Since it is the only weapon with a flashlight (besides the shotgun) I actually gave it a headshot multiplier so it isn't utterly useless anymore however I will also look into increasing it's projectile speed and accuracy for this particular mission since a lot of the engagements are further than usual.
I hope you make those last two changes for the rest of the missions as well. Those two things are often why it's not as useful in Halo 3 as it could be.
Your mod looks amazing! The darkness really creates a new mood for the level. Do you take ideas/suggestions? I have a few ideas for small changes to gameplay, and visuals.
Yes I do. When a new MCC season releases I will trying as hard as I can to restore/fix the mod and any ideas/suggestions you have I will try an incorporate.
Sorry for the very late response. A lot of the ideas I originally had were terrible so I scraped them, and forgot to respond. I also made some notes for my ideas, and kept revising them because I didn’t really like how they turned out. This list will talk about what I liked, and didn’t like (what I liked massively outweighed the bad). Some of my ideas pertain to lighting changes, while others would be for gameplay. At this point my suggestions sound really cool I’m my head. But I might end up hating then in a few days, or a week. I also apologize in advance if this comes across as some random guy making nonsensical demands. I also apologize in advance for the crazy length of this reply. A bunch of these were made before the Season 8 update so they could be out dated, and I haven’t played the new version of the mod. I have read the change log though.
Some of my ideas could be used for other levels if you make them night missions as well. Some of these ideas might not be possible even with the new modding tools. I know almost nothing about programming so I’m not sure how hard this stuff would be to implement. If any of this is unreasonable just ignore it.
Weapon tweaks (some of these are based on Ruby’s mod, some other mods, and things that I thought would be cool). If I don’t mention a gun it’s perfectly fine as it is:
Overall changes for Plasma Weapons: Plasma weapons would do better against shields so they stand out more from bullets. I have two mutually exclusive ideas for making the plasma weapons have an increased longevity in the hands of the player. The first is to make them more efficient, and have their battery count increased so you can use the gun longer. The other is to keep the battery as it is but when either standing right by a plasma battery/coil the gun would slowly refill it’s charge, or when standing over a weapon of the same type it would start slowly siphoning off charge. Once it reaches 100% the thing would overheat. This second idea is based on a mix of spv3’s recharging stations, this video discussing if plasma weapons should be able to be charged (https://youtu.be/telnLQvbmWU), and how in Infinite the (https://youtu.be/XWXlk5Cinho). Although, this feels more natural than what they did in Infinite.
Bullets: I really like how you gave most of the UNSC weapons tracer rounds. They look really cool, and add to the nighttime environment. You could increase the ammo count for the various projectile weapons. As well as doing less damage to shields, and more damage to health.
Heavy weapons like the Fuel Rod, Rocket Launcher, and Spartan Laser would have their melee damage increased since you’re smacking someone over the head with a really heavy gun.
Dual Wielding: For dual wielding the accuracy penalty, and damage nerf should be outright removed. The reason for this is because both those new mechanics defeat the whole point of dual wielding.
Needler: For the Needler I was thinking that you could give the super combine an emp, and increase the clip size for ammo. Increasing the clip size has the side effect of making the needles bigger which looks a lot cooler. As a way to make these changes not be overpowered it would take more needles to super combine.
Bruteshot: For the Bruteshot I was thinking that it, and the Furl Rod should swap their projectile bounce. That way the Bruteshot would bounce off the walls like in 2, and the Fuel Rod would explode on impact. No idea why they changed this in 3. The gun should also do extra melee damage because it has that giant blade on it (same goes for the other bladed weapons).
Plasma Rifles (Elite/Brute): For the Brute Plasma Rifles they’d function the same way as it did in 2 where the gun would fire faster, and overheat faster than the Elite Plasma Rifle. The Elite Plasma Rifle would remain the same as in vanilla where it fires slower, and heats up slower.
Shotgun: I was thinking that you could increase the range of the gun so that it’s actually useful. This could either be done by increasing the amount of pellets while keeping the default spread, or keep the same amount of pellets but tighten up the spread. This way you won’t have to be touching the enemy for it to work. It wouldn’t be CE levels of good, but still pretty good.
Turrets/Flamethrower: the movement speed should be changed to what it is in ODST so that you aren’t moving like a snail. The human, and Covenant turrets are pretty much perfect as they are, but just need their accuracy tightened. For the Flamethrower I was thinking that it’s range should be doubled so it can take out enemies from a distance (this will be relevant later)
Grenades: I really like how you gave the Plasma Grenade the lingering plasma. It really makes the grenade look super cool in the dark. Maybe you could give it the emp that it had in CE so that it stands out from the Spike Grenades. Did you increase the amount of spikes for the Spike Grenade, or are they just more visible in the dark? If you haven’t increased the amount of spikes you should do that they’d be the designed shrapnel bombs. For the human grenades I was thinking that you could make them bathe the area in light like the flares do. They’d stun nearby enemies, and are now flashbangs. This would really enhance the nighttime theme, and go along good with the tracer rounds.
Beam Rifle/Carbine: both of these weapons would do plasma damage so they stand out from their UNSC counterparts more. The Carbine would also have it’s firing rate increased since it doesn’t shoot 3 rounds at once.
Sentinel Beams: The normal Sentinel Beam is already good. It would be cool if you added in the Captain Sentinel Beam from Halo 2. As a way to have it stand out you could have it work like the blue beam in Crisp’s Halo 3 Zombies mod where it’s a sudo power weapon that charges up like a Spartan Laser. If possible you should make these things disintegrate targets upon death just like the 5/Infinite beams do. Plus, it would make sense for the lore because that’s exactly what those things are supposed to do. For the visual you could probably superimpose a recolored shield flare on the victim’s skin, as the body fades away, and despawns. That would be super cool.
Fusion/Plasma Coils: For the human Fusion Coils it would be really cool if you made them leave fire behind after they explode. For the Plasma Coils when they explode they should also create an emp making them a bigger version of the CE Plasma Grenades. For the Forerunner coils you should make them disintegrate enemies when they explode, and do the same to any bodies laying on the ground. That way all 3 coils would be really different from each other.
Human Sniper: for this gun I was thinking that you could have it fire four rounds quickly like in CE, and do chip damage to vehicles like Ruby’s mod. That way it would stand out more from the other sniper, and be more fun to use.
Human Pistols: the automag is already close to perfect, but it (and all silenced weapons) shouldn’t be able to alert enemies through sound (if they’ve already seen you this wouldn’t help adding making stealth be more fleshed out). The normal pistol would have a slightly increased range, slightly increased damage, and can do vehicle chip damage since it’s basically a hand cannon.
Assault Rifle: For this gun it would be a lot more fun to handle if you bumped up the clip size to 60 like in CE. In addition to that you could also make it be most accurate when firing the gun in bursts like Reach.
Sentinel Needles: this next one is kind of out there, and you could probably just discard this. In Halo 2 there’s a Sentinel that’s armed with a needler. The reason for this is because Bungie wanted to have some of them be able to use the Enforcer’s needles. Sadly they weren’t able to properly implement that. Based on all this I was thinking that you could add in a handheld Enforcer needler that drops from a new Sentinel type I’ll get into later. For the projectiles they’d do plasma damage as well as vehicle chip damage. My reasoning was that these things are super heated, and the Enforcers were used for vehicle combat in to so this is an extension of that. The needles would be red, don’t home in, travel faster, and don’t super combine. Functionally these are basically stronger versions of the Halo 4 Suppressors. If you use the Sentinel Beam for the weapon model a good way to differentiate it from the normal beam would be to make this one glow bright red, while the other is orange.
Equipment (if it’s not mentioned then it’s fine as it is. Also, a bunch of these are based on Ruby’s mod):
Deployable Cover: for this when used by the player the shield should have a buff to it’s health so the thing will actually be able to protect you. The shield emitter would still as vulnerable as the retail version is.
Trip Mines: Trip mines would have a buff to their damage, and range. They’d also have their self destruct timer disabled so that you could actually lay down traps for enemies.
Radar Jammer: for this thing I was thinking that it would be deployed by both Brute Stalkers, and Stealth Elites. It would have it’s range increased, and if possible you could replace the standard rolling one with the stationary Halo Online version. My reasoning for that is because it looks cooler, and there’s already a few things of equipment that role around. For certain sections they could be hidden in the corners of a room (these ones don’t run out, and need to be destroyed), and were set there so that you’d have a harder time locating the stealth units.
Power Drain: for this the only change would be to make it pop Infection Forms so that you can use it for safety in Flood levels like in Ruby’s mod.
Active Camo: this thing would have it’s timer increased from 10 seconds to 30 to mark it actually useful.
Do you think that you’ll make any drastic changes to this level once we get proper modding tools, or are you trying to keep this relatively lore accurate/close to vanilla but with a new look?
I was going I suggest that you add in the Engineers to the Ark because it would make thematic sense for them to use the things on a Forerunner installation. But then I realized that there aren’t that many places on the Ark where they’d work. Only a few sections outside would make sense, and the inside is too small for those things to be floating around.
I just love how all the different colored lights make different parts of the level look. It looks beautiful! The earlier version of the mod looks kind of bland in comparison. Having the option to use the night vision, and ODST weapons is a really cool choice. The tracer rounds, and muzzle flashes really enhance the nighttime atmosphere that you’ve built. Also, the louder sounds make the fights feel more intense. Great job!
Do you think that you might add in allied or enemy Elites? Or do you just want enemy Brutes? If you do add them they should function like they did in function in CE/2. Bunker Jeramy has an ODST mod where he got the enemy Elite scripting to work, and he lets people use it if they credit him. Also, thekaiserofchaos fixed a bunch of the Elite’s issues in his mod so you could probably see if he’ll help you with that. I will elaborate more on how Elites would function later.
I really like how all your allies have flashlights, and certain weapons have tracer rounds. This makes them more visible, and it looks cool. The louder gunfire is also a welcome change. Also, the addition of ODST allies, replacing the multiplayer Elites with ODSTs, and ODST weapons are a really good addition to the level.
Sentinels: I was thinking that you could add in the Sentinel Captains from Halo 2 (the gold ones that use the blue beams). These guys would be rare than the normal Sentinels, and are only located at a few select spots. There could also be more Sentinels on the Ark map. It would definitely be really cool to see the Covenant fighting those things. This next part is expanding on the Sentinel needler I mentioned earlier. These wouldn’t truly be a new Sentinel type. My idea is that 1-3 of the normal Sentinels (unshielded minors, and shielded majors) would be armed with this thing, and support the others. There could also be some Sentinels seen carrying around the Forerunner fusion coils like in Halo 2.
Grunts: For the visuals it would be cool if the lights on their masks and armor would slowly pulsate. For their behavior it would be cool if they were found sleeping more frequently with just a few patrolling. Both of these are meant to enhance the nighttime feel, and add some more opportunities for stealth. For ranks I was thinking that on higher difficulties the Heavies that don’t have Fuel Rods could be armed with Spikers. The reason for that is because in retail some of the Heavies in the Phantoms on the Ark have Spikers, and I thought it would would be a cool way to set them apart further from the other ranks. For the Ultras they’d pretty much stay the same, except now they can use the Plasma Pistol overcharge. You could also add in the Spec Ops Grunts from CE/2. They’d look best with black armor; and for their abilities/behaviors they’d never sleep, can use the charged shot, throw grenades more frequently and accurately than the other ranks, and they’d rarely flee. The Spec Ops Grunts could be your allies if you add in allied Elites to the mission, or just another enemy rank that fleshed out the Covenant military.
UNSC: For the marines you should increase their numbers, as well as making their melee kick animation do actual damage. Maybe you could also add in some ODST pods throughout the map. Both of those changes would really make the player feel mike they’re part of a small army that’s being bolstered with special forces (plus, the added allies would help out with the increased number of enemies that have been buffed). I like how you included ODSTs with their signature weapons in some of the marine squads. In the name of realism some of the ODSTs would have to be dead when you find them. That could be from slamming into the rocks too hard (think how the Rookies pod was wedged in a building, but crashed into solid rock), or they landed behind enemy lines and were simply out matched.
Jackals: For the Jackals you could make their eyes be visible like a cat’s eyes at night. You could also make the Jackals use the needler like in ODST, and all future games. I noticed that the Jackal shields had a color change. Was this an intentional change, or a side effect of making everything dark? Im assuming it wasn’t intentional because the same thing applies to deployable cover. Personally I’m not really a fan of it, but it makes the mod look more distinct. Do you think that you might add in the Jackal Ultra like in Ruby’s mod, or do you want this to stay fairly close to retail?
I really like how the Phantom’s undercarriage glows in the dark. It definitely brings out the game’s beauty. It would be cool if you gave the chin turrets the ODST searchlight, and made it so lots of normal weapons can destroy these guns. This idea is more of a maybe because it’s kind of crazy. For some of the Phantoms that just fly around, or only drop troops off through the gravelift you could make them a pink scarlet, and give them side turrets. It would be cool to see different Phantom types in combat.
A small change you could make to the Prowler would be to have it’s turret just spray spikes like it does in Halo 3 Demon mod. That way the thing would be more brutal (that was not meant as a pun), and make it more unique. Maybe you could add in the Spector. Greenknight has made a bunch of vehicles in Halos 3, and Reach that he lets people use as long as they credit him. That way the Covenant vehicle sandbox will feel even more varied.
Overall changes for Brutes. These are basically a mash up of things from Ruby’s Rebalanced, Halo 3 Demon mod, and this video (https://youtu.be/cL2zFh7cMUc):
Visuals: I really like how you gave the Brutes different armor colors so that the ranks stand out more. It’s definitely an improvement from the base game where it was a bunch of shades of blue that you couldn’t tell really apart. I like how they look like the Brutes did in the Halo 3 vidoc (https://youtu.be/WPOlLH8p8u8). I have two suggestions for visual changes. The first would be to change their blood from the weird purple with green/blue speckles to red like in Reach. My reasoning is because the way it looks in retail is weird, this would make them stand out a little bit more from the Elites and Jackals, and it would make them seem more mammalian (maybe you could also increase the overall amount of blood to what it was in CE/2. That way after a battle the sand will be just painted with human, and Covenant blood). The second would be to give them hair on their arms like in one of the early builds (https://youtu.be/aPHMVJdn2nM). While they’d unfortunately look kind of weird with the hair sticking out of their armor, I think it would make them look more in line with how they did in Halo 2, and give them some more visual flare. The hair makes them look a lot more Brutish, and stand out more from the rest of the Covenant. They’d still have beards and Mohawks.
Weapon use: for weapon use the Brutes would use the same guns they do in vanilla. But now they’d be armed with the Brute plasma Rifles, and use them with the same frequency they did in ODST. If possible you should give the Brutes the ability to dual wield their guns. Not only would this be a cool challenge, but it would also make them feel like proper counterparts to the Elites. It’s really weird how they were never seen dual wielding in any of the games. In the early Halo 3 Recon trailer you see Brutes dual wielding Spikers so you’d think that Bungie would have given them that ability (https://youtu.be/WroxHMo6B_k). This could probably be done through animation inheritance. I also think that they should be seen using human weapons during certain parts of the game. This would be stuff like when they’re at a crashed human vehicle, or if they have human prisoners. This would make it seem like they took the guns from the dead marines as trophies, and are now using them in combat. If they’re nearby a dead ODST they’d be armed with silenced weapons. It would also be really cool to see them shooting at you with the new tracer rounds. Most of the weapon animations are fine accept for the Assault Rifle, and smg animations. Those two need to be switched (no idea if that’s possible. Again, I apologize if these are nonsensical requests). (https://youtu.be/Yt1YGQRvjzY) This video shows off the Brutes using human weapons. They hold the sniper really good, and are seen using beam rifles at certain points in Tsavo Highway so maybe you could have some low level Brutes on the sniper nests (I’m not entirely sure about this idea myself).
AI Behaviors: For the way they behave they should actually act like Brutes. What I mean by that is be as aggressive as they were in 2. If the pack Brutes (Minors/Majors/Ultras, Jump Packs, and Stalkers), or Captains are holding small arms they’ll charge you the second they see you. They’d only really hang back if they’re armed with a Carbine or a Bruteshot, and charge you if you get too close. Bodyguards would hang back, and take cover so they can better protect their Chieftain. The Brutes would berserk when they’re the last man standing like in 2 (they’d have an increase to their speed, and melee so they become an actual threat when doing this). If you kill the Chieftain the entire pack goes ape, and you’d better have the firepower to take them out. They’d resist melee attacks, and flinch less often (bladed weapons, heavy weapons, and dedicated melee weapons would make things easier.). When they get within range they should start beating you to death, and have an increased melee damage (you should be scared to get in hand to hand combat with a Brute). In Ruby’s mod he made them immune to assassination, and I’m not sure if doing that in this mod is a good idea. But if you do they should still go down in one hit if they haven’t spotted you yet, and back smacking them in combat would do the same amount of damage as in vanilla. That way they wouldn’t go down easily in combat, but you’re still rewarded for getting behind them.
Ranks: All Brutes would have an increase to their base health, and each rank would have noticeably different armor strengths (they’d receive shields like in ODST. No idea why Bungie didn’t give them shields in 3). The Minors, Majors, Stalkers, and Jump Packs would still have fairly weak shields like the base game, and can be stunned fairly easily. For the changes to the ranks I was thinking that maybe you could add in the new jump pack Brute ranks from ODST, but give them a color ranking scheme that fits in with what you did so far. If funnyanyway lets you maybe you could give the high ranking Brutes chance to spawn with Shard Rifle from his Halo 2 Resurrection Revamp mod. It would be a cool way to implement a sew weapon without messing up the established sandbox. For the two Chieftains you could give both of them the invincibility equipment so that they’re both harder to kill. In addition to the Silenced Battle Rifle maybe you could see if thekaiserofchaos will let you use his Brute Trackers from his mod (he definitely did a really good job with that weapon. I love the sounds, and how it functions like the Halo 2 e3 version). They’re based on the cut Brute Tracker rank that was supposed to follow you around, has a green undersuit, and the Stalker’s armor; and in his mod they’re usually armed with human weapons, and are sent in to loot human locations/vehicles (they’d probably work best on Tsavo Highway or Crows Nest of you do either of those levels). For what I’m referring to as the “specialist ranks” (jump packs, stalkers, and trackers) they should all be armed with the firebombs so that you’ll see them used against you more often, and use them on the enemies more often.
Do you think that you’ll do other levels with a nighttime asthetic?
Some people suggested Sierra 117 as an option. A nighttime setting for that would definitely at to the feeling of being hunted. Crisp the guy who made Arrival, and the Halo 3 Zombies mod did a really good job of making the place darker so it can definitely be done.
Tsavo Highway would also be a really cool option. That would be super cool to have a convoy of Warthogs, and other vehicles in the night. The darkness would make it feel like Chief was knocked out for several hours, and only woke up when it got dark outside. Seeing all the different colored lights would make the place so much cooler.
Floodgate would also work really wellI was going to suggest that you do this treatment to the level Cortana. But then I played both, and came to the conclusion that Floodgate was the much better option. Not only is it actually fun to play, but the level has some variety when it comes to the visuals. You start off with the destroyed AA gun looming over the Ark portal, then you go through a familiar city setting that’s being overrun be the Flood, and ends with you entering the infected ship. While Cortana is just purple with a bunch of ugly brown. Floodgate is actually a good candidate for a night theme (I’m aware that it’s already dark, but the inside sections could be pitch black).>Plus, you wouldn’t have to make changes to High Charity like giving it the spores on Floodgate, or removing the annoying movement penalty that happens when Cortana/Gravemind speak to you.
Gameplay/visual changes to the Flood (these are a mix of Ruby’s Rebalanced, Halo 3 Demon, Crisp’s mods, Resurrection Revamp, and some of my own ideas):
Universal changes to the Flood would be giving all of them a pulsating sickly green glow like CE so you can actually see the hoard coming towards you. This would make them feel more eerie, and visually interesting. Oddly enough the carriers actually had the green glow, but none of the other Flood forms did. Infection Forms, Carrier Forms, and Flood eggs/blisters would glow the brightest like in CE (I’m aware the Flood pods weren’t in CE). Combat forms only glow in their infected flesh. Pure forms would faintly glow in patches across their bodies. Once they’re killed the glow would fade to indicate that they’re finally dead. All the different forms would be made super aggressive like one CE, rather than just standing around and occasionally charging you like in 2/3. Fighting the Flood should really feel like you’re up against a hoard that simply will not stop until you’re dead.
Combat forms:All combat forms with the acceptation of Brutes would be immune to headshots, but aiming for the core does double damage like in Crisp’s mod. That’s way you’d still have an incentive to shoot the infection form. They’d also have a slight melee resistance so it’s not as easy to crumple them like in retail (BAM! I just crumpled the kid! When are you going to stop playing games with God! https://youtu.be/pg6NUmd0Wfw If that Pastor actually did that it’s obviously horrible, and he should be in jail. But the way he phrased everything, and told the story was absolutely hilarious.). They’d still break into pieces under enough abuse. You could also increase the amount of Flood blood so that when you break them the ground gets painted with their disgusting fluids.
Human forms: I was thinking that it would be cool if you added in the new civilian/dockworker Flood forms that were originally supposed to be in the Season 8 update (https://youtu.be/kAaDtYVcBhk). It would make perfect sense for these guys to be present because this takes place in a city, and it would be really cool to see those poor guys get infected. If possible you could even add in some ODST human forms.
Elite forms: For the Elite combat forms I was thinking that there would be different ranks, and each has a different level of shield strength. The way they were done in Crisp’s mod or Ruby’s mod would be a good base. If you include the cloaked Flood from the base game they shouldn’t have shields because they’re already invisible. To balance out the fact that they have shields they should have low health. That way they won’t be super annoying.
Brute forms: The Brute forms would be more resistant to melee hits, and can rank more fire power than the other two forms. To balance this out they’d remain as the only combat forms that are headshotable. This way they won’t be super over powered.
Infector forms (I’m including the eggs/pods):
Carriers: Carriers would have their speed increased, and the amount of Infection Forms they spawn doubled to make these things more of an active threat. They’d also have their health decreased because it was at a ridiculous level in the base game. To balance this out you could add in the cut Jackal shield carrier forms that were originally supposed to be in Halo 2. This would not only show that the Flood are using Jackals as carriers, and not just for biomass. It would also add in a Flood form that can’t easily be taken out from the front. Although, these things wouldn’t be as common as the normal carriers. You’d also see carriers spawn with the combat forms to add some more variety in the Flood ranks. It would also incentivize the player to pop those things to take out the group a lot easier.
Infection Forms: for these things they’d be more common on Flood Gate where they’d accompany the other Flood forms. They’d also prioritize reanimating bodies, and only scatter when there’s a grenade nearby (given that the Gravemind is in control of them it would make sense for these things to make a few intelligent decisions).
Eggs/Pods: the infection form count would be increased so that these things are even more dangerous, and makes the player be a lot more careful around them. Two other changes would be to make them get splattered by vehicles, and make it so you can actually melee the things without your shields taking damage.
Pure Forms:
Tanks: For the Tanks they wouldn’t stop charging at you, and only slow down to cover their heads after enough sustained fire. Their bodies would resist damage encouraging you to aim for the head. They’d also vomit out infection forms more frequently (this could be because they’re surrounded with bodies to reanimate, or if they’re far away from you).
Stalkers: they would remain pretty much the same accept they’d be far more likely to attack you if you corner them cornered.
Ranged Forms: the only change I can think of for these guys is to make them headshotable to make them less annoying.
Some changes to the level (this includes encounters, and environmental changes):It would be really cool if when you started the level you’d spawn with a small squad of marines, and the civilians/dockworkers. This would make sense because the player would have probably assaulted the AA gun with a small squad, and give the player a false sense of security because they think that they’ll be safe in a squad. You’d also see the civilians in more parts of the level (I got this idea from funnyanyway’s Flood Gate mod, and thought it was a cool idea). The various bodies scattered around the map would be laying in a pool of their own blood which would give the level an even more visceral atmosphere, and make it truly feel like there was a previous battle before the Flood came. There could be more encounters where you see human squads get overwhelmed by the Flood before you can get there to save them showing that your efforts to save people are largely futile (this could be done by having infection forms drop from the ceiling, or combat forms dropping down). There would be some areas where you see lesser Covenant (Grunts, Drones, Jackals) piled up with trails of blood implying that the Flood dragged them there like they were doing on Keyes in CE. When you get to the ship it would be cool if on the inside you’d see the different Covenant grown into the walls showing that they’ve been used for biomass. They’d each have a look of agony on their faces. This idea is loosely based on how Keyes was part of the Proto-Gravemind, but scaled up. All of this is meant to really add to the feeling of horror, and show just how bad the Flood actually are. This next idea is kind of out there: if you add in enemy Elites it would be cool if you could see them tearing through the Flood on their way to the ship. In one of the rooms towards the end you’d see a group of Elites fighting alongside Spec Ops Grunts (one of the Elites would be armed with a flamethrower to add in a new challenge, and make it look like they were really desperate). The Phantom would drop off a squad at the end. My reasoning behind this is it would make it feel like you’re racing against the Elites to get to the Flood ship before they do so you can get Cortana first. Plus, this would add in some much needed enemy variety that brings a new challenge to the level. For this other part it’s just a little bit more crazy, and I’m not entirely sure about it myself. Maybe you could add in some Banshees to the open areas to make it look like the Elites are even more involved. To fix make them more noticeable you could make their green cockpit glow so the player can actually see them. Those missile pods from The Storm would be present so you can actually deal with them.
What do you think of this idea? Do you think that there is any chance of you making this, or probably not? The reason why I’m not the one making this despite having all these fleshed out ideas is because I don’t know how to code. Again, sorry if this comes across as some guy showing up out of the blue, and making irrational demands. Any grammatical errors are the result of me adding to this list over a long time, and making edits. If an idea is truly asinine the reason is because I had a weird idea that I then realized was actually a bad idea, and simply forgot to remove it.
Here’s a list of ideas for how the Elites could work if you add them in as enemies, or allies:
In the base game for whatever bizarre reason the Brutes would stand back to shoot at you, and only ever charge you if they had a dedicated melee weapon or were going berserk. While the Elites would aggressively charge the enemy, and almost never used cover. In other words both races did the exact opposite of what they should have been doing. The Brutes are supposed to be really aggressive, and actively hunt down the player in a big group. While the Elites operate more individually, and charge you under certain conditions. Now that my little rant is out of the way I will talk about how they could be made distinct, won’t overlap too much with the Brutes.
Ai Behaviors:As I said in the previous thing the Elites lacked self preservation, and were way too aggressive. To fix this they’d stand back while the other troops approach the player. When the player gets too close, or when going berserk they would then charge you. When you’re in a certain range they’d try to flank you, while running in and out of cover. When berserking they’d be about as reckless as they are in vanilla. They’d take cover when their shields are down, and move a lot more than the default Brutes do when shooting you.
Weapon Use:For weapon use if they’re enemies it would make sense for them to only ever use standard Covenant weapons (no Brute weapons). The reason for that is before the Great Schism they saw using human weapons as heresy, and uncivilized. This would make them stand out more from the Brutes. If they’re your allies then it would make sense for them to be seen bringing human guns into combat, and something dual wielding human small arms. Either one of those would be really cool. You could make them not just dual wield the standard plasma rifles but also the needlers (maybe only the Elites could be the only ones dual wield the guns. Kind of like how only the Elites could dual wield in Reach), and plasma pistols. Inside and around a Forerunner structures some of the Elites could be armed with the Sentinel Beams. This would be a callback to the Heretic Elites that did this in 2, and would add a little bit more variety.
Equipment Use: If you have Elites as enemies it would make them feel more dynamic if they could also use equipment. They’d use most of the same things as the Brutes accept for the Bubble Shields, and trip mines (I’m pretty sure that the jump packs use trip mines on Tsavo Highway. That or those things were just laying around for the player to use) because none of those would make much sense. Instead they’d have the radar jammers, and active camo (I’m aware that the Brute Stalkers already have this. This will apply to more than just one rank, and have different variations). My idea was that when using the radar jammer combined with camo it would make cloaked enemies harder to spot making certain encounters more challenging.
Ranks: Overall changes to that ranks would be that each class has a different level of shielding. This is based on how I’m both Reach and CE the Elite ranks all had different shield values making each progressively harder. Minors, Majors, and Stealth all wear the normal harness, while the rest have unique armor like in Ruby’s mod. This would make the higher ranks feel more distinct, while still feeling like a cohesive military.
Minors: They’d behave pretty much the same way as they do in CE/2 where they’re the lowest Elites. They’re the most likely to rush you when their shields break like in CE.
Majors: These guys have stronger shields than the Minors, are more likely to take cover, and less likely to go berserk.
Ultras: Ultras would behave pretty much the same as the Majors, but when you get too close they’d go berserk and pull out an energy sword like in 2 (I have absolutely no idea why Bungie didn’t make them this trait in Reach). Their shields would be even stronger than the Majors, but it wouldn’t be completely overkill like it was in 2. It would be more akin to how they were in Reach. They’d also be armed with the Commando armor pieces so that they’ll stand out more from the other ranks.
Spec Ops: These guys would behave the same as they did in CE/2 where they don’t berserk much, use cover frequently, and frequently throw grenades (luckily they already do this in retail). Their shield strength would be slightly below the Ultras. Since they could cloak in Halo 2 and Reach I was thinking that they would have camo as equipment. This wouldn’t last forever, and they’d charge you when it’s active. This would also only happen for certain encounters like how you only fight cloaked Spec Ops towards the end of Gravemind in 2. Just like in retail they’d use the Assault armor, but would be black like CE, and they’d usually be accompanied by Spec Ops Grunts. I was also thinking that they’d be the only Elites that are armed with the Captain Sentinel Beams since those are pretty much power weapons.
Zealots: Zealots would have the highest shield strength of all the Elites, have the Ascetic armor, are usually armed with either an energy sword or a power weapon. They’d leap at you, run slightly faster than you, and can also throw grenades to smoke you out. I’m not sure if this is a good idea or not, but maybe you could give them the invincibility equipment to make them an even bigger threat (you’d still be able to back smack them).
Pilots/Rangers: These guys would wear the Flight harness, have a teal armor color, and a fairly weak shield on par with the Minors. They’d mostly be seen piloting Banshees. Although there would be some encounters where they’d fly around like they did in 2. They’d usually be found in groups of 2-3, and would be pretty dangerous in the sky. We know it’s possible to make them fly like they did in 2 because this guy called Kian K. made some flying Elites in 3. (https://youtu.be/yFtDN9TVEg4https://youtu.be/4TK7qji3keUhttps://youtu.be/N_T_kmdviCQ). Unfortunately they wouldn’t have their jet packs like in 2, but the glowing lights on their feet make them look like they have rocket boots. This guy definitely did a good job with this. Plus, this was done long before the mod tools released. I think the way it was done was by giving the Elites a flight property like what the Drones have.
Stealth: For the Stealth rank it would have light gray armor like Halo 2. They’d also be armed with the energy swords, travel in pairs, and rush the player. I’m not sure if they should have no shields but higher health like in CE, or weak shields that regenerate fast like 2/Reach. These guys are permanently cloaked.
Vehicle Use: The Elites would use the standard Covenant vehicles like the Banshees, Wraiths, Ghosts, and the Spectors. Maybe you could make them jump on the Warthog turrets like in Reach to make them more of a threat. If they’re on your side then they’d be able to ride on the Scorpion, and accompany the player in more areas.
Again I apologize if any of this comes across as the nonsensical demands of some random guy. You’ve definitely done a very good job so far with your mod. It will be cool to see what new stuff you come up with next. I also apologize for the amount of reputation in this long comment.
Oh wow that is a wall of text lol. I'll try to address everything but if I forget something let me know.
Weapons: So I plan for the most part, keeping the game as vanilla as possible however there are a couple changes I might make since I kind of already made some changes so a few more might not hurt. You are right, the brute plasma rifles should be in there somewhere! I'll have to work on trying to find some brutes to use them. And the shotgun should have better range, I mean after all, the sword can just lunge at you and the shotgun you basically have to be touching them. For the grenades, I actually didn't touch them much but if would be interesting to make them more "deadly". And I really want a flash bang too but would probably take some time so it is low priority. For the sniper rifle, it might be neat to make it more of an Anti-material rifle but now I'm wondering if I should just keep all these ideas and save them for sort of "rebalancing" mod. As for the automag (and other suppressed things) I actually did make the impact/firing sound completely undetectable by the AI (kinda funny to shoot right next to a sleeping grunt and they don't notice) but I think I forgot it this time around (oops). A simple fix. I personally changed the assault rifle (only change that isn't quite vanilla) to be more accurate and do more headshot damage is it is actually usable a stuff. Trip mines I will change to have infinite time and stuff to make them more usable (which actually exist already but are only found on Tsavo highway in the hut where the marines are holding out after you ditch the warthog). Active camo time needs to be increased too.
I think engineers would be pretty cool but there aren't any models or ai readily available yet so maybe someday. Allied elites would actually be a very cool addition to the level especially since I believe there were supposed to be elites joining you in the beginning (at least from what I heard in cut dialog still in the game files). The sentinel idea is feasible, something that would take some time lol. I think more sleeping grunts would be nice to add to so the level would have more stealth parts. I didn't notice the jackal shields color changing but I'll have to look at it. It might be because of the lighting. I think I may have seen a red elite turn orange which would be a strange side effect of the mod to say the least.
I actually really wanted to add the searchlight to the phantom and totally forgot. I have gotten pretty good at adding lights to things {see my future sandtrap mod coming out soon ;) } so it is a definite for the next version. I actually made a spiker prowler a while ago and I thought it made more since so maybe I'll do it again for shits and giggles. Maybe give it a higher caliber spiker. A mini skewer machine gun. You also gave me the idea to add them to the big scarab battle since you only see the prowler like 2 times in the campaign. I also think the Spector would be a nice addition so I'll look into that.
Will I do other levels? Absolutely! I am actually working on the next level (the covenant) which will be ready soon. I plan to do the whole campaign unless the level looks really weird with the changes. Also, when/if I do Cortana/any level with the stupid Cortana/gravemind screen shake/slowdown/annoy, I will definitely get rid of it. I know exactly where in the script to delete it and stuff.
I've given the flood some glowing green parts before (in a cursed mod I made that was broken before I could release it) and they look pretty cool like glowing ones from Fallout. But I'll probably keep them the same in this mod for vanilla reasons.
I would love to make a very atmospheric flood level given some time with all those ideas! Its too bad I couldn't have done it before Halloween came around lol. There is always next year.
Ai behaviour is hard to mess with but I'll try it out and see what I do. I was able to make the ai less perceptive so maybe I can do other things.
Overall I'll be looking back at this post if I ever run out of ideas lol. Keep posted for future updates!
Hey! Thanks for creating such a great video! I will definitely be featuring the video here when I get a chance. I'm currently in the process of implementing a lot of cool additions so stay tuned!
To make everything "darker", I modified the "levels\solo\070_waste\sky\waste" camera_fx_settings (cfxs) tag. In there, I messed around with the exposure section especially with the Range by setting the maximum exposure to 0 (from 4) and the minimum to -5 (from 0.5). I also ticked away the "auto-adjust target" and "fixed" flags and set the exposure to -5. On some levels it looks great, on others, not so much.
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Some of my ideas could be used for other levels if you make them night missions as well. Some of these ideas might not be possible even with the new modding tools. I know almost nothing about programming so I’m not sure how hard this stuff would be to implement. If any of this is unreasonable just ignore it.
Weapon tweaks (some of these are based on Ruby’s mod, some other mods, and things that I thought would be cool). If I don’t mention a gun it’s perfectly fine as it is:
- Overall changes for Plasma Weapons: Plasma weapons would do better against shields so they stand out more from bullets. I have two mutually exclusive ideas for making the plasma weapons have an increased longevity in the hands of the player. The first is to make them more efficient, and have their battery count increased so you can use the gun longer. The other is to keep the battery as it is but when either standing right by a plasma battery/coil the gun would slowly refill it’s charge, or when standing over a weapon of the same type it would start slowly siphoning off charge. Once it reaches 100% the thing would overheat. This second idea is based on a mix of spv3’s recharging stations, this video discussing if plasma weapons should be able to be charged (https://youtu.be/telnLQvbmWU), and how in Infinite the (https://youtu.be/XWXlk5Cinho). Although, this feels more natural than what they did in Infinite.
- Bullets: I really like how you gave most of the UNSC weapons tracer rounds. They look really cool, and add to the nighttime environment. You could increase the ammo count for the various projectile weapons. As well as doing less damage to shields, and more damage to health.
- Heavy weapons like the Fuel Rod, Rocket Launcher, and Spartan Laser would have their melee damage increased since you’re smacking someone over the head with a really heavy gun.
- Dual Wielding: For dual wielding the accuracy penalty, and damage nerf should be outright removed. The reason for this is because both those new mechanics defeat the whole point of dual wielding.
- Needler: For the Needler I was thinking that you could give the super combine an emp, and increase the clip size for ammo. Increasing the clip size has the side effect of making the needles bigger which looks a lot cooler. As a way to make these changes not be overpowered it would take more needles to super combine.
- Bruteshot: For the Bruteshot I was thinking that it, and the Furl Rod should swap their projectile bounce. That way the Bruteshot would bounce off the walls like in 2, and the Fuel Rod would explode on impact. No idea why they changed this in 3. The gun should also do extra melee damage because it has that giant blade on it (same goes for the other bladed weapons).
- Plasma Rifles (Elite/Brute): For the Brute Plasma Rifles they’d function the same way as it did in 2 where the gun would fire faster, and overheat faster than the Elite Plasma Rifle. The Elite Plasma Rifle would remain the same as in vanilla where it fires slower, and heats up slower.
- Shotgun: I was thinking that you could increase the range of the gun so that it’s actually useful. This could either be done by increasing the amount of pellets while keeping the default spread, or keep the same amount of pellets but tighten up the spread. This way you won’t have to be touching the enemy for it to work. It wouldn’t be CE levels of good, but still pretty good.
- Turrets/Flamethrower: the movement speed should be changed to what it is in ODST so that you aren’t moving like a snail. The human, and Covenant turrets are pretty much perfect as they are, but just need their accuracy tightened. For the Flamethrower I was thinking that it’s range should be doubled so it can take out enemies from a distance (this will be relevant later)
- Grenades: I really like how you gave the Plasma Grenade the lingering plasma. It really makes the grenade look super cool in the dark. Maybe you could give it the emp that it had in CE so that it stands out from the Spike Grenades. Did you increase the amount of spikes for the Spike Grenade, or are they just more visible in the dark? If you haven’t increased the amount of spikes you should do that they’d be the designed shrapnel bombs. For the human grenades I was thinking that you could make them bathe the area in light like the flares do. They’d stun nearby enemies, and are now flashbangs. This would really enhance the nighttime theme, and go along good with the tracer rounds.
- Beam Rifle/Carbine: both of these weapons would do plasma damage so they stand out from their UNSC counterparts more. The Carbine would also have it’s firing rate increased since it doesn’t shoot 3 rounds at once.
- Sentinel Beams: The normal Sentinel Beam is already good. It would be cool if you added in the Captain Sentinel Beam from Halo 2. As a way to have it stand out you could have it work like the blue beam in Crisp’s Halo 3 Zombies mod where it’s a sudo power weapon that charges up like a Spartan Laser. If possible you should make these things disintegrate targets upon death just like the 5/Infinite beams do. Plus, it would make sense for the lore because that’s exactly what those things are supposed to do. For the visual you could probably superimpose a recolored shield flare on the victim’s skin, as the body fades away, and despawns. That would be super cool.
- Fusion/Plasma Coils: For the human Fusion Coils it would be really cool if you made them leave fire behind after they explode. For the Plasma Coils when they explode they should also create an emp making them a bigger version of the CE Plasma Grenades. For the Forerunner coils you should make them disintegrate enemies when they explode, and do the same to any bodies laying on the ground. That way all 3 coils would be really different from each other.
- Human Sniper: for this gun I was thinking that you could have it fire four rounds quickly like in CE, and do chip damage to vehicles like Ruby’s mod. That way it would stand out more from the other sniper, and be more fun to use.
- Human Pistols: the automag is already close to perfect, but it (and all silenced weapons) shouldn’t be able to alert enemies through sound (if they’ve already seen you this wouldn’t help adding making stealth be more fleshed out). The normal pistol would have a slightly increased range, slightly increased damage, and can do vehicle chip damage since it’s basically a hand cannon.
- Assault Rifle: For this gun it would be a lot more fun to handle if you bumped up the clip size to 60 like in CE. In addition to that you could also make it be most accurate when firing the gun in bursts like Reach.
- Sentinel Needles: this next one is kind of out there, and you could probably just discard this. In Halo 2 there’s a Sentinel that’s armed with a needler. The reason for this is because Bungie wanted to have some of them be able to use the Enforcer’s needles. Sadly they weren’t able to properly implement that. Based on all this I was thinking that you could add in a handheld Enforcer needler that drops from a new Sentinel type I’ll get into later. For the projectiles they’d do plasma damage as well as vehicle chip damage. My reasoning was that these things are super heated, and the Enforcers were used for vehicle combat in to so this is an extension of that. The needles would be red, don’t home in, travel faster, and don’t super combine. Functionally these are basically stronger versions of the Halo 4 Suppressors. If you use the Sentinel Beam for the weapon model a good way to differentiate it from the normal beam would be to make this one glow bright red, while the other is orange.
Equipment (if it’s not mentioned then it’s fine as it is. Also, a bunch of these are based on Ruby’s mod):
- Deployable Cover: for this when used by the player the shield should have a buff to it’s health so the thing will actually be able to protect you. The shield emitter would still as vulnerable as the retail version is.
- Trip Mines: Trip mines would have a buff to their damage, and range. They’d also have their self destruct timer disabled so that you could actually lay down traps for enemies.
- Radar Jammer: for this thing I was thinking that it would be deployed by both Brute Stalkers, and Stealth Elites. It would have it’s range increased, and if possible you could replace the standard rolling one with the stationary Halo Online version. My reasoning for that is because it looks cooler, and there’s already a few things of equipment that role around. For certain sections they could be hidden in the corners of a room (these ones don’t run out, and need to be destroyed), and were set there so that you’d have a harder time locating the stealth units.
- Power Drain: for this the only change would be to make it pop Infection Forms so that you can use it for safety in Flood levels like in Ruby’s mod.
- Active Camo: this thing would have it’s timer increased from 10 seconds to 30 to mark it actually useful.
Do you think that you’ll make any drastic changes to this level once we get proper modding tools, or are you trying to keep this relatively lore accurate/close to vanilla but with a new look?I was going I suggest that you add in the Engineers to the Ark because it would make thematic sense for them to use the things on a Forerunner installation. But then I realized that there aren’t that many places on the Ark where they’d work. Only a few sections outside would make sense, and the inside is too small for those things to be floating around.
I just love how all the different colored lights make different parts of the level look. It looks beautiful! The earlier version of the mod looks kind of bland in comparison. Having the option to use the night vision, and ODST weapons is a really cool choice. The tracer rounds, and muzzle flashes really enhance the nighttime atmosphere that you’ve built. Also, the louder sounds make the fights feel more intense. Great job!
Do you think that you might add in allied or enemy Elites? Or do you just want enemy Brutes? If you do add them they should function like they did in function in CE/2. Bunker Jeramy has an ODST mod where he got the enemy Elite scripting to work, and he lets people use it if they credit him. Also, thekaiserofchaos fixed a bunch of the Elite’s issues in his mod so you could probably see if he’ll help you with that. I will elaborate more on how Elites would function later.
I really like how all your allies have flashlights, and certain weapons have tracer rounds. This makes them more visible, and it looks cool. The louder gunfire is also a welcome change. Also, the addition of ODST allies, replacing the multiplayer Elites with ODSTs, and ODST weapons are a really good addition to the level.
Sentinels: I was thinking that you could add in the Sentinel Captains from Halo 2 (the gold ones that use the blue beams). These guys would be rare than the normal Sentinels, and are only located at a few select spots. There could also be more Sentinels on the Ark map. It would definitely be really cool to see the Covenant fighting those things. This next part is expanding on the Sentinel needler I mentioned earlier. These wouldn’t truly be a new Sentinel type. My idea is that 1-3 of the normal Sentinels (unshielded minors, and shielded majors) would be armed with this thing, and support the others. There could also be some Sentinels seen carrying around the Forerunner fusion coils like in Halo 2.
Grunts: For the visuals it would be cool if the lights on their masks and armor would slowly pulsate. For their behavior it would be cool if they were found sleeping more frequently with just a few patrolling. Both of these are meant to enhance the nighttime feel, and add some more opportunities for stealth. For ranks I was thinking that on higher difficulties the Heavies that don’t have Fuel Rods could be armed with Spikers. The reason for that is because in retail some of the Heavies in the Phantoms on the Ark have Spikers, and I thought it would would be a cool way to set them apart further from the other ranks. For the Ultras they’d pretty much stay the same, except now they can use the Plasma Pistol overcharge. You could also add in the Spec Ops Grunts from CE/2. They’d look best with black armor; and for their abilities/behaviors they’d never sleep, can use the charged shot, throw grenades more frequently and accurately than the other ranks, and they’d rarely flee. The Spec Ops Grunts could be your allies if you add in allied Elites to the mission, or just another enemy rank that fleshed out the Covenant military.
UNSC: For the marines you should increase their numbers, as well as making their melee kick animation do actual damage. Maybe you could also add in some ODST pods throughout the map. Both of those changes would really make the player feel mike they’re part of a small army that’s being bolstered with special forces (plus, the added allies would help out with the increased number of enemies that have been buffed). I like how you included ODSTs with their signature weapons in some of the marine squads. In the name of realism some of the ODSTs would have to be dead when you find them. That could be from slamming into the rocks too hard (think how the Rookies pod was wedged in a building, but crashed into solid rock), or they landed behind enemy lines and were simply out matched.
Jackals: For the Jackals you could make their eyes be visible like a cat’s eyes at night. You could also make the Jackals use the needler like in ODST, and all future games. I noticed that the Jackal shields had a color change. Was this an intentional change, or a side effect of making everything dark? Im assuming it wasn’t intentional because the same thing applies to deployable cover. Personally I’m not really a fan of it, but it makes the mod look more distinct. Do you think that you might add in the Jackal Ultra like in Ruby’s mod, or do you want this to stay fairly close to retail?
I really like how the Phantom’s undercarriage glows in the dark. It definitely brings out the game’s beauty. It would be cool if you gave the chin turrets the ODST searchlight, and made it so lots of normal weapons can destroy these guns. This idea is more of a maybe because it’s kind of crazy. For some of the Phantoms that just fly around, or only drop troops off through the gravelift you could make them a pink scarlet, and give them side turrets. It would be cool to see different Phantom types in combat.
A small change you could make to the Prowler would be to have it’s turret just spray spikes like it does in Halo 3 Demon mod. That way the thing would be more brutal (that was not meant as a pun), and make it more unique. Maybe you could add in the Spector. Greenknight has made a bunch of vehicles in Halos 3, and Reach that he lets people use as long as they credit him. That way the Covenant vehicle sandbox will feel even more varied.
Overall changes for Brutes. These are basically a mash up of things from Ruby’s Rebalanced, Halo 3 Demon mod, and this video (https://youtu.be/cL2zFh7cMUc):
Visuals: I really like how you gave the Brutes different armor colors so that the ranks stand out more. It’s definitely an improvement from the base game where it was a bunch of shades of blue that you couldn’t tell really apart. I like how they look like the Brutes did in the Halo 3 vidoc (https://youtu.be/WPOlLH8p8u8). I have two suggestions for visual changes. The first would be to change their blood from the weird purple with green/blue speckles to red like in Reach. My reasoning is because the way it looks in retail is weird, this would make them stand out a little bit more from the Elites and Jackals, and it would make them seem more mammalian (maybe you could also increase the overall amount of blood to what it was in CE/2. That way after a battle the sand will be just painted with human, and Covenant blood). The second would be to give them hair on their arms like in one of the early builds (https://youtu.be/aPHMVJdn2nM). While they’d unfortunately look kind of weird with the hair sticking out of their armor, I think it would make them look more in line with how they did in Halo 2, and give them some more visual flare. The hair makes them look a lot more Brutish, and stand out more from the rest of the Covenant. They’d still have beards and Mohawks.
Weapon use: for weapon use the Brutes would use the same guns they do in vanilla. But now they’d be armed with the Brute plasma Rifles, and use them with the same frequency they did in ODST. If possible you should give the Brutes the ability to dual wield their guns. Not only would this be a cool challenge, but it would also make them feel like proper counterparts to the Elites. It’s really weird how they were never seen dual wielding in any of the games. In the early Halo 3 Recon trailer you see Brutes dual wielding Spikers so you’d think that Bungie would have given them that ability (https://youtu.be/WroxHMo6B_k). This could probably be done through animation inheritance. I also think that they should be seen using human weapons during certain parts of the game. This would be stuff like when they’re at a crashed human vehicle, or if they have human prisoners. This would make it seem like they took the guns from the dead marines as trophies, and are now using them in combat. If they’re nearby a dead ODST they’d be armed with silenced weapons. It would also be really cool to see them shooting at you with the new tracer rounds. Most of the weapon animations are fine accept for the Assault Rifle, and smg animations. Those two need to be switched (no idea if that’s possible. Again, I apologize if these are nonsensical requests). (https://youtu.be/Yt1YGQRvjzY) This video shows off the Brutes using human weapons. They hold the sniper really good, and are seen using beam rifles at certain points in Tsavo Highway so maybe you could have some low level Brutes on the sniper nests (I’m not entirely sure about this idea myself).
AI Behaviors:
For the way they behave they should actually act like Brutes. What I mean by that is be as aggressive as they were in 2. If the pack Brutes (Minors/Majors/Ultras, Jump Packs, and Stalkers), or Captains are holding small arms they’ll charge you the second they see you. They’d only really hang back if they’re armed with a Carbine or a Bruteshot, and charge you if you get too close. Bodyguards would hang back, and take cover so they can better protect their Chieftain. The Brutes would berserk when they’re the last man standing like in 2 (they’d have an increase to their speed, and melee so they become an actual threat when doing this). If you kill the Chieftain the entire pack goes ape, and you’d better have the firepower to take them out. They’d resist melee attacks, and flinch less often (bladed weapons, heavy weapons, and dedicated melee weapons would make things easier.). When they get within range they should start beating you to death, and have an increased melee damage (you should be scared to get in hand to hand combat with a Brute). In Ruby’s mod he made them immune to assassination, and I’m not sure if doing that in this mod is a good idea. But if you do they should still go down in one hit if they haven’t spotted you yet, and back smacking them in combat would do the same amount of damage as in vanilla. That way they wouldn’t go down easily in combat, but you’re still rewarded for getting behind them.
Ranks: All Brutes would have an increase to their base health, and each rank would have noticeably different armor strengths (they’d receive shields like in ODST. No idea why Bungie didn’t give them shields in 3). The Minors, Majors, Stalkers, and Jump Packs would still have fairly weak shields like the base game, and can be stunned fairly easily. For the changes to the ranks I was thinking that maybe you could add in the new jump pack Brute ranks from ODST, but give them a color ranking scheme that fits in with what you did so far. If funnyanyway lets you maybe you could give the high ranking Brutes chance to spawn with Shard Rifle from his Halo 2 Resurrection Revamp mod. It would be a cool way to implement a sew weapon without messing up the established sandbox. For the two Chieftains you could give both of them the invincibility equipment so that they’re both harder to kill. In addition to the Silenced Battle Rifle maybe you could see if thekaiserofchaos will let you use his Brute Trackers from his mod (he definitely did a really good job with that weapon. I love the sounds, and how it functions like the Halo 2 e3 version). They’re based on the cut Brute Tracker rank that was supposed to follow you around, has a green undersuit, and the Stalker’s armor; and in his mod they’re usually armed with human weapons, and are sent in to loot human locations/vehicles (they’d probably work best on Tsavo Highway or Crows Nest of you do either of those levels). For what I’m referring to as the “specialist ranks” (jump packs, stalkers, and trackers) they should all be armed with the firebombs so that you’ll see them used against you more often, and use them on the enemies more often.
Do you think that you’ll do other levels with a nighttime asthetic?
Some people suggested Sierra 117 as an option. A nighttime setting for that would definitely at to the feeling of being hunted. Crisp the guy who made Arrival, and the Halo 3 Zombies mod did a really good job of making the place darker so it can definitely be done.
Tsavo Highway would also be a really cool option. That would be super cool to have a convoy of Warthogs, and other vehicles in the night. The darkness would make it feel like Chief was knocked out for several hours, and only woke up when it got dark outside. Seeing all the different colored lights would make the place so much cooler.
Floodgate would also work really wellI was going to suggest that you do this treatment to the level Cortana. But then I played both, and came to the conclusion that Floodgate was the much better option. Not only is it actually fun to play, but the level has some variety when it comes to the visuals. You start off with the destroyed AA gun looming over the Ark portal, then you go through a familiar city setting that’s being overrun be the Flood, and ends with you entering the infected ship. While Cortana is just purple with a bunch of ugly brown. Floodgate is actually a good candidate for a night theme (I’m aware that it’s already dark, but the inside sections could be pitch black).>Plus, you wouldn’t have to make changes to High Charity like giving it the spores on Floodgate, or removing the annoying movement penalty that happens when Cortana/Gravemind speak to you.
Gameplay/visual changes to the Flood (these are a mix of Ruby’s Rebalanced, Halo 3 Demon, Crisp’s mods, Resurrection Revamp, and some of my own ideas):
Universal changes to the Flood would be giving all of them a pulsating sickly green glow like CE so you can actually see the hoard coming towards you. This would make them feel more eerie, and visually interesting. Oddly enough the carriers actually had the green glow, but none of the other Flood forms did. Infection Forms, Carrier Forms, and Flood eggs/blisters would glow the brightest like in CE (I’m aware the Flood pods weren’t in CE). Combat forms only glow in their infected flesh. Pure forms would faintly glow in patches across their bodies. Once they’re killed the glow would fade to indicate that they’re finally dead. All the different forms would be made super aggressive like one CE, rather than just standing around and occasionally charging you like in 2/3. Fighting the Flood should really feel like you’re up against a hoard that simply will not stop until you’re dead.
Combat forms:All combat forms with the acceptation of Brutes would be immune to headshots, but aiming for the core does double damage like in Crisp’s mod. That’s way you’d still have an incentive to shoot the infection form. They’d also have a slight melee resistance so it’s not as easy to crumple them like in retail (BAM! I just crumpled the kid! When are you going to stop playing games with God! https://youtu.be/pg6NUmd0Wfw If that Pastor actually did that it’s obviously horrible, and he should be in jail. But the way he phrased everything, and told the story was absolutely hilarious.). They’d still break into pieces under enough abuse. You could also increase the amount of Flood blood so that when you break them the ground gets painted with their disgusting fluids.
Infector forms (I’m including the eggs/pods):
Pure Forms:
Some changes to the level (this includes encounters, and environmental changes):It would be really cool if when you started the level you’d spawn with a small squad of marines, and the civilians/dockworkers. This would make sense because the player would have probably assaulted the AA gun with a small squad, and give the player a false sense of security because they think that they’ll be safe in a squad. You’d also see the civilians in more parts of the level (I got this idea from funnyanyway’s Flood Gate mod, and thought it was a cool idea). The various bodies scattered around the map would be laying in a pool of their own blood which would give the level an even more visceral atmosphere, and make it truly feel like there was a previous battle before the Flood came. There could be more encounters where you see human squads get overwhelmed by the Flood before you can get there to save them showing that your efforts to save people are largely futile (this could be done by having infection forms drop from the ceiling, or combat forms dropping down). There would be some areas where you see lesser Covenant (Grunts, Drones, Jackals) piled up with trails of blood implying that the Flood dragged them there like they were doing on Keyes in CE. When you get to the ship it would be cool if on the inside you’d see the different Covenant grown into the walls showing that they’ve been used for biomass. They’d each have a look of agony on their faces. This idea is loosely based on how Keyes was part of the Proto-Gravemind, but scaled up. All of this is meant to really add to the feeling of horror, and show just how bad the Flood actually are.
This next idea is kind of out there: if you add in enemy Elites it would be cool if you could see them tearing through the Flood on their way to the ship. In one of the rooms towards the end you’d see a group of Elites fighting alongside Spec Ops Grunts (one of the Elites would be armed with a flamethrower to add in a new challenge, and make it look like they were really desperate). The Phantom would drop off a squad at the end. My reasoning behind this is it would make it feel like you’re racing against the Elites to get to the Flood ship before they do so you can get Cortana first. Plus, this would add in some much needed enemy variety that brings a new challenge to the level. For this other part it’s just a little bit more crazy, and I’m not entirely sure about it myself. Maybe you could add in some Banshees to the open areas to make it look like the Elites are even more involved. To fix make them more noticeable you could make their green cockpit glow so the player can actually see them. Those missile pods from The Storm would be present so you can actually deal with them.
What do you think of this idea? Do you think that there is any chance of you making this, or probably not? The reason why I’m not the one making this despite having all these fleshed out ideas is because I don’t know how to code. Again, sorry if this comes across as some guy showing up out of the blue, and making irrational demands. Any grammatical errors are the result of me adding to this list over a long time, and making edits. If an idea is truly asinine the reason is because I had a weird idea that I then realized was actually a bad idea, and simply forgot to remove it.
Here’s a list of ideas for how the Elites could work if you add them in as enemies, or allies:
In the base game for whatever bizarre reason the Brutes would stand back to shoot at you, and only ever charge you if they had a dedicated melee weapon or were going berserk. While the Elites would aggressively charge the enemy, and almost never used cover. In other words both races did the exact opposite of what they should have been doing. The Brutes are supposed to be really aggressive, and actively hunt down the player in a big group. While the Elites operate more individually, and charge you under certain conditions. Now that my little rant is out of the way I will talk about how they could be made distinct, won’t overlap too much with the Brutes.
Ai Behaviors:As I said in the previous thing the Elites lacked self preservation, and were way too aggressive. To fix this they’d stand back while the other troops approach the player. When the player gets too close, or when going berserk they would then charge you. When you’re in a certain range they’d try to flank you, while running in and out of cover. When berserking they’d be about as reckless as they are in vanilla. They’d take cover when their shields are down, and move a lot more than the default Brutes do when shooting you.
Weapon Use:For weapon use if they’re enemies it would make sense for them to only ever use standard Covenant weapons (no Brute weapons). The reason for that is before the Great Schism they saw using human weapons as heresy, and uncivilized. This would make them stand out more from the Brutes. If they’re your allies then it would make sense for them to be seen bringing human guns into combat, and something dual wielding human small arms. Either one of those would be really cool. You could make them not just dual wield the standard plasma rifles but also the needlers (maybe only the Elites could be the only ones dual wield the guns. Kind of like how only the Elites could dual wield in Reach), and plasma pistols. Inside and around a Forerunner structures some of the Elites could be armed with the Sentinel Beams. This would be a callback to the Heretic Elites that did this in 2, and would add a little bit more variety.
Equipment Use:
If you have Elites as enemies it would make them feel more dynamic if they could also use equipment. They’d use most of the same things as the Brutes accept for the Bubble Shields, and trip mines (I’m pretty sure that the jump packs use trip mines on Tsavo Highway. That or those things were just laying around for the player to use) because none of those would make much sense. Instead they’d have the radar jammers, and active camo (I’m aware that the Brute Stalkers already have this. This will apply to more than just one rank, and have different variations). My idea was that when using the radar jammer combined with camo it would make cloaked enemies harder to spot making certain encounters more challenging.
Ranks: Overall changes to that ranks would be that each class has a different level of shielding. This is based on how I’m both Reach and CE the Elite ranks all had different shield values making each progressively harder. Minors, Majors, and Stealth all wear the normal harness, while the rest have unique armor like in Ruby’s mod. This would make the higher ranks feel more distinct, while still feeling like a cohesive military.
Vehicle Use:
The Elites would use the standard Covenant vehicles like the Banshees, Wraiths, Ghosts, and the Spectors. Maybe you could make them jump on the Warthog turrets like in Reach to make them more of a threat. If they’re on your side then they’d be able to ride on the Scorpion, and accompany the player in more areas.
Again I apologize if any of this comes across as the nonsensical demands of some random guy. You’ve definitely done a very good job so far with your mod. It will be cool to see what new stuff you come up with next. I also apologize for the amount of reputation in this long comment.
Weapons:
So I plan for the most part, keeping the game as vanilla as possible however there are a couple changes I might make since I kind of already made some changes so a few more might not hurt.
You are right, the brute plasma rifles should be in there somewhere! I'll have to work on trying to find some brutes to use them.
And the shotgun should have better range, I mean after all, the sword can just lunge at you and the shotgun you basically have to be touching them. For the grenades, I actually didn't touch them much but if would be interesting to make them more "deadly". And I really want a flash bang too but would probably take some time so it is low priority.
For the sniper rifle, it might be neat to make it more of an Anti-material rifle but now I'm wondering if I should just keep all these ideas and save them for sort of "rebalancing" mod.
As for the automag (and other suppressed things) I actually did make the impact/firing sound completely undetectable by the AI (kinda funny to shoot right next to a sleeping grunt and they don't notice) but I think I forgot it this time around (oops). A simple fix.
I personally changed the assault rifle (only change that isn't quite vanilla) to be more accurate and do more headshot damage is it is actually usable a stuff.
Trip mines I will change to have infinite time and stuff to make them more usable (which actually exist already but are only found on Tsavo highway in the hut where the marines are holding out after you ditch the warthog). Active camo time needs to be increased too.
I think engineers would be pretty cool but there aren't any models or ai readily available yet so maybe someday.
Allied elites would actually be a very cool addition to the level especially since I believe there were supposed to be elites joining you in the beginning (at least from what I heard in cut dialog still in the game files).
The sentinel idea is feasible, something that would take some time lol.
I think more sleeping grunts would be nice to add to so the level would have more stealth parts.
I didn't notice the jackal shields color changing but I'll have to look at it. It might be because of the lighting. I think I may have seen a red elite turn orange which would be a strange side effect of the mod to say the least.
I actually really wanted to add the searchlight to the phantom and totally forgot. I have gotten pretty good at adding lights to things {see my future sandtrap mod coming out soon ;) } so it is a definite for the next version.
I actually made a spiker prowler a while ago and I thought it made more since so maybe I'll do it again for shits and giggles. Maybe give it a higher caliber spiker. A mini skewer machine gun. You also gave me the idea to add them to the big scarab battle since you only see the prowler like 2 times in the campaign.
I also think the Spector would be a nice addition so I'll look into that.
Will I do other levels? Absolutely! I am actually working on the next level (the covenant) which will be ready soon. I plan to do the whole campaign unless the level looks really weird with the changes.
Also, when/if I do Cortana/any level with the stupid Cortana/gravemind screen shake/slowdown/annoy, I will definitely get rid of it. I know exactly where in the script to delete it and stuff.
I've given the flood some glowing green parts before (in a cursed mod I made that was broken before I could release it) and they look pretty cool like glowing ones from Fallout. But I'll probably keep them the same in this mod for vanilla reasons.
I would love to make a very atmospheric flood level given some time with all those ideas! Its too bad I couldn't have done it before Halloween came around lol. There is always next year.
Ai behaviour is hard to mess with but I'll try it out and see what I do. I was able to make the ai less perceptive so maybe I can do other things.
Overall I'll be looking back at this post if I ever run out of ideas lol. Keep posted for future updates!
I really enjoyed this mod! The environment looks really great with the edited exposure effects and the tracers rounds look fantastic!
I made a video showcasing this mod that you can view on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUNgzLOT8Pw&t=7s
If you enjoy this video, you can use it on here.
I'll have to jump back into this mod later tonight and play it again!
Edit: I jut realized I replied to this comment rather making my own. Oops!