Zodi Plays: Custom Robo (Redesign Your Robo, We Know What We're Doing)

[DataNinja]

Oh, geez, Zodi. Man, things always seem to go wrong in some way for you, sheesh. Don't sweat over it. We understand the fickle woes of technology.

[Geno9999]

Oof, that's not fun to deal with. At least it sounds like you have a plan B for if it's a hardware issue.

[LaZodiac]

Custom Robo may be delayed, but we do still have a Halo!

Zodi Plays: Halo 2 [2] Warthogs Are Inherently Funny Creatures

Video Length: 37:03

In this episode, we run into the problem of "aaah not sure how to cut these videos because they're just short enough to not be long enough for two videos" which is honestly a pretty good problem to have. We also have some fun times experiencing the gunplay of Halo 2, experience the second new weapon, and see what super HD worm-boys look like. We also... get our first touch with the warthog in this game. And it happened again. It happened AGAIN. I swear I'm cursed when it comes to these vehicles- but like, in the good way.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed! I'll see you all next time for maybe Custom Robo? We'll see!

[DataNinja]

Hoo boy, after a stressful first day of classes and non-working Zoom links, need time to relax.



I see Zod has returned to claim the video titles.


...so, I'm embarrassed to say that the time you call me out as going to know the relevance of something, I actually have no clue what Em might be thinking of.

After a quick refresh, no space elevators are particularly important in the games you've played, or the stories between them. ODST has an elevator around where it's based (which is likely why it didn't come to mind immediately, as I've not played that game, nor really looked into it, so it's the one blind spot I have), and then Contact: Harvest has the 7 elevators that form the Tiara network important to the story (and one of the main character is the AI who manages the Tiara). The thing that sprung to mind first for me was the Cradle refit station that appears in The Fall of Reach, but I knew that was erroneous.
Given that the mention was in between games, Em might also be thinking of the Unyielding Hierophant covenant space station, and attributing some of that to a space elevator.
There are other minor space elevator locations known (such as 6 on reach, and 3 on Arcadia - where Halo Wars essentially begins), but none are beyond any cursory mentions.


Yeah, the Battle Rifle is so satisfying. Really enjoyed using it, it's got some real oomph.


I def noticed coming off of Reach (where most melee attacks were 1-3ish hits to kill on all but the toughest enemies), that the punches in Halo 1 and 2 definitely felt... really weak. They get nice and satisfyingly punchy in 3, though (IMO, at least), and the... excesses of 2 got toned down. I'll definitely agree with Em's reiteration that 3 is way more consistent. 2 has some... issues, like the aforementioned super-accurate insta-death Jackal snipers, and... just a bit too much in the way of damage-sink bulletsponge enemies.


Don't worry, my friend I played with could never remember the names of stuff (other than Banshees). So, Ghosts were Scooty Puff Jr.s, Wraiths Scooty Puff Sr.s, and Phantoms Scooty Puff Sr. Sr.s.


So, the honour thing is pretty much just the Elites. And maybe the Hunters, they're kinda weird, but have kindred souls in the Elites apparently. Everyone else... does not care. Jackals? They're opportunistic pirates. Grunts? Cowardly and will absolutely relish not having to have a fair fight. Drones? Swarming. And so forth.

It's not quite clear who developed the active camouflage techniques - whether it was from before the formation of the Covenant, or after, and if it was originally the Elites that reverse-engineered it, or the Prophets. It seems like it was likely the Elites, due to their prevalent use of it, but it's certainly not exclusive to them. Something that should be noted, though, is that honour does not mean the playing field must be level. Simply that there is a fighting chance. (But, yes, several sources have pointed out the hypocrisy.)

And, yes, there are... definitely some less than honourable things done even within Elite Society (something that comes up in The Cole Protocol, with a younger Thel Vadam - privately there are some rather... unscrupulous things done, such as the sending of assassins after him after his ascent.) The important thing to a lot is that of perception. It matters to some a lot more than it does to others. In addition, humanity is... a rather special case. They have been deemed heretics, irredeemable.

[LaZodiac]

Aaah, I see. Thank you for this information DataNinja!

The more I read about the Covenant, the more I realize... while it's super cool how nuanced and developed they are, sometimes I just want Space Pirates from Metroid. A conglomerate group like the Covenant, but instead of being this huge religious hierarchy with so much detail and stuff... it's a bunch of psychotic science nerds and war hungry morons doing mad experiments on or for each other. There is something utterly simplistic and pure about the Space Pirates, and I love them for it.

Because sometimes that pure simplicity leads to wonderful things. The Covenant see Master Chief and are like "ah, Demon, despoiler, eradicate him" and te Space Pirates see Samus and go "ah **** it's the Hunter everyone load all of your guns. Try not to step on the mangled carcasses left over from us trying to emulate her cool robot suit's ability to become an orb, which is genuinely useless an ablity for us to steal but we wanted to do it because Science Team thought it'd be cool"

There's something... beautiful, about the stupidity of the Space Pirates, that the Covenant will never quite reach.

[DataNinja]

That's fair, but... it's really to each their own. Like, I definitely enjoy the more nuance here, because... I dunno, it feels like it gives some more life. I can delve deep in it, and it's all cool. But, the important part here is it's all in the type of game that it's trying to be.

The whole core of Metroid is on Samus. On what she does. So it makes sense that the enemies are pretty much all single-note enemies, focused on her. While Halo trends a lot more towards the sci-fi epic sort of thing. Where you need a developed world. Because the story is not just Master Chief's. It's his, and Cortana's, and Johnson's, and Keyes', and the story of the Humans and the Covenant and the Forerunners. There are things going on beyond the single battles, because that's the story they want to tell. There needs to be that sort of nuance, because the aim is towards a world that feels more... human, and living, in a way that Metroid generally can't (yes, there are exceptions, *cough* Baby Metroid). A vast world that makes you feel small at times. Because it's not just about you. It's about the survival of humanity in a way that's more than just a short text blurb.

Neither are necessarily better than the other. It's all in the preferences. Though, I can tell from all your comments that you seem to tend to skew towards the small-scale single-character focus stories. Which isn't bad, by any stretch, it just means that you might not quite be the ideal audience.

The nice thing, at least, is that you don't need to delve too deeply into the Halo lore. There can... definitely be issues (transition from 1 to 2, for instance, but that was more a necessity of making a fun game), but, for the most part, it's... fairly simple. But, yes, there can sometimes be a bit too much politics for some people.

[12milematt]

it's really funny to be saying "halo is too nuanced, I kinda liked something simple and straightforward". The covenant IS really quite nuanced, if you know the lore. Ironically, it's the UNSC that I think is underdeveloped. You hear religious zealouts and you think it's gonna be simple all of them are just enraptured with whatever their religion is, and maybe if we're gonna be really biting we'll have the people at the top be corrupt manipulators. And on the surface the covenant appears to be that, but (and we'll see this later) one layer under the surface you see how much of it is 100% political factionism all the way from top to bottom, with the extent to which a faction is truly devout or just opportunistic being highly variable. Not only the faction, the individual. Was the individual San'shyuum on the council who called out "It was heresy!" during the arbiter's trial doing that because they genuinely believed it was heresy, or because they stood to benefit from the downfall of the greatest general in the covenant? Deeper into the lore it becomes clearer and clearer how virtually the entire covenant was built on conquest-first-conversion-later style alliances and that the risk of a covenant civil war is never far out of the minds of the leaders.

[DataNinja]

Ironically, it's the UNSC that I think is underdeveloped.

That's something that at least gets a certain amount of development in the prequels, with the Insurrectionists, but... yeah, it's never really touched on, given that humanity's basically on the back foot most of the war. They're mainly presented as something recognisable, and in contrast to the Covenant. Some of the more recent external media touches on stuff, but

Spoiler: Serious spoilers

Show

Spoiler: Humans

Show

Basically the main focus we get is on ONI and their operatives, and how pretty much everyone in high command at ONI is basically a conniving jerk working to undermine the public peace and wipe out the fractured Covenant races. Like... I get it, sure, but... these are the people who are being presented as the heroes. It just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth to have that be the development that's gotten, presented in the way it is.

Spoiler: Forerunners

Show

In a similar vein, I hate what's done with the Forerunners. Halo is very much a mythic story arc. The past just needs broad strokes. And I get that reality is often grittier... but, I dunno, it just seems pretty mean-spirited (and also lazy) to go "yep, these beings who've been built up as wise and noble were actually colossal self-aggrandizing jerks. Who jealously stomped down everyone grasping for their position. And who ruthlessly killed their own predecessors to claim that mantle of responsibility for people, stealing it from humanity."

Sure, fine, there definitely needed to be some reason that humanity was chosen, but... uuugggggh, I hate how it was gone about. Okay, rants over.

[Lord Raziere]

On Halo 2, Episode 2:
"Dear Humanity we regret that we live in the same universe as Master Chief and his canonically phenomenal luck"
No really, that is MC's special "thing": he is just cosmically lucky beyond all reason, which is a better explanation than the usual chosen one justification. but yeah, Johnson's speech there is why he is a fan-favorite enough to return despite having no logical reason to do so

okay. ow, that laughter. besides, that sitting pose is to make sure MC can point his gun over the windshield to kill people from more than one direction and still be stable.

I mean in MC's boot camp, they probably DID teach him that way to sit. guy's literally trained his entire life to be the most perfect soldier he can possibly be. and even if they didn't, its probably something the Spartan II's worked out themselves to fight better. because fighting the best they possibly can is their only goal, purpose and what they've known in life

[LaZodiac]

I hope that means you liked the laughter Raziere

Anyway continuing my descent into Everything Goes Wrong, I accidently knocked over where I keep my mic. Here is how the connector to the Snowball looks now.

I don't imagine this is fixable, and I don't know if it's safe, though no audio quality drop has been had and I want to emphasize it is not LOOSE, so there is no internal damage I believe. Still, frustrating to see happen, especially given my history with microphones...

[DataNinja]

Oof, yeah, geez... that's not a part I'd want to take any chances with. That sucks big time...

Sheesh, what is it with you and tech luck? Did you insult a tech genie or something?

[LaZodiac]

The game has given me a tank. The expected has happened.

Zodi Plays: Halo 2 [3] Tanks For Playing

Video Length: 33:06

In this episode, we continue... what is story wise basically nothing of importance. We're in one area of one city trying to get through one miniscle chunk of this invasion, and by the end of it we have destroyed one(1) Scarab Walker, which isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. Hell, the flag ship we were trying to get too warps away and destroys the entire city before we can even GET to it!

But because the game just plays so much better than Halo 1, and has so much better understanding of how to make things, it feels so much more fun to play and experience. Halo 2 is pretty fantastic so far and I'm excited to see where else we go.

[12milematt]

In which zodi admits her contempt for everyone in this thread

[DataNinja]

There basically wasn't really much to say about Cortana. She met Chief when he got his newest set of Mjolnir armour. They ran a test on Reach to see its capabilities (a... lethal test, set up by Halsey's ONI rival), and then an operation was planned to capture a covenant Prophet to force them to make peace.

That operation never came to pass, because Reach fell, and then Halo 1 started. So there really isn't that much history. It's really just the continuation of the joke where Chief comes to the awards ceremony in his armour, and is the perfect soldier but nothing else. And the dry humour that exists between them.


Oh, neat. I never knew the music changed between the two. Because, uh, I was stuck to original mode. So, that's cool to know!
...also, I never managed to get the tank through in this section. Because the stupid ambushing phantoms + touchpad means I was never able to swivel fast enough to take 'em out quickly.
Also, yeah, you can be damaged separately - you might die, but your tank'll still be fine. Only really matters for multiplayer, admittedly.


You can't pick up empty weapons, presumably so you can know by prompting if something is worth picking up - since you can just pick up the guns that'd give you more ammo anyways. It's the same reason you'll only get the prompt to swap plasma weapons if the new weapon has more charge than your current one. It's actually a good game design decision - you'll only get prompts for useful things.


The point of the Covie stuff using percent charge is that it's a little more alien, probably. And then you've got stuff like the plasma pistol that drains different amounts whether overcharged or single shot, and also slowly drains while charge is held.


Yeah, Hijacking Wraths is... awkward. You have to physically look for the sign your Melee killed the driver. Then hop off, and then hop in, and hope there wasn't enough damage already that your meleeing blows it up. It's not until Reach gets some better vanilla sniping weapons and hitboxes that you can much more easily snipe off the cover and snipe out the driver with only having the driver exposed and the rest of the tank 100%.


A billion humans is a lot less than you might expect, given that 7 billion people're on Earth now, but the outer colonies are much, much more sparsely populated. Just as a side note for the number.


So, uh, fun fact for when I was playing. I didn't know it was apparently a bug (ha) at the time, but the scarab was, uh, just walking back and forth in that area where you picked up the rockets, just after the stairwell. I think we broke it because we jumped down to where it came from and thought that's where we were supposed to go. So drove around, confused. ...and I spent a lot of time getting the warthog up those stairs.


Man, everything's so much more cinematic in HD.

In which zodi admits her contempt for everyone in this thread

Meh. Nobody has right opinions all the time.

[Lord Raziere]

On Halo 2, Episode 3:
Yea, I can back up Dataninja: They have no real history, Cortana got to choose a Spartan when she was going to be sent on a dangerous mission that basically boiled down to "kidnap the alien leaders to hold them hostage for peace or bust" and she chose MC because he is the best and luckiest guy alive. She has however read his files and know what pain he has gone through as opposed to most of the UNSC, who while they revealed his existence they didn't really tell anybody HOW they made him. Like one soldier in the book thinks he is a robot under the armor.

Zodi, that was just me don't blame the thread for the stuff I say, I know I'm interesting, but come on. I was just point out that is what it looked like MC was doing, because otherwise he'd be shooting through the glass, which might be bulletproof in the future. also you'd be surprised at some of the things a military does for maximum effectiveness.

Master Chief decided that, he is a soldier, why would pick up something that is ineffective? he needs effective things. prompts for picking up useless things is for open-ended rpg sandboxes.

I mean both Vadam'ee and Master Chief are basically soldiers who kill a lot of people, neither of their hands are clean honestly.

yeaaahh....breaking the speed of light in the middle of a city would probably have a lot of bad consequences for the people in it.

[LaZodiac]

...also, I never managed to get the tank through in this section. Because the stupid ambushing phantoms + touchpad means I was never able to swivel fast enough to take 'em out quickly.
Also, yeah, you can be damaged separately - you might die, but your tank'll still be fine. Only really matters for multiplayer, admittedly.


You can't pick up empty weapons, presumably so you can know by prompting if something is worth picking up - since you can just pick up the guns that'd give you more ammo anyways. It's the same reason you'll only get the prompt to swap plasma weapons if the new weapon has more charge than your current one. It's actually a good game design decision - you'll only get prompts for useful things.

Do you not... have a mouse? Why would you use the touchpad for aiming?

Oh you know that is a good point about the empty guns. Still sucks if you say, drop a gun you really liked but had no ammo for though!

Zodi, that was just me don't blame the thread for the stuff I say, I know I'm interesting, but come on. I was just point out that is what it looked like MC was doing, because otherwise he'd be shooting through the glass, which might be bulletproof in the future. also you'd be surprised at some of the things a military does for maximum effectiveness.

Master Chief decided that, he is a soldier, why would pick up something that is ineffective? he needs effective things. prompts for picking up useless things is for open-ended rpg sandboxes.

I mean both Vadam'ee and Master Chief are basically soldiers who kill a lot of people, neither of their hands are clean honestly.

yeaaahh....breaking the speed of light in the middle of a city would probably have a lot of bad consequences for the people in it.

I've got an ex military Dad I have an idea of it. And don't worry me going "the thread" is usually just me going "I forgot who said it since it's been a week oops my brain is dumb"

Yeah rip that city probably... and us unless we somehow got on board.

[DataNinja]

Do you not... have a mouse? Why would you use the touchpad for aiming?

Oh you know that is a good point about the empty guns. Still sucks if you say, drop a gun you really liked but had no ammo for though!

Yeah rip that city probably... and us unless we somehow got on board.

I, in fact, do not have a mouse! (I believe we covered this when it came to Mark of the Ninja.) Though in that day's case, it's mainly because I was stupid that day, and misplaced my controller. There's a reason we stopped after that level. Thankfully, it was found. But that was... not my proudest day. My laptop does not have one, and I can't really use a wireless one, because I don't have any adequate surfaces in the house to properly play on - I use a little folding, like, tv tray table for my laptop, as that's the only thing that's proper chair height, so, uh... yeah. And my laptop is a potato that crashed the game trying to render the HD settings. Tldr: My setup is bad and I should feel bad.

Yeah, but presumably the point is you could... just pick up the gun you liked the next time you found said gun you liked.

Well... you did have Johnson come by in an evac Pelican, and a Pelican was seen going into the spaceship, so...

[Ninja_Prawn]

Zodi, that was just me don't blame the thread for the stuff I say

For the record, I agree with Raziere's interpretation. #silentmajority

I thought it was pretty clear that the MC sits on the headrest to get a better field of fire, and gets away with it because his powered armour can brace him in that position safely. We know he's capable of sinking into the seat normally, because he does that when he's behind the wheel.

[LaZodiac]

I, in fact, do not have a mouse! (I believe we covered this when it came to Mark of the Ninja.) Though in that day's case, it's mainly because I was stupid that day, and misplaced my controller. There's a reason we stopped after that level. Thankfully, it was found. But that was... not my proudest day. My laptop does not have one, and I can't really use a wireless one, because I don't have any adequate surfaces in the house to properly play on - I use a little folding, like, tv tray table for my laptop, as that's the only thing that's proper chair height, so, uh... yeah. And my laptop is a potato that crashed the game trying to render the HD settings. Tldr: My setup is bad and I should feel bad.

Yeah, but presumably the point is you could... just pick up the gun you liked the next time you found said gun you liked.

Well... you did have Johnson come by in an evac Pelican, and a Pelican was seen going into the spaceship, so...

Quite a powerful thing, to play a shooter without a mouse. You must be pretty good!

I'll admit I didn't see that at all. The pelican going into the space ship did not register in my brain as a thing that happened.

For the record, I agree with Raziere's interpretation. #silentmajority

I thought it was pretty clear that the MC sits on the headrest to get a better field of fire, and gets away with it because his powered armour can brace him in that position safely. We know he's capable of sinking into the seat normally, because he does that when he's behind the wheel.

I can see that I was just lightly contesting that this is a real thing, because it really feels like in that position you'd have waaay less stability for firing, especially in movement.

[DataNinja]

Quite a powerful thing, to play a shooter without a mouse. You must be pretty good!

I'll admit I didn't see that at all. The pelican going into the space ship did not register in my brain as a thing that happened.

...nope. I am not good at all. You die far less than I do on a regular basis. It was a Mistake(tm). I died a lot more. Never. Again.

All good. It's easy to miss stuff, so I might as well put the dots there to connect.

[Lord Raziere]

I can see that I was just lightly contesting that this is a real thing, because it really feels like in that position you'd have waaay less stability for firing, especially in movement.

I mean its probably only possible because he is a super-soldier with reflexes, strength and so on in a suit that breaks the arm of anyone who tries to use it that isn't him with its basic movements, and even then he had to train awhile to get used to it because he has to both think about moving and move at the same time to get full use out of it? Not to mention that he is literally experiencing time in a degree of slow motion ever since he got enhanced. can't really evaluate him on normal soldier rules.

[DataNinja]

I mean its probably only possible because he is a super-soldier with reflexes, strength and so on in a suit that breaks the arm of anyone who tries to use it that isn't him with its basic movements, and even then he had to train awhile to get used to it because he has to both think about moving and move at the same time to get full use out of it? Not to mention that he is literally experiencing time in a degree of slow motion ever since he got enhanced. can't really evaluate him on normal soldier rules.

I'm pretty sure Zodi's issue is that you made it sound kind of that it was A Real Thing That Actual People Did, and she was refuting that. Rather than an explanation as to why the model does what it does.

besides, that sitting pose is to make sure MC can point his gun over the windshield to kill people from more than one direction and still be stable.

I mean in MC's boot camp, they probably DID teach him that way to sit. guy's literally trained his entire life to be the most perfect soldier he can possibly be. and even if they didn't, its probably something the Spartan II's worked out themselves to fight better. because fighting the best they possibly can is their only goal, purpose and what they've known in life

[LaZodiac]

Either way, my point wasn't to put anyone on blast about it. My apologies if it feels that way.

[DataNinja]

Either way, my point wasn't to put anyone on blast about it. My apologies if it feels that way.

Nah, the only ones you're blasting are the Covenant. And occasionally one or more Spartans.

[LaZodiac]

I return from the void to bring you ROBO BATTLES.

Zodi Plays: Custom Robo [35] Flying Robo CPU Battle

Video Length: 22:35

In this episode, we shake off the rust with another tournament; and this one is kind of tricky! A single use restriction battle against aerial masters, the Funky Big Heads and the Lightning Skies. A test to see how well you are at fighting that sort of enemy, which makes a degree of sense. Additionally, we get a return to form as the "NPCS" we talk to in this one have a lot of dialogue to give us! Still paltry compared to the main story mode, but with Grand Battle I'll take what I can get!

But yeah, I'm glad to be back in the saddle. Sickness, depression, having to migrate my saves, and just being swamped with so much other stuff, lead to an in my opinion kind of inexcusable hiatus from me. But now I'm back, and we're going to do this! Thanks again to Qwertystop for the assist on this, and thank you all for your patience. I look forward to seeing the end of this game, and more, in the days to come!

[DataNinja]

Yay! The triumphant return!

Yay, unique dialogue!

Also, you? Like needle guns? Naaaahhhh.

[LaZodiac]

Yay! The triumphant return!

Yay, unique dialogue!

Also, you? Like needle guns? Naaaahhhh.

Pew pew.

Also, hey! Wombat of Doom, wonderful Zelda tracker and all around good friend, promised me he would make some fan art if I did the Horseback Archery Challenge in Ocarina of Time with a maximum score, time allowing. I did so, and four years later... time allowed!

The Legend of Zodi begins here!

[Qwertystop]

Glad to see you back.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Pew pew.

Also, hey! Wombat of Doom, wonderful Zelda tracker and all around good friend, promised me he would make some fan art if I did the Horseback Archery Challenge in Ocarina of Time with a maximum score, time allowing. I did so, and four years later... time allowed!

The Legend of Zodi begins here!

Very nice!

I actually watched that video recently, since I never completed Ocarina of Time (I got tilted by the hover boots in the Shadow Temple and never went back to it before I sold my N64) and wanted to check out some of the stuff I missed.

[LaZodiac]

I'm hungry... time for something TASTY!

A Taste Of: JOTUN

Video Length: 27:13

Happy thorsday, it's time to get a taste for JOTUN, a very beautiful isometric beat em up game. A less nuanced take might be to call it Dark Souls like, given it has an emphasis on fighting huge monsters, dodge rolling, methodical attacks and a limited healing system, but honestly it fits my description better. We play as Thora, a burly viking woman who has been lost in a storm, probably to her death. But of course, death is not the end in Norse mythology- though it appears poor Thora will have to prove herself to the gods first.

Suffice to say, this game is excellent. Go play it!