- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Posted by: RhythmKiller
The elites were much more mobile than the brutes, and because they had energy shields and would retreat to recharge it made encounters with them better.
Too often in halo 3 you get brutes just standing there looking at your position, doing nothing
The Elites of past were also much, much dumber. Take cover behind a rock in "Halo" some distance away, and you'll see what I mean. The Elite will sidestep in and out of cover, pause to look at you for a few seconds every once and while, then continue dancing in and out. It's repetitive, and the AI makes no effort to somehow push you from your hiding place, even though it can clearly see you and it clearly has the reinforcements to do it with. Read the GDC slides on Halo 3's approach to AI and you'll see just how much better it is than Halo 1's static encounter firing positions and squads. No amount of nostalgia or personal preference will change that fact.
And I took that specific Brute behaviour to be "waiting", I first saw one do it when I took cover inside a bubble shield. Instead of charging in blindly, he just stood there, knowingly aware of the fact that he didn't have to flush me out, he could simply wait. Such behaviour isn't accidental, the AI was intentionally designed to be more aware of more environment factors.