Bungie Weekly Update/03-30-01

This is the Bungie Weekly Update of March 30, 2001, written by Matt Soell.

Bungie Update
Interestingly, a bunch of people emailed and posted in regards to my comment last week that I wasn't sure how much longer these Halo Updates would be interesting...and only one or two of them said Yeah, Matt, shut the hell up why don't you? Everyone else seems to like them, so I guess I'll continue for the forseeable future.

More interestingly...


 * Paul Russell is modeling the Pillar of Autumn's bridge.
 * AI just keeps getting better. The Covenant will search in packs and retreat in squads. They search different locations and will concentrate their attentions in the areas they think you were headed to. Eventually different races will use different searching methods.
 * The AI is working so well at this point that Jaime is having a blast building encounters, including some large ones.
 * Jason put every weapon in the game. Some are still prototypes - unfinished art, etc. - but the team is now able to start testing, tweaking and balancing the weapons in earnest.
 * Dying units will drop their weapons.
 * Matt Segur continues to chug away on the scripting system.
 * Covenant Elites now have a shield, which already looks decent and will look even better after Shiek works his magic on it.
 * New Guy: Derek Moore. Job: Artist. Working on: multiplayer.
 * Mat Noguchi made it possible to record movement macros in the editor. In other words, you can record anything a unit or vehicle does and then replay those movements or actions any time you want. Should come in handy.
 * Bernie created what Jaime calls the umbra effect: if there are trees between you and the sun, you'll see sun beams shining realistically through the leaves and branches. VERY impressive.
 * Bernie also created the Active Camouflage effect, a watery transparency effect that works gloriously.
 * Grenades are in.