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This topic has moved here: Subject: Why can't people take a little change? -About the plasma sword
  • Subject: Why can't people take a little change? -About the plasma sword
Subject: Why can't people take a little change? -About the plasma sword
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  • last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT

I've gotten fairly annoyed with all the griping over the plasma sword's new look... The only conclusion I could come to is that these people can't accept any energy weapon that doesn't look just like a lightsaber... and that people is completely and utterly bogus! The new plasma sword looks excellent, unless you were looking at low res videos at least, but aside from that, it resembles forerunner technology, which the covenent is supposed to be harvesting in the first place! Bungie is supposed to cater to ridiculous details like that.

Discouraging... you thought the E3 stuff was discouraging!?!?! What are you comparing it to? What multiplayer game looks that damn good? What multiplayer game has the kind of attention to detail we've been seeing?

I have two major concerns, which are as follow: I worry that the weapons are becoming too similar, mostly because the SMG and needler seem to work the same, which I really am a little miffed at. Second, I don't like the rocket launcher tracking, because it seems too loose, I say give people two options, firing it straight, or firing it so that it manuvers within reason, but you must paint a laser on the target, no retacle business, simply put a laser dot on your target and the missile tracks it, again with reasonable manuvering. That would feel very realistic, and it would make it reasonably difficult to effectively track something moving quickly, and objects and terrain could easily get in the way.

Aside from that... I think you shouldn't fall so slow now that we're on earth... but I honestly am baffled by all these posts about how dissapointed people are... it looks REALLY good, it appears to play fantastically, what do you guys want? The issue of the plasma sword is appallingly ridiculous too, watch it in high res video, it looks marvelous... not everything needs to look like a lightsaber, arrgh!

  • 05.18.2004 4:54 AM PDT
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Your damn right!

Thats all I have to say.

  • 05.18.2004 5:00 AM PDT
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i wonder if ull be able to, whats the word, whatever the elites did with the plasma sword in the first 8 min vid when the elites like pushed a buton and it came out of the handle. that was awsome. and not just becuase a lightsaber does that either. its just a cool thing

  • 05.18.2004 5:58 AM PDT
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Well, I'll agree, that was a neat effect. A harsh glow, followed by the strange patterns inside the blade itself quickly building up, and then the blade body flickering into existence, all this within two or three seconds would be a nifty way to do it with the new appearance I susspect. They should do it when you switch weapons, I mean, how do you 'put away' the plasma sword? :)

  • 05.18.2004 6:03 AM PDT
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I think the plasma sword is awesome. I really don't see how the SMG and Needler are alike. Sure, they both fire pretty quick, but Needler rounds track and explode. The SMG is a projectile weapon (not covenant) and they don't track, the rounds go ultra-fast, and from the looks of the E3 demo it has a much larger magazine.

I am looking forward to getting my hands on the needler, though. "And the needler, which is actually worth picking up in Halo 2".

  • 05.18.2004 6:34 AM PDT
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people have been complaining about Halo 2????!!!!!??????!!!!

Who are they? What have they had done to their brains? I suggest a good Bungie powered smitting of these ignorant malcontents!

It looks awesome!

I'm not joking when I say I would buy it just for Zanzibar!

Perhaps my only concern is the power of the SMG, I've read & seen a lot of stuff which makes it look like that weapon is over powered, of course, I dunno, I haven't played it! lol, I'm sure its fine really, this is Bungie, they wouldn't make it over powered, but its just from what I've seen it looks like it tears through shields like paper, which is nic ;) i presume the mags small or something...

anyways, to the infidel beating we go!

  • 05.18.2004 6:38 AM PDT
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I mus say I'm with you on the similar weapons feel. The SMG and Needler do appear to be along the same lines. The carbine is probably a covenant battle rifle, the fuel rod will be similar to the rocket launcher. The same goes for vehicles ATV compared to ghost it would seem Bungie are making a human and alien equivalent of everything though I hope this is not the case

  • 05.18.2004 6:40 AM PDT
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That's basically what I'm afraid of, yes. I really don't want a bunch of equivalents that are just kinda' tweaked against each other :/

  • 05.18.2004 6:47 AM PDT
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Is that light saber reference a joke? Or do you really think that people were sitting there watching the e3 vid saying. OMFG it looks more like glass and less like a light saber!??! i hate it now! it is teh suX0r. Sorry to say man, that's just not how people think. And i highly doubt that anyone aside from yourself even considered the start wars relevence to a basis of their decision to like it or not.

The only conclusion i can come to is... And check this out just it's so much more well thought out then yours was. Is that people prefer (oh my god man check this out, it's gonna be great) the classic halo one version of the weapon! WOW who would have possibley even considered that thought process? Well i'd say everyone. Anyways, It's i think it speaks for itself that the main reason for the change was probably that the constant effect of an unexplosive plasma grenade in the shape of a really wicked looking sword was causing framerates to suffer when too many people were in close proximity. So if the change wasn't purely asthetic and it was changed due to gameplay suffering i'm all for it. You gotta do what you gotta do. But i just dont see how it's contructive to complain about the complainers. But i'll take it a step further and -blam!- about you complaining about the complainers. They certainly have the right to be dissapointed, or discouraged with how the game is turning out. Because to tell you the truth. Most of the info we know is purely speculation when it comes to specifics. And that's not enough to be compeltely confident that it'll turn out the way we all hope it turns out. So to me, complaining about the game is completely warrented. But complaining about the people who are complaining about the game is just fanboyism.

The sad thing is, every time i read an interview it's the same rehashed questions everytime. No one really asks the important ones. I dont want to hear anything about single player in an interview, i'd rather find that stuff out when the game comes out. I want to know everything about multiplayer. I want to know about the balance of the weapons. I want to know how usefull a vehicle really is when homing rockets come into play. These are the important questions that we should all be discussing.

What shouldn't concern people is other people getting passionate about something that they feel is gamebreaking or bad for the game. If there isn't enough information about a certain feature in the game that people are complaining about. A warrented responce certainly isn't "Just shut up and trust that bungie will have everything perfected by halo2's release date" In less than 6 months the game should be fulley completed. This isn't the time to be showing people that they're second guessing themselves. Bungie isn't sure about melee combos, bungie isn't sure about the sprint feature, Only thing bungies sure about since we first heard about halo2 is that master cheif jumps a lot higher and falls a lot slower now and he can shoot two guns at the same time.

It's cool though. The more people complain or worry about something in the game. The more likely it will get back to bungie. My primary concerns are as follows.

#1 With the new inclusion of target locking with the Rocket Launcher. Will vehicles be more of a liability than an aid to be in? Vehicles in Halo1 were something to fear, Two person manned warthog could be extremely devistating for a rival team, A manned ghosts could go toe to toe with a number of opponents. A scorpion could while being a very huge target had unmatched killing power. Will the rockets track with so much accuracy that a vehicle at fulley speed can not out meanuever them saftely?

#2 Everyone who played halo1 knows the pistol was extremely over powered, completely controlling the mid range close range and to a lesser extent long range shooting game With almost pin point accuracy, you can land 3 head shots with a steady hand very quickly. Thus making many weapons only viable under certain circumstances. Does the battle rifles zoom feature control the mid range game with the same accuracy and stopping power? If so can any other weapons aside from the sniper rifle out class the gun at mid/long ranges?

#3 Vehicle hijacking defiantely looks like fun. But after a hijack, is it possibley to out run the person who you just knocked out of the vehicle with any vehicle to avoid getting re-hijacked?

These are more pressing concerns in my mind.

  • 05.18.2004 6:58 AM PDT
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Well, Shishka and Stosh say that the whole thing was exceptionally balanced while they were playing it. They were quite happy with the product. Shiska in particular said not to worry about Target Tracking. It's not half so easy as it appears in the demo.

I've also seen a video of a dual wield of a Needler and a SMG. They were almost designed to work together. The contrails of the needler's flight helps you keep track of your opponent and will now turn up to 45 degrees to track its target. It appears that the Needler is the better weapon at medium range and the SMG is much better point blank. Hard to tell exactly.

  • 05.18.2004 8:39 AM PDT
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Wow, I thought my initial post was long :D Of course I don't think people were sitting there thinking that's not lightsaber enough. My issue is that they seem to be unwilling to accept something different from the done to death look of an energy weapon... I really doubt the redesign had anything to do with processing power, having worked with 3D graphics some, it's safe to say glow effects really are not that harsh on computing power, unless you lightsource it with multiple shadows, blah blah blah, which no, they're not doing. As for classic halo looks... admittedly that's a moot point, but it wasn't very complicated in terms of looks at that point... I liked how it sparked out when someone was killed holding it though.

I agree, the interviews have been bad, and I am in fact dreading the covenant Carbine because of the fear it may be too similar to the battle rifle. I think Single player is kinda' down pat, from what's been shown I'm not too concerned about its direction, and I want to be surprised... I don't want another Ninja Gaiden, where you see everything in the game before it comes out.

What bothered me about some previous complaints is the seeming intollerance of something that was different in the sword... Yeah people have different tastes, but if you've seen the weapon in a decent quality video, it looks fantastic, and it really makes a lot more sense if you want to merge covenant and forerunner technology, as the lil expose on the covenant indicated.

For the record... never liked the pistol, totally overpowered, and how the hell does a pistol get a sight anyway? That was ridiculous... It may turn out the needler is the alternative to the battle rifle though, if you check the screen with the Elite overlooking the battlefield for example, the needler sprays at close range, then its guiding kicks in, so it may actually be the answer to the BR, and that I can live with.

  • 05.18.2004 8:39 AM PDT
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Well then with the processing power in mind, it seems a bit odd that if it can be done with the classic look, why change the appearence of it? Maybe it's to give the people who weild it a fighting chance because with that hard plasma glow they could be spotted easily. If that's not the case, when someone is killed while using it, maybe they found that people were very hesitant at picking it up at first for fear that it might be a ticking plasma grenade ready to explode. So you have many viable reasons why it may have been changed, but no one really knows for sure. And when you change something from single player to multiplayer without saying why it was done that way, people are forced to use their own imaginations and question the developers motives. If there was a clear cut reason for it, which i'm sure there is. It would be much easier to accept for most people.

As far as the covenant carbine goes. Like i said i'm most worried about the Battle Rifle controlling the midrange field too strongly. If there is a plasma equivilant, at least people have an option. And i'm always intrested in new forms of plasma weapons in general Plasma pistol while it's rate of fire can be slow or incredibley fast depending on the player has an alternate power up shot that will drain the enemy's shields completely. the Plasma Rifle on the other hand seems to be a very boring default weapon It's the lazy man's plasma piztol, with a slower melee attack, and brings absolutley nothing new to the game after you get the plasma pistol. To see bungie run out of steam after only two plasma weapons in t he first game. I'm really intrested to see what they come up with in halol2.

  • 05.18.2004 1:33 PM PDT

It was a cold day near the southern base in Blood Gulch. Cortana and I were relaxing over a game of Go Fish, WHEN OUT OF NO WHERE 700 BANSHEES CAME FLYING IN!!! I GRABED MY SPARTAN LASER AND LET HELL REIGN DOWN UPON THEM. I HOPPED IN THE NEAREST WARTHOG AND TOLD CORTANA TO GET IN.

I am somewhat bothered about how much info Bungie is giving out. I am worried that when all is said and done, the game is out, I have it and have played it I will find nothing new I havent herd before. Sure, its fun trying out all the new stuff but whats really cool is picking up a game youve waited for for months and months, putting it in, playing for the first time and find 4 new wepons youve never heard about before, discovering you can use a plasma sword and a new secies of alien! I mean they can tell us SOME things but I feel their giving out a LITTLE too much info. Also, in one of the Semi-New Screenshots, the one with the big Plasma explosion, is that a plasma grenade? If so I think its a great change! The plasma grenades old expolosion seemed so weak. I want to see a new explosion with some POWER in it, not just a puff of blue smoke.I also agree with your concerns about5 the battle rifle owning & how IS there a scope on the pistol lol thats a really good point. I have to say though, the buggest thing I am worried about though is not the wepons or graphics. For me it is Are the controls going to be too complex! I dont want this to be one of those game where if your running up about to melle someone in the back and you hit the B button but accidently hit down on the right thumbstick and you do something totally different, losing the element of surprise. I just hope they can add these new features without cluttering up the controllers too much. I think that it would be neat though fo you to be able to prone, like double clicking th thumbstick twice would prone you. Also, I HATE not being able to toggle crouch. Wow I am -blam!-in a lot today arent I. Well I think people arent dissappointed with the new sword look, they just need to get used to it. I think it is better though because it makes the wepon seem more like a wepon capeable of killing you instead of a light-up sword you get at Toys-r-us.

  • 05.18.2004 2:26 PM PDT