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Mythonian
10-11-2015, 03:41 PM
http://www.fcwars.net/node/images/forerunnerconflict.png
Update 9.8

A Lil' Hype Here, a Lil' Hype There, a Lil' Hype Everywhere




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-dpy_oBmQM

Barely two weeks remain until Halo 5 is here. It's so close that I even added a countdown timer to the site. We all got a taste of what Halo 5 is bringing back during the multiplayer beta, and since then massive amounts of gameplay footage and cinematic trailers have been released. The hype is building quickly. It's been 3 years since Halo 4 released, and it doesn't look like 343's been sitting on their asses. I for one am eagerly waiting to see the culmination of whatever Blue Team is trying to accomplish, how Locke will play into it, and of course I can't wait for the amazing performance of Nathan Fillion as Buck.

Unfortunately, I can't sit in a cryo-tube and have Windows 10's Cortana wake me in 2 weeks. In fact I'm keeping quite busy and will remain so well after Halo 5's launch, working on stuff to help make the future of FC just as awesome as Halo 5 is going to be. This update is a collection of things that'll be coming to keep our war simulations awesome.


Community Name

This is the first order of business to discuss, and you'll see a poll directly above where you can vote on the issue. As we've been doing since Halo 3, with the release of a new game comes a new face for the community. We are still Forerunner Conflict and have no plans to change that, but the subtitle is up for discussion, and we want the community to be helping us decide what we will be for the next two years.

First, a look back at our history:

Red vs Blue: Retaliation (Halo 2)
Forerunner Conflict (Halo 3)
FC: Origins (Halo 3)
FC: Reborn (Halo 3)
FC: Revolutions (Halo: Reach)
FC: Reclamation (Halo 4)
FC: Legends (MCC)

Us in War Council have compiled a list of numerous options that we want you all to vote on. We went over nearly 50 possibilities, however we needed a shorter list than that. To narrow it, the options below were each supported by multiple WC members. Here are your choices (in alphabetical order):

FC: Escalation
FC: Redemption
FC: Resurgence
FC: Retaliation
FC: Salvation

Cast your vote in the poll above this thread. The poll will remain open for at least a week, until a clear victor is had. As time passes, we'll slowly be removing the least-popular options until we're down to only 2-3. If the option you vote for gets removed, it will let you vote again for any of the remaining options, and I'll be sending messages out to those that this affects.

Spread the word to everyone who doesn't visit the site frequently. This is a community decision, and we want as many people as possible to weigh in their opinions.


http://halofanforlife.com/wp-content/uploads/H5-Guardians-Campaign-Battle-Of-Sunaion-Osiris-Alpha-jpg.jpg http://www.readyuplive.com/wp-content/gallery/halo-5-guardians-assets/H5-Guardians-Blue-Team-Ceasefire-Copy.jpg


Website Renovations

Those who have been here for awhile will remember that we've gone through numerous iterations of skins, website themes, and dozens of small adjustments to help keep the website working well and looking good. Metkil, our head Admin (and current BLUE army's Field Marshal), will be gracing us yet again as we head into Halo 5. A new game, and we'll be getting a new look for the website.

Not only a new look, but also some all-new features and functionality. Here's what Metkil had to say:

Global Moderator Policy Changes

The Army Global Moderator positions are being removed. You may be asking why such a thing is happening. 'We need those positions!' some of you might say. Well, there is a simple reasoning to this.

Global Moderators no longer need to be neutral to hold the position.

Going into Halo 5, no one is going to want to remain neutral just so they can moderate a website. The actual thought of how the usergroups are going to be managed is still to be determined. In the mean time, the GMs who are neutral will remain in the Global Moderator usergroup and those who are enlisted will be sporting the Moderator Bar usergroup (the quarter sized usergroup image). Those who are enlisted will still be restricted to access to the opposing Army's forum.

Website Renovations

Changes be happening, yo. First big thing I have to announce is that we will be getting a fresh coat of paint for the website. We've used and abused the Socialze theme from PureVB.com for so long, it's starting to get very stagnant. After a few hours of researching and being super cynical, we have come up with something new for the website. We are working on in the background and have a lot of work ahead of us still. Here's a little preview (do remember this is a work in progress)

http://puu.sh/kGnWP/8f920c93dc.png

The next thing on our list is something people always like. To go alongside the new theme for the website, we will be implementing new usergroup images. We've had the same ones for a long time and they have served their purpose well, however it's time for something new. Guzzie has been hard at work trying to get these done for the website and here is a working prototype:

http://puu.sh/kGFBi/464ed4a4b1.png

Finally, it's the little things. These are so numerous that I will be posting another website specific update at a little date (most likely post-Halo 5 launch).

Before I wrap things up, I need opinions on a matter.

vBookie and vCash, should we keep them? If yes, please tell me what you think we can do to make them interesting to you. If no, please tell me why it should be removed, or what can be changed to make them more appealing to you.

Post a reply below to answer Metkil's question on vCash.

In addition to all of that, Metkil is also going through and updating/removing some of the mods added to the website. The Gamercard mod, for instance, hasn't been updated since 2012, so we're removing it. The vBShop is also being removed. The Twitch mod and the Awards mod are being updated to newer versions as I type this. If something breaks because of these changes, let us know and we'll get things back up-and-running.


Another Reminder about Spoilers

Not everyone is going to be like me and starting a Legendary playthrough of the story right at midnight, so we need to be considerate of everyone else. As KazuhLLL posted a few weeks ago, please be mindful of this and include story spoilers within spoiler tags when posting them on the forum. You can view the original post here (http://fcwars.net/forums/showthread.php?15525-A-Note-on-Spoilers).

Failure to do so may result in your post or thread being removed and a warning. Repeatedly doing this may warrant an infraction for your account. For those unaware of how to use spoilers, you just need the below bbcode:


Your message here.


Your message here.
Or, you can add a title for the spoiler like this:


Your message here.


Your message here.
If you have any questions about using spoiler tags, just message me or any of the other moderators on the site.


War... War Never Changes Is Actually Changing

Back in Halo: Reach, we completely changed how we did our war simulations. Before Reach, it was simple and straight-forward, all we did was choose maps to play and play them to decide who won. For several of the wars on Reach, though, we expanded greatly from that, bringing in other rules and bits of complexity. "What if the war wasn't just Spartans fighting each other? What if we add some strategy to it? Make it more realistic!"

At some points, we took that too far. It got too complex and hard to understand. People didn't know what was actually happening, and only a handful of people in the entire community actually understood the rules and knew how the strategies were working out. We recognized the issue, and tried scaling back in dozens of ways, but never enough. Throughout Halo 4, this continued. For MCC, though, we decided to forego this entirely, and scrapped it, going back to something similar to what we had in Halo 3.


http://microsoft-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Warzone-Halo-5.jpg http://static.trueachievements.c om/customimages/041411.jpg

Now, strategy-oriented Rules of Engagement are making a comeback of sorts. Refined, fixed, and now as easy to understand as a boardgame. Played Settlers of Catan or Titan? Played RISK? Our new Rules of Engagement draws direct influence from the simplicity, flexibility, and strategic aspects of such boardgames.

It's too soon to release them in full, as parts of the RoE are still under construction and being finalized, but I look forward to the first major war of Halo 5. It's going to be awesome.


The Halo 5 Beta War

Halo 5's multiplayer brings a lot of changes to the table. Lower aim assist than previous games, improved mobility through thruster pack and clamber, ways to attack your opponent with ground pound and spartan charge, etc., etc. We want to take some time before the first major war to do some testing to see how FC is going to deal with maps, with gametype settings, and with player counts. Additionally, this will give us official events hosted every week to help keep people interested and show a taste of things to come for the main war.

Here's a tentative schedule for events for the Beta War

27 Oct - H5 releases. The hype.
8 Nov - Basic list of gametypes and maps for the Beta War are finalized. (exact settings will vary in each battle based on community feedback)
11 Nov - Details for the first battle of the Beta War are posted, including things we'll be testing the first week.
15 Nov - First battle of the Beta War.
18 Nov - Details of second battle are posted, including any changes from previous battle's feedback.
22 Nov - Second battle of the Beta War.
25 Nov - Details of third battle are posted.
29 Nov - Third battle of the Beta War.
2 Dec - Details of fourth battle are posted.
6 Dec - Fourth battle of the Beta War.
9 Dec - Details of fifth battle are posted.
13 Dec - Fifth battle of the Beta War.
20 Dec - Optional sixth week if people want it or we need to do it for some reason.

The optional sixth week will largely depend on when the exact release of Forge is for Halo 5. They said it will release in December, and we'd like to spend a week testing it and trying it out at the end of the Beta War. Hopefully it releases at the start of the month, but if not we may need the sixth week to do this portion of the testing.


https://content.halocdn.com/media/Default/community/blogs/canon-fodder/cfnoblebreaker-bca64b71b9e0418ea804d441d 78af603.jpg http://assets1.ignimgs.com/thumbs/userUploaded/2014/10/30/halo5armorunlock-1414714456447.jpg

After every battle, we'll be spreading around surveys where everyone can give us feedback. What worked and what didn't, if the map is good as-is or should be forged for the main war, if any of the gametype settings need to be adjusted, and anything else you can think of. We'll be taking the feedback and using it for the following weeks to try to find settings and maps that everyone likes using.

Then, for the main war (which will start in January, exact date to be announced later), we'll be using what we learned from the Beta War to kick the main war off with a bang.


From the Edge to the Center of Attention

Earlier in this update, N.O.D.E. was teased in Metkil's image. So... WTF is it? This is something Metkil and I have been talking about, for a LONG time. I believe it was first touched on about 2-3 years ago when I first got FTP access. However, it was always a "wouldn't it be nice..." type of thing. We really wanted to do it for Halo 5, and now it's finally becoming a reality. Five months ago, Metkil gave the first teaser mention of it:

[WIP]Project NODE

This project is being made to better facilitate [CLASSIFIED] for [CLASSIFIED]. With the current system there is a lot leaning on individuals having to do [CLASSIFIED]. This new system will lower the amount of work on the individuals so they can better enjoy the wars. Hopefully it will help all members of FC understand what is going on within [CLASSIFIED]. Stay tuned for more.


While a cute teaser, it doesn't explain much, so I'll expand on it a bit: NODE, or the Naval Operations Deployment Engine, is a large project that I've been spending the last few weeks laying the groundwork for. Setting up tables in a database, writing thousands of lines of HTML, CSS, PHP, and SQL code, and spending hours troubleshooting problems. It was enough to pull me away from Destiny so much that I literally did not turn on my Xbox for 5 days in a row.

Yet I'd estimate that I'm only about 7-10% done with NODE right now. Maybe I was biting off more than I could chew, but with parts of the groundwork now laid I'll be getting a handful of other individuals to help make this project a reality. The plan is to get it done by the middle of December, in time for the main war to eat of the fruits of our labor.

I look forward to getting work done on this and being able to share more with you. Unfortunately, only the groundwork exists right now, and I can't even show a teaser image or something. However, if anyone is familiar with PHP and SQL and is interested in getting involved, contact me on Skype and we'll talk.


That's all for today. Halo 5 is approaching. The hype is real.

~Mythonian :cyborg:

Silko
10-11-2015, 03:58 PM
As much as I want to revive the R streak, Escalation just seems right. I feel Halo 5 will bring new life into the Halo community and FC will escalate to new levels with it. I'm very curious about Project N.O.D.E. and what the new Rules of Engagement will entail. As being one of those few people who knew how the old system worked I am also willing to help with the RoE if there is still some work left to do. The hype is real my friends!

fearfulpenguin
10-11-2015, 04:18 PM
A little definiton of my pick, Resurgence.

Resurgence: an increase or revival after a period of little activity, popularity. or occurrence

If this doesn't explain our current situation and hopefully us rising back to glory then I don't know what does lol

VerbotenDonkey
10-11-2015, 04:41 PM
Aww yeee. As it looks now, Ill have off for the first battle of the Beta War. :D

EagleOne
10-11-2015, 04:45 PM
REDWATCH

Eagle out.

Barry Soap
10-11-2015, 05:16 PM
The hype is real my friends!

Hopefully the time that has been put into FC recently will be worth it. All we need is a good launch and a good game, and we'll be flying.

silversleek
10-11-2015, 05:44 PM
A little definiton of my pick, Resurgence.

Resurgence: an increase or revival after a period of little activity, popularity. or occurrence

If this doesn't explain our current situation and hopefully us rising back to glory then I don't know what does lol

NervyDestroyer
10-11-2015, 10:03 PM
But... the vBookie casino and bathhouse... :(


Great update!

WolfPack23
10-11-2015, 10:19 PM
From MCC to Halo 5, that is FC's Salvation, Also yes to the Vcash, gambling is fun.~

Raider0614
10-12-2015, 02:17 PM
From MCC to Halo 5, that is FC's Salvation, Also yes to the Vcash, gambling is fun.~

Similar reasoning as to why I think it should be called Redemption. This is 343's chance to make a (nearly) flawless Halo. Plus, Redemption just sounds cool :cool:

I never cared much for vcash. I would just donate it to the Field Marshall whenever I remembered that it existed.

UNLUCKY NUM13ER
10-12-2015, 02:45 PM
All of this is very very exciting. I have 2 weeks to stockpile on doritos & mountain dew.

Maxdoggy
10-13-2015, 02:49 PM
New homepage is new! Goodbye to the double sidebar!

Solus Exsequor
10-14-2015, 05:31 PM
GHOST

silversleek
10-15-2015, 01:59 AM
looks like resurgence is taking it.

Mythonian
10-17-2015, 02:01 AM
The option for Salvation has been removed because it was the least popular choice. Anyone who voted for it has had their vote reset and they can vote for any of the remaining choices. Poll will close on the 21st.

Nicholas Sapien
10-17-2015, 10:56 PM
The option for Salvation has been removed because it was the least popular choice. Anyone who voted for it has had their vote reset and they can vote for any of the remaining choices. Poll will close on the 21st.

Salvation reminded me too much of a certain someone

Silko
10-17-2015, 11:05 PM
Salvation reminded me too much of a certain someone

lols

Lol its James
10-17-2015, 11:05 PM
Salvation reminded me too much of a certain someone


Nick you win the Internet

Graycochea
10-18-2015, 12:06 PM
We shouldn't name ourselves Escalation because Halo: Escalation is a thing and it looks like we're copying it. I chose Resurgence because that's what's happening with the community. MCC killed us and now people are all re-enlisting for H5. It's a resurgence in activity for us and the Halo community in general. Plus, it keeps with our -Re theme, which I always thought was pretty cool.

W3z4b1
10-18-2015, 12:15 PM
We shouldn't name ourselves Escalation because Halo: Escalation is a thing and it looks like we're copying it. I chose Resurgence because that's what's happening with the community. MCC killed us and now people are all re-enlisting for H5. It's a resurgence in activity for us and the Halo community in general. Plus, it keeps with our -Re theme, which I always thought was pretty cool.

Gray for FM

Mythonian
10-18-2015, 03:12 PM
Redemption is gone now. Down to the top 2 choices, Escalation and Resurgence!

VerbotenDonkey
10-18-2015, 03:38 PM
We shouldn't name ourselves Escalation because Halo: Escalation is a thing and it looks like we're copying it.

You know I hadn't actually thought about that.

Graycochea
10-19-2015, 12:40 AM
Gray for FM
I humbly accept your nomination. I assure everyone, if elected, I'll rule the Empire through strength and the liberal application of fear.


You know I hadn't actually thought about that.
That's the first thing I thought of:
*sees Escalation at the top of the site* "Ha, they named themselves after that shitty comicbook. Lol."
Plus, nothing is escalating. It doesn't make sense. After a lull between 2014-2015, Halo is resurging. And don't any of you bullshit me and try to say there wasn't a lull. I've seen my friends list, I know you people are playing Destiny.

Mythonian
10-19-2015, 12:43 AM
That's the first thing I thought of:
*sees Escalation at the top of the site* "Ha, they named themselves after that shitty comicbook. Lol."
Plus, nothing is escalating. It doesn't make sense. After a lull between 2014-2015, Halo is resurging. And don't any of you bullshit me and try to say there wasn't a lull. I've seen my friends list, I know you people are playing Destiny.

Resurgence: an increase or revival after a period of little activity, popularity, or occurrence.
Escalation: a rapid increase; a rise.

Both work. Halo is coming back into popularity, activity and interest is rising and increasing. Yes, there was a lull, and now it's "rapidly increasing" and "rising" back to the old glory it used to have. Escalation makes perfect sense, just as Resurgence does, and just like nearly every name we had on the poll. They were all synonyms or pseudo-synonyms of each other.

And the Escalation comics are not shitty, either.

AbnormallyLilith
10-19-2015, 01:40 AM
And the Escalation comics are not shitty, either.

Graycochea
10-19-2015, 02:38 AM
Whoa boys, I never said they were shitty. That was a dudebro character. As for the definitions, I can see your point.

Nicholas Sapien
10-19-2015, 04:05 AM
And the Escalation comics are not shitty, either.

says you

silversleek
10-19-2015, 04:51 AM
guys, come on, sure, they both work, but we need the R streak back.

Legendary Nova
10-19-2015, 05:03 AM
I vote to keep it as FC: Legends.

fearfulpenguin
10-19-2015, 12:04 PM
Plus, nothing is escalating. It doesn't make sense. After a lull between 2014-2015, Halo is resurging. And don't any of you bullshit me and try to say there wasn't a lull.



guys, come on, sure, they both work, but we need the R streak back.

Sooo close guys, keep voting for resurgence!!!

NecroNocte
10-19-2015, 01:40 PM
I have to say, looking at who voted for what. It concerns me the lack of B.L.U.E. names I see up there.

Don't get me wrong, fuck da BLUE's.

On a serious note, we need voices from both armies.

Silko
10-19-2015, 01:51 PM
I have to say, looking at who voted for what. It concerns me the lack of B.L.U.E. names I see up there.

On a serious note, we need voices from both armies.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Houdini
10-19-2015, 02:45 PM
I have to say, looking at who voted for what. It concerns me the lack of B.L.U.E. names I see up there.

Don't get me wrong, fuck da BLUE's.

On a serious note, we need voices from both armies.

Dang, I just looked at this.

Hopefully this isn't an indication of army activity levels.

Barry Soap
10-19-2015, 03:07 PM
Dang, I just looked at this.

Hopefully this isn't an indication of army activity levels.

Welp, REDD HC has tried to evoke the topic...

silversleek
10-19-2015, 08:22 PM
damn, i don't even see blue fm up there.

though, then again, they could just not care what the name is... or maybe they voted on other names and didn't come back after those options were taken down?

Houdini
10-19-2015, 11:18 PM
damn, i don't even see blue fm up there.

though, then again, they could just not care what the name is... or maybe they voted on other names and didn't come back after those options were taken down?

Metkil usually doesn't vote on things like this, so I'm not surprised to see him not up there.

I'm more concerned with the lack of actual foot soldiers.

Raider0614
10-19-2015, 11:46 PM
I'm more concerned with the lack of actual foot soldiers.