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Ah, I see you met Wheatley.
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Feb 20, 2021 19:25
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Carbon dioxide posted:Ah, I see you met Wheatley. Replacing Guilty Spark with Wheatley would make for kind of a fun mod.
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Feb 21, 2021 00:31
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Fun fact: On a mechanics level, the rifle fire coming out of the place when you first find it, only to find no marines there? From a mechanics standpoint, the game actually has a floating disembodied assault rifle firing at the retreating covenant that it then despawns.
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Feb 21, 2021 01:40
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I remember the arguments online whether that gunfire was supposed to be from escaping Marines or Flood Combat Forms. Good times.
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Feb 21, 2021 04:02
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Ablative posted:I have a confession to make. Then your co-op partner teleports you somewhere, which might be its own version of "backwards" 
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Feb 21, 2021 11:11
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Ablative posted:You cannot in Halo 1, but you can in Halo 2. No, I don't know why either. Holy poo poo, I always assumed Halo 2 worked the same as Halo 1, but I just went and tried and you totally can. That's crazy. Simply Simon posted:Somewhat same (though the Library is also awful), my biggest issue with the level is that I keep wanting to fall down to lower levels to fight Flood there, and that's almost never intended - in fact you loop around to previous rooms a bunch of times, only now you're on the higher level and have to activate a bridge (also sometimes not obvious) to reach a new door. Add to that the fact that some progress door are blown out by the Flood (somewhat obvious), some are simply working as intended, and yeah everything looks the same - fall down once, then go backwards a bit, you still have enemies to fight because the Flood are many, so you don't notice it, and suddenly you went in the entirely wrong direction for 5 min and have no idea where your last point of progress was. Yeah falling down once you're on the second level is the real way to get lost. If you just always leave out a different door than you came in, and never drop down, you'll get out just fine. But once you fall off the second floor you've basically got a 50/50 chance because there are no indicators of going the right way. Deformed Church posted:I really love this level. There's a real feeling of suspense as you go deep underground into an alien base while slowly realising you're in there with something really awful, then you find the flood and realise you're surrounded and have to escape and it becomes a frantic, desperate escape, as you push deeper hoping to find another way out. Then when you finally do get out, you see the sentinels using the same colours and shapes as all the forerunner buildings, and realise the ring isn't quite as dead as before, and then it caps off by thwarting your escape at the final second and teleporting you somewhere presumably even worse. This level is definitely a turning point for the game. The pretty generic "oo-rah" action gets subverted by the sudden unexpected spookiness, and then you get ambushed by this new enemy that doesn't fight like the Covenant. And then once you escape, they throw another twist at you and end on a cliffhanger. The whole thing leaves your head spinning.
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Feb 23, 2021 05:12
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 07 - The Library There's a whole lot of Flood between us and the Index, the key to controlling Halo.
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Feb 26, 2021 23:52
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You know, I used to like libraries as a kid. But never this one. gently caress this level. I might have had more trouble navigating the last one, but this one is still just... so dull. So endlessly, painfully dull. Anyway, some things that got lost in the gunfire: Spark recommends you upgrade to a class 12 combat skin, as your current one (the pinnacle of human armour development and probably worth the combined GDP of half the colonies on its own) scans as a class 2. He also notes that there are ten portals you have to go through to get to the Index. You only go through seven blast doors though (oh look it's that number again). Maybe he's counting the elevators. He offers a tour of the installation's research facilities, too. Once you're done with the whole "stopping the Flood" nonsense, you know. And sometimes when you shoot him, he'll ask you politely to... stop being human. That has no bearing on the plot or anything, it's just funny.
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Feb 27, 2021 03:12
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Ablative posted:Spark recommends you upgrade to a class 12 combat skin, as your current one (the pinnacle of human armour development and probably worth the combined GDP of half the colonies on its own) scans as a class 2. This quote gets mentioned in the novelization, and in response, Chief just thinks to himself something along the lines of *"Yeah, buddy, you find me something six times stronger than the MJOLNIR Mark V, and I'll be first in line to try it out. Of course, the big problem here with Guilty Spark boils down to one simple fact: he assumes we already know everything. About the Forerunners, about the Flood, about all the procedures and what Halo is... he assumes we know all this already, and probably assumes the Covenant know, too. We don't. We don't know poo poo. Chief could probably have avoided a few problems if someone sat Guilty Spark down and went "Hey. I don't know what you think we know about you, this facility, anything that's been kept here, or the people who made this place, but assume we don't know anything. Because we don't. No one left us a history book on this place or its creators, we're figuring all this poo poo out the hard way."
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Feb 27, 2021 03:24
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Knowing jack poo poo about the Halo setting, everything I've seen about the Flood screams "This is an artificially created bioweapon that got loose and wiped out the Forerunners."
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Feb 27, 2021 04:06
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Ablative posted:You know, I used to like libraries as a kid. That said, I want to say this is the first time in Halo 1 you can find plasma weapons with a full 100% battery charge. All of the other ones dropped by the Covenant up to this point have been anywhere between 60% and 90% battery on average. I always assumed that the battery drain scaled with how much enemies shot at you, but nope, it looks like a Combat form can unload several shots and somehow not drain the battery on plasma weapons.
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Feb 27, 2021 04:59
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I can't believe you had to euthanise all those flood buddies  The floods are loads of fun to fight. Adding in the human weapons on enemies makes some of these fights a lot more exciting, and you get a ready supply of ammo for whichever toys you feel like using. It didn't happen in it's full glory but the carrier forms can trigger chain reactions when their explosions catch grenades on the floor, which can get really crazy in the bigger arena fights. And the infection forms flooding (no pun intended) the motion tracker adds an extra level of hazard if you lose track of the combat forms. All in all, they do a lot of really fun stuff the convenant don't. I have a dirty confession, which is that on my recent replay (I was trying to keep pace with you but accidentally had too much fun and made it halfway through H2) I really enjoyed this level. I'm not a big fan of the new graphics but they go a long way towards making this level better, both with the arrows and just putting definition on all the surfaces. It's thematically reall cool how the flood are literally coming out of the walls, and the floor, and the ceiling, from every direction. Added to that, most of the game you're basically just doing a fight and then walking forwards and then doing another fight and so on, but in this level there's a lot of bits where you just kill what you have to and keep pushing forward. Also just the overall variety of spaces, the rooms look boring but they're a pretty good range of shapes and sizes. Overall it's just a really good showcase for the game's combat, and with the new graphics a lot of my big problems with it are much reduced.
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Feb 27, 2021 12:06
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I love how much people have to say about the Library. It generates very strong opinions.BlazetheInferno posted:This quote gets mentioned in the novelization, and in response, Chief just thinks to himself something along the lines of *"Yeah, buddy, you find me something six times stronger than the MJOLNIR Mark V, and I'll be first in line to try it out. I actually went back and read that part of the book just to see what they say, and it's kind of two things. For one, they don't really have time. From the time 343 Guilty Spark teleports him to the Library to the time they get the Index, they're under constant assault from the Flood, and Spark keeps telling the Chief that they need to hurry. The second, more interesting explanation is that the Chief is actually intentionally playing along with it. Guilty Spark clearly has his own ideas who the Chief is, and if he were to correct him, Spark might stop helping. Deformed Church posted:I can't believe you had to euthanise all those flood buddies I think you've definitely got a point here that the "style" of combat in this level is different and not bad. The gauntlet of being under constant assault from enemies pouring out of the woodwork is fun. It's just the same thing stretched out over a half hour level and there's nothing you can do to make it shorter or easier. I honestly think it would have worked great if it was an intense 5-minute long segment at the end of the swamp level, rather than it's own stand-alone thing.
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Feb 27, 2021 18:07
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Just discovered this thread. I think I’m about your age and Halo played a similarly strong role in my video game habit through high school. I had also played the Marathon games and it’s really funny to me how much they revisited a bunch of ideas from it (group of aliens with different subspecies that are color coded and have a weird hierarchy, for example). Not to mention the explicit references for the Bungie in-crowd (the grunt’s “theyre everywhere!” was something your doofy human AI buddies used to say). Not sure if you’re planning on talking about that more (or maybe you have already and I need to catch up with your videos). it’s been so long since I’ve played some of the Halos that I can’t remember how many actual plot parallels there are, I’ll have to keep an eye out.
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Feb 27, 2021 22:03
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Frog blast the vent core!
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Feb 27, 2021 23:23
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I know that the Flood getting back up has been talked about, but I feel like the mechanic behind it hasn't been mentioned. The infection forms can jump into downed combat forms and make them get back up, right? It's been a long time since I've played, but seeing this level reminded me of carriers being a threat both because they would blow you up, but also because each one could possibly resurrect all of the Flood you'd just killed
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Feb 27, 2021 23:41
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The Door Frame posted:I know that the Flood getting back up has been talked about, but I feel like the mechanic behind it hasn't been mentioned. The infection forms can jump into downed combat forms and make them get back up, right? It's been a long time since I've played, but seeing this level reminded me of carriers being a threat both because they would blow you up, but also because each one could possibly resurrect all of the Flood you'd just killed Nope, in Halo 1 they just stand back up sometimes. In every game since that has been how it worked, though.
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Feb 28, 2021 01:46
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FrenzyTheKillbot posted:I actually went back and read that part of the book just to see what they say, and it's kind of two things. For one, they don't really have time. From the time 343 Guilty Spark teleports him to the Library to the time they get the Index, they're under constant assault from the Flood, and Spark keeps telling the Chief that they need to hurry. The second, more interesting explanation is that the Chief is actually intentionally playing along with it. Guilty Spark clearly has his own ideas who the Chief is, and if he were to correct him, Spark might stop helping. I mean, I get that realistically, there was never a chance to sit him down like that. I just mean, if there had been a chance to stop and sit him down for a second to explain that much, a lot of problems probably could honestly have been avoided.
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Feb 28, 2021 06:09
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BlazetheInferno posted:I mean, I get that realistically, there was never a chance to sit him down like that. I just mean, if there had been a chance to stop and sit him down for a second to explain that much, a lot of problems probably could honestly have been avoided. That's true, but the way I see it is this: Imagine you are guilty spark. You are a life form that can think, and you have personality and emotions. You are purpose built to facilitate the activation of Halo. If he was just an information bot, you could probably get the info while storming the library instead of the pointless color commentary on your inferior weapons and armor. But he's not built that way. He's excited to be fulfilling his purpose, and to see Halo go off. It's more than just killing the flood (which, if Halo was actually effective, should not be a thing), it's also his reason for existing. And it's also pretty clear that this is not the first time Halo has been activated, but it has been a long time. My best guess is that he's bored. So he is positively giddy about getting to watch another cleansing. He's so single minded and focused that he doesn't want to give anyone an option to not activate Halo.
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Feb 28, 2021 12:59
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The Flood being super accurate with rocket launchers is much worse in the original game where this level is visually much darker and easier to get lost in if you lose Guilty Spark. You think you're finally going the right way because you see red on your radar and then suddenly boom.
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Feb 28, 2021 13:47
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CzarChasm posted:(which, if Halo was actually effective, should not be a thing) It was effective in killing off all the Flood outside the testing labs that the forerunners kept them in, just like how we've kept smallpox samples around. Halo is actually a cautionary tale about scientific ethics that got way out of hand. From 343GS' point of view, everything is going according to plan until the Covenant turn up and let the flood out. Then the Chief, exactly the person he needs (although that's not fully explored for a while), turns up heavily armed and armoured in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to activate Halo again. That's exactly what he'd expect to happen in the event of a containment breach, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to assume the Chief is there to activate Halo and just rush into the process.
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Feb 28, 2021 17:07
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BlazetheInferno posted:I mean, I get that realistically, there was never a chance to sit him down like that. I just mean, if there had been a chance to stop and sit him down for a second to explain that much, a lot of problems probably could honestly have been avoided. Yeah fair enough, and I totally agree with you. I think the other point is more interesting anyways, that Master Chief actually avoids asking questions. It's almost definitely a post-rationalization for why he's being a silent protagonist, but it kinda makes sense. Deformed Church posted:It was effective in killing off all the Flood outside the testing labs that the forerunners kept them in, just like how we've kept smallpox samples around. Halo is actually a cautionary tale about scientific ethics that got way out of hand. This is a really good post. Only minor correction is that from Spark's point of view, we're actually under-equipped.
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Feb 28, 2021 20:11
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FrenzyTheKillbot posted:This is a really good post. Only minor correction is that from Spark's point of view, we're actually under-equipped. True. At the very least, we're closer to what's needed than any of the other humans.
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Feb 28, 2021 21:49
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Deformed Church posted:True. At the very least, we're closer to what's needed than any of the other humans. Oh, another thing from the novel, actually: Chief wasn't the first poor bastard Spark dragged through the Library. Enter one SSgt Marvin Mobuto, who, as a regular-rear end human being with regular-rear end Marine gear, made it a drat sight farther than you'd think. And in the process managed to get so torn up the Flood couldn't use his body.
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Mar 1, 2021 02:28
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 08 - Two Betrayals Things are not as they seem, and the battle for control of Halo is getting messy.
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Mar 5, 2021 20:46
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Ice physics show up in Halo 1 exactly three times (four if you count PC multiplayer): Assault on the Control Room, this level, and Sidewinder (and Ice Fields on PC.) The Warthog is the only vehicle affected by it. Halo PC multiplayer has the Banshee and the flamethrower, as mentioned, but it also has a rocket Warthog, and the Fuel Rod Gun. The second betrayal in the title of the level is Bungie's, for making you slog through AotCR's maps again. Also, Widdershins is a real word. Just means "counter-clockwise". Ablative fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Mar 5, 2021 |
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Mar 5, 2021 23:40
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I will always be amused when video game protagonists know perfectly how to operate ancient alien UIs to operate everything in ruins older than the human race. I take it from the 'standard procedure is to purge the galaxy of sentient life' thing that the Forerunners were either mechanical or had casual intergalactic travel. The Flood's giving me pretty severe Beast vibes (as in Homeworld: Cataclysm).
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Mar 5, 2021 23:56
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Ablative posted:Ice physics show up in Halo 1 exactly three times (four if you count PC multiplayer): Assault on the Control Room, this level, and Sidewinder (and Ice Fields on PC.) I realized while I was editing the audio that while I still think it's a neat detail, it's pretty far from "rare". Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, and the N64 Zeldas all had ice physics and that's just off the top of my head. Ablative posted:Also, Widdershins is a real word. Just means "counter-clockwise". Oh, that's really cool. I had always assumed that it was a joke where out of 4 directions, 3 of them were straightforward and the 4th was intentionally nonsense that you would understand by means of elimination. Cythereal posted:I will always be amused when video game protagonists know perfectly how to operate ancient alien UIs to operate everything in ruins older than the human race. We keep saying this, but there is an actual canon explanation for this. Whether it's a "good" explanation or not is a little more up in the air. What I will say is that it's tied to the reason that 343 Guilty Spark keeps calling us "Reclaimer".
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Mar 6, 2021 00:45
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FrenzyTheKillbot posted:We keep saying this, but there is an actual canon explanation for this. Whether it's a "good" explanation or not is a little more up in the air. What I will say is that it's tied to the reason that 343 Guilty Spark keeps calling us "Reclaimer". Are humans the descendants of the "aliens" who made the Halo?
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Mar 6, 2021 03:30
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As far as enemies who will fight each other go, Original Doom did it way back in 1993. It was a bit harder to trigger as only different enemy types would attack each other (no imp on imp violence), and because of that most fights were heavily one sided. Also because it would take more than a stray shot or two from an enemy to piss it off enough to turn on the new attacker. But it was fun back in those days too. IIRC from the novels, Cortana really doesn't exactly "like" Chief at this point. He's an otter box for he, and a jsut big tin can full of muscles, but he's also her only option. So she does seem to enjoy draining his shields whenever possible. I also recall that because her personality is based off the head scientist behind the Mjolnir armor program, she kind of resents being an AI as opposed to a corporeal being, but I might be getting that one wrong.
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Mar 6, 2021 04:01
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White Coke posted:Are humans the descendants of the "aliens" who made the Halo? I know nothing of Halo lore, but that would sure fit the Ringworld influence (humans are descended from Pak who couldn't transform into Pak Protectors). I was also going to mention widdershins being a real world. I've never seen it outside of Pratchett so I've always figured it's either antiquated English or from a dialect I'm not as familiar with.
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Mar 6, 2021 06:08
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Remember, the rings were presumably activated by their creators because the Flood aren't a controlling force in the galaxy when the game starts. I don't know exactly what constitutes "sufficient biomass", but I can only assume that everything with more biomass than an infection form was wiped from the galaxy at least once Also, it seems a bit weird in context that there's no native life on Halo, besides the trees, if the Flood were being experimented on there
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Mar 6, 2021 07:50
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The Door Frame posted:Remember, the rings were presumably activated by their creators because the Flood aren't a controlling force in the galaxy when the game starts. I don't know exactly what constitutes "sufficient biomass", but I can only assume that everything with more biomass than an infection form was wiped from the galaxy at least once If anything, it's weird there are trees. If I had a lab experimenting on something that eats biomass, I'd make it rule number one not to have any unnecessary biomass around. I'd also probably not put that lab too close to the last resort weapon. It's got a 25,000 lightyear range, could maybe keep it a solar system over or something so I don't need to run through the outbreak to stop the outbreak. The forerunners were kind of irresponsible.
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Mar 6, 2021 12:35
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I remember the start of this level being so frustrating I almost quit the game. I started with almost no health, fired off the last of my ammo at Guilty Spark thinking I had to kill it to open the doors* and somehow managed to make a save about two seconds before a flying robot lasered my face off. I died so many goddamn times. Everything after that, though, was a blast. * hooray for old school "incredibly vague idea of what you're supposed to do next" gameplay
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Mar 6, 2021 14:59
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FrenzyTheKillbot posted:Oh, that's really cool. I had always assumed that it was a joke where out of 4 directions, 3 of them were straightforward and the 4th was intentionally nonsense that you would understand by means of elimination. Somebody beat me to it, but with more detail: Before clocks, the two directions for rotation were "deasil" (from the same root that Latin "dexter" comes from, meaning "right" the direction or hand) and "widdershins" (from an older Germanic word meaning "opposite direction"). Clocks made things a lot easier but you still see "widdershins" used in the countryside by older folks in places.
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Mar 6, 2021 18:38
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Deformed Church posted:If anything, it's weird there are trees. If I had a lab experimenting on something that eats biomass, I'd make it rule number one not to have any unnecessary biomass around. I'd also probably not put that lab too close to the last resort weapon. It's got a 25,000 lightyear range, could maybe keep it a solar system over or something so I don't need to run through the outbreak to stop the outbreak. Well, the Flood don't seem to care about the trees, so maybe their food needs nerves? It would be a little goofy to see a Flood pine tree
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Mar 6, 2021 19:04
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Somebody beat me to it, but with more detail: Interesting. I'm familiar with widdershins (mostly because it comes up in fantasy books, especially with witches and similar magic incantation type stuff) but I had no idea it had a counterpart and have never heard the word "deasil".
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Mar 6, 2021 19:56
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The Door Frame posted:Well, the Flood don't seem to care about the trees, so maybe their food needs nerves? It would be a little goofy to see a Flood pine tree Spark mentions they need sufficient mass and cognitive capability.
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Mar 6, 2021 21:11
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Lemniscate Blue posted:Somebody beat me to it, but with more detail: Well, that finally explains Withershins from Elder Scrolls to me.
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Mar 6, 2021 21:17
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Regarding the comments made about just chilling while the Flood and Covenant fight each other, last time I played, I ended up having to do just that. In one of the halls on this level (I think it's the hall at around 18:30 in this newest video), I ran into some Covenant fighting some Flood. That Rocket Launcher Flood was there, and any time I tried to jump into the fight, I would get blasted by the rocket. Eventually, I took the hint (after narrowly dodging ANOTHER rocket), and just sat around the corner and let them duke it out. Eventually, I heard one of the Elites laugh - the same sort of laugh you can occasionally hear after they kill you, and figured "Okay, Elites won, let's go" and went on my way.
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Mar 7, 2021 02:53
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