Recent Posts

11

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« Last post by Imppa 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.

12

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« Last post by Scatcycle on October 02, 2020, 12:50:58 »

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.

Oops, I hope they do, I just pulled the banners from the discord  . I think the Oliphant angle is bunk, as these doors are everywhere and anywhere, including balconies on Kikowani and inside Squidhenge. 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.

13

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« Last post by Imppa 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.

14

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« Last post by Scatcycle on October 02, 2020, 12:18:28 »

Each J banner is colored unique, and then some of the areas that are consistent on all three are marked gold. For there to be this much replication in the banners means that either someone copy pasted and edited them to look different, or the data is 3 different things that all say almost the same thing (given that the structure does not vary by much at all). We’re talking letter differences by 1 and such.  The former seems more reasonable at this point considering everything has been exhausted now. I think it honestly might just be a cool futuristic look, much like greebles on a spaceship.

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SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« Last post by Imppa 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?

16

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

« Last post by VsH Tepec Fett on October 02, 2020, 12:07:37 »

Oh shoot, my discord username is "Tepec Fett (Halo Création)#9999" sorry for that.

And Imppa: anytime you want! If you don't use Discord feel free to DM me with whatever you use (friends using so many chat apps I'm having like 11 of them on my phone, so hopefully we'll have at least one in common  )!

17

Intel / Re: Rocket Sloth ODST Mysteries Video - Featuring SGP

« Last post by VsH Tepec Fett on October 02, 2020, 12:03:45 »

Ahah so glad to read from you!

When I started my kind of regular "let's get monomaniac on ODST again" earlier this year, I was thinking about doing a small video about it for Halo Creation to 'celebrate' ODST coming to MCC PC, but as I was playing on ODST, Luke and Elijah -with whom I already worked on another video- got curious about it. And they became like like really super enthusiastic about that so they offered me to do the video with them!

I really tried my best to provide as much info, and the editing part was also quite a dilemma because I really wanted to show as much as I could, but there has been just so many things and theories, we had to cut out a few  Still, I'm just happy Luke and Elijah thought it was interesting and that many people are now willing to jump in!

At this point I'm not expecting spectacular reveal, but I genuinely have fond memories of the SGP and the "black ops" things, and I still love to wander in ODST notably thanks to that, so I'm happy to see more people are willing to experience the same 'special' thing we felt about this game.

Wish you the best!

18

SGP Task Force: 7 / Re: J Banner 7

« Last post by Scatcycle on October 02, 2020, 11:59:42 »

I made this to show that it really looks like something that’s been copy pasted 2 times and altered; they all share the same basic structure. This compounded by the fact that the Destiny J banner is 4x17 makes it pretty clear to me that it’s just aesthetic.

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Intel / Rocket Sloth ODST Mysteries Video - Featuring SGP

« Last post by Imppa 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!

20

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

« Last post by Imppa 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.