What The HEK Is That
TURBO in the #HBO IRC channel pointed out the new Halo Editing Kit screenshot over at Cortana.org. It appears to be showing what we can only assume is shot of a Halo level being edited in 3ds Max.
Death by intelligence.
You Want Me On That Wall
VideoMannumbuh1 writes in the HBO forum that the Fortress Gulch mod, which places a huge wall in the middle of Blood Gulch (among other things) has been released.
Postpose Begins Beta Testing Aquaduct Two
Pfhorslayer writes on the Postpose Software website that the development of Aquaduct Two, the Macintosh-based Xbox tunneler, is proceeding nicely:
Halo Hacking Tool More Helpful
HHHT has been updated to version 1.40, and fixes some bugs as well as adds some new features. Thanks BOLL. Go to Omnight.com to download the new version.
Bringing It To The Next Level
[image:7214 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]A couple more projects are underway to bring new netmaps to PC Halo, still without the as-yet-unreleased Halo Editing Kit. (We're pretty sure that's going to become part of the official name at this point.)
Madrox is creating a new multiplayer level out of the architecture at the top of Boarding Action, with some new architecture as well using a technique known as "multi-inject". There's a video over at HaloMods.
Someone's In The Engine Room With Devin
Devin Olsen and Gil27 have put up a movie and some screenshots of multiplayer action on the engine room portion of The Maw. You may remember that a poll at Halo Mods asked what level, after the Library, should be converted into a multiplayer level, and this was one of the choices.
The map isn't available for download yet, but it might be... sometime...
SparkEdit Gets Another Patch
Version 3.02 of the Halo map editor SparkEdit is available over at HaloMods. It fixes a few minor errors. Thanks Grenadiac.
Marathon Resurrection Nears Completion, Solicits Help
Tycho has posted over in the Marathon Resurrection forum (and mentioned in ours) that the last texture (in this case, the Tick) has been finished, paving the way for this four-year-long project to bring the content of the original Marathon game to the Unreal engine to finally be completed.
Halo Editing Kit Testing Underway
Steve at Cortana.org writes that the Halo Editing Kit testing is indeed going on right now. Good news!
You Can Do Anything With Lincoln Logs
Devin Olsen has put up a modification of the Blood Gulch level for PC Halo; it features several new base areas, some floating midair, and constructed out of logs. There's a post in the HBO forum where you can get the download details (and a server address where they'll be playing it), and another where you can view some screenshots.
SparkEdit Gets A Little More Spark
A few bugs in the 3.0 release needed fixing, so now there's SparkEdit 3.01. Don't spend the .01 all in one place, guys, and check HaloMods for the latest version. There's also a promotional video for the program.
Halo Editor SparkEdit 3 Released
Grenadiac has put up version 3 of the PC Halo level editor SparkEdit up at HaloMods. Also, earlier this month, somehow it escaped our notice that another Halo editing app, HMT, is being ported to the Macintosh at MacHaloMods.
Marathon & Beyond Demo Released
Steve at Forerunners.org writes that a three-level demo of the upcoming Marathon & Beyond scenario for Bungie's Marathon shooter. It is available from the Marathon & Beyond page. Right now it seems that the scenario is about one-third complete.
Halo Editing Kit FAQ At Gearbox
Progamerz has put up a short FAQ on the Halo Editing Kit with answers from Gearbox programmer Hellface. The release of the kit (as with the 1.04 patch) they say is up to Bungie and Microsoft now, and not Gearbox. Thanks rapture via Louis Wu of HBO.
H/SCM - 05
Well, if you haven't already read any of my previous blog entries then you should likely not care about this one either, but just in case you were interested you can read parts 01, 02, 03 and 04 at your leisure. That being said I will continue with part 05. The focus of this final installment will be possible plot connections to the Halo storyline.
Marathon, er.. Halo Connections:
Taking into account all of the possible unknowns regarding the Halo storyline I feel that the only true suitable scenario for a mod such as this would regard the time directly after the Covenant discover (or vice-versa possibly) humans along the outlying colonies. In this manner there would be less reliance upon Spartans and upper echelon Covenant soldiers.
So far my favorite scenario would entail a small interplanetary group of civil and military humans exploring a few of the outer worlds in search of more habitable environments. In their searching they come across a small moon (one of se7en?) orbiting above a gaseous planet. As they set out to explore the moon they uncover the remains of a civilization. Without the proper means to decipher or interpret what happened to the now abandoned settlement the group decides to gather what information and artifacts they can and take them back to their colony after completing their survey mission(s).
Back upon their ship, one of the crew accidently(?) activiates one of the artifacts, which begins to transmit a subspace signal to an unknown source. As the crew frantically attempts to shut down or at least determine what the signal is transmitting, they decide it would be best to return the artifact to the planet and report directly back to their colony. With little to no mishap the crew reports back to their colony and decides to continue with their survey mission after a short hiatus.