lore-and-universe

[tribal trench]

cedar >

oak is pretty bad for that in general

[sacred rain]

oh no thats what it was

i forgor

dude idfk but yeah no it had to be cedar that fits better

i just took a gamble on the wood

[tribal trench]

cedar has a couple of special oils in it that excrete when it’s rotting and/or burning

these oils are actually very toxic to rats!

acts like… acid, iirc, or some sort of heavy allergen

these oils also taste pretty good for us humans typically

a good salmon fried on a cedar plank is really good

one of my favorite foods

[lethal field]

oh, Dark Sector was the game that Warframe came out of, but Halo's still older than that too

[tribal trench]

@sacred rain does Grim work for 343?

how often do you two talk?

[sacred rain]

hes literally the guy in charge of all the lore

[tribal trench]

i thought that was haruspis

or is he just the holocron keeper

[stoic hamlet]

Haruspis is on the team but not the one in charge.

He took Grim’s old job, essentially.

[meager pier]

He is a community writer, Grim's old position

[stoic hamlet]

^^^

[meager pier]

Pipe dream, but it'd be amazing if Chris Schlerf ever returned to the writing team 🙂

[tribal trench]

damn, wish I had his job

I love writing that kinda stuff

[meager pier]

I forget if there are still any in-game writers at this point, even this long after the Microsoft layoffs

[stoic hamlet]

don’t we all….

[empty bloom]

I'd do the IVs so much more justice

[tribal trench]

average IV if trench was the writer

[empty bloom]

I mean, memes aside, I do want to write more Spartan IVs as very specialized.

[stoic hamlet]

Actually though I think I’m too tame for what 343 needs, lol.

[meager pier]

Depiction of typical classroom

[empty bloom]

MORE crushed skulls

[tribal trench]

they got space zombies in classrooms now????

woke has gone too far…

[stoic hamlet]

I go for character focused, small scale stuff.

Not “planet calamities every Tuesday” stuff.

[empty bloom]

Ah.

[tribal trench]

do y’all think power creep is an issue in Halo?

[empty bloom]

Yesn't?

[stoic hamlet]

Sorta.

I think faction power creep is.

[empty bloom]

I like newer Spartans being as strong as they are, but yeah, faction power creep for some groups is very bad.

[stoic hamlet]

But not necessarily individual…except Atriox.

[empty bloom]

(Banished banished banished)

[stoic hamlet]

It’s interesting actually because I think individually or like, among groups, everyone’s pretty well in a good spot in canon, not necessarily in terms of how they actually…are, if that makes sense?

But factions, nooooooooo, lol.

[meager pier]

Atriox bodyslamming Cortana 😆

[tribal trench]

huh

[meager pier]

Gonna be interesting to see how the Banished and Endless play off each other in the next game

[tribal trench]

Now that the harbinger is dead I’m willing to bet that they’ll go and sorta become a wild card, without any proper command structure.

“random occurrence” type faction with no real goals except survival/population

[meager pier]

I feel she was only 1 of the leaders of them, and I hope there's a leader to them, as I don't want them to be just a group of aliens we kill with no central villain we can face and understand
Especially with them being being Precursors or followers of them

[icy yoke]

how we post images?

[empty bloom]

Being a cool dude.

[dusty ferry]

Bribery

[last anchor]

You and god knows how many others...

[orchid kettle]

some may even say there's a whole site dedicated to people who do that stuff

[winter gull]

Could anyone link me a good proper recap of the events of Halo 5? Finally getting around to starting Infinite's campaign tomorrow, but I'm completely unable to play 5 since I don't own any Xbox consoles and hasn't been ported to PC for whatever reason. I've heard that people really hated the story of 5 but I'd still love to know what I'm missing.

[tribal trench]

one moment

https://youtu.be/UNrL5AqqvsM?si=tAdhLuOWCFS04_ZV

not exactly a recap per se but it goes over all the important bits shown in Halo 5 in detail

[pallid knoll]

turns out Cortana’s alive because some Forerunner planet was really cool and Chief goes to find her along with the rest of his team called Blue Team but the UNSC doesn’t like that so they send these new characters called Fireteam Osiris to hunt him down, Osiris finds Blue Team and Osiris’ leader, Spartan Locke, has a fistfight with Chief and Blue Team goes to the Forerunner planet where they find Cortana but then they find out that Cortana wants to take over the universe alongside an army of a bunch of AIs and she keeps Blue Team as prisoners, then Fireteam Osiris finds Blue Team again, frees them, and it ends with the UNSC on the run from Cortana

[dusk jetty]

Iaintreadingallthat

[winter gull]

Oh evil Cortana? Where do I sign up

[pallid knoll]

cortana didn’t die in Halo 4, that’s all you need to know

[dusk jetty]

I’m just being dumb

I know

[pallid knoll]

ok

[winter gull]

Ok good quick and dirty recap I appreciate it haha, thank you 🙏 I'll give that video a watch later tonight too!

[pallid knoll]

you’re welcome!

[river ridge]

also theres a bunch of big prometheans called guardians that apparently crippled the UNSC and the other factions for a bit

if you've played halo wars 2 its that giant robot professor anders encounters at the end

[unique rune]

haha prepare to be let down

[winter gull]

Um okay? If I wanted people to put expectations into my head about Infinite's campaign before I played it I would have asked for that, I'd rather go in with an open mind than have to deal with comments like this

It's like the videogame equivalent of "haha I hope you don't like this character too much" watching a horror movie with a friend, it's just obnoxious and no one asked.

[surreal glen]

I won't spoil Infinite's story for you

[tribal trench]

don’t be rude please

[surreal glen]

I'll just say you might be satisfied with it

[river ridge]

it wasnt that bad of a concept imo

kinda messed up execution but i thought it was fine

[unique rune]

It's less that I have issues with it as an idea, but the exectuion was... iffy, and then after the Internet reacted as it tends to towards things it doesn't like, 343 seems to have panicked and tried to sweep it all off the table.

So it ends up having almost zero staying power.

The whole Created takeover thing just ends up more than a little bit underdeveloped and relegated to things that most people will probably never see or read.

[surreal glen]

What other option did they have?

Cortana's death was poorly received by stupid fans back then and Microsoft didn't let them get rid of Cortana

[unique rune]

I dunno, actually commit to keeping the Created storyline in the sequel? Instead skipping like a year and saying "yeah so all these things happened while Chief took a space nap".

343's narrative issues wouldn't be so bad if they actually committed to the narrative ideas they put on the table

[surreal glen]

They wanted to committ, higher ups wouldn't let them

[unique rune]

And now we have all this with the Endless that I'm not confident will end up going anywhere either

[versed helm]

Idc what anyone says, Halo 5’s campaign wasn’t that bad

I liked the gameplay and I didn’t have as much of a problem with the story as other people did

[surreal glen]

Yeah that's fine

Halo 5 has the best gameplay

[unique rune]

Halo 5's campaign has its issues but I think I'm less overly critical towards it now, eight years removed from its launch

[delicate whale]

if Microsoft and 343 agreed to reboot Halo from right after the events of Halo 3, would you want that? What events would you like to see occur?

[unique rune]

God no

[delicate whale]

Alternatively, we've had 3 ancient evils awaken since Halo 4. What's gonna be the next "ancient evil awakens"?

[unique rune]

A hard reboot is the last thing this franchise needs, considering it'll render the last ten years of Halo storytelling completely pointless

[hot zodiac]

Considering the divide, there's a fair amount of people who'd want just that.

[delicate whale]

For real, I can only be awakened for so many evils

I wanna get back in the cryopod.

[tribal trench]

Didact, who is gone, which directly led into Cortana and the Created Uprising, which led into…?

the Endless?

[unique rune]

The thing is that I'm not sure if it'd really achieve anything, because all it'd really do is alienate the people who've bothered to stick around this long in the hopes of recapturing an audience that's long moved on

[tribal trench]

I wouldn’t even consider them a traditional threat, only reason one might consider then one is because they can get infected by the flood and are immune to Halo

[delicate whale]

https://tenor.com/view/the-endless-has-arrived-halo-infinite-halo-the-endless-harbinger-anomalocaris-gif-24122817

[unique rune]

I think Infinite to an extent already has this issue and a hard reboot would probably only make it worse

[delicate whale]

The Endless will return (in a book)

(Maybe)

Or maybe they just ended

I think Halo Infinite didn’t need them

[hot zodiac]

I dont see it happening in the near future, but It'd be interesting to put it to the test.

Halo Infinite was a short lasting band-aid to that problem.

[empty bloom]

No. And I hate this conversation popping up.

[empty bloom]

^ This by far.

[hot zodiac]

I prefer more nuance

[pallid knoll]

what they should do is stick with a plot instead of completely changing it each game

[raw iron]

Do y’all think any spartan 4 female needed breast reduction surgery to fit into their armor

[dusk jetty]

Have you been reading glasslands?

[unique rune]

The armor is made specially fitted to the intended wearer so I'm gonna go with probably not on that.

[versed zenith]

If y'all had to choose a halo wars 2 commander to work with who would you pick?

I think Pavium would be a great leader to be under

[verbal portal]

How does the engineer ended up in the undergrounds of New Mombasa?

[unique rune]

The Covenant were looking around for things down there and brought Huragok with them to fiddle with anything they did find

[verbal portal]

So… it all happened during the invasion?

[unique rune]

Yeah

[verbal portal]

I was asking cuz on the recordings Sadie (if this is how is written) was talking with Vrgil if this was an AI first

[unique rune]

Vergil was a part of New Mombasa’s Superintendent AI that Sadie’s father built into it to take care of her. During the events of ODST’s campaign stuff, what happened was that the Huragok found and merged what was left of the Superintendent into itself, including the Vergil parts.

[verbal portal]

Oh

So I understood the story

[versed zenith]

yup! basically everything about the city is within that one engineer now

architecture, gps tracking, even security footage

[exotic pulsar]

Yeah and after ODST they even go on even more adventures but I think Sadie and Virgil are now what? ONI Assets?

[exotic pulsar]

They are basically ONI Assets now right?

[stoic hamlet]

Yes.

[dusk jetty]

Jerome!

[stoic hamlet]

I’m not sure Jerome would be that good to work with, actually.

Spartans (aside from Kurt) really don’t work well or socialize with regular people.

[dusk jetty]

True, but he got promoted to acting commander for a reason

Hes at least competent

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah, but as noted by his Phoenix log, he struggles with actually being a commander.

[dusk jetty]

The ark economy has never recovered from the events of halo 3, so not much

[stoic hamlet]

It’s quite the vacation resort.

[onyx monolith]

Nooooooooo

[dusk jetty]

How so? Is it just the nitty gritty fine print, or is he just incompetent in general

[onyx monolith]

Nonono

[dusk jetty]

Ark survival bugvolved

Legit can’t play that game without getting stuck in a wall somewhere

I see what you did

[onyx monolith]

Feet 🤤

[dusk jetty]

Ark doesn’t make me angry with its bugs it just makes it hard to take it seriously

[onyx monolith]

What does kats feet look like? I gotta know the lore ykwim?

[dusk jetty]

Giant armoured boot probably

Like the rest of the Spartans

[onyx monolith]

I mean no armor

🤤

[dusk jetty]

Wish there was a face palm laugh emoji

[onyx monolith]

Bud i just wanna know all the lore

Every inch 🤤

Thats what im saying

[meager pier]

When did Tarantino join the Halo server?

[onyx monolith]

2021

[stoic hamlet]

Jerome is regarded as an inspirational and highly competent leader. However, some aspects of his Spartan-II conditioning are in conflict with his strategic instincts, one of those being a preference for direct action.

From his Phoenix log.

TLDR he’s a good leader, but struggles with staying in that role.

[onyx monolith]

Thats not what that means pal

[unique rune]

I mean. It does though. It’s pretty much just saying that Jerome is a good leader but would much rather be on the ground doing the fighting himself, as most Spartans tend to.

[stoic hamlet]

It is. I just phrased that poorly, lol.

He’s good at small unit tactics but struggles to command big-picture stuff, because he’s a Spartan. They’re not really suited to that style of command.

[stoic hamlet]

Sure, but if you’re the commander of the Spirit’s ground forces, you can’t go gallivanting off on a raid, you need to be back at headquarters, overseeing the larger picture.

[empty bloom]

Haruspis' point sparked joy.

[orchid kettle]

I feel like Tanaka has far and away the best ambient dialogue

maybe because while both Tanaka and Vale have worlds where they get to explain things to Osiris, Tanaka relates to the Meridian people because she was one of "them"

But I don't feel that in Vale's interest in Sangheilos

She's just somebody who likes the aliens and it doesn't feel deeper than that.

It's not, like, Vale felt alienated and dissatisfied with her own species, and then came to feel closer to the culture she was studying than she ever did with humanity or anything like that

she just thinks they're neat and her real issues are apparently daddy-related, but the two books we have don't have time to get too into it

[empty bloom]

I feel like a lot of people who say they like Vale don't actually like Vale for her dialogue, if you catch my drift.

[orchid kettle]

[empty bloom]

Jussayin.

[orchid kettle]

vale's value as a character (aside from certain assets) kinda seems purely rooted in her utility as a Sangheili liaison

she's useful because Elites can then be in the story and work alongside humans

but her status as a character is secondary to that

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah. I think she’s kind of all over the place, really.

[empty bloom]

But I get what you mean. There's not really much of a deeper vibe going on with Vale. What's interesting to me is that she actually does play off of Tanaka pretty well back on Meridian due to her experience as a hoity-toity educated PHD-or-something holder.

Effectively being a launching point for Tanaka and Buck both correcting someone who didn't live in the dirt, so to speak.

[orchid kettle]

Yeah, though you could argue Buck could fill that banter role given what a meathead he is in Bad Blood

where he just accepts everything the UNSC says and doesn't seem to question anything further

[empty bloom]

He actually does jointly correct Vale with Tanaka on a point or two on Meridian.

[orchid kettle]

I guess that's on Bad Blood then

for Buck being so weirdly pro-UNSC without a hint of rebel sympathy when he grew up on an outer colony

[empty bloom]

Usually more on the way the LDC handles its workers than on the more sympathetic points of frontier life.

[orchid kettle]

where surely being a lil anti earth wouldn't be that uncommon

[empty bloom]

Well, his family did get turned to biped crab food pretty early on, yeah?

[orchid kettle]

um his dad died in Ghost-related accident, yeah

he said so in halo reach firefight

[empty bloom]

Lmao.

But yeah, IDK. We seem to have a weird track record for Xeno lovers in Halo's universe.

[orchid kettle]

Hunters in the Dark is really funny too because Luther Mann sounds way too similar to Vale

Where he's also a prodigy child who came to be fascinated with aliens while on a shuttle to avoid said aliens killing him

[empty bloom]

Between Phylissssss and Vale, the people who fixate on Sangheili are weird.

[orchid kettle]

Vale studied Sangheili language while stuck on a shuttle, Mann saw the glassing of his planet on the escape shuttle and thought it was pretty

and apparently both kids got called creepy and or annoying

[empty bloom]

That's like calling a gas chamber a fascinating case of engineering lmao

So yeah Mann's a creep

[orchid kettle]

what's weirder is that Mann's obsession is with Forerunner stuff

so I dunno how the two things are related

beyond both being alien I guess

[empty bloom]

Maybe he's like the old canon death star laser dude.

Just likes seeing big destructive things happen.

[orchid kettle]

I feel like if I was writing Vale, I'd try to connect more traits like that to her daddy issues

Like she's an overachiever martial arts master because her father gave his love sparingly, and she felt like she had to keep upping the ante because she didn't think she'd be worth anything without said achievements

maybe she likes the Elites because their warrior centric culture reminds her of her badass stoic dad, I dunno

[stoic hamlet]

This sort of stance happens a lot in halo. It’s kinda wild. Like it doesn’t really make sense considering everything.

The ones who’re xenophobic are treated like outliers…but they should be the norm.

[orchid kettle]

Like the inverse Rion Forge, who had a purely positive relationship with her father and her real beef ended up being with her mother

who was all too real and fallible compared to the immortal image of her hero dad

[orchid kettle]

It's a weird situation. Do you, as a writer, really want your good guy hero to be a racist?

[stoic hamlet]

I’m not the best person to toss that hypothetical out at, lol.

But I mean, I get you.

[orchid kettle]

But if you also act like they're immune to bias and prejudice, that's kinda presenting an inaccurate depiction of why racism is even a thing in the first place

[empty bloom]

Does anyone else hear a chainsword revving?

[stoic hamlet]

To answer that honestly though, yes, if done well.

Like, take Chief Petty Officer O’Brien in Star Trek. He’s absolutely a racist towards the Cardassians. He uses slurs to refer to them and still holds his prejudices towards them - and for good reason, a lot of his best episodes in Deep Space Nine are him dealing with his wartime experiences and struggling to move on.

He’s a broken man who’s traumatized by the war, but carries on as best he can.

[empty bloom]

Mobile moment.

But yeah, that's kind of the thing. It's generally fine if it's done, well, well. It's a situation of nuance.

[stoic hamlet]

I did like that Shadows of Reach mentioned that Linda would, if ordered, kill Thel for his actions during the war.

[empty bloom]

Of course, nuance is dead, so.

[orchid kettle]

Yeah. Of course, you could always make the argument that in real life, people don't need to be personally wronged by a group to be racist

[stoic hamlet]

Really, the issue Halo’s run into is the opposite.

People are made too understanding/accepting.

Or the ones that aren’t are vilified or, again, treated as the outliers.

[empty bloom]

They just specced really hard into diplo as TEC Loyalists.

[orchid kettle]

Its kinda why I like Legacy of Onyx

Where the MC girl is a lil racist

[empty bloom]

I mean

Technically it's also Speciesist in this case.

[orchid kettle]

but the story is about how the next generation ultimately have to pick up the pieces

She has time to learn better

[empty bloom]

Plus, I mean, I'll admit, I'd be a lottle prejudiced against the 8-10' tall giant gorillarhinobears who canonically eat humans and other sentients because they're bored.

[orchid kettle]

the Elite's older brother who attacks Onyx, however, does not

[stoic hamlet]

Don’t forget the jackals….grunts…drones as well, IIRC….

[empty bloom]

At least Elites don't seem particularly inclined towards making long pork chops, which is problably why not many people seem particularly inclined towards hating them?

[stoic hamlet]

Also the Worms.

[empty bloom]

Like, of all the people performing a massive genocide, the Sangheili were the least cruel about it?

Somehow?

[stoic hamlet]

real low bar though, lol

[orchid kettle]

Ill have you know that her grunt classmate is adorably wholesome

[empty bloom]

There's a bit of cleanup on some fronts for that

Then again, Halo was in love with brutally rending human civilians for a few... Decades.

So it's kinda like, you're trying to tell us that grunts can be wholesome and thoughtful because, well, funny voices and whatnot, but you've also literally had grunts get airdropped onto people and literally eating them, so.

Which, I get you can have both, but it's a hell of a dissonance if you like paying attention to that sort of thing.

IDK, I still think the bigger issue with some things is stuff like fans being weirdly in love with the idea that an entire species somehow fell in line with the Arbiter and then being angry that got changed, so.

[orchid kettle]

Humans have done much the same to their own kind, and worse

[stoic hamlet]

No see, The Arbiter and Shipmaster are super sorry they were super evil and stuff, and Arby put his back to Chief for that one cutscene, so no character can hate them anymore.

[empty bloom]

Trueeee.

[orchid kettle]

Well my issue is that the faction is just lazily written

"we hate humans because, uh, they have colonies!"

[empty bloom]

I legitimately do hate them being called Storm Covenant, then the regular Covenant.

That was one of the single worst decisions in recent memory. Just out the gate having that name and sticking to it.

[orchid kettle]

I don't think they were ever officially called "the Storm"

[stoic hamlet]

They never were, yeah.

[orchid kettle]

But yeah, Arby should 100% be facing civil wars because Sangheilos is feudal japan and the Emperor just got dethroned without a clear successor

[stoic hamlet]

It was because of a gaming article, IIRC.

[orchid kettle]

so of course people would fight over the throne

I just don't even get why the Sangheili would care about the humans

[stoic hamlet]

They really wouldn’t I don’t think.

[orchid kettle]

Why would you trouble yourself over some backwater hicks a trillion miles away when you're trying to become the new High Kaidon Supreme of your species

[stoic hamlet]

Honestly the franchise is really suffering due to early 343/Kilo-5. We’re just now fixing it, but it feels kind of hamfisted now. Like bandaids to dumb problems.

[orchid kettle]

I guess chalk it up to humans being the main characters

So we have to live rent free in the heads of Elites, the Didact, and the Librarian

[stoic hamlet]

It’s not even that, IMO

It’s that we’re never really exploring the universe. We’re exploring this one ship

It’s flanderizing the setting.

And not just the Sangheili, every faction.

[empty bloom]

At least it's cozy.

[orchid kettle]

the sad thing is, when we ignore the Infinity and the Storm Covenant, and we just hang out with people and aliens on the frontier and see what they're up to

the post war setting is great

[empty bloom]

TBH, there's a reason I'd be ride or die with a Spartan IV dealing with post-war counterterror/bopping resurgent Rebel or Covvie activities on the head.

[stoic hamlet]

Exactly.

[empty bloom]

I feel like that'd have been a far more interesting way to show a post HCW world, a'la that XCOM spin off, than what we got.

[stoic hamlet]

It’s such a compelling setting/tonal shift for Halo.

[orchid kettle]

I eventually had my characters exit the UNSC entirely and they just hang out on a freighter getting into trouble across space that's occupied by pirates, Banished, and maybe even the occasional Created peeps

I may not be super into the stories Venezia and Gao appear in, but they're really interesting places by their own merit

[empty bloom]

There's been a bit more of a push in the past few decade or two for narrative experiences beyond stop the BBEG/BBEForce.

Halo has... Honestly been middling in that department, gameswise, IMO.

[orchid kettle]

I think the issue we have with that is how the games find it difficult to not place all of humanity at risk for their climax

[stoic hamlet]

I’d say even in general. The games dictate the lore, and it spirals into the books.

[empty bloom]

The problem is that, realistically, there shouldn't have to be a requirement for this.

[orchid kettle]

even in something like Envoy, where its mainly this little story about a single human colony, some Elites, and vengeful Brutes

the macguffin still somehow threatens the universe

(even though I honestly don't think it sounds that hard to stop Hekabe for the UNSC)

[empty bloom]

One would think the easiest way to stop a bunch of Sharquoi would be to... Hit it with space ferronickel slugs.

[orchid kettle]

or blow up their stolen ships before they even make landfall

[empty bloom]

Like, the hell are Sharquoi capable of that's so threatening? They're just big bug shock troops.

[orchid kettle]

I don't think the Sharquoi make great sailors

[empty bloom]

Oh no, they die to... HAVOK nukes.

And are too dumb to fly.

[orchid kettle]

I don't even really know how Hekabe plans to pilot more than one ship

[empty bloom]

Lowkey, I don't think the Sharquoi are a really meaningful thing in Halo anyways.

[orchid kettle]

they kinda aren't

They're just bigger Hunters without any ranged weapon

I mean dunno, maybe itd be cool if you strapped big plasma cannons to their back or whatever

it makes sense that they can threaten a single planet with two whole settlements on it

but I don't buy that Hekabe was gonna accomplish much else

[meager pier]

I wonder how they can be included in Halo, as they're basically Drinniol from Marathon, which legally belongs to Bungie

[empty bloom]

They already have been.

They are the subject matter species of Halo Envoy.

[meager pier]

Yeah, I remember them from Envoy, thankfully Bungie wasn't like "Hey, that's ours!"
Though they did bring other stuff they made into Halo and Microsoft didn't get in trouble for keeping it like MJOLNIR Power Armor and SPNKR

[hot zodiac]

They were first introduced in Halo 2: Conversations From The Universe

[crimson oxide]

So wait at the end of Saturn devouring his son….is the implication that a combat form escaped? It mentioned a condor, aren’t those things capable of slipspace jumps?

And this happened before the events of even Halo 5…..so it could have gotten to a remote colony and consume it and with the chaos of the created nobody would even notice a colony going dark. Hell that probably even means there is a gravemind active in the halo universe

[empty bloom]

A possible implication, but a doubtful one given the lack of payoff.

[empty bloom]

As long as the flood exists, so too will the Gravemind.

[crimson oxide]

I meant the physical biomass of a gravemind not the eternal consciousness that exists due to the whole neurophysics thing

@meager pier I assume it’s like how mindflayers, how they exist in other media beyond DnD and WotC can’t go “THATS OURS”

[tranquil valve]

Could either fall under fair use or reference

[lone plover]

if covenant have technology far more capable of producing powerfull laser tech why dont they use lasers for everything?

given it so much less of a hassle to convert gas into plasma and project it at high velocity

like at least for lore

[empty bloom]

Early installment weirdness.

Don't think about it too hard.

[unique rune]

Plasma sounds cooler and more exotic than laser beams

Bungie worldbuilds mostly on vibes

[dusk jetty]

I literally live on a mix between reach and harvest sooo

High Mountains with a bunch of deciduous trees with bright colors during spring/fall and fields

And a barren wasteland in the winter!

Just like reach after 2552!

[lone plover]

personally i pick battletech laser rifle over plasma rifle

single shot laser beam is lame

true power comes from it terrifying amount of penetration

[empty bloom]

I'd take a Blakist Mauser over the other variants made by the SLDF and the Clans.

[lone plover]

200 gram of steel over 1mm hole

[empty bloom]

Mostly because the insane Blakists managed to figure out that infantry don't need to have rations and flares in their stock or a revolving mini grenade launcher.

[lone plover]

giving no one in halo have ablative armor

laser with insane energy output over time is going to be stupid

like say smal laser melting 200KG of steel through a tiny hole

[surreal glen]

Yo man the Needler is ultra broken in canon lore
So many Spartan 2s have died to Needlers

[unique rune]

I mean my point is that the Covenant uses "plasma" because it sounds/feels alien
A lot of stuff is the way that it is because of the feeling that Bungie wanted to create, more than the actual technical and realistic reasoning

[lone plover]

but carbine and beam rifle tech sounds even more alien

[empty bloom]

Actually, I'm pretty sure the only true laser in Halo is actually the UNSC's Spartan Laser and equivelants.

Weaponized laser, at least.

[surreal glen]

Sentinel Beam is close enough

[empty bloom]

That's a hardlight beam.

[lone plover]

pulse laser

[surreal glen]

The Focus Rifle was technically a laser, but bad

[lone plover]

covenant use these on their ship so i dont understand why they cant just put it on tanks

unless some dumb restrictions

[empty bloom]

Size, don't want to, who knows.

[lone plover]

like no fiddling with forerunner tech

[surreal glen]

The Covenant is no stranger to dumb restictions
Anything that could harm Forerunner worlds or artifacts was forbidden to do

[lone plover]

cept they just glass things

and most forerunner tech is even more space magic so why bother

[unique rune]

Covenant "plasma" supposedly isn't even really plasma plasma

[lone plover]

oh so that can explains so many thing about why plasma rifle even work in the first place

(i mean...plasma should be absolutely terrible as weapons unless the bolt have the dencity of a liquid)

[surreal glen]

Plasma weapons don't exist (yet), so any plasma-based weapon you see in fiction is someone doing their best interpretation of how it would work

[unique rune]

It's just sci-fi technobabble and any lore explanation you get will be the same

[empty bloom]

Plasma cutters would make nasty melee weapons, but honestly, it's funny that Brutes specced into Gravitics.

Because that's just straight up horrifying as a weapon.

[surreal glen]

Seems useful

[empty bloom]

Getting hit with a gravity hammer wouldn't knock you around. It'd turn you to chunky goo.

[surreal glen]

After all, 500 years in the future and humans still use kinectic ammo

[empty bloom]

Snap all your bones, your shields, your armor, into a pulp.

[unique rune]

Perfect for smoothies

[lone plover]

cause ...lol relative peace things

[empty bloom]

In the words of Butlr, you could be spread on a cracker.

[lone plover]

not een 500 years in after 2000 we already have rifle that have barely any recoil

or machine so smooth it feels like it out of cod

[empty bloom]

That's honestly not that odd. Guns happen to be very efficient at delivering lethal injury, so there isn't a reason to improve it because defensively, I can still kill even a fully armored person with a 5.56.

[surreal glen]

It's so funny to see marines in CE holding the big magnums know that I know it was an M6D variant specifically designed for Spartans to use

[lone plover]

they really just make assault rifle feels like it fire 5.56

[empty bloom]

And almost every alternative to a regular gun has some significant drawback that stymies utilization.

[lone plover]

while BR fire 7.62

but lore says other wise

and BR is also a another space magic

9mm rifle round at high power rifle velocity

yea...sounds about right

[surreal glen]

At least they have Gauss turrets in Warthogs
Don't fully know what Gauss ammo is tho, I'm guessing plasma

[lone plover]

cept the thing have no recoil or barely

[unique rune]

Gauss cannons are the same tech as MACs
just smaller

[empty bloom]

Literally just a metallic magnetized slug.

Likely ferronickel.

Gauss weaponry is just a railgun with a spin.

[unique rune]

why do they hate slugs so much
what did they ever do to the UNSC smh

[surreal glen]

They should produce more railguns, they work good

[lone plover]

this

[empty bloom]

Weirdly, the Halo 4/5 Railgun has an explosive charge, which still kinda bothers me because it's very superfluous to have something like that explode.

[lone plover]

cept...not really

rail gun sucks

energy wise

[empty bloom]

You're already doing so much damage just by getting hit with the raw metal that it explodes like a splash of metal and meat.

[lone plover]

no in term of output but the efficiency

[empty bloom]

It's cool and magnetic.

[surreal glen]

There are some weird choices

Like the landmines
They are human technology, but only Brutes use it

[empty bloom]

The railgun's also basically a mini Stanchion. It's not strictly new tech.

It's just way more portable.

[lone plover]

because monkay brain is simple

if it a big spike that go boom

it make brain go happy

[empty bloom]

It's also, presumably, got way better range, damage, etc etc etc in canon because pretty much every Halo gun ever is way better while also being way worse in canon because it can't make up its mind.

[unique rune]

To be fair that's mostly a gameplay thing

The UNSC regularly makes use of various mines in-universe

[empty bloom]

I do prefer the modern interpretation of plasma being significantly less lethal than it used to be.

Enough that the big thing you need to worry about when you get hit with a stray bolt is to get your now orange-hot chestplate off before it melts in you.

[lone plover]

plasma pistol

[empty bloom]

This makes the stakes of non-Spartans far more sensible than it used to be.

I honestly really dislike sci fi universes that try to make literally everything as lethal as possible to everyone at all times for basic infantry weapons. It's very boring.

[lone plover]

honestly if plasma rifle in this game were to be real...it not going to be used by many other then special forces

for just how slow the velocity are

and you can see them so clearly

which limit the effective range

[empty bloom]

The velocity in canon is higher than it is in game. As Emperor said, Bungalow liked its vibes.

[lone plover]

where most weapon fight from 100 to 600 meters

[lone plover]

yea

[empty bloom]

Plasma works the way it does in game because Bungie wanted you to dodge it.

[lone plover]

but still that like ....black powder weapon velocity

which is still pain to shoot at something that moves

i can see them being very usefull in CQC for the larger bolt size

[empty bloom]

🤷‍♂️ That's problably why they have carbines and prefer fighting in urban environments instead of fields.

[lone plover]

beam rifle on the other hand......imagine they field an entire army with it

or make a cheap version of it for masses

[empty bloom]

That and the fact that the majority of the Covenant's leadership bias militarily is comprised of either melee-happy sword lovers or melee-happy hammer lovers, so they're going to already be charging every position as often as possible at all times.

[lone plover]

UNSC proably wouldnt even have chance before it stomp whole sale

[empty bloom]

I prefer to make sense of existing doctrine rather than imagine what could've been when it comes to the Covenant.

And the UNSC I merely just fill in the gaps with real world military structure.

[lone plover]

the only thing is it wont happen cause no one want to play with every enemy replaced with jackal

[empty bloom]

Well, that, and it's lame.

[surreal glen]

I feel like weapons such as the Carbine and Beam Rifle were mandatory additions in the gaming world to make Halo's sandbox more viable for competitive play

[empty bloom]

Not really. They added enemy variety.

[lone plover]

warcrime rifle

[empty bloom]

I hate the carbine's lore because it makes no sense.

[lone plover]

flame thrower are bad but giving them cancer?

[empty bloom]

Like, it's stated by some people and some books that it hits as hard as a .50 BMG.

So either people in the Halo Universe are built like actual tanks, or the book people get that stat from is pulling that stat out of nasty places.

[lone plover]

or ...because it elite"s weapon

so it need to be beg

and strong

[empty bloom]

No, it's a midrange precision rifle utilized by line troops and snipers such as Jackals, Brutes, Elites, and allegedly grunts can use it too.

[lone plover]

after all elite are like similar size to a spartan

GRUNT?!

[empty bloom]

And we know that the carbine doesn't, y'know

Rip people in half

Because .50 BMGs tend to do that

[lone plover]

no

instead they just make a crater out of your back

that what bullet do

[empty bloom]

I said tend.

[lone plover]

they first enter and create shock wave inside your body

while doing that ...deform and fragment

you may think it a hole but in reality they make a mess inside you

[empty bloom]

I know how guns work. I own more than most people and reload my own ammo.

[lone plover]

just shame most scifi writer thing bullet are stubbers

[empty bloom]

I'm saying the impact delivered is not consistent with .50 BMG.

[lone plover]

i remember carbine shoot like...8 9mm?

[empty bloom]

It's maybe consistent with .50 Beowulf, or a similarly sized round, but really, it's kind of all over the place but below .50 BMG.

Hell, considering apparently the fact it's radioactive is a hugely known problem, it's gotta be hitting hard enough that damage is ensured but survival is realistically feasible.

[unique rune]

It's more just an enemy variety thing, as mentioned before. From a pure competitive viability standpoint, "redundant" weapon types like the Carbine and Beam Rifle are, well, redundant. Functionally they're basically the same as the Battle Rifle/DMR and Sniper Rifle.

But in-universe (and from a gameplay perspective), it'd be a little weird for only the UNSC to have a marksman or sniper rifle that the Covenant just has zero counter to. Like in CE you've got the human sniper rifle and no corresponding enemy type on the Covenant side that can really challenge it.

If you go from the whole "redundancy" thing, you basically end up with CE and Infinite's weapon sandboxes, where there's fairly limited overlap, but also a very limited pool of weapons which kinda makes things feel small

[lone plover]

maybe they could add micro missile weapon for covenent

or alien

[empty bloom]

The Hydra.

[lone plover]

yea that but even smaller caliber

[empty bloom]

And also technically the Plasma Launcher and Plasma Caster.

[lone plover]

like one of the forerunner .....homing projectile thing

it either the pistol or the machine gun i forgot

[last anchor]

The boltshot and suppressor both had tracking rounds in Halo 5

[stoic hamlet]

Pocket shotgun was cooler though. IMO.

[empty bloom]

I just wish the primary fire was stronger so that it was actually worth using the gun normally.

[lone plover]

actually why dont the UNSC give spartan 75 cal or 12 gauge automatic rifle?

or ...20mm assatulr rifle

given they are twice the size of human at last 50bmg should be their standard issues caliber

a big fat mag with 30 round of 75 caliber high explosive round traveling at 3200fps

i mean they handling 12.7 dishka round while standing just fine

[last anchor]

Because they seem to do just fine with existing UNSC weapons.
Also the Hydra would fill that roll

Oh and the Railgun

[exotic pulsar]

The Spartan did get their own custom made weapon. It's called the Spartan Laser. It is just that later on they decided to let marines use it. Also the M6D Magnum has an upscaled version specifically built for Spartans.

Also, Standardization is what I see the reason why there aren't Spartan specific weapons everywhere in the UNSC. The UNSC already have effective weapons that are used against the Covenant and from an equipment management perspective Spartan Exclusive Weaponry would be a logistical nightmare.

Not only would they need to transport standard UNSC weaponry for a campign, if suddenly Spartans are involved they would need to allocate transports for the sole purpose of hauling Spartan Weaponry if they existed.

[stoic hamlet]

It technically wasn’t Spartan made, it was more a case of GUNGNIR and the M6 prototyping stuff with Spartans that was disseminated into general use. It was never specifically intended for them.

If that makes sense.

[exotic pulsar]

Still if there was Spartan specifc weapon that they could only use getting it to them would be a logistical nightmare. It's honestly better that Spartans are able to use weapons that are made for general use anyways.

[stoic hamlet]

Yeah. It’s just not worth it.

There were, at max, 1,100 Spartans over three decades of war. Comparatively there would be hundreds of thousands of ODST’s, millions of Marines, Army Troopers, etc.

Even with the IV’s they’re still a drop of a drop of a drop in the bucket compared to the full UNSCDF.

[exotic pulsar]

Like I can imagine that Spartans can requisition equipment for missions if the need arises. The Assault Rifle is a ICWS so I imagine it has all kinds of seperate equipment that could be requisitioned like scopes, a silencer, extended magazines and even weapon attachments.

[orchid kettle]

Well, that kinda ends up begging the question of why Spartan-IVs are even augmented to be huge in the first place

considering a III in SPI can still snap an Elite's wrist in two, and has the benefit of being a normal sized human more or less

But IV hands are so large, the game ends up magically scaling weapons up when you take them from a Marine

either that, or they magically scale down when a Marine picks it up, depends on your perspective I guess

[exotic pulsar]

Idk, spartans are naturally bigger, but the IV's while they do got physical augmentations they aren't as great as the II's. It's why the Gen 2 platform was designed to compensate for that and it gave them equal footing. I imagine the augments do effect the candidates differently some are taller or larger then other IV's.

The only weapon that was ever upscaled for Spartans was the M6D Magnum.

[orchid kettle]

The problem I always had with that idea is that Chief and Blue Team are wearing GEN2 as well

If GEN2 is augmenting strength enough that it turns the weaker IVs into something on par with the IIs

why doesn't it turn the IIs in turn into unstoppable gods

[exotic pulsar]

TBH if anything Chief was holding back in that fight up until Locke damaged his helmet.

That's when he decided it was go time and started to get serious.

[orchid kettle]

Because part of the l o r e about the magic crystal layer that augments a Spartan's speed and strength is that its effect cannot be reduced

Its why normal humans cant use the suit. Its going 100% at all times, and normies just can't handle it

[exotic pulsar]

Yeah, broken bones just from slight movement.

Though now in modern times in halo they finally did crack the code for augmenting genetics of adults. So they no longer need to take children.

Still kind of crap that they put Halsey on blast for what ONI made her do for the II's. Yes we all get they were originally made for fighting insurrectionists but then the Covenant rolled in they didn't care what they were intiially made for.

[empty bloom]

I really don't get why it's so hard to wrap heads around the concept that's stated regarding why IVs benefit more (despite not explicitly being stated in terms of mechanics) regarding why IVs benefit more from GEN2 than IIs do.

Literally just 'better attuned to physiology'. It's not that it drags IIs back, it's that it pushes IVs slightly forward. Simple concept.

[tranquil valve]

Is there a lore reason why falcons aren’t in infinite

[empty bloom]

Any Falcon the UNSC had on the Infinity is currently floating in space if it wasn't already melted for gear by the Banished

You cannot deploy a tiltrotor aircraft into space.

[meager pier]

Would you rather see the Falcon or Hornet return?

[tranquil valve]

Falcon

Fills a different role from the wasp and banshee

Instead of being a fighter it’s primarily a transport gunship

[empty bloom]

None of the human aircraft in Halo can really be considered 'fighters' aside from the aerospace vessels like the Baselard and Nandao.

[tranquil valve]

What about the wasp

[empty bloom]

Ground Support.

[tranquil valve]

Longsword is the big bomber

[empty bloom]

Bomber.

[tranquil valve]

What about the broadsword and sabre

[empty bloom]

Cool, it earns a treat for being named wrong

Not the first or last time it's happened in Halo, won't be the last

[tranquil valve]

Longsword is like a B-2 Spirit

But the broadsword from Halo 4 is a multirole fighter

[empty bloom]

Unironically the random in this case. Halo's operational terminology is wrong the majority of the time when it comes to vehicle roles and given the Longsword's usage across the franchise, Halopedia's in the right here.

[tranquil valve]

Would be cool to see that in a sandbox since it was campaign only

Same with reach’s Sabre (not counting forge)

[surreal glen]

It's in Forge too

[empty bloom]

Halopedia says Bomber.

I am. Not convinced.

[tranquil valve]

Does a B-2 get into dogfights

[empty bloom]

Apparently yes.

Try!

[tranquil valve]

B-2 doing kulbits and alieron rolls

[empty bloom]

I'll look forward to your embeds getting blocked for spam.

[tranquil valve]

Project Wingman moment

[empty bloom]

*nonembeds

[tranquil valve]

Kiss already both of you

[empty bloom]

May want to nix this.

Good way to eat a mute.

[tranquil valve]

Eat a

Burger with no honey mustard

[empty bloom]

Point is, Longsword's part of the 'I wanna be a fighter' problem that often strikes sci fi written by people who don't really understand the operational uses of the vessels in question.

Tended to get used as a catchall for needing flying things, which starts to be a problem when it starts to get presented more and more as a bomber because someone remembered that oh, right, actual differences exist between these airframes, and we need fighters to be fighters, not these things.

In turn it causes things from earlier media to present a different view from what something reasonably is given what's known as time marched on.

In other words, I am 100% inclined to believe Halopedia's structuring on this over Halo's dogged insistence that the "interceptor strike fighter" that competes with five other "strike fighters" by exclusively dropping massive amounts of heavy ordinance on targets like a bomber, is in fact the fighter it claims to be.

[surreal glen]

The Halopedia is written by random people

They can write whatever they want regardless if it's correct or not

[empty bloom]

And shockingly, those random people can be more correct in their interpretation than early writers who didn't have as many opportunities in terms of research or time moving forward providing more appropriate designs.

You're interpreting me saying Halopedia is right, as Halopedia is wrong.

[surreal glen]

Halo 3 shows Flood structures very uniformly and in orange shading when in canon lore Flood structures are neither

[empty bloom]

#lore-and-universe message

I didn't.

I'm saying that Halopedia's perspective is longer and more complete compared to early writers, which is why the interpretation of the Longsword functionally being a bomber is the correct one.

I've fully acknowledged that several times. I'm saying Halopedia's classification as actually being a bomber is correct in spite of the naming conventions utilized by the Longsword's name.

If you need to ask that, you should get your brain checked for lesions, because nobody develops gaps in their memory that fast.

If that's what you want to believe.

Whatever you say.

You should go take a walk.

I already do.

[hot zodiac]

My guys... it's an interceptor

[empty bloom]

Mostly used as a bomber.

[hot zodiac]

Please look up what an interceptor is

It solves the thing

[tranquil valve]

Can you guys keep arguing I’m almost finished

[empty bloom]

I also wouldn't expect a fighter to bomb (Except for all the times they do), which is why I've pointed out several times that the Longsword falls victim to sci fi writing a lot.

Shocker.

[hot zodiac]

Okay... whatever then lol

Enjoy your argument

[empty bloom]

I'm really not.

It's not even the fun kind of argument where it's trying to determine what the hell Achilles or War Master armors do to incentivize brutality on the Spartan's behalf.

It's an argument of classification.

[spare kite]

I mean isnt the longsword both lol

[tranquil valve]

It fly and shoot bad guy

[empty bloom]

A lot of armed military aircraft are shockingly capable of shooting other military aircraft if they are equipped with ordinance to do so.

[spare kite]

If I were to try and makes sense of everyone's opinion, I think the intent in saying that the Longsword isnt a fighter is meant to imply that because of its multipurpose role, its not a "true" fighter, in the same way that others only have one role as a fighter.

[empty bloom]

Preeetty much.

I think it follows mostly in line with 'bomber'. It's not that it's incapable of other roles, it's that it's named wrong for what it mostly is for and mostly does.

[stoic hamlet]

It’s termed a “heavy fighter” in First Strike, if that matters.

[empty bloom]

Honestly, what hasn't the longsword been called?

[orchid kettle]

no a longsword is a european, double-edged bladed weapon often in a cruciform shape

[empty bloom]

A troop carrier?

[stoic hamlet]

A hero ship.

[empty bloom]

AWACS?

No, Peppertee had it right.

No.

I'm saying it's called a fighter incorrectly.

It most closely aligns with being a bomber.

Well that much has been obvious this entire time.

[versed helm]

I wonder how Spartans Train do they use live rounds or not this came up because of a convo by a friend and I about the Movie Jarhead there's a specific scene that comes to mind

[empty bloom]

That scene's riddled with inaccuracies for dramatic effect.

[versed helm]

I mean Rubber rounds exsist irl

[empty bloom]

Either way, Spartans sometimes do, sometimes don't. It really depends on the needs of the exercise. That said, most UNSC small arms can't actually reliably penetrate any component of MJOLNIR armor.

[versed helm]

Ah ok

[versed helm]

Gotcha

[orchid kettle]

There's rubber rounds in Halo, Tactical Training Rounds that explode with paint, and we see in Initiation that they're firing these taser bolt things as well

Its not too hard to imagine that the armor just locks certain part of the body to simulate injury when it needs to

[versed helm]

Ah ok

[orchid kettle]

the real question is how Spartans are teleporting around when they "respawn", but I kinda choose to believe that Spartans are actually doing something more akin to Breakout in Halo 5

where you have one life, and when a team loses a round, everyone just gets up and walks back to the starting point in preparation for the next

[empty bloom]

Actual War Games really isn't anything like the game, so it tracks.

[orchid kettle]

yeah, and chances are, these training exercises aren't wrapping up in 12 minutes max either

the whole city had taco bell last night

[stoic hamlet]

They use TTR: tactical training rounds.

Essentially a paintball round that, when it hits you causes that section of your body to go numb/paralyzed.

Occasionally they also do live fire tests, but it seems even in Wargames and etc they use TTR.

[stoic hamlet]

This is how it’s shown in Lone Wolf.

One life elimination.

[empty bloom]

... Holy crap, I just realized one of the main reasons the Swords of Sanghelios have such a presence on the Infinity.

Or did, at any rate.

It's likely at least partially to establish a parity between the simulated Sangheili and the real ones. They're likely trainers for that and joint ops.

[versed helm]

Ah ok

[dusty ferry]

I mean, isn’t most of war games done via random vr stuff? Respawning could literally work as it does in game.

Though there would have to be some actual real world training done, so I’d assume that’s probably just that one game mode where you can revive teammates given that sort of happens through halo 5s campaign

I mean, grav cannons are a thing in a ton of covenant species locations, so it kinda makes sense

I dunno why that’s represented with big conveyors but go off I guess

Maybe that stuff is how they play gravball

The weird game where gravity gets messed with

[orchid kettle]

Thorne complains of feeling sore after some war games training, and we see in Escalation that its like a star trek holo deck

where Palmer stabs an elite with a sword, and then the sword and her surroundings melt away as somebody enters the room

[dusty ferry]

Huh, most of the not escalation gave me VR vibes

And that seems more reasonable as a refit of the massive amounts of cryo pods in the infinity’s original design

If you assume that stuff looks like the memory den from fallout 4, or the average cryo pod

(Yeah, I know a ton of them were swapped for the frigate docks, but this makes way more sense)

[orchid kettle]

Well, Athlon's whole thing is that its training armor for war games

"Multiple redundant safety systems in the ATHLON significantly reduce the chance of major injury during live War Games."

[dusty ferry]

Yeah, that specified live war games

[orchid kettle]

"Athlon Champion is rebuilt and retuned version of the default Athlon armor. It is a temperamental creation that requires a full team of technicians on hand to repair and retune the suit between each War Games match for optimal performance."

[dusty ferry]

Which implies there is something else that also is a part of war games, which I assumed to be vr

Which makes way more sense when you think about the Hannibal vehicle variants, or some of the enhanced weapons from warzone

Or the sword hog

[orchid kettle]

There's probably a significant amount of AR going on

where a spartan's helmet is altering a prop to look like a scattershot or something like that

[dusty ferry]

I guess, but that fails at actually testing the viability of the weapons we see in warzone

Which is mentioned repeatedly as a big reason they even exist in the game

[orchid kettle]

If the AR simulation mimics the properties of said weapon, I don't see why not

in VR, you're not shooting a real gun either

i just assume instead of actually being hit by anything and being disintegrated, the victim's armor just locks up, and the shooter's AR helmet covers up their body in a cute lil snapchat dissolve filter

[dusty ferry]

Wait, how do maps work then? Is that just a game thing for us, or is there just like 40 something rooms where we have giant hologram projectors faking bottomless pits

[orchid kettle]

The maps are a combination of holograms and "risers"

in otherwords, the floor is made out of segments that can shift and form different geography

and the hologram layer is overlaid on top

[dusty ferry]

Wait, isn’t forge canonically a thing to? Because the olive and tommy helmet vaguely exist, so was there like one spartan who spent like 400 hours coding and somehow Magicd up new helmets

Or are those not canon

[orchid kettle]

forge exist, sure

a 3D printer still needs a 3D model file to reference

and somebody needs to make said 3D model on their computer

[dusty ferry]

So how does Timmy work if it’s exclusively a war games thing

[orchid kettle]

probably just not canon

[dusty ferry]

It’s if I remember right a glitch in war games

[orchid kettle]

like the recent vampire spartan armor set we got in infinite

[dusty ferry]

Hey, the vampire thing is only not canon until they decide otherwise

[orchid kettle]

Its apparently a reference to Timmy the whale, the mascot character

[dusty ferry]

I’m just flabbergasted now

How do they do tanks? Are there just a bunch of unloaded tanks in there? Where are they stored when it’s not a bun match? Is it the same place the pilot hides the billion wasps I called in during infinite? How do they do things like phaetons? Do they actually have enough of them for 24 player matches like 5 suggests, or am I going crazy

Honestly, this makes war games way more technically advanced than if it was just virtual reality

[dusty ferry]

Or it could be that stuff they used in the original extraction mode tested on people now that I think of it

[empty bloom]

I can solve it with two sentences that have canon precedent;

War Games are canon. They way they are done in the game is not.

I mean, the events in them already weren't, so.

[dusty ferry]

Or the risers like swallow up the downed participant and conveyor them to the next spawn point

[empty bloom]

Warzone's honestly problably the closest you'd ever get to 'canon' War Games.

The only 'real' thing about War Games that we know of is seemingly just the involved Spartans.

As for things like Timmy, it can be safely assumed that most apperances of MJOLNIR in War Games are not actually the official armors in the first place, and likely get done over with mockup gear in-sim to better understand the applications of experimental tech.

For all its flaws, the UNSC is actually incredibly good at real-time data streaming and alteration, and War Games is also canonically controlled by a Smart AI with Jeff Steitzer's voice (That Palmer allegedly hates).

[dusty ferry]

I mean, testing with simulated mock ups seems weird, but I guess that’s what more real locations like live fire are for

Or labs

[empty bloom]

It seems weird, but as I said, the UNSC's great at real time data manipulation.

Or near-real time.

Functionally, while the universe likely lacks 'respawn' mechanics for Spartans, it likely doesn't have Spartans shooting at eachother with real lethal weapons. The injures would likely come in primarily at the most vital aspects of Spartandom in terms of fighting other Spartans, which is actually going to mostly be melee combat considering how ineffective small arms fire tends to be against Spartans.

[dusty ferry]

Anyway, I imagine our played war games only happen when two guys just have to punch each other or something. Like they are real grudge matches or something.

[empty bloom]

Well, there are canon Fireteam v Fireteam showdowns.

Down to these showdowns being seen on the Infinity as a form of combat sport.

[quiet shoal]

If they wanted to do a flood infection prevention, why didn’t they just rig the mjolnir fusion reactor to blow up

[dusty ferry]

they tried?

[quiet shoal]

Wdym

If it tried it would have blown up already

[empty bloom]

MJOLNIR already does this as a standard precaution in the event of flood infection. The problem is that flood can and has displayed a capability to stop this.

[quiet shoal]

Oh

Dang flood form

[empty bloom]

Contrary to popular belief, a fusion reactor is actually very hard to force to detonate.

[quiet shoal]

You can’t just shoot it?

If the alloy was pried opened

[empty bloom]

It's something that is designed to operate in heavy combat in austere conditions where failure means the operating party not only dies, but everything in his or her immediate surroundings dies. It detonating like an actual nuke (Which fusion reactions kinda... Can't do, on the scale of a Halo microfusion reactor, at least not realistically) to being shot wouldn't make much sense.

Realistically, a rupturing of the containment systems of a fusion reactor would at most be more like a boiler explosion than a nuke.

[quiet shoal]

Still an explosion tho

[empty bloom]

The point is that MJOLNIR does have that as an anti-flood failsafe. It just doesn't explode bigly and it isn't easy to trigger, intentional or no.

It's worth noting that there's actually multiple counteractives going off at once in the event of a Spartan becoming infected.

• The suit's GALLOWS system activates, detonating the Spartan's head and everything inside the helmet, killing the would-be victim instantaneously and denying enemy intel assets.
• The suit's gel layer instantly solidifies in an attempt to completely immobilize the now-headless infected corpse.
• The MJOLNIR's power supply attempts to cook off, destroying the suit's ability to power itself if not destroying the flood form outright.

Step one has shown no signs of failure (I will not believe the POV at the end of Saturn Devouring is a Spartan until told otherwise by 343i itself. More likely answers include the Hellbringers who were alongside the Spartans.), Step two has shown signs of at least short-term stoppage but rapid ruin and subversion by the flood, Step three has failed due to quick response by the flood in terms of suit interfacing.

[quiet shoal]

How did every single containment measure fail

On the first occasion 😂

[empty bloom]

One didn't, and it's arguably the most important one.

You can stop metal. It's harder to stop a mind.

[quiet shoal]

Yeah but in SAHS, the spartan was conscious while infected

He says like, “won’t let you, won’t let you”

Unless that wasn’t a Spartan

[empty bloom]

That wasn't a Spartan.

At least, there's no actual indication it was a Spartan.

[quiet shoal]

Oh ok

[empty bloom]

Regular humans have shown that level of resolve against infection before.

Keyes, to some degree Jenkins.

[quiet shoal]

I kinda though it was cause Julien was already uncontroll

And we don’t get any info on everyone else

Except maybe abe

[empty bloom]

There was several Hellbringers and Cyclops pilots dropped off with the Spartans who are turned by the corpse of the infected Spartan.

[quiet shoal]

Oh I thought those were the Spartans

The ones piloting the cyclops and hellbringas

[empty bloom]

You... Can't really pilot a dude with a flamethrower.

[quiet shoal]

Ehhhh

[empty bloom]

This is a Hellbringer.

[quiet shoal]

Oh damn that’s actually so cool

[empty bloom]

Basically just dudes with flamethrowers and heat-controlling armor.

[dusty ferry]

i think he was assuming they were using the kisano cyclops

[empty bloom]

Maybe. Both ideas were present, though the concept of a flamethrower cyclops actually exists about as long as Kinsano has.

[quiet shoal]

Still with the open face visors

[dusty ferry]

i think its a bit older from mega blocks actually

[quiet shoal]

I don’t get it

[empty bloom]

Nobody had open face visors there.

[quiet shoal]

Not like open but just big

[empty bloom]

UNSC's glass for their visors is actually pretty durable against small arms fire.

[quiet shoal]

Not against a flood form it’s not

[empty bloom]

Well, even GEN1 Mark V wasn't.

[dusty ferry]

where's this concept art from?

[quiet shoal]

Well that’s gen 1

Besides that,

[dusty ferry]

hellbringers aren't wearing mjolnir

last i checked

[empty bloom]

Halo Wars.

[dusty ferry]

1 or 2?

[empty bloom]

1

[dusty ferry]

Thanks

[empty bloom]

Which is funny because I just realized that it kinda looks like Hazmat from the waist up.

[quiet shoal]

Question is why give the flood a better shot at the head, and not close it up like that one keystone faceplate attachment

[dusty ferry]

The tech behind that presumably wasn’t ready yet

Given it was 2556

[quiet shoal]

Well they had eod

And that was in 2552

They could have made it like little windows

[empty bloom]

A 'visor' doesn't always mean it's just a simple pane of glass in Halo.

It's why not every 'visor' region lines up with eyes in the games.

[quiet shoal]

I know but it’s the weakest part of the helmet I’d presume

[dusty ferry]

I dunno, the chip slot is probably worse

[quiet shoal]

Well yeah probably actually

Nvm

SECOND

Worst part

[empty bloom]

Hellbringers also aren't really meant from the ground up to fight flood. The organization is old, predating known flood infestations by at least four decades.

[quiet shoal]

Maybe not hellbringas

But what about flood containment fireteams teams

There’s no reason to wear an Eva helmet for that one

Cough cough

[empty bloom]

EVA's 'visor' is likely not all visor.

[quiet shoal]

Oh shoot wait

Sorry misread

[empty bloom]

In fact, the Halo 3 beta version had an 'under helmet' look that showed that almost none of the visor region was actually visor.

[quiet shoal]

Why make it with that style though

[empty bloom]

Sensory plating. That's generally what the visors are.

[orchid kettle]

if it makes you feel any better, I don't think a Scorpion has ever been involved in a book battle sequence since The Flood

[empty bloom]

It's an armored reflective sensory plating, more or less.

[quiet shoal]

Also whete did you find that image, I wanna see what it looks like under

[empty bloom]

It was some youtube video I found forever ago.

[quiet shoal]

Was it installation 00?

[empty bloom]

No.

[orchid kettle]

Hellbringers aren't purely anti-flood bois, and also because it looks cool

[empty bloom]

Generalkidd.

[quiet shoal]

Thanks man

[quiet shoal]

Cause style overruns function 😎😎

[orchid kettle]

a big featureless faceplate contrasted with a big ol' flamethrower ups the intimidation without being overly edgy

unless you're emile

then you kinda ruin the point

[quiet shoal]

😃👍

[empty bloom]

Granted, I'm not super confident in how accurate this was given it's only a Halo 3 beta thing, but if nothing else it at least makes sense given what we know of MJOLNIR.

[orchid kettle]

I feel like having a big visor makes sense for EVA where you want to invoke the likeness of a nasa astronaut

[empty bloom]

Yeah, but the visor is usually more front-sloped than male pattern balding.

Typing that last part made me wince.

Anyways, visor.

[civic forge]

Hi all, in mona lisa the short story, do we ever find out what happens after Lopez and Henry fight it out in the ship? I've been reading halo evolutions

Is there a sequel to mona lisa?

[empty bloom]

No.

However, it doesn't really take much to figure out

[hot ravine]

they have a little kiss

[empty bloom]

An injured an unarmed marine (corpsman?) can't reasonably be expected to fight past an uninjured but unclothed elite for an escape pod, and it's a bit of a stretch to assume an elite would either fit in an escape pod or know how to handle it on a human vessel.

[empty bloom]

So clearly, they see the end coming, and embrace eachother before the flood lovingly embraces them.

[civic forge]

Ok thanks trench bird. In palace hotel short story, is the story Canon? As it doesnt fit with metropolis level

[empty bloom]

It kind of falls in a gray area as far as Halo lore goes.

It's small enough to be inconsequential if it isn't, but it's also not meaningfully integrated into canon in any ways in terms of how events go-including changing several major elements from the game.

But the level's events themselves aren't always 100% in line with canon either, so.

[civic forge]

Is parisa Johns childhood girlfriend Canon?

So what you are saying is some of it is loosely fit with Canon but elements of the games and short story dont marry up perfectly

[stoic hamlet]

It also isn’t even really glass, at least for MJOLNIR helmets/SPI.

[empty bloom]

Exxxxactly.

[stoic hamlet]

She’s canon.

She appears in the audio drama “Memory Agent”.

It seems like the story is intended canon, yeah.

[empty bloom]

Using the discussion in general as an example for this, Chief's very well known for never taking off his helmet in the games, but he actually very frequently does so in the books of the games, typically for normal human actions like eating, sleeping, resting.

The game and the story are seperate in many respects.

[stoic hamlet]

They’re basically two separate continuities, in many ways.

[empty bloom]

It's kind of funny because Star Wars and such have similar teething issues.

It's, shockingly, extremely hard to make mediums match in consistency. What works in one variation of the setting would squander the fun or legibility of another.

[civic forge]

I think its lazy that the books and games don't match perfectly. It shows lack of attention to detail. I think audiences appreciate when there is consistency

Why is it hard to achieve consistency?

[empty bloom]

It's not as simple as being easy or hard.

Some elements simply do not translate well between mediums, and that includes expression of detail.

[orchid kettle]

I could have sworn that the story ended with the captain of the Red Horse blowing up the escape pod too

but when I reread it, he just blew up the Mona Lisa

[empty bloom]

I'm not enough of an armchair gamedev/loredev/whatever to assume that they simply don't try hard enough.

If what I say offends you, the block button is free and accessible to all patrons of Discord.

[stoic hamlet]

Because different mediums require different things to work.

Playing Halo CE is fun and engaging.

But reading Halo CE is a slog.

There’s a reason the best parts of The Flood are stuff the author was able to add in himself.

But it does depend on which parts people want to be consistent. For example, I’d like the universe from the books and expended material to be “the mainline canon” and the games try to emulate that….but you’d have tons of people complaining about it because it doesn’t “fitL their idea of Halo. And I don’t mean with regards to keeping lore locked into one medium or another, even just tonally and etc.

[empty bloom]

Because this isn't a binary problem, this has more moving parts to it than that.

And frankly, Eternal does a better job explaining it than I do.

[stoic hamlet]

In what context are we referring here?

Because by that logic the entire visual design of the universe is incorrect.

(And I prefer the written descriptions, but as Trench says, this isn’t a simple problem.)

[unique rune]

I mean it's real easy to throw out vague hypotheticals with the benefit of hindsight and no oversight

game Reach and book Reach don't line up because Bungie wanted to largely overwrite the book's version of events

[civic forge]

Why would people complain about not being halo if the game and books were consistent? What do these fans want?

[empty bloom]

Because it actually isn't clear, you're just saying it is. This is a moving assembly with a great deal of people. Writers, artists, designers, scriptwriters, storyboard teams, et cetera, working on books, comics, advertisements, game campaigns, et cetera et cetera, all vying against the multiple issues of oversight, competition within and without, et cetera.

It's easy to stand back as an uninvolved and unitiated consumer and say that you can simply do a thing. It isn't if you're in the trenches.

[unique rune]

Except they wanted to make that choice because they were the ones writing the game's narrative

[stoic hamlet]

On that topic, the game is actually much better for the universe….it’s just not fully realized with the book’s retcons.

[unique rune]

343 ended up going with a route that tries to smooth over the inconsistencies even if there's still some minor headaches

[surreal glen]

It is not the ideal move to make a game with a story that retcons a book that had existed for 9 years prior to that point

[empty bloom]

Saying 'why can't we simply do extremely specific and complex vision to an in group of a few hundred people at least is as fruitful as grabbing a megaphone in central park and trying to order people to make a human graphing calculator.

[exotic pulsar]

Reach didn't really retcon the book much though it just turned the fight into a month long brawl and covered a few other things going on at the time. Someone did make a timeline on youtube with the book and game together and it made sense.

[stoic hamlet]

@versed helm @civic forge both of you seem to be under the misconception thst this was all planned out in advance.

It wasn’t.

Bungie (parts of it, anyways) very much didn’t want any sort of books, or expanded universe, or what have you. So they made the games their way.

The books worked alongside and sometimes overlapping, but both were almost competing with each other.

It’s only now (and by now I mean maybe around 2016-ish) that 343 have fully reconciled most of the issues and solidified things….sort of.

But there’s still a lot of stuff just not shown, or acknowledged, or seen by many of the fans simply because it’s not what they want to see.

Trust me, when I say that, lol

No…but they did.

[unique rune]

They didn't have to, sure, but they wanted to

[surreal glen]

Noble Team's existence as a whole seems weird because the fall of Reach is supposed to be one of the most brutal Spartan 2 massacres in the entire lore
The game meanwhile shifts the focus to a group of Spartan 3s with only Jorge as a 2

[stoic hamlet]

I’d say overall it was a positive for the universe.

But reconciled poorly.

[unique rune]

They were pretty clear even early on that they'd consider going back and rewriting things if they felt they had better ideas

[empty bloom]

I honestly didn't mind Noble Team's intro despite it being a bit weird, because it still makes sense for there to be IIIs who were destined for places other than Operation Slaughterhousekillallspartans VII.

[civic forge]

Thats not true. I dont think it was planned out in advance. I think if you create a story, in whatever medium you tell it, should have consistency

[stoic hamlet]

Like, basically all of it is good.

The issue is reconciling the book with the game….which they’ve actually given themselves great and easy potential to do which causes no issues and, arguably, even makes things more consistent they just… didn’t do it.

[unique rune]

It was a statement from Joseph Staten in the mid-2000s somewhere? Talking about things like Johnson's supposed Flood "immunity" and how they took the graphic novel as an opportunity to change that.
And they were starting to have ideas on how Reach would differ at least as early as somewhere in ODST's development.

[empty bloom]

... Eternal literally just said they didn't plan it all in advance, and the rest was just your opinion that people in a position to affect change over a decade ago clearly didn't share.

[unique rune]

There's a monument in the ONI building with some particular divergences timeline-wise from what the novel suggests.

[empty bloom]

Literally nothing Eternal said was a falsehood.

[civic forge]

That video was confusing because, covenant were attacking reach but chief still was able to get his new armor in reach

[unique rune]

Yeah, the issue with caring about consistency is that Bungie didn't really care for being consistent with the novels that Microsoft had arguably "forced" on them

[stoic hamlet]

I helped with that video, I should add.

Just wanted to brag, sorry~

[unique rune]

You have to remember Bungie wanted the novel The Fall of Reach to just not exist at all in the beginning

[surreal glen]

Books did show signs of taking importance since the early days
Halo 2 for example, does not explain how Johnson survived CE even once
You'd only know how if you read First Strike

[unique rune]

Like it or not, that doesn't change that they practically said "hey yeah we'll retcon things if we feel like it"

Regardless of how big the retcons would've been, Bungie saw Halo as their thing that they were (mostly) free to do what they wanted with

Existing media be damned

[surreal glen]

Let's just say Bungie often ignored the books

They never approved of Halo Wars' creation, so they probably didn't even bother with considering it in any future project

[unique rune]

http://halostory.bungie.org/staten102204.html

HSP: Would the books make the cut?

JS: The books are, for better or worse, part of the canon. In the future we may choose to revise or flat-out ignore some of the less appealing ideas (Johnson's biological immunity to the Flood, for example), but folks should treat them as defining elements of the Halo universe.

[exotic pulsar]

Well thanks because the timeline does make sense at least with both the book and game.

Do I look like I know that off the top of my head? I like Halo but I am not THAT big of a lore nerd to know every litte detail.

Also, kind of hard to keep UNSC in the dark about that when in the very first level the Covenant attacked one of the three primrary carrier hubs the Visegrád Communications Outpost. You would think facilities like that would have cameras basically EVERYWHERE for security reasons.

[hot zodiac]

I mean, nobody was ever going to just make TFoR into a game anyway.

[surreal glen]

Active cammo is useless against Brutes because they can smell its distinctive essence, and it's useless against Prometheans because they have heat vision

[empty bloom]

I wouldn't say useless. Camo still blocks visual detection from brutes, and we do know that active camo can still theoretically work against Prometheans, maybe, IIRC.

[exotic pulsar]

Zealots are crazy tbh.

[versed helm]

There just like every other elite i kill in campaign

[versed helm]

i forgot about one thing...

How did kat die? a needle rifle isn't powerfull enough to get through armor with one shot, and i doubt she for some reason had it off

[versed helm]

and if she did, why couldn't the jackals shoot six aswell?

[latent junco]

The radiation blast from slightly earlier in the cutscene broke her shield systems, since she had her helmet removed, so the needle rifle was able to pierce the MJOLNIR, killing her

[versed helm]

ah

[empty bloom]

That really is one of the dumbest things from Reach, IMO.

That Needle Rifle shouldn't have penned.

I still think it was originally a beam rifle (Especially since the Elite who fired the shot is using a focus rifle), given the overpenetration and all that.

[tranquil valve]

I miss the focus rifle

And the needle rifle

We haven’t seen either since reach

I’d be fine with a weapon variant taking their role like Blood of Suban did in H5

[stoic hamlet]

There’s a ton of weapons I’d like to see in game again, like the Railgun, Sticky Det, Saw (or something similar) SMG (both versions), Plasma repeater, plasma launcher, fuel rod gun, etc.

[tranquil valve]

Sticky detonator my beloved

Such a good counter whenever someone had a mantis

[dusk jetty]

Banished fuel rod is something that would fit right into infinite

Along with maybe the plasma repeater/rifle

[fair hazel]

some of this is more gameplay and game than lore

[stoic hamlet]

Well, they all still exist and are used in the lore, thankfully.

[scarlet quiver]

🤔 Banished fuel rod.
Something Voridus would create?

[stoic hamlet]

I mean….it’d likely be just a regular fuel rod…

[pallid knoll]

the plasma pistol and needler are normal too

[stoic hamlet]

Pulse carbine as well.

And the Stalker rifle.

[pallid knoll]

the stalker rifle’s banished-colored

[stoic hamlet]

Is it, or is that just what it’s always coloured? Is the reverent and concussion rifle banished coloured? The space banshee?

(Just screwing around, but I mean, a paint job doesn’t really many anything, lol)

[empty bloom]

Well, it does in the Banished, in a sense. Armor livery does seem to, at any rate.

Though Infinite doesn't seem to agree.

[grand prairie]

Pretty sure the Stalker Rifle was always red because considering they lack proper uniforms I doubt the Infinite banished would have time to repaint it plus none of their other guns (like the pulse carbine or plasma pistol) are painted in red.

[safe mauve]

Can a spartan 2 be given spartan 4 augmentations on top of his s2 augmentations

[craggy atlas]

Has anyone thought if the Flood could infected the Xalanyn? It has been in my mind since they were revealed in Infinite and it just bothered me for a bit

Yeah, but they were imprisoned after the Forerunner flood war... So much of that I think of is on thin ice

Well, yes the war ended when the halos were fired. But some Forerunners managed to survive, and found out that the Xalanyn also survived. And true of what you said, if the Flood infects them they would be unkillable if the Halos were fired a second time. So it is both plausible that the Forerunners imprisoned them because the Xalanyn could both be a threat if they were infected by the flood and would disrupt the other species in the Galaxy, who were reset into the Stone Age

[safe mauve]

Does that mean if the flood infected thwm they could teleport too?

[versed helm]

plasma repeater and punch combo is the best weapon to combat elites, change my mind

[versed helm]

what species is Xalanyn in the less scientific tongue? I don't remember hearing anything like that anywhere

[craggy atlas]

I don't know, they were first introduced in Halo Infinite. So they don't really hasn't been studied by O.N.I

[versed helm]

i don't even know how they look and how were they supposed to survive halo rings, and then live for so long

and since you were discussing them being infected by the Flood, i doubt they're machines or anythin like that

[craggy atlas]

They lived so long because the race was Imprisoned in Cylixes on Zeta Halo, which had a way to stop them ageing. The means for their survival of the Halo rings are as of yet, unknown.

[carmine sleet]

The Harbinger is one of the Xalanyn so it is likely that most look something like her

[tranquil valve]

I just wanna know how they survived the rings

Something about their genetic makeup?

[abstract wren]

No one knows for the time being

[empty bloom]

... That's literally one of the most middling ways to kill them in the only game the plasma repeater shows up in.

[tranquil valve]

Like a pocket dimension?

[dusk jetty]

Endless

[dusk jetty]

Not a terrible theory, the forerunners at least knew how to manipulate time a degree given the ||Crystal in First Strike|| Not unreasonable to assume that other tier 1 species could as well

[unique rune]

You could probably do the S-IV organ replacements but generally speaking there wouldn’t be much point

The neuro/muscular/skeletal enhancements each Spartan generation has received achieves about the same result, even if the method differs

[empty bloom]

You likely wouldn't get much more of a benefit aside from the better breathing thing

Though honestly, it kind of bothers me that IV augs still end up 'less successful' despite sounding like they should be way better on paper.

[versed helm]

Did you ever play that game? And if that ain't a cool way to do that, what is, according to ya?

[empty bloom]

I bought it within 48 hours of its launch.

So yes. I did play Reach.

[deft heath]

Does anyone else want to know if they are ever going to go back to the way things were in Reach and in 3?? I can’t stand they PVP game modes they are Dog water! I want my old game modes back!

[empty bloom]

The Plasma Repeater to melee setup is ineffecient compared to most other weapons doing the same job. Elites are also melee powerhouses in Reach up close so you shouldn't be trying to melee them.

[empty bloom]

This is for universe discussion, not your gripes about gameplay.

[empty bloom]

Realistically, the best way to deal with elites would generally be hitting them with explosive ordinance beyond reproach distance, or bullets at a distance. Either or.

(Personally, I think killing them with railguns in 4/5 was the most satisfying)

[deft heath]

What I said is a discussion… did you not see the question?

[empty bloom]

And what I said is that this is for topics such as books and story first and foremost, not complaining about noncanon game modes.

You want to discuss those, go somewhere else.

[deft heath]

Oh gotcha I thought I was joining the Halo discord never mentioned about book nerds

[empty bloom]

There's two major sections for it here, #halo-discussion and #general-chat

[empty bloom]

You literally did join the Halo Discord, you're just in the book nerd section.

Wow people are... Not bright today.

I thought you actually did legit leave because of that, lmao.

But yeah, no, there's other chats for your topic, this just isn't one of them.

[gusty star]

If you’re talking about nuances of a video game’s gameplay you’re still a nerd get off your high horse

[versed helm]

https://www.halopedia.org/29,823_BCE

Did you know that the year 29,823 BCE is a year in the distant past? cuz i didn't...

[versed helm]

well, i always play with the skull that makes your shields recharge only after meleeing, cuz it's just free points, but...

[versed helm]

yeah the shields charge back kinda poorly without it so it aint a good idea

[versed helm]

Howewer, all elites rage after losing their shields, giving you a small window to either hit them or switch to a human weapon and shoot them in the head

[versed helm]

railguns in 4/5? what weapon do you mean?

yes, absolutely

[versed helm]

anything that aint plasma feels kinda dull against shields tbh, but to the point
More than half of the elites need 2 bullets for headshot last time i checked, and DMR needs 6 or 7 shots, so it works in nightfall. And if by explosive ordinance you mean fuel rod or rocket launcher, they can either dodge that ( well, 0,(6) chance they succeed but i aint wastin shots from those weapons on elites if i have a different decent weapon) or you get hurt
Shotguns work extremely well, but I don't think they count as "At a distance" all that much since you have to get in 0-10 meters range to be effective with them
but we all know that SAW and assault rifle are the response to everything don't we

just make sure to not edit that in, Nor "The list of years in the distant past is incomplete, you can help by expanding it"

[empty bloom]

... The... Railgun?

[stoic hamlet]

Arclight best variant fite me.

[tranquil valve]

What would be considered the worst crime the UNSC (More particularly ONI) has committed besides the Spartan-II program

[lone junco]

My vote is either the Midnight facility or what ONI was trying to do on the Mona Lisa

[tranquil valve]

The Mona Lisa?????

[dusk jetty]

https://www.halopedia.org/The_Mona_Lisa

Utter Embed destruction.

But yeah, flood prison ship

[tranquil valve]

Oh it’s a prison ship

I thought they meant the painting

Did this start the classic painting name thing that SDHS followed recently?

And they’re both flood related

[stoic hamlet]

Probably when UNSC marines fired white phosphorus on women and children.

^ mentioned in Contact Harvest.

[tranquil valve]

They what

Knowingly?

[dusk jetty]

I don’t think it’s ever elaborated upon after that

[tranquil valve]

Were they insurrectionists or had ties to them,

Either way that’s wild

[dusk jetty]

Innies for sure

[empty bloom]

Wonder if the UNSC has its own version of the song Napalm Sticks to Kids, then.

Messed up.

[stoic hamlet]

Could also use the time the UNSC beat down refugees in The Cole Protocol, as another example of explicitly “regular forces” doing bad stuff, because “ONI bad” is trite and overused.

Also, the CMA being referred to as “The Tip of the Bayonet” doesn’t paint a great image, lol

[tranquil valve]

What’s the CMA

[stoic hamlet]

Colonial Military Authority:

https://www.halopedia.org/Colonial_Military_Authority

I have a Reddit write up releasing this week about them

[quiet shoal]

When they bombed an entire city on a planet I think

It was housing insurrectionists

I don’t remember the full details

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jjvRXkzJI6Q

This is where I got it from

[feral drum]

Anyone got room

[boreal bane]

Room for what?

[drifting beacon]

Question, I had an idea for an Arma mission and I need to know if it’s possible to have happened or if it’ll need to be fanon

Did Humanity encounter the Flood at any time between the Battle of Etran Harbourage, and the Battle of Installation 04?

[stoic hamlet]

Not that we know of.

If they did, the ship or crew involved were lost.

[crimson oxide]

Still think it’s the UNSC keeping the covenant invasion quiet for as long as they did is one of the worse offenses they did, the list of events where the majority of humanity had no idea about the covenant was, contact harvest, collateral damage, silent storm, forward unto dawn, and wasn’t until about Oblivion when the the rest of humanity even knew a war was happening, that was 3 planets glassed before the public knew about the covenant

I get the feeling if things didn’t escalate and the covenant dissapered after the first two worlds glassed the UNSC and ONI would have buried any information about the covenant

[last anchor]

For sure

[crimson oxide]

Anyone have an up to date list of all Halo media in chronological order?

[dusk jetty]

Not exactly but I can give you one I made myself

With some missing entries

[crimson oxide]

It would be very appreciated

[dusk jetty]

Halo: Cryptum
Halo: Primordium
Halo: Silentium
Halo: Rebirth
Halo: Broken Circle (first half)
Halo: Contact Harvest
Halo: The Cole Protocol
Halo: Battle Born
Halo: Battle Born – Meridian Divide
Halo: The Fall of Reach
Halo: Silent Storm
Halo: Oblivion
Halo: The Flood
Halo: First Strike
Halo: Broken circle (second half)
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
Halo: Glasslands
Halo: The Thursday War
Halo: Mortal Dictata
Halo: Last Light
Halo: Retribution
Halo: Shadow of Intent
Halo: New Blood
Halo: Hunters in the Dark
Halo: Smoke and Shadow
Halo: Renegades
Halo: Saint’s Testimony
Halo: Point of Light
Halo: Envoy
Halo: Legacy of Onyx
Halo: Bad Blood
Halo: Sacrifice
Halo: Shadows of Reach
Halo: Divine Wind
Halo: Outcasts
Halo: The Rubicon Protocol
Halo: Epitath (unreleased)

These are just books

I didn’t include games, or short movies at all

Or halo legends

This is also in chronological order, with earliest being at the top, and latest being at the bottom

[meager pier]

Wonder when Epitaph will be set, I'm guessing after Next 72 Hours and before Halo 5

[dusk jetty]

It’s a wild card really

I’m guessing maybe even after 5

[orchid kettle]

If you wanted to include Evolutions, the absolute latest a story is set is in 2559

Silent Storm and Oblivion also take place entirely in 2526, a year after Contact Harvest

[meager pier]

If it's after 5, I wonder what the hell he was up to when Cortana was going full space dictator

[orchid kettle]

I kinda assume the Didact won't even be aware of outside events

and he's essentially just in purgatory

having to deal with his own hang ups in like a vision quest type deal

[dusk jetty]

Yeah I’m guessing it’s a more personal story then galactic

Maybe he won’t hate Arizona so much anymore

[orchid kettle]

meh, wouldn't bet on it

some hatreds are just too ingrained in us

[meager pier]

I'm thinking he would know what Cortana is doing, as Cortana was also hooked up to the Domain

[orchid kettle]

Maybe. It'd just depend on whether he's coming back, or if this is just his final sendoff

[surreal glen]

It would be interesting for the Didact to come back to his senses considering he went pretty much mad
And return as an ally

[empty bloom]

I had a completely unreliable logic-plague-Cortana style theory regarding Atriox and the Didact tbh.

Based on symbology and some of Atriox's tendancies.

[crimson oxide]

@dusk jetty there are a bunch of short stories from Evolution and Fractures too, I remember defenders of the storm (a story of a remote forerunner mining station floating g in atmosphere of a gas giant, gets overwhelmed by flood….not the important but self contained) Promises to keep (this one directly tied into the forerunner trilogy after the rings were fired, Bornstellar finally gets around to listening to the librarians message informing them that the halos would destroy the domain and sets out with a group of other forerunners to restore it) and there is an epilogue to fractures that after the galaxy was reseeded it shows that Bornstellar and the other forerunners had left the galaxy to a new one and live a humble life devoid of the technology and armor as farmers

Honestly I think their should be a chronology section of this discord where the community could take all the games, books, comics, short stories, movies (would you consider Forward unto dawn and nightfall as movies?) tv shorts, tv trailers (the canon live action ones) etc. and arrange them into a comphrensive timeline of media content

[meager pier]

I'm certain Epitaph is the end of Didact's story