Messages

1

Intel / Shotcodes, Half-Life and Metroid Prime + recent neat findings

« on: July 25, 2012, 18:11:27 »

I've been playing the Half-Life series and recently finished Half-Life 2.
In the later stages of the game, I saw something that reminded me of the Halo: Reach "shotcodes":


Source: http://half-life.wikia.com/wiki/Citadel_Core
No, this is NOT from Halo: Reach.


In the page linked above, in the Trivia section, one can read "The logo heavily resembles the symbol of the Chozo seen in the Metroid Prime trilogy."
Ten seconds later, I came across this page: http://metroid.wikia.com/wiki/Chozo_Artifact. Here's the Artifact of Spirit:


From the same page:

The Chozo Artifacts are a set of twelve relics, found in Metroid Prime and its spin-off, Metroid Prime Pinball. They are essentially keys known collectively as the "Cipher", which unlock the "Cradle," a protective barrier placed around the Impact Crater to quarantine the Phazon corruption of Tallon IV.

(...)

Samus Aran's mission on Tallon IV has resulted in some interesting discoveries about the ancient Chozo race and their behavior. Evidence suggests that the Chozo constructed a towering structure known as the Artifact Temple many years ago. Its purpose is as of yet unknown, but data scanning of the region shows that the planet's most intense energy emissions pulsate from the Temple. The structure is barred by an elaborate locking mechanism which requires a key consisting of 12 individual Chozo Artifacts.

If that doesn't blow your mind, well, I don't know what would.
How many different "shotcodes" can we find in Reach?




Another curious find. Completely unrelated, but I won't make another thread.
I'm in the process of making a 65C02-based computer (the 6502 is a microprocessor which was widely used in the 70's and 80's. It was used in the Apple I, Apple II, Atari, NES, and many more. The 65C02 is an improved version.) and I've been looking for RAM memory chips for it.
I found one which I liked and guess what the manufacturer's logo is:

2

Skulls / Re: Skull 03: "Question Mark" (???)

« on: December 28, 2011, 00:04:32 »

Good thing it's just a skull you can toggle on/off.

Yes, but LASO runs are kind of silly with it (and Bandana).

3

Skulls / Re: Skull 03: "Question Mark" (???)

« on: December 27, 2011, 14:47:13 »

I hate this skull. Covenant weapons and the Plasma Grenade are part of why I like Halo more than any other FPS.
Why take away what makes Halo unique?

4

Halo CE General Discussion / Re: Changes between engines.

« on: December 27, 2011, 14:44:34 »

Skulls do not appear on Classic Mode.

5

HCEA: C04: The Silent Cartographer / Polygon on the indoors cutscene chasm

« on: November 27, 2011, 13:01:06 »

Sadly, CEA doesn't have Theater. I'll try to explain the best I can. Check this thread's parent board's title if you came directly from the "Unread Posts" and don't get what I'm talking about.

In this room there's a window. If you look through it on New Graphics Mode you can see a polygon floating in the chasm on the other side of the window.
If you go to the chasm, where a small cutscene of the MC kicking a grunt's breathing mask occurs, you can see it too.
You can't see it in Old Graphics Mode, but maybe it's because it's too dark.


It's either a bug or a platform that's been there for 10 years without being found.
Thoughts?

6

Report In! / Re: Dan Miller on Glyphs, Plinths, QTA and BOBs

« on: November 24, 2011, 10:53:41 »

Indeed, Scat. But why can we still punch them to death? Maybe because melee is so broken you don't even have to look at the enemy to hit him has magnetism?

7

Report In! / Re: Dan Miller on Glyphs, Plinths, QTA and BOBs

« on: November 22, 2011, 20:32:16 »

OP updated with the two final emails and an image of the whole conversation.

8

Theorizers / Re: It's a game. And I know exactly how to play it.

« on: November 19, 2011, 22:36:19 »

I tried it on Easy. I did notice some cooperation, but not enough to be able to say that my actions determined their paths.
Maybe I was doing it wrong.

9

Report In! / Re: Dan Miller on Glyphs, Plinths, QTA and BOBs

« on: November 19, 2011, 02:43:11 »

Added a copy of the sent "thank you" email to OP.
Updated the PDF.

10

Report In! / Re: Brute AI goes Neutral (Near Plinth?)

« on: November 19, 2011, 01:23:12 »

Neat. How about someone try moving Plinth Delta to a place further from its "spawn point" and test if it still happens? I would do it right now, but it's 1:25AM.

11

Report In! / Re: Dan Miller on Glyphs, Plinths, QTA and BOBs

« on: November 17, 2011, 22:34:17 »

The only thing I would want to ask him is about the TotS BOB issues, and this would need to be worded carefully.  Allow me to explain.

We're having a specific issue (there's about a one in five chance that no BOB spawns on Tip of the Spear) but it's not necessarily his area of expertise.  In my mind, this is THE issue right now re: BOBs.  There are different ways to count the number of BOBs, how to number and organize the BOBs, and so on, but that's largely moot.  Since I'll be wiping out each and every BOB spawn in Reach, on Legendary, in a full-run no-death game where I read all Data Pads, it doesn't matter if there are 10 BOBs or 49 BOBs.  I'm going for completion, so if what I'm doing is overkill it's not a big deal.  But, if we can't find a BOB, that's an issue.

Since we can repeatably predict the BOB spawns on every level except TotS, I believe we're aware of the BOB spawns with the exception of that level.  Once we get this particular issue cleared up, it won't be too long before I can complete the BOB guide and determine, once and for all, if anything happens if you wipe out all the BOBs on Legendary.

In short: I believe the missing Tip of the Spear BOB is the last significant BOB mystery, and I believe we should make some effort to get assistance there.

Dan didn't work on Tip of the Spear, so I think he can't help us with that.


Maybe the one he would probably be more apt to explain is Scat's (and CG's) question: why make the Banshee drivers on New Alexandria, a level designed by Dan himself, invisible and infinitesimally small?
Besides Scat's question, I could ask if he knows something about whether TotS is an exception in terms of BOB spawns or not - and if he doesn't, if he would kindly let me know who designed the mission.


Well?

12

Report In! / Re: Dan Miller on Glyphs, Plinths, QTA and BOBs

« on: November 17, 2011, 10:36:41 »

In regard to what I might ask Dan Miller:

• What drove the design decision to include invisible "Covenant Pilot" objects inside of the Banshees? 
• Do you know if the "Golden Tree City" challenge is written to check for the death of the Banshee object, The Covenant Pilot object, or both?
• Do you recall who designed "Tip of the Spear"?  How conducive might that person be to similar emails from us about their level?
• We assume the "Golden Tree City" challenge's namesake is your nickname of "Tree City".  What's up with the "Golden" part?  Is it just because your level design quality is as good as gold?

I'd thank him for the final mission "Halo" in Halo 3:  it was awesome!

I'd also apologize for assuming anything developed by 343 had any direct developmental connection with anything developed by Bungie.

• I think the first two questions aren't the most important ones we can come up with - especially because there's a way for us to test the second one.
• As an SGP member I love the third question, but if I were Miller I think I wouldn't like it as much: giving your colleague's (which you might not know very well, because there's so many people at Bungie) email to some rabid fans you know will email him (and probably tell him it was you who gave them the email) isn't as easy as it sounds.
• The last question is more of a trivia question...

I will thank him for "Halo" and apologize for the Halo Legends thing.

Sorry CG, I just think we should come up with something related to Mission Design/scripting where Miller very probably had a say in.
Something that's been stumping and impeding us from continuing <something>.


For instance, I doubt Miller knows anything about the J Banner 7 - it's more related to Story and Art than actual Mission Design.

13

Report In! / Re: Dan Miller on Glyphs, Plinths, QTA and BOBs

« on: November 17, 2011, 00:41:26 »

It was actually Apollo. Anyway, the source is me. The book Staten gave me has many underlines and circling in it.

Interesting.


People, remember that we have to decide what to ask (if anything) today! Tomorrow, 20h from now (check the post's date) the "thank you" email.
If you haven't decided by then what to ask, then nothing will be asked.

14

Report In! / Re: Dan Miller on Glyphs, Plinths, QTA and BOBs

« on: November 17, 2011, 00:17:53 »

(...) as Pulse showed how he circled and underlined some conspicuous things.

I don't remember that. Source?

@Pulse: I think CG means the milestone of all this new info.

whisper whisper: I know. Just messing with him. :)

15

Report In! / Re: Dan Miller on Glyphs, Plinths, QTA and BOBs

« on: November 16, 2011, 23:56:02 »

@Pulse:  Congratulations on presenting Dan with your questions intelligently (...). It's truly a milestone.  

Thank... you?

I'd like to point out that it seems that Miller didn't need any description of what a BOB is to know what I meant.
Of course we don't know if he googled "Halo Reach BOB", but it's unlikely because he seemed pretty fine in calling them BOBs and not the "in-house" name.
What I'm trying to get at is: the in-house name for BOB is BOB, which means their "meaning" and why they exist was set from the very early stages of the "let's make some BOBs" idea.


Note: According to this post on HBO, Miller worked on at least two levels: New Alexandria and The Package.