CMT Public Beta Feedback

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The Custom Map Team (CMT) has released a public beta for the first map in their SPV2 Campaign Mod for Halo Custom Edition. SPV2 is an extended and upgraded version of Halo 1's campaign, containing all new weapons, vehicles, enemies, UI, and upgraded graphics. Levels have been extended as well, with new areas to explore. Some levels have been expanded 40 minutes, and others by nearly three hours. New options have been built into the UI, allowing the player to detach the camera from the player and freeze time, play in slow motion, or further optimize their performance.

The public beta build of Pillar of Autumn contains many of our additions to the game and has been extended with new areas to explore. Our mod contains Brutes, who at this point in the timeline are working alongside the Elites. You may also notice some revisions to other enemies, though the mod is still in progress and there is still a fair amount of content that we are in the process of adding. Players will also have a variety of new weapons, including but not limited to the: SMG, MA5C Assault Rifle, Spiker, a Battle Rifle with a grenade launcher attachment, and it wouldn't be Halo 1 if the good ole' pistol didn't appear in one way or another. ;-)

http://files.modacity.net/cmt/cmt_a10_beta_promo.jpg

Halo Custom edition can be downloaded at http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?fid=410 for free, although it requires you to have a LEGAL copy of Halo PC and your original CD key.

The public beta of CMT's SPV2 Pillar of Autumn can be downloaded at the mirrors provided below:

Note: The 7-ZIP file can be opened with WinRAR and is smaller in size. We recommend the 7-ZIP version for download.

HaloMaps: ZIP
Modacity: RAR or 7-ZIP
Megaupload: 7-ZIP
Zshare: 7-ZIP
Deposit Files: 7-ZIP
Badongo: 7-ZIP
RapidShare: 7-ZIP

To extract the maps, you will need to download and install WinRAR. Follow the instructions at http://hce.halomaps.org/index.cfm?nid=386 for detailed installation instructions. (tl;dr: Extract the map file (a10.map) to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\maps and get the custom UI replacement and put that in the maps folder too.)

Please read the readme inside the archive for more beta information and info on how to play the map.

If you download, YOU MUST POST FEEDBACK IN THIS THREAD.

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THE RULES :

• Be coherent.
• Be concise.
• Make SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTS! You should know what a substantive comment is!
• Use the
  [list] tags (quote this post if you don't know how to use them to see how it's done) or some other way of clearly indicating seperate issues/comments.
• Avoid off-topic/wandering (yeah, this includes PC specs which have made many a CMT thread veer off-course) conversation unless it is directly related (ex : pointing out that you had the same issue) to another one.
• If you realize you forgot to add something, or notice something new, please edit it into your original post unless you absolutely MUST reference a post made after the one you made. It's easier to keep track of.

Posts that blatantly violate said rules will be deleted.

Post updated by jcap

• I liked the new BSP's, but some direction would have been nice. I got lost far too often.
• The Brutes are like sponges, as in when you shoot them, they release all the grape soda they have been soaking up over the years.
• In the first cutscene, the arms of the technicians who wake the MC are too thin. It's like looking at paper.
• You need more health packs in your new BSPs. You have so many grunts who like to overcharge their PPs then let their buddies shoot you, I had a hard time keeping my health out of the red. I only found like 2 medpacks in the new BSPs.
• Some more ammo for human weapons would be nice too. It was cool using the spiker, and I liked the new Plasma Rifles, but some human ammo would have been nice.
• During one encounter, I stumbled on what had to be 12 grunts stacked on top of each other like a pyramid. If I had had a nade, I would be complaining, but I didn't, and they tore through me. And it just looked dumb.
• The grenade throwing animations looked uninspired in my honest opinion.

In general, the beta a10 was okay...

Good stuff:

• Twisted destroyed sections
• New weapons
• Brutes
• HUD
• New Spartan model

Bad stuff:

• Textures on the Pillar of Autumn interior D:
• SMG reload? I hear you lose your ammo, didn't have the time to go back and check myself.
• Some new sections were confusing and looked like shit (no offense), I got lost twice.
• Oh god the hands on the crewman who pushes the buttons on the keyboard in Unseal the Hushed Casket, they were so ugly D:

e: I will add that the list tag is a piece of shit and - lists are much better.

The naughty list

• The animations I was overally pleased with. Though the pistol melee could use some touching up. Maybe I can hit up Clad so I can tweek the animations?
• The Brute decals on the build I have make me cry. Not only does it lag but it gives me exceptions.
• When you pickup pistol ammo then it says you picked up a plasma rifle.
• When I stuck an elite in the head, occasionally it would go into the unanimated form.
• Captain Keyes talks while he gives you the pistol, yet no sound is coming out of him.
• Not enough variation in human weapons. In the first part there was a nice selection with assault rifles, pistols, and battle rifles on the floor. Though I only seemed to have found maybe 2-3 smg's in the whole legendary run, and maybe the same amount of battle rifles.
• Legendary compared to Heroic makes Heroic seem like a cake walk.
• Pyramid of grunts

Will add more when I get the PB build.

-Textures seemed as if they where uneven in resolution (PR looks highres, whilst the smg looks lowres)
-Ammo is lost on the SMG
-Laser on the pistol is bent >:U
-Got lost easily in the extra BSP's
-No open sauce >:U
-Nice texturing for the brutes/elites/pr
-Animations are great.

-Elites seem to do small amounts of damage, whilst the brutes do very little damage and have huge amounts of health.
-Why do brutes have the same sounds as elites?
-Hud seems low res :S

-Also, Doublespeed seems to last for a bit long.

To Fix

• The black grate thing near the end of the level
• The string when you pickup a double speed
• The elites and brutes when you stand in the cyro control room above the cyro chamber, they dont go out the door like in the regular campaign.
• Some doors that should be locked, and just bring you to the end of a bsp, aka wrong path.
• Whats with the double shield geometry?
  http://screenshot.xfire.com/screensh...ec7870dd6e.png

• Blood decals need work. Grunt is good but too large, Brute covers the entire floor, Elite/Jackal doesn't appear to have changed, Human is fugly. (You can't just fully saturate it and expect it to look any more than marginally better.)
• More pickups! There were too few human weapons/ammo caches and even fewer medpacks.
• Quality is inconsitent all over the board. Some textures are nice, some look like ass; some new BSPs are cool (twisted corridor), most are bland corridors. Human fire/explosion effects are worse than the stock ones, while Covenant effects are brilliant.

And most importantly:

• Details need hammering. This needs exorbant amounts of polish before it can be called complete.

Of course, the sheer assloads of content makes this worth playing anyway, but if you iron out all the kinks and leave no detail untouched, it becomes more than good; it becomes extraordinary.

Code:

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il Duce Primo: so what do you think so far?
fat kitty: the masterchief model is stupid
fat kitty: feels really arcady
fat kitty: the pistol is downright stupid with the silencer and red dot
fat kitty: i dont like the AR
fat kitty: the textures look really good
il Duce Primo: the ar sucks
il Duce Primo: i hate the modle and the skaders o it
fat kitty: the anaimations for the brutes suck
fat kitty: this plasma rifle is sweet
il Duce Primo: ye ai love the plasma rifle
fat kitty: these plasma grenades are cool
fat kitty: there was one part where the enemies were moving in slomo
fat kitty: but my frames were fine
il Duce Primo: o thats a new powerup
il Duce Primo: its called double speed
fat kitty: oh is that what that does?
il Duce Primo: it slows everythign down and speeds you up
fat kitty: it looks pretty bad
fat kitty: would be fine if it just made u faster
il Duce Primo: ?
fat kitty: the spiker animations are really fast
fat kitty: i should kill the person who thought it a good idea to change the pistol melee animation
fat kitty: and the animation u gave it looks like ur trying to tap someone on the shoulder to get their attention..
fat kitty: ooo the spiker shoots nicely
fat kitty: theres no scope on the pistol :[
fat kitty: plasma pistol is a joke lol
fat kitty: you can tell me to shutup anytime if u want
il Duce Primo: its fine
il Duce Primo: i like hearing it
il Duce Primo: i actually want you to rant
fat kitty: the battlerifles grenade launcher
fat kitty: thats cool for sp
fat kitty: not mp
fat kitty: the animation for the battle rifle shooting
fat kitty: the weapon jitters downwards
fat kitty: shouldnt it go upwards
fat kitty: i dont mean recoil
fat kitty: but the weapon movement while u shoot it
fat kitty: seems funny
fat kitty: invis elites
fat kitty: thats really neat actually
fat kitty: when u get shot
fat kitty: the little blue honeycombs
fat kitty: besides being rly annoying
fat kitty: they need to be red
fat kitty: not blue
fat kitty: :l
il Duce Primo: i think if they were red it would be too odvius
il Duce Primo: like too distracting
fat kitty: theres 6 invis elites at this one part?
fat kitty: 8
fat kitty: that seems like too many 0_0
fat kitty: unless they were spawning
fat kitty: LOL
fat kitty: something sounds like arnold shwarzeneggar
fat kitty: these hunters have downs
fat kitty: the plasma pistol charge looks cool
fat kitty: OHSHIT THE HUNTER JUST DECIDED TO GROW A BRAIN
fat kitty: the hunters weapon is well done
fat kitty: besides the particles when it shoots
il Duce Primo: the gun sucks
il Duce Primo: the hunter gun needs to get a new model
il Duce Primo: its ugly as fuck
fat kitty: the model sucks
fat kitty: the idea is good tho
fat kitty: there sweet uphill tunnels
fat kitty: the new areas are good
fat kitty: seems like there should be arrows tho
fat kitty: to tell u where to go here and there
il Duce Primo: its pretty linear sint it?
fat kitty: yeah but for some reason they seem bland
fat kitty: i cant put my finger on it
il Duce Primo: bc there sint final lightmaps
il Duce Primo: and they need extra polish
fat kitty: the top of the AR seems to stand out too much
fat kitty: the white standing on top of the black like that
fat kitty: i think it would be cooler if it was black all around
fat kitty: they look good
fat kitty: this spiker is definately my fav weapon to use so far
fat kitty: DUDE
fat kitty: this caged area
fat kitty: when u first walk into it
fat kitty: its awesome
il Duce Primo: its boarding action
il Duce Primo: :P
fat kitty: i just died for the first time
fat kitty: when u get in that open area
fat kitty: because i couldnt stop admiring it
fat kitty: :o
fat kitty: this one brute is a tough cookie to crack
fat kitty: kewl mini baws
fat kitty: smg is perfect
fat kitty: new areas
fat kitty: need arrows
fat kitty: ssssssssssssssssss
fat kitty: im lost
il Duce Primo: lol
fat kitty: yeah i found my way
fat kitty: but u need arrows
fat kitty: now im in putput
fat kitty: wall textures are horrible
fat kitty: room is too big
fat kitty: big red room where a tele should be
fat kitty: that makes no sense
fat kitty: no enemies
fat kitty: thats p lame
fat kitty: the next area is cool
fat kitty: the skin on the burning hogs looks really low quality
fat kitty: where are all the enemies?
il Duce Primo: lol bug probably
fat kitty: maybe when i backtracked a few bsp's lmao
fat kitty: hog seat has rubber shader :o
fat kitty: if ur supposed to go up this elevator
fat kitty: its not letting me
fat kitty: ok nvm apparently u can walk on walls
fat kitty: br skin sucks
fat kitty: lame
fat kitty: next area wont load
fat kitty: i just see a thing that says arteen
il Duce Primo: haha
fat kitty: after climbin da elevator shaft
il Duce Primo: look at the ground
fat kitty: oh well
il Duce Primo: see if you can get the trigger to work
il Duce Primo: or mb you weent wrong way?
fat kitty: i killed myself
fat kitty: yeah im lost
fat kitty: what evs
fat kitty: its good
fat kitty: i told u basically everything thats wrong
fat kitty: the rest youd know best

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best crit of the day~

biggest complaint is that I got lost.

Boarding Action BSP Issues:

• The floor and wall grates just look ugly. Give them some borders and more substantial framework, rather than just a repeating pattern.
• Each of the floors should have decals on the walls annotating which level they are.
• Put some large supply doors on the walls on each floor, with each of them being labeled a different location of the ship, and turn it into a loading zone. That's my best guess as to what its function could be, since it is a massive part of the ship that opens up probably only when docked.
• Split the walls and grates in that section as well. It just looks ugly with those areas solid, but the floors split down the middle. Add a groove in the floor split as well.
• Instead of blocking off the tops of some ladders with random scenery, put in (theoretically, not actually) open-able and close-able hatches that align with the floor and ceiling - they'd fit better with the theme (or at least what I perceive the theme is) of that area.

The new BSPs were very uninspired, the multiplayer maps just aren't as well made as the sp visually, they don't fit well, and combined with the kind of off-looking textures of the whole level (the one with the apparent corrugations that replaces steel is just funky looking) they were just not good.

The twisted damaged hallway was awesome, more of that would be the shit.

Brutes are like giant elites that just never move and take forever to easily kill. Ease + longevity + repetition = Tedium, as far as actually fighting the brutes goes. Can they be made to melee attack more often, get in your face? They would be very intimidating if they weren't statues.

I liked the fact that at some points you had to rely on covenant weapons, testing all the new ones out was loads of fun, even if they were familiar from other games. Hunter canon is cool, but I feel like it should have maybe half as much ammo, I had one for most of the map, just killing brutes with it.