NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm not referring to Halo's technology, which is centuries ahead of our time, or the battle with aliens, which isn't actually happening, but instead to the AI controlling the Human Marines and they way they fight.

In real life, when you have an automatic weapon, what you do not do is put it on full auto and blast out your entire magazine in ten seconds. This is bad for many reasons. It's extremely inaccurate, depletes your ammunition shockingly quickly, and wastes many bullets when a single one would do the job. What you do do is fire short, controlled bursts. Around five rounds to each burst, your aim will be exponentially better, you'll still have something to shoot after five minutes, and you don't waste more ammunition than you need to. I don't know this from personal experience, you're reading a post by a guy who's never fired a gun in his life, but by simple common sense and by talking to people who have fired guns in their lives (I tell you, there are just so many benefits to living next to a Marine). But what does this have to do with Halo you ask? I'll tell you.

In Halo, the Marines fire just as I described the good shooting. They fire in quick bursts, don't waste entire magazines on a single enemy, and pause between shots. It works excellent against Grunts and Hunters (To an extent), but against Jackals and Elites it's a death sentence for the Marine. Why? Because the Jackals and Elites aren't human. They posess alien technology, and included in that is energy shields which really screw with anybody trying to kill them. An Elites energy shield requires nearly a full magazine to be taken down, and more still to kill the Elite. If the shield is only partially damaged it recharges if unattacked for a short period of time, so the pauses the Marines take allow the Elite to simply go back to full health while they keep the damage the Elite has inflictd upon them. A Jackal requires nearly an entire magazine to have its shield knocked out of the way so its body is unprotected. The Marines simply don't do this, they keep shooting small bursts right into the Jackals shield and the bullets keep bouncing off, not enough lead being thrown to force the Jackal to move. When it is necessary they still don't go full auto, and the result is that the Elites and Jackals simply shrug off the bullets and massacre the Humans. It's not pretty.

Normally in video games the AI is always either over or under kill, throwing grenades and hosing bullets as if they were water or taking a single shot every five minutes. You rarely get an AI that is restrained by real-life common sense which isn't in-game common sense. The result: Marines that would kick ass against human opponents, but who just aren't programmed to competently attack their in-game foes. A pity.

But isn't it cool when they die from a grenade and fly across the entire level?

Having not played Halo... how large are 'elites' and 'jackles'? Going Full auto means you will miss, waste your ammo and not hit jack. Assuming Halo models recoil this still holds true. Burst is always better. Preferably 3 round bursts...

You would think that they would learn after the first Halo that burst fire wouldn't work on them.

Anyway, thats one nasty AI bug/glitch/bad thing.

Elite:

http://www.toyboxer.com/images/full/JOYRIDE_activeCamoElite2.jpg

Jackal:

http://www.microsoft.com/taiwan/games/halo_pc/IMG/enemies_jackal.jpg

Elites are 8 feet tall beasts that are the best of the Convenant military (Hence the name 'Elite')

Jackals are a lot smaller, smaller than the average full grown male, and used primarily for scouting and sniping. As you can see in the picture, the Jackals energy shield is more of an actual shield, a physical barrier held by the alien (hence my statement about the Marines needing to knock it out of the way) whereas the Elites energy shield covers the entire body (Hence my statement about them needing to wear it down).

In the opening post I mentioned the effect on accuracy that full automatic fire has, but the decreased accuracy would be compensated by the rather close proximity between the two when they're fighting (Usually up close ad personal) and by the fact that it is necessary to get as much lead into the air as possible when facing these two enemies.

Having not played Halo... how large are 'elites' and 'jackles'? Going Full auto means you will miss, waste your ammo and not hit jack. Assuming Halo models recoil this still holds true. Burst is always better. Preferably 3 round bursts...
they are very big.


Also jackals can be easily taken out with one shot, if you get the bullet through the opening in the shield, or simply run around them fast.



But anyway, Halo AI is very very very good overall.

wort wort

I usually just unload my cartridges while running frantically towards the aliens and then hit them on the head with the empty gun. :D

Really though, in Halo the missile launcher is just as deadly being swung like a club as when you're shooting it. My friend taught me that one...

That's usuaully what I do, too, but we're talking about the Marines, not the human players.

Well, given that very few marines have survived an attack by an elite, it isn't surprising that they wouldn't know the proper tactics to deal with something covered by a shield.
And since it's almost impossible to knock out a jackel's shield with ballistic weapons, it's actually a better strategy to shoot bursts, as eventually they will move from behind their shield and take a bullet.
Also, the burst meathod is still a good strategy when there are several marines, and their bursts are staggered, so as to keep a continual stream of lead hitting them.

Pardon me for laughing, but it's a video game.

Dude the storyline of the game is that the humans are losing to the Covenant...

With this knowledge don't you think that the Covenant kicks more human ass than the humans kick theirs (excluding installation 04)

Normally in video games the AI is always either over or under kill, throwing grenades and hosing bullets as if they were water or taking a single shot every five minutes. You rarely get an AI that is restrained by real-life common sense which isn't in-game common sense. The result: Marines that would kick ass against human opponents, but who just aren't programmed to competently attack their in-game foes. A pity.

But isn't it cool when they die from a grenade and fly across the entire level?

In operation flashpoint it is highly realistic and i think the AI are made fair.
and the glitches are great, when bullets pass through you or bombs tickle you.

You obviously don't play many games, Mr.Topicman.

In Halo, when I get bored, I decide that my marines are cruel bastards who must die. So I throw grenades at them.

You obviously don't play many games, Mr.Topicman.

I've played a lot more than you think. It's just that I can't say that any of them come close to being "realistic".

In operation flashpoint it is highly realistic and i think the AI are made fair.
and the glitches are great, when bullets pass through you or bombs tickle you.

:eek:

How on earth do you do those glitches?!

When I hear people talking about how "realistic" a video game is in representing combat, or how "realistic" a paintball game is, I am reminded of something from a while back.

So we're at an airbase, the Blackhawk's rotors are going, the general and PSD team are onboard and I'm sitting behind the pilots, plugged into the intercom.

At the last minute, four cooks climb on board, hitching a ride to the next destination, completely oblivious to the rest of the crew. They jack into the intercoms and kick back for the ride. At one point I start hearing whispering over the headset. The cooks were eying the operators' tricked out M4s with all the doodads conventional rear-area soldiers haven't seen before."

Cook #1: "Hey, do ya see dat rifle?"

Cook #2: "Yeah dawg, dat shit is tight!"

Cook #1: "I seen dat shit in Eraser! It shoots like plasma boolets or some shit."

Cook #2: "For real?"

Cook #1: "True! And you see that scope? It can see ya bones!!!"

They had no clue that we could hear what they were saying and it was even funnier that they sounded kind of scared talking about it. Everyone was dying over that one.

Cyrian space, while bullets won't destroy a Jackals shield, they will press against it and push it out of the way, exposing the Jackal itself to your wrath.

Whispering Legs, laugh on baby!

The Vuhifellian States, it is stated (Both in the game and in the novels) that the Covenant are kicking human ass because of their advanced technology, which is mainly scavenged from other races, and not because they are any smarter than humans. Also, is is repeatedly stated that in ground combat the humans and Covenant are often equally matched, since a bullet will kill you just as well as a plasma bolt will (The same is not true for space combat, where Plasma weaponry is much more effective than missiles).

Whispering Legs (again) I'm not saying Halo is a realistic game, merely that this once facet of the game is. Not realistic is the guns themselves that Marines are using, the vehicles they drive, their enemies, and so much more. I might be a FPS junkie with a Sci-Fi fetish, but I'm not so far gone that I think real life is like that.

If you have ever played halo or halo 2 on legendary you will realize that the enimies are MUCH harder but the marines stay the same.....But think about this, they probably could make the marines perfect but what fun would come out of that. the marines would kill everything in the room in a couple seconds. I dont know about you but i love it when a marine of two dies and another one shots "you'll pay for that you bastered" and it gives you a sense of actualy being there. or would you like your marines to do all the work for you....................just a thought:)

Maintain discipline.

the point of an energy weapon (plasma or lazer) is that it has no recoil, and you don't have to reaim with every burst.

I'd have to say that Splinter Cell's AI are also pretty realistic; they do similar things with their weapons.

When I hear people talking about how "realistic" a video game is in representing combat, or how "realistic" a paintball game is, I am reminded of something from a while back.

So we're at an airbase, the Blackhawk's rotors are going, the general and PSD team are onboard and I'm sitting behind the pilots, plugged into the intercom.

At the last minute, four cooks climb on board, hitching a ride to the next destination, completely oblivious to the rest of the crew. They jack into the intercoms and kick back for the ride. At one point I start hearing whispering over the headset. The cooks were eying the operators' tricked out M4s with all the doodads conventional rear-area soldiers haven't seen before."

Cook #1: "Hey, do ya see dat rifle?"

Cook #2: "Yeah dawg, dat shit is tight!"

Cook #1: "I seen dat shit in Eraser! It shoots like plasma boolets or some shit."

Cook #2: "For real?"

Cook #1: "True! And you see that scope? It can see ya bones!!!"

They had no clue that we could hear what they were saying and it was even funnier that they sounded kind of scared talking about it. Everyone was dying over that one.

LOL!

I am bookmarking this post.