@Entr0py On the BR, while I think I could buff it a bit more without breaking anything, it'd be with refire rate I've tested its damage vs. shields and I like where it's at. I like that you have to combo the BR more than vanilla instead of it being a "do everything" gun. I still think the BR is quite good with its high accuracy and 3x scope. But I can consider trying out that slight refire rate buff again... I've tested it before, but went with a lesser version of it to err on the side of caution.

@Entr0py I definitely feel you on the enemy AI not being lethal enough. I learned a while back that *not* having an extra Legendary modifier for enemies was a mistake. But my mods are already so well established and balanced around this fact that changing things to work with a Legendary damage modifier would be a lot of work. An long term problem that rears its ugly head. If I were to have done things differently with what I know now, I'd probably keep the AI improvements, but give enemies a Legendary damage modifier (though not quite as high as vanilla H2 or 3) and not give the player as much health as I did (though still probably a bit more durable than vanilla H3). One could imagine that my mods could be quite a bit harder with the better AI... As it stands, Legendary in my mods sometimes feels like the *only* truly hard difficulty and/or just Heroic+... Not *Legendary*... Oh well... Mistakes were made...

@King Feraligatr I mean that it feels like both the damage multiplier and the AI are toned down in legendary meaning less aggressive fire patterns and also less damage dealt to the players. On the other hand, like the YAH3R, player weapon, particularly BR i feel is nerfed too much... I like YAH3R and this mod, I love the aggressive brutes and the difficulty increase from their AI and pack size but I don't enjoy spraying 2 mags of BR just to take down their power armor, or in AH2R's case, elite's shield

@Entr0py While I understand why you and others may dislike the immortal allies, I like them so they will stay.

Now, about the Legendary damage, what do you exactly mean? Do you mean the player's damage output is overtuned, making things too easy? Or that the enemies' damage is *under*tuned, making things too easy? Or both? I agree all my mods have a problem of being too easy at any rate.

@GenericUsername Part of me has thought about adding the MA5C AR to AH2R, but I generally things are more interesting without it. The AR *not* being present means that you lack a dedicated medium ranged, non-precision weapon until later into the game when the Spiker starts showing up. I think it's a interesting gameplay shakeup and makes the Spiker's introduction stand out a bit more.

Legendary damage is a little overtuned, the game becomes too easy

I think immortal allies break immersion

Anyway you could add in an AR in some small capacity? I understand the SMG is Halo 2's AR, but I think it's kind of weird to go the entire campaign without seeing a single marine using an AR. Also, if it's balanced like your halo 3 mod, it will have a unique role between that of the SMG and the BR.

@sheenaisapostrocker Thank you for the review and feedback. :) I saw it and will respond to when I can. :)

I had time to write a much more in-depth review, but it was too long to write in the comments! I have posted it in the discussion section. Overall, it basically just says that this is a very good mod that surprised me - I've tried a lot of Halo 2 campaign mods, and this one feels really good in a unique way. Thank you for making it.

fantastic mod! infinite flashlight! if youre looking for a very good healthbar asset, check out tbiesty's halo 2 rebalance :)

@-{SALT}- Glad you mostly enjoyed the mod. :) For me personally, I never particuarly enjoyed playing Halo 2's campaign too much before making this making this mod. But now, with it, playing through Halo 2 is fun for me. :) And yeah, I'm sorry that I cannot fix some of the more "core" issues you mentioned, but such is the nature of modding.

And yeah, that backpack Marine *is* immortal... He's one of a few extra immortal allies in the mod. :)

8/10, actually gave me a gameplay loop on legendary that reduced the probability of making me tear my hair out by 50%. There are some issues, but those are hard-baked into H2 as a whole. Like friendly AI being unable to use proper judgement with a rocket launcher, the suffocating-ly linear level design, or the tank control scheme that clearly doesn't have M+K in mind.

Also, kudos to that one invincible radio marine equipped with only an M6C who keeps on getting headshots while I'm backtracking for ammo. I'm pretty sure he's invincible. He keeps outliving all the ODSTs.

@ryanbailes06 AH2R and YAH3R should be up to date. Inferno, I've an indev version installed that I don't want to upload right now, so that will take a bit of time to update properly.

♥♥♥♥ mcc update ruins everything

@The Blessed Word My emoji response was me self-deprecatingly agreeing with you. I really needed *some* description. But man, am I lazy. But again, you were entirely right.On more details, that'll probably come in a more detailed changelog when this is more ready for full release. I only have so much space on a mod page's description. :( But we shall see.

Most critically I would say you need to detail what consistency/bug fixes you implemented instead of just saying you fixed them, what cut content was restored, how exactly the boss fights were changed, and what exactly you meant when "And more" at the end.

Apologies for my earlier rudeness, emoticons and especially sarcastic ones just really tick me off.

@The Blessed Word I gave the mod page an interim, better description. What else is wrong ATM?

If you have the time to make a smarmy emoticon comment to me then you have the time to fix your ♥♥♥♥.

oh

@ryanbailes06 Maybe. Maybe not. I haven't decided yet. Making these mods takes a long time for me.

are you gonna do reach or something else

@The Blessed Word I know, right? :')

Better description sometime this year? Or at least next eon?

@Yukari the Alpaca No AR for now either, even if I have briefly thought about it in the past. I kind of like that AH2R doesn't have a real mid-range, standard, non-precision weapon until the Spiker comes in. Makes it stand out from YAH3R, which has the AR and Spiker from the first level. I wouldn't say it's *impossible*, I but I will not be adding the AR into AH2R at this time. I do understand where you're coming from though in wanting a mid-range, standard, non-precision weapon: it can suck. But I also find it interesting and it makes the Spiker's introduction all the more sweeter.

Fair enough. I noticed it is definitely more accurate already but I was just thinking for the sake of consistency with the H3 AR (since this is essentially the AR of Halo 2). Maybe it would be possible to add the AR? Tradeoffs could be slightly better damage per shot with better accuracy and effective range at the cost of lower magazine capacity (36 or 32) and reduced fire rate?

I am just suggesting stuff. It’d make sense since the AR was going to exist in H2 but was cut during development.

@Yukari The Alpaca For right now, I'd say no. I think the SMG is in a pretty good spot ATM and other weapons do the "good initial" accuracy thing... the SMG does not. Not saying things can't change in the future, but for right now, I think things are fine for the SMG. For what it's worth, since the SMG is using H3/YAH3R stats, the minimum error is a lot lower (from H2's 1 degree to H3's 0.25 degrees), making it have more starting accuracy. Of course, the starting maximum accuracy is higher (from H2's 1 degree to YAH3R's 1.0625 degrees), the projectile speed is lower (from H2/3's 400 WU/s to YAH3R's 300 WU/s), and the spread deceleration rate is slower (from H2's .2 seconds to YAH3R's .25 seconds), so who knows in the end?

TL,DR: I think SMG is in a good spot at the moment and will not be changing it at this time.

Can you adjust the SMG's starting accuracy to be nearly 100% accurate? Similar to the Halo 3 AR? To compensate, increase the bloom ramp up.

The reason is so that the SMG can be somewhat useful at further ranges and can be a slightly better shield shredder (or damage dealer depending on playstyle) choice.

@King Feraligater thats good enough for me

@RotableStar To serve in contrast to YAH3R and ODST: Inferno, I have elected *not* to give AH2R's Pistol a scope. I did however up its accuracy quite a lot, made it do a bit more damage, have an extra magazine's worth of spare ammo to be carried, and improved the weapon's ammo economy. It's also more available throughout the game. All in addition to some other changes. So while it has no scope, it's been buffed pretty hard regardless (overall).

@Godsdj Thank you for playing the mod with me. I enjoyed it. :)

@LucianM There's a few standard Sniper Rifles on some of the later levels, however few. So you can still get some moments of standard sniping.

do you thing it is possible to give the halo 2 magnum a scope and an upgrade. i love what you did with the magnum in YAH3R and i use it all the time. i feel that halo 2 needs a good pistol and im no modder

The High Charity Great Schism mission is my favourite part. King did really well at adding variety to the jackal snipers, and managing the difficulty across the levels -which include added encounters and some greater cohesion-. The environmental story bits are good as well. One criticism is that the Flood in Quarantine Zone are way too plentiful and dangerous for a player to take on solo, but that adds to a thought I have about this mod: it makes GREAT co-op. I rate this a 9/10. Might benefit from some tweaks and additions, but overall a fun experience I recommend. Bring a friend!

So the Beam Rifle thing - one thing I like about it is that it provides more sniping opportunities, given the rarity of the human sniper rifle and its ammunition, is the latter more common here then? I will try this out first, of course, all the other changes are encouraging after all.

@eking Such things are fine on my end. So I wonder what's wrong on your end. Do you think you can send me a picture or two (or more) of your issues?

@Gojira Yeah, ODST: Inferno is on the Nexus/ModDB due to the issue you listed (among other reasons). I've heard there's a way around it, but as of right now, I'm too lazy to try it. And Firefight would probably compromised at any rate. :( (Can only have one Firefight map per map file with Workshop mods, even when vanilla ODST has some map files with two Firefight maps.)

Those are all fair and valid points. Incidentally, is ODST Inferno not on the workshop because of the campaign level issues where after a mod mission you get dumped into a vanilla one?

@Gojira *Maybe* Reach, but that's debatable since Reach Evolved would be out by then and do far better than anything else I could make. Not Halo 1, since I'd probably ruin it. I've already done an ODST mod. Could do 4, but what could I do better than the heavy hitters like Reflow and Genesong Cut?

Nice to see you bringing the YAH3R experience to the other games! Got any other titles in mind after you've gotten Halo 2 where you want it?