glyphstrip FAQ button
Halo.bungie.org
glyphstrip
Frequently Asked Forum Questions
 Search the HBO News Archives

Any All Exact 
Search the Halo Updates DBs

Halo Halo2 
Search Older Posts on This Forum:
Posts on Current Forum | Archived Posts


Re: Hard light *minor SP*
Posted By: Quirel <I_am_quirel@hotmail.com>Date: 11/13/12 2:44 p.m.

In Response To: Re: Hard light *minor SP* (Archilen)


: Yeah, I liked it when it was used sparingly and in a way it could still make
: more sense - hard light looked like light and couldn't be used to form
: complex shapes or mimic actual matter. There were clearly established
: rules to the tech, but 343i seems to have gone the way of interpreting
: hard light as this all-powerful magitech that can do anything.

Thanks for giving me a chance to post this spoof IGN article I wrote a few days back.

"It all started with this one scene," Frank O'Conner, Franchise Director at 343i explained. "We had this really cool scene in mind, but we couldn't really get it to stick. You can drop the Chief from orbit, you can make him run through a Flood-infested labyrinth, and he'd come out alright. But what we had in mind? Not to get too spoilery, but we didn't have a fridge for him to take cover in."

"You should have seen the looks on our faces when an intern finally came up with a way out. Hardlight."

You've seen Hardlight before, right in the first game. Despite what it's humble appearance may indicate, Hardlight is actually one of the foundational aspects of Forerunner technology.

"Don't let appearances fool you," Kevin Grace, Franchise Manager at 343 Industries piped in. "The Forerunner aren't limited to simple geometric shapes. And those massive projectors? Just for show. Cortana could have surrounded the Chief in a skin-tight (well, armor-tight, ya know?) shell of Hardlight, strong enough to survive a point blank nuclear explosion, in the few nanoseconds it takes to detonate a nuke."

"Yeah. That was spoilery, wasn't it? Eh, just print it after we release Halo 4."

Well, once news got around of our Hardlight solution, other departments realized that it was a solution to their problems as well. Among them were the gameplay people, headed by Jesse Snyder.

"Forerunner weapons. How do they work? Well, obviously, they're going to be mechanically identical to the Human weapons, because Forerunner are basically just advanced humans. But they can't shoot bullets, because that's what Human weapons do."

The answer was Hardlight. Hardlight bullets for the Forerunner battle rifle, bouncy hardlight bullets for the break-open shotgun, and balls of hardlight that convert enemies into raw hardlight on impact.

"We had to show ranks within the Promethean enemies. Using different colors was what Bungie would have done, but it's a pretty hokey way to do it. So, we went with Hardlight spikes and Hardlight skulls under those helmets, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect a civilized race to have."

"The real gamechanger was applying the Hardlight to an armor ability. Players have wanted to pick up Jackal energy shields since the first game. We were looking at that as a way to replace Armor Lock, but it wasn't exactly OUR way of doing things. If we had more time, we probably would have redesigned the JES entirely, but we devoted those resources towards the Hardlight Shield."

"It's not very durable, because you're using Hardlight to emulate energy shields. And an Energy Sword will go right through it because it's made of razor-sharp Hardlight."

"Storywise," Frank O'Conner stated. "We're very lucky to be working in a universe with a powerful force like Hardlight, because it opens up so many opportunities. We were in a bind because the Didact's personality, demeanor, even his appearance was different from the way he was in Greg Bear's books. Then someone who worked on the Metroid Prime series suggested Hardlight corruption. He's pure evil now, more evil than the Covenant have ever been, and he's got new powers from the Hardlight corruption."

The new powers are readily apparent when you first meet the Didact, where he throws the Chief around with the power of his mind. Telekinesis? Nope. He has subliminal control of Ultraviolet Hardlight. Same as the other stuff, just invisible.

"Of course, he's not the only one with Hardlight powers. The Librarian, who some fans might almost recognize from the terminals, does some funky stuff to the Chief with precise use of Hardlight. And then there's the composer. Frankly, Tron ain't got nothing on us. Can you say 'Digitized Hardlight'?"

Astute Halo fans might surmise that the Master Chief's new armor, decidedly different from the iconic Mark VI, might have origins in Hardlight. Surprisingly, this is not the case.

"We thought about it," O'Conner said with a twinkle in his eye. "That'd be totally cool, right? But his armor is actually Mark VI, just like the previous games. It's definitely changed, but having Hardlight as the cause just didn't seem realistic."

"So, the official explanation is that Cortana modified the suit with nanotechnology."

Message Index



Replies:

Hard light *minor SP*Postmortem 11/13/12 1:57 p.m.
     Re: Hard light *minor SP*uberfoop 11/13/12 2:02 p.m.
     Re: Hard light *minor SP*JDQuackers 11/13/12 2:09 p.m.
           Re: Hard light *minor SP*Postmortem 11/13/12 2:13 p.m.
                 Re: Hard light *minor SP*JDQuackers 11/13/12 2:15 p.m.
                       Re: Hard light *minor SP*Postmortem 11/13/12 2:20 p.m.
                       Re: Hard light *minor SP*Archilen 11/13/12 2:22 p.m.
                             Re: Hard light *minor SP*Phoenix_9286 11/13/12 2:27 p.m.
                                   Re: Hard light *minor SP*Archilen 11/13/12 2:39 p.m.
                                         Re: Hard light *minor SP*Quirel 11/13/12 2:44 p.m.
                                               ^LOL! *NM*RC Master 11/13/12 2:58 p.m.
                                               Best fake article ever. *NM*Phoenix_9286 11/13/12 2:59 p.m.
                                               LMAO *NM*Free Weights 11/13/12 3:30 p.m.
                                               Re: Hard light *minor SP*Joony Joon 11/13/12 3:33 p.m.
                                               Nailed it. Hilarious post! *NM*Hoovaloov 11/13/12 5:10 p.m.
                                               Re: Hard light *minor SP*Cody Miller 11/13/12 6:15 p.m.
                                               Amazing. *NM*tiny 11/13/12 9:00 p.m.
                                               "Forerunner weapons. How do they work?"uberfoop 11/13/12 9:05 p.m.
                                               Re: Hard light *minor SP*SonGoharotto 11/13/12 9:10 p.m.
                                               This is a Good Post *NM*Archilen 11/13/12 11:35 p.m.
                                               Bwahahaha! *NM*NsU Soldier 11/14/12 12:16 p.m.
                 Re: Hard light *minor SP*Bones 11/13/12 3:12 p.m.
                 Re: Hard light *major SP*Bry 11/13/12 4:41 p.m.
     You may have misinterpreted it *Long*Rice 11/13/12 8:11 p.m.
           Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*SonGoharotto 11/13/12 9:06 p.m.
                 Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*uberfoop 11/13/12 9:16 p.m.
                       Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*Rice 11/13/12 9:31 p.m.
                             Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*Postmortem 11/14/12 12:55 a.m.
                             Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*RC Master 11/14/12 9:34 a.m.
                                   Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*SonGoharotto 11/14/12 5:03 p.m.
                                         Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*Archilen 11/14/12 11:34 p.m.
                                               Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*SonGoharotto 11/15/12 9:26 a.m.
                                                     Re: You may have misinterpreted it *Long*Archilen 11/15/12 1:30 p.m.



contact us

The HBO Forum Archive is maintained with WebBBS 4.33.