Topics

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

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?

3

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

« on: November 16, 2011, 21:41:47 »

I'm very happy right now. You know why? Because yesterday, very late into the night, I followed a link (posted by Lord Friendship) to an HBO thread where Bungie employee Dan Miller talked a lot about the inner workings of the Halo scripting engine.
I was so pumped I sent him an email. Sorry for not warning upfront, but I just couldn't hold it.

Greetings,
I just read the AI Script thread on HBO and noticed how... "open" you are to the community about the inner workings of the Halo games.

Because of that, I decided that I should ask you a question that has been burning inside me since the first minutes of playing Halo 3: ODST, my favorite Halo game.
What secret do glyphs hide?

I hope you are in a bit of a shock: yes - the choice of that particular glyph (the "Super TriGlyph") was intentional. The fact that it "spawns" on the "Magic Wall" of District 04 (D04) if the player's Last Checkpoint is on D04 and the player dies on the same District (or close to it) MUST mean that there is something very, very interesting waiting to be unveiled. Something which you might have worked on.
Another two remarkable glyphs are the Super DiGlyph and the Super MonoGlyph, which were only recorded once in the history of ODST. No one outside Bungie knows how to spawn them (most people don't even know they exist!).

Now, I certainly don't want you to spill out the solution to probably the most spectacular Easter Egg of all time (no matter how minuscule it may be, it will always be the one that struck me the most, if only for the mad hunt). That would be no fun.
I just need a few wise words, a clue of sorts - because trust me: if there is something to be found, me and my friends will find it.
We just need a push in the right direction because, well, there have been no developments in a long time.



As you can probably understand, me and my fellow SGP friends (GruntsPajamas.com) are quite fond of Halo's secrets.
We have quite an extensive research about everything related to ODST and some things about Reach too.
If you have the time, you can check our most ambitious discussions/articles after the jumps below. We have much more and many more threads about the subjects below, too.
Bump Glitching (video available too) - a method which allows the de-spawning of specific objects and therefore allows the players to visit most supposedly locked Districts, areas and buildings. Exploits the way Districts are loaded into memory (no hacks, of course).
Plinths (guide) - very peculiar Forerunner columns found on Mombasa Streets. We know they're Forerunner because of this image, taken from the Halo Legends episode "Origins". Maybe there's a secret related to them too!
Zombielites (guide) - those dead Elites spread around Mombasa Streets? We resurrected them [kind of]. The same happened to a dead cop, so I came up with a possible explanation to why this might happen. It's probably wrong, but it shows how we strive to be as factual and scientific as possible in the search of secrets sometimes so cleverly hidden by people just like you!
J Banner 7 - a group of banners found throughout the Campaign which seem to contain some kind of encrypted message.


There's so much I would like to ask you about the links above! But I know your time is limited, because such is the nature of men. In any case, if you happen to wander around our Forums and find a link which points to our old domain subculturelifestyle.com, you just need to replace it with our current one (gruntspajamas.com) to make it work.



I just ask you one more thing: please don't leave me hanging. If you're not planning on answering any of the questions, please just send an email saying you won't. You can be sure I will understand.


Thank you very, very much for your time.
Best regards,
Pedro Tomé, aka Pulse Cloud.


PS: Are Reach's BOBs' spawns determined randomly at the beginning of each mission? Would you say that each mission has ONE BOB with multiple possible spawn points or MULTIPLE BOBs, each one with one single spawn point, which are mutually exclusive (i.e., if one BOB spawns the others won't)? Is it possible for a full playthrough of a mission to have ZERO BOBs, i.e., when the spawn point of the BOB is chosen at the beginning of the mission, is it possible for that spawn point to be nonexistent?
PPS: Tell Joseph Staten I will, one day, figure out the meaning of this.

His reply:

Hey Pedro! Thanks for the email! I don’t have a lot of time, so let me hit on the pertinent parts of your email:

Because of that, I decided that I should ask you a question that has been burning inside me since the first minutes of playing Halo 3: ODST, my favorite Halo game.
What secret do glyphs hide?

I hope you are in a bit of a shock: yes - the choice of that particular glyph (the "Super TriGlyph") was intentional. The fact that it "spawns" on the "Magic Wall" of District 04 (D04) if the player's Last Checkpoint is on D04 and the player dies on the same District (or close to it) MUST mean that there is something very, very interesting waiting to be unveiled. Something which you might have worked on.
Another two remarkable glyphs are the Super DiGlyph and the Super MonoGlyph, which were only recorded once in the history of ODST. No one outside Bungie knows how to spawn them (most people don't even know they exist!).

Now, I certainly don't want you to spill out the solution to probably the most spectacular Easter Egg of all time (no matter how minuscule it may be, it will always be the one that struck me the most, if only for the mad hunt). That would be no fun.
I just need a few wise words, a clue of sorts - because trust me: if there is something to be found, me and my friends will find it.
We just need a push in the right direction because, well, there have been no developments in a long time.

That secret is also a secret internally, with a total of maybe four people in all of Bungie that knows about it. I don’t. That stuff was placed by Joseph Staten- I had no role in it.


Plinths (guide) - very peculiar Forerunner columns found on Mombasa Streets. We know they're Forerunner because of this image, taken from the Halo Legends episode "Origins". Maybe there's a secret related to them too!
I don’t think you can attribute anything in Halo Legends as related to our stuff. Both things were built by separate teams.


PS: Are Reach's BOBs' spawns determined randomly at the beginning of each mission? Would you say that each mission has ONE BOB with multiple possible spawn points or MULTIPLE BOBs, each one with one single spawn point, which are mutually exclusive (i.e., if one BOB spawns the others won't)? Is it possible for a full playthrough of a mission to have ZERO BOBs, i.e., when the spawn point of the BOB is chosen at the beginning of the mission, is it possible for that spawn point to be nonexistent?
BOB scripts were written by different designers, we tried to remain consistent, but there may be subtle differences between them. For my missions, I generated a random number at the beginning of the script and that determined which Bob would spawn. It is not possible to play my missions (or any other, for what I remember) and have no BOBs. BOBs will always spawn, if not it is a bug.


PPS: Tell Joseph Staten I will, one day, figure out the meaning of this.
Good luck! I don’t fully understand it either! It’s more of an internal codeword.

Proof attached.


I'd like you guys to help me decide if there is something we should ask that he could answer immediately - we should be thankful Dan even read my email, so let's not go overboard and ask too much.
The question(s) would go along, as a quick little bonus, with the "thank you so much" reply.


Don't let that fiery excitement make you need to post your theories right now - please change your pants first.


UPDATE (2011-11-19):
My "thank you" email in response to his reply:

Thank you so much for your reply, Dan.
It's great knowing at least some developers don't mind sharing their knowledge with those who play their games.

I must tell you our correspondence was shared, publicly, with the rest of the community I'm part of, the SGP.
Even though I think you were expecting that, I didn't warn you beforehand - and for that I am sorry. It didn't even cross my mind until a member of the SGP, the founder himself, raised the question.
For reference, the thread where it was posted can be found here.

I would also like to apologize for assuming anything developed by 343 had any direct developmental connection with anything developed by Bungie.



We are all very thankful for your patience and support. And for some of the most memorable campaign missions too!

Best regards, and the best of luck with that "Grognok" project of yours!
Pedro Tomé


PS: Just a couple of questions other members of the SGP wanted me to ask you:
1) What drove the design decision to include invisible "Covenant Pilot" objects inside of the Banshees?
We know they're there because when you hijack a Banshee on top of a building on New Alexandria, the marines start shooting the ground (roof of the building) somewhere where the Banshee pilot would have fallen if it existed - and blood spurts out of the ground. If we melee that exact spot on the ground, we lunge towards it and get a pummel medal, proving the existence of an invisible, super small, non-moving pilot for each Banshee. Also, the frame-rate drops considerably when we look directly at them.

2) Do you know anything about whether "Tip of the Spear" is, or not, an exception in terms of BOB spawns? If not, do you recall who designed that mission? How conducive might that person be to similar emails from us about their level?

UPDATE (2011-11-22):
His reply

> 1) What drove the design decision to include invisible "Covenant Pilot" objects inside of the Banshees?
> We know they're there because when you hijack a Banshee on top of a building on New Alexandria, the marines start shooting the ground (roof of the building) somewhere where the Banshee pilot would have fallen if it existed - and blood spurts out of the ground. If we melee that exact spot on the ground, we lunge towards it and get a pummel medal, proving the existence of an invisible, super small, non-moving pilot for each Banshee. Also, the frame-rate drops considerably when we look directly at them.

The invisible elite is a way we saved a lot of memory to make New Alexandria even possible. The game keeps track of all enemies, their skeletons and everything. In order to fit more banshees in the level, we made a special non-skeleton/non-model elite.

I have no information about BOBs for any level besides my two. Sorry

Thanks for the email!

And my final reply:

Thank you a lot, Dan. It was a pleasure learning all this from you.

Best wishes,
Pedro

4

Intel / New clipping method using Armor Lock

« on: July 05, 2011, 21:13:31 »

Halo Waypoint Thread (what a pretentious OP...)
Youtube video

5

BOBs / BOBs on the Reach Demo

« on: May 30, 2011, 13:49:38 »

I have played the Halo: Reach Demo, which is basically Long Night of Solace until you get to the part you need to blow the Corvette's engines/thrusters/thingies.

I waited for the first BOB to appear (the one in the area where the Spirits drop enemies indefinitely [not on the Wraith platform]) and this is what I have seen:
The drop pod falls, it opens and after the get-out-of-the-pod animation runs, the BOB instantly disappears - not like he was cloaked, like he didn't even exist, only the getting out animation existed.


Conclusion: BOBs are not regular enemies and are not simply mini-bosses - they serve a purpose, otherwise the BOB wouldn't have disappeared in the Demo.


No pics/video because the Demo doesn't have Theater.

6

Halo Reach General Discussion / The people are asking for it.

« on: May 27, 2011, 16:12:59 »

http://www.bungie.net/Forums/posts.aspx?postID=60826111

I've been looking for a convenient list of all the Bob spawns, I've searched the forums, I've googled it (I mean Binged it, sorry MS), and every list I've seen I know is incomplete because I've seen gold rangers in places not listed. Does anyone have a complete list of Bob spawns?

7

Intel / Possible hint at Scarab Gun

« on: May 14, 2011, 12:43:27 »

Here.

Try to understand what the ODST says before reading bellow the OP.

OP:

Hi,
so I was playing in campaign, the level "The package", when an ODST started talk about another dead ODST (Savian or something like this) and his drop pod. I never heard this quote before and I'd like to know if you already know this. If not maybe it could be a clue for an easter egg; something like to find this drop pod and it could be related to the four banshee easter egg.
Here the clip with the quote: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDetails.aspx?fid=17669613&player=NBK%20ToxiC%20JoKeR
Oh, I'm italian, so sorry for my english, I hope you understand

What I think the ODST said (also posted on the same thread):

If you see a pod marked Sullivan, you should call me over. Reports show he didn't make the drop and I've had an eye on his sidearm.

8

Intel / Achronos explains why BOBs are Elite Light Vehicles

« on: May 09, 2011, 15:55:40 »

Scroll down. Gold text.

9

Intel / Door opened on CM:NA; using Hologram to open doors

« on: May 03, 2011, 23:21:13 »

This.

10

Intel / Exodus's Bumped Gate and the Hallway of Death (RP:A, Jetpack spawn)

« on: April 21, 2011, 00:44:13 »

Their find on Exodus is somewhat interesting.  They did a great job of kiting a sprinter back through the jet pack area.  Looks like an in-game out of map opportunity.  I'm guessing the objects may have been bumped out... which leads to even more potential, albeit in the glitching domain.

You CAN reach the end of the hallway with Sprint

This may be true, but I invoke VOIDO on sprinting past the kill barrier.  Again: setting expectations.

I like that he made the call to the community to help.  There is a balance between the SGP and b.net.  Somewhere in the middle is where we ally with the right groups of people.  HRS seems like it might be one of those groups.  All my best to them!

I don't get it. Why didn't they just fly next to the unlocked gate so the Sprinter could commit suicide and spawn right there?

Also, can you spawn in out-of-bounds areas? Like, I'm dead and I want to spawn next to you and you are in an area where there is the 10 second timer. Is it possible or is there some message like "buddy is in danger zone" or "area not safe" or whatever?

11

BOBs / ONI BOBs

« on: April 19, 2011, 20:02:42 »

Unbelievably amazing work CG! (Needless to say, I share the opinion of your godly state with Pulse.)

But is the spawn in which the BOB spawns completely random?

Also, about the white Bob: When you re-enter SB, on the entrance there is a White General with dual-wielded Repeaters. He runs away, and killing him will count as a BOB kill. On the Reach Secrets forums, he is named a "Wannabe-BOB". I don't know if ALL of he BOBs are white, though.

Imp, remember when we thought the appearance of the Tri-glyph was a matter of random luck?

And are you sure the White BOB wields two Repeaters? I thought it was Plasma Rifles? 

12

Halo Reach General Discussion / Reach Skulls - The Change

« on: April 10, 2011, 19:12:22 »

Maybe we should figure out the new effects of the skulls and how they interfere on how people used to make super jumps and all that stuff and make a guide?

13

Work-In-Progress (Halo: Reach) / WIP - Guide - Out of Map techniques and note-worthy areas

« on: April 08, 2011, 17:22:06 »

Index:
    General techniques:
        - Dropship technique
        - Pan-cam
        - Forge: Teleporter technique
        - Forge: Machine Gun technique

    Map-specific techniques:
        - Winter Contingency:
            - ????
        - Sword Base:
            - Vandal's method of climbing SB
            - ????
        - Nightfall:
            - Jumping at the end of the level
            - ????
        - Tip of the Spear:
            - Banshee trick
            - ????
        - Long Night of Solace:
            - Before boarding the Sabre, jump on top of Pelican on Concussion Rifle spawn (Countdown) and Armor Lock
            - ????
        - Exodus:
            - Flying to the side where the Falcons fly
            - ????
        - New Alexandria:
            - The Pelican/Phantom technique
            - ????
        - The Package:
            - The Four Banshees
            - ????
        - The Pillar of Autumn:
            - Being launched by the Scarab
            - Holdout: Armor Locking on top of Phantom
            - ????
        - Lone Wolf:
            - ????

    Note-worthy areas:
        - Winter Contingency:
            - Inside the Zealot Fight Cutscene's area
            - ????
        - Sword Base:
            - ????
        - Nightfall:
            - ????
        - Tip of the Spear:
            - The big UNSC ship which name I don't remember
            - "Toy" vechicles
            - ????
        - Long Night of Solace:
            - Flying a Seraph
            - ????
        - Exodus:
            - The Purple Room
            - ????
        - New Alexandria:
            - Accessing the level's last cutsene building
            - Accessing the level's floor
            - ????
        - The Package:
            - The Tribute Room
            - Getting out of the Tribute Room, inside the Core
            - ????
        - The Pillar of Autumn:
            - Getting to the Mac Cannon early
            - ????
        - Lone Wolf:
            - ????



Please add more techniques and cool places so we can have some new content.

14

Halo Reach General Discussion / How to fix Armor Lock, the Pulse Cloud way.

« on: March 15, 2011, 22:18:24 »

How to fix Armor Lock, the Pulse Cloud way:

Numbers:
Active Time: 2 seconds
Recharge Time: 7 seconds
One use per cycle, ie, the gauge doesn't progressively drain while you use AL - it instantly, completely drains. If you use AL for 0.5 seconds you still have to wait the 7 seconds to use it again.
Armor Lock is no longer "infinite shield" - it has some amount of bleed-through (more on that later).


When Armor Locked:
The camera is a 1st person camera - no more 360º 3rd person camera.
You lose the HUD for the duration of your AL use (basically you activate the Blind Skull when Armor Locked).

Overcharged Plasma Pistol shots disable your Armor Lock.
Grenades exploding next to your feet disable your Armor Lock.
Stuck plasma grenades or Plasma Cannon rounds ARE absorbed but disable your Armor Lock. (If you get stuck by more than one you ultimately die, because the first one disables your AL and the second one kills you.)
Spartan Laser shots, Rockets, Fuel Rods, direct Grenade Launcher rounds, Banshee Fuel Rods and Wraith Mortars exploding close enough to kill a fully shielded player with full health disable your Armor Lock and lower your shield or health to 40% of what it was. (If you had full shield right before entering Armor Lock it gets lowered to 40%. If you had half of your shield it gets lowered to 40% of that half (20% of a full shield), etc. The same applies to Health if you didn't have any Shield right before ALing. Basically, you always survive one hit of these almost-instant-kill weapons but you're left with almost nothing to protect yourself.)

Vehicles still get blown to smithereens if they hit you too fast. Your Armor Lock is disabled, though.

Any other weapon deals NO DAMAGE nor has ANY effect on you - not even the Sniper Rifle.


When leaving Armor Lock (either voluntarily or by forced disable):
You lose your shields, no matter if they were full or not.
You HUD takes 1 second to reappear.
Your motion tracker takes 3 seconds to start tracking (ie, your HUD appears and you're left with 2 seconds of a static-filled motion tracker).
If your Armor Lock wasn't disabled by anything and if you Armor Locked for the full duration (2 seconds) you burst a small EMP, otherwise you don't.

15

Intel / FUD - Triumvirate - Extensive Data Pads Analysis

« on: October 30, 2010, 21:38:05 »

Here.

It's... good. Pretty much a copy of Turokman2000's theory, but still... it's public and "sponsored" by Bungie.