- Quantam
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- Honorable Heroic Member
Posted by: switch 104 sv
Ok, credit goes to Fin for this one.
This is based on a post I made on another site, the discussion was sidetracked on Covenant glassing capability, and the AI's numbers from the datapads were referenced (A Covenant warship is only capable of glassing 1 acre in fifteen seconds).
It occured to me that even the very limited tactical use of 'glassing' by the CCS-class ships in New Alexandria was more impressive than this.
(The pictures are not mine)
We are discussing this event here:
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDeta...px?fid=13031105 (firing)
The size of the ship is known, it's about 860m wide at it's widest point.
As you can see from the image the area being zapped is actually wider than the ship. Lets call it the same width though just to be conservative. (Why? because it makes it easy, that's why.)
We also know that the description of a "glassed" area is that the surface is melted, or rendered glassy smooth and glowing, (the level of damage done is presumed to be directly related to how close it is to the centre of the strike).
After the blast, we see the surface in the area around and under the ship is brightly glowing, and there is a bright yellow lava-like texture present on the ground: (apologies for the pictures, I'm not able to get any of my own for at least two weeks as my xbox is on the blink, these were the best I could find in a few minutes of searching.)
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDeta...px?fid=23455414 (molten surface)
http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/FileDeta...px?fid=11736549 (wider view of molten 'glassed' area, complete with 2D buildings...)
Both of these images are consistent with the discription of a 'glassed' area, as well as with images of a limited 'glassing' in Halo 3 (floodgate). I feel it is reasonable to maintain my position that most of the surface underneath the ship (and in an area round about) was heated to a molten state, and would therefore qualify for the "glassed" description.
The closing cutscene (after Kat's death) also has a shot of the aftermath, it clearly shows a considerable amount of material has melted and flowed around the foundations of some of the wrecked towers.
In conclusion: The event depicted in New Alexandria could certainly qualify as a glassing of a localised area, it meets the previous descriptions supplied (the surface heated to melting, the surrounding area rendered glassy smooth and glowing) and can readily be observed in-game.
The time taken for the CCS-class to fire is easily determined by simply counting, it's around 8 seconds.
The area depicted as 'glassed' in this example is considerably larger than the CCS-class that fires the beam, which has a footprint larger than 1 acre. Considerably larger, as in over 100 times larger.
Given that these three observations can easily be made by flying over and having a look in-game (you must first disable the death-barriers by activating the switch on the tower next to the Viacom building, if you wish to do this look for videos showing you how to fly a pelican/phantom on this level, it's the first step.) I think that it is sufficient evidence to cast doubt on the calculations made by the AI's in the datapads.
According to the AI numbers, it should have taken over 25 minutes of sustained firing to achieve this effect.
Quite simply, if the AI's are correct, this event could not have happened as it is depicted in game.
And neither could any of the other glassing events in the entirety of Halo canon (That is to say all the references to it going back to the HALO: Combat Evolved promotional material).
Given that we see this event take place, and we also know of others that exceed the AI's prediction of Covenant capability, then it seems dubious at best to take the AI's second-hand calculations over all other events. They are characters in-game, it's quite possible they are mistaken, or being misled.
Good Post. But still, the time frame doesn't fit. Even if it is 100 acres, or a thousand acres, it still took a few seconds to minutes for the cruiser to get into position to fire, say a 1000 acre area. That is 700,000 acres every few minutes, still a very far off the 135 billion acre limit. Getting into position to glass or set alight takes time, too.