You're welcome. First time I could update a mod day one and not several months later 😅

Thank you for the update

And... we are back

You're welcome @OutDoorSquidTank. It's actually one of my favorites too. I've always wanted to play this since OG Halo 2, pick a side and fight until you can't fight anymore.

Ever since I saw nodding in Halo 2 on YouTube since 2005 I dreamt of this mod bring a reality. So its basically my childhood made into a reality. Most of my mods that aren't recreations of existing, were from imagination in Halo 2 of what the battles would have looked like with bots. Gemini, Colossus, Foundation, Zanzibar, Lockout all felt like there was a hidden story in the campaign side that was separate from the multiplayer and that idea always fascinated me.

And I'm still not finished. Coagulation is in the works still.

Gosh, I love this. This AI battle mod is my favorite one on the Steam workshop. Fighting against brutes/elites while rocking out to Breaking Benjamin is so fucking awesome! Thank you so much for making this.

You're welcome Wesker1991.

Originally I wanted to hold off adding it because I have some more changes planned to all my mods with another mod I'm doing that adds Halo 2 weapon/vehicle/character customization-like skins but its taking me too much time to clean up all my files from my old PC to my new PC. I transfered 4TB and I've now removed about more than 500GB thst was duplicate or useless data and there is still more to go. 😅

So for now just reading the mods back but when the customized skins come they may make a feature in some of my mods. The Racetracks on Containment mod will definitely be one for sure that will get this treatment when I'm done. The mod will also be a modder's resource so others can use it.

Thank you so much for updating this mod to work with the new MCC update, so glad to have this mod working again. This is the only AI battle map to have Elites, Grunts and Hunters vs Brutes, Jackels and Drones.

And... we are back

Thank you for heads up. I'm aware and unfortunately it happened mid-move on my new PC so I'm still getting everything reinstalled so I can push a new update out to make it available again.

Just wanted to let you know that the recent MCC update broke this mod. Microsoft really need to stop updating MCC as it always breaks the mods.

big monke eat lizard

this is so cool love playing as the brutes

@Vendetta ya I wish so to. I made the anniversary version in hopes it would help get the community to encourage 343 to finally make a H2A SP supported mod tool. That way it would be possible for modders to finally make steam supported H2A Campaign mods.

this mod is sickkkk... i just wish you could naturally have the new graphics

This should now be update, let me know if there is still an issue

Damn... I'll have to do another mass export soon when I get time

I think it may have broke with the most recent update.

inquisidor estuvo aca

You're welcome

this was my childhood dream, thank you

@Ronnie1001 As soon as someone can get me Brute FPS hand models and animated you will be the first to know...

...also, even if I do first person, won't be in the Anniversary graphics, since 343 never brought in support for H2A graphics for new assets so it will just be white arms like when I tried it with the elite. Only Chief and arbiter arms work in H2A Campaign graphics.

Possible option for first person gameplay?

Ultra honor guard

ok

Ya I was stuck deciding which brute and elite to use. I would have loved zealot. I know some love Honor guards. So it was a tough pick and I thought brute captains and elite ultras were the best pick if I can only do one... otherwise you have you can the player respentation each time and save a separate map for each.

If there was another way, I'd do it in a heartbeat. He'll, I wanted players to have the option to play as drones, grunts, hunters, and jackals. Problem is home map custom bipeds and map files are needed for each.

@Nizat I would have loved for that to be possible. Sadly so far it seems Sapien & Guerilla tool is very limited. It looks like every game after Halo 3, like Reach, 4, and h2a MP got Foundarion Mod tool that is an evolved mod tool lf Guerilla that looks possible to do that. But so far Sapien and Guerilla are much more limited.

It would probably require an overhaul by 343 to turn H2's guerilla into a foundation as well.

So unfortunately older titles are more limited. H2 has had even less improvements made to its mod tool than H1 and H3. And even no dev support for H2A SP, since it's Saber's proprietary. So this mod in a way is to help reignite more improvements to H2MCC with more support. It's potential is massive in Halo 2 but most of it is held back by either limitations by mod tool support improvements or legacy issues... like Halo 2 ai becoming braindead if more than 30 AI are spawned in. Something CE and 3 got theirs fixed so you can have 100 AI on a map at any given time.

@xferginatorx instead of having one biped of ultra for our character, would it be possable to random is the elite ranks? If so, here are the ranks you can randomize: Ultra, Zealot, Counciler, Honor Guard, and maybe Honor Guard Ultra (Light Of Sanghelios).

Great mod btw love it! Anyway could you do like a campaign version of this or the whole halo 2 campaign to be able to play the actual mission but as the Covenant 24/7 like how some modders have made a Halo CE Covenant campaign and you got to stop Master Chief in the mission in order to proceed to the next one? That would be pretty cool.

holy shit that is alot of heresy i got my money on elites "brutes stinky bad bad".

@Tenno absolutely. Easiest is this video right here

https://www.youtube.com/live/CE5zvxQN_DE?si=FGCB6BkNOe3zW08C

He forgets to mention you need to add scripting but you can just use mine. If you are using Assembly tool just use my mod .map file and go to scripts tab and look at my respawner section and you can copy and just replace squad names to your own. I got it pretty nailed down. Never go over 30 active actors ever. They just go braindead in Halo 2. Sad legacy issue that never got fixed. Every other Halo title in MCC though got it upped to 100 AI.

But everything about pathing and ai spawns are like in the first 10 minutes of the video.

Definitely also check out the Halo Mods discord that you can find the link in the r/halomods reddit. There is a place to ask for help and there is always people that help out that are absolute chads. 💯

Got any tips for creating custom spawns and ai pathing? I've been working on a mod and I've gotten the balancing side of things in order, but sapien seems daunting to use and understand compared to just editing files and stats.

To clarify more. The tag is called elite.biped or brute.biped. in the steam supported classic only you use a file called "elite_player.biped" and "brute_player.biped".

But in Anniversary I can only reference the "elite.biped" or "brute.biped" otherwise it fails to reference the elite.model or brute.model files... enemies can still see you but you can't see yourself.. you will just see a floating weapon. I found that out when testing.

To add. In the anniversary ones I can't make new biped files, Saber is hard-coded to existing default files. So in the Anniversary files you are just using regular bipeds... which can cause issue with movement since it wasn't designed for player movement.

@Girth fun fact. The biped tag holds shields and health... all I did was copypasta'd the same file but formated it for the player. So it's actually the same brute and elite "vitals" as they are called in the settings

Think you could bulk the energy shield up a bit? We do play as an ultra after all. Not because I'm a little bitch baby, but for immersion. Or a different model that matches the existing shield strength, like a major or a zealot?

Great mod. Very enjoyable.

Unfortunate. Also i recommend finding a way to modify the health values of the brutes to make them more survivable the lack of shields makes playing as one a lot harder and they can't regenerate any health damage you take so no matter how careful you are eventually 1 stray needle will kill you.

I also noticed that for some weird reason the Elite team focuses way more on you as a Brute player than the Brute team does for Elite players. For the most part as an Elite the drones and brutes will just ignore you and fight your allies unless you attack them. Meanwhile as a brute the elites like to target and charge you specifically a lot more which also makes survivability even more difficult

Please modify the health and shield value, I tried playing on heroic or legendary and get wasted IMMEDIATELY.

why elite ultra die in 2 hit

@Rylanrich2 sadly the option to not do friendly damage with gravity hammer doesn't work at all with AI, the option in the projectile/weapons tag that 343 added in Guerilla actually only works for Halo 3 and onward.

This is where a lot of us modders report known issues with tools. Like how climbing hints in H2 aren't consistent. Sometimes 343 fixes it... like how they added 3rd person camera support in Halo 2

https://github.com/Joint-Issue-Tracker/Joint-Issue-Tracker/issues

@Cyan unfortunately there are no brute fp ands from mp to use and in H2A graphics, based on how Saber designed it. It can only used existing assets so when I tried with the ultra elite the hand models are on textured because Saber scripted it to only reference chief and arby. So the only one that would work in first first would be the H2C classic steam supported version with first person elite ultra. The other 3 modded versions wouldn't work sadly.

is it possible to make the hammer not deal any friendly damage at all or does that not work either?

also i think the beam rifle specifically should be kept in 1st person cuz its kinda useless otherwise

I'm fine with it just being arby's hands. Or you could try having it use the multiplayer skin

@Bickylotheboist absolutely 💯

one question, and one question only, does it play THE song?

@IlijahTheSniper

Also use Blind skull so you get the full view for machinima purposes 😉

How to use this mod
1. Boot it up in LASO
2. Throw on the acrophobia skull.
3. Fly up to a high ledge
4. Watch the fight
5. Satisfaction

@Cyan the third person view is actually the weapons themselves, think of it like a Warthog Turret, that's how the devs got it to work for HCE/H2. If it's toggled off on each weapon to get first person then you just see default Arbiter's arms and legs. It requires someone havong to create custom arm and legs, and then animate and rig to make it hold for first person. Takes a time consuming process and trickier if you want it to look good. Versus 3rd person it just has to mimic the existing AI animation biped thst exists.

If someone could make custom ones and send them to me then I can definitely do it. Unfortunately, the last mod I did in first person, Abomination, without doing that ended up getting negative comments because I didn't have any custom build fp arms and legs so that's why I left everything in 3rd person since it keeps it simple and less immersion breaking for players.

Do you have a version for firstperson?

Unfortunately it's a known issue. The flag that enables "doesn't hurt user" doesn't work in Halo 2 sadly. I checked with the modding community back when I made the Blasphemy mod. That flag that is in H1 and H2 editing kits is only there for H3 and beyond back when Bungie brought in the gravity hammer and made it work. So sadly flagging it doesn't work in Halo 2. The reason Tartarus can use it wouldn't getting hurt is the damage immune shield. Until 343 updated the editing tool kit so the flag will work it just randomly injures themselves in the process when killing their enemy. Once 343 fixes the setting its easy to recompile the map again and upload it back on here.