Twinreaper

Helmet codes are not re-usable and I believe the content is locked to a console by console ID. many items I had for my original xbox were perma lost when we upgraded to the new kinect one. Unfortunatly outside of begging MS for a new code or pulling off some DL magic, I believe the content is lost. Sorry mate.

ODST for me personally had the best campaign story of all the titles. Halo 2 comes in as a second, followed by Reach then 1. Halo 1 falls flat for me, because we were given no backstory on a lot of things that were going on. You were just kinda dropped right into the middle of things with no clear reason why. What saved Halo 1 and made it become the classic it is, was the gameplay and multiplayer. Halo 3 was much like halo 2. It brought to light a lot of missing elements in the storyline, but foloowed the same campaign story flow as Halo 2. Halo 2 was good. Not epic great, but good. It reveiled the whole plot of what halo 1 was, and why it was. ODST was just epic. It gave us a true noir style gameplay that really captured the passion and viewpoint of the ODST troops. It really emerged you into the shoes of being an ODST and brought a great drama to the franchise.

Thanks for that larry. While it is true that all rank sstems deployed had flaws, they all also had their own high points, as in each brought something new or good to the party that is ranking. But having said that, I think my idea and layout, as well as Hero's views would make for a great system. In a nutshell, the system would force players to expand their gameplay to all areas of playlists in order to rank up in a steady flow depending on their performance, versus the tired old AFK, or playlist spamming that allowed people in H3 and Reach to reach highr ank numbers or titles.

The PC is actually the best environment for Halo titles. The sole reason games beyond Halo 2 have not been adapted to PC yet is because there is no need. One of the deciding factors to port H2 was becasue Live was getting ready to drop it, and continuing the emulation of 1st generation Xbox games on the 360, was becoming increasingly difficult to do with the newer gen DirectX API's. Yes it is an ass move on the part of Microsoft, to not release PC counterparts, like games like MW and BF do....but we will get them eventually. Sooner or later MS will realize how much they are missing out on in terms of PC only guys, and an untapped market not willing to pay for a console just to play a couple of Halo titles. I still play Halo PC everyday, and I can't rememebr how many times I lose count, of people I talk to who still havent bought a 360, or played Halo 3, ODST or Reach. There is literally hundered of thousands of untapped gamers, just waiting for Halo PC glory to come there way.

Theatre mode cannot support players outside the xbox for a good reason. When the system saves a game from matchmaking, it is actually saving frames of vertex values, which are used to place items, people, effects etc... This series of frames and vertices is compressed and saved locally in a temp directory on the HDD. In order to allow other players to join in the mode, you would have to re-write, or alter the vertex data to allow another player to assume the camera view of a player from the match. Which of coarse is not defined by the core metrics of the mode or the engine. Also please note that the match is played back in real time, so not only does your xbox have the job of loading the film, but it also has to pass every little bit of data from the film to client xboxes. This alone makes the bandwidth requirent a heavy laod even if it were possible. I do agree with your thoughts on the weapons. The amount of bloom given to each one really does fit the certain "need" based on the weapon. I can remember frantic firefights with carbines like it was yesterday. I could have had better luck hitting a fly with a grain of sand, than taking down a player with that thing. Talk about shots going everywhere.... And just to give a mention real quick to Red....I like your post earlier on about the weapon recoil. Giving weapons the "smg" style upward angle error vector for spamming the trigger would have been a good alternative I see everyone agreeing on.

The ranking system for Halo 2 was one of the worst. Sorry but is a fact, that it was flawed in the core engine coding department, and the API's used to relay, and interpret data correctly and applied to a "fair" scale of skill measure. The skill system in halo 2 actually meant very little, when you factor in weapon abuse, like the infamous B-X-R combo that just about everyone with quick fingers would use, plus the group of real jar heads that would go out of the map and hack their way to level up with cheap tricks. Things of that nature helped a large majority of people move up in rank. How does that seem fair and a measure of true skill? Can you please elaborate more on why you think Halo 2's rank system was good, and please cite specific areas and data properties of the system please? I would hate to argument the topic based off opinion with no real basis for the opinion.

Introduction to Understanding Forge Forge, it's the key feature of today's Halo titles that give the end user a way to extend the life, fun and gametypes that we enjoy everyday. But behind this great feature there is also some drawbacks and untapped potential. In this brief post, I will do my utmost best to explain how Forge works, why certain ideas or things won't work, and what aspects of Forge we can epect to see improved upon or built on. This needs to be said now, that Forge is NOT A MAP EDITOR!!! It more closely ressembles a map modifier, but has editing properties. What is Forge? To understand exactly what Forge is, it is important to understand where the idea of Forge comes from. Forge even now, is still unknown in the fact that it may be a standalone hard coded engine application, or just a series of MegaloScript instructions. In either way, Forge is simply put, a feature that is a cross between GUERILLA and SAPIEN. Guerilla, is the application in which Bungie and 343i in the past, used to create and edit tags used in the game. Sapien, is the application that allows the developer to place objects in the map, by loading the map with basic default values and allowing you to "fly" around. Forge was created out of an attempt to allow a general player base, the freedom to create new maps while not making the user feel overwhelmed. By giving us the current Forge ability, it has proven time and time again, that the player base can make some pretty awesome things. Some of those named things, are creations the developer never thought possible. How Forge Works...really. As stated above, Forge is a utility that is a cross between Guerilla and Sapien. In order to give the end user the ability to edit maps, the developer had to find a way to allow edits to the map, without effecting the map file itself. The way they achieved this, was by instructing Forge to load scenario files instead of full maps. A scenario file is a single tag, that includes the layout of everything used in a map. Everything from objets, to spawns, to weapons, to even the bsp. Forge, at time of startup, copies the scenario file of the base map into memory. This allows the user to update, change and dictate where and what weapons etc should be placed, without corrupting or ruining the basic map. This is why when we load a map for editing, the map contains all the basic things we see in a standard map playing experience. Inside the scenario file, you find things like... - Weapon Palette (the pre-defined weapons a user can place) - Object Palette (same as above. Includes things like crates, fusion coils etc..) - Scenery Palette (things like teleporters) - Vehicle Palette (same as weapons) Along with these palettes, there are also fields for each "instance" of each item. Forge effectivly allows the user to add "instances" of already defined palettes. Once the map has been edited in memory and the user is ready to save, Forge then saves the file by name, either given or auto, then procedes to encrypt the scenario file and write in the base map location and all other relevant fields it needs. This is how Forge knows what map goes with what Forge variant, which is why the game loads automatically, the right map, after a variant has been selected. Aside from simply being able to load scenario files and create new ones, Forge also uses instructions that are found only in the engine executable. These elements allow Forge to decrypt tag names, and encrypt scenario files with the proper "Public" and "Private" key pair sets required to properly "sign" a map file or tag, and make it legit or authentic for the game. Forge Items So now that you understand how Forge works, it is also important to understand why and how certain objects and certain limits are a part of Forge. First thing is first, every Forge palette for every map is different. This is because when the maps were first compiled and included into the game, the developer included in every map, a certain amount and type of items that were appropriate for each map. Which is why we see things like "Trees" for Ridgeline, but do not see them in maps like Swordbase. Every item that was chosen for each map is because it just "fit" or seemed like the best matchup. Now because each item is compiled into each map, that is why we are able to select items like spawns, weapons and player spawns. If the developer had not included the objects and scenery etc.. into the maps "Palette", which is in the scenario file, we would only be able to spawn more of, or move, only the items that we see in the base maps. The limits that are placed in Forge are pre-set to allow the maximum performance for each map. While yes, some maps may be able to handle double what some maps may not, the pre-set limits are what you should conscider the safe zone. Along with map crashing, there is also the issue of the host having to constantly relay data about object placement, player placement, and every other matchmaking data you can think of. The limit is there to protect and ensure a smooth playing experience, not to inhibit creativity or to just be jerks. Forge over Live Now by now you must be thinking...hey...how come you can load a map into forge with others over Live, but others can't join in matchmaking on Forge maps unless they have it? This is a very important questiona nd one that I will do my best to explain. When the "host" starts a Forge type of match that is on a basic map, the "host" relays any changes to the clients in real-time. At no point, does the clients Xbox have to load the scenario file that is being edited. Remember, when starting a fresh Forge match, the scenario file being used at matchmaking loading, is the stock default one. Only after a map has been saved and exited out of, does the client have to have the variant it created in order to join. I hope that made sense.... Why no custom bsp? (level mesh) While the Forge system could indeed move the level geometry, Forge ahs it's limits. Whenever you move a face, vertice or edge, the level geometry needs to be re-compiled so [coll] collision, and [phmo] physics, can be applied to the new mesh. For example, say you did move a flat part of the map, to be a pointy mountain. The mountain would lose collision and physics, resulting in the player falling out of the map and nothing being able to collise with it. This is also because each vertice, face and edge has what we call a "bounding box" with it. Only by re-compiling the level, can we get the generated and correct boundign values to keep or produce coll and phmo. The Forge system alone would not be able to do this on the console due to code resources and available memory and CPU threads. Also, the Forge utility itslef would not be able to at the same time, have the map open to re-compile it. Thus nullifying the ability to change it at all. Why no Custom items? As I tried to explain ealier...all items that are able to be used or spawned in Forge are hard coded and defined in the maps scenario file. In order to add new items to a single existing map, it would require the developer to release a fresh map with the items hard coded, or release a map with extra palette slots undefined, and swappable to the user. Why can't we have weather effects? Weather is the one attribute that is most desirable by the community, and the one area in which I have been known to be an "expert" in by the modding community. Weather is not an object that can be placed in a map, it is a media effect, but it can be defined and changed to different weather types even after a map has been compiled. When a map is in -pre- development, or the 3d app phase, there are regions of the map, that are given a specific syntax, to tell the compiler that these areas contain weather. These fields are usually labeled as "+media" in the 3d app. When the compiler processess the level geometry it effectively tells Guerilla and Sapien in the end, that when adding weather, this is where it is applied to. Weather can also be applied to a map without these fields, but is applied to the whole map. So yes weather could be easily added to a forge map, but the weather effects would be seen indoors. Not very appealing. Also, the weather would have to be compiled into the palette for Forge to choose from. The whole point in adding weather to a map is to give it a little extra visual. By using "+media", the developer can decide which areas get what type of weather, and are able to additionally add different speeds, wind and even color to the weather. using weather in Forge, would not allow you to specifiy certain weather attributes, due to the fact that weather itself is only referrenced and uneditable in the scenario tag. Anything weather is strictly only editable within the [weat] weather tag. Why can't we make our own items? Similar to the custom items above, this would require a full on HEK (Halo Development Kit) Things like models and collision have to be compiled. They cannot be simply changed or tweaked. Take for example a Warthog. Lets say you wanted to stretch the warthog out to make it look like a weird limo hog. After you have stretched it out, the engine would have to recompile the collision data, and you the user, would have to manually replace or relocate all the animation, physics and collision nodes and markers that goe along with it. At which point, you would also have to open the animation tags, and change the animation tags data values to reflect the model. Also beyond that, even before compiling the altered model, you would have to re-skin the model. Remember, by strecthing things, it would also distort the textures that the model has. In a nut shell, the Forge system would not be able to perform this set of ridiculous requirements, to allow the end user to make custom items. After Thoughts Ok, so going forward, what Forge things could we possibly expect? This section is going to be strictly a mix of my opinion coupled with prior Forge observations and technological bounds made in the past. Gong forward with Forge, i think the future of the feature will allow us to expand upon what we have now. You must remember that Forge itself was simply a way for the developer to get players intorduced to the features they use to create maps. In a sense, every itteration of Forge was changed and built onto, to give us new things to do and new things to change. All this is not done simply because times change, but more or less because the more they give us, the more we learn. And the more we learn, the more likely it is, that we will be able to use future tools in the mode, that more closely ressemble what they do and use, and to a developer standard apsect. As for the available items, I think Halo 4 and beyond will see a huge increase in the range we are given. Given the powerfull leaps MegaloScript made with Forge, it would not be any suprise to see them find a way to include every item from the game, being able to be selected and placed. By this I mean even Campaign items like Scarabs, Turret towers etc.... Also given the recent additions to games like BF3 and MW3, I would not be suprised at all, if they included a way to place AI in Forge. Needless to say, that feature alone would be enough to want to buy the game and create an almost endless supply of challenges. Beyond console though, I would not be suprised to see 343i or Microsoft, offer a PC counterpart either in terms of full game port, or at the very least, PC to Console developmental tools, that allow users to use their PC to create content, and upload it to local console or via Live to share with the community. I hope this post has been helpful to many of you whom do not understand Forge from a technical aspect, and I hope it has shed some light on why things are the way they are with out current state of Forge in Halo Reach. If anyone has anything to contribute to this post, or has any comments or cencerns, please feel free to post them up, and I will do my best to answer them and or add them to the explanation. Thanks for reading folks...LONG LIVE 343I.org!!!!

Hey man I have no problem with the OP's personal opinions, but what i do take seriously is throwing numbers around on an old game. Point blank, Halo 2 did not have any where near anything related to competition in terms of FPS games. Halo 2 was highly moddable and was able to be used with tunneling apps like XBC and Xlink Kai. Modding alone made it a wonderful game to play over and over again, and became a #1 reason to own a Xbox console and Halo 2.....you can debate this all you want, but me and the rest of the modding community can trump opposition on that. When people speak about getting Halo back to where it was, they "assume" that Halo has fewer players because of the way it feels. Not true. Competition is a game killer. If you were to throw MW3 and other like Rage and Battlefield 3 at Halo back in 200o whenever.....Halo 2 would have lost. It's not the gameplay of Reach or Halo 3 or even Halo 2 that made it great. it's the plain fact that Halo 2 had many advnacements that no other FPS had. As time has gone and proved, each of the competetors titles has improved and expanded. The real problem the fractured community has is with the technical engine side gameplay values that are used. Outside of AA's or in H3, equipment...we were given no real leap forward in terms of gameplay. That alone is the true core "need" that this community is expecting from every sequel. I guess to sum it all up, the only thing you can really do to bring Halo back to the way people want, is to remove all competition it has by giving Halo a complete overhaul and a brand new game engine and mechnic system. But as we all know from every other title, it would only be a matter of time before people jump on the "Halo sucks and lost it's way" bandwagon. I stick to my guns when i say I am a fan. I find everything there is to appriciate in a sequel despite it "not being" like the others. Lets also not forget that people like to throw around terms like "Hardcore fan" or "True fan". Throughout any ganre, wether it be games, sports, television, the definition and characteristics of the aformentioned terms is this... "One who loves, watches, plays and supports a said company, genre or anything else, without any hesitation or dislike towards flaws, ups and downs or any other 3rd party intervention." Eagles fans are a good example of what being a "true fan" means. year after year they lose, and yet these rabid loyal fans do not speek ill or take issue with the team, but yet continue to support watch and buy tickets. A true fan of Halo by definition would exhibit the smae charateristics......but they don't. They slam and deny any aspect of the games that they don't agree with, and yet call themselves fans. perhaps the community should use another term when speaking about Halo, if indeed their comments are not "true fan" like....I say we start labeling people as "Part-time fans" fans who by nature only like certain things when it benefits or pleases them or a certain group.

Well said hero. Send me a new friend request and I will gladly accept. Sorry for pre-judging your motives...but I don't get on Live much and have many reservations about joining parties or chat. I hate my voice and don't even talk with members at all, outside maybe Mystic and Dog. But yeah, I think you pose a great set of arguments aside form having any solid data to back it up. You do show a good understanding of basic Halo statistic data, and I would love to engage in further talks about it. i think if we perhaps worked together on creating a solid layout, we could both in terms of community, provide 343i a good well rounded look at how the current system they have, could be tweaked and changed in future titles to present a more "true Skill" system of balance. Good on yah mate!

Damn you Chootem. You know my complex mind can't think that simply!!!!! Congrats quits on the win! Way to go bro!

Hmmmm. That's an intersting thing you have there my friend. While not uncommon for certain bugs to pop up only for certain a handfull, it seems that the TU may have reset your sensative profile save data. I have not personally heard of this bug as of yet, but I can look into it further for you. Chances are, it may only be a slight hic-up. There are a number things you can do to see if it is only temporary. First thing I recommend doing, is going to a freinds, and download your profile to his xbox. From there if you load up Reach and everything is fine, then you know it is an issue with your XBOX, and not a TU in general. At that point, you will want to copy your profile onto a USB stick, and transfer it to your xbox, overwriting existing profile data. That should solve the problem if it is only isolated to your xbox and the data stored on it.

As per Mystic's request, I am here to clean up this tur-rific mess of a fail post this Destroyer Z ass has started. As per usually bubble bursting standards, i will start off with my Quote, and reply standard style of listing. Enjoy the read guys, this is going to be good!!! **AGAIN POWERS THAT BE, THIS POST IS HATEFULL, CONTAIN BAD LANGUAGE AND MAY OFFEND OTHERS> READ ON AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!** What do you do when you have the best fps of all time on xbl ? Answer = leave it behind, then remove it ! Listen pal, I don't know what rock you have been living under, or what planet you currently reside, but you quite obviously have a limited source base to work with when finding what the most popular XBL title of all time was. There was no compiled clear cut winner. Every year, a new game beats or exceeds XBL popularity expectations. yes granted during it's release and the year after it was the most played title, but is NOT the best FPS of all time on XBL. In fact if you search around a look at the compiled lists many many mnay sites offer, Rainbow Six comes up more often as the #1 pick. Secondly turdburglar, do you understand at all how the Live service works, or how much reconfiguring would have had to been done to the 360 emulation for XB1 games, and the newest coded Live API's.....nahhh i didn't think so. Are these people stupid or what ? Let's take Halo 2 to the 360 and call it Halo 3. Let's remove all of the features that made Halo 2 great i.e clans, superjumps, the maps and Team Snipers. That should really boost the Halo franchise lol The graphics were better, and there were no blue screeners, wow ! but the heart was removed. CONGRATULATIONS FOR DESTROYING HALO Wow...where to start with this epic **** pile? Ok first off, Halo 3 is not Halo 2. They carried over nothing from Halo 2 into Halo 3. The H3 Blam! engine variant from stripped down to basics that resembled the core H1 engine. hence why they re-introduced and reused many of the H1 shader templates and lighting styles. Superjumps were a product of bugs with the collision detection software numbnuts...not some random extra they thought would be cool to add. My god man, where do you get these half assed retarded comments or thoughts from?!? Clans were not a feature that many people used fully according to statistics they pulled from clan type activity. Furthermore, if it was going to be a feature everyone would miss, then they should have spoken up and demanded it, not just sat there like you, in your mom's basement smothering themsleves in peanutbutter and caressing their copies of Halo 1 down in their naughty spots. Team Sniper's I am pretty sure, had or still does have a playlist in both Halo 3 and Reach. The maps, is the only part I will agree on. Since Halo 2, there has not been one original idea for a great map. every map we get with the sequles is the same rehashed or remade garbled **** we had before. Why oh why oh why is the Reach Engine even worse than Halo 3 ? It has become a kids cartoon. The weapons are awfull aswell. The Reach engine is worse than H3? Really? Explain to me how the Halo 3 Blam1 variant is superior to Reach. And I mean really explain it. Don't half ass me boy, I am an expert in the Blam! engine department. Weapons are not a result of the engine ********, it's a result of the individual tag's data fields being filled the way they are. Do you even know what Megalo is? Do you understand floats, Enum32 or tag blocks? How about Public and Private Keypair sets? Sit down and shut the **** up about things you have no knowledge of. My god do you listen to yourself? Next time maybe have your mom proof read your post before hitting that bright red "post" button. You need to speak up people, before Halo is gone forever, because THESE PEOPLE DO NOT REALISE THAT HALO 2 SHOULD HAVE BEEN KEPT ALIVE and given a new lease of life. Halo 2 is a classic yes, but is way past it's prime. the graphics are hidious by todays standards. Even when applying Hi-Res textures to the geometry, the lighting schema used makes all those Hi-Res textures look anything but Hi-Res. Halo 2 did get a new lease on life...it's called Halo 2 PC. You know, the PC version...where we REAL gamers get to make great stuff...well as great as it can look anyway. As for Halo being gone, get over yourself ****-stick. You are not the authority on halo, and seeing Halo as dying, gone, lost etccc is simply a matter of your own ****ty opinion. Opinions are like ********, everyone has one. Halo is whatever the individual player sees it as. Plain and simple. Oh by the way, if you do ever decide to try and save Halo, DO NOT BRING BACK HALO 2 WITHOUT SNIPERS, CLANS, SUPERJUMPS AND THE SAME MAPS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is just a re-phrase or recap of the piece of crap you posted up. Nothing really to say here except, welcome to the forums pal, now ******* leave!!! DO NOT USE THE REACH ENGINE, DO NOT CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE, WE'RE SICK OF IT, IT IS JUST GETTING WORSE AND WORSE AND WORSE. ALL WE ASK IS FOR HALO 2 WITH BETTER GRAPHICS AND NO BLUE-SCREENS. What the **** are you talking about *********? there are no blue-screens on the Xbox, only PC's. And I have yet to see someone get a bluescreen from halo 2 PC. If it did ever happen, thats because the stupid ******* or ********, have a poorly configured system or had their mom buy them one from Goodwill, in which case, your poor rotten ass doesn't deserve to play halo 2 anyway. P.S I havn't finished yet :-) no silly jet-packs, rediculous noises, grenades that go way too far, stupidly fast moving characters with silly flames here there and everywhere ! Halo is not the X-Men ! Let's have some realism back please ! Silly jetpacks? You know the original idea for jetpacks came from Halo 2 right? remember seeign those elites using them on HighCharity? or were you too baked or to busy sucking your mom's teet to notice them? Rediculous noises? They are called sound effects, create some better ones then come in to my house bitching about them. Greandes that go to far? Every Halo title had a different range for the grenades. the grenades in Halo 1 went slightly further than Halo 2's. i can pull grenade projectile data from both games to prove this, as well as data from reach and Halo 3. Halo is not suppose to be realism. games like Battlefield and CoD focus on realistic aspects of gunplay. Remember silly goose, Halo is fictional. there are no real Covenant or Forerunners or Halo's etc.... jesus Christ almighty! What a craptacular flaming turd that OP was huh? Where the **** does this guy get his info and examples? Listen man, you might be a nice guy, you may just be a tool. but when it comes to complaining about things in a game that you feal are wrong, and you want to call out aspects of the mechanics or code...you better provide some real data or examples to back them up. i don't take this **** lightly around here. next time I see you posting some half baked claimes or opinions without proper explanations or data to back them up...I'm really gonna let loose on your sorry ass! ~Fin HI MISTIEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

HeroDanny, I have a son your age so don't talk down to the adults around here. As One stated, you lost...move on. My working knowledge base of Halo and all related Blam! engines, and Live API's was acquired as the culmination of many many years or Halo modding and reverse engineering. As for your comment about being a CoD player, yes I do play CoD with my son on occasion, but Halo has and always will be my passion. Your short sighted views about the recent Halo title really show your inability to appriciate anything Halo, no matter how askew from cannon or engine base it may be. As for the ranking systems, they are all flawed. it does not take reverse engineering to figure that part out, only a simplistic understanding or why and how you get matched up with certain players via their service record and matchmaking filters. And btw, why would I want to talk to you over XBL? Do you have something to contribute to the mod scene? Or are you simply trying to lure me into a chat session where you can TRY, to humiliate and trash talk me in real time, instead of here, where you will most certaintly fail and prove yourself to be a sniveling troll? Back to the main topic at hand now. If you all really want a true measure of skill in terms of a ranking system, I have thought up, mathmatically written out and almost with 100% certainty layed out a good foundation on what should be calculated into a true measur a skill.... A.) List of target specific ratios.. (H/M- Hit-miss ratio) 1. Headshot misses and hits (anything above "Z" axis of head marker that misses or hits. 2. Body shot misses and hits (same as above) 3. Strafing. When strafing and incoming shots are within "said" distance, it counts as an evade. 4. Assists. (self explanitory). B.) All weapon usage stats, used to pair people based on which weapon they excell with in accordance to H/M ratio C.) Kill Death Ratio goes here. D.) Vehicle kills/deaths. (Shows how well you kill and stay alive while using a vehicle. Helps determine good drivers) E.) Vehicle Kills/death actual. (Shows what vehicles you excell in taking out, and vice versa) F.) Team Scoring and stopping. (This one is used accross all team types and helps show his is better offensive or defensive) So now that you have a quick list of my many, you can start to then apply ratio's and factor in a point system to increase rank. As the stats above prove, you simply can't just stand around and AFK, nor Lonewolf it or betray to get anywhere. Everything you do in the game is accounted for and reflective of the amount of points you receive per match based on the match. SO say your ratios for a match fall beyond a certain percentage, you lose rank points based on a percentage lost scale. To clarify, it would be similar to this... 1 to 5% ratio loss meaning kill/death or hit miss = 1 point lost 6 to 10% equals 2 points lost and so on for the remainder of numbers. Also can be applied to the opposite, where you recieve points for + ratios... I will try to illistrate it below... Lets say you just finished a rumble slayer match. Your stats were as follows... Kills= 25 Deaths= 12 Weapons used: Rockets= 4 misses, 3 hits DMR = 128 hits, 150 misses Frags= 3 hits, 1 miss Plasmas= 2 hits, 2 misses vehicles used: H-Turret: hits=72, misses=128 Now we calculate the percentages of each section... KILL DEATH= 25/12 x 100*= 208 spread MISSES HITS= 209/284 x 100 = -73.59 spread Now we take the spreads and you get... 208 + 73.59 / 0.2 = 56.3% Then take that 56.3 and see where it falls into the points aquired catagory. N ow obviously this was done real quick, but it illistrates how a schema of this type would ultimately show a player's true skill and really make them work for it. not just winning, but hold them accountable for every single action they take. You could even go further, and have a betrayal count as a 10% overall point deduction in the end for those who betray a lot for stuff. But again, as this points out, you would have to play in every playlist as focusing on single playlists would not yeild you enough points alone to really get you up in rank. You could go one step further, and force players to do other playlists by giving them no points until 5 playlists in each catagory is completed. So if you play 5 rumble slayer, you could not earn more points for rumble slayer until you do a set of 5 on a specified or available playlist. This alone would prevent the Reach mtachmaking boosters and boosters alike from cheating their way up in rank.

No need to sort him out. is own failed post shows how little he understands in terms of statistical matchmaking data that is collected and interpreted by the various Live API's. I on the otherhand know exactly how it works and how it used in matchmaking. I didn't get the "tech guru" tag for nothin folks. Just keep that in mind when you want to challenge my posts...(all eyes pointing at you HeroDanny)

Unreal fails graphically and does not have a wide range of options in terms of tag creation. The editing and developing of assets on the Unreal engine is mostly command line and script/xml. Besides which, it would not make much sense using a 3rd party engine on a 1st party title. As I have posted before about this....it would much more sense to allow PC users to create and share maps that are compiled to be compatable between a PC and console version. Halo is really the only FPS franchise that has yet to realize the brilliance and need to release a PC and console version of there titles simultaniously.

It'll do you just fine? Shouldn't you want anything "doing" you, to be more than fine?!? Sorry...I couldn't resist the late night dead tired pervert post. Love yah Mystie!!!!

Please refer to my thread here, as to why these things wont happen on halo for consoles... http://www.343industries.org/forum/topic/5025-building-your-own-stuff/

Creating anything from scratch is complicated. even getting simple non-static scenery or objects require a working knowledge of nodes, markers, parent/sibling relations and much more. Vehicles themselves are the most complicated item to create besides a complete fluid biped. Vehicles require permutations for every damage possible as well as many other tag relationships. A console based editing system is not capable of nor is resource friendly enough to compensate the amount of data needed to create, rig and compile a vehicle let alone a simple weapon in terms of Halo. Someone eralier today asked me a simple question. Why is it that Pariah, an Xbox 1 game, allowed players to create terrain from within the game itself? The answer is pretty obvious but i will elaborate, which will also help you to understand why these things are not going to happen on a console, especially for Halo. Pariah used a modified version of the Unreal Engine, and a modified version of havok 5.12 I believe. The format used by Pariah for the map editor was left open ended...meaning that the compiled dtat file for the map itself was not locked to a format due to having it compiled. This map thus allowed the user, to alter geometry by in real time simply updating vetices and faces on the fly. The collision for this was altered open ended as well, as the game updated collision edges, faces and vertices in conjuction with the mesh. Now simple number writing of this type on an engine like Unreal's Quake, is simple enough and resource friendly enough to allow a wide margin of other things to be done at the same time, hence why the game had similar properties to Forge. But because of hardware restraints...mostly memory, the palette and editing was severly limited and only able to be done on a pre-set single map....again, similar to forge. Halo uses the Blam! engine. This particular engine uses a format called a BSP (Binary Space partition). A BSP is a closed compiled format that is created as a result of "Tool", compressing and changing the proprietary ".ass" file format. All collision and mesh data is compiled into a single BSp and as such, because a compressed locked file format once it is compiled. Because of the way BSP's and the .map structure is written, a map handler is required to decompress, interpret and list .map file data into a readbale usable "meta table" or "Tag list". This is one reason as to why there can be no open ended geometry editing in Halo. The second problem in editing terrain in Halo, comes in the form of lighting. All BSP's, usually before they can be loaded, must go thru a rasterizing process, to display lighting on terrain and other world objects. This lighting process is done after a terrain in an editopr has been processed into a BSP standalone, and is then loaded by Toola gain, and lit properly. The lighting process alone for world geometry or BSp is heavy, and usually requires at least 2 gig or more RAM alone just to house temporary lighting data. The particular lighting used in Reach's Blam! variant uses per-pixel lighting for objects that don't reside by nature, inside the BSP. That is to say that the per-pixel lighting is used by objects like bipeds, crates, scenery, etc... This is why we see realtime shadows on most or all objects in the game. Creating a standalone editing tool for a console is not only extremely resource hungry, but requires an advanced user knowledge that almost 80% of the general community would not be easily trained to know. To break it down simply, here is a list of things a console editor would need... 1. A working console environment compiled version of a. Sapien (object, spawn, scenery, etc placing application) b. Guerilla (tag editing tool) c. Tool.exe (tag compiling command line) 2. 4 to 6 gig of available physical RAM 3. Standalone or console compiled 3d application (similar to Tiger/Destiny or 3dsMax) 4. A standard keyboard and mouse fro hotkey use and to be able to use all commands or functions of said previous program. Now for Sapien alone, at least 2 gig's of RAM would have to be dedicated to load and display properly, all the map's contents as defines by the "scenario" file, which for those who don't know.... is the core of the map file. It has the complete library of the map files properties and every object that is used by that map file. Guerilla, can create blank tags and edit the compiled tags of anything used in the game. Tool itself is the most taxing of the applications. As it has the job of compiling and interchanging formats between raw and closed files. We have all used a 3d app at one time or another, like 3DSMax or Blender. Those programs alone are not free, and must be purchased or licensed. Even if it were possible to get those or a proprietary 3d app loaded and compiled into a console environment, the performance and functions of the app would be very limited. I do realize that getting a keyboard and mouse for the Xbox is simple, but using the applications for creating anything in Halo takes a lot of work. Even creating something as miniscule as a hill or cave, can easily turn into a broken, non-compiling bsp or worse...a 2 to three hour venture. The main question one needs to ask himself is this... |Is it worth to compromise and stifle creative design by using a console for Halo edtiting, or is better to release a HEK on a PC platform, to allow complete and total creative freedom"? In my eyes, the answer is simple.....PC. For anyone interested in learning more about what it really takes to create things for Halo, you should all try ouot the HEK's for halo 2 and Halo 1. Once you have, only then will you begin to realize how much dedication and work is invloved in doing such a thing. Editing a map to be 343i or even Bungie quality will take months or even years of editing. Hell, even making a half-assed friends only fun map can take weeks to a moth. I hope I was able to help some of you understand why things are the way they are. Thanks for reading.

The thing to remember is that every AA in Reach has for the most part, and is at its core, a mobile reusable "EQUIPMENT" item from Halo 3. AA's tbough a great addition would fit into the newer Halo sequels but I will agree thay should not be there unless they could improve them or tie them into the story line. Reach has a great blam engine variant powering it and the core basics will definatly be a step in the right direction towards Halo 4. I agree with your way of thinking....which doesnt happen much. lol

Teamspeak is back up and running. I have yet to re-install the PC Halo 1 servers, as they did not generate traffic at all. For now, the Teamspeak is the only thing I am continuing to run atm. I will be adding soon, the ability to allow people to store and access fan fic and any other type of work they wish to store without the typical hosting issues. The ftp directory will be by request only, and user ID's will be handed out in private. I will post something more on this when i get a chance.

I'm glad to see people still have a sense of humor. And I agree with Dog red, that avtar is creepy awesome! Dont ever change it!

I was hoping we could both find some common ground. I like you restrain, you show a good understanding of the MLG side of gameplay and do respect and acknowlegde us casual gamers. very few of you around I tip my hat to you. I look forward to futher debates about these things. And btw, welcome to the site bro! You should introduce yourself to the gang in the Introductions thread if you havent already.

It's also good for Reach system Link if anyone wants to try and get machinima with large groups.

In light of recent posts, I would say we got off to the wrong start. Now, being "adult" as Dog put it, I can man up and honestly say I did not give you a fair chance at all. In no way can I explain or say at all that my comments were warranted or acceptable. All I can do at this point is say that I am truly sorry for attacking you, and that I was wrong. I don't want you to have a bad impression of this place or it's members. Your ideas and opinions are always and very welcome here. Again, I am sorry for the past interactions we had and would very much like to be friends and move forward. I tend to get into certain "bi-polar" type moods and I tend to type and post recently before I think. It's a problem I know, but I guess it's part of my chaotic charm. So...WELCOME TO THE 343I forums man! I hope your stay here is a good one. If you ever need anything in reguards to the mechanics or general game specific game data, I am your man and I am here to help! BTW, when can we expect to see some fanfic stuff of yours? I am always interested to see what kinda stuff you guys come up with. i don't have a fan fic bone in my body so i kinda live thru guys for that.

Actually playing as a grunt is quite satisfying. We did mods for this a long way back for Halo 2...and it was fun as hell. It was a pain getting used to not being able to croutch or really jump, and the slow moving made it real hard to navigate and play against the AI...but multiplayer games with this was awesome! I would love to see playable characters in either multiplayer or campaign and that allow the complete range.