[size=1]--- Original message by: Masters1337[/size=1]
Introducing the H2SPP, the Halo 2 Single Player Project. Our objective, to bring Halo 2's Human campaign to CE, starting with the levels Delta Halo and Regret. But wait, aren't you working on SPV3? Why would you want to port H2 to CE? Well the answer is simple.
With SPV3, Kirby and I have hit somewhat of a stone wall, missions a10-a50 are all awaiting art assets and attention from team members who are otherwise preoccupied with TSC Evolved, the plans we have for the flood require the whole teams efforts, and B40 and C40 are planned to be done together at the same time. In other words, most of our team is preoccupied with what is our main project, so we decided to start this as a side project.
So why port a H2 level? Well for one, those of us who have nothing much to do with CMT, are the ones who primarily focus on in gamed content. The second reason, is far more personal for me at least. I think Halo 2 is the weakest game in the series and I was severely disappointed in Halo 2 upon it's release. In fact, my disappoint with H2 is the reason why CMT was originally founded 8 years ago, as we believed we could take the ideas of H2, and do them right. . I think it's the worst game of the series. I believe this, because I believe the gameplay is inherently flawed, and that the campaign's story creates situations where the sandbox is limited (this mostly applies to Arbiter missions, but also chief). For every halo game since H2 everyone asks "Well, is it better than H1?"
It is my belief that out of Bungie's series, Halo 1 has had the best gameplay. I also believe that CMT has created one of the best Halo gameplay experiences ever. So this is what we intend to do, starting with Delta Halo/Regret. We are going to port the level from H2, using as much data we can gather from H2 as we can. Unfortunately, due to castration of H2V, this is not as easy as it should. While the BSPs and scenery are value by value ported over, we are doing custom encounters, and custom cutscenes. Now, these encounters are not meant to be an exact replication of those in H2, but are rather based on them. There is also the challenge of content, as H2 does contain some new assets vital to missions. We will be releasing 2 versions of the map, one that uses the classic Halo Sandbox to the best of our ability, and another that takes advantage of the openly sourced CMT mod. With the H1 version, we plan to let you enjoy Halo 2's Delta Halo/Regret with Halo 1's legendary gameplay, and we also intend to do a public beta of it, in order to iron out any bugs for the CMT version. The CMT version is our primary focus, and it will include any tags released by CMT. This means, you will not be playing it until after TSC: Evolved is released, and nothing new CMT related will be shown until it is announced and detailed by CMT.
So this sounds great… but what do we have so far to show? We got our first BSP in game about 3 weeks ago, and even with Hurricane Sandy (F U Sandy!), we have made amazing progress. In fact, in this short period of time, we have all of Delta Halo playable, as well as 1/3rd of Regret. Now, this is Halo CE, so there will be some slight changes in the bsps in order to make them perform better in CE. As of now, the team primarily consists of Me, Kirby, and Mootjuh, who some of you may know as Masturchief. Martyn Ball has also been helping, as has ShadowSpartan with what remains of Zteam's extraction tools. We've got a little bit to show you below.
DISCLAIMER: These pictures are of a WIP, right now our main focus is getting the levels playable start to finish, and visuals are of the lowest priority. Everything you see here is subject and likely to change. The point of these pictures is to show you our level of progress and that this is more than just an idea for a project, but rather a project that has had significant work done
Now, as you can see, we're a small team independent of CMT. We are looking for help in porting and polishing BSPs, so if you are interested PM us some of your previous work. Our focus is on Delta Halo/Regret exclusively right now, but that is not to say we are not interested in having other levels prepped and ready. Our biggest slowdown, and our weakest area of progress is in the BSPs, so we would be very interested in anyone who can contribute. Do note, that just because you contribute, does not mean you will be able to play maps with unreleased CMT content, anyone who contributes will be granted to beta's using the classic tag set.
