Halo

Maps and screenshots here

Night-time Campaign mod by ElectricalSmith

https://youtooz.com/collections/halo

I was just wondering everyone's favorite level(s) were/are. You can explain why you like it, or you can just name drop the level you like most.

Mine are probably:

1. Assault on The Control Room, I love the big epic set pieces of the level, and it has probably the best/most "examples" of what Halo is as a game than any other in CE. You have big weapons, vehicles, large open battles, and awesome music.

2. Delta Halo from Halo 2. I love the lush jungle setting and going through the underwater elevator is always fun. Plus I love just beating the hell out of Truth.

3. Halo, from Halo 3. Like Assault on The Control Room, this level has it all

https://x.com/halo/status/1818011139344842982?s=46&t=VGqOdxWDtLsShLYLikeioQ

I’m guessing through the exchange, make players grind it out that way

• Disruptor damage over time is back
• Bandit rate of fire reduced
• Sentinel Beam does same damage regardless of distance and no longer does extra headshot damage
• Ravager primary fire damage increased
• AR max bloom reduced
• Skewer reload speed increased
• Rocket Launcher damage radius reduced, max ammo increased to match other Halo games
• Sniper max ammo increased to match other Halo games
• Bulldog max ammo increased
• A ton of changes to various weapon variants
• GRENADE JUMPING
• Ghost health and speed reduced in some directions
• Banshee ground collision damage reduced, weapon damage increased, roll speed increased

Probably doesn't mean anything, at best it would be a tease of another store item, unfortunately, but Pilot is my favorite helmet and it's cool seeing the Haunted pop up.

This is a summary of the long thread from Bathrobe Spartan which you can find here: https://x.com/BathrobeCast/status/1812578845108625769

343 kept losing people in 2023 & 2024. Lead to more outsourcing content. Contracts not being renewed. 50-60 people let go on top of the >100 laid off.

Some roles transferred to MS/Xbox Team instead of being internalized at 343.

343 still relying on contractors, staff are not pleased to see leadership has not learned from the production of Infinite.

Less than 280 employees as of May 2024, with 30% of them related to Game-Content-Production, the rest are business oriented roles & producers.

Not enough positions have been opened to fill the gap from what it was before 2023. ~32 permanent positions opened in 2023 & 2024. Not enough staff to be "Production Ready".

343's budget has been severely impacted and controlled. This is why recruiting took longer and pushed people to leave. Key roles couldn't be replaced in time to finish content left.

Halo Infinite didn't meet its commercial goals but made enough to justify finishing the content already contracted with external studios, but not enough to justify doing more than was started. Quote from an ex employee "No we made money, we made a lot of money. But when I walked into the test bay to test the latest build EVERY FUCKING DAY the guy running it said "why bother, they are gonna hate it anyway" that's demoralizing. I would love to tell you what we worked on, but I can't and won't, not just because of the NDA but because I'm being loyal to the company. I still want to work there. It does bother me people praise Pierre, like, who do you think mandated Forge Maps going forward..."

Partnered forge maps not being high quality is due to to 343 being tied to legal obligations to fulfil the contracts but not enough time left to polish.

As the product did not reach its commercial goal, projection implied it wasn't worth contracting new content outside cosmetics. Meaning no new sandbox additions.

During 2023 & 2024, many employees helped other Xbox studios on their products as most Infinite content was handled by contracted studios.

343 shifting to a new production method, separating "Leading development" and Production. Hiring lead positions to do the concept and pre-production in-house & handing off the production work to other studios, similar to Halo Wars 2. Recruiting less content-creating roles and more lead profiles to test, iterate and validate content and gameplay before working with external studios to go full production. 2 studios are currently partnered to work on 2 separate projects this way. Both still in pre-production. One is a bigger scale PvP oriented project. At least 2 years before any release.

Aim of this new production method is to help produce content for games at a reliable pace and more cost effective. Hopefully won't lead to reproducing what happened with Infinite.

Remaining 343 staff have echoed they feel like 343 Industries isn't as much "The Home of Halo" as it was promised to them. They hope this new method of production will be the best for the franchise.

From the blog:

A new Big Team Battle mode has arrived in Halo Infinite. Introducing BTB: Sentry Defense!

Adjutant Resolution, one of Zeta Halo’s submonitors who you met and fought in Halo Infinite’s campaign, has decided to jump into some multiplayer action. Two of them—simply known as “sentries” in this context—are on each team; your objective is to protect your sentries and destroy the enemy’s.

Each team has 2,000 points. As damage is dealt to your sentries, the available score drops, and if you reach 0 it’s game over. Each map will have at least one Repair Field that spawns in a neutral location—in addition to providing health regeneration for your fellow Spartans and vehicles, it’ll also repair your sentries.

BTB: Sentry Defense will be playable on:

• Fragmentation
• Highpower
• Deadlock
• Oasis
• Scarr
• Command