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  • Subject: Human Technology
Subject: Human Technology
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Is it just me, or does Human Technology STILL seem a bit primitive even in the year 2552? All ships are made with Titanium-A, which is a very strong alloy, but useless against plasma. Wouldn't you think from all the other planets (aka Colonies), they would have found an alloy that's stronger? Look at the Hunter's shield...it's an unknown alloy thats basically impervious.

Shields...I'd think by now ships would have shielding. Take the Mjolnir Mark V. It is fully shielded. They said "they took a Jackal's shield and improved upon it". Why can't they take the same shielding technology from Mjolnir and put it on their ships?

Weapons...the strongest weapon in the Human's entire arsenal is the MAC (Magnetic Accelerator Cannon). The MAC basically fires an enormous projectile at a very high velocity at enemy ships. I'd think that these MAC's would be homing, or be able to somehow track an enemy ship...but they're not. Another area that can be greatly improved is the Archer Missles. They are slow missles that cause very little damage, and half of them are taken out by pin-point laser fire from Covenant ships. Why not make these missles stronger? Put some plutonium or uranium in these babies for more bang for your buck.

The rounds fired from the MA5B are 7.62mm. I hope the Battle Rifle at least fires rounds the size of the human pistol, which are 12.7mm. Look how many bullets it takes to take down an unshielded Elite...quite a bit.

More about weapons. The Humans have been at war with the Covenant for more than 30 years now. I find it difficult to believe that scientists, researchers, and engineers haven't learned more from Covenant weapons, ships, and enemies (Elite's shields). I would think by now we'd have been able to copy shields from Elites and Jackals...but we aren't.

I'm saying that for the year 2552, Human technology is IMO still pretty primitive. We have huge advances like Slipspace, but alot of other aspects are still primitive.

  • 05.03.2004 3:32 PM PDT
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An Elite's shield first off. Second of all, it's not primitive, third of all, titanium is an element, not an alloy. And as for covenate weapons, humans prefer human weapons, read the books.

  • 05.03.2004 3:34 PM PDT
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I've read all 3 books...which is why I know about this stuff.

First off, explain yourself more. You say it's not primitive...explain. Yes, titanium is an element, but we can make it into a solid alloy...Titanium A.

  • 05.03.2004 3:37 PM PDT
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An Alloy is a mix of two or more metals. Nothing is primitive about projectile weapons, and considering the pace of devlopment, I think it's all totally reasonable.

  • 05.03.2004 3:38 PM PDT
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About Alloys...thank you Bill Nye the Science Guy.

When compared to plasma, projectiles are primitive. I'm not talking about the game so much as I'm talking about the story. You should know that Human ships are obsolete compared to Covenant ships.

  • 05.03.2004 3:40 PM PDT
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Inferior, obsolete does not really fit. And I would take projectiles over plasma any day of the week, it's not primitive compared, it's different.

  • 05.03.2004 3:43 PM PDT
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Ok, lets talk Projectiles VS Plasma in space fights (which is what I'm mainly talking about).

Look at the damage done by a MAC round on an unshielded Covenant ship. The round basically rips through the ship by sheer force and the velocity at which it's fired. The round more or less goes in the ship, and comes out the other side. As you should know from many examples in Fall of Reach, this causes the Covenant ship either to spin out of control(on the larger ships) or neutralize the ship (smaller ones). On the larger ships, everytime the ship spins out of control, the ship regains control, and jumps back into the fight (unless it's hit by an Orbital MAC, then the ship is done).

Now look at the damage done by a Plasma Torpedo on a Human ship (large or small). The Plasma hits the ship, and melts everything it touches. Plasma torpedoes can take out 1/3 of a ship in one good hit, crippling the ship severely. True, this doesn't mean the ship is neutralized or out of action, but it does mean that the ship is crippled (aka damaged very badly). Also, Plasma Torpedoes are HOMING, which means it is VERY likely to hit the ship it's fired at. Two Plasma Torpedoes can take out a Human Carrier...meanwhile two MAC rounds haven't even dented a Covenant Carrier w/ shielding.

Yes, I would say that ORBITAL MAC's are more effective than Plasma Torpedoes when looked at the damage done by the two. However, there's simply too few Orbital MAC's to turn the tide of a battle, and they can be destroyed easily by a single Plasma Torpedo.

[Edited on 5/3/2004 3:55:11 PM]

  • 05.03.2004 3:52 PM PDT
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Ah, true, in space I agree, projectiles are not really suited to space combat.

  • 05.03.2004 3:53 PM PDT
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Anybody else have views on this? Please share...

  • 05.03.2004 3:59 PM PDT
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You would think that humans would have something more advanced then projectile weapons. Back in the day they fought with muskets. The words fully automatic or caseless ammunition were completly unknown back then. Now look at the technology of todays weapons, and that is only about a 200 or so year span. Halo is more then 500 years in the future, so you would think that weapons would be alot better. Not that I am complaining, I love unloading an AR on a group of grunts, I definitly prefer the human guns to the covie ones. Well, aside from maybe the needler...

  • 05.03.2004 4:02 PM PDT
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The one human weapon I'd love to see improved is the M90 Combat Shotgun. I think they should upgrade it so it shoots slugs instead of buckshot...it'd be very powerful then, and alot more accurate at longer ranges too.

  • 05.03.2004 4:05 PM PDT
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Covenent unlike Humans, did not actually create this plasma technolegy, they recieved it through the forerunner, a race which much older than the covenant. and you think that a mac round is not effective? ok take a few hundred pound projectile made of depleted uranium (the army uses that stuff on M1A1 tanks, its basically impenetrable to any enemy fire today.) accelerate it to about half the speed of light thanks to magnetic force. how much force do you think it takes to stop this.
as for shielding. the MCs armor is shielded, and not very well (2 pistol shots get rid of it). His suit weighs about one tons and probably some source of energy powers the shield. I would say about 500 pounds of his suit is some sort of genorator for his equipment and mainly his shield. so five add five hundred pounds of weight to every ohh... 13 square feet (an estimate of how much the shield covers on MC) of the ship that you would like sheilded. thats a rough estimate and i dont want to figure the outside square footage of a fictional human battle cruiser. so you would have to add a few thousand tons onto a ship, slowing it down, where as it is allready slower than its enemy. even if you did have shielding of the same strength as above, it would only be able to hold the force of two pistol shots, not a huge ass ball of firey death. the reason the covenent are able to have shielding is because of there source of power is probably much smaller and more powerfull. (explains below)
plasma is superheated gas, not any specific gas but one that is really really really hot (really!). we have yet to be able to create plasma, but it exists through the combustion of stars. the covenent have the amount of energy released by a star in a handy dandy charge-upable gun. and these batterys are friggin tiny.

so in conclusion, i think we are on top of it all considering the advances of interstellar travel and huge ass guys in suits that deal out pain like no other.

*takes a deep breath and hits submit

[Edited on 5/3/2004 4:22:06 PM]

  • 05.03.2004 4:18 PM PDT
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His suit does not weight 4000 pounds...

  • 05.03.2004 4:20 PM PDT
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sorry one ton :)

  • 05.03.2004 4:21 PM PDT
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Not even

  • 05.03.2004 4:21 PM PDT
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actually ya it does, but thats beside the point

  • 05.03.2004 4:22 PM PDT
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Tell me EXACTLY where it says that and I will beleive you.

  • 05.03.2004 4:23 PM PDT
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Yes, I'm about 90% sure it weighs more than a ton.

  • 05.03.2004 4:23 PM PDT
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I don't have Fall of Reach, but in the Prologue there is a part where the chief jumps down onto a rock and it says "his one (or two) ton armor landed quietly on the rock".

  • 05.03.2004 4:24 PM PDT
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boh yah! j/k

  • 05.03.2004 4:25 PM PDT
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Actually it was one-half of a ton. It says so in First Strike and if I had the book id type it word for word.

  • 05.03.2004 4:33 PM PDT
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The AR is only good on unshielded targets becuase if you break an elite's shields with a plasma rifle, switch to AR it's easier to kill him. It was either designed that way or for some other reason becuase pistols are rarely better than rifles

  • 05.03.2004 4:33 PM PDT
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thats the next gen armor is it not? were talkin bout Halo 1 armor

  • 05.03.2004 4:34 PM PDT
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the books says his armour weighs half a tonne. and also humans probalby never thought they would meet the likes of shields, but when used on grunts or jackals or elites with downed shields the bullets work quite nice. and in the book the assault rifle seems to be alot more affective because MC used like half a clip and rip elitles in half. they probalby just made it harder in the game to up the fanage.

  • 05.03.2004 4:40 PM PDT
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Posted by: Mister Chief
Covenent unlike Humans, did not actually create this plasma technolegy, they recieved it through the forerunner, a race which much older than the covenant. and you think that a mac round is not effective? ok take a few hundred pound projectile made of depleted uranium (the army uses that stuff on M1A1 tanks, its basically impenetrable to any enemy fire today.) accelerate it to about half the speed of light thanks to magnetic force. how much force do you think it takes to stop this.
as for shielding. the MCs armor is shielded, and not very well (2 pistol shots get rid of it). His suit weighs about one tons and probably some source of energy powers the shield. I would say about 500 pounds of his suit is some sort of genorator for his equipment and mainly his shield. so five add five hundred pounds of weight to every ohh... 13 square feet (an estimate of how much the shield covers on MC) of the ship that you would like sheilded. thats a rough estimate and i dont want to figure the outside square footage of a fictional human battle cruiser. so you would have to add a few thousand tons onto a ship, slowing it down, where as it is allready slower than its enemy. even if you did have shielding of the same strength as above, it would only be able to hold the force of two pistol shots, not a huge ass ball of firey death. the reason the covenent are able to have shielding is because of there source of power is probably much smaller and more powerfull. (explains below)
plasma is superheated gas, not any specific gas but one that is really really really hot (really!). we have yet to be able to create plasma, but it exists through the combustion of stars. the covenent have the amount of energy released by a star in a handy dandy charge-upable gun. and these batterys are friggin tiny.

so in conclusion, i think we are on top of it all considering the advances of interstellar travel and huge ass guys in suits that deal out pain like no other.

*takes a deep breath and hits submit


OK...What are you talking about? The Master Cheifs suit uses a small fusion reactor to power itself, I'd say it weighs maybe 5-10 pounds, and I'm relativly sure it can withstand more than 2 pistol rounds (have you hade trouble killing the flood combat forms who carry pistols?) And his sheilds are better that the elites', and they can take about...more than 3 rounds. Also, I beleive that the reason Human ships don't have Sheilds is because the reverse enginered technology is so new, they may have not have time to refit ships with the enlarged versions of the sheild systems in Mjolnir armor. I'm not arguing with you about how plasma works and stuff, but you are way off on your 'sheild theory' as I will call it.

  • 05.03.2004 5:05 PM PDT