Bungie Weekly Update/07-27-01

This is the Bungie Weekly Update of July 27, 2001, written by Matt Soell.

Bungie Update
Today's belated Halo Update is brought to you courtesy of Team Bungie's merciless trouncing of several Microsoft Games grand poobahs in a four-on-four game of Halo. Yeah, yeah, I know... big surprise.


 * Again, plenty of bugfixing this week... making the big subsystems work so we can get to the little details.
 * Having introduced the AIs to the concept of driving, Chris Butcher is now teaching them how to drive different kinds of vehicles.
 * The Bear fixed a major physics issue and in the process made all our vehicles drive better and with a more realistic feel. After doing this he was able to pull out the various hacks we'd inserted to make the individual vehicles handle the way we thought they should. Better Gaming Through Physics.
 * Hardy is engaged in major multiplayer balancing: deciding the weapon spawn times, power-up placement, the weapons you start with, starting positions and so forth, level by level. This involves a lot of playtesting so it's not all sackcloth and ashes.
 * Shiek is building shuttle bay doors for a Covenant cruiser.
 * Marty and Jay continue to add sounds, including (finally) footsteps...and something Hamilton called man-sized reverb for a hangar.
 * The compass and bullet count on the assault rifle work now - courtesy of Rob, who's also thirty-three years old today. Happy birthday Robt.
 * One thing I've noticed in recent weeks is that Eric tends to work on some of the coolest stuff in the game - and naturally it's all towards the end of the game and involves plot points that I can't even allude to. But I can bring up small individual elements and let you guys wonder about what they mean. What's green and gooey and eats through the ground?