They did when they had to leave the equatorial region on Reach intact. They did when they had to destroy half of Africa. And then, let's not forget that they used the particle beams on the ships to dig, too.
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They did when they had to leave the equatorial region on Reach intact. They did when they had to destroy half of Africa. And then, let's not forget that they used the particle beams on the ships to dig, too.
Those aren't exactly precise strikes. Leaving the general equatorial region intact seems fairly easy, even with giant ships/beams. Same with Africa.
Several of the books and the short story in Evolutions describe many ship masters carving ornate Covenant symbols into the planets they're burning.
As I recall the one from Evolutions burned the Covenant symbol meaning "Faith."
The can be precise when they need to be, they just don't deem humanity worthy of the effort half the time.
And let's not forget them trying to roast the Chief in Halo 2 on Delta Halo...
Speaking of which, I just powered through the Halo 2 campaign on Heroic; that was the most fun I have ever had playing Halo 2's campaign. I don't know what I did different; I think it was me not giving a fuck about which guns I had. That said, my TV sucks ass because it's so dark and I can't adjust it, which made a few sections difficult and frustrating.
The covenant have been shown to use particle beams to glass planets, burn ships in orbital fights and excavate monuments and installations.
They're referred to as "when the Covenant destroys a planet, They typically move in their large warships closer and blanket the world with a series of crisscrossing orbits to ensure every last millimeter of the surface is covered with plasma bombardments"
They are very meticulous in ensuring planets are entirely glassed and not just portions.
That's something the AI council made a mistake on as shown in Reach.
Lower level orbits is what I inferred when Nylund said that, not being a thousand metres off the ground. So, a tactical strike is what we see in Reach when the Super Carrier is uncloaked and when those two CCS class cruisers demolish New Alexandria.
IMO the beam itself is fine. It could move a bit slower, but what needs the most work is the lightning effects. They appear far too often and in strange ways. Flashes that silhouette the cloud are nice but they can't be so sporadic, and I think the lightning sprites are too small and thick. They need to be more like what you see IRL.
The lightning sprites also repeat themselves too often. It's the same shape in the same spot every time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_8KSaoIN2E
That is a super carrier, now using the coast line and Mombasa super towers you can get the size of the ship, fucking massive things. Now envision a Cruiser's size compaired to the Carrier, place the cruiser in the lower city, there not massive godly craft, there spaceships if u were to put a Cruiser in orbit it would appear small like a star, even if it were to fire its laser in orbit the laser would be tiny.
But that's just the thing; they aren't supposed to be firing beams while in orbit. They fire massive bolts or "torpedoes," if you will.