Full Analysis of the Halo 3 "Pimps At Sea" Alpha

so um before we get started allow me to do a quick race of the compression this video took far too long to make salutations and welcome to the next installment of my full analysis series a collection of videos that aim to scrutinize pre-release builds of video games to see how they compare to newer builds as well as the final products our subject for today is Halo 3's highly coveted pimps at Sea build this is an alpha build of Halo 3 that dates to approximately November 17 2006 10 months before the game shipped or at least that's what the game's executable says the build itself could have been compiled either around November or December there has even been an instance where a player managed to gain access to a build that's either similar or exactly the same during an official Xbox Live Test which would result in them getting console banned eventually Twitter user Lander came forward last year showcasing his possession of pimps at Sea posting some videos and screenshots of the build after years of grainy camera footage and screenshots this was our first detailed look at this stage of Halo 3's development he held on to the build for the rest of 2022 until this past Christmas when it was then publicly released if you're enjoying the content you'll be seeing today I highly encourage you to leave a like subscribe for more Halo content from this Channel and leave a comment on what has interested you the most this video took an extensively long time to make and a lot of research was done so any and all support would be highly appreciated with all that said let's begin this highly anticipated analysis [Music] so what's with the name pimps at Sea pimps at C was a long-running April Fool's joke by Bungie that started in 2001. it was pitched as the next game they were going to develop after finishing Halo 1. it was a pirate game featuring a mix of action and real-time strategy elements allowing you to make tons of loot whether it's from plundering Villages or using a state-of-the-art economy system you can then buy ships to sail the seven seas and cars to drive port side and it would even include PVP in the form of massively multiplayer pimp simulation so how does all of this correlate to the development of Halo 3. if players happen to stumble upon bungee developers appearing online during Halo 3's production they would be playing the fabled game pimps at Sea this wasn't the based Pirate game that we should have gotten but instead pimps at C was simply the code name for Halo 3 during its development to further clarify The Pimps at Sea code name isn't specific to the bill that we'll be covering today but is simply the name used for the many development builds of Halo 3 during production for instance the March 2007 builds of Halo 3 that leaked two years ago are also considered pimps at Sea builds however the community calls the late 2006 beginning of 2007 era of Halo 3's development pimps at Sea and that's what we'll be analyzing today this analysis is going to be taking us through quite a few points in time while the focal point will be The Pimps build it's going to be compared to three other builds of Halo 3. the March 8th build the public beta and finally the retail product there's also the Epsilon builds but considering they're too close to final they're not worth bringing up with one exception that'll be relevant much later on in the video to clarify where I'm looking for changes between each build I'm not saying one aspect happened exactly in this build then it happened exactly in the next build I'll be saying a change will occur sometime between the builds I mentioned because we'll never really know exactly when a change was made unless Bungie developers come forward and tell us all of my footage is being recorded on Xbox 360 Hardware including the final version of Halo 3. this offers a more concise and fair comparison between the September 25th 2007 release and the pre-release builds that came before it let's start with the main menu it boosts to the usual confidentiality page that these builds have and then we get to the menu itself the background is a still camera shot of the arc portal the March build has it depending on a small path with some Covenant ships added in the distance and finally in retail the iconic blue filter is added and the camera pen is much different I don't want to compare the public beta's menu background since I'm confident this was just specifically for the beta test and nothing more each of the menu options are exactly the same as they appear in subsequent builds of Halo 3 with the exception being that editor will be renamed to forge in retail but was oddly bleeped out as blam in the public beta before I get to the menu options let's look at the start menu the headquarters tab is what would become the media tab in the final game and none of the options available are like those seen in the retail product the news tab reuses an old Halo 2 message from when all the DLC was made free clicking on the achievements tab doesn't work but it would have shown you the last four achievements you've earned the statistics tab shows nothing in settings there's appearance service tag controls and display the service tag feature would eventually be moved to become an option in the appearance submenu speaking of appearance the color selection menu design is entirely different to what we're used to with each armor and emblem option having their own individual color palettes all visible at once the armor detail color option is also not present in this build by the time of the March 8th build the color menu would take on its final design including the armor detail option the model menu option is much more simplistic here for Spartans besides the standard options for each armor piece the head option has an infantry helmet variant the left shoulder has a nulled locked option and right shoulder has one simply called different right shoulder unfortunately none of these work in game and simply use the standard Mark 6 variants Elites don't have different variant strings available in the menu only displaying standard variants the last appearance option emblems is inaccessible in this build so we're stuck with the star emblem controls have a unique property where some of the settings will already display underneath the option image outside of the lack of a fly cam setting the controls menu is nearly identical to retail but the only difference is being the arrangement of the options at a smaller pool of button layout settings than those in the final game with only default boxer and green thumb available in pimps look sensitivity is functionally the same but it's displayed 0 through 9 instead of 1 through 10 with 0 acting as if it's 1 and 9 acting as if it's 10. lastly there's display the option doesn't work but interestingly the placeholder image uses a Halo 2 screenshot now let's move on to the main menu settings starting with campaign the menu design itself is nearly identical to retails with the exception of the map preview image area taking up the entire width of the screen and that's a constant throughout the rest of this build to keep your hype in check there are no campaign map files available in this build surprisingly in level select there's not only Halo 3 missions but Halo 2 mission references as well with outskirts Delta Halo and quarantine Zone being listed in the Halo 3 mission submenu each of the missions internal names are listed with two cut levels being included in the form of floodship and guardian Forest the matchmaking menu is nearly the same as retail this is what the matchmaking search screen looked like there are four game types available in the custom games menu Slayer Capture the Flag VIP and territories unlocking the main menu reveals the rest of the missing modes including infection assault King of the Hill Juggernaut and oddball there's a notable Quirk about the custom game settings the for leader traits the unchanged setting is not the default setting being used this means when making a custom game in pimps at C if you don't set the leader trades to unchanged or match them to the base player traits the leading players will respawn with whichever traits are set to default for example The Shield multiplier based player trait was set to 4 times overshields in this custom game but the leader traits were set to default settings meaning after I got a kill and took the lead my overshields started to deplete by the time the March 8th build came leader trades were set to unchanged next is the map editor Sub menu not much to say here but there's no map images and the forge options are unavailable lastly theater mode is present but it doesn't work considering the build doesn't save any theater films it wouldn't be until the public beta where such a feature was working natively pims at C content is pretty standard fare for a development build of Halo 3. most of the roster of Halo 3's weapons are included with the exception of the Gravity Hammer Mauler fuel Rod Gun and Sentinel beam but the main twist is that each of the weapons in this build use Halo 2 first person animations as a placeholder by the March 8th build the Spartans gained their updated first-person animations while the elites still use Halo 2 animations in this build but they're quite a bit janky here fun fact because a Halo 2 first person animations are being used as a placeholder in pimps the weapons in the build have their unused Halo 2 Sprint animations sadly the Sprint feature just like in Halo 2 is completely deprecated so to get these to appear I swapped out the movement overlay animations with those other cut Sprint animations foreign speaking of cut Halo 2 features there was also a leaning concept that never came to fruition either and some of the functionality for it still remains in pimps to further clarify this and Sprint were cut features from Halo 2 that happened to be in pimps these were not planned to be in Halo 3. before we get to the weapons I'd like to talk about the HUD which has quite a few significant differences the position of your secondary weapons icon is on the left side of the screen it's placed next to the equipment icon and a vertical bar separates the two there's a compass underneath the shield bar but this was not a planned feature for Halo 3's HUD this Compass usually only appears in development builds of the Halo games the binoculars match those of Halo 2's design the elites and pimps simply use the same HUD as the Spartans by the March build a few subtle changes were made the crosshairs have been made larger the primary weapon schematic was flipped to face the center of the screen the grenade numbers equipment icon and the secondary weapon icon slightly shifted their positions and the upper part of the visor outline moved inward towards the center of the screen The Tint of the HUD elements have also changed to be a more teal color the binoculars received a brand new design featuring horizontal and vertical rulers as well as a bios number to the bottom left to the bottom right of the screen there's some binary code which translates to Dave this is a reference to David canland a UI designer for Halo 3. elite still used the Spartans HUD design but it's tinted purple now just like in Halo 2 by the Halo 3 beta a lot of changes were made to the HUD the motion tracker became significantly larger the Crosshair position moved slightly upwards the secondary weapon was moved to the right side of the screen underneath the ammo meter and the image was flipped to face the left side of the screen the equipment icon also became slightly bigger and since the secondary weapon icon was moved the vertical bar separating the two in the past was taken out when you don't have certain types of grenades their corresponding icons have become faded out until you stock up on those types lastly the bottom portion of the visor outline has shifted towards the middle as well by retail all of the HUD elements have shifted further towards the center of the screen likely for better peripheral visibility a HUD element for the range of the motion tracker was added both the visor outlines and the unstocked grenade types have become more visible speaking of grenades the firebomb grenades icon is now visible by default the icon design even existed in Pips at sea but since the build didn't have this grenade you can only see this icon through modding the March build actually has a firebomb grenade but can only be accessed when grenade regeneration is turned on and the HUD element is only visible when it's selected back to retail the binoculars got a design change yet again using darkened HUD elements and Dave's binary code was removed Elites now have their own specific HUD design using a blue-green color scheme instead of purple as well as their own set of binoculars the overall balance of the build is mostly similar to the Halo 3 public betas and I'll mention the similarities and differences as we go let's start with the iconic assault rifle this weapon uses the Halo 2 battle rifle first person animations and the sounds that came with them foreign the materials used on the weapon's first person model features some trickery by the ammo counter to simulate blue light coming off of the screen the maximum amount of ammo the assault rifle can hold in reserve is 160 spare rounds zooming in with the assault rifle to use the binoculars takes a surprisingly long time in this build compared to the other weapons with the zoom time of 0.35 seconds by the March build the weapon has its own set of animations and its textures and shaders have been updated the assault rifle also has its charging handle move back and forth each time around is fired by the time of the public beta the maximum amount of Reserve ammo is buffed to 224 spare rounds and a long Zoom time for its binoculars was removed making the transition instantaneous its first person model was also updated to include a small Marathon symbol underneath the charging handle which you cannot see in third person by the final game The Reserve ammo limit was buffed again this time to 352 spare rounds and the charging handle no longer moves while the weapon fires only when reloading moving on we have the SMG just like in the Halo 3 beta the amount of damage dealt by a singular SMG round is 4.65 points of damage resulting in a 25 bullet kill in pimps however the damage Nerf that comes with dual wielding is a 0.75 times multiplier resulting in 3.48 points of damage or a 28 bullet kill the SMG is using the Halo 2 SMG firing sound but it sounds like it's mixed a bit differently in retail the SMG Now deals Five Points of damage per shot killing players in 23 rounds when single wielded meanwhile the dual wield penalty is a 0.9 times multiplier resulting in 4.5 points of damage per shot and 26 bullets to kill a player next is the Magnum the red reticle range is noticeably lower in pimps at sea at six World units when through a wielding the pistol had a wider spread with an error angle between one and two degrees to briefly explain what an error angle means in gameplay terms it's basically measuring how wide a weapon's firing spread is larger numbers results in a wider spread and smaller numbers result in a tighter spread by the March build the red radical range was increased to seven and a half World units and would remain this way until retail by the Halo 3 beta the dual wield spread was tightened going from 0.5 degrees to 1 degree in terms of balancing the battle rifle is the exact same as it is in the public beta it had a red radical range of 8.5 World units a fire recovery time of 0.26 seconds and a noticeably wider spread with an error angle between 0.3 and 0.6 degrees the battle rifle in pimps at Sea is also using the Halo 2 counterparts firing sound the sound effects used for zooming in and out are the same ones as the sniper rifles just like how Halo 2's battle rifle was set up by the March build the battle rifle would receive its own specific Zoom sounds as well as a new firing sound by the time the final game launched the red radical range was buffed to 10 world units the fire recovery time was slightly nerfed to 0.28 seconds and the spread became tighter with an error angle between 0.15 to 0.5 degrees going back to the fire recovery time for a second let me show you a comparison between 0.26 and 0.28 seconds to demonstrate how a seemingly Small Change can actually be pretty substantial [Music] thank you next up is the shotgun the shotgun's firing statistics are actually the same as those of Halo 2 shotgun with a conical spread between 8 and 10 degrees when looking at the model itself there's a marathon symbol by the trigger handle and the light on the on and off switch for the flashlight is green by the March build the spread was tightened to 7.5 degrees when walking around with a shotgun the player's hand doesn't move along with the shotgun resulting in the weapon suspended in the air for a brief time by the public beta the marathon symbol was removed from the weapons model by retail the animation error with the player's hand would be fixed and the light on the on and off switch is the same blue color as the iron sights similar to the shotgun the Pimp's sniper rifle also has a marathon symbol right next to the trigger But it includes a blue Trinity emblem on the stock too the Halo 2 sniper rifle also features the same blue Trinity symbol on its stock and its inclusion in The Pimps version was likely a continuation of the precedent Halo 2 seemingly set for the weapon the sniper scope is a pure green screen not showing anything that the player sees in the March build the marathon emblem is still there but the Trinity emblem is no longer present the scope also properly displays everything that the player sees by the Halo 3 beta the marathon symbols were replaced with the w symbol which persists in the final game next up is the rocket launcher it still uses its Halo 2 model in this build with the materials being messed up just like The Pimps battle rifle zooming in and out uses the sniper rifle Zoom sounds the scope mask used when zooming in is also a lot more simplistic in the pre-release builds of Halo 3 with just being a simple Circle it also has a significantly longer red radical range in pimps with a range of 22.5 World units this was likely a remnant of the Halo 2 days when the weapon was able to track enemy vehicles and having a longer red reticle range was necessary to make this feature viable the weapons firing effects featured a blindingly high amount of muzzle flash which made it disorienting to fire by the March build the rocket launcher would receive its own Halo 3 model and its own Zoom sound effects the red radical range was cut down by 10. now set to 12.5 rolled units by the Halo 3 beta the rocket launcher's muzzle flash was drastically reduced then finally by retail the rocket launcher would receive its updated scope mask the Spartan laser is a very interesting weapon in pimps at sea for starters is using the Halo 2 rocket launcher's first person animations as a placeholder once again the sniper Zoom sound effects are used by the Blazer when zooming pimps and the other pre-release builds we know of Blazer is using an old rendition of the targeting reticle both when zooming in and out the magnification of the zoom is the same as the rocket launchers at 1.8 times strength the charging effect of the Spartan laser includes a bright ring that forms over the lighting effects when looking at the model itself we find our old friend the marathon symbol Again by the trigger on the right-handed side of the weapon the text 06 Galilean is reversed while the left-handed side has it written out correctly the amount of battery used up per shot is 25 percent in pimps which is the exact same value the laser uses in reach and onwards when killing an enemy player with this Blazer and pimps it counts as a snipe rather than a laser kill what I feel is the most notable feature of The Pimps Blazer is its role as a support weapon Halo 3 introduced the concept of support weapons which act as a third weapon that's separate from your inventory the cost of using these weapons include a slower walking speed not being able to use melee attacks or throw grenade kids and being unable to sit in vehicle seats with a weapon in pimps at Sea the Spartan laser and another weapon that I'll be covering shortly have the support weapon flag ticked in their weapon tags with the main differences being a normal walking speed and the ability to sit on vehicle side seats one more court is that the Spartan laser has it set so the elite player character sees the rocket launcher's first person model when holding the weapon resulting in a funny weapon charge up cycle foreign by the time of the March build the sparrant laser has its own set of first-person animations and zooming sounds the firing animation however is unfinished when charging the weapon the aforementioned bright ring that appears in The Pimps version is now gone the charging and firing effects in general are a lot dimmer here compared to pimps and the projectile contrails have a tinge of green to them the amount of battery per shot is now decreased down to 20 usage just like in retail would killing someone with a splaser in the March build it simply says you killed them like with most weapons the model has a reverse zero six Galilean text removed on the right-handed side of the weapon the elite still has the rocket launchers first person model set for the laser only this time the animations are not properly set for the new Halo 3 Elite's first person arms messing them up entirely and finally the laser is no longer a support weapon the Halo 3 beta Spartan laser has its completed firing animation with added steam particle effects that expel from the side of the weapon the green tinge in the contrails is no longer present the marathon symbol is now removed on the laser but interestingly enough the Reversed 0-6 Galilean text from pims has returned and will remain on the weapon even in the final game when killing a player with the laser in the beta the text will now properly say you lasered them and the metal for it appears as well in the retail product the targeting reticle has taken on its final form and the zoom magnification was buffed to 2.5 times the other support weapon in pimps is this cut missile launcher weapon it's based off of the gadoosh concept art specifically using a blockout model resembling this design this is essentially the predecessor to the missile pod featuring the ability to lock onto enemy vehicles it uses the Halo 2 rocket launcher's lock-on trigger Behavior which requires the player to hold the trigger after achieving red reticle the missiles it launches are extremely powerful capable of destroying wraiths in one shot each rocket dishes out 500 points of explosive damage with a maximum blast radius of one world unit to projectile propels a lot like a javelens but the rocket is fired out and travels slowly at one world unit per second then after a moment it suddenly barrels towards the target at 15 World units per second there are actually some invalid tag references for the missile launcher that can be found in the editing kit for Halo 3. one can be found in the resupply capsules model tag and another can be seen in construct's weapon resource tag likely spawning where the missile pod did before it got cut big shout out to cashiera for pointing this out to me it would eventually be scrapped sometime before the March build being replaced by the missile Pod moving on to the Covenant weapons we'll start with the Needler which has a pretty interesting developmental history in pimps at Sea deniedler only carries 15 needles per Magazine with a Max Reserve ammo being 75 needles its red radical range was 13 enrolled units to projectile velocity was 12 volt units per second and the Damage per individual needle was 6 points while the damage per individual needle doesn't seem that important due to the super combining ability this matters a lot more in campaign where ai-fired needles will not trigger super combines needles also stay on their targets for a bit longer in pimps at 5 seconds flat and the amount of time it takes for a super combined to trigger is half a second by the time of the March build the needler's magazine capacity was slightly nerfed down to 14 needles with 70 maximum spare needles the needles stay on their target between 4 seconds and 4.75 seconds and the super detonation countdown was slightly reduced to 0.35 seconds which is where it sits today by the Halo 3 beta the weapon balancing for the Needler is pretty much one for one with retails the magazine capacity was buffed to 19 needles with 76 needles in reserve the red radical range was slightly nerfed down to 12 World units the projectile velocity was nerfed to 11 volt units per second and the damage from Individual needles was nerfed to Four Points also fun fact despite being unable to dual wield the Needler in pimps the dual wield animations from Halo 2 are still present in the build and can't be accessed by enabling dual wielding through modding next is the plasma rifle like the rocket launcher it's using a Halo 2 model with messed up materials as a placeholder also like a table 2 counterpart some of the weapon tag values are from that game the spread values range from 0.25 to 0.75 degrees and the dual wield spread values are the same as Halo 2s with an error code from 1.5 to 3 degrees by the March build the plasma rifle got its Halo 3 Model the spread values were noticeably nerfed with a range from 0.5 to 1.25 degrees however firing a plasma rifle while dual wielding is much more accurate compared to dual wielding and pimps with a spread range from 0.5 to 1.75 degrees the plaza pistol has one very important difference in pimps its overcharged shots do not amp vehicles in this build in fact vehicle EMP in general is not in pimps at all the battery drain rate when charging the weapon was also lower in pimps at a rate of one percent battery charge per second each shot from the standard firing mode generates a bit more heat with a value of 0.16 per shot by the March build the vehicle EMP functionality made its way to Halo 3. by the final game the battery Journey rate when charging the weapon was increased to three percent per second and each primary fire shot generates a bit less heat now with 0.14 per shot next up is the Covenant carbine the weapon balancing is one for one with a Halo 3 beta variant it dishes out 11 damage per shot resulting in a seven shot kill to the head and has a fire recovery time of 0.14 seconds the amount of reserved ammo that a carbine has when picked up is only 18 rounds the scope features these four lines that open up in an X shape when zooming in this is still in the final game but it takes about a second for them to animate the projectile control is a flat green line that is much more noticeable in this build when shooting the carbine in objects the impacts leave a wisp of green smoke this too is still in the final game but in pimps they stay on objects for two whole seconds the most obvious visual difference is the lack of an ammo counter on the magazine lastly the reload sound is the same as Halo 2's by the March build the carbine had received its ammo counter the green wispy smoke that appears on projectile impacts disappear a bit sooner between a quarter of a second and one whole second the amount of initial Reserve ammo now increased by a magazine up to 36 rounds on pickup the weapon also now has its own unique reload sound by the Halo 3 beta the projectile contrails are much less visible than they were in the previous builds by retail the carbine's damage output was reduced to 10 damage per shot which results in an 8 shot kill to the Head the fire recovery time was increased 0.16 seconds the X in the scope now animates immediately when zooming in as opposed to waiting a second finally the Green Smoke disappears even faster now between 0.15 and 0.25 seconds the beam rifle wastes a bit more battery per shot in pimps at Sea spending a little over 11 percent charged with each trigger pull each shot also generates a heat value of 0.65 the illumination shaders on the weapon such as on the barrel and a revolving cylinder are unfinished in this build this is the design of the scope mask and the pre-release builds of Halo 3. lastly the projectile contrails are unfinished and very noticeable the March build would have the illumination shaders finished use 10 percent of its battery per shot resulting in 10 total shots being available and the contrails have dimmed a bit the Halo 3 beta's contrails take on their final design in retail the scope mask is using its final design being much wider than in previous builds the weapon also generates a bit more heat with each shot now using a value of 0.7 before we move on to the next weapon I want to take a slight detour and talk briefly about the typical melee damage used by most of the weapons because this will serve as a good segue for the next weapon I want to cover while standing on the ground melee damage is 55 resulting in a three-hit kill however when jumping and using your momentum from above it goes to 75 being a two-hit Kill by the Halo 3 beta the damage is a flat 65 points it results in a two-hit kill like in the final game but it's not enough to fully break a player's shield in retail melee is slightly buffed to 70 points this time being enough to break an enemy player's shield with the first hit now let's talk about the Spiker picking up the Spiker will refer to the weapon as the spike rifle which to this day even in Halo Reach is the internal name for this Weapon It's using the Halo 2 Magnum animations as a placeholder the weapon is less accurate in pimps with an error cone angle between 1 and 2.75 degrees went to a wielding the error cone angle ranges from 1.5 to 3 degrees and the Damage nerve is 0.75 times since the damage per round is 9 like in retail a 0.75 times multiplier results in 6.75 damage per shot requiring 18 shots to kill a player when using the Spiker while dual wielding its projectiles travel at 25 World units per second at all times when picking up ammo for the Spiker it uses the same sound effect that the SMG uses when it picks up ammo the reason I wanted to bring up melee damage is due to the Spiker in the final game using a different melee damage model than most weapons almost every weapon in the game uses a damage effect tag named strike underscore melee which is the aforementioned 70 damage dealing melee attack the Spiker on the other hand uses its unique damage Effect called cut melee which is very slightly stronger at 72 damage per hit from pimps to the public beta however the Spiker simply uses the normal melee damage effect Elites do not have a first person model set up for this Weapon by the March build the Spiker had its own animations and officially adopted its Spiker name in the pickup string the weapon became more accurate overall when single-wielded the error cone angle was tightened ranging from 0.5 to 1.25 degrees when dual wielded the error comb ranged from 0.75 to 1.5 degrees and the Damage reduction multiplier was changed to 0.85 times from pimps 0.75 this now results in 16 shots for a kill when dual wielding to projectile velocity was nerfed it starts at 25 role units per second like in pimps but after six World units of travel the velocity is reduced to 17.5 World units per second resulting in a weapon being much more suited to closer ranges than before the Spiker also had its own exclusive ammo pickup sound muzzle flash is noticeably smaller in this build and it helps that the weapons view model positions have shifted more to the right to make Target acquisition easier one very minor detail that's visually different about the Spiker is the location of these lights in each of the covered pre-release builds they're in this position moving on to the final game however they're moved upwards to this position the next brute weapon is the brute shot which uses its Halo 2 model in this build The Pimps brute shot feels like a hybrid between Halo 2s and Halo 3's rendition of the weapon it has a grenade belt that could hold up to six grenades that can heal 3 but the grenades are able to bounce off of hard surfaces just like in Halo 2. it's able to hold an extra belt in reserve totaling 18 spare grenades the fire rate of the Pimp's brood shot is slightly slower with the fire recovery time of half a second the grenades in this build are more effective by gravity with a gravity scale rating of 0.3 the same as Halo 2's brute shot even the targeting reticle is still the same as Halo 2s to reflect the greater Arc of the grenade shot in this build projectile velocity starts at 20 World units per second but after 15 World units it drops to 10 world units per second the damage ranges from 45 to 60 with a blast radius between 0.5 and 1 World unit giving it a 4 shot kill versus players with a minimum damage being at 45 even if you're not directly hitting your target it would still result in a 4 shot kill minimum the sound effect used for the grenade explosion is different as well brute shot has its own unique melee damage effect just like in Halo 2. this uses a damage effect tag called slice melee which in pimps and the March build is a damage range from 90 to 120. if you're in the air and user momentum it uses the 120 model and is an instant kill by the March build the brute shot got its updated model and the fire rate was brought back up to its retail counterparts with a fire recovery time of 0.3 seconds the gravity rating of the grenades was drastically reduced from pimps with a 0.1 rating this may have been the reason why the brute shot's targeting reticle was changed to remove the rangefinder now that the Arc of the grenades have started to become less pronounced the projectile velocity starts at 16 World units a second but after 15 World units it drops to 11. the damage effect has been mostly nerfed in this build with one exception the damage itself ranges from 30 to 45 now resulting in either a 5 shot kill via direct impact or within the effective radius or a 6 shot kill and the maximum edge of said radius the exception I mentioned was the blast radius which has been slightly increased from 1 to 1.5 World units the grenades themselves also don't Ricochet anymore and are always exploding on direct impact the contrails of the shock grenades also receive the tinge of greenish blue to them and the sound effects for the explosions match to their retail counterparts foreign by the Halo 3 beta The Brute shots projectile contrails lost the greenish blue hue and used standard smoky gray colors the damage effect has been changed yet again with a damage rolled between 20 and 60 depending on where you land your hits the radius has been slightly nerfed to 1.2 World units it's a four shot kill once again but if shots are at the edge of the radius it's a 7 shot kill the slice melee damage effect for the melee attack has been nerfed and is now 90 damage at all times regardless if you're in the air by retail The Brute shots projectile velocity receives a Nerf starting at 16 Rollins per second then dropping to 7. the damage was slightly buffed from the beta ranging from 26 to 73 with a maximum radius of 1.1 World units this still results in a 4 shot kill within the effective radius and direct impact but shooting outside the effective radius will now result in a six shot kill rather than 7. the last brute weapon available is the spike grenade the spike grenade is a bit heavier in the pre-release build of Halo 3. with the gravity scale of one this is also the spike grenade throwing sound effect used foreign this is the only impact sound tag used for this grenade in pimps with no other types of sounds being used for events such as sticking flesh the amount of Spike shards that Spawn from an explosion is 16 total and each individual Spike does 20 to 30 points of damage but the March build more sound effects have been added the grenade throw sound effect is different and sticking flesh has its own sound good by the Halo 3 beta the spike grenade had received a noticeable buff for its Spike shards four more spawned during the explosion now resulting in 20 shards total in each individual Spike deals 50 to 60 points of damage finally by the final game there have been added effects for an armed Spike grenade with blinking lights and smoke effects for added Flair the grenade itself is also less heavy with a gravity scale of 0.9 the last of the standard weapons is the energy sword sword clanging is not a feature in this build with sword duels behaving like Halo 2 where it's based off the connection of the other player the slash decals when using the sword on hard surfaces are not present yet and the sound effects are still Halo 2s the sword also lacks a battery meter underneath the weapon icon only numerically showing how much battery you have left the visual effects for the sword are a lot more intense and pimps as well by the March build the visual effects are now less intense and a light tag was added to the sword model but it doesn't properly disappear when the weapon is holstered by the beta the swords turn on effects are now working properly finally by retail the sword has its own sound effects and even a specific melee animation for an attempted lunge attack the light tag is much less visible the sword can now Clash against other sword users and their slash decals that are now visible when attacking hard surfaces now we'll cover the game type specific weapons which are the Oddball flag and bomb the Oddball is using the Halo 2 model the flagpole's materials are unfinished and the assault bomb has a missing decal which would become the thus I Refuge the line the bomb has a red specular tint on its shaders likely as a way to emulate the red lights that were on the Halo 2 bomb Elites don't have a first person model set for the flagpole by the March build the Oddball has its own model the assault bomb has its thusai Refuge the decal and the flagpole has its completed materials also the flag now has some tears on the cloth by retail the flag still has tears on it but there aren't as many as they were in pre-release [Music] we finally move on to the vehicles not counting sand traps elephant quite a few of the vehicles are missing in pimps but the only ones available being the warthog the Mongoose the ghost the banshee and The Wraith vehicle EMP originated sometime between pimps and the March build initially there were no EMP effects and emped vehicles would remain immobile for 8 Seconds by the Halo 3 beta vehicle EMP time was reduced to 6 seconds then by retail EMP effects appear on vehicles and the EMP time was reduced yet again down to four seconds let's begin our vehicle coverage with the Mongoose the vehicle feels much tighter on the ground when driving at high speeds with the e-brake not being as necessary to make sharp Returns the position of the camera track is noticeably lower making it somewhat harder to see what's in front of the driver two sound effects are different in this build which are the rev up sounds and the horn the amount of Health the Mongoose has in pimps is 200 points total the sparrin's acceleration overlay animations are a bit Jank when making sharp turns almost as if they are about to fly off of the vehicle Elite player is unable to board the passenger seat in this build while Spartans can there's actually a reason for this Spartans and pimps have been given specific animations designed for the Halo 3 Mongoose however when Elites and pimps at C use the Mongoose they're actually using the driving animations that are meant to be used for Halo 2's Mongoose which was cut during Halo 2's development this was made possible by the Halo 2 Elites Mongoose driving animation still being left over in the animation tag despite said vehicle being cut while the Spartans were removed this is why that when this Mongoose was added to the master chief collection's version of Halo 2's editing kit Spartan players could not natively drive the vehicle while Elites could why does this matter for Pimps since Halo 2's Mongoose didn't feature a passenger seat like Halo 3's there was never an animation made for such a situation meaning the elites can't board the seat in the March build the Spartans overlay animations look more like the final games making the Spartan look more stable when driving fast the Mongoose was given a small buff to its Health now sitting at 250 points despite using their new Halo 3 models Elites still retain their Halo 2 Mongoose animations and everything that was applied to The Pimps Elites still applied to the March build by the Halo 3 beta the Mongoose has its final rev up sound interestingly the horn was removed by the final game a new horn sound effect was added [Music] the camera track position was raised from its pre-released location making it easier to see what's in front of the driver the vehicle's Health was actually nerfed back down to 200 points next up is the warthog The Pimps version is much slippier on the ground when driving around this is due to having a comparable ground friction rating to that of Halo 2's warthog with Halo 2s having a 0.85 value and The Pimps hog having a 0.9 value the amount of Health it has is 450 points total the chain gun hog is the only variant available in pimps along with two damaged variants called wrecked one with a Turret and one without these wrecked variants would eventually become destroyed warthogs in the final build but it pimps they only feature minor damage to the windshield and headlights and are still drivable the destruction effects are left over from Halo 2 and are in a work in progress state by the March build the health was buffed to 500 points total the wrecked variants have received more visible damage but are still drivable and the Goss and Troop variants have been added to the warthog including the unused medic variant of the true POG the ground friction rating for the warthog has increased dramatically to a 3.25 value allowing the warthog to grip easier into the dirt and not be as slippery by now the destruction effects are effectively final by retail direct variants are entirely destroyed now with only the turret variant providing any kind of usable seat the last UNSC vehicle is the mounted machine gun turret this is the exact variant seen in Halo 2 with a couple of Bounce adjustments since this is the Halo 2 rendition of the machine gun turret players are unable to rip it off of its Mount and turn it into a handheld weapon the projectile velocity is 800 World units per second that can Halo 2 as well as its fire rate of 10 rounds per second but the damage has been slightly nerfed from 15 points in Halo 2 to 13 points in pimps at C unlike Halo 2 this turret is able to completely turn around 360 degrees by the March build this turret would ultimately be replaced by the Halo 3 rendition which behaves very differently players can rip it off of its Mount and run around with it the rate of fire is build up going from 4 rounds per second to 10 projectile velocity is drastically lower with a 100 volt unit per second value and damage is 16 per shot but it does much less damage to vehicles moving on to the Covenant Vehicles we have the ghost it behaves a lot like a talo 2 counterpart the ghost's weapon Fires at a rate of 10 rounds per second the projectile velocity is at 17 World units per second and the Damage per shot is at 13 points the plasma bolts also have noticeable contrails behind them the ghost has a total of 250 Health points and the fuel cell located on the left side of the ghost still served as a huge weak spot for the vehicle in fact it's so vulnerable that a couple of assault rifle rounds are enough to destroy the ghost the display screens on the ghost tick on a blue color the Boost effects look more wispy and the anti-gravity effects underneath the ghost took on a more purple shade and were wispy as well by the March build the ghosts received a substantial Health buff totaling 400 points which is where it sits in the final build the fuel cell is still a weak spot but since the vehicle received an overall buff to its Health this part of the ghost could take a bit more punishment before causing the vehicle to explode the boosting effects no longer look as Smoky and have gained a contrail that shoots out of each wing speaking of contrails the projectiles have lost theirs appearing as only circular bolts of plasma the anti-gravity effects take on a more bluish Hue the shaders on the ghost's hole receive a dynamic Cube map system that will display images on the map depending on where you're positioned most Covenant surfaces in the game such as the Banshee wraith Etc also use this type of Shader that features the dynamic qmap system not much changed by the beta build but for whatever reason the lights are turned on when the driver's seat is occupied remain on even when the ghost is not being used by the final game the ghost received a ton of changes the rate of fire of its weapon has been reduced to 7.5 rounds per second projectile velocity was buffed to 30 World units per second and the Damage per plasma bolt was slightly nerfed to 12 points the projectiles themselves look fuller and more vibrant than they did in pre-release the ghost received a couple of red symbols on each wing and near the Pilot's seat the fuel cell no longer serves as a weak spot for the ghost finally the displays take on their final purple forms next up is the banshee it's still using the Halo 2 model but interestingly it's using the heretic banshee's textures performance wise it flies exactly like its Halo 2 counterpart with its speed agility the frequency of the aerial tricks going to a near stop by pulling back on the thumbstick and the ability to look straight down all being intact each individual round from its plasma cannons do 10 points of damage and a Banshee bomb has a damage roll between 50 to 100 points depending on how close the explosion is to the Target the sound effects for the primary guns are the same as Halo 2's plasma turret bomb sound effects are the same as Halo 2's as well by the March build the Banshee received a couple of changes in regards to how it performs its aerial tricks have been changed to be quite a bit slower and it takes longer to perform a follow-up trick much like in the final game the sound effects for the weapons have changed as well in the public beta receives a huge glow up in many aspects the final design is now present the lights inside the canopy remain on at all times and the projectile effects are almost like their final forms however the biggest changes come from its aerial performance the Banshee no longer has the ability to look all the way down it can only look at an angle the Banshee will always be moving forward no matter how hard you pull the thumbstick back this also affects its side strafe in Halo 2 and the older Halo 3 builds the Banshee is capable of moving perfectly to its left or right side now it's no longer possible to do this and the pilot will always be moving forward even when side strafing one more huge change comes with its boosting mechanics when boosting the vehicle will Propel itself higher into the air instead of going completely straight to where you're aiming in retail the weapons have received some Buffs the primary fire now does 12 damage per shot and the bomb rolls between 60 and 140 points of damage when using the weapons there's a noticeable screen shake when projectiles are fired just like with the ghost the projectile effects for the primary fire are a lot Fuller and more visible now the lights on the vehicle are properly shut off when no one is occupying it and turn on when someone is the last vehicle that can be seen through normal gameplay is The Wraith it's missing a lot of its animations in this build only having its steering animation as well as the mortar's aiming animation being present and all the lights on the vehicle are always on no matter what the mortars have a damage range between 75 to 200 with a blast radius of 1.25 and 2.5 World units the firing sounds for the mortar are the exact same as Halo 2s Gunner seat is very peculiar in this build the camera track is much lower than it is in final positioned right behind the Gunner itself the turret can spin 360 degrees and even fire directly through the wraith's rear armor spitting the turret around produces the exact same sound effect used when spinning the warthog turret around the projectile itself is the exact same as the Banshees in this build dishing out 10 damage per plausible the fire rate is buildup starting at 7.5 rounds per second and after 2 seconds of fire reaches 10 rounds per second the spread is much wider in this build as well with an error cone between 2 and 3.75 degrees just like with the Banshee the firing sound is also the same as Halo 2's plasma turret the turret can reach its destroyed State while The Wraith itself is still intact and despite that players can still use and fire the turret as if it were still there the exhaust port on the back of The Wraith still serves as a weak spot for the vehicle but it takes several seconds for the destruction effects to actually play the standard variant of The Wraith is the only one that's available in this build by the March build almost all the vehicle's animations are now present the mortar's damage was buffed to roll between 75 to 300 points of damage the plasma turret now uses its own projectile and the spread has been significantly tightened with an error cone of 0.5 to 1.25 degrees the fire rate is no longer buildup always staying at 10 rounds per second shooting the exhaust Port until it's destroyed now instantly transitions to the destruction effects which are also finalized in this build the anti-air wraith is added as a second variant for The Wraith I won't go too in depth and will save it for the March built video but yeah it's hella different by the Halo 3 beta you can no longer destroy the plasma turret on its own exhaust Port now has its own animation too with it spinning when The Wraith is active by retail the Lights On The Wraith are now off when the vehicle is unoccupied and this applies to the turret as well the vehicle has received its red markings like the other Covenant vehicles the blast radius for the mortar was nerfed down to 1 to 1.75 rolled units the plasma turrets damage output was nerfed as well doing eight points of damage per round finally moving on from the vehicles we have the equipment which as a concept has an interesting developmental history while playing with the default button layout the equipment button was the back button there's no animation for throwing any of them acting as if they're jutting out of the player's body equipment can actually be used while dual wielding and even when driving Vehicles when holding onto an equipment item after zooming out with a scope or the binoculars the equipment pickup HUD animation will play again by the March build the new default equipment button is X which remains to this day the HUD animation no longer plays after zooming out something odd that started with this build is a lack of being able to swap different equipment items which is actually possible to do in pimps at sea by the beta you can no longer use equipment while driving a vehicle by retail There's an actual throwing animation for equipment items which also meant the loss of using them while dual wielding players regain the ability to swap out different items as well and the action comes up with its own HUD text prompting the player to do it let's begin with the bubble Shield in this stage of development it uses the same model as the power drain only with a different coloration because of this the bubble Shield actually rolls around rather than being stationary which is a huge gameplay difference you can even move it around yourself kicking it like a ball the equipment piece itself is also entirely invincible and can only be destroyed by a self-destruction after 20 seconds the effects for the shield itself are placeholder looking like the shield effects on Spartans when throwing the shield its velocity is One World unit per second and The Shield is deployed immediately upon throwing it the HUD icon for this Shield looks like this in pimps at Sea these are the sound effects used when throwing it followed by the idle sound that plays after foreign in between pimps and the March build as shown in the quiznam protero damn no vidoc there's a rendition of the bubble Shield that's still spherical like in pimps but it has updated Shield effects by the March build the bubble Shield has received a brand new design but it's not the same as retails and it can now be manually destroyed the equipment piece is now mostly a stationary object but it can still be pushed around if enough force is applied to it the shield effects are close to finals now including a steamy effect that surrounds the shield when deploying The Shield it's now thrown at a velocity of two World units per second the HUD icon has now been finalized as well by the public beta the bubble Shield model is now sporting its final design when throwing the shield it now takes a few moments for it to deploy The Shield is also now entirely stationary and can't be moved by anything no matter what when it's deployed and on the ground by retail The Shield effects have slightly changed to remove the steamy particle effects making the shield itself more clear next up is the power drain when deploying it it's thrown at a velocity of one walled unit per second it takes two whole seconds for its electric field to go up thing is the field effects are borderline unnoticeable and it's tough to gauge its radius when it's deployed the damage output per tick ranges from zero to one point of plasma damage with an effective radius of 1.5 to 4 World units at that four World unit range the damage is very low since it's near zero but the further you go into the field near that 1.5 World unit range it does one damage per Tech since the plasma damage modifier versus Shields is a 1.5 times multiplier in pimps the effective Max damage is 1.5 damage per tick after 15 seconds the equipment will simply blip out of existence with no destruction effects tied to it just like with the bubble Shield the power drain also had a different HUD icon design in this build when picking up the equipment an item it's referred to as a power drainer in the pickup string by the March build the pickup icon design has been finalized it's now thrown at a rate of four World units per second the power drain now takes one second for the field to appear and has actual effects now with a similar steamy effect the bubble Shield had the damage output to Shield is a lot greater while a zero to 0.02 damage range seems extremely low the damage type it uses now is EMP which has a staggering 500 times multiplier against Shield effectively causing 10 damage per tick at max strength the effective radius was altered now between two and three World units it'll now self-destruct after six and a half seconds have passed an actual destruction effects now exist for it which can cause damage and even kill the player if their Shields are down this explosion's damage effect dishes up 40 to 80 points of damage with an effective radius of two to three World units if a player dies the power drains explosion it counts as being killed by the guardians or in this case the gout the EMP ability is now a part of the power drain's abilities by retail the power drain is now referred to as the power drain when you pick it up The Field's visual effects have been changed to be a lot more clear and the steam effect is gone the fields damage effect had been heavily altered the EMP damage type itself no longer has that ludicrous 500 times Shield damage multiplier instead just doing neutral damage or one times the damage value of the field itself was changed to accompany this now using values of 1.5 to 3 damage per tick with a radius of 2.75 to 3 world units the explosion effect was also nerfed the blast radius was changed to no longer Encompass the entire power drain field now using a radius of 1.25 to 1.75 World units while the damage values went unchanged the damage type this effect used called explosion large received a sizeable nerve versus the material used for the Player's armor which is hard metal thin instead of dishing out neutral damage to players it now does half damage since half of 80 is 40 and each player has 45 Health points total the explosion is now just Out Of Reach of killing a healthy player the last available and arguably the most tragic piece of equipment is the trip mine Halo 3 beta veterans remember how powerful the trip mine used to be and it's the same in pimps at Sea the trip mine was capable of insta-killing players dishing out 300 points of damage to anyone stepping over it famously the trip mine could magnetize the vehicles turning them into death traps for any unfortunate sap that tries to drive them this is the trip mine's HUD icon in pimps the destruction effect for the mine is oddly coveted Cedric and I know the likely reason why on snowbound there's actually a covenant variant to the trip mine that uses a purple shell and blue lights these are already active Minds that act as hazards for anyone trying to go outside of the map and dish out the same amount of damage to players by the March build the visuals for the trip mine are finalized including the HUD icon the Covenant trip mine is still on snowbound but only its model remains in the map files and it no longer spawns on the map by default by the Halo 3 beta the force at which players can throw the mine was doubled now players throw them at a velocity of 4 World units per second the final game is where everything goes downhill for the trip mine it lost the ability to stick to vehicles and the Damage output was considerably reduced the trip mine now only does 160 points of damage rather than 300 that should still be a kill in theory but there's a catch the multipliers for the explosive damage type the trip mine uses were nerfed as well instead of doing neutral damage versus The Player's Shields and their armor it does half Dam damage to both since a trip mine does 80 points of damage versus the shields 35 points of Health remain for the player another huge factor that changed for the trip mine was the amount of concussive force that comes from the explosion in the older builds the instantaneous acceleration value which controls knockback was set to 2.5 but the retail value heavily buffed this to 3.75 turning the trip mine into more of a concussion mine than a pure explosive variant foreign Maps snowbound Valhalla and High Ground I've come to realize that all three of these maps have underwent very interesting sets of progression throughout Halo 3's development there's a few aspects regarding these maps that I want to mention first before going to the specifics firstly the iconic water Halo 3 uses is not present in pimps at Sea ironic I know the water is effectively just Halo 2s with no Dynamic Ripple effects no water resistance and oh buoyancy meaning objects won't float on the water's surface had they been light enough this will appear by the March build working the same way it does in retail there are also no map specific decals present on any of these Maps if you don't know what these are the simplest way to describe them is video game spray paint that adds more detail to a given area this can rage from debris on the floor signs and logos on walls cracks on damaged surfaces and much more power-ups such as the overshield and active camouflage are not in pimps at all one more aspect is something related to the territory's game type in Halo 2 when capturing a territory you'll be told through the HUD the exact name of the territory you took Halo 3 removed this feature and gave each territory a numerical value such as territory 1 2 and so on pimps at C on the other hand uses the Halo 2 method of named territories territory controlled territory control territory controlled 30 seconds remaining territory control territory control territory controlled territory control territory control territory control territory controlled territory control territory controlled territory control territory control territory control now onto the maps themselves there's a metric ton of very small changes for each of these three Maps as they were developed so I'm only going to cover changes that I consider to be significant enough to be mentioned for example I don't think anyone is going to be interested in hearing about a random Spiker or something being in one spot on one build then move to another spot in a different build there will be some exceptions to this but I'm more concerned about power weapons vehicles and Equipment let's begin with snowbound arguably the most iconic feature of this map are the Covenant Sentry turrets that defend the outer edges of the map they're still present in pimps at sea but they aren't AI controlled at all and don't shoot at you even if you walk in front of them instead they repeatedly turn left and right as if they're scanning for targets and the invisible wall which extends slightly further into the map than in retail is defended by the aforementioned Covenant variant of the trip mines it's not possible to reach these bites on foot but by boosting to them with a ghost you could briefly drive into the invisible wall and run over the mines the sensor Replacements next to the turrets also stuck out of the ground more than they do in the final game these objects along with the turrets can be picked up by the builds primitive Forge Mode by the March build the turrets now behave like they do in the final game shooting the wandering players that enter their field of view an interesting Quirk that surrounds these turrets when picked up in Forge Mode is that no matter where you place them on a map if you walk directly in front of them they won't shoot you they only fire at you when you walk to the area they're scripted to activate which is likely a reason why you can't interact with these in retail fun fact the simpler pimps version of the turret is still present in the map files just going unused when it was replaced by the final version moving on to the sandbox both bases have completely identical weapon vehicle and Equipment layouts that differ greatly from what Halo 3 fans are used to inside both offer a Spiker in the center of the room a Plasma Pistol near the spherical generator some plasma batteries next to that and a trip mine on the opposite side next to another plasma battery on top of each base there's a Needler a carbine and three plasma grenades a ghost spawns at the back of each base and there are a handful of plasma batteries on the corner outside of each base The Underpass near the Rocks is this build Spartan laser spawn in between some 400 Fusion coils on the opposite side of the top of the ice cave entrance a beam rifle is available right across from the beam rifle in between two plasma batteries there's a power drain equipment next to that inside the small ice tunnel is yet another pile of plasma batteries inside the ice cave the last notable sandbox inclusion is an energy sword that floats in between the fusion coils by the March build most of the sandbox revisions mirrored the final version the Spartan laser and beam rifle spawns have been moved to the bases with the Spartan laser spawning at low base or the tundra side base and the beam rifle spawns at high base or the rocky side base both of the ghosts at each base were removed with only one ghost spawning at the central underpass an atset underpass the fusion coils were removed the handful of plasma batteries that were outside of both bases were removed as well in the interior of low base the plaza pistol was replaced with two spikers and the plasma battery next to the trip mine was removed outside two battle rifles now spawn on these ramps and on top of the base a battle rifle replaces the carbine and one of the plasma grenades was swapped out with a plaza battery meanwhile at high base the interior Plaza pistol was swapped for two plasma rifles and Not only was the plasma battery next to the equipment spawn removed but a bubble shield now spawns here rather than a trip mine outside two carbines sit on these ramps and the Needler on top was swapped out for a plaza pistol on top of the ice cave entrance The Brute shot now sits in its final location the power drain was replaced by a covenant antenna and in the ice tunnel the plasma batteries were swapped out for an active camo lastly in the ice cave the energy sword was replaced by the shotgun the only sandbox Revision in the public beta that I care to mention is the power drain coming back replacing the trip mine in low base and finally by retail the power drain and bubble Shield swap places the Precision weapon that spawned at the top of each base was removed and an overshield was placed on top of a rock next to high base to wrap up snowbound I'll go over some of the significant visual updates that occurred from pimps to retail the base Interiors have different lighting and Shader work such as these reddish floor materials as well as these purple lights and low base also outside of low base this is the material used for this type of light in high base the spherical generator is still intact just offline the main planet in the sky has visuals eerily similar to Halo 3's rendition of requiem Halo 4 Shield World shown in this game's legendary ending lastly there's a lot of cuts in the map geometry that lead to the void whoever compiled this version of the map in the March build didn't generate light maps for it hence why it looks so flat here the floor has the same coloring as retail now and in low Bass the lights on these walls are now blue outside the lights on these objects are now a light blue as well in high Bass the generator is now visibly damaged and laying on the floor when walking in the snow there's visible tracks that appear and snow gets kicked up as you walk around the aforementioned planet now looks more like its retail self the cuts in the map have been fixed by this point as well the version of snow bouncing in the Halo 3 beta is similar to the March build just with actual light Maps by retail snowfall has started to appear throughout the map on high base icicles have been added to further emphasize that the building's heating systems have failed compared to low bases this last visual change requires viewer discretion remember these lights above the base doors what you're seeing are the Halo 3 beta's rendition of these lights how about retails what is that what the is that somehow between beta and final this object had been duplicated with extra ones appearing in highly unintentional places it's even worse with the area above high base's large Shield door not only are there three of these currently visible there's actually a fourth one hidden underneath the central object which is the reason behind the Z fighting that can be seen on screen if we open this level in blender and go to this spot with a Z fighting we'll click on this bit of instance Geo which extends to two of these objects and click hide hiding them fixes the Z fighting issue revealing the other object that was occupying the exact same space as the one we just hid for further proof that these duplicates are unintentional just look at how they're positioned here clipping through parts of the building so yeah sorry for ruining snowbound for you you're never going to want to see this every time you play snowbound you will suffer as I have suffered let's move on to Valhalla beginning with the bases and the areas surrounding them weapon layout is drastically different in pimpson C starting on the bottom floor of the base the cut missile launcher spawns on the left hand side and the sniper rifle spawns on the opposite side two pairs of Spike grenades are by the rear entrance followed by a pair of frags in the center of the room on the upper level a pair of assault rifles sit on the railing on the right hand side next to some plasma grenades and a trip mine is placed on the left hand side the biggest difference with this base however is the location of the second man Cannon which appears on the opposite side of where it will be placed later on both of the lifts take players to the Pelican which might have left the turret side of the map with very little traffic take into account of this specific Rock behind Lakeside base because it's going to be relevant soon the Cliffside spawn areas of both bases are raised much higher in pre-release this likely provided potent sniper positions that Bungie realized were too strong so they were shortened by retail the last thing I want to mention is the beam emitter pulses in pimps at Sea these occur every 31 seconds meaning the pulse is fired then the game Waits 30 seconds for the tower to fire again these pulses also don't damage the player at all by the March build something happened to the light map generating process to cause these black splotches to appear on the cliffs near Lakeside base inside the base itself the missile launcher was removed in favor of the missile pod which spawns in the center of the room two battle rifles and two Plaza pistols were added down here and the sniper rifle now spawns by the rear entrance on top the assault rifles were removed but more importantly the second man Cannon is now in its final location the beam emitter received a change that looks odd at first but makes sense with some context the pulses now fire every 6 seconds with a 5 second wait period between shots this is abnormally fast but I have a theory as to why this was done the March build came with some theater mode films that showcased some QA sessions on Valhalla the objective was to stress test the game's performance so all 16 players gather to one side of the map and caused as much Mayhem as possible the beam Tower effects are just another part of the session that costs game resources to play so having these spawn much more frequently for the sake of stress testing makes sense the beam itself now damages the player when they're into Vehicles such as the Banshee but doesn't seem to hurt players at all if they're on foot I told you to keep in mind this rock at the back of Lake base because it receives geometric differences between pimps and the March build this is significant because the shape of the rock now allows for the famous out of bounds exploit that players used to abuse in the Halo 3 beta there's a hole in the invisible barrier which players can Crouch underneath and escape the map boundaries I found that attempting to fly out of the map with a Banshee didn't seem possible in this build since the game forced me back into the map each time I boarded the vehicle it's a lot more consistent in the Halo 3 beta in comparison the only significant changes to these bases that came with the beta were the beam Towers instead of firing every 31 seconds like I did in pimps they fire every 50 seconds now with a 49 Second weight period between each shot this is now the tower's final rate of fire the beam can also now damage on foot players by retail the weapon and Equipment layout was slightly altered the missile pod now spawns on the Upper Floor right next to the man Cannon and a power drain replaces the trip mine the out of bounds exploit behind Lakeside base was fixed by this point too moving on to the rest of the map I want to point out these broken trees over by Lakeside base they add some visual storytelling to the scene showing that the Pelican that crashed here must have flown through these trees before Crash Landing they would be removed by the March build these trees have eluded Halo fans for the longest time showing up in the Halo 3 vidox and even in the Halo 3 beta's main menu in fact I actually want to mention the beta's main menu version of Valhalla for a second it features the aforementioned trees but the base design is final with the secondary man cannons pointing to turret's side this may mean that this rendition of Valhalla is newer than The Pimps version but older than the March Builds on turret's side the turret in question is a Halo 2 variant and the crate that serves as a turret's carrying case even has the Halo 2 turrets design on it rather than Halo 3s but would eventually display the Halo 3 design by retail no Mongoose or equipment spawns over by the UNSC gear here this particular rock is modeled differently in pimps and the March build the way it's shaped forces players to grenade jump to get on top of it and when they do the rock provides a very elevated sniping position by the Halo 3 beta the geometry for this rock was altered to be much shorter and a second smaller rock was placed next to it meaning players no longer needed to grenade jump to get on top of the larger Rock in the center of the map there's a random resupply capsule wedged between these rocks which would be removed by the March build by Pelican side the Pelican itself uses the Halo 2 model it would continue to use it all the way until retail using the updated Halo 3 variant next to the Pelican sits a bubble Shield this would be replaced by the power drain in the March build then the regenerator in retail finally in retail The Arc was added to the Skybox our last map is high ground which arguably has changed the most throughout the development of Halo 3. the amount of computers as well as their type is different in pimps this is also a different set of cabinets to what we'll get later on the only addition in the March build is a radio underneath one of the computers and by the Halo 3 beta one of the computers is removed in favor of the radio and the computers display different things on screen including the infamous Cortana Easter egg the cabinets have been replaced by this kind as well in the pipe room an energy sword spawns in the pipe itself being an extremely powerful tool for teams on defense this would be removed by the March build towards the back of the base in this room a brute shot is placed here by March it would eventually be moved outside to this location the vehicle selection here went through quite a bit of revisions in pimps the only available vehicle the defending team had access to was a ghost the ghost was removed and a pair of mongooses took its place by retail the ghost was re-added alongside the mongooses inside this room in the back of the base a Trip Mine spawned in here but would be removed by the March build while not High Ground specific this large crate behaved very differently in pimps it actually had a destruction state where it would collapse into a bunch of smaller crates leaving behind a bunch of clutter this would sadly no longer happen by the March build the upper and bottom floors of this part of the base were noticeably more Barren in pimps at Sea with not that many scenery objects being placed here on the balcony overlooking the flag spawn a Needler sits here by the March build more scenery was added to both floors and the floor tiling had changed in this corner on the top floor the Needler has been moved to this location while the balcony has the power drain by Spartan laser spawn three fusion coils spawn up here and in the interior section A random Spiker is placed in the middle of this floor by the March build one less Fusion coil is up here and now there's a crack in this wall that Spiker in the room had been replaced by a brood shot and by the public beta it was removed outside of the base features multiple major changes right next to the broken wall inside this small tunnel an SMG and a Spiker spawns here by rocket spawn there's no rocket launcher the bubble Shield spawn has a shotgun instead and in the cave next to the bunker this is where the rocket launcher spawns in pimps while that aforementioned SMG and Spiker spawn seems insignificant by retail these would be removed in favor of active camo the rocket launcher spawn was moved to its final location by the March build specifically inside of its weapon capsule the piece of coverage spots next to has also received some damage for added detail by the beta the rocket now spawns outside of its capsule the old rocket launcher spawn now has the grad lift equipment spawn here instead by the March build and the shotgun was swapped out for the bubble Shield this particular SMG spawn in front of the bunker would be replaced by the battle rifle in the March build I know I did say this type of difference didn't need to be mentioned but I always found this battle rifle spawned to be a bit iconic kind of like the battle rifle and lockout's BR Tower this piece of cover extends further into this rock and pimps and would eventually receive some damage and not be embedded into the Rock anymore shotgun spawn didn't have a shotgun in pimps instead including another battle rifle by March build a shotgun that's still inside of its weapon capsule would be placed here just like the rocket launcher and it would be taken out of its capsule by the beta to the left of sniper spawn this is where the bubble Shield used to spawn before being moved further up by the barge build the vehicles that spawned by the water changed a few times during development in pimps it was a singular warthog by March its two mongooses then by retail one of the Mong uses was swapped out for a ghost this palette that spawns next to the warthog is a placeholder using the shaders that an oil drum uses by the March build the palette looks like its final counterpart interestingly enough the placeholder palette was still within the map files up until at least the Halo 3 beta but it's no longer present by retail [Music] we've sifted through a ton of information spanning multiple builds of Halo 3. and now we're approaching the end of our pimped out Voyage the following information will consist of miscellaneous facts that it couldn't really fit in the previous chapters let's start with the playable bipeds in pimps at C both Spartans and Elites are available here with the Spartans using the campaign variant and the elites using their Halo 2 counterparts the Spartan biped has a second helmet variant simply called real time but not only is the entire head missing the visor itself isn't using a real-time reflection Shader nor is the regular variant inside the Spartan helmets a person's face is hidden behind the visor this was modeled after Marcus lato the creative director of Halo 3 and the man who created the master chief character model meanwhile the elite doesn't have any other variants loaded into the model besides the standard one The Shield indicators on the arms and legs miraculously still work in this build in team games just like in Halo 2 the secondary colors that are used on your biped match those of the primary color you selected by March the Spartan biped received three new variants CQB Eva and Recon the real-time variant got its helmet back but has the same visor from pimps the way the primary and secondary colors are displayed on the bipeds are different in this build with the secondary color extending to the entire helmet the real-time armor variant doesn't have this however there's some untextured bits on the model that are meant to serve as decals for the biped including the armor detail color option but they're unfinished the elites have their Halo 3 variant by this point but by default they lack working animations thankfully another set of elite animations reside in the files that work for this biped but they're the campaign Elite animations as for the bodies themselves Elites still only have their standard armor variant but just like with the Spartans their secondary color placement is noticeably different the spec ops Commander's damaged mandible variant has also been added by this point and I made a custom variant that showcases what the spec ops Commander would have looked like in this stage of development also one of the vertices on the right Gauntlet is stretched way too far out by the Halo 3 beta the standard Mark VI helmet had its secondary color positions finalized but none of the other variants received this treatment yet since they were unused content in this build speaking of other variants an untextured EOD variant has been added to the roster the real-time variant received a visor material change to being much more blinding a UI variant was added to the model but its visor is even more blinding than the real-time variants by retail the Spartan biped is now using the final multiplayer variant instead of the campaign one and all the armor permutations have been added the real-time visor looks different yet again with cloudy streaks going across it meanwhile the elites returned and got their armor permutations as well the elites now have their finalized eyes with blinking eyelids secondary colors are finalized too a new rendition of the body Shield indicator is used with various lights on the armor that blink whenever The Shield is down then reset when shields are recharged slightly related to playable bipeds we have forge mode in pimps at Sea it's nothing more than the developer camera that detaches from the player bypet however you have the ability to pick up and drop various objects since it's the dev camera it can phase through geometry and go outside of maps there's no menu implemented yet and you can spawn just one object by pressing B the assault bomb there's a funny glitch where if your player character dies while you're still in Forge Mode you'll still be able to manipulate objects in first person it can cause some scary results by March build Forge Mode has effectively become an unfinished version of the final game's Forge Mode you spawn as a monitor now instead of using fly cam a Crosshair has been added to your HUD and you now have access to the Forge menu to place objects the Crosshair design is noticeably different here it takes on an x-shaped design and when hovering over objects that could be picked up green triangles appear they close in when picking up an object you're able to face through the floor when floating parallel to the ground and switching to player mode eventually hitting the map's death barrier spawning objects through the menu results in the object dropping to the floor immediately which can make placing objects in specific locations a bit more time consuming you can also Place multiple objects as fast as you can span the a button due to the fact the menu doesn't close whenever you spawn an object the forge monitor itself mostly resembles its final counterpart but when it dies it simply falls to the ground and its Collision disappears Forge in the beta was pretty much the same as it was in March but with updated fonts for the menu the monitor is also mostly the same but with updated shaders by retail the forge Crosshair is entirely different it's a design matching the monitor's eye when hovering over an object a green hand appears with an open Palm which closes when grabbing the object selecting an item in the menu now closes it and you'll automatically grab the item upon selecting it the monitor now slowly Bobs up and down during its idle animation and it has destruction effects upon dying one last bit of forged trivia that I want to talk about relates to snowbound I mentioned how one of the Epsilon builds was going to be relevant and this is why in epsilon build 11729 snowbound's Forge palette included the shade turret but it got cut shortly before the release of the game instill inside snowbound's retail map file as unused content along with the assets for the Covenant Sniper Tower which were likely also planned to be items you could spawn on this map moving on I'll talk about some quirks I noticed relating to the game types featured in pimps the hills in King of the Hill are very Jank in this stage of development with a Shader that seems to override map lighting when looking through it also one of the hills on High Ground Clips through the ground and extends to the bunker allowing a player to gain points through the extended part during a soul walking over the plant site automatically arms it like in retail but it doesn't result in the bomb sticking to the plant site there's no countdown timer present for the bomb either infection is present but it has a pretty fatal flaw in this stage zombies don't spawn with a regular energy sword it may look like one but it's actually a sword with its battery drained however some of the active effects are still on Jeff steitzer's multiplayer announcer lines are from Halo 2 with the exception of one line that actually come comes from Halo CE the Slayer game type line Slayer multi kills go up to Kilimanjaro in pimps at C just like in Halo 2. kiliman jarrow the killerman jarrow who kill him and jarrow the final aspect that I'll be covering today include some content hidden in The Pimps at C map files the first is an untextured rendition of the Halo 2 shade turret it behaves exactly like a Halo 2 counterpart just missing a bunch of its effects the shade turret went through a number of iterations with a strange walking variant in the March build then the floating ball design seen in retail the other piece of hidden content is a first person model for the Halo 2 plasma cannon it's not connected to any existing weapon tags except oddly for the wraith's plasma turret which you can't see in first person anyway since the tag says it's meant to use the sniper rifle's first person animations this is what a potential first person plasma turret would look like at least early on in development it's worth noting that what you're seeing on screen is a modification of a plasma rifle I've done to use the plasma turret model the sniper rifle's animations and the stats of the wraith's anti-infantry turret it's also worth mentioning that Bungie did use this model as a placeholder for the plasma turret as seen here being used by a chieftain in The edtube Brute vidoc and with that our analysis of pimps at Sea is done for those who made it this far I hope you enjoyed this extensive overview of a highly coveted Halo 3 development build this was a labor of love and I'm honored that I got to experience this for myself if and only if you enjoyed this video hit the like button subscribe for more Halo content from this channel ring the bell to never miss an upload let me know in the comments what you thought about all this I also have a patreon where you can voluntarily donate to further support the channel I like to thank my stinky liso at Tomi sloth as well as counselors Evan Tripp Blake Volant Punk Anderson Alec hash Michael Johnson Tom Bax basic toast ghost Scatman UNSC shooter C3 Sabertooth the cave potato just larm turbo simp synonymous hooligan Shaun T conar Daytona rad Mayan Kyle diehlman and ghost Slayer this is the ventral of Adam always remember that you matter more than you think you do and I'll see you on the great journey [Music] [Music]

Channel: The Vengeful 'Vadam

Views: 45,597

Keywords: 343, 343 industries, 343i, alpha, at, beta, bungie, halo, halo 2, halo 3, halo 3 alpha, halo 3 alpha build, halo 3 beta, halo 3 builds, halo 3 cut weapons, halo 3 guh-dush, halo 3 pimps at sea, halo 3 pimps at sea build, halo 3 pre release, halo 3 prototype, halo 3 public beta, halo 3 weapons, halo alpha, halo beta, halo comparison, halo infinite, halo news, halo pimps at sea, halo prototype, halo3, halo_3, hidden, pimps, pimps at sea, prototype, sea

Id: kV0Z6RKevbw

Length: 95min 21sec (5721 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 19 2023