It's been a while, to say the least. The last public beta for this was in June, and there was a private one near the end of August. That's almost 5 months. Crazy stuff. Most people will know what this mod is, but I don't want anyone not to know, so here's a brief description:
Environments
Better environments. So, that's more atmospheric, better looking and a few 'fixes' as it were. I still want to get a lot more skinned though, and I'll probably use some good ones that were released publicly a few years ago. In addition, some people have volunteered to make skins for this project. If anyone else is interested, send me a PM.
Weapons
This mod has more weapons, and the original weapons have been improved and changed, some beyond recognition. There are things like my classic plasma rifles, a new plasma pistol variant, an upgraded needler and a totally new shotgun. There's more, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone. When some people see the word 'upgraded' in terms of weapons, pistols shooting 20 needles at once spring to mind. While there is nothing ridiculous like that in this mod, it doesn’t mean that it is not exciting either.
Characters
There are no new characters, as I didn't think it would do much for the mod. However, there has been a bit of skinning here and there, and made generally smarter AI, on both sides.
Vehicles
I'm still working on destructible vehicles with which I am happy, so this may take a bit of time. I'm also going to make a huge vehicle overhaul in the near future, so if anything seems a bit off, you know why.
Effects
Lots of blood, sparks and smoke. I have tested this thoroughly, and found that it has little impact on game performance or frame rate. This is something special that I thought you all might appreciate. I also think I'm the first person to integrate 'dynamic blood'. This is where you shoot something; blood particles come out, hit the floor and create a decal. It is a very fun and realistic effect. I have changed the Jackals' blood from blue to glow in the dark pink. You have no idea how long this took.
HUD
I present to you and brand new Halo 2/3 HUD! It wasn't created all by me, but I tried to make it suit the mod as much as possible. There are new reticles for new weapons, modified existing ones and a brand new feature: weapon icons. When you pick up a weapon of any kind, a picture of it is displayed on the HUD. How cool is that? Ok, I'm getting carried away now... I still have a bit of work to do on the HUD and some things to tidy up, but I think the giant overhaul might have been worth it.
Gameplay
This is the most important aspect of this mod and what I set out to change in the first place. It's hard to describe, but playing this mod is a bit like playing Halo 2 or Halo 3, it just seems so much more... advanced?
Miscellanious
Other things include generally improved and more fun gameplay, as well as skins, models and graphical improvements. I also changed things that other people miss, like cutscene titles and game music. Of course, I have altered a lot more stuff than I explained here, but I can't list everything.
Bugs
I have fixed loads of bugs since the last beta, but I'm still experiencing problems with things like the corrupted wrath skin (fuck you, warlord!
) and missing animations for the Fuel Rod Gun. I'm happy to say that I'm making huge progress fixing current bugs though. For example, Matooba is supposedly making new Fuel Rod Gun animations as we speak. Pictures
Here are some pictures of the level, Two Betrayals. They are in a decent resolution and dimensions and are in clickable thumbnail format for your browsing pleasure. Click an image to view its full size. Pictures from the development of this mod are available in the modding discussion. Here we go...
Credits
These are the most important part of this mod, because without these people and their kind permission, this mod would be nothing like the thing it has become. If I have left someone out of the credits, please PM me and I'll put them right.
Long list is long...Rocket Launcher skin + multipurpose - TAZZ
Rocket Launcher model - TAZZ
Fuel rod gun firing sound - Echoranger499
Energy sword model + animations - DocOctavius
Sentinel beam models - au5t3n5
Pistol Animations - CtrlAltDestroy
Assault rifle + Battle rifle animations - Flamingrain
Assault rifle model - TAZZ
Battle rifle model - DeadHamster
Sniper rifle Animations - InvaderVeex
Battle rifle firing sound + plasma rifle firing sound - Bungie
Plasma grenade explosion sound - Bungie
Battle rifle ready sound - Bungie
Sand texture - thecamelstoe
Shotgun firing sound - thecamelstoe
Shotgun skin - TAZZ (edited by me)
Fuel rod gun ready sound - Echoranger499
Battle rifle skin - Tsuin Taiyou
Sand texture in some levels - AthlonXP (Edited by Cryticfarm)
Fuel rod gun reticle - Tsuin Taiyou
Resources for the skinning of the Covenant Elite HUD outline - Warlord
Plasma grenade high pitched sound (the one just before the explosion) - Echoranger499
Sentinel beam contrails - Warlord (edited by me)
Assault rifle skin - Cookie
Assault rifle multipurpose - InvaderVeex
Sniper rifle skin - Destroyer
Frag grenade Skin - Kerhalla
Battle rifle reticle - Tsuin Taiyou
Wraith gun reticle - Tsuin Taiyou
Assault rifle/battle rifle reload sounds - Echoranger499 (edited by me)
Assault rifle ready sound - Echoranger499 (edited by me)
In game text font style tags - Cryticfarm
Shotgun model - FrozenMuffinOfDoom
Visor outline - xbox (edited by me)
Changing a single value in the battle rifle HUD - Corvette19
The Download
Due to the 100mb file limit on Mediafire, this mod is, as always, in two parts. Bitmaps and the map itself with sounds.ppf and intro video. It's in huge blue text, so there's no excuse for not seeing it.
SOUNDS, MAP AND VIDEO
BITMAPS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. STOP SENDING ME PMs. WAIT FOR THE NEXT BETA
