Community Spotlight - The Spartan I Project
Posted by urk at 4/15/2009 11:02 AM PDT
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Community Spotlight - The Spartan I Project
We're back from last week's Mythic Community Content Spotlight and ready to showcase yet another one of our homespun groups.  Created in May of 2008, The Spartan I Project is a group founded on the principles of fair play and earning achievements the legitimate way.  But they've also branched out over the last year to become a group that has something for just about everyone.  If that's the kind of group that grabs your attention, read on to learn more about The Spartan I Project in the words of their founder, Pastor Paul B.

The Rise of The Spartan I Project

With the release of Halo 3 came various armor permutations and a spread of challenging Achievements that soon proved to be very difficult.

After completing Campaign on Legendary, I got to thinking that there should be a group of people dedicated to helping others with Achievements. After searching the Private Groups and Classifieds on Bungie.Net, I found that there were a lot of people who needed help with Achievements and that there were very few people actually offering help.

On May 8, 2008, I decided to create a group where people can get help with Halo 3 Achievements legitimately, without boosting.  Within six months, our membership reached over 1,000 members strong! It became very obvious to me and to the group that we were filling a very big need in the Halo Community and even now, more than a year after Halo 3 shipped, people keep pouring into the group seeking help, guidance, and tips on earning Achievements.

The Spartan I Project Difference

The Spartan I Project is here to help members achieve a 1,750 gamer score, unlock all of the armor permutations for both Spartans and Elites, and rank up to their full potential.

While there may be other groups out there that promise to help you with Achievements, we actually deliver! Some of our members have made the Annual run over twenty times, some offer to help people get better with a Battle Rifle or Sniper, and others have helped people finally complete Cortana on Legendary Campaign!

The Spartan I Project (SIP) is a very friendly, active, open, and dedicated group where you can find an environment of members who get together for Custom, Social, Ranked, or Campaign gameplay. In SIP, you will meet people who are willing to help each other, play together, work together, and have fun.

We have a place within our family for everyone, and we welcome people from all kinds of backgrounds, skills, and experience.

While we are a Bungie community, we also enjoy a variety of games, discuss a variety of topics in our Forum, and pride ourselves on conquering any task, no matter how big or small. Some of our regular activities include midweek and weekend game events, weekly video updates, special events, "Rogue Genesis" machinima, montage projects, podcasts, contests, fun activities, an open Forum, and so much more!

Q. Why the name “The Spartan I Project?”

A. Very little or nothing is known about the first generation of SPARTAN soldiers. The ORION project or the SPARTAN I Project was phase one of the SPARTAN program initiated in 2491.  As an element of the ORION project, we are the first generation of volunteer warriors. These soldiers were the first of their kind, and as a group, I believe we share their spirit and courage.

Q. What are your favorite multiplayer maps?

A. Guardian, Valhalla, The Pit, Construct, Sandbox, and Standoff. Each map offers a unique feeling and game play, but all guarantee fun and laughs!

Q. And your Favorite Gametypes?

A. Team Slayer, Assault, and Capture the Flag. Slayer is great, but it is also wonderful to work together as a team for objective gametypes.

Q. What would you like to see in Matchmaking that isn’t?

A. Social Doubles, Social Infection, and Community selected game types and maps for Double Experience Weekends.


Thanks to Paul for taking the time to tell us a little bit about The Spartan I Project.  Thanks to the members of the group for holding it down here at Bungie.net.  If you like what you've read and want to see what kind of Halo 3 custom content these folks have to offer, we've got you covered - their selections are up and ready for download in this week's Bungie Favorites. 

And of course, if you want some tips and tricks on how to earn all of your Halo 3 Achievements in legit fashion, or you're just looking for a fun spot to hang out while you're not playing, make sure to stop in over at The Spartan I Project and check 'em out.

Related News

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Bungie Day '09 

Posted by urk at 7/7/2009 1:06 AM PDT

Non facete nobis calcitrare vestrum perinæum.


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Tags: Events, Halo 3

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Bungie Day Is On Approach 

Posted by urk at 7/6/2009 4:01 PM PDT

And requesting a flyby.


Whaddaya know, tomorrow is Bungie Day.  Came up fast didn't it?  How the time flies.

Since you're so stinkin' awesome, we're planning on packing Bungie.net with a whole pile of great content for you to check out tomorrow.  Maybe (just maybe) we'll have some brand-new screenshots of some stuff you've never seen, another puzzling way for you to win Recon, a battle-tested beta feature becoming publicly available, and some sonorous words to cast your way.  You should definitely Stay Tuned.

On the Halo 3 front, we've got a whole mess of Bungie employees signed up to square off against you in the Bungie Vs. The World Playlist. We've filled the 24-hour hopper with community-crafted maps and set it to go live tomorrow at the wee hour of 1:00AM PDT.  Set your alarm clock - if you're wide awake and physical and find yourself facing down four flaming heads in the lobby tomorrow, you'll want to buck up and play your best because Recon armor will be on the line.  Pull out a victory against one of our four-player teams and you'll be one of the few that gets to rock Recon before Halo 3: ODST ships in September.

Wanna see who you'll be playing against should you get the luck of the draw and run into four flaming heads?  Scroll.

The Roster
1:00 AM - Clowntown FTW

Derek the Gorilla
Lord Shishka British
David the Wizard
Princess Carney

 2:00 AM - There's tequila in the office!

Bob
Matt R.
Pat
Javier

 3:00 AM - There's STILL Tequila in the Office! And Rum and Whiskey now too!

Bob
Matt R.
Pat J.
Javier

 4:00 AM - Hey, Where'd All the Tequila Go?

Shishka
Cameron P.
Matt B.
Javier
5:00 AM - Team I'M ROMEO

Dan Miller
Cameron P.
Matt B.
Tristan R.

 6:00 AM - Too Good to Win

Jonty Barnes
Pete Parsons
Chucky Gough
Jason Jones
Harold Ryan (Tagging In Whenever He Wants)

 7:00 AM - Dawn of Recon

Tristan
David Candland
Justin Y.
Ben T.

 8:00 AM - Morning Wood

CJ Cowan
Jason S.
Javier
Vic DeLeon

 9:00 AM

Eric E.
Sam J.
Justin H.
Ray B.

 10:00 AM to 12:59 PM - Hired Guns from Microsoft

Eric H.
Scott S.
Desmond M.
Paul G.
1:00 PM - Clowntown FTW

Derek the Gorilla
Lord Shishka British
David the Wizard
Princess Carney

 2:00 PM - Compare Our Lives to Your Own, Then Wet Yourself

Pat J.
Blake l.
Artem V.
Chris A.

 3:00 PM - A Coupla Guys Who Are Up To No Good

Max D.
Tam A.
Brendan
Jon C.

 4:00 PM - The Only Hour That Counts

Luke Smith
Joseph Tung
Lars Bakken
Luke Timmins

 5:00 PM - Grizzled Ancients™

Chucky
Ben the Wallace
Cuban
CJ

 6:00 PM - $#%! Shoot me in the face!

Dave G.
Nick G.
Andrew H.
Jon W.

 7:00 PM - Team Twatter

Mike M.
Ken T.
Cameron P.
Jason S.

 8:00 PM - MP/UI Mobsters

Luke T.
David A.
Brad F.
Paul L.

 9:00 PM -  Get Whoomps!!!

Javier
Matt R.
Drew S.
Mike H.

 10:00 PM -  Team Free Recon!

Carney
Tung
Wilson
Lehto

 11:00 PM - $#%! Shoot me in the face!

Dave G.
Nick G.
Andrew H.
Jon W.

 12:00 AM - $#%! Shoot me in the face!

Dave G.
Nick G.
Andrew H.
Jon W.


So, just how do you get your fancy new duds?  Well, first let's explore a couple of ways in which you won't: you won't have to give us any of your personal information and you won't have to join a custom game or indulge in any wacky Internet shenanigans to claim your prize.  In fact, just ignore anyone offering to give you Recon via any method.  They're jerks.  Jerks who are trying to trick you. 

When you run into our crew, you'll know it.  They'll have the Bungie nameplate visible from the lobby and their friggin' heads will be on fire in-game.

The ways in which you can earn Recon through this Bungie Day event are pretty straight forward.  Simply defeat one of the four-player squads you see listed above in the one-day-only Bungie Vs. The World Playlist or trigger some special metrics that we're not going to tell you about until after the competition is over and done with.  A few days after 07/07, once we have everything in order, we'll tell everyone to check their armor permutations for Recon.  Once the Internet recovers from the mass outage, you'll be able to sign-in and see if you've won.

Again, we won't ask you for passwords or personal information, and we don't need a thing from you to enable Recon.  Just play and have fun.  We'll take care of the rest.

Make sure you're ready to go when the Playlist goes live at 1:00AM PDT, and check back in with us at Bungie.net all throughout the day tomorrow for more information.  Even if you find yourself sans Xbox 360 or stuck at the office, we should have plenty on hand to keep you in a celebratory mood.

See you suckers in matchmaking.

Community Cartographers - Tartarus 

Posted by urk at 7/2/2009 11:28 AM PDT

Works every time and looks freakin' sweet to boot.


For the second week of our Community Cartographer series, Sikamikanico steps in to tell us all about his Forged Sandbox space, Tartarus.  If you're still looking for great community-crafted content to check out for your Custom Games night, you should definitely add this one to the roster.  But before you do, take a few minutes to dig into the building process, straight from the map's creator.



Map Variant: Tartarus

Q. What’s the core concept behind Tartarus?

A. Putting aside the obvious homage to everyone's favourite evil Brute Chieftain, I wanted to create a fast paced, action packed arena map. In my humble opinion, the one thing I find Halo 3 to lack is smaller arena maps – so this my little attempt to fill that gap. I wanted something that played well with either AR or BR start, and still celebrated the wonderful variety of weapons that Halo 3 employs. The one thing that sets this map apart from most is the options available to the player for movement. I love those Man-Cannons and little jumps to get around!

Q. What gametypes should players looking for options on your map check out?

A. I’ve managed to Forge Tartarus with all gametypes in mind, but it plays best with Team Slayer, Team KOTH and Team Oddball in my opinion. It’s pretty sweet for SWAT and Snipers too, and you can find especially created variants for those gametypes in my File Share.

Q. Is this your first crack at Tartarus or have you been working at it for quite some time?

A. Believe it or not, this was the 30th iteration of Tartarus! I had a lot of help and feedback from a variety of players of all skill levels, and it all helped. The map wouldn’t be as good as it is without their honest feedback and suggestions. I’m pretty sure they began to hate me after playing nothing but this map for days on end, but they all rock regardless.

Q. So, what worked from day one and what needed tweaking?

A. The central area and surrounding walkways haven’t really changed since the map was started. The biggest changes were made to the bases and the Overshield and Active Camo spawns – one of my pals in particular commented that getting around just didn’t feel right in that area, and that it took to long to get back up on top – so after a lot of thinking, the Man-Cannons were brought in to help the player get out of trouble. The bases also saw a roof added to prevent base to base grenade spamming, as well as a nifty little prison bar section straight out of Sidewinder to house the Regenerator, which can be grabbed from either side. (Thanks Ash!)

Q. What was the most difficult element to get right?

A. Without a doubt, the Man-Cannons. I’m sure most Forgers can tell you, the Man-Cannon doesn’t always send you where you want it to send you. It all depends on so many factors – if you walk or jump in, walk backwards, or sideways – it can all make a difference to where you end up. It took almost a day to get the design quite right for them, and I’m pleased to say after plenty of testing, they just work – every time. That and they look freakin’ sweet to boot.

Q. What drives you to spend so much time with the Forge?

A. Seeing people having fun on something you’ve made is an awesome feeling. That, and I find Forge weirdly therapeutic. As my friends can attest to, I spend literally hours in there just trying different things out. I’m currently trying out the Sky Bubble, but it’s very different to most other workable areas – it’s taking a little getting used to.

Q. Advice for anyone looking to get used to the Forge and build their own therapeutic map? Wanna make some shout-outs?

A. Hmm. On the advice front – when it comes to maps, in my opinion it’s all about flow. You need to give your players reasons to move, advantages to get to and hold, and above all, a fun environment to play in. I always work to that ethos, and it hasn’t let me down yet!

It would be totally wrong if I didn’t take advantage to shout out to some of my pals, so first of, special thanks to KingBartlett for being my Forge comrade in arms, and Vinnie13, Mini Waz and ash 55 for all map advice and suggestions! Secondly, big thanks to the cool folks in OMG (Check them out if you live in Europe people!), Halo 3 in the Work Place, and Atlas/Test Pilot. I’m sorry I made you play this map so much, but you know it was worth it! And lastly, thanks to the guys at Bungie for making Halo 3 of course.

"Final Cut" - Fly-through Video


Thanks to Sikamikanico for dropping the knowledge.  If you've come this far with is, reward yourself by scrolling back up to the top and downloading Tartarus - you done good.  After giving it a good spin, make sure to drop back into the discussion thread attached to this interview and let the mapmaker know how much ass it kicks.

'4th of July' Double EXP Weekend 

Posted by urk at 7/2/2009 11:16 AM PDT

"We will not go quietly into the night!"


Today is our Independence Day!

Okay, so we're still a few days away from the 4th of July. That's cool.  Let's start the celebration early.  Go ahead and fire up your copy of Halo 3 and jump into this week's Double EXP Weekend Playlist.  If you're underage, make sure you have some adult supervision - we wouldn't want you to lose a finger because you pointed that Laser the wrong way. 

4th of July is a 5v5 playlist featuring primarily Flag gametypes, with a splash of Rocket/Splaser Slayer and VIP. Available from 11am today until 2am Monday. Requires Heroic, Legendary and Mythic.

Fundfax Fairraiser Update 

Posted by urk at 7/2/2009 8:58 AM PDT

Preempted, but still pretty successful.


We pointed you in the direction of Hawty McBloggy's Fundfax Fairrasier for Marissa and Infantile Spasms just a short spell back.  It turns out the charity event had to close up shop earlier then anticipated.  While that's not ideal, the charity was still a pretty huge success.  Hit the link below to get up to speed.

Fundfax Fairraiser Update

Donate to Marissa

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