Silent Cartographer and Keyes squads are probably more of a gameplay/dialogue thing. This is an original
Xbox game with large maps and limited pathfinding tech. On top of that, devs generally design encounters carefully. You don’t want 40 marines following you throughout the mission. As far as Keyes goes,there are also tech limitations,but the POV of the helmet cam could be confusing with large numbers of similarly dressed marines. If you watch it back,you’ll see that it’s written in such a way that the characters are distinct and introduced one by one to be easy to keep track of. Every player may not remember their names,but they understand that a squad of marines went in and got eaten by zombies. There are a lot of inconsistencies between gameplay and lore like this;it’s all endemic to a video game. Like the oft-mentioned “Master Chief in the books” memes. However,there’s also a lore reason for the Chief’s lack of support in Silent Cartographer;he’s the Chief. A Spartan rocking the hitherto most advanced armor that’s logistically available. Why detach a company of marines when John is worth 1,000 divisions. Officers at the time probably made the call to send him with light support as necessary. They’re outnumbered,outgunned,and on an alien structure that’s alien to the aliens. They can’t put all their eggs in one basket. Marines not with Chief on that beach are elsewhere,conducting patrols,reconnaissance,organizing logistics,reinforcing defense and aggressive actions,performing maintenance,etc.
The leader of the ground forces in the novelisation also hated the Master Chief for service rivalry reasons, and IIRC he knew about chief accidentally murdering those ODSTs after the augmentation surgery, so he wasn't inclined to support him if he didn't have to.
yeah, i wish she had of survived. instead we got a spook and a hothead cpl. along with the man, the myth, the legend, the baddest SOB in the UNSC, Sgt Avery Johnson. ah what a gem he was.
Bungie doesn’t like giving numbers in the games its an ongoing issue
As for in the book, maybe 100-150 additional personnel between standard marines and navy crew. Which id guess puts between 300-500 combat ready UNSC personnel on the ground depending how many ODST made it down in their pods. That would track for both having the forces to defend the base and make the run to the crash site to gather vehicles.
Id guess we don’t really see the standard forces much as i would put them on guard duty right away to free up the ODSTs to go forth and break stuff
Honestly not giving hard numbers is probably for the best. Just look at how silly battles in Warhammer or Star Wars can be for whole planets taken by less people than died in WWII
Totally, i find it best to give a big number at the start and then let losses be loose numbers,
For example give a crew number at the beginning of the book, you could say ah 700 saliors 500 marines and 400 odst
Then say oh most of the odst and half of the crew made it down, now you have an idea of whats left but the writer doesn’t put themselves jn a corner. My favorite example is that at the beginning of star trek voyager they say they only have 36 torpedos(or something) and someone went and counted and the fired like… 200+ across the show
I'm confused what you mean by entirely ignoring cannon and just what was shown in the game?
The games are the cannon. The books are a side business to make money. Which is why there are several authors and lots of retconns. It's like how anime are made to entice people to buy the light novels/mangas except in reverse the books are there to support the games.
Rereading it now. It's definitely a compelling read. I enjoy it more than The Fall of Reach for sure. The Marine and POA crew stories are the most interesting part IMO.
A lot more than Cortana predicted. The Captain must've really given them hell.
Nice
And we know that because they covenant were actually broadcasting tactical data on unencrypted channels. We should show them who they're dealing with.
I see what you did there !
Silent Cartographer and Keyes squads are probably more of a gameplay/dialogue thing. This is an original Xbox game with large maps and limited pathfinding tech. On top of that, devs generally design encounters carefully. You don’t want 40 marines following you throughout the mission. As far as Keyes goes,there are also tech limitations,but the POV of the helmet cam could be confusing with large numbers of similarly dressed marines. If you watch it back,you’ll see that it’s written in such a way that the characters are distinct and introduced one by one to be easy to keep track of. Every player may not remember their names,but they understand that a squad of marines went in and got eaten by zombies. There are a lot of inconsistencies between gameplay and lore like this;it’s all endemic to a video game. Like the oft-mentioned “Master Chief in the books” memes. However,there’s also a lore reason for the Chief’s lack of support in Silent Cartographer;he’s the Chief. A Spartan rocking the hitherto most advanced armor that’s logistically available. Why detach a company of marines when John is worth 1,000 divisions. Officers at the time probably made the call to send him with light support as necessary. They’re outnumbered,outgunned,and on an alien structure that’s alien to the aliens. They can’t put all their eggs in one basket. Marines not with Chief on that beach are elsewhere,conducting patrols,reconnaissance,organizing logistics,reinforcing defense and aggressive actions,performing maintenance,etc.
The leader of the ground forces in the novelisation also hated the Master Chief for service rivalry reasons, and IIRC he knew about chief accidentally murdering those ODSTs after the augmentation surgery, so he wasn't inclined to support him if he didn't have to.
Fuck Major Silva
Major silva being a pos glory seeker got a lot of marines killed.
Lt McKay was a damn real one though.
yeah, i wish she had of survived. instead we got a spook and a hothead cpl. along with the man, the myth, the legend, the baddest SOB in the UNSC, Sgt Avery Johnson. ah what a gem he was.
Thanks for typing this out, much appreciated.
At least a few hundred probably, enough to put up a fight without being completely wiped out
Bungie doesn’t like giving numbers in the games its an ongoing issue As for in the book, maybe 100-150 additional personnel between standard marines and navy crew. Which id guess puts between 300-500 combat ready UNSC personnel on the ground depending how many ODST made it down in their pods. That would track for both having the forces to defend the base and make the run to the crash site to gather vehicles. Id guess we don’t really see the standard forces much as i would put them on guard duty right away to free up the ODSTs to go forth and break stuff
Honestly not giving hard numbers is probably for the best. Just look at how silly battles in Warhammer or Star Wars can be for whole planets taken by less people than died in WWII
Totally, i find it best to give a big number at the start and then let losses be loose numbers, For example give a crew number at the beginning of the book, you could say ah 700 saliors 500 marines and 400 odst Then say oh most of the odst and half of the crew made it down, now you have an idea of whats left but the writer doesn’t put themselves jn a corner. My favorite example is that at the beginning of star trek voyager they say they only have 36 torpedos(or something) and someone went and counted and the fired like… 200+ across the show
Doesn't Cortana make a comment about the canyon blocking the Marines signal in AotCr
Bungie and intended aren’t really two words that go together.
In the halo 1 game manual. I believe it talks about how many the pillar of autumn houses
I'm confused what you mean by entirely ignoring cannon and just what was shown in the game? The games are the cannon. The books are a side business to make money. Which is why there are several authors and lots of retconns. It's like how anime are made to entice people to buy the light novels/mangas except in reverse the books are there to support the games.
I was just asking about what Bungie views on the situation were, instead of what is depicted in outside lore.
Read the second halo book, the flood. It will tell you everything
Rereading it now. It's definitely a compelling read. I enjoy it more than The Fall of Reach for sure. The Marine and POA crew stories are the most interesting part IMO.