- OrderedComa
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- Noble Member
Posted by: Beowolfe
Posted by: OrderedComa
Posted by: ajw34307
Posted by: mercenary335
1. read 1st Strike
2. read The Impossible Life And Possible Death of Preston J. Cole
3. come to complete understanding of how and why humanity stood a chance.
Humanity only won against the Covenant when they outnumbered them 3 to 1, otherwise they just failed.
Then explain why Cortana says in Halo:CE "A dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class Cruiser. Given those odds, I'm content with three... make that four kills." How do you explain this, hmmm? That seems to indicate to me that the whole 3 to 1 ratio is complete bull--blam!-.
Lol, at first when you started your threads I thought that you're coming from a relatively objective standpoint, but at this point it is damn clear that you're just plain hating on non-game canon.
The novels are better stroy tellers, simply because of the fact that they are novels. Games are limited by the technology and motivation of the developers, whereas novels are really only limited by imagination, and that's why things in novels make far more sense than the single dimension telling of stories found in FPS games.
That being said, what you said does nothing to prove your point. We know that the only reason that happened was because the Covenant did not want to damage the ring, and instead sent boarding parties to attack the PoA. All the while, Cortana was sniping their ships out with the specialized MAC gun. As you mentioned, the covenant did, in fact, start shooting at the Autumn in the end. I do not know if there is an explanation for it; it's been a while since I've read the Flood, but if I were to make a logical speculation, it would be because Keyes was making course to crash land on the Halo and the Covenant-being fanatical about protecting the sacred rings-decided to shoot it down before it has a chance to crash land. They failed, of course.
Cortana specially saying Halcyon Class Cruiser doesn't mean that any other person could have done the same. In fact, the case is quite rare, as you probably know, Halcyon Cruisers are known for being incredibly tough, being able to function even with 90% Hull damage. However, they are also old and have been replaced in the mainline by other types of UNSC ships.
The point being that the PoA is not just another UNSC ship. Even before being refitted it had extremely strong survivability. Then, when it was chosen for Operation: Red Flag, it was upgraded with the most effective MAC gun in the UNSC navy, as well as the most advanced Shaw-Fujikawa Slipspace drive available to the humans.
And we cannot forget that it was captained by one of the most brilliant tacticians in the UNSC, second only to Cole, as well as the most advanced Smart AI in the UNSC.
With all of these different factors, of course the PoA would do more than its share, but that doesn't mean every single ship in the entire UNSC navy can do the same.
So again, no, the covenant are not overpowered, if that is even possible. The games simply make both sides look weaker for gameplay purposes.
On the contrary, I love the books, they are awesome pieces of literature, I just think that they do a very poor job portraying the power of the Covenant and taking it to a level far too extreme. I love all the materials in the vast Halo media, I'm just not afraid to state the problems I have with each.
Books and games are completely different media, there is no way the two can really be safely compared. It's like comparing apples and oranges. It is true that novels are often better, but that is because, as you pointed, because you can only do so much in a video game with the resources you have.
What I quoted means a great deal, Cortana says it before they are even boarded or before you see anything of the Covenant. Things may have turned out as you laid out, which the book says, but Cortana was not speaking in the moment of being assaulted, she was speaking of ship-to-ship combat.