Halo Custom Edition

Halo Custom Edition, sometimes abbreviated Halo CE (which is not generally accepted as an abbreviation for Halo: Combat Evolved), is a free expansion that requires a key code of Halo: Combat Evolved by Bungie Studios, which was ported to the PC by Gearbox Software. Halo CE was released by Gearbox as an unsupported add-on, which requires the original game. However, users do not need to pay to play it, as it is downloadable from selected websites.

Features
Halo Custom Edition has the ability to load and play user-created content and maps created with the Halo Editing Kit. Many custom levels have been created by dedicated members of the modding community and have been posted for download at a plethora of websites.

Custom maps may contain entirely new content, including:
 * Level geometry
 * Weapons
 * Vehicles
 * Player character
 * Sounds
 * Game interfaces
 * Level scripts & interactivity
 * Objects
 * Special effects
 * Animations
 * HUDs
 * Single player modifications

An arguably better netcode was put into Halo: Custom Edition, as well. It noticeably reduced lagging for some, but for others it made it more erratic. Also, a Rules feature can be activated by pressing the F2 button by default. It displays all of the specifics for the gametype currently being played on the server.

With the Halo Editing Kit, AI Covenant, Marines, and Flood can also be added. This has allowed some map makers to create their own mods that play like a campaign mission, with checkpoints and objectives. People can also make "teams" of AI that will fight each other. The player can fight alongside Elites and Grunts against Marines, or vice versa.

Community
Several modding communities have emerged since the advent of Halo CE. One of the most prominent communities is Halomaps.org which has multiplayer custom maps. Modders use the Halo Editing Kit to incorporate custom models, images, physics, and data into an easily distributed .MAP file, which is compressed and uploaded. In the game, many clans establish themselves to fight one another on custom maps. They train intensely on some maps. This extends and steepens the learning curve for many players. These clans will sometimes make maps of their own.

Halo Editing Kit
Halo Editing Kit, commonly referred to by its acronym, HEK, is a repackaging of the development tools that Bungie created and used in the development process of Halo. The Halo Editing Kit was released for the creation of custom content for Halo Custom Edition. It is a free, unsupported add-on released by Gearbox Software.

This editing kit includes Guerilla, a game resource and tag editor, in addition to Sapien, a mapping and object placement editor, and Tool, a map resource compiler. Most original content must first be modeled in 3ds max (or Gmax) and then converted to a HEK friendly format using the Blitzkrieg exporter and Tool to be edited or added to a custom map.

This allows users and players to created completely original and barely similar maps, as well as modding maps slightly. A very often modded map is Blood Gulch, with more changes than most other maps.

The Halo Editing Kit is available for downloading.

Related Links

 * Halo Editing Kit
 * Halomaps.org

Other
There are also 'cheats' for Halo CE, called Developer Mode, more commonly called dev mode, or also known simply as dev. It is used by map designers to test out maps they make. It can also be used to cheat in single-player maps that can be downloaded. However they can only be used in single-player maps because when dev is activated, the host can only start a server through LAN. The only way for it to work in multiplayer is to download a small application which allows you to enable or disable devmode without restarting the game, thus allowing you to enable it within a multiplayer game. Even then most of the cheats can only be used by the host. To play Halo Custom Edition you must download it and have the Halo Key and game CD.