the falcon multiple strange things happen:
    + Right to the left of the initial falcon pad, two banshees chase down and blow up a marine-piloted falcon.  You can save this falcon by destroying the banshees, but it proceeds to fly off the map.  (I don't know if this happens every time but I think I have a video of it).  This hasn't happened to me again yet, must have been random.
     + Right to the right side of the same pad, a burning building collapses very quickly.  I've flown around this in theatre and haven't noticed anything suspicious.
     + There is a pelican (that is the name for the bigger ships right?) that flies by the landing pad, stops on a random rooftop, and then flies away (again I don't know if this happens every time).  I've tried jumping on top of it while it is motionless, but when it flies away you just fall off.  I've noticed pelicans doing this action during the whole mission.  They always fly off the map afterward.



- During the SinoViet jammer objective, I think you can choose which elevator to take.  When you come back down the elevator, both become dysfunctional and open and close small increments constantly.

- When you enter the hospital, it is possible to sneak by the initial sleeping grunts.  I may have a video of this saved, I've done it running in both directions.  However, the floating orb guy has spotted me multiple times, and I haven't made it to any lower levels without being spotted by something.  Firing guns inside or even around the perimeter seems to wake everyone up.  Active camo may help here if it's possible to get inside reflections before doing the hospital.

- The maximum height is 2500 and the minimum is around -75 or so.  Flying below the minimum explodes you.

- Banshees are able to be hijacked and flown.  Enigma and I flew one into the hospital all the way down to the jammer.  I assume one can be flown into Club Errera as well.

- After closing down the jammer in the hospital jetpack elites spawned for me on legendary.  However when I played this mission on co-op with enigma (also legendary) they were jetpack brutes instead for some reason.  Debunked by Kevoun

I'll probably post some more things as I remember them.  I think it would be beneficial to make a map of this board and start compiling data on objective orders, difficulties, enemy spawns etc.

Sorry for the long post, I just started writing out stuff I've been thinking about and it turned into lots of stuff.