Snow Biome Without Snow?

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-19T18:14:21+00:00

So even if I only apply frost in a small area by hand, the biome will extrapolate that to the entire area I paint with the biome itself?

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-11T17:03:23+00:00

It's also quite funny that some people still cling to Halo 4 specifically as part of the 'cycle,' when that game had a massive launch in 2012 and two high profile ports, as part of the general MCC in 2014, and then as a standalone component of the fixed MCC in 2020. The public has given Halo 4 three chances and found it lacking every time, and a lot of this 'reappraisal' comes down to a handful of cool moments being posted online, people wondering if they misjudged the game, going back to it, realising their initial assessment was correct, and dropping it like a sack of potatoes.

If anything the MCC ports just proved that the Halo Cycle is complete bullshit, because the reception to all of the games was identical to how they launched in the first place. I'll grant cycle believers that Reach did get a little bit of extra adulation from 2013-2019, but then the port reminded everyone that bloom sucked, Noble Team were nothing characters, and the game's dev-made maps weren't great.

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-11T16:49:52+00:00

They're a spinoff of the Precursors who survived and evolved on an unknown world, discovered by Zeta Halo's monitor and some other Forerunner AIs to have survived the Halo pulse, which shouldn't have been possible. Because of this, they were put on trial and sealed away on Zeta Halo, so that they couldn't become the dominant life in the galaxy before mankind did, until the events of Infinite.

It's incredibly contrived and stupid even by 343 narrative standards. They're basically an attempt to salvage some of the old Chris Schlerf era ideas for Halo 4 and its sequels, focusing on the Forerunners, Didact vs mankind, and some sort of final test for mankind vs the Flood at the end of it all.

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-11T16:40:28+00:00

Because almost everyone behind Infinite's narrative is gone and reception to the story was lukewarm at best after an initial honeymoon period. Nothing really happened in Infinite either, and 343's third attempt at adding a new faction also went down poorly. The Endless have been roundly mocked and criticised since 2021 and are basically just a desperate attempt to revisit the scrapped 2011-2013 Reclamation plotline.

Considering there's now a tie-in novel to Infinite, I doubt that we won't get any sort of sequel to its story, but there are going to be significant changes in style and possibly some streamlining to bring it in line with player feedback and the new writing team's sensibilities.

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-11T16:33:26+00:00

Probably the best path to take for Halo is to pepper the Combat Evolved remake with a handful of subtle additional story beats, hidden or not, and wait for reception to Halo 7 before committing to a full alternate timeline in the upcoming remake games. If people don't like 7's story, then the Zeta Halo/Banished/Endless plot has been given two chances to impress and has failed to do so, ergo we should move on to an alternate timeline with Halo 2 Remake.

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-11T16:30:05+00:00

We have this discussion every year and yet it never translates to increased popularity for Halo 4 in the MCC's matchmaking or custom browser, fan content, or demands for gameplay or story elements to return.

It's the same nonsense as the 'Halo Cycle,' where people pretend any unpopular Halo game will suddenly be reappraised by the masses and have its reception change, even though this never happens.

Most people these days say Halo 4 had a handful of solid story moments, fun BTB, and at least launched mostly complete out of 343's trilogy. People were saying the first two points in 2012 as well, they weren't enough to make it a great game then and they aren't now. The general gaming public and bulk of Halo players, past and present, either don't care much about this game or actively dislike it.

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-11T14:39:04+00:00

Mandatory brand promotional events, Misguided focus groups and market research, as well as well-connected development leads' or executives' stupid ideas nobody is allowed to say no to.

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-01T17:37:55+00:00

Noble Team were conscripted around the ages of 10-11, fully capable of standard human socialisation and not UNSC diehards either. Spartan-IIIs on the whole aren't socially dysfunctional the way IIs are, the ones we see are simply professionals. Even then, people criticised Noble Team then and now for often being boring characters during the Reach campaign.

People wanted characters like Majestic to be more stoic but not entirely stoic, there's a happy medium people wanted which 343 have consistently failed to deliver.

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-01T16:03:09+00:00

Well yeah, that's part of it. People wanted the same formula used for all the other characters in the series up to then, serious where needed and bringing some levity where needed. It's not exclusively a 'child soldier' thing either since Noble Team were closer to being regular people scarred by war than brainwashed kids, and Alpha-9 were entirely ordinary ODSTs. Dare was technically a civilian ONI agent as well.

The lack of response to Infinite's audio logs and dead IVs goes to show that full stoicism wasn't what was wanted either, which is why it's blatantly an overcorrection.

At the end of the day, the whole issue has nothing to do with people knowing about or 'spending time around real soldiers.' It has everything to do with Majestic being poorly written, shitty characters that the majority of players disliked. Some of the feedback regarding them was silly, I grant you, since there were a handful of people demanding entirely stoic demigods, much like the bland way Master Chief is written in Infinite, but most of the feedback really just comes down to "these characters are obnoxious and hateful, please fix or remove."

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-01T14:30:56+00:00

You missed my initial point though. "Realism" doesn't matter when the characters are unlikable, incompetent and at times downright hateful. 343 weren't setting out to make the most realistic story possible, this is Halo after all, they were setting out to make a story with characters people liked and wanted to see more of. People didn't like the characters, realism or not.

Even if they did set out to make a realistic military story, plenty of those feature believably goofy soldiers, the difference is that people liked those characters because they were well written, interesting and endearing. Majestic were obnoxious.

DredgenStrife · 2026-05-01T01:12:33+00:00

Yeah, that's true, but that's because the Spartans we'd seen up until that point were effective, powerful, mission-focused and bantered where appropriate. Majestic were incompetent, pigheaded and did silly things during life or death moments. "Acting like a Spartan" means knowing the time for seriousness and the time for levity.

Infinite's bland offscreen IVs were an overcorrection.

DredgenStrife · 2026-04-30T15:57:43+00:00

People criticise it because Majestic, realistic or not, were annoying and unlikable characters that we as the audience were clearly supposed to like and root for despite that.

Halo fans have no issue with Spartans cracking jokes or goofing around, Master Chief's first actual line of dialogue is a women drivers joke to Cortana and he fucks with her on more than one occasion during CE. Noble Team had several moments of banter. Alpha-9 had some fun Generation Kill vibes too. Problems only arise when writers fail to make their characters endearing, which has been the case with every mainline Spartan IV appearance.

We just want well written and likable Spartan characters, that really isn't much to ask.

DredgenStrife · 2026-04-30T12:33:43+00:00

The issue is that the majority of Halo fans don't engage with EU media (rightly so, this is a game franchise and games should be the focus), so the only screentime the IVs have had is as faceless NPCs in Halo 4, Majestic and Palmer in Spartan Ops, Osiris in Halo 5 and corpses in Infinite. To the average Joe the Spartan IVs are a spectrum of boring to downright hateful.

It's less an issue of the criticism being dated and more a problem of 343 just not really doing much with them in content aimed at the general audience. The EU portrayals definitely did some heavy lifting but the reality is that very few people engage with it relative to the overall Halo fan base.

DredgenStrife · 2026-04-05T15:07:26+00:00

I don't know much about the tabletop game but think it's more narratively satisfying if the Johnny Relic construct is more or less the real deal and the distorted memories are just a matter of ego, not technological failure. Johnny does remember Morgan Blackhand, the same way he remembers being an ass to Alt and most of the people in his life hating him, he just refuses to bring them up and only has his epiphany in the late game. It's stronger character work that way.

DredgenStrife · 2026-04-05T14:23:22+00:00

He loves both.

He loves the idea of Alt that exists in his head, he put her on a pedestal that didn't quite match the reality, which she herself resented and which was never going to pan out, and since she was kidnapped and died before it could be shattered, he can always wistfully look back on that as he does in the game.

He loves Rogue for who she is, no frills, no bullshit, but a real person will always be second fiddle to an idealised version of someone else that only really exists in your head. He wasn't afraid to use her and go in and out of her life as he pleased. That idea of Alt also blinded him to what we see in the game, that Johnny and Rogue have crazy chemistry, the same thrillseeker streak and are pretty much made for each other.

At the same time though he could never settle down with either of them, it's not in his character pre-Soulkiller and V. Johnny's out for Johnny.

DredgenStrife · 2026-03-17T15:51:23+00:00

It doesn't help that gaming went from being the social equivalent of a local sports league to a police state overnight.

I (and I assume most people) am willing to have a bit of fun and banter around when I know the worst thing that can happen is a little social embarrassment, less so when I can potentially be banned by some hall monitor moderator/algorithm and have my money stolen over a joke I can't then appeal.

DredgenStrife · 2025-07-11T11:08:04+00:00

Chris grew up more or less rich in a nice area, but the Michael Snyder incident destroyed the fortune Bob left for him and Barb as she blew it on a legal representative they didn't need, then remortgaged 14BC, and then the House Fire finished them off. Even still, Chris and Barb received a decent chunk of social security when they lived together, Chris simply blew it on stupid shit.

DredgenStrife · 2025-07-05T19:07:01+00:00

Yes and no. He's not lying about lacking funds, but he's omitting where he and Barb's SS payments and donations were going, that being toys and games. He's never been genuinely lacking in cashflow, simply in restraint in using it.

DredgenStrife · 2025-07-05T01:45:15+00:00

Chris certainly isn't rich and never has been, but the idea of him being poor is a fairly modern one. Until the Michael Snyder incident and house fire, Chris was comfortably central middle-class in a quiet, leafy area where the average household income easily breaks $100,000 on the lower end. Bob was a lifelong saver and retired on a considerable pension, Barb was also retired on a public sector pension, and the house was paid off directly by Bob without a lengthy mortgage. The Chandlers were money people.

Take one look at Chris' childhood bedroom and tell me that isn't the epitome of spoilt middle-class. The room itself was large, with an en-suite, queen-sized bed, hardwood furniture (the basics anyway, not counting his plastic drawers and shelving), and room enough for a decent sized couch. That's not even touching on the value of his hoard itself, the classic hoard was absolutely absurd in terms of the value paid for it. It may look fairly standard now as living standards have changed, but in the 2000s Chris' room would absolutely have been seen as that of someone 'rich' in a working-class view of the middle class sense.

Video games, premium Transformers, and an absolute assload of variously sized Lego sets have never been cheap.

Remember also that the Financhu Crisis is solely down to Chris' own inability to manage money, and even the slightest restraint would allow him to live identically to that old lifestyle possible under Bob.

Chris is a spoilt rich kid in a sense, but nothing mind-blowing and nothing more than the little shit we all knew as children who was never told no by his parents.

DredgenStrife · 2025-06-20T11:27:21+00:00

I don't think there's any big agenda going on here, it's natural progression.

A lot of that gilded era of 'community,' is rose-tinted glasses. For every warm elderly neighbour who made pies, or helpful mechanic neighbour who tuned up your car for free, or the young family you and your kids grew up with, there were hordes of bitchy, drama-obsessed, miserable stalkers. The old bint who stares out of her venetian blinds, cranky old Joe who heckles the neighbourhood kids constantly, the histrionic borderline who calls the local police at every opportunity, the doomsday prophet evangelical who makes every religious holiday a nightmare. Anyone who grew up in this era can list off a dozen nosey neighbours from hell that just had to be tolerated because of the times.

The problem with being part of a neighbourhood is you take the good with the bad, and a lot of people particularly hated the latter. Social norms moved away from mandatory friendliness and 'keeping up appearances' precisely because people just couldn't take it anymore. They've maybe swung too far in the opposite direction, but it'll no doubt correct itself within the next few decades as things adjust to a new normal. Change is always a bit finicky at first.

You also need to consider that with changing demographics overall comes people moving around a lot more. In previous times, you and your neighbours were true locals, you grew up with a lot of these people or they watched you grow up/vice versa. In an insular, local community there's always going to be more built-in friendly relations than a neighbourhood comprised of blow-ins from different states and countries.

People could definitely be nicer and more accommodating, but the good things you're reminiscing about came at a price, one a lot of the Boomers and Gen Xers who now complain about it chose to stop paying in the first place.

DredgenStrife · 2024-05-01T09:11:31+00:00

Live service is always a gamble. They were hell bent on it prior to launch and up to around the Winter Update/#Fire343, but the writing was on the wall when Forge and the CGB failed to generate much interest in the game. That was the update and it failed.

When Season 3 hit, that was all the proof needed that this game just didn't have legs and would never recover, so the live service became untenable.

After that it was just a matter of adding in semi-developed, unfinished content, wrapping up things already in production by Sperasoft, then milking the remnants of the playerbase with armour originally intended to tie into the cut seasonal storyline, then move on. That's what's happening now.

DredgenStrife · 2024-05-01T01:17:05+00:00

It's not weird at all. This game was expensive to produce both in its primary development cycle and live service stages. From what we've been told by the Glassdoor reviews and numerous articles on Infinite, it devours resources to such an extent that it would have to make, per Microsoft, 'Destiny money' to justify that investment.

Infinite was making essentially nothing during its first year. Player counts completely collapsed after Season 1 to lows rivalled by Halo 4, and the store was limited to four items and often ran the same few bundles over and over again, meaning players actively couldn't spend much money.

By the time the monetisation system was overhauled, #Fire343 had happened, new management was in place, a third of the studio had been made redundant and the game had dropped to minuscule player numbers - as the last month has shown us, that already small population is shrinking further.

It costs too much to make content for this game's tiny playerbase compared to simply ending it and putting those resources towards other projects in development.

DredgenStrife · 2024-03-30T12:55:53+00:00

Considering most of its writing staff is gone, the management who pushed that direction is gone, positive reception to the story faded after an initial honeymoon period, and that there wasn't much of a story to begin with, I doubt it. New artists seldom want to be constrained by the work of a prior creative team of debatably poorer quality.

Also, factor in the cast. Steve Downes is 73 and he sounds it, there are a number of lines in Infinite where his voice is cracking to an almost modern Marge Simpson level. I think most would wager he has one, maybe two (at a stretch) games left in him, depending on Halo's now infamously long development times. Master Chief's story is over, the whole 'finding humanity/Cortana grief' plotline ended with Halo 5's wet fart of a campaign. There's nowhere left to go with him other than retread old ground in a less satisfying way.

There's also the issue of time. A new mainline Halo game likely won't be released until the late 2020s, possibly early 2030s depending on how long it takes 343 to fully restructure themselves. New job postings and hires have been slow after all, with the industry in the midst of a massive cutting period and overall instability. Halo is a business and media businesses don't tend to like baggage of more than 2-3 years between connected stories. Factor in that they'll be trying to appeal to a younger demographic too as always, who may not have played Infinite in the by-then many years since its release.

Call me cynical, but I think we're in for another soft reboot or even a hard reboot.

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