HaloMods "Classic" Read-only Archive

Hi there, I have numerous halo 2 modding questions I would like answered, if that is, anyone is willing to answer them.

Well first of all I would like to know why I see hardly any campaign mods, surely that would be a change and a lot cooler than just mp mods?
First of all, the level datahalo, it's got a MASSIVE pool of water right near the start, how freakin' cool would it be for someone to make a boat mod? So you can surf around in it. I would love to see some user created easter eggs and such, special weapons on top of hills etc etc.

I would do this myself but I am still a beginner and I am slowly working my way up.

Secondly, why aren't there any actual water maps for mp? I mean look at last resort on halo 3, don't you just want to explore that massive sea, go and look at the other islands? Unfortunately that's not possible. (The main reason I am disappointed with halo 3 is the amount of unnecessary invisible walls). So I was thinking, wouldn't an awesome map be one where there are lets say 5 islands, with a massive sea in between them all, with boats docked at each island. And instead of invisible-walling the map off, it should be... Well my first thought was it would be a upturned cone shape, the spike going down, the flat part of the cone being at the top. So the water kinda pours down the sides, and make it's like a floating platform thing.

Thirdly, Is there anyway of "cutting up" a map, so I can say get a singleplayer map and cut off a section of it, make it MP then mod it? So I have a custom map?

Fourthly, If I get a single player map, or any other map for that matter, how do I add add new stuff? And I've see the post on seven sins about it (I think it's a dupe from here) But on single player if I want to add a special weapon, like the scarab gun to a random location on the map, how do I do it? And I don't mean the actual scarab gun. Ok lets say I want to import to delta halo a custom weapon, such as a modded plasma pistol, but it don't want it to affect every player. So on metropolis, there is only one scarab gun (Yeah I know you can get more, but it makes it easier saying there is only one) and I want it to be like that on delta halo, so I would need to clone my plasma pistol, mod it, then place the modded one someone on the map. Any ideas on how I would go about doing this?

Lastly, how would I go about making a Ion painter? (like on UT2004) Where it shines a laser on the ground, and I was hoping something like a stealth bomber thing (those black things, forgot the name) to fly over and drop bombs.

Thanks for any help, all is appreciated.

Well first of all I would like to know why I see hardly any campaign mods, surely that would be a change and a lot cooler than just mp mods?
First of all, the level datahalo, it's got a MASSIVE pool of water right near the start, how freakin' cool would it be for someone to make a boat mod? So you can surf around in it. I would love to see some user created easter eggs and such, special weapons on top of hills etc etc.

Do a bsp conversion of that map and place a custom mach just below the water line so it looks like the tank is a land / sea vehicle.

Secondly, why aren't there any actual water maps for mp? I mean look at last resort on halo 3, don't you just want to explore that massive sea, go and look at the other islands?

Sadly a lot of people don't like large maps and water is kind of hard to put in a map if your computer can't run h2core that well. I've done it before but half the time I just get a floating frozen lake that you can't walk on.

Thirdly, Is there anyway of "cutting up" a map, so I can say get a singleplayer map and cut off a section of it, make it MP then mod it? So I have a custom map?

If you mean dividing the loading zones or bsp then it can easily be done but like I said before a lot of people here don't like large maps, I like em. Now if you mean cutting the bsp then no that isn't possible at the moment but you can put walls up to divide it.

Fourthly, If I get a single player map, or any other map for that matter, how do I add add new stuff? And I've see the post on seven sins about it (I think it's a dupe from here) But on single player if I want to add a special weapon, like the scarab gun to a random location on the map, how do I do it? And I don't mean the actual scarab gun. Ok lets say I want to import to delta halo a custom weapon, such as a modded plasma pistol, but it don't want it to affect every player. So on metropolis, there is only one scarab gun (Yeah I know you can get more, but it makes it easier saying there is only one) and I want it to be like that on delta halo, so I would need to clone my plasma pistol, mod it, then place the modded one someone on the map. Any ideas on how I would go about doing this?

To do this do almost the same thing as if you were making a racetrack mod. You can put a Bloc, Mach, Biped, Vehi, and scenery in a Itmc and spawn new objects like that.

I would do this myself but I am still a beginner and I am slowly working my way up.

Do alot of the tuts that are on this site even if its not exactly what you want, chances are one tut will help you do multiple things just by changing a few steps and things in the tut.

Awesome! I thought for a while there that everyone on this site was dead... Thanks a lot.

And what the.... I love massive maps!!! Goddamit! I want a massive map with boats and bikes and stuff...

Ok, I am absolutely going to have to learn to model, and skin etc like a pro.
The map "The Pit" on Halo 3. You like it? Well in my opinion it's not very good because I think bungie have been lazy, they made one half and mirrored it. Boring. What else? The fence letting you see all that beautiful landscape, and thise pelicans, the hogs... Not accessible. Properly.

You see, large maps are the most fun, I don't care about winning, I want to have fun. If you got rid of that fence, and all that land was properly textured, so you could walk on it. Wouldn't that be amazing?

You could have an exact replica of the Pit on the other side, So there are 2 bases, each with pelicans, hogs, scorpians at your disposal. Massive pelican air fights, 8 vs. 8 on a massive map!!!

FUN! And there would be NO invisble walls <- Hate.

I mean 25% of the games bloody replay value is by using your brain and figuring how to get to places which look cool! Bungie did a good job putting in the scarab gun on Halo 2, it took some skill and patience to get to, and when you finally did it was glory!

Why are there invisible walls everywhere on halo 3? Why are there things that look awesome, but you can never reach? I really don't like halo 3, they've made such a hash of it. Bungie really need to employ me as the person who tells them that what they just did was a mistake.

It's things like not being able to ride in the troop hog, Taking off the homing on the rocket launcher. The spartan laser IS a definite kill. So really it should just have one shot in it.

Halo 2 was better because of the maps enclosed by real walls. Coagulation - the best map of all time, a gulch, a wide valley with valley walls restricting you, not invisible walls.
If I go on Standoff and look around, I see all this amazing scenery I want to explore! But no, any attempts and boom, instant death barrier.

I mean fair play if the invisible walls are there only in matchmaking, but come on!!! Why not in forge? You can't cheat in forge!

And where is coagulation on Halo 3 anyway? It just was the best map!

The main thing for me is, even after everyone quite clearly wanting to Drive the pelican, drive the Scarab, you still can't. Why is that? I mean you kill everyone in the scarab, and it still walks!!!!!!!! Why cant you hop in the driver seat and go about your business! At least they could make ONE level which allows you to. The cutscenes always annoy me because I wan't interactive cutscenes, like everyone does, where YOU get to drive the pelican down from space, Who wouldn't want to do that?

A pelican space mission? Fan-bloody-tastic. But no. I guess not, it's too much effort. Seriously I could make a massive list on my complaints. Not that Bungie would care. They have their money.

If I was working for Bungie, I would realise a mistake was made. I would want to go back, re-make the game, make the maps more explorable, add cool easter eggs like on Metropolis. Space missions, sniping enemies from a Pelican. The game was quite good yeah, but not nearly as good as they could have made it. It was spoiled by the massive expectations it had. They said halo 2 was a dissapointment. I gurantee if you go back to halo 2 you'll find the campaign not only a lot longer, but more fun.

Yes, I did just rant a lot, but I really think Bungie have made a mess of Halo 3.


There are good things attmitedly, being able to destroy any Phantom you see is a great improvement. The plasma pistol slowly depleting makes more sense, and lessens people using the infamous "noob combo".
Valhalla is IMMENSE. I love that map, its big, it's got walls. However you can't stand on the big rocks. And the sea has an invisible wall. Why not just a water fall? So at least if you go off you die, they could put a little wall there to stop people driving off by mistake, but at least if you were curious you could jump off.

Ok, I'll stop now, I hope you can see what my points are, I really could go on for a lot longer (shows how serious I am about the mistakes they made).

Looks like I am going to have to work on some pretty big Halo 2 remakes of Halo 3.

DrFlatulator wrote: I mean 25% of the games bloody replay value is by using your brain and figuring how to get to places which look cool! Bungie did a good job putting in the scarab gun on Halo 2, it took some skill and patience to get to, and when you finally did it was glory!

I had a good laugh there.

Huge maps are bad because it's hard to FIND people to kill, and because the geometry is really boring. Invisible walls are there to simultaneously contain the action in a certain space while presenting the visual illusion of endless space. Open space, in its own way, has a soothing look to it. It would get old seeing cliffs and walls everywhere. I don't know why the invisibility of the wall is what turns you off. Load up Yelo. Fly into those Coag cliffs. Now they're invisible! ARRRGH!

For large maps on H2, I doubt you'd ever get 16 players to show up for a Halo 2 mod, unless you were part of a highly evolved team of pros that worked on one mod for many weeks. And even then, it would only happen for one night, if you publicized heavily and got lucky. That's just the state of H2 modding.

You also wrote:Bungie really need to employ me as the person who tells them that what they just did was a mistake.

You and me both. I'd love to get paid to complain AND tailor the game to my own liking so that I love it but no one else does, and I'm not kidding there. I wish they'd put full modding functionality in there. I'm not going to resell their game or reverse engineer it. I just want to tweak their good work to my specific interests.

Maps have to be built for a certain subset of gameplay styles. Lockout on H2 isn't so hot for vehicles. Coagulation has very little cover, so infantry-style combat is weak. And so on. There will never be a one-size-fits-all map. I've played against "explorers" like you in large BSPs that are impossible to hermetically seal. TBH, it's boring as hell. I sit around with my itchy trigger finger trying to write my name with bullets on the wall, while the other guy is miles away exploring nooks and crannies. I prefer to spend my time KILLING people, not searching for people to kill.

Personally, I've never understood why so many people have a bug up their butt about flying the Pelican or driving the Scarab. I can only conclude it's because they're there to be driven and AI uses them, and that's reason enough. Nevermind the likelihood that it wouldn't be fun at all. But you can find tutorials here about making the Pelican airworthy.

I don't mean to cast judgment on your opinions. My point is, people have strong, conflicting opinions about how the game should be.

I recommend downloading the Killtrocity V2 map pack. It has some gigantic BSPs, among other very good mods. Learn to do Turk645's flaming skull trick just so you can see other players when they are a tiny dot on the screen. The best flyable Pelican that I remember is from a mod called Pelicans Beach, although I can't remember if the turrets worked. You can attach the model of a Phantom (or anything else) to a flying vehicle and then alter its properties in the vehi tag, but it's very precise and not all the controls are there.

If you don't know what Yelo is, go to the Utilities section, download, install, and load up your campaign maps and fly around to your heart's content.

It sounds like most of what you want to do right now is possible and in many cases has been done and outlined for you. So have at it. You'll get even more ideas as you learn your way around.

Hm, it seems to me that the Halomods community don't like big maps... Whenever I get a game on Halo 3 of Sandtrap, nobody vetoes it, it's just too fun. I don't get it, I love playing massive maps, the game is more action, more fun.

I like small maps aswell, Lockout was my favourite.

Look, anyone who plays Halo is going to know where to go. What harm is there for Singleplayer maps, on letting you explore around a bit?

Lots of people really enjoyed ghosting out of Delta Halo to explore the cliffs, even though they knew that nothing was probably going to happen. But still, the notion of finding a cool easter egg pushes you on to explore.

Invisible walls annoy me because they Just Don't Need to be there. There is no good reason.

On Halo 2, they let you explore the maps. On Halo 2 they walled off a lot of the maps, maps like Relic, there was no invisible wall, but there was a cliff with a sheer drop. If I see something "over there" I want to go and look around.

I have killtrocity, it's cool. And come on, you don't need to search on large maps.

Driving a scarab would be the highlight of Halo 3. It's a big walking bug like thing with massive guns. Fun. The Pelican is this cool, big ship, I mean, it just would be fun to fly.

I agree with maps having to be built for certain games, some are for close combat, medium range weapons. Others are better for driving, vehicles, sniping.

I have played numerous Halo CE maps offering cool boats, pelicans etc.
They're really fun. Yes it's fun killing people (without sounding like a megalomaniac). But you need more than just shooting stuff with a gun. Lets face it, it's more enjoyable to gun on a warthog, than to gun with a BR. I love team BR's, I love sniping, I am pretty good at it. (Another thing, why the hell isn't team snipers in Halo 3 yet?)

Gah... I honestly think I would make the game better, and not just piss people off about it being different.

First of all I would limit the spartan laser to one shot. As soon as you're in a vehicle on a big map you'll have a laser pointing at you, at least on Halo 2 you had a chance of getting away. The rocket launcher should keep its locking on features, it doens't make sense why it would suddenly break for halo 3. I hate things like not being able to exit your banshee when someone boards you, same with tanks.

I would have made more sense of all this but I just got back from school, too tired.

DrFlatulator wrote:Hm, it seems to me that the Halomods community don't like big maps... Whenever I get a game on Halo 3 of Sandtrap, nobody vetoes it, it's just too fun. I don't get it, I love playing massive maps, the game is more action, more fun.

Large maps are overdone. ... But I haven't seen one in a while. There's too much walking, and I can't find anybody. But if you put in some awesome vehicles, I would play.

DrFlatulator wrote:I like small maps aswell, Lockout was my favourite.

Small-Medium maps are nice because you can actually get a kill, and if you think about it, we're modding a game that is almost four years old. I'd like to keep the Halo "feel" to the game with a good-sized map. That's just me.

DrFlatulator wrote:Driving a scarab would be the highlight of Halo 3. It's a big walking bug like thing with massive guns. Fun. The Pelican is this cool, big ship, I mean, it just would be fun to fly.

Like I said: new / custom vehicles would be very nice.

Everything else you posted, I agree with (except the barrier part; most maps don't have an ocean keeping you from leaving).

Big maps usually have vehicles, if not, they have snipers, so you don't need to walk as such. Last resort, high ground, valhalla, all have invisible walls stopping you going into the ocean. Fair do, but it would be good for forge mode.

Zach. or.. not Zach, hopefully you will be pleased to hear I intend on making a map with two bases, a large stretch of water between them. Somehow I will make boats at each, or hovercraft (even better).

And by jove there will be a platform on top of the water! And by golly there will be pelicans at each base with a giant "P" on top signifying Pelican!

And by gosh, the map will be situated on a giant floating platform in the sky, the edge being a waterfall! (With a little wall to stop you driving off, but if you want, you can jump off).

And by lucifers beard, there will be an underground tunnel connecting the two bases, the tunnels underwater, allowing people for close combat underground, by the help of intricate passages and pipelines, YET, if you so desire, you can go up, and sail across the large topside of the map.

Thus, achieving the impossible.

Maps have to be built for a certain subset of gameplay styles. Lockout on H2 isn't so hot for vehicles. Coagulation has very little cover, so infantry-style combat is weak. And so on. There will never be a one-size-fits-all map.

Edit, thanks for agreeing NotZachary82, im glad someone else shares my thoughts. Woo! Summer holidays coming up... I am gonna get cracking with the modding! Now if only I could manifest the scarab into some sort of pond-skater like vehicle... omgods! it could have lasers!


Btw, how, "special" is that water in halo 2? Is it at all like halo 3? I mean is there water where you put stuff in it and it ripples etc.

I saw a mod for Halo CE concerning boats, ill be sure to give the author a shout.

Sounds sick, if you execute it correctly, have everything a great mod needs. Environment, skin, weapon modifications, vehicle modifications. Also, a great location so the environment actually looks legit. I'm big on environment if you have't noticed . Best of luck to you!

Sweet! Thanks for the encouragement, this will take me ages. Hopefully that will mean I make a good job of it, and I will absolutely NOT release it until I myself am 100% sure it is good to go.