- WarnedOrange7
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- Honorable Member
As the wave of emotion of the Flood attack washed over me something inside turned cold and although I had been effectively killing Covenant for a long time, a new steel was forged within me... I knew that to get out alive I had to kill every last one of these S.O.B's. I did it, stole the index from the library and blew up the ring world known as Halo, but I knew this wasn't the end... It was only just beginning.
Posted by: Lazer55
Hello all you Halo old-schoolers! I am from ModHalo.net (I go by "The Cereal Killer" there), where we still love our Halo Custom Edition very much. What I will be telling you about is a solo-player map I am creating for that very game, for now it is simply called The Red Skulls.
So what does "The Red Skulls" mean? Well I have a story about that. The short version is that they are a wealthy private military organization that buys designs/patents for vehicles, armor, and training methods; they build and maintain quite a large army and implement said army against various enemies of the government, and collect bounties and spoils of war to pay for their efforts. I will repost the entire story I wrote below, if you wish to better understand this campaign, but it is quite long and I would not expect you to read it all (you're so lazy!).
Posted by: The Cereal Killer, on MH.net
The Red Skull story takes place in an alternate timeline in Halo.
Spartan II supersoldiers are an idea which the Red Skulls purchased from Dr. Halsey of the UNSC. Money does have its benefits, as it turns out. The program was perfected by the Red Skull research and development division. Participating children had a much higher survival rate, but the genetic alteration procedures were more painful than ever before. As a result, the overseers of the project decided that the best candidates would be infants, as they would not likely remember this horrible ordeal later in life, and emotional scarring would be reduced. Mjolnir armor, bought by the Red Skulls at the same time as the Spartan II design, was bestowed upon a Spartan when the initiate turned 19. This was the age at which it was determined the genetic enhancements would have taken full effect. They trained with their suit for 2 more years before, at the age of 21, being hand-picked by an officer to join that officer's team, at the Spartan Graduation ceremony. As is apparent, they were not designed to be expendable. Spartan IIs are not informed of their genetic enhancements during their 21 years of training, however. It was thought at the program's initiation that better results would be achieved if Spartans believed that all they did was under their own, naturally-given power. It was the duty of every commanding officer to inform his Spartans of this. Because of this, Spartans are often confused when they meet their normal-sized squadmates for the first time, being towering hulks in comparison.
Stunned by the success of their new supersoldiers, the owners of the RS organization began to contemplate purchasing other patented training methods and armor designs from the UNSC scientists that created them. After careful examination, ODST ballistic armor was selected as the preferred combat apparel to equip Red Skull standard troopers. Spartan IIs, coupled with Red Skull soldiers wearing ODST armor (renamed LAAPs: Lightly-Armored Assault Personnel), formed such a devastating combination in combat that other military organizations began to attempt their own supersoldier programs, such as the Cyberdyne program of the Hollywood Knight organization. The UNSC, too, began work on another supersoldier project, directed by Dr. Halsey, dubbed the Spartan III project. This project favored lighter armor in favor of mobility and flexibility, and incorporated less genetic alterations to reach a 100% survival rate of participants. Paired with marines who had even less armor, the new project only saw mild success, and on many occasions Red Skull squads were dispatched to rescue UNSC soldiers and supersoldiers. Spartan IIs see Spartan IIIs the same way they see marines. In fact, most Spartan IIs prefer fighting alongside their LAAP companions rather than Spartan IIIs, if ever given the choice in joint operations with the UNSC. Spartan II Brigadier General Franklin Marcello had this to say on Spartan IIIs in the UNSC: "They take risks that they can't handle and put their squads in danger, because the name 'Spartan' gives them a feeling of invincibility, when in fact they are not worthy to be called such. They are nothing like us; they would like to think that they are our brethren, but they are not"
You are a new Spartan II, fresh out of training. Your squad is already deployed in a canyon, and they eagerly await your arrival. Your commanding officer has seen fit to put you in charge of this outpost, as no major conflict is expected to develop here, and you need the experience. After all, a bunch of idiot untrained separatists can't possibly be a major threat... right?
Congratulations if you made it through that wall'o'text!
So what makes this campaign different? A couple things do, and I have outlined them below:
Overall Gameplay Description:
Your pause menu is the control panel for your entire experience in Red Skulls. You choose missions, purchase air support, travel to destinations, and configure various settings. All of these are outlined below.
- Missions: there are three mission categories from which to choose a mission... Research and Development, Tactical Assault, and Main Story. Each of these categories presents you with a specific reward. R&D missions have the possibility to award you vehicles; Tactical missions have the possibility to award you weapons; Main story missions unlock new locations as you progress.
- Travel: as you progress in the main storyline, you will come across instances where you need to move your base of operations to a different location. Don't fret if you didn't complete all missions in the area you are currently in, as locations which you unlock are saved in your travel menu. By selecting an unlocked location, you summon immediate extraction to the desired area, and are able to resume the completion of any missions left untouched in that area.
- Air support: support points are awarded to you on a once-per-minute salary. This salary starts at 1 point, however, completing missions will increase the salary, slowly but surely. Selecting the air support menu from the RS control panel in your pause menu will allow you to spend these points on various (what else?) air support types and bonuses. After purchasing a support craft, it waits for your signal to deploy to the area (I started out using the flashlight button as this signal, however I may set up something a bit less ghetto). Some of the types are listed in the next section.
- Customization: the customization menu allows for the setup of certain options and features. This includes the default automatic support used (orbital laser or orbital rocket strike, both listed in the next section), as well as the behavior of support which you purchase and summon. You also may choose whether or not to automatically travel to new locations when they are unlocked by beginning a certain mission, and other such small preferences.
Some of the air support types available are listed here:
Heavy Gunship (fighterbomber/longsword) - This gunship circles high above and rains death down on your enemies in the form of rapid-fire missiles. My personal favorite :D
Light Gunship (pelican, but different than the normal H1 version) - This gunship steadily patrols the area, hovers lower to the ground than the heavy gunship (ironic, huh?) and moves faster as well (not-so ironic). It is equipped with a front-facing Gatling gun.
APC (LAV25, custom vehicle [I didn't make it]) - It's pretty simple, have an APC airdropped at your base and it's yours permanently.
Personal Command Vessel (Draco, custom vehicle [Again, I didn't make it]) - This behemoth docks above your base and becomes your very own private fortress. Also provides base defense via undermounted machine guns.
Orbital laser (automatically used, non-purchasable) - A highly concentrated energy blast fired from an orbiting RS frigate.
Orbital rocket strike (automatically used, non-purchasable) - The orbiting frigate unleashes a barrage of rockets on a small area.
So that is just to name a few of the supports/bonuses you can buy. Needless to say, this project is requiring quite a bit of scripting from me.
Well that's it for now, hope you enjoyed what you just read and hope you enjoy the next beta when it comes out!
That is the best thread that I have ever seen. EVER! ^^
[Edited on 07.01.2011 11:06 PM PDT]