ODST: Inferno (Version 2.9)
By: King Feraligatr
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What this mod is about:
ODST: Inferno is a remake and a rebranding of my old mod ODST: Feet First into Hell using the official mod tools. With these tools, I’ve been able to do things that where a pain or just nigh impossible beforehand. I can also support Firefight to a much better degree than before, which was rather problematic before.

Now, what exactly is ODST: Inferno you may ask? ODST: Inferno is a mod that covers the entire Halo 3: ODST campaign and Firefight experiences. AI, both friendly and enemy, has been improved and are generally more competent. Honestly, this is a huge part of the mod and where a lot of my effort went into. The Brutes are much more threatening and competent, being much more able and willing to chase you down. Your allies are much better at keeping themselves alive and being less of a nuisance --- they’ll actually look like they’re trying. The Flood, while only in Firefight, have be made quite a bit more threatening and durable. In general, all actors have more varied behavior and should appear to be trying more.

But that’s just AI… what else has changed? The sandbox has been changed and rebalanced. “Reviver allies” will assist you on the first four flashback missions and in Firefight (if you have boons on). Covenant in the campaign can wield human weapons. Some encounters have been tweaked, added, or restored. Some continuity issues have been addressed. And Firefight has been expanded upon and has some new surprises. Among other things. All without being the craziest on the changes.

I hope you get the same enjoyment I do from this mod. I learned more things about Halo modding, especially in the Halo 3 era. Some of which I can use (have used) in my Halo 3 mod (which is bigger in scope). It was one hell of a ride. But now it’s time to drop into hell, Trooper. I’ll see you on the streets of New Mombasa.

Recommended difficulty (and the one I playtested/balanced for): Legendary


Summary of Changes (More details can be found in the readme):

• Drastically improved AI, both friendly and enemy. Brutes are noticeably improved.
• More diversified AI. Actors have a bit more defined personalities and more variance in behavior.
• Rebalanced "sandbox" and general game. Elements that weren't so great have been buffed or changed in various ways. Elements that where too overpowered have been nerfed in various ways.
• Some added or revised encounters. Notably, there are more Hunters and some Covenant troops in the campaign can be found wielding human weapons. Some cut encounters have also been restored.
• Some continuity changes. Some simple continuity errors have been fixed and/or addressed.
• Reviver allies will assist you in the first 4 flashback missions and most Firefight maps (with boons on). These are allies that act like the Arbiter or Johnson in Halo 3. The Firefight revivers are from my Halo 3 mod Yet Another Halo 3 Revamp (or YAH3R).
• Generic allies have been added to Firefight maps that lacked them. (If you have boons on).
• A mod that isn't generally too crazy on the changes.
• Balanced and intended to be played on Legendary.
• Etc
  

Might have been some other changes I missed/forgot. And yes, while this already a long readme, this is the shorter version...

(Only the latest version's changelog will be here. Check the documents for more complete ones.)
2.9 Changes:
General AI/Actor changes:
⦁    AI now do full damage vs. each other instead of 50%. Will make AI vs. AI fights more engaging. :)
⦁    Elite animations to the latest version of Byzantine is Roman's animation set.
⦁    Gave all AI a miniscule firing time with the Gauss turret and Rocket Launcher in the hopes they aim better with them. In my experience, it seems to be an improvement.
⦁    Increased minimum error angle for all AI for the Rocket Launcher, Shotgun, and Mauler. Allies are less affected by this.
⦁    Etc.

Enemy AI/Actor Changes:
General:
⦁    Reduced enemy AI damage with the Banshee's plasma cannons back to vanilla.
⦁    Increased error angles for all enemy AI using Rocket Launchers slightly.
⦁    Jackals, Brutes, Elites, and Combat Forms are a bit less aggressive with Shotguns, Maulers, ARs, and SMGs.
⦁    Etc.

Covenant:
⦁    Increased Elite Zealot shield health on higher difficulties slightly.
⦁    Gave Hunters a bit more max firing range with their weapons.
⦁    Increased Flak Hunter target leading and decreased their projectile error slightly.
⦁    Etc.

Flood:
⦁    Made the Flood Combat Form main damage region not regenerate as fast.
⦁    Increased error angles for Combat Forms using Shotguns and Maulers slightly.
⦁    Increased Elite Zealot Combat Form shield health on higher difficulties slightly to be consistent with the Zealot's similar increase.
⦁    Etc.

Allied AI/Actor Changes:
General:
⦁    Decreased allied AI aggression universally to compensate for AI doing full damage to each other. They have a bit more tracking and leading with their weapons to compensate.
⦁    Slightly sped up allied health regen.
⦁    Firefight allies have slightly faster recharge times and slightly more of a max health regen threshold compared to the campaign ones.
⦁    Etc.

Humans:
⦁    Marines/ODSTs will no longer be considered "destroyed" when killed with fire. Added in a missing effect when killed by fire to female Marines.
⦁    Etc.

Covenant:
⦁    Reduced the collateral damage radius on Elites throwing grenades slightly in the hopes they throw more of them while still not inconveniencing the player.
⦁    Etc.

Reviver Allies:
⦁    Slightly increased the time for revivers to reach max effectiveness with specialization weapons on lower difficulties. This includes Alpha-9.
⦁    Etc.

Player Changes:
⦁    Players only regenerate their body health to 12.5% now instead of 25%. Health regen time sped up by one second.
⦁    Player instant response to being killed by fire no longer kills them (but you'll still die to it... how to explain... this is awkward... Just wanted to make sure you died "legitimately" to fire with no "cheap shots".).
⦁    Etc.

Weapon Changes:
Human:
⦁    Slightly decreased the AR's error angles.
⦁    Increased BR damage vs. "thin" energy shields to 63.75% and slightly reduced the fire recovery time, allowing it to fire faster.
⦁    Slightly decreased the Shotgun's damage dropoff.
⦁    Decreased Machine Gun Turret's damage against "solid" hard metal.

Covenant:
⦁    Decreased Needler damage vs. "thick" energy shields a bit.
⦁    Energy Sword completely has no delay before being able to be used after being pulled out.
⦁    Spike Grenade spike fragment lifetimer and max travel distance both increased.
⦁    Etc.

Vehicle Changes:
General:
⦁    All vehicles lost their 2.5% health increase from vanilla, leaving mostly vanilla health values. The Mongoose is the exception, keeping some extra health.
⦁    Increased Chopper and Hornet health regeneration threshold from 30% to 35%.
⦁    Increased minimum transfer damage to Wraith and Scorpion gunners slightly.
⦁    Etc.

Human:
⦁    Increased Scorpion main cannon AoE damage slightly, at both the minimum and maximum damage ranges. Damage to vehicle occupants remains the same as before.
⦁    Etc.

Covenant:
⦁    Shade damage increased in player hands. AI damage is unchanged.
⦁    Wraith mortar maximum damage increased slightly to keep up with the Scorpion. Again, the damage to vehicle occupants is the same.
⦁    Increased Wraith gunner damage. Enemy AI still do the same damage with it.
⦁    Etc.

Firefight Level Changes:
General:
⦁    All allied AI are renewed to full health (among other things) every round.
I am certain I missed some things. :(


Installation:
All campaign levels are included in this mod, even the cutscene ones. Even though I didn't edit the cutscene levels, I'm still including them so you can have a full experience with this mod (though they are optional). Due to the nature of how Firefight works in ODST (the FF maps are literally the campaign maps repurposed), you don’t have to download separate maps for Firefight. You get the full experience in 9 levels.

Now, as for actually installing this mod:
1.    Backup all your vanilla ODST maps. Extremely important if you want to play the vanilla campaign and/or do Firefight matchmaking in ODST.
2.    Extract all the maps included in the main archive to your ODST maps folder.
3.    (Optional) Extract the maps in the cutscene map archive to your ODST maps folder as well, if you want.
4.    Load up MCC with Easy Anti Cheat off. Standard fare stuff.
5.    Enjoy the mod. Again, I recommend Legendary for the best experience.


Uninstallation:
When you feel like playing vanilla, playing another ODST mod, and/or are just done with the mod, I recommend you follow these steps:
1.    (Optional) Backup all this mod's maps to another folder for latter use.
2.    Restore all your backed up ODST maps from before. Overwrite all maps in the current ODST maps directory. Put high emphasis on the "all" if you want to go back to vanilla.
3.    Enjoy that experience.


Permissions:
You are free to use anything from this mod at your discretion without asking me for permission.

You are free to make your own versions of this mod and upload them at your discretion without asking me for permission.

You are free to use the ideas from this mod as you wish without asking me for permission.

You are free to look at this mod's internals as you wish without asking me for permission.

You are free to edit this mod for personal use as you wish without asking me for permission.

If you do any of this, credit me and those who’ve helped me. Only condition.

TLDR; this mod is basically free use and you don't have to inform me that you're doing things with it and don’t have to get my permission to use if for your own ends. My only condition is that you credit me and those who’ve helped me if you do so (basically credit those I credited in the credits section below.).


Musings and Miscellaneous:
Well, for a mod on the simpler side, this still took two months to remake and expand on. While it was fun to work on, I’m just glad to finally be done with this 2.0 release. It’s taken longer than I wanted. And this readme was a pain to write. I just want it to be over.

What’s next for me then? Well, I've a Halo 3 mod called YAH3R (or Yet Another Halo 3 Revamp) on the Steam Workshop I released as well. YAH3R and ODST: Inferno use similar balance, AI, and design principles, but YAH3R is bigger in scope and is "crazier" on the changes. I've also a Halo 2 mod in public alpha. It's fully playable from start to finish, but it needs work.  I also released my Halo 1 mod a while ago, but that’s for Custom Edition with Open Sauce. I also mod other games --- Divinity: Original Sin 2 currently. So yeah.

I have a Discord server now that you can join: Discord.gg . Here you can discuss ODST: Inferno and my other Halo mods. :)

If you wish to support me and/or my modding, I have a Ko-Fi here.


On the name change:
Now why the name change/rebranding, you may ask? Well, I don’t feel my old name was doing the mod any favors in terms of clarity, recognition, ease of mentioning, or publicity. It had some thematic appropriateness, but just didn’t seem to “click” with others. With me remaking the mod with official mod tools, I thought it was a prime time to change the name. ODST: Inferno sounds a bit generic, I admit, but it’s still cool sounding in my opinion. And it still fits thematically in a sense and keeps the idea of having a “hell” theming in the mod’s name. And what might be that connection? Dante’s Inferno, which ODST has some connection to via structuring, story, etc. Don’t believe me? Look it up. Anyways, that’s enough for this section.


Credits
Playtesters:
⦁    Markel
⦁    GreppiM
⦁    Kavawuvi
⦁    Silentgamer64
⦁    Dex
⦁    The Fluffies
⦁    Bio Goji
⦁    Byzantine is Roman
⦁    Sean T
⦁    Ludus
⦁    The Vengeful 'Vadam
⦁    Everyone who played my submitted map for the Open Carnage map contest.
⦁    Etc.

Special Thanks:
⦁    My playtesters
⦁    Byzantine is Roman
⦁    Markel
⦁    Crisp
⦁    The Fluffies
⦁    TheKaiserOfChaos
⦁    Greenknight
⦁    AStickTree
⦁    Rosy
⦁    Ruby of Blue
⦁    Kralich/David
⦁    xM
⦁    IIIJohnIII
⦁    Shinku
⦁    Ha-Satan
⦁    TheHostileNegotiator
⦁    Autarch Katherlyn
⦁    Caleb
⦁    Ebony McCloud
⦁    Lord Zedd/Assembly Team
⦁    Gravemind2401/Reclaimer Team
⦁    ODST Template Workshop Mod
⦁    Halo Modding Reclaimers Discord
⦁    H20 Discord
⦁    Halo Haven Discord
⦁    Open Carnage
⦁    VKMT
⦁    ModDB
⦁    Halo Mods Discord
⦁    Dopeh Orange (old mod name suggestion)
⦁    Halopedia
⦁    Bungie
⦁    343 Industries
⦁    Saber Interactive
⦁    Microsoft
⦁    You, the player. :) Or just for reading here in the readme.
⦁    Etc.


People represented in the Firefight reviver ally cast:
⦁    TheVengeful’Vadam (Steel colored Elite Ultra who specializes in Needlers.)
⦁    GreppiM (Differently colored Elite Major who specializes in blue Plasma Rifles.)
⦁    Markel (Purple striped female ODST who specializes in Assault Rifles.)
⦁    Myself (Assault armor clad Elite Ultra who specializes in Carbines.)