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This topic has moved here: Subject: Loading Zones and Cutscene Timings
  • Subject: Loading Zones and Cutscene Timings
Subject: Loading Zones and Cutscene Timings
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A Guide to Networking, Matchmaking, and Host in Halo (HBO mirror)

Bungie Friends and Family invitee, and sender of "random emails" about networking.

Remember Halo? You go through a door at the end of an area (and 99/100 of the time all the enemies would be dead), get a small "loading...done" message, and get on with the game.

You proceed through another door at the far end and a cutscene kicks in, in a location which makes sense, and doesn't suddenly jerk control from yours hands.

Now let's recap what tended to happen in Halo 2. You head across a medium sized room, fighting enemies, only to have the battle paused by the "loading...done" message. You then finish the battle, cross halfway across the room, and suddenly have a cutscene kick in unexpectedly, taking control from you.

The loading zone system in the Halo games works fantastically, when the loading zones are in the right place, such as when you go through a door into another area. It doesn't interrupt the action in the slightest (since you'll only be fighting enemies as you cross the border if you run past them), and it makes sense. What doesn't make much sense is when a loading zone is places halfway across a room, and when it briefly interrupts a battle.

That would be poor design, since the zone kicks in during the battle, and it should be predicted that the player will cross that threshold since it's in the middle of a room, not the end of an area.

The same applies to cutscenes. 343 Guilty Spark. You head towards the final blood-stained door of the first sublevel, and a cutscene kicks in. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Another tendency of Halo 2. You run across an area, fighting enemies (end of the Delta Halo levels), and a cutscene kicks in, somehow freezing the enemies whilst the chief glances up at a huge fleet appearing. Or the Scarab just destroys itself with no option to power it down, or look around it.

It's a great example of poor, unintelligent design. Ok, it's not the biggest problem in the world by far, but why opt for poor design when you could just as easily with a little thought have these loading zones and cutscenes kick in at a time which makes sense.

Show us you can pay attention to these small details Bungie, that's the whole point of an intelligently designed game.

  • 05.13.2006 4:32 AM PDT

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Nice post.

I never understood why they couldn't have placed a control panel of some sort to destroy the Scarab.

[Edited on 5/13/2006]

  • 05.13.2006 4:36 AM PDT
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I don't see the problem
halo 2 loading..done takes not even 3 seconds
and if 3 sec loss of gameplay hurts you

  • 05.13.2006 4:37 AM PDT
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Hopefully the problem that you described happening in Halo 2 won't happen in Halo 3. I miss Halo: Combat Evolved now...

-- Griffinhart

  • 05.13.2006 4:41 AM PDT
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Bungie Friends and Family invitee, and sender of "random emails" about networking.

The whole point was that the 3 seconds interupts gameplay needlessly, and gives the impression that the maps were designed carelessly. It's as if the designers said "ok, we'll just put a loading zone here" without even looking at where it was.

The loading times itself are fine, and not a problem, when they're not affecting gameplay, or they only affect gameplay when you went out of your way to ensure it would.

And the cutscene point was that cutscenes should happen in places that make sense. Not halfway through a room during a battle, causing enemies to somehow freeze in place the chief whilst he feels free to take a look at the sky in all it's glory.

Make sense?

  • 05.13.2006 4:41 AM PDT
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Halo 2 really pushed the Xbox to its limit. Thats why we got the Loading..Done meesage. Plus when you talk about jumping into cut scenes unexpectingly, when did this happen? I mean I knew when I completed a objective and when I completed the misson, not once did a cutscene fly out at me.

  • 05.13.2006 4:58 AM PDT
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A Guide to Networking, Matchmaking, and Host in Halo (HBO mirror)

Bungie Friends and Family invitee, and sender of "random emails" about networking.

Halo 2 would have needed loading zones regardless of if it had been on the 360. There isn't enough RAM to store all the map geometry, shared assets, and map data at a time.

The issue of why they exist is not the point, but where they are placed. The point being that they could have been placed far better, as to ensure they have no noticable effect on the game.

About cutscenes occuring unexpectedly? I give two examples.

1. The sudden destruction of the scarab, with no action on the player's part, no "Hold X to power down Scarab" option

2. As you're about to come to the Temple section of the Delta Halo levels, if you rush forward to attack the enemy in melee combat, a cutscene will kick in with the enemies still alive, and frozen in place.

[Edited on 5/13/2006]

  • 05.13.2006 5:04 AM PDT