Halo Legendary Trilogy [WIP]

[Espadon]

"More action. More skill. More "if-you-get-caught-in-the-open-alone-you're-totally-dead"-ness." -- Hiro

Please be sure to read the FAQs below before discussing! For those who wish to review the original thread, it may be found here.
~ Espadon 2.18.08


[ Introduction ]

The Halo Legendary Trilogy was started as a private mod a few years back, due to discontentment with existing public Halo mod releases. While I've worked on many mods since, the HLT mod was my first real mod and still is my largest work to date. My aim with HLT is to create a modification that emulates Halo as closely as possible under Soldat's constraints -- it's coming close to a complete conversion at this point. The full release HLT will unpack into two aspects in the mod directories: A static "online" aspect that comes with weapons that make sense in online play, and an "offline" aspect that will allow weapons to be switched around via a configurator, similar to Mecha Mod or WWII: TCS.

[ Current Weapon Slots Allocations ]

Slot1: M6Cs / M6Gs / Maulers / Plasma Pistols
Slot2: M7 / MA5B / MA5C
Slot3: BR55 / BR55HB SR
Slot4: Needer / Spiker
Slot5: M90 / Mauler / M90 Mk.I / M90A
Slot6: Carbine / Beam Rifle / SRS99C
Slot7: Brute Shot
Slot8: SRS99C / SRS99D / Beam Rifle / M6D
Slot9: Plasma Rifle
Slot0: AIE-486 HMG / Spartan Laser / Plasma Cannon

Secondary1: Plasma Pistol / M6G / M6C
Secondary2: Combat Knife / Oddball
Secondary3: Energy Sword / Gravity Hammer
Secondary4: M19 SSM / M41 SSR / Missile Pod / Fuel Rod Gun


[ Current Stage: CP3-4 | 6.02.08 ]

Weapons

Currently these weapons are done:

[Halo 3]
Dual M6Gs
M7 / Caseless [Submachine Gun]
MA5C
BR55HB SR
SRS99D S2-AM
M90A
W/AV M6 G/GNR [Spartan Laser]*
M41 SSR MAV/AW [Rocket Launcher]
AIE-486 HMG [Heavy Machine Gun]*
LAU-65D/SGM-151 [Missile Pod]*
Carbine**
Spiker*
Brute Shot
Plasma Rifle
Needler
Gravity Hammer*
Particle Beam Rifle*
Mauler*

[Halo 2]
Dual M6Cs*
BR55
SRS99C S2-AM
M90 Mk. II
M247 GP MG [Stationary Gun]*
Brute Shot
M19 SSM
Plasma Rifle
Needler
Particle Beam Rifle
Fuel Rod Gun

[Halo 1]
M6D HE*
Fuel Rod Gun

[Core]
Combat Knife
Energy Sword
Plasma Pistol
Energy Cutlass
Drake Needler [Rambo]

*Requires sounds
**Requires reload sounds only

All other weapons are incomplete or on the to-do list.

Gosteks

The Spartan MJOLNIR Mk. VI armor gosteks are completely done. Mk. V is semi-complete; Mk. VI permutations are incomplete. Marine armor is under consideration. Marine helmet is done. Sangheili Combat armor is in final beta stages. Assault permuation is incomplete; all other permutations are under consideration. Flood Human combat form head still needs implementation. All other Halo species will be added on later via Bonus Packs.


[ Current CP4 Stage Screenshots ]



[ CP3 Screenshots [not much difference, really] ]



[ Pre-beta Screenshots ]








[ FAQs ]

Q: When is this mod coming out?

A: It's not like I'm a dedicated mod making robot that works on HLT 24/7. In addition to schoolwork, real life, and other games, I have other mods that I'm working on in parallel to HLT. Simply put, HLT will be out when it's ready. There's no tentative release date. I want to release HLT as soon as possible, too, but things have to be up to my rigorous standards.

Q: Is there any way I can get a copy of HLT early? Even if its not complete?

A: Yes, by being a beta tester.

Q: Can I be a beta tester?

A: Not at the moment. I'll decide when to send a PM inviting you to be a beta tester. By the way, spamming is not the way to do it. You'll have to actually give feedback after every beta update also.

Q: Will HLT have so-and-so? It's such a cool weapon!

A: HLT will have all Halo weapons in its final form. So I guess that's a yes.

Q: Will HLT have a configurator like Mecha Soldat?

A: Yes. Still looking for a dedicated one, though.

Q: Will HLT have dedicated maps?

A: That's still up in the air. I had some talks with Keron about maps, but I haven't followed up with map planforms yet.

Q: How can I help [speed up] the HLT project?

A: I'm currently looking for an experienced programmer to create a dedicated configuration program for HLT. Also looking for high-quality Halo [preferably 2 & 3] sounds. Finally, experienced Halo players as beta testers to help with weapon balancing.

Q: What does CP3 and CP4 mean?

A: CP stands for Cumulative Patch. Each CP marks a round of beta testing, and I use it similar to version numbers.

Q: What the hell is that pink thing in the knife slot!?

A: It's an "Energy Cutlass," a Covenant knife-esque weapon very similar to a needle from a needler. Appears in Halo: Contact Harvest.

Q: I don't remember there being any combat knives in Halo. Are you making stuff up here?

A: Not really. In the Halo novel there is mention of Spartans with combat knives [Halo: The Fall of Reach]. The design for the HLT combat knife is directly from the combat knife/machete that can be seen in some very early builds of the original Halo game. A very similar design can be seen worn by ODSTs in the Halo short films.

[PapaSurf]

Nice, stickied

[Hiro]

Um, ok, general discussions it is then.

Maybe it would be best to send the full patch to everyone you are gonna make a beta tester for CP4 since it'd be pretty easy to miss putting in a few files if you just made a partial patch for the current testers.

Oh, and I have a question. Will the config. app let you select weapons for slots other than the standard ones? Like for example, if I want to be able to play with both the BR55 and the MA5C, will it let me put the MA5C in slot 2 and remove the M7? Is that even possible?

[Lord Frunkamunch]

You could just make backup copies and paste one over the other.

[Espadon]

To answer your question, Hiro, I think not. It'll cause some conflicts with weapon-gfx graphics if I allow the config to freely swap the weapons in the slots.
To be honest, I'm kinda superstitious about how different auto slots behave differently, and they kind of do. I think the MP5 slot is just a bit more inaccurate than the AK slot, not to mention the reload animation does run faster for the MP5. I was contemplating making the MA5B/C also a MP5 alternative, seeing that currently I have no weapons allocated for that position other than the M7...

[Hiro]

Um, ok. I suppose you could always just add in the same guns for different slots manually. I don't know about the slots acting differently, but I guess they could since other slots do it (shotgun, sniper, law).

And yeah, some more things than just the M7 would be nice...spice things up.

[Nemihara]

Nice move.  Maybe you should edit the first post to contain a link to the old thread.  You know, for an archive?
I'm trying to get good quality firing sounds, but I'm always getting background noise.  I can still record it and such, but it won't be tip-top.

[Hiro]

Hmm, it would sound weird to have background noise. If you have the computer version of the game can't you just turn off BG music, have no bots and just shoot the sky to get sounds?

[Nemihara]

The background noise is very subtle, but definitely noticeable.  And I'm recording from H3.
Are there sound files in the mod for bullets hitting different surfaces?

[Kagesha]

Question when this is finally realeased, How are you going to pack it? Like are you going to have Halo 1, 2, 3 Seperate folders in the one zip?

This mod is looking good so far, but in the interface i noticed that the W/AV M6 G/GNR text (CP4) looked really faint and hard to read fix it maybe?

And can you show us the combat knife ingame?

[Espadon]

This'll probably be what CP4 will look like; notice that lack of Gravity Hammer -- I don't like it enough to even put it on CP4.

BR55 as a 36-shot MA5C feels too much like the latter gun for my taste, but indubitably, since bots ignore self-bink on autos, the bink-burst version makes Tex and Fred-104 very OP'd. I could always tone down the damage though; but then BR55 would suck in Floodmatches. Mrrh.

Kagesha -- here's the combat knife shots you asked for. As for text fixing, go to MM for that. *mumbles about inexperience*

[Hiro]

Lol, the stupid bots are so cheap how they can aim so perfectly. If it weren't for the fact that I can exploit their AI and have pretty good dodging skills, they'd pwn me.

The text thing...well yeah it may look a little odd, but that's not Espadons fault nor can he fix it. In game its not so noticeable though, those screen shots just have it over a bad colour background.

And is that knife smaller than CP3? 'Cos I think in CP3 it was pretty huge (I'm not sure....I play normally with the rocket launcher)

[Llama]

Ok, so Hiro finally purswaded me to get soldat again, and he said that I should get the HLT and tell them that he said I should.... um yeah. Looks cool though!

[Espadon]

So I thought that it was nil impossible to get a Masta Killa with the HLT WM but it turns out not the case; I was testing out SK's Tattoo explosion redux this morning when a train of Floods followed the enemy flagbearer into the blue flag area; I grabbed the blue flag and meleed two or three of the buggers with my M90 and blasted one or two at the most; backflip gave me a chance to throw a cluster under their feet which took care of them. Polygon slowed me down a bit, and the respawn cycle came and a pair or so respawned in my face; backflipping again I clustered them to weaken and then took them down with one more shell. Vest helped, of course.
Before, the only weapon that was able to handily get 4+ kills in a row was the sniper rifle, but I nerfed that, so now most weapons get about two kills per reload, three if you're lucky.

Anyways I was quite satisfied with the explosion and with SK's consent, It'll probably be what I'll use for the mod.

[Hiro]

Lol, cool.

Um yeah, Espadon, Llama is a friend of mine who has (and has played) halo and halo2 so I thought he might work as a beta tester for CP4 if you'd like.

[Thinkto urself]

so now most weapons get about two kills per reload, three if you're lucky.

... You mean the weapons will be weak? What about the M90? How is that going to work out? And the S2-AM, does it still get a 1 hit ko with a head shot?

[Espadon]

Almost 1-hit KO with M90 and SRS. With the M90, you can get 1-hit if you build up the speed and hit them squarely on the head [or doing a DFA maneuver]; with the SRS, I have it doing pretty much 95% damage with the bullet, but a 1-hit headshot death occurs every so often.

[Hiro]

Lol, 2 kills per clip is not weak. I know, I've been playing the mod for a while now. I like how the sniper wont kill you first shot, but it fires fast enough that unless you're good, you'll still die before taking out the sniper dude.

[adadqgg]

the mod looks great now, the only flaw is the sniper rifle's bullet... it just dosen't have the powerful feel... maybe it's too thin???

btw, where's my CP4?

another idea: make a halo2 fuel rod cannon for LAW replacement, because the M79 grenade spins...

[Hiro]

Lol, if you're wondering where your CP4 is, I could ask the same thing. None of us have it.

And I didn't have so much of a problem with the sniper's bullet, I think like, it doesn't kill you one hit, why should it be heavy and thick? And it's not like its massive in Halo either...