Quote Originally Posted by Kornman00 View Post
I would just like to reiterate something. Developing a feature with OS requires actual work. That is, you have to actual research (basically reverse engineer) what it takes to do what you're wanting to do. Even then, research only gets you half way. You then have to implement that research into something tangible.

Take for instance campaign extending. I had to first research the systems which worked with campaign case code. This included some UI code and some general game code. Once I knew the systems, I had to narrow my focus in the how. Once I knew how the systems interfaced with what they were doing with campaign cases (as Halo 1 had campaign related data all hard coded), I was able to figure out how to inject and overwrite existing game code and data with code I compiled into OS.

The engine isn't open source. The only way you can extend it is by rewiring the actual "hardware" (ie, the machine code). I guess one way to compare it is with cracking the iPhone or 360. In order to actually get to the software and make it do what you want, you first have to hurdle over the hardware factor which is there blocking communication with the operating system from an outside source. The software in this case is how the game works. Parts of the game can't be changed without pretty much taking one peice of hardware out and replacing it with a totally new part.
Take for instance increasing the profile name length. In some cases as this, the hardware is spread out like cancer so that it isn't fessible to make the change.

To top it off, the game was compiled for optimization and release, so code was inlined and mutilated from its original source.

So really...try thinking about what you're suggesting...and for christ-cracker sakes listen to what I said for submitting ideas and actually explain them and provide information on how they could possibly be done. Stop just throwing stuff out there thinking I'm a fucking mind reader or something, thats not how game development goes :|
Sorry, I assumed you had played most modern games (I think you're talking to me). Spectating/following is where you see a team mates point of view, including their HUD, weapon, etc. Its very much like sight jacking. This can be done for teams only, and for spectators (people not playing but watching the game). People not playing, but watching would be able to cycle through players and follow them on either team. These are common features in modern games like COD 4.

Spectating without following, is where you can move about the map with a camera and go virtually anywhere. This can be allowed on teams or on non playing spectators. Teams can be a bit unfair, its like screen cheating (looking at other players on your local Xbox's screen to gain an advantage) on an Xbox.

Another feature I would like is private messaging, where you press T to open the chat box, press the Up button and for each time the Up button is pressed the words: "To: Player 1" appear, with an empty text box after it. As you continue to press either the Up or Down keys, the box cycles through the players. When you have a player selected simply continue typing and press enter, sending the message to the selected player. Also have an option to lock on to that player, so you don't have to cycle through the players again to continue talking with that person. Like pressing the Tilda key (~,`) locks on to the player. One of the options in the cycle is global chat.

Text lag has been a known issue since HaloPC was released...
What are you calling Text lag? If by text lag you mean the chat not appearing after being typed that is not what I mean. What I mean is when you Alt Tab out of the game, Alt tab back in, and chat, and server messages don't appear on the screen anymore. The text may flicker on or off but it doesn't stop until you restart the game.