Version 4.0 Patch Notes near the bottom ------------------------------------------------------ GASHNOR'S CURSED HALO 3 V4.0 ------------------------------------------------------ Welcome to Gashnor's Cursed Halo 3, where every weapon, vehicle, and equipment item is overhauled to behave in silly and unexpected ways! This is now the complete full 9 levels (plus intro and outro cutscene, and several modified cutscenes in general)! This is compatible with Halo: MCC as of December 7th, 2022 with the latest patch that launched the same day. It should now be compatible with Nexus Mod Manager and also has some updated weapons based on feedback. I've also managed to complete all of the custom icons that were missing in the original release, and added a few missing items. Please enjoy and leave feedback if you can, and feel free to stream/upload videos of you playing. I've learned a lot for some changes in this update, as well as for the future, based on watching the community play. If you have complaints, please leave constructive criticism so I can focus updates around weaker parts of the mod. And lastly, thank you all for your support <3 ------------------------------------------------------ WHAT IS THIS MOD? ------------------------------------------------------ This is an overhaul to Halo 3's campaign that drastically alters the balance. From an Assault Rifle that gets less stable the more it's used, to a Dart Rifle that shoots stinky gas, to a straight up portable Gauss Turret, it's all changed. This also includes equipment, adding items such as the Interdimensional Marble (Spews out dozens of items, vehicles, equipment, and destruction effects, some useful, some literal trash) and the Fire Hydrant (spews water or fire randomly). I've focused on making custom HUD items, custom weapons, and custom 3D models when applicable. A lot of time has gone into learning the tools to get to this point, and more time yet for finishing the mod! As of this release, between the Halo 3 Mod Tools and Blender for 3D modeling exclusively for this project, I am now at just over 500 hours to create this. ------------------------------------------------------ INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS ------------------------------------------------------ This should now be compatible with Nexus Mod Manager now that I understand what it requires to function properly. If you won't be using NMM, then please follow these instructions for a manual install for Steam (unsure for Windows Store versions): - Open the ZIP file, and extract all the contents to somewhere you'll remember - Contents should include a "fonts" folder, and eleven maps: - 005_intro.map - 010_jungle.map - 020_base.map - 030_outskirts.map - 040_voi.map - 050_floodvoi.map - 070_waste.map - 100_citadel.map - 110_hc.map - 120_halo.map - 130_epilogue.map - NOTE: The Fonts Folder is VERY important for all the custom icons added to the game. Without this folder, picking up new weapons will be met with an empty box icon - Navigate to your Halo MCC folder (typically under Steam/steamapps/common/Halo The Master Chief Collection/halo3/maps) - Backup the items listed above, included in the zip file. - Place them somewhere safe so when you're done playing the mod, you can swap back to your normal files and play Halo MCC normally - Once backed up, copy the files extracted from the zip file into your halo3/maps folder That's it! When you go to play, load up Halo: MCC in Steam with EASY ANTI-CHEAT DISABLED. You need EAC disabled to play mods! You can even play with 3 friends in a 4-player co-op in this mod. ------------------------------------------------------ WHAT'S CHANGED IN FULL RELEASE? ------------------------------------------------------ A ton. Like, an absolute s***-ton of things changed. The dart rifle is stronger with a more precise reticle, the Gauss Rifle lasts longer, two brand new Plasma Rifle variants enemies spawn with, a new pistol variant available throughout the campaign, the Interdimensional Marble now behaves closer to the D20 grenades from InfernoPlus' mod with a larger variety of effects (Specifically, weapons, vehicles, equipment, destruction). The list goes on and on and on. There are tons of new vehicles, new weapons, new equipment. If you played before, the original three levels will play differently than the first time solely from these upgrades and enhancements. Also, very importantly, the Quad Sniper now works. I found out the issue and resolved, it's still hard to use, but at least shoots where you aim. ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 1 NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ There was a handful of things changed with this patch update, all fairly minor. - Increased water damage vs Flood - Fixed Flood not spawning from the Flood Spore Rifle at the beginning of Sierra 117 - Changed how the Chopper weapon works to reduce frustration of the rapid fire homing missiles it had before. Now shoots a 6 shot burst with a 1 second cooldown to make enemies less lethal - Increased the distance fire can travel from the Fire Hydrant to be able to ignite the surrounding area - Added the Flame Thrower and Missile Pod as possible spawns from the Interdimensional Marble when spawning weapons - Increased damage (3x) to the missile pod acid rain effect - Reduced damage the driver takes from collisions in both the Hyper Hog (and all variants) and the Merry-Ghost-Round - Made the Hyper Hog and Wumbo Warthog less prone to being flung around the map from physics impulses ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 2 NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - The AR now has much less recoil - The Dart Rifle has double damage and double area of effect from supercombine effects - The Blood Rifle and Sacrificial Cannon/Sticky Gross Mess all have increased projectile range - Acid Rain Stormcaller now has larger AOE and more damage - Slipspace Pistol and Slipspace Rifle have had their slow projectile time reduced by 25%. The pistol has a little less knockback to make Grunts less frustrating, and the rifle has increased max speed, allowing shots to connect much more reliably ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 3 NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - Fire Hydrant water variant no longer self destructs and kills everything around it instantly - AR and Needler custom skins now show properly and don't have that weird ethereal look with campaign customization enabled - Animation adjustments for first person models of stun gun and barrel launcher - Removed junk effects from Interdimensional Marble. This should prevent the physics engine from aggressively despawning weapons that were just spawned, and stops the marble from spewing out cones, cinderblocks, and all sorts of miscellaneous useless items KNOWN ISSUES: - The Mini Pelican will not climb in altitude if "Vehicle Function 2" is bound to the same key as "Crouch". This is something internally in MCC. You can change your controls around to fix this on your end - When detaching the human machinegun turret from the stand, it does not have knockback effect. If you drop it and pick it back up, it'll have knockback, allowing you to fly around the map (backwards) ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 4 NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - Reduced AOE of Missile Pod (Stormcaller) - Removed friendly fire from Carbine (Still in progress) - Added ammo meter to Octo Sniper - Adjusted Barrel Launcher's primary & secondary fire projectile trajectory - Adjusted Barrel Launcher to overheat at 6 fusion coils instead of 5 - Fixed animation on Suplex Pistol in first person - Added unique crosshair to Suplex Pistol & reinstated binocular zoom - Buffed Scarab Gun and M6D Magnum to their respective H2 and CE counterparts - Fixed excessive vibration bug when firing pistols (Magnum, Plasma Pistol, M6D, etc...) - Adjusted Slipspace Pistol to misfire less and at a lower battery level, and adjusted used battery per shot - Increased AR damage by 50% ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 5 NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - Fixed first person animations for Suplex Pistol and Stungun with Elites - Adjusted AR age per fire to allow it to fire around 50% longer than before and be usable longer in fights - Adjusted Quad Sniper Rifle, Barrel Launcher, Stungun, and Dart Rifle to allow campaign customization skins when enabled - Added overheat effects for Stungun and Suplex pistol - Adjusted Stungun secondary fire effect to slightly drain battery and overheat pistol for visual sake - Adjusted Suplex Pistol to fire one shot instead of a 3-shot burst, as well as an overheat mechanic to prevent spam fire - Fully removed friendly fire from Carbine (No more AI Arbiter killing you on accident) - Adjusted Carbine (Fertility Rifle) projectiles to act less like Slipspace weapons and instead feel more unique ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 6 NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - Fixed custom skins to be able to show on custom vehicles (Merry Ghost Round, Wumbo Warthog, Toy Tank) - Added custom skin for the Portable Gauss Cannon, using the custom textures saved to the Gauss Warthog - Fixed Fertility Rifle from last patch, not won't annihilate you on Normal with a barrage - Fixed enemy rate of fire for Fertility Rifle - Adjusted AI shooting for Toy Tank - Adjusted AI shooting for multiple weapons, allowing them to use several of the new weapons - Fixed the Tiny Pelican flight to be able to fly upright easier when keyboard keybinds conflict and prevent ascension from responding - Adjusted Warthog Chaingun to be more useful when holding fire, and reversed the angle of projectiles so sustained fire becomes more accurate - Adjusted Portable Gauss Cannon accuracy angles to not be as accurate - Increased damage of Portable Gauss Cannon by 50% - Added new random destruction effect from Interdimensional Marble ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 7 (v3.0) NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - Backported several Cursed ODST weapons * SHSHr Rocket Launcher, Bouncy Ball Rifle, Nuke Launcher, Thruster Carbine, Finger Banger, and much more - Backported several Cursed ODST weapon balances from original Cursed Halo 3 release - Backported Hoverhog from Cursed ODST - Backported California Gender Reveal Party equipment from Cursed ODST - Added enemy Elites to the ranks of the Covenant throughout the campaign - Modified several encounters - Modified several major cutscenes - Tons of balance changes ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 8 (v3.1) NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - Fixed Scarab Gun firing effect from blinding the player - Fixed Scarab Gun not showing in first person for Elites - Fixed enemy Elites showing the wrong models - Fixed some weapon damage outputs - General bug fixes ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 9 (v3.2) NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - Heavily reduced player knockback from enemy fire - Reduced player damage taken from collision to 25% - Reduced Spiker knockback - Fixed Scarab Gun screen effect when firing - Adjusted Scarab Gun impact effect to match radius of damage - Adjusted Dart Rifle to fire much faster when holding down the trigger - Increased Dart Rifle damage when AOE effect is active - Adjusted Fertility Rifle to be able to be fired semi-automatic and can fire 8 shots before overheating (up from 2) - Adjusted Hyper Hog Turret to have much less spread - Reduced Octo Sniper spread ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 10 (v3.3) NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - 3 new weapons: Super Suplex, Explosive Rocket Needler, Thruster Rocket Needler, with new reticles and HUD elements - New marble spawn effect: Spawning NPCs, both enemies and friendly - Friendly NPCs can spawn with explosive Needler or super Suplex - Changed a little more in the Crow's Nest cutscene and at the end of The Storm's cutscene - Fixed Toy Tank entry radius so you don't keep sitting on the front of the tank when trying to get a Marine out to drive - Adjusted Bubble Pistol reticle to work with dual wielding - Adjusted all Plasma Rifle variants to fit better together when dual wielding - Destroying a Moa statue in game now spawns a random Marble effect of the 5 available options, including the new NPC option - Fixed Flubberizer equipment item light to be centered around the item when on the ground - Can now dual wield Suplex Pistols - Made Phantoms in Crow's Nest invulnerable to block soft locking the mission - New Arbiter skin to fit with the opening cutscene of the game - Removed Cortana/Gravemind moments speed decrease ------------------------------------------------------ PATCH 11 (v4.0) NOTES ------------------------------------------------------ - Golden Gun reticle now tracks enemies - Adjusted Slipspace Rifle to be able to shoot multiple bursts before overheating - Reworked Barrel Launcher to aim much more accurately at your reticle positioning - Reworked Clearly An Alien Grenade to aim much more accurately at your reticle positioning - Reworked Broken Baseball Bat to aim much more accurately at your reticle positioning - Reworked Projectilinator to aim much more accurately at your reticle positioning - Reworked SHSHr Silenced Rockets to aim much more accurately at your reticle positioning - Added new vehicle: Paper Hornet. Fires tracking paper airplanes that shoot at your enemies for you - Added new vehicle: Ghosty Skates. A pair of two small Ghosts you slip on your feet and scoot around on - Added new weapons: Xbox 360 & Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360 - Added new weapons: Xbox One S & Xbox One X - Added new weapons: Xbox Series X & Halo Infinite LE Xbox Series X - Added new weapon: Xbonk. An original Xbox on a stick. - Added new weapon: Shottie Sniper. The versatility of a shotgun and sniper rifle as one - Added new weapon: Super Shotgun. The DOOM-inspired weapon with classic 8-bit animations - Added new weapon: Pocket Spartan Orbs. Can capture Covenant enemies to use for your own battles - Added new weapons: Magic Staffs. Four possible magic staffs to cast spells on your enemies - Added new weapons: Vault Rifles. Borderlands-inspired ARs with a variety of types - Added new weapon: REDACTED. Used for the 343 GS final fight in the level "Halo" - Added new weapon model: Needler Shotgun now uses the Halo Reach custom model I made - Reworked cutscenes for the prologue - Reworked cutscenes for Crow's Nest - Reworked cutscenes for Flood Gate - Reworked in-game moments from The Ark - Reworked cutscenes for The Covenant - Reworked cutscenes for Halo - Reworked the 343 Guilty Spark fight for Halo - Added custom sounds from Halo CE for the M6D Magnum - Added new spawns for the Interdimensional Marble equipment - Added new HUD icon for the Interdimensional Marble equipment - Changed several encounters across every campaign mission - Changed several in game scenery objects across multiple campaign missions - Added several custom weapon sounds - Added several new custom weapon fonts - Added custom voice acting from myself and members of the community across the game - Recast Sgt Johnson - Made Cortana have brainrot - Many more changes I can't remember at this moment ------------------------------------------------------ IN CONCLUSION ------------------------------------------------------ Have fun! That's it, go have fun. Find me on YouTube as Gashnor, on Twitter as @GashnorOfficial, or on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/Gashnor if you feel like buying me a coffee. Please record yourself playing and upload to YouTube for me to see! Tag me in the video description (@Gashnor) as well so I get notified of new videos to watch. I genuinely have loved watching every video I could find on Twitch or YouTube over the last few months of the original soft launch. Once more, I appreciate all the love and support for this part so far, and I look forward to making this even better as time goes on. Love, Gashnor