A number of people have come to me asking how to make human structures as they are seen in the Halo games. Finally, I got off my ass enough to write down my notes on human structures circa 2552. These are what I try to go by when I'm designing a human city.
These tips are more targeted towards civilian architecture, but most of them hold true for military structures as well.
- Humanity and the Forerunners are linked, and nowhere is this more clear (outside of a Forerunner facility) than in human design philosophy. Humans tend to build buildings based on angles as much as the Forerunners do, but instead of relying on 45 and 90 degree angles, they use obtuse angles in most of their structures. VERY rarely will you find an acute angle in human design; sharp corners seem to be frowned upon.
- Although it is not NEARLY used to the same extent as the Covenant use them, there are quite a few rounded edges on things, namely support pillars, railings, and the like. Occasionally a rounded corner is seen on a building, but buildings rely more on angles than anything else.
- Interiors are the exception to the rule when it comes to human architecture. Human interiors are very boxy, littered with extrusions, and (for the most part) each room is dedicated to a single purpose. Look at the rooms around you for inspiration; not much has changed over the past 500 years. In games, interiors tend to be very boring on their own. Something needs to be added to spice them up. In places where the situation can call for it, a catwalk, ramp, or bridge should be enough to distract the player from the fact that they are in a box. Littering the ground with crates WILL NOT CUT IT! Instead, focus on adding details to the walls, things like phones, pictures, or even graffiti on the interiors to distract the player from the box of the room. H2's Terminal is a GREAT example of using these techniques to disguise the fact that the room is essentially a box. Just make sure it "fits", and anything will work.
- Bungie is a master at doing this: Longshore disguised the boxiness as a fish cannery, using extrusions and glass to distract the player from the box. Rat's Nest blended the interiors with the exteriors, treating the walls of the rooms like indoor cliffs (this strategy only works on medium-to-large indoor maps). Elongation simply distracted the player with moving crates, with catwalks to break up the monotony. Ivory Tower tried to fool the player into thinking it took place outside by making everything into an indoor park: the spaces are wide open, there are lots of trees and ramps and such, all disguising the fact that this is a giant indoor box. Terminal used car platforms or ticket booths in the bases as well as plenty of ramps and catwalks, breaking up one big box and giving the player something else to look at other than the walls. This is where ODST largely failed, as most (but not all) of ODST's interiors were bland and boring boxes, which encouraged the player not to stay and look around but rather to keep moving, at the expense of the sense of realism, replayability, and exploration.
- When making a human city, remember that wood seems to have become endangered as far as building materials go. Wood can be found in any structure dating back to before ~2100-2200 (Sierra 117, Crow's Nest), but anything past that point seems to be made completely out of titanium, aluminum, or some form of plastic/ceramic.
- Every part of every structure has a purpose. Form dictates function (and, conversely, function dictates form). Ask yourself: What was this room used for BEFORE fighting broke out? Was it in a good part of town? Bad? Try to reflect that there were once people who lived or worked here, and remember to show the parts of their everyday lives they left behind: Pictures of friends or family members, drawings made by their children, pencils, computers, desks...
- Remember: People still have to use the restroom in 2552. Place restrooms (even portapotties) here and there, even if it is just a sign. Big cities like New Mombasa have impressive public works programs under the UNSC, so things like parks and water fountains are plentiful.
- If you have, say, a crashed train in your map, remember that there were people who were trapped in those trains. Any crashed trains you have in your map should have evidence that there were attempts to escape the runaway monorail: scratch marks, broken windows, etc.
- The littlest details in a map make a BIG difference, quality-wise. Rust forms from the oxygen from the air and water mixing with metal. If the metal is in a dry area, it will appear in a splotchy design, easily achievable in Photoshop by making a "rust" layer over your image, making a new mask, and using Filter->Render->Clouds. If the metal gets rained on, the rust will not only appear quickly (within 3-4 years after construction), it will run down with the water. This means that there will be rust "streaks" going down the metal, pooling up at anything jutting out of the metal, and there is some slight rust which has pooled at the base of the metal object. Note that the base of the object does NOT have to be metal for rust to pool on it; rust can pool on concrete and asphalt as well. Also, remember to make sure that your map can have conventional applications in real life. Consider the comfort level of the citizens who normally reside in the area. Do you have vents for air conditioning in the summer? Do you have places for water to go when it rains? If your map has rain in it, make little tiny streams of runoff from the rainwater on either side of the street, draining into drains. People don't seem to remember this, so I'll clarify: water runs downhill.
- Remember that this is a society which has built structures which extend into space. The tallest structure in ODST is about 2 miles high, I believe. Reflect this onto your skyscrapers.
- There is a mountain of evidence from H2 and ODST that the threat of Global Warming actually happened. Mombasa/Zanzibar/Last Resort ALL have massive seawalls built around them which are further inland than they should be. Play "Outskirts", I believe, from H2. Mombasa has a seawall which is too far inland to do any further function. On top of this, H2's view of Earth at night shows MAJOR population centers of today (New York, LA, etc.) diminished or wiped out due to their proximity to the ocean. If your level includes a beach of some sort, be sure to make a seawall somewhat inland which was used to protect the city from Global Warming when it was at its height. Since then, Global Cooling seems to have set in, although if you look at a map of Halo's Earth closely, coastlines are now radically different.
- Earth's population is HUGE. Prior to the Battle of Earth, there was AT LEAST 20 billion people on the planet. Farms are extinct; grass/nature is scarce save for artificial parks (Ivory Tower) and protected National Parks/Zoos/Wildlife Preserves (Uplift Reserve/Presumably Sierra 117). If your map has a large, grassy area, make sure it's part of some sort of preserve.
- The UNSC is NOT a democracy. Rather, it is more along the lines of a fascist or totalitarian government. Cameras watch your every movement, propaganda/recruitment posters are EVERYWHERE, recorders monitor every word of every conversation anywhere (Case in point: ODST's Audio Logs). The ENTIRE GOVERNMENT is corrupt and self-serving. What you won't see in a UNSC-held area is anything which tells you to worship their leader (Lord Hood?) or anything like that, implying that this has been a slow and gradual change from Democracy to Totalitarianism. People suffer under the UNSC; make sure you reflect this. Take a look at old photos of Soviet Russia or Nazi Germany. The people there are NOT happy people, show this in your city. The UNSC government is a LOT like the government from Orwell's 1984, if you have read it. Reflect this.
- Conversely, Rebel forces are more along the lines of Democracies and Representative Governments, similar to today's United States. If you are making a map set in a Rebel base somewhere, cameras are minimal, used primarily to monitor shoplifters or watch restricted areas. Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech are respected, and, for the most part, the people are HAPPY (The Rubble is a good example). As far as architecture goes, it is very similar to the UNSC, except rounded edges are used more liberally, things seem more cobbled-together (with patches used to cover up holes), and Covenant technologies are often seen in human hands due to Rebel trade with Jackals. This should increase tenfold if your map is set after the Human-Covenant War.
Here's some advice from other members to help you out:
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Originally Posted by CLS{GRUNT}
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Originally Posted by Disaster
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Originally Posted by SnaFuBAR
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Originally Posted by Disaster
