What characters and races are in Halo ?
The two major sides in the war are the humans and the Covenant.
The Covenant is an alliance of several races, several of which appear in the game.
The Halo itself is inhabited, and we will encounter native life, both friendly and hostile.
The Master Chief: You play a cybernetically enhanced soldier, clad in a high-tech battlesuit. As this elite warrior, you travel the Halo fighting alongside the other humans and trying to stop the Covenant from seizing its secrets; you are the only SPARTAN supersoldier on the planet. The image visible on his visor may sometimes look like a face but it's just a "gleam" effect; the visor is opaque.
Marines:These are the rest of the human forces on the Halo, normal non-enhanced troops. There are many ways for them to vary their appearance, showing off Halo's modeling system.
The name "Bobs" was given to them early on by fans since they seemed to serve a function similar to that of the Bobs in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity; they are officially referred to as Marines. In the game they will accompany you and assist you, with AI sophisticated enough to run the Jeep's mounted gun or call out orders to each other.
Crew: This is one of the crew of the Pillar of Autumn, assisting the Chief in his re-activation.
Covenant Elite: These large fighters are the main species of the Covenant. They seem about eight feet tall, with a few more leg joints than humans have, and they wear shining armor. They are also equipped with personal forcefields.
Commander: Elites wearing yellow armor are significantly stronger than the other types. They also have a fondness for powerful energy swords. Fear them.
Invisible Elites: Some Covenant warriors have been issued cloaking devices, an effect which must be seen in motion to be believed (try the Tokyo Game Show 2001 movie). The Covenant here is on the right side of the image.
Grunt: This alien is a race subservient to the Covenant, used as infantry. The equipment he wears is to provide an environment similar to his low-temperature home planet. They are dangerous in packs, but cowardly and easily startled, and tend to yap out hilarious dialogue in their squeaky voices.
Hunter:These walking tanks are the Covenant's heavy infantry. They are armed with a Fuel Rod Gun attached to their right arm, and a huge shield that can deflect just about anything.
Jackal: Another species of Covenant, these guys form an elite infantry (much stronger than Grunts, but not matching the powerhouse Elites). They carry a portable shield, which can deflect a large amount of firepower, and they are skilled at using it for defense. Jackals are almost always found in groups of four, and will cooperate to outmaneuver enemies.
The two major sides in the war are the humans and the Covenant.
The Covenant is an alliance of several races, several of which appear in the game.
The Halo itself is inhabited, and we will encounter native life, both friendly and hostile.
The Master Chief: You play a cybernetically enhanced soldier, clad in a high-tech battlesuit. As this elite warrior, you travel the Halo fighting alongside the other humans and trying to stop the Covenant from seizing its secrets; you are the only SPARTAN supersoldier on the planet. The image visible on his visor may sometimes look like a face but it's just a "gleam" effect; the visor is opaque.
Marines:These are the rest of the human forces on the Halo, normal non-enhanced troops. There are many ways for them to vary their appearance, showing off Halo's modeling system.
The name "Bobs" was given to them early on by fans since they seemed to serve a function similar to that of the Bobs in Marathon 2 and Marathon Infinity; they are officially referred to as Marines. In the game they will accompany you and assist you, with AI sophisticated enough to run the Jeep's mounted gun or call out orders to each other.
Crew: This is one of the crew of the Pillar of Autumn, assisting the Chief in his re-activation.
Covenant Elite: These large fighters are the main species of the Covenant. They seem about eight feet tall, with a few more leg joints than humans have, and they wear shining armor. They are also equipped with personal forcefields.
Commander: Elites wearing yellow armor are significantly stronger than the other types. They also have a fondness for powerful energy swords. Fear them.
Invisible Elites: Some Covenant warriors have been issued cloaking devices, an effect which must be seen in motion to be believed (try the Tokyo Game Show 2001 movie). The Covenant here is on the right side of the image.
Grunt: This alien is a race subservient to the Covenant, used as infantry. The equipment he wears is to provide an environment similar to his low-temperature home planet. They are dangerous in packs, but cowardly and easily startled, and tend to yap out hilarious dialogue in their squeaky voices.
Hunter:These walking tanks are the Covenant's heavy infantry. They are armed with a Fuel Rod Gun attached to their right arm, and a huge shield that can deflect just about anything.
Jackal: Another species of Covenant, these guys form an elite infantry (much stronger than Grunts, but not matching the powerhouse Elites). They carry a portable shield, which can deflect a large amount of firepower, and they are skilled at using it for defense. Jackals are almost always found in groups of four, and will cooperate to outmaneuver enemies.
Halo 3 How-to:
Forge Basics:
What Is The Forge?
In the beginning, there was a single sniper rifle on Colossus. And it was not so good. One of the new multiplayer features introduced in Halo 3 is the Forge. The Forge is an object layout editor, a tool to allow players to rework the various weapons, vehicles, and scenery that Bungie’s multiplayer designers have thoughtfully placed around Halo 3’s multiplayer maps. Better still, the Forge is a multiplayer editor in every sense of the word: you can enlist the aid of a few friends to edit a map with you, in the same game, over the usual gamut of multiplayer situations (splitscreen, system link, or Xbox Live.) Of course, any gathering of friends inevitably devolves into shootings. Fortunately, the Forge also plays host to a variety of novel combat conditions, and even a couple of peculiar games made possible by the lax rules and on-the-fly editing.
Starting Out
Gathering a Game
Starting a Forge game is almost the same as setting up a Custom Game. Your first stop is the Forge lobby, accessed from the main menu or from any of the other lobbies via the “Switch Lobby” option. Once in the Forge lobby, you can choose the map you wish to edit, and immediately get started if you want to go it alone. If not, you can gather up to seven fellow editors (the Forge supports up to a maximum of eight players) before starting. Make sure the “Network” option (it’s right under “Switch Lobby”) is not set to Local, or else your friends will not be able to join you. Once you’re ready to go, choose “Start Forge” and you’re in business.
Player and Editor Mode
When the Forge loads, it should seem strangely familiar. You start off in Player Mode, which has all of the same controls and abilities as a normal player. You can move around freely, shoot whatever catches your eye, and use objects as you see fit. If you brought friends with you, you can get right down to business and shoot them up a bit.
But that’s not what you’re here in the Forge for.
Press Up on the D-pad. Your HUD will change, and you’ll find yourself in Editor Mode. In this mode, you assume the guise of a Monitor, a free flying ball of omnipotence with controls similar to the free camera in Saved Films, or flying a Banshee. If neither ring a bell, there is a handy control reference on the Start button.
Unlike that most famous of Monitors, 343 Guilty Spark, you’re still vulnerable to damage, but it takes a steady shot to hit a moving Monitor. Evasive maneuvers will serve you as well as a gun, but there’s a bit more to Editor Mode than simply dodging bullets. You see, Editor Mode is where the magic happens.
Simple Forgery
It doesn’t take much to get busy in the Forge. Anyone can do it. But let’s start with the basics.
Object Manipulation
The key to the Forge is object manipulation. And the key to object manipulation is your crosshair, centered in your screen like any other weapon crosshair. All object manipulation is done in Editor Mode, so make sure you’re in that mode (if you’re not, hit Up on the D-pad to toggle in.)
Grabbing and Moving Objects
First, fly up close to an object, like a vehicle or a gun. Place your crosshair on it. If the object is editable, your crosshair will turn green, and a little hand icon will appear. This means the object can be edited, which is pretty much the entire point behind Editor Mode. With your crosshair on an object, press A. The little hand icon will close, and you are now holding that object. If you move or look around, the object will move with you. Piece of cake.
To release an object that you are holding, just press A again. It will drop and come to rest, and from that point onward, the object will appear in that location.
Tip: You may notice a small blue shape that moves with the objects you move around. This grenade-sized object represents the starting location for the object, and is the precise location at which the object will spawn (or respawn, as appropriate.)
Rotating Objects
In tossing around objects, you might wish to change the orientation of one. Doing so is simple, but does take a bit of practice. To rotate an object, grab it. While you are holding it, squeeze the Right Trigger. When you do so, your thumbsticks will change from moving you around to rotating the object.
On your Right Thumbstick, left-right will spin the object like a top, while up-down will roll it like a hamster wheel. Technical terms, I know.
On your Left Thumbstick, left-right rotates the object like a steering wheel.
Up-down is a little different from the others, and will push the object further away, or draw it in closer. This is handy when you’re working with large objects, or very small ones. Adept users can also use it to fling objects around, but more on that later.
When the object is rotated to your liking, release the Right Trigger, and you’re back to normal. Set the object down, and you’re done.
Creating Objects
Now, no amount of movement or rotation can turn a Warthog into a Scorpion, but that’s why Microsoft put more buttons on their controller. With your cursor pointed at empty space, press X. Behold, the Object Palette. Every map has its own palette of objects, carefully assembled by Bungie in accordance to mystical principles of balance and memory limitations. There are seven such palettes, and you can cycle between them using the Left and Right shoulder buttons. Most are self explanatory, but the last two (Spawners and Goals) we’ll come back to later.
For now, go to the second palette, Vehicles. Use the Left Stick or D-pad to choose Mongoose from the list. Press A. Viola, a Mongoose will appear, already in your grasp and ready to be placed wherever you desire.
There are some situations were you can’t create a new object, but more on that later.
Deleting Objects
Of course, you can delete objects too. There’s a good reason for doing so, besides removing every weapon from the map but Battle Rifles and calling it “balanced.” You know who you are. But more on that later.
To do so, place your crosshair on the ill fated object, and press Y. Without complaint or fanfare, the object will be dispatched, and space cleared to place more.
Saving Your Map
Object manipulation is all well and good, but ultimately, you’ll want to save your map to really make full use of it.
To save a map, press Start to bring up the Forge menu. Choose the appropriately named option “Save As New Map…”
Note: A stern warning will appear, graciously provided by our high powered law firm to disavow us of the inevitable cult classic map “For The Godwin”, but it should be of scant concern to most good intentioned users. Basically, it says you made it and you can share it at will, but you shouldn’t sue us for it. Please.
The keyboard will slide out, and you can name your masterpiece. Remember, proper spelling and capitalization is a sign of fine craftsmanship. And no, you can’t name your map BLAM!, or BLAM!, or even BLAM! Xbox Live won’t let you, and you didn’t need to anyway.
Hit Done, and your map is now saved to your storage device of choice. Which is a hard drive, right? Right! Good choice, sir. But a memory unit will work too, if for some strange reason you removed your hard drive. But who would remove their hard drive? That doesn’t make any sense.
Using Maps in Custom Games
Now, the real action is in Custom Games.
To play on your map in a Custom Game, head to the Custom Game lobby. If you came straight from the Forge, your map should already be selected, ready to go. If not, simply choose a map, and you’ll find your new map filed under the built-in version that your version was based off of. Just look for your neatly spelled, capitalized map name.
Sharing Your Maps
Having refined your map from raw ore to a polished blade, you might be ready to unleash it on your friends. They had it coming, right?
Once your map is saved, and you’re in a lobby, hit Start to bring up the menu. Under the Media tab, choose File Share. This is where you can share files of all type for other users to download. In addition to map variants, you can share saved films, game variants, or screenshots. Best of all, the files go onto Bungie’s hardened subterranean servers, and can be downloaded even after you turn off your Xbox, or after the surface of the planet has been glassed.
It’s pretty simple. First, choose an empty slot to upload your map into. Then, choose the map you wish to upload. Map variants are tiny little things, and should upload almost instantly.
Voila, your map is shared for all to see.
Forge Object Editing:
Advanced Forgery
On the surface, the Forge is pretty straight forward. Create fusion coil, hurl at friend, repeat ad infinitum. However, there are some other things that you may choose to make yourself aware of if you wish to master your tools.
Inventory and Budget
The number of objects you can place in the Forge is ultimately limited by two things: Inventory, which is the number of a specific object that you can place, and Budget, which is an overall total that keeps things in check.
There’s actually a third limit that kicks in when you’ve got a whole heck of a lot of objects on the map, but really, you need to be looking for trouble to bump into that one. The Forge will just squawk at you and give you a polite error message if you try to go above it. Don’t bother, it’s not that spectacular.
Inventory
Inventory is tracked per object type. Think of it as the limit for that object type—no more than that number of those objects can be placed on the map, or allowed to spawn on the map.
The Inventory is shown to the left of the object name in the creation palette. That number tells you how many more objects of that type can be placed on the map. If that number is 0, you may place no more.
One important note: in addition to the objects placed on the map, the Inventory counts objects which could spawn in later. For example, if a single Spartan Laser is placed in the middle of Valhalla, but the maximum respawn quota for Spartan Lasers is 3, then the Inventory counts 3 Lasers as having been placed. Don’t freak out, there’s more on this later.
Budget
Budget is an overall limit on the objects placed on the map. A Warthog is more expensive to have on a map than a fusion coil. More expensive than several fusion coils, in fact. The Budget is what reflects this.
In your bottom right corner is a little meter, and a number. This is your remaining Budget. The number is the amount of Budget you have left to spend, and the bar fills up as you spend it. If that number is $0, you won’t be able to place more objects.
In the object creation palette, the cost of an object is listed to the right of its name, as a dollar figure. No, the dollar amount isn’t how much will be charged to your credit card if you place one such object. What would we do with such wealth? Instead, it is the amount that will be deducted from your remaining Budget if you place such an object.
Note: as with Inventory, the Budget counts not just the objects placed on map, but also the objects that could spawn in later. More on this later.
Object Spawning
Most objects that you can edit in the Forge can be told to respawn if some evil should befall them. The system that manages this (colorfully called “The Candy Monitor” by our engineers) can be complex, but is worth understanding.
Respawn Timer
When an object is disturbed, it starts counting down a hidden respawn timer. Objects are sensitive things, and consider themselves disturbed if they are moved, picked up, or destroyed.
Once this timer counts down to zero, the object says “hey, I want to respawn now”. But before it does, there is a check to make sure there is not already too many objects of that same type on the map. This is where the quota, described below, comes in. If there are too many objects waiting, then the object waits quietly until there is room before it respawns.
The respawn timer usually defaults to 30 seconds, but this is a property that may be set per object, as described below.
Respawn Quotas
OK, stay calm. This part will seem a little complex, but its really pretty easy.
All object types have a quota. That is, a maximum number of them that can be on the map, and also a minimum number.
When an object wants to respawn, it makes sure that doing so would not result in more objects of that type than the maximum allowed. For example, this is how you can make sure that no more than one Shotgun is on the map at a time, but still place three locations around the map where it could spawn at.
Likewise, a minimum number can be set, in which case objects will respawn immediately if fewer than this number are on the map. For example, we like to set minimum counts on Mongooses, to make sure they’re always available.
To edit the quotas, you can select the type of object in the creation palette, and press X to bring up the summary. This screen tells you how many objects of that type are on the map, what your minimum and maximums are, and also how much of your Budget is being spent by objects of this type. Only the “Run-Time Minimum” and “Run-Time Maximum” can be edited here, the other numbers are just for reference.
Remember: the Budget counts the “Run-Time Maximum” when adding up the cost. You might only place one Sniper Rifle on the map, but if your maximum is set higher than that, a new Sniper Rifle could spawn in.
Is that all clear? If not, don’t worry about it—the Forge always sets the minimum and maximum to safe default values, so you’ll never have to bother with this if you don’t want to.
Object Properties
Almost every object placed on the map has a few properties specific to itself that you can edit.
To do so, place your crosshair on an object. Then press X. This brings up an Item Properties window which contains a list of properties to edit.
This list isn’t always the same—a weapon has different properties than a vehicle, or from a piece of scenery. But there are some common ones:
- Respawn Rate: This controls how many seconds it takes for an object to respawn. You can use a very low number to make an object respawn quickly, or a very high one to make it less common. You can even tell it to never respawn, in case you want something that only shows up at the start of a round.
- Place At Start: This controls whether the object starts on the map, or if it spawns in later. If you set this to No, then the object will not be there when the game starts, but its respawn timer will start counting right away, so it will appear after a delay.
- Symmetry: This cryptic option controls which types of games the object appears in. A Symmetric gametype is generally one where both sides are equals, like Slayer or Multi Flag CTF. An Asymmetric gametype is the opposite, where the sides have different goals, like One Flag CTF or Territories. Clever use of this property will let you set up a map that plays great for Multi Flag CTF, but also works well for One Flag CTF.
Forge Options
Like Custom Games, the Forge does have a few options that you can set up in the pregame lobby. As with custom game options, you access these by pressing X in the lobby.
First, the bad news. That option at the top, the one called “Allow Editing”? In theory, this option would let you restrict editing to the Party Leader, and prevent everyone else from editing. In practice, ah… ahem… well, not so much. That’s what we call a “feature”. It’s like how sometimes, when a plane lands, the tires blow up. Halo 3 is that plane. This was one of those tires.
But the good news is that the other options work smashingly. The Editor and Player Traits are pretty straightforward, and offer a list of traits that you can apply to players in both Editor and Player modes. So if you’d like to go about your editing duties while your test subjects shoot lasers at you, you can tweak those Editor traits to make yourself invulnerable, or invisible.
And the Respawn Time option should be pretty self explanatory. It’s really only there in case you want to get really serious about playing serious games in the Forge, and three second respawns won’t cut it anymore.
Saved Films, New ViDOC:
Networking in Halo 3:
Halo 3 benefits from lots of cool Xbox Live and community features. To make the most of those, you’ll need Xbox Live Gold and a broadband network connection. However, it’s still possible to enjoy a Halo network experience without any online access at all, as you’ll see. The following is a very rough guide to simple networking issues – there are simply too many routers and setups for us to make a truly comprehensive guide, but this should help you with the basics.
Q: Do I need Broadband and Live to play Halo 3 multiplayer?
A: No, LAN games (games played on a Local Area Network) and System Link games are still possible. For two 360 systems, simply connect them together with any Ethernet cable (360 automatically does the “crossover” process. For more than two players, up to a maximum of 16, a LAN or router(s) will be required. This will give you access to Co-op, (up to four players, a maximum of two per screen) Multiplayer (up to 16 players) and Forge. For more advanced features, such as File Share and more, a Live account and Broadband connection are required.
Q: What sort of connection do I need to play Halo 3 online?
A: In general – the faster, the better. Video games use both downstream and upstream bandwidth, unlike web browsing, so some “fast connections” are bad for gaming. If you can get fiber optic cable run directly to your home, that’s ideal, if a little unusual. DSL is also good, but can be expensive. Cable modems can work well, but they sometimes have poor or variable upstream bandwidth. Xbox Live itself requires a broadband connection of some kind.
Q: What is NAT and why do I care about it?
A: In extremely simple terms, NAT (Network Address Translation) helps determine how your router interacts with the rest of the internet. If your NAT settings are restrictive, you may have problems connecting to other players. To test your settings, go to the Xbox 360 Dashboard and test your connection. At the bottom of the test results, you will see your ‘NAT Type.’ You want it to say ‘Open’ – if it says ‘Moderate’ or ‘Strict’ you may experience some problems.
If you're NAT settings display 'Moderate' or 'Strict,' you should consult your router's documentation, either online or in the instruction manual.
Q: Can I use a router and still play Halo 3 online? What about wireless routers?
A: Yes, you can play Halo 3 from behind both wired and wireless routers. However, a poorly or improperly configured router can prevent you from joining games with other people, even if you can log into Xbox LIVE. The reasons for this are so diverse, and unique to each circumstance that it is impossible to say with any accuracy, what the specific reason for individual problems is. It’s also worth remembering that wireless connections tend to be less reliable than wired connections – again, just because it works for web browsing doesn’t mean it will work for playing Halo 3 online. All that aside, most folks playing on wireless networks enjoy smooth, uninterrupted gameplay, most of the time.
Q: Are there any routers that are recommended for playing Halo 3 online?
A: If you live in North America or certain parts of Europe, look for routers that are specially marked as ‘Xbox LIVE compatible’ or ‘Windows Vista compatible.’ These routers have been tested specifically by the Xbox LIVE team to make sure they work. If you can’t find one of those, try to find a router that is marked ‘Universal Plug and Play’ or ‘UPnP.’ (Once you get your router home, use its configuration tools to make sure Universal Plug and Play is actually turned on.) Some routers require a firmware upgrade to work properly with Xbox LIVE; check your manufacturer’s website for firmware downloads. The official list of Xbox LIVE compatible networking equipment can be found here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/connecttolive/xbox360/homenetworking/equipment.htm .
Q: I got one of the wireless routers you guys recommended, but it’s sort of flaky. What’s the deal?
A: Wireless routers can be fickle things. To get the best performance, you should place the router in a central location. The closer it is to your Xbox 360, the stronger the signal will be. Try to place it up high in order to provide a clear line of sight between your router and your Xbox 360. Also, avoid placing it near walls or metal objects (filing cabinets, refrigerators, etc) as these can interfere with the signal. You can find more wireless networking tips here: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/wirelesstips.mspx
Q: Are there any issues specific to Halo 3 that I should consider when using a network?
A: Yes. In general, Halo 3’s networking will support 16 players in Multiplayer, 8 players in Forge and four players in co-op. However, the networking needs of Party Viewing a Saved Film are so great, that only the fastest connections will guarantee a seamless Film watching experience over Live. If the networking conditions deteriorate while watching a Film in a party, viewers may be sent back to the Theater Lobby.
Q: Any other tips?
Matchmaking Playlists:
Audio/Video Guide:
Campaign Scoring 101:
Welcome to Sketch's handy dandy guide for achieving awesomeness with campaign scoring. Read on to learn all about this new feature, how the best possible scores can be achieved and some devious tactics for beating your friends in those competitive 4-player matchups.
** SPOILERS AHEAD!**
What is Campaign Scoring?
Here’s a quick breakdown of the various categories along with some example units and their Normal default point values:
Forge Basics:
What Is The Forge?
In the beginning, there was a single sniper rifle on Colossus. And it was not so good. One of the new multiplayer features introduced in Halo 3 is the Forge. The Forge is an object layout editor, a tool to allow players to rework the various weapons, vehicles, and scenery that Bungie’s multiplayer designers have thoughtfully placed around Halo 3’s multiplayer maps. Better still, the Forge is a multiplayer editor in every sense of the word: you can enlist the aid of a few friends to edit a map with you, in the same game, over the usual gamut of multiplayer situations (splitscreen, system link, or Xbox Live.) Of course, any gathering of friends inevitably devolves into shootings. Fortunately, the Forge also plays host to a variety of novel combat conditions, and even a couple of peculiar games made possible by the lax rules and on-the-fly editing.
Starting Out
Gathering a Game
Starting a Forge game is almost the same as setting up a Custom Game. Your first stop is the Forge lobby, accessed from the main menu or from any of the other lobbies via the “Switch Lobby” option. Once in the Forge lobby, you can choose the map you wish to edit, and immediately get started if you want to go it alone. If not, you can gather up to seven fellow editors (the Forge supports up to a maximum of eight players) before starting. Make sure the “Network” option (it’s right under “Switch Lobby”) is not set to Local, or else your friends will not be able to join you. Once you’re ready to go, choose “Start Forge” and you’re in business.
Player and Editor Mode
When the Forge loads, it should seem strangely familiar. You start off in Player Mode, which has all of the same controls and abilities as a normal player. You can move around freely, shoot whatever catches your eye, and use objects as you see fit. If you brought friends with you, you can get right down to business and shoot them up a bit.
But that’s not what you’re here in the Forge for.
Press Up on the D-pad. Your HUD will change, and you’ll find yourself in Editor Mode. In this mode, you assume the guise of a Monitor, a free flying ball of omnipotence with controls similar to the free camera in Saved Films, or flying a Banshee. If neither ring a bell, there is a handy control reference on the Start button.
Unlike that most famous of Monitors, 343 Guilty Spark, you’re still vulnerable to damage, but it takes a steady shot to hit a moving Monitor. Evasive maneuvers will serve you as well as a gun, but there’s a bit more to Editor Mode than simply dodging bullets. You see, Editor Mode is where the magic happens.
Simple Forgery
It doesn’t take much to get busy in the Forge. Anyone can do it. But let’s start with the basics.
Object Manipulation
The key to the Forge is object manipulation. And the key to object manipulation is your crosshair, centered in your screen like any other weapon crosshair. All object manipulation is done in Editor Mode, so make sure you’re in that mode (if you’re not, hit Up on the D-pad to toggle in.)
Grabbing and Moving Objects
First, fly up close to an object, like a vehicle or a gun. Place your crosshair on it. If the object is editable, your crosshair will turn green, and a little hand icon will appear. This means the object can be edited, which is pretty much the entire point behind Editor Mode. With your crosshair on an object, press A. The little hand icon will close, and you are now holding that object. If you move or look around, the object will move with you. Piece of cake.
To release an object that you are holding, just press A again. It will drop and come to rest, and from that point onward, the object will appear in that location.
Tip: You may notice a small blue shape that moves with the objects you move around. This grenade-sized object represents the starting location for the object, and is the precise location at which the object will spawn (or respawn, as appropriate.)
Rotating Objects
In tossing around objects, you might wish to change the orientation of one. Doing so is simple, but does take a bit of practice. To rotate an object, grab it. While you are holding it, squeeze the Right Trigger. When you do so, your thumbsticks will change from moving you around to rotating the object.
On your Right Thumbstick, left-right will spin the object like a top, while up-down will roll it like a hamster wheel. Technical terms, I know.
On your Left Thumbstick, left-right rotates the object like a steering wheel.
Up-down is a little different from the others, and will push the object further away, or draw it in closer. This is handy when you’re working with large objects, or very small ones. Adept users can also use it to fling objects around, but more on that later.
When the object is rotated to your liking, release the Right Trigger, and you’re back to normal. Set the object down, and you’re done.
Creating Objects
Now, no amount of movement or rotation can turn a Warthog into a Scorpion, but that’s why Microsoft put more buttons on their controller. With your cursor pointed at empty space, press X. Behold, the Object Palette. Every map has its own palette of objects, carefully assembled by Bungie in accordance to mystical principles of balance and memory limitations. There are seven such palettes, and you can cycle between them using the Left and Right shoulder buttons. Most are self explanatory, but the last two (Spawners and Goals) we’ll come back to later.
For now, go to the second palette, Vehicles. Use the Left Stick or D-pad to choose Mongoose from the list. Press A. Viola, a Mongoose will appear, already in your grasp and ready to be placed wherever you desire.
There are some situations were you can’t create a new object, but more on that later.
Deleting Objects
Of course, you can delete objects too. There’s a good reason for doing so, besides removing every weapon from the map but Battle Rifles and calling it “balanced.” You know who you are. But more on that later.
To do so, place your crosshair on the ill fated object, and press Y. Without complaint or fanfare, the object will be dispatched, and space cleared to place more.
Saving Your Map
Object manipulation is all well and good, but ultimately, you’ll want to save your map to really make full use of it.
To save a map, press Start to bring up the Forge menu. Choose the appropriately named option “Save As New Map…”
Note: A stern warning will appear, graciously provided by our high powered law firm to disavow us of the inevitable cult classic map “For The Godwin”, but it should be of scant concern to most good intentioned users. Basically, it says you made it and you can share it at will, but you shouldn’t sue us for it. Please.
The keyboard will slide out, and you can name your masterpiece. Remember, proper spelling and capitalization is a sign of fine craftsmanship. And no, you can’t name your map BLAM!, or BLAM!, or even BLAM! Xbox Live won’t let you, and you didn’t need to anyway.
Hit Done, and your map is now saved to your storage device of choice. Which is a hard drive, right? Right! Good choice, sir. But a memory unit will work too, if for some strange reason you removed your hard drive. But who would remove their hard drive? That doesn’t make any sense.
Using Maps in Custom Games
Now, the real action is in Custom Games.
To play on your map in a Custom Game, head to the Custom Game lobby. If you came straight from the Forge, your map should already be selected, ready to go. If not, simply choose a map, and you’ll find your new map filed under the built-in version that your version was based off of. Just look for your neatly spelled, capitalized map name.
Sharing Your Maps
Having refined your map from raw ore to a polished blade, you might be ready to unleash it on your friends. They had it coming, right?
Once your map is saved, and you’re in a lobby, hit Start to bring up the menu. Under the Media tab, choose File Share. This is where you can share files of all type for other users to download. In addition to map variants, you can share saved films, game variants, or screenshots. Best of all, the files go onto Bungie’s hardened subterranean servers, and can be downloaded even after you turn off your Xbox, or after the surface of the planet has been glassed.
It’s pretty simple. First, choose an empty slot to upload your map into. Then, choose the map you wish to upload. Map variants are tiny little things, and should upload almost instantly.
Voila, your map is shared for all to see.
Forge Object Editing:
Advanced Forgery
On the surface, the Forge is pretty straight forward. Create fusion coil, hurl at friend, repeat ad infinitum. However, there are some other things that you may choose to make yourself aware of if you wish to master your tools.
Inventory and Budget
The number of objects you can place in the Forge is ultimately limited by two things: Inventory, which is the number of a specific object that you can place, and Budget, which is an overall total that keeps things in check.
There’s actually a third limit that kicks in when you’ve got a whole heck of a lot of objects on the map, but really, you need to be looking for trouble to bump into that one. The Forge will just squawk at you and give you a polite error message if you try to go above it. Don’t bother, it’s not that spectacular.
Inventory
Inventory is tracked per object type. Think of it as the limit for that object type—no more than that number of those objects can be placed on the map, or allowed to spawn on the map.
The Inventory is shown to the left of the object name in the creation palette. That number tells you how many more objects of that type can be placed on the map. If that number is 0, you may place no more.
One important note: in addition to the objects placed on the map, the Inventory counts objects which could spawn in later. For example, if a single Spartan Laser is placed in the middle of Valhalla, but the maximum respawn quota for Spartan Lasers is 3, then the Inventory counts 3 Lasers as having been placed. Don’t freak out, there’s more on this later.
Budget
Budget is an overall limit on the objects placed on the map. A Warthog is more expensive to have on a map than a fusion coil. More expensive than several fusion coils, in fact. The Budget is what reflects this.
In your bottom right corner is a little meter, and a number. This is your remaining Budget. The number is the amount of Budget you have left to spend, and the bar fills up as you spend it. If that number is $0, you won’t be able to place more objects.
In the object creation palette, the cost of an object is listed to the right of its name, as a dollar figure. No, the dollar amount isn’t how much will be charged to your credit card if you place one such object. What would we do with such wealth? Instead, it is the amount that will be deducted from your remaining Budget if you place such an object.
Note: as with Inventory, the Budget counts not just the objects placed on map, but also the objects that could spawn in later. More on this later.
Object Spawning
Most objects that you can edit in the Forge can be told to respawn if some evil should befall them. The system that manages this (colorfully called “The Candy Monitor” by our engineers) can be complex, but is worth understanding.
Respawn Timer
When an object is disturbed, it starts counting down a hidden respawn timer. Objects are sensitive things, and consider themselves disturbed if they are moved, picked up, or destroyed.
Once this timer counts down to zero, the object says “hey, I want to respawn now”. But before it does, there is a check to make sure there is not already too many objects of that same type on the map. This is where the quota, described below, comes in. If there are too many objects waiting, then the object waits quietly until there is room before it respawns.
The respawn timer usually defaults to 30 seconds, but this is a property that may be set per object, as described below.
Click to Enlarge
Respawn Quotas
OK, stay calm. This part will seem a little complex, but its really pretty easy.
All object types have a quota. That is, a maximum number of them that can be on the map, and also a minimum number.
When an object wants to respawn, it makes sure that doing so would not result in more objects of that type than the maximum allowed. For example, this is how you can make sure that no more than one Shotgun is on the map at a time, but still place three locations around the map where it could spawn at.
Likewise, a minimum number can be set, in which case objects will respawn immediately if fewer than this number are on the map. For example, we like to set minimum counts on Mongooses, to make sure they’re always available.
To edit the quotas, you can select the type of object in the creation palette, and press X to bring up the summary. This screen tells you how many objects of that type are on the map, what your minimum and maximums are, and also how much of your Budget is being spent by objects of this type. Only the “Run-Time Minimum” and “Run-Time Maximum” can be edited here, the other numbers are just for reference.
Remember: the Budget counts the “Run-Time Maximum” when adding up the cost. You might only place one Sniper Rifle on the map, but if your maximum is set higher than that, a new Sniper Rifle could spawn in.
Is that all clear? If not, don’t worry about it—the Forge always sets the minimum and maximum to safe default values, so you’ll never have to bother with this if you don’t want to.
Object Properties
Almost every object placed on the map has a few properties specific to itself that you can edit.
To do so, place your crosshair on an object. Then press X. This brings up an Item Properties window which contains a list of properties to edit.
This list isn’t always the same—a weapon has different properties than a vehicle, or from a piece of scenery. But there are some common ones:
- Respawn Rate: This controls how many seconds it takes for an object to respawn. You can use a very low number to make an object respawn quickly, or a very high one to make it less common. You can even tell it to never respawn, in case you want something that only shows up at the start of a round.
- Place At Start: This controls whether the object starts on the map, or if it spawns in later. If you set this to No, then the object will not be there when the game starts, but its respawn timer will start counting right away, so it will appear after a delay.
- Symmetry: This cryptic option controls which types of games the object appears in. A Symmetric gametype is generally one where both sides are equals, like Slayer or Multi Flag CTF. An Asymmetric gametype is the opposite, where the sides have different goals, like One Flag CTF or Territories. Clever use of this property will let you set up a map that plays great for Multi Flag CTF, but also works well for One Flag CTF.
Forge Options
Like Custom Games, the Forge does have a few options that you can set up in the pregame lobby. As with custom game options, you access these by pressing X in the lobby.
First, the bad news. That option at the top, the one called “Allow Editing”? In theory, this option would let you restrict editing to the Party Leader, and prevent everyone else from editing. In practice, ah… ahem… well, not so much. That’s what we call a “feature”. It’s like how sometimes, when a plane lands, the tires blow up. Halo 3 is that plane. This was one of those tires.
But the good news is that the other options work smashingly. The Editor and Player Traits are pretty straightforward, and offer a list of traits that you can apply to players in both Editor and Player modes. So if you’d like to go about your editing duties while your test subjects shoot lasers at you, you can tweak those Editor traits to make yourself invulnerable, or invisible.
And the Respawn Time option should be pretty self explanatory. It’s really only there in case you want to get really serious about playing serious games in the Forge, and three second respawns won’t cut it anymore.
Saved Films, New ViDOC:
Cinema Paradiso
The long-awaited pre-launch ViDOC is here and it focuses on oft-discussed features Forge and Saved Films. In addition to being available on Xbox Live Marketplace for download, the ViDOC is also available for download on the Interwebz.
Quicktime movies of Cinema Paradiso are available over at HBO.
The sky’s the limit.
More of: Saved Films - How to Use Them
Networking in Halo 3:
Halo 3 benefits from lots of cool Xbox Live and community features. To make the most of those, you’ll need Xbox Live Gold and a broadband network connection. However, it’s still possible to enjoy a Halo network experience without any online access at all, as you’ll see. The following is a very rough guide to simple networking issues – there are simply too many routers and setups for us to make a truly comprehensive guide, but this should help you with the basics.
Q: Do I need Broadband and Live to play Halo 3 multiplayer?
A: No, LAN games (games played on a Local Area Network) and System Link games are still possible. For two 360 systems, simply connect them together with any Ethernet cable (360 automatically does the “crossover” process. For more than two players, up to a maximum of 16, a LAN or router(s) will be required. This will give you access to Co-op, (up to four players, a maximum of two per screen) Multiplayer (up to 16 players) and Forge. For more advanced features, such as File Share and more, a Live account and Broadband connection are required.
Q: What sort of connection do I need to play Halo 3 online?
A: In general – the faster, the better. Video games use both downstream and upstream bandwidth, unlike web browsing, so some “fast connections” are bad for gaming. If you can get fiber optic cable run directly to your home, that’s ideal, if a little unusual. DSL is also good, but can be expensive. Cable modems can work well, but they sometimes have poor or variable upstream bandwidth. Xbox Live itself requires a broadband connection of some kind.
Q: What is NAT and why do I care about it?
A: In extremely simple terms, NAT (Network Address Translation) helps determine how your router interacts with the rest of the internet. If your NAT settings are restrictive, you may have problems connecting to other players. To test your settings, go to the Xbox 360 Dashboard and test your connection. At the bottom of the test results, you will see your ‘NAT Type.’ You want it to say ‘Open’ – if it says ‘Moderate’ or ‘Strict’ you may experience some problems.
If you're NAT settings display 'Moderate' or 'Strict,' you should consult your router's documentation, either online or in the instruction manual.
Q: Can I use a router and still play Halo 3 online? What about wireless routers?
A: Yes, you can play Halo 3 from behind both wired and wireless routers. However, a poorly or improperly configured router can prevent you from joining games with other people, even if you can log into Xbox LIVE. The reasons for this are so diverse, and unique to each circumstance that it is impossible to say with any accuracy, what the specific reason for individual problems is. It’s also worth remembering that wireless connections tend to be less reliable than wired connections – again, just because it works for web browsing doesn’t mean it will work for playing Halo 3 online. All that aside, most folks playing on wireless networks enjoy smooth, uninterrupted gameplay, most of the time.
Q: Are there any routers that are recommended for playing Halo 3 online?
A: If you live in North America or certain parts of Europe, look for routers that are specially marked as ‘Xbox LIVE compatible’ or ‘Windows Vista compatible.’ These routers have been tested specifically by the Xbox LIVE team to make sure they work. If you can’t find one of those, try to find a router that is marked ‘Universal Plug and Play’ or ‘UPnP.’ (Once you get your router home, use its configuration tools to make sure Universal Plug and Play is actually turned on.) Some routers require a firmware upgrade to work properly with Xbox LIVE; check your manufacturer’s website for firmware downloads. The official list of Xbox LIVE compatible networking equipment can be found here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/connecttolive/xbox360/homenetworking/equipment.htm .
Q: I got one of the wireless routers you guys recommended, but it’s sort of flaky. What’s the deal?
A: Wireless routers can be fickle things. To get the best performance, you should place the router in a central location. The closer it is to your Xbox 360, the stronger the signal will be. Try to place it up high in order to provide a clear line of sight between your router and your Xbox 360. Also, avoid placing it near walls or metal objects (filing cabinets, refrigerators, etc) as these can interfere with the signal. You can find more wireless networking tips here: http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/wirelesstips.mspx
Q: Are there any issues specific to Halo 3 that I should consider when using a network?
A: Yes. In general, Halo 3’s networking will support 16 players in Multiplayer, 8 players in Forge and four players in co-op. However, the networking needs of Party Viewing a Saved Film are so great, that only the fastest connections will guarantee a seamless Film watching experience over Live. If the networking conditions deteriorate while watching a Film in a party, viewers may be sent back to the Theater Lobby.
Q: Any other tips?
A: Remember that you are sharing bandwidth with everyone else on your connection. If someone is downloading files using BitTorrent or playing an MMO, it will affect your experience playing Halo 3. Also, appliances that operate on the 2.4GHz spectrum – like some cordless phones – can affect your wireless connection, even if they are being used by your neighbor. If you experience any problems, try changing the channel on your wireless router and appliances or replacing 2.4GHz appliances with ones that use other frequencies, such as 900MHz for cordless phones.
Matchmaking Playlists:
Halo 2's Matchmaking, designed to mirror the on-the-couch experience of playing with your friends in the living room, returns, retuned and upgraded for Halo 3. Since the Halo 3 Public Beta, some things about Matchmaking have changed, some things remain the same. Here's what we said then, updated where appropriate for Halo 3:
In Halo 3’s Matchmaking system, you’ll find a ton of new options and
abilities. We’ve made our best effort to improve the already social
nature of Matchmaking by giving you some new powers while you use the
system to find games and opponents. Now it’s easier than ever to meet
people you like, with similar skills and experience.
Experience Points (EXP)
One of Halo 2’s defining features was its ability to match players
of similar skill levels, for the most enjoyable possible games, with
the fairest outcomes. Although it was a success, we’ve used that
experience and data to build an even better, more accurate, and fairer
system, that will ensure even more balance, better matching and less
cheating and abuse than ever before.
We measure both skill level and experience (this
experience is signified by "EXP" standing for Experience Points) in our
Matchmaking system. Some players are destined to become pros, while
others will prefer to haunt the middle ranks and enjoy the game just
for fun. But we’ll reward every player with experience points - earned for time served in Halo 3 Matchmaking. Progress from raw
recruit to decorated officer, a reward for good sportsmanship and yet
another way for us to make sure games are evenly matched.
Wherever people see your Gamertag in Halo 3, they’ll also see your
universally visible experience "EXP" and their associated rank status (Sergeant,
for example). They’ll have an instant feel for how long you’ve been
playing – and how that compares to your relative skill level in a given
playlist. Someone with lots of EXP and a low Matchmaking skill level,
might simply be new to that specific matchmaking playlist. Knowing that is
the key to knowing your enemy. The layers of complexity we’ve built
into the system should make it better and less prone to abuse than
ever, while simultaneously enriching the player experience.
Stats, medals and other data will all be displayed right in the
game, highlighting top performing players in the postgame carnage
report, and visible to anyone who highlights your Gamertag. And yet
with all this emphasis on progress, behind the scenes we’re making huge
strides in making the act and the consequences of cheating and
griefing, less rewarding for those who tend to do that kind of thing.
Party Up!
We told you that Halo 3 was going to be more social than ever
before. At the heart of that is some incredible technology, but the
spirit is simpler. We’ve introduced a way to recruit players into
friendly, social groups who can play for just-one-more-game, or
stick together all night as a cohesive group, even if they’ve never met
before. It doesn’t matter if they’re on your friends list or not. After
a fun game, any player can check a box to “Party Up” and form a new
fighting unit. You’ll stick together until you choose to disband.
Parties mean that inviting friends is less of a hassle, and it also
means that players don’t get lost in the jump between games. Parties
allow folks to form new alliances and play in cohesive teams, even when
a regular crew isn’t available. And Parties are available in some
ranked games too, so (team size permitting) no matter where you’re playing, you never have to split up.
Using the V
As part of the social experience, and the cooperative nature of
recruiting new friends, we introduced an element of democracy. It’s
called the Veto! Teams and individuals will get one chance to veto (reject,
in other words) a game or map type they dislike, with a simple majority
vote. To avoid abuse, you only get that single Veto opportunity, but if
for example, the majority in a matchmaking lobby just isn’t in the mood
for a game of Oddball, check the Veto box (by pressing X) and you’ll
skip at random to another selection. Hopefully it’s going to be
something more to the group’s taste, because there’s no second Veto.
Of course, keeping an eye on what’s being vetoed and what’s not also
helps us keep track of what’s popular and what’s unpopular for future
Halo 3 Matchmaking updates. This is just one of the tools we’ll be
using to make Matchmaking playlists more fun, with more frequent
updates and faster reaction to trends and dislikes.
Audio/Video Guide:
Your guide through the Bungie A/V Calibration tool
When we finished Halo 2, we had to build the specs for the ideal review setup. At the time, HD was new, the game only supported 480p anyway and LCDs were good at two things – creating unpleasant trails and burning pixels permanently into the screen (in less than an hour, in fact, the Halo 2 logo was burned permanently into about 24 sets). In the intervening period, obviously console technology has come a long way, but so has AV tech in general. With that in mind, we’re again walking you through the minefield of what you need and what you don’t need, to get the most out of Halo 3.
First things first. We tested, designed and adjusted Halo 3 to ensure it would work well on any setup. We made sure text was readable on smaller screens and we built a game where light and color add as much to the overall effect as any amount of pixel definition. In short, if you have a crappy old setup, Halo 3 should still look pretty good and will improve when you do upgrade your AV setup.
It’s also vital to give you a little grounding here. Our Bungie AV calibrator will give excellent results for anybody using it – but it’s designed for using your set in ideal conditions – a darkened room – and that means that in a bright, sunlit lounge, you may prefer a more dynamic picture. And although we’re shooting for objective standards – your preferences are subjective. If you like it better a little darker, or a little more saturated – it’s your setup and you should enjoy it the way you want to.
But on with the show.
Consoles and HDTV
HDTVs are pretty much the norm in stores nowadays. They are more expensive than regular sets, but at this point in time, that gap is shrinking and a low-end CRT HDTV set can be picked up for a couple of hundred bucks. Before you scoff and dismiss the old tech, it’s worth noting that many AV buffs prefer the color reproduction the elderly technology provides. In theory, there’s an ancient Princeton CRT that is still considered the absolute greatest HDTV ever made. Some of that is nostalgia for the format – the way folks still love the quality of LPs – and LCDs and certain Plasma displays are not only up to snuff, but in many objective ways, are much better than CRTs ever were.
Of course the more you spend, the more you get. If we call a 32 inch LCD the sweet spot, then anywhere between $600 and $1200 can be sensibly spent. It gets confusing, but a brand new set from a major manufacturer in this range – think Samsung, Sharp et al, will net you a well-specified TV that’s likely perfect for playing Halo 3. Just make sure you’re picking up the latest model, and if you want to ensure any features, I would shoot for something that supports at least two HDMI ports, has a built-in ATSC tuner (for over the air HDTV programming) and if possible, a VGA or DVI port to attach a PC (why not!).
There are other technology’s to consider too. LCOS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) and DLP are used in big screen projection TVs and more conventional projectors. Also inhabiting the high end space is Plasma. This tech is not only free of the problems it used to have (screen burn and refresh rates) it’s arguably the best non-CRT picture available – but you have to pay for the privilege – Pioneer’s high end “Plasma 2.0s” are among the best gaming displays on Earth.
Big LCD screens are now common and relatively affordable. If you think about it, this is probably the best market the AV industry has seen for decades – lots of new sales, lots of new technologies and lots of applications, from HD video to high def gaming.
Whatever technology you pick, make sure to read reviews. The technology is blazing ahead, and a year old set might perform very differently from a brand new one. For gaming, the main concern is quick response times (the speed at which the pixels on the screen adjust from one image to the next). 6ms is pretty darned good for gaming, and the faster the better.
Screen size is one of the biggest questions people have before making an HDTV purchase and the simplest rule of thumb is to pick something suitable for the size of the room and the distance at which it will most commonly be viewed. Resolution is the next question and while 720p and 1080i are the standard for HDTV, newer sets often feature 1080p panels. This resolution increase is useful, but only on larger sets. Worrying about 1080p on a 32 inch or under set, might be overthinking it.
Audio
5.1 audio is a fantastic addition to any gaming setup and it works great in Halo 3. To utilize 5.1 audio you need a 5.1-capable receiver, five speakers and a subwoofer (that’s the “.1”). Audiophiles like to pick separate components, high end receivers and so on, but you can get excellent results from cheaper “Home Theater in a Box” deals. Look for well-known manufacturers like Yamaha, Sony and it is said that Onkyo makes really good stuff at really low prices. If you’re willing to spend more, the sky’s the limit.
One thing we’d strongly recommend is an HDMI capable receiver. It cuts cable clutter and keeps you “future-proofed” for a little while at least. Higher end receivers from Pioneer, Harmon Kardon and others, quickly start to give way to incredibly expensive stuff. If you’re not familiar with any of this, it’s likely you’d be astounded by the sound coming from the lower end ones anyway. Stick to a budget, read reviews and do your best.
Surround headphones can be a good alternative for more compact play spaces, and Pioneer and Sony both make excellent sets.
Composite
Every 360 ships with a composite cable. That’s the Yellow RCA style one, that is paired with the red and white stereo connectors. On the Premium edition, it’s attached to the HD component cable and used as an either/or solution. Composite is the most basic connection and provides a 480i (or your regional equivalent, Pal pals) standard definition signal.
Component Video
Component video exists in two main flavors – standard and high definition. Both contribute to improved color performance for Halo 3, but obviously HD component is preferred and is entirely reliant on what kind of TV you have. The same cable is used for each, but if you have an HDTV set you need to flip the switch found on the connector at the console end.The technical explanation of component video is pretty boring, but basically it splits the video signal into chroma and luma “parts.” Component can, contrary to popular belief, carry a 1080p signal – but again, only if your TV supports 1080p over component and many otherwise 1080p compatible TVs do not support this method.
VGA
The age-old, yet flexible video standard for PCs is also compatible with the 360’s high resolution output – and VGA often provides a wider range of resolutions. Games will use these resolutions in different ways, but often the result is the same – a high definition picture being scaled correctly to your monitor’s settings.
HDMI
Halo 3 works well on the old school consoles, the Elite console and of course, the Halo 3 Limited Edition 360. The only real difference between machines as far as Halo 3 is concerned (other than storage that is) is HDMI. Do you need it? No. HDMI is a convenient connector and provides a high quality digital signal to your HDMI-equipped TV – but other than accurate color reproduction, HDMI’s most important aspect for most consumers is that it only uses a single connection for video and audio. A six cable component connection can become one elegant and easy to connect cable.
The technology was designed first and foremost to protect movies and other media from piracy. The other benefits are simply a side-effect of modern tech. If you only have a component connection for your HDTV, it’s likely that the picture will be identical, give or take some brightness and contrast defaults. So do you need it to run Halo 3 in any of its available resolutions? No. Is it nice to have? Yes.
Halo 3, with the correct TV and cable will scale correctly to:
480i
480p
720p
1080i
1080p
And of course, too many VGA resolutions to count.
Gameplay Benefits – HDTV and 5.1
First and foremost: You don’t need a fancy setup to enjoy Halo 3. It works fine on a regular old TV and with stereo – or even mono sound, but the fact is the aesthetic experience and the gameplay experience are both improved by using state of the art tech.
Simple examples of these improvements would be the ability to see a sniper’s head at a greater distance, or the ability to hear where an opponent is, in either Campaign or multiplayer modes.
These lil dudes are part of the Contrast testing in the Bungie calibrator
Using the Bungie Calibrator
The Blue Thing!
During your calibration session, Johnson will refer to the use of “blue dealy” for a couple of the more fine-tuned tests. This is a blue plastic film that we use to filter light in order to achieve some useful levels of calibration. You don’t need this, by any stretch of the imagination, but it will make a difference to your final image quality.
You can read more about this at www.bungie.net/filter
Although it’s presented in a pretty fun fashion, the Bungie AV Calibration tool is a fairly advanced item. If used correctly, it will easily and smoothly assist you in the calibration and refinement of your picture and sound. We used the voice and character of Sergeant Johnson, since we figured you were more likely to obey him, than say, Luke.
Now it’s not going to work miracles. If your TV is a crappy 14 inch CRT set from 19-Oatcake, then all this will do is tart up your image quality a bit. But on a better SD or HDTV set, it will bring your color, saturation, brightness and contrast up to very palatable levels – and levels that Bungie has deemed “ideal” for Halo 3 and gaming and movies in general.
The first part of the AV calibrator simply checks to make sure your settings match your TV. A huge number of folks have the most basic stuff screwed up, so don’t be embarrassed. Johnson will first check to see that if you’re using an HDTV set, that the switch on your HDTV component cable is set to “HDTV” and not standard definition. Component cables can carry both kinds of signal, hence the occasional confusion.
If you’re using VGA or HDMI cables, you can skip this part.
Next, Johnson checks to make sure your TV’s aspect ratio matches what the Xbox 360 is set to display. The two supported are 4:3 and 16:9 repsectively – or in layman’s terms, “regular” and “widescreen.” Because widescreen TVs will stretch some regular 4:3 images, we run a test to make sure that’s not happening, using Jackal shields. Basically you’re checking them to make sure they’re perfect circles, rather than squished or oval shapes.
That taken care of, it’s on to the main show. Now, each of the segments being run through by the Sarge are important to your final image quality. It’s possible that some of the items shown just aren’t possible to achieve with your set, or with the controls available to you. But don’t worry. Match the settings Johnson shows where you can, and skip the ones you can’t match or replicate on screen.
The main items he will go through are:
Brightness: Literally how bright your screen is and how much light it’s producing.
Contrast: The range of difference between the brightest and darkest parts of a screen. The higher the contrast ratio, the better the picture – and the closer to “true” black the TV can display.
Tint: NTSC TVs can suffer from color errors, less so with modern sets, and Pal TVs, but tint allows you to adjust the color space between green and magenta extremes. This has objective standards, but some folks prefer to shift towards magenta for warmer skin tones.
Sharpness: Obviously this digital enhancement adjusts the sharpness of the TV image. You’d think that maximum sharpness would be ideal, but in fact, too much sharpness can cause grainy artifacts to appear around the edges of objects on your screen.
Color: The overall intensity of all the colors on your screen.
CAVEATS:
There are some occasional issues when using different types of connector. For example, rarely, HDMI connections won’t let you match Johnson’s brightness or contrast suggestions precisely, but don’t worry – just get as close as you can to what he suggests. And make sure that your TV is set to its most “natural” level. Sometimes a TV will have a range of modes – Dynamic, Movie, etc. Try to pick one that you like the overall look and feel of as your baseline standard before using the calibrator.
Many TVs also include special modes that “enhance” the picture, such as “Game” or “Noise Reduction” and so on. Now this is where it gets tricky. Some TV brands have a game mode that turns off all this digital correction and so reduces “input lag” – the slight delay between your button press and the action being filtered, processed and then reproduced on screen. You’re going to have to research your make and model – ideally you don’t want anything happening to the image that doesn’t happen instantly.
The Audio portion of the Calibrator is correctly termed a “test.” It doesn’t really calibrate anything, but rather helps you make sure that all your speakers are correctly wired and functioning. You would be surprised how often people reverse their rear surround channels, or use a Home theater for months with an accidentally disconnected cable.
In the Game
In Halo 3, we include a useful Brightness setting that can be accessed at any time through the Start menu. This allows you to step through a range of brightness settings quickly and without using your TV controls or the Bungie Calibrator.
What Does Bungie Use?
In our test lab right now, we have a combination of Sharp 32 inch 1080ps, Samsung 26 inch 720ps, 14 inch Toshiba CRTs and a vast array of random sets for test purposes. In our “reference” room, we have a Pioneer Elite 1080p Plasma set, we use a Pioneer Elite receiver, a Denon receiver and tons of different speakers and subs from manufacturers like Tannoy, Bose, Mordaunt Short and more. It’s a mixed bag in the studio, with Dell monitors, Philips TVs, Samsung sets and lots of headphones – some surround, some stereo.
Campaign Scoring 101:
Welcome to Sketch's handy dandy guide for achieving awesomeness with campaign scoring. Read on to learn all about this new feature, how the best possible scores can be achieved and some devious tactics for beating your friends in those competitive 4-player matchups.
** SPOILERS AHEAD!**
What is Campaign Scoring?
Halo 3 introduces a new social, competitive aspect to the campaign experience with a nifty feature we call “Campaign Scoring.” This creatively named option is exactly what it sounds like – a way to keep score while playing the campaign. This score is a combination of many things – every enemy you kill will give you points, finishing missions will give you points, enabling skulls will give you more points and so on… In addition to simply being a badge of honor and a platform for bragging rights versus your friends, these scores are also tied to earning achievements on each mission in the game.
There are many techniques to utilize on your quest to achieve the highest possible campaign scores - some of which we will explain throughout this guide and some of which you will have to figure out for yourself.
Starting Out
By default, Campaign Scoring is disabled when you start a game. Before you dabble in this feature, it is highly recommended that you first complete the game as it was intended – by yourself, in a dark room, on a nice TV with a nice 5.1 audio system. Campaign Scoring is a great additional way to experience Halo 3 but putting so much emphasis on arcade-like scoring inevitably detracts from the story and mood we are trying to set over the course of the game. You are of course free to do whatever you want but just know that somewhere, Marty is crying because you aren’t playing it the way he wants you to.
Individual vs. Cooperative Play
Campaign Scoring can be enjoyed by one to four players. It works the same whether you’re playing alone or with friends but it really gets fun when a group of players compete against one another to Finish the Fight and try for the highest score. However, there are trade-offs to be considered – the amount of enemies in the game does not automatically scale with the introduction of more players. So, four people will basically have ¼ as many kills as they would if they played the same settings by themselves. Of course you are also a lot more likely to die, which also will hurt your point total. On the other hand, being a particularly devious player might mean that you can leech a lot of free points and steal kills from your allies while they do all the work. Campaign scoring is fun in all instances but for me there’s not much better than fighting side by side with three buddies and having it all come down to whoever gets the final headshot on the Chieftain to decide the victor.
Free-for-All & Team Scoring
To enable campaign scoring, the party leader simply has to press the X button from the Campaign Lobby to bring up the “Campaign Options” menu. At this screen you can choose between “Free for All Scoring”, “Team Scoring” or “None.”
Free-for-all scoring will keep an individual score tally for everyone in the game. You will have your own score bar displayed throughout the entire mission and then individual totals at the end of the level via the campaign carnage report. Team Scoring, on the other hand, lets players group into a team and work together for a combined score. Note that the score-based achievements are only able to be earned by individuals, based on their final individual score.
To skull or not to skull?
Before you dive into the match, there is one more decision that the party leader must make. Skulls are another way to modify and tweak the Halo 3 game experience while also adding valuable point multipliers to your final score. We’ll go into more detail about some of the specific skulls and the effect they have on the game down below. For now, you just need to decide if you want to activate any or not.
From the Campaign Options menu, the party leader can toggle any skulls they’d like to use for the mission ahead. The first two rows of nine skulls can all be used to increase the overall score you will earn for a mission. This usually comes at a price though – many of these skulls can dramatically change the difficulty of the game. Nobody said that getting those high scores would be easy!
One cool thing to note is that it’s not necessary for the party leader to personally have all the skulls unlocked on their profile. If everyone in your group has different skulls unlocked, you can pass the party leader to each person, let them activate whatever skulls they want, and then pass it to the next person who can do the same. When you start the game, it will count all of the skulls that have been activated by everyone in the party.
Game On!
Ok, you have all of your campaign options configured, you and your buddies are all set and it’s finally time to dive into some action! When the game starts it will be just like any other campaign play through with one major exception – in the lower right corner of your screen you will notice a scoreboard. Each player will be designated by their emblem and player color. Over the course of the mission, player scores will be reflected in real time, changing with each kill (or death). You will even earn medals, just like you do in the standard multiplayer matches like Team Slayer, some of which will also improve your overall score.
How do these scores get tallied? How do you earn maximum pointage? Let’s take a closer look…
Settling the Score
Your campaign score is determined by a combination of many different factors. At the basic level, you will earn points for every enemy you kill. However, the amount of points earned will vary greatly depending on things like the type of enemy, how the enemy is killed or what difficulty setting you are playing. Most of the point multipliers are factored into the score for each enemy you kill, in real time, as you progress through a mission. The only real exception is the overall mission completion time, which provides one final multiplier to your final score once you have finished the level.
Enemy Overview
In general, the higher the rank of the enemy (the bigger/more difficult it is) the more points it’s worth. Infantry and Vehicles are broken up into different categories based on their rankings. For example, a Ghost is considered a “Light Vehicle” class and is worth less points than a Wraith, which is considered a “Heavy Vehicle.”
Here’s a quick breakdown of the various categories along with some example units and their Normal default point values:
Penalty Points
If you happen to die while playing (which could happen quite a lot depending on your difficulty level and skull settings) you will LOSE points.
The base penalty for dying is -25 points. This value will get multiplied based on your difficulty setting though. So, every time you die while playing Legendary will actually cost you 100 points. If you betray one of your teammates you will also incur a point penalty. The baseline value on Normal difficulty for a betrayal is -50 points.
Timeliness
The last major factor that will impact your final campaign score is the amount of time you take to finish the mission. At the start of each mission (from the very beginning, not an insertion point), you will notice a timer above the scoreboard along with a multiplier value. Initially, this will read as “3x.” However, as time goes by, this will eventually decay to 2.5x, 2x, 1.5x and then finally 1x (which is zero bonus). Unlike the multipliers listed above, the time bonus is not added until the very end – when the mission is finished. This is huge because it can drastically alter your score and it’s added on top of what you already earned through style and skulls. It will be challenging to survive, earn points with stylish kills AND complete the level fast enough to earn a 3x bonus but it can be done. As noted at the beginning of this guide, this is not the recommended way to play through the game your first time since “speed running” will certainly detract from the story we’re trying to tell.
Finish the Score
As you can tell, there’s a lot more that goes into your final score than just being a pretty good player. The highest possible scores will only be possible when someone beats a mission on Legendary difficulty, quickly, killing enemies with style AND having as many skulls enabled as possible. To get the true maximum score, you’d have to activate all nine golden skulls – if you can even find them all. And then actually finish a mission. Good luck with that!
Bonus Campaign Scoring Tips & Tricks
Over the course of testing the game, a few of us around the office have developed some ingenious and devious techniques to improve our own skulls and sabotage our teammates.
- Oops! Nothing makes your friends score decrease faster than a bunch of unplanned betrayals. The easiest way to do this is to charge into the fray, preferably right after your teammate chucks a plasma grenade. Sit on top of it for instant griefing and knock your partner down a few notches.
- Kill Steal! Another tried and true tactic is to hang back with a BR or Carbine and let your teammates soften up the enemies while you steal all the kills. Remember, the points only go to the person who lands the final killing blow.
- The Waiting Game! If a teammate dies during co-op play, they won’t be able to respawn until the surviving players are out of combat. You could use this to your advantage by continuing to fight, and boosting your score, while your dead buddies are watching helplessly thought the death-cam.
- Achievements! All of the scoring Achievements are set just high enough where you will almost certainly not earn the achievement unless you have at least one skull turned on (and are playing on the Bungie recommended difficulty of Heroic). The easiest way to hit these score totals is to turn on one or two skulls and play the game on Heroic. In most cases, as long as you don’t die too much and you throw in some headshots and style kills, you should be well on your way to glory.
- Smack! Lukems has a particularly devious tactic that involves delivering a quick melee attack to your teammate right as they head into a fray, which immediately drops their shields, making them incredibly vulnerable to death… which means you get to clean up all the kills and nab all the points for yourself.
