Another Stupid Campaign Mod - a50 (Truth and Reconciliation)

[Ifafudafi]

Reach is out Tuesday, but until then, you can play and complain about the newest map release (Halomaps kids will have to wait until later in the week because slow uploads)


Another Stupid Campaign Mod
Release 3: a50 (Truth and Reconciliation)
By Ifafudafi

a10 can be found at http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=5436
a30 can be found at http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=5476

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NEW IN THIS RELEASE
-The debut of the Sniper Rifle. Kicks like a mule, but guaranteed to kill anything you shoot in the face in one shot (and anything you don't in two or three.)
-Two new close-range Covenant weapons: The Eviscerator, which fires a barrage of homing needles that close in on mid-short range enemies, and the Plasma Spread, which launches 8 powerful plasma bolts in a wide cone.
-New, custom-made animations for the Assault Rifle and Plasma Rifle.

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CHANGES IN THIS RELEASE

Weapons
-The Plasma Burst has been nerfed slightly. Its firing cone has been widened and its power has been reduced. It was simply too effective, especially at distances beyond its intended range.
-Detonation time for Impaler needles has been reduced dramatically. You'll now need to land every single shot at the maximum fire rate without missing once to earn a supercombine.
-The Battle Rifle now aligns properly with bipeds in third person.
-The Plasma Beam has had its power increased slightly.

Units
-Marines are immune to headshots and supercombines, and have three times their previous health. They now die much less quickly and frequently, although still within reason.
-Elite shield recharge delay has been increased to 5.25 seconds (.75 seconds quicker than yours.)
-Grunts have had a slight health boost.
-Elites with Impalers have had their preferred combat distance shortened.
-Jackal shields are slightly less effective against the Needler.

...



Things I already know about:

-The SMG's sound will cut out and occasionally do weird things. This is just the way Halo CE handles looping sounds; there's nothing I can really do about it.
-The pickup icons for the Pistol and the Battle Rifle reference CMT's silenced and BRG variants for the same reasons cited previously.
-The Plasma Burst, Plasma Beam, Plasma Spread, and Eviscerator do not have unique models. I can't model to save my life, so I'm stuck recoloring existing models. If you or somebody you know is willing to model, skin, rig, and/or animate new weapons from scratch, please let me know.
-The Battle Rifle's animations are placeholder. I'll be using teh lag's set as soon as he's done with them, so bear with me for now; anything nasty can be attributed to that.
-Captain Keyes is invincible. Everybody hates escort missions, and seeing how little of the mission was left, I decided the level (and intended atmosphere of the escape) would be better served without him constantly dying. This can be changed for the final release if the majority doesn't like this.
-Marine reinforcements will spawn with everybody using a single weapon. This is due to the terrible way AI encounters are scripted within Halo. I can't change this.
-When reloading the Battle rifle or the Assault Rifle before the clip is emptied, the reload will not complete until about a second after the animation is finished. This appears to be a bug in the animation system; I'm trying to find a way around it, but I doubt there is one.

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THANKS TO
Bungie/Gearbox - For the obligatory.
CMT - The SMG & Impaler's model, skin, and animations, the Elite & MC models and skins, the Jackal shield skins, the Plasma Pistol's animations, the Plasma Rifle's skin, and a couple of sprites.
CtrlAltDestroy - The SMG's sound (ripped from Halo 3).
Gamma927 - The Pistol's animations.
Flibitijibibo & Inferno - The new Covenant weapon sounds.
ICEE - The Battle Rifle & Assault Rifle's animations and exporting/tweaking teh lag's animations.
teh lag - The Sniper Rifle and Plasma Rifle's animations.
F.E.A.R. - The base for the blood decals.
You - For downloading and supporting this mod.

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Enjoy, and tell your friends! With more interest comes quicker releases and fewer bugs; help make ASCM as good as it can possibly get.

Only two more releases to go! Look for one last video update this Wednesday. Also watch the threads at Halomaps ( http://forum.halomaps.org/index.cfm?page=topic&topicID=32513 ) and Modacity ( http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?21879 ) for more information.


http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/269/haloce2010091211470277.jpg

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3764/haloce2010091212073657.jpg

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/3983/haloce2010091211540983.jpg

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/9144/haloce2010091211595191.jpg

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/2567/haloce2010091211564935.jpg

More screens (lots and lots of big ones):

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3756/haloce2010091212080828.jpg
http://img830.imageshack.us/img830/4615/haloce2010091212041573.jpg
http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/7942/haloce2010091212082599.jpg
http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/3669/haloce2010091212012504.jpg
http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/6042/haloce2010091211553026.jpg
http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/764/haloce2010091211564236.jpg
http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3571/haloce2010091212072857.jpg
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/5764/haloce2010091212015702.jpg
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/8343/haloce2010091212081228.jpg
http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/2498/haloce2010091211552163.jpg

Get it now:

Filefront (http://www.filefront.com/17285781/ASCM---a50.zip/)
Halomaps link coming soon

~

[Hr3shy]

looks like another wicked sp mod. keep em comming :)

[Pooky]

Cool, I'm sure I'll find more things to bitch about. It'd be nice if you actually replied this time, though. :(

[EagerYoungSpaceCadet]

Yaaaay! Happy happy yay!!!:downs:

Downloading it now and leaving some feedback after I finish it.

EDIT: Finished it!
Every weapon seems to be epic right now, especially the new ones.

I will not go in depth about describing them, but just to mention THEY ROCK.

I didn't find anything wrong.

Except...
Plasma Spread has a zoom, and it's like it's from the Plasma Beam.

[sevlag]

have you fioxed the slow rate of fire with the DMR/BR? that was my main gripe with a30, if it was a wee bit quicker i would actually bother to use it in legendary difficulty

[assassinchief107]

OH C'MON! CMT icons blucked it all up. H3MT ones would suit this mod perfectly.

[Cagerrin]

OH C'MON! CMT icons blucked it all up. H3MT ones would suit this mod perfectly.
Honestly, any sort of icons are terrible. I really wish that had been fixed from a30.

[Ifafudafi]

Cool, I'm sure I'll find more things to bitch about. It'd be nice if you actually replied this time, though. :(


-Marines are immune to headshots and supercombines, and have three times their previous health. They now die much less quickly and frequently, although still within reason.
-Elite shield recharge delay has been increased to 5.25 seconds (.75 seconds quicker than yours.)

I didn't get around to replying to the rest of the comments in the thread, but I did read every single one. If any of your points are still an issue post them again here.


Plasma Spread has a zoom, and it's like it's from the Plasma Beam.

Noted. Easy fix.


have you fioxed the slow rate of fire with the DMR/BR?

It's by design, and it's not changed in this release. A50 is a sniper feature and an indoor level so I didn't spend too much time working on the BR's balance, but this is becoming an increasingly common complaint. I'll play around with it a bit; there will definitely be a change in b30.


OH C'MON! CMT icons blucked it all up. H3MT ones would suit this mod perfectly.

See the post in the a30 thread (http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?22235&p=554939#post554939) my reasoning. If any of you guys can do HUD pickup icons, PM me.


Honestly, any sort of icons are terrible. I really wish that had been fixed from a30.

Again, see the a30 post (http://www.modacity.net/forums/showthread.php?22235&p=554939#post554939) for my reasoning.

Oh, and now that all the weapons are made, most of the hard work is done and b30 is well on its way; when I release it depends entirely on how quickly dennis posts a50 on Halomaps and how much critique I get on it. There are some kick-ass new Fuel Rod effects that you'll see highlighted in a video this Wednesday.

[EagerYoungSpaceCadet]

have you fioxed the slow rate of fire with the DMR/BR?

What's there to fix?

I can own Elites in Legendary with this! *types cheat_omnipotent 1 cheat_bottomless_clip 1*

*bam bam* See?


Can't wait to see what you did with the FRG

[Pooky]

I didn't get around to replying to the rest of the comments in the thread, but I did read every single one. If any of your points are still an issue post them again here.

Oh I saw that you did, and I appreciate it. Just a little bit of acknowledgment is nice.

[assassinchief107]

I wish if I can edit the icons, but I don't have Photoshop. :(

[sevlag]

thanks for actually doing something, the main problem overall was that with the molasses pace RoF i would be gunned down on legendary and i would end up forsaking it for like the SMG or some other random weapon

a50 plays like a dream on heroic for me...GJ

[EagerYoungSpaceCadet]

Well I see that something remained from the version before: floating muzzle glow from the Plasma Beam: zoom in with it and walk backwards without zooming out...


Also, the Plasma Spread.

After playing the mod for some time, I've noticed that this weapon isn't exactly effective against anything, it's actually less effective then the Plasma Burst: the Spread seems to have less damage per bullet plasma pellet (?) (the total damage is still greater), has a lower RoF than the Burst, and overheats more rapidly. Tweaking the damage per pellet and rate of fire should fix it, the overheating makes sense and should not be touched!

[Dwood]

I wish if I can edit the icons, but I don't have Photoshop. :(

use ms paint, just be sure to make it in 2's and have a 2-pixel pure blue border.

[ThePlague]

I already did pickup icons for him. They're pretty snazzy :p

[Ifafudafi]

Well I see that something remained from the version before: floating muzzle glow from the Plasma Beam: zoom in with it and walk backwards without zooming out...

That's a bug in the engine. It'll keep rendering attached lights when zoomed even though the gun is hidden. I haven't find away to work around it, but I'll keep looking.


Also, the Plasma Spread.

After playing the mod for some time, I've noticed that this weapon isn't exactly effective against anything, it's actually less effective then the Plasma Burst: the Spread seems to have less damage per bullet plasma pellet (?) (the total damage is still greater), has a lower RoF than the Burst, and overheats more rapidly. Tweaking the damage per pellet and rate of fire should fix it, the overheating makes sense and should not be touched!

Tbqh, the Spread was a last-minute addition. I had initially axed it for being too similar to the Shotgun, but since I'm only going up through b40, the Shotgun won't appear, making the Spread a viable choice. It didn't go through nearly as much balancing as the other guns. I'll work on it for b30.


use ms paint, just be sure to make it in 2's and have a 2-pixel pure blue border.

Alpha channels. Again, GIMP screws with alphas in ways Photoshop doesn't and I can't get Halo to render the bitmaps properly. It's not like it's hard to do; I just don't have the tools.

[p0lar_bear]

-The SMG's sound will cut out and occasionally do weird things. This is just the way Halo CE handles looping sounds; there's nothing I can really do about it.

Is that a human SMG? Why are you using a sound_looping for it; the Assault Rifle and Plasma Rifle use just a single sound tag with permutations. Also, my usual mantra: 22khz mono xbox adpcm, and make sure the sound tag is classed as "weapon_fire" in the second field of it's firing sound tag.

[dydo]

I find that the marines die too easily. :|
When the pelican first came into the cruiser to drop off some marines, they were being attacked while still inside the pelican. When they finally got out, only 2 made it out until they died a few secs later.

[Ifafudafi]

Is that a human SMG? Why are you using a sound_looping for it; the Assault Rifle and Plasma Rifle use just a single sound tag with permutations. Also, my usual mantra: 22khz mono xbox adpcm, and make sure the sound tag is classed as "weapon_fire" in the second field of it's firing sound tag.

I know how to build sounds; I've done it for all the custom plasma weapons. I'm using Halo 3's SMG sound (since Halo 2's sound is terribad), and it simply fires too fast for to get an accurate sample of a single bullet. I've been searching for something along those lines, but the closest thing is what H3 Sandtrap has, and that's kind of meh.


I find that the marines die too easily. :|
When the pelican first came into the cruiser to drop off some marines, they were being attacked while still inside the pelican. When they finally got out, only 2 made it out until they died a few secs later.

Dying marines has been a problem for the start, and I'm still trying to figure out how to balance it. I've literally given them twice the health and three times the damage resistance, and it still doesn't seem to work. I think I've got it fixed for b30, though.

[assassinchief107]

The Plasma Spread feels so.. unfinished. Like it has the same zoom as the Beam, the reticule doesn't turn red when an enemy's in sight, there overheat isn't shown on the screen (or whatever it's called) and the overheat seems to have the regular particle effects. Also, Jackals with it kill you in a second, they fire at the fastest ROF, it would be better if you slow them down.