M12J Light Reconnaissance Vehicle
This is something I've worked on on and off for the last month or so.
This attachment will allow your Warthog to vertically boost in the air, allowing it to clear large obstacles, gaps, and aid in a quick ambush or escape.
The thrusters can engage for a maximum time of 1.5 seconds before overheating. The heat gadge for the thrusters is displayed in the upper left if you linked the tags correctly. (explained below)
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M12J Light Reconnaissance Vehicle a.k.a. "Grasshopper"
Top Speed: 125 kph (78 mph)
Power Plant: 12.0 L liquid-cooled hydrogen-injected ICE / 8 hydrogen pulse thrusters
Weight: 3 metric tons (3.25 tons)
Length: 6.1 meters (20 feet)
Width: 3.2 meters (10.5 feet)
Height: 3 meters (9.75 feet)
Status: In Production
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Description/History:
---The M12J, a.k.a. the "Grasshopper", was a "hard drop" line of M12 Warthogs developed during the Covenant invasion of Earth.
During the invasion the Covenant setup countless anti-aircraft batteries, preventing Allied aircraft such as Pelicans from safely dropping armor and personal at strategic locations since the Pelicans would likely be shot down during the drop if not beforehand.
--- The UNSC already had HEV pods to hard drop personnel but need for armor and vehicular transport was greatly needed. One Idea was to strengthen the suspension system of the M12, drop it, and pray. However due to the M12 being very nose heavy, it usually nose dived into the ground. Another attempt with the parachute style system similar to those used back in the 20th and 21st century was tested. However the number of parachutes required made the vehicle a very noticeable target and often destroyed.
--- One designer thought about using the vertical thrust systems similar to that used on the Pelican. These thrusters where initially mounted on the sides of the vehicle. This proved tremendously disastrous since the fenders on the warthog would break off in mid flight. The thrusters were then moved to the undercarriage of the warthog where success began to take hold. The initial design had four thrusters but was moved up to eight to compensate for possible in-flight engine failures. The thrusters were fitted with thrust vectoring nozzles to help stabilize the Warthog as they engaged. These thrusters where powered by the hydrogen fuel the warthog engine uses. However these thrusters would consume tremendous amounts fuel so an external fuel cell was mounted behind the seats.
--- This design was so successful that a warthog could be safely dropped with personnel already in them and that was often the case. Before the Pelican reached the drop point, the marines would (carefully) climb out of the cargo bay onto and into the warthog. Since there was only two seats, the gunner would have to crouch down into the bed behind the gun, hold onto the turret, and pray on the way down. The Pelican not longer needed to stop and loiter while the equipment/personnel is deployed. All the Pelican needed to do it drop to about 800ft above the ground and slow to about 150 knots before releasing the vehicle.
--- This advancement however isn't what initially coined the vehicle the nickname "Grasshopper" by troops. Very often after a hard drop, the extra fuel tank had fuel left over. A soldier could manually engage the thrusters to obtain a vertical burst, allowing it could clear large gaps an excess of 100ft with a running start.
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Controls
The controls for the thrusters are simple. Pull the right trigger to engage the thrstuers.
Looking down while boosting will push you forward as well as up, looking up will push you backward as well as up.
To best take advantage of the attachment, you want to "combine velocities". Meaning combine the velocity of the thrusters with the velocity of the Warthog. For example: get a running start, look down, boost, and imediatly level your aim. This will give you a fast forward/upward boost while keeping you level.
I made an additional modification to the "troop" variation. I added an extension of the roll cage as well as two seats so you can have 3 passengers when using the troop variation.
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Linking the Tags
1) Open the map in the editor of your choice, select the [hlmt]-objects\vehicles\warthog_jumpjet\warthog_jumpjet tag and transfer it into your map.
2) Go to the [vehi]-objects\vehicles\warthog\warthog tag, find it's [hlmt] Ident and change it to [hlmt]-objects\vehicles\warthog_jumpjet\warthog_jumpjet.
This is all that's needed to get it working but to enable the HUD you must:
3) Now find it's [weap] Ident and change it to [weap]-objects\vehicles\warthog_jumpjet\thrusters\thruster_control.
Now find it's [nhdt] Ident and null it.
4) Now, (in Entity), open the [vehi] tag in the Meta editor and scroll to the "Seats" reflexive. Check the "Gunner" checkbox and uncheck the "Gunner (Player)" checkbox.
The known bugs with the Jump Jet are:
- Halo 2 sometimes has weird ass physics.
Credits
JacksonCougar: Helping me test out the Jump Jet and texturing the thrusters.
Random People on Kia: Proved how useful the system is when you really need to run away.
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