I’m not hating on the Halo Universe with blind, ignorant zeal like a certain “bookworm”. I’m just conveying an observation that has bedeviled me since 2001. In every instance an unwanted party is on a Forerunner installation, be it in the games or other media, its steward never thinks to use the installation’s infrastructure to repel the intruders. For example, when Chief refused to give 343 Guilty Spark Cortana’s AI matrix, instead of sending wave after wave of Sentinels after him, why not just make gravity extremely heavy to the point of incapacitating him or crushing him, or use the teleportation grid to phase him into the floor, with just his head sticking out? He could also jettison the other meddlers, human and Covenant, out into space…or better yet, just cut life support altogether? I don’t think it will hurt their installations; a fear most stationed constructs have. Idk, just thinking out loud. You ever wonder about something similar? Please, no “it’s just a game” buzzkills.
The Monitor of Installation 3 was able to implement some creative problem solving. Also there is evidence of intelligence in Last Light, I won’t get into much detail due to spoilers.
As far as Guilty Spark goes… There is no evidence that he can crank up the gravity high enough to do such a thing. There is also no evidence that suggests that something can be teleported inside solid material that I am aware of. He could theoretically jettison parts of the installation, but that might be risking flood contamination into space so perhaps it’s against protocol if the flood are rampant on the surface. I think the spores can survive space.
Also the “life support” of the ring is an artificial environment, something I don’t think can be drastically altered within a few minutes.
Sadly I think the only answer that’d make sense is “spark didn’t really want to kill him.” Though its possible he has some sort of restrictions in place on modifying the environment to combat non-flood. I mean, he’s not even allowed to interface with the core. i have no answer on why sentinels aren’t better utilized…or why halo’s primary firing mechanicsms are only defended by altitude for the most part.
That said, it’s sort of the same deal in h4 when the didact shows you he can just collapse the floors…but doesn’t do it more than just a small bridge.
Despite the supposed capabilities, the rings don’t seem properly equipped to defend themselves.
> 2533274964189700;3:
> Sadly I think the only answer that’d make sense is “spark didn’t really want to kill him.” Though its possible he has some sort of restrictions in place on modifying the environment to combat non-flood. I mean, he’s not even allowed to interface with the core. i have no answer on why sentinels aren’t better utilized…or why halo’s primary firing mechanicsms are only defended by altitude for the most part.
>
> That said, it’s sort of the same deal in h4 when the didact shows you he can just collapse the floors…but doesn’t do it more than just a small bridge.
>
> Despite the supposed capabilities, the rings don’t seem properly equipped to defend themselves.
I think the Spark didn’t really want to kill him is a viable answer too. He’s most likely programmed not to kill reclaimers… also he’s formerly a human and probably had the human subconscious part of him subtly preventing him.
> 2533274964189700;3:
> Sadly I think the only answer that’d make sense is “spark didn’t really want to kill him.” Though its possible he has some sort of restrictions in place on modifying the environment to combat non-flood. I mean, he’s not even allowed to interface with the core. i have no answer on why sentinels aren’t better utilized…or why halo’s primary firing mechanicsms are only defended by altitude for the most part.
> That said, it’s sort of the same deal in h4 when the didact shows you he can just collapse the floors…but doesn’t do it more than just a small bridge.
> Despite the supposed capabilities, the rings don’t seem properly equipped to defend themselves.
Well he kinda did want him dead; at the beginning of Two Betrayals, GS said, “Save his head. Dispose of the rest.” Also it would have been easy to isolate another reclaimer for the purpose of activating the ring. And yea, hardlight shackles would make sense, too. Now that I think about it, I’m remembering the CEA archives and Spark himself admitted that after 100k years, his ring is deteriorating due to dwindling resources. The attrition was taking its toll on him mentally as well, so something was gonna give, given another few thousand years. But that’s the rings; they were intentionally isolated. The Ark and shield worlds were built to be modular and self-sufficient. The monitors of those installations could do a lot more. Tragic Solitude on the Ark could control animals! So to say these installations were extremely limited in defense, is false. Simple oversight I guess.
> 2533274807480458;2:
> The Monitor of Installation 3 was able to implement some creative problem solving. Also there is evidence of intelligence in Last Light, I won’t get into much detail due to spoilers.
>
> As far as Guilty Spark goes… There is no evidence that he can crank up the gravity high enough to do such a thing. There is also no evidence that suggests that something can be teleported inside solid material that I am aware of. He could theoretically jettison parts of the installation, but that might be risking flood contamination into space so perhaps it’s against protocol if the flood are rampant on the surface. I think the spores can survive space.
>
> Also the “life support” of the ring is an artificial environment, something I don’t think can be drastically altered within a few minutes.
He can do that in practice, not just theory. It’s been shown in the Terminals hat he was able to do that. However, jettisoning an entire section of his installation into space for one single Human would be overkill, plus then you have the issue of retrieving him for the Index.
When it comes to Spark, it’s always safe to assume that he didn’t do something because his arrogance and apparent rampancy clouded his judgment.
> 2533274867519109;1:
> I’m not hating on the Halo Universe with blind, ignorant zeal like a certain “bookworm”.
I believe calling people out on the forums is against the rules. Not sure where this would fall into that but just a little advice.
> 2533274867519109;5:
> Now that I think about it, I’m remembering the CEA archives and Spark himself admitted that after 100k years, his ring is deteriorating due to dwindling resources. The attrition was taking its toll on him mentally as well, so something was gonna give, given another few thousand years.
I know he mentioned he was deteorating, but I don’t recall any mention of the ring doing so. Quite the opposite, he was able to test ejecting whole parts of the ring and testing how quick the ring could rebuild those biomes.
> 2533274867519109;5:
> The Ark and shield worlds were built to be modular and self-sufficient. The monitors of those installations could do a lot more. Tragic Solitude on the Ark could control animals! So to say these installations were extremely limited in defense, is false. Simple oversight I guess.
Yet the ark did very little to help durin the first battle of the Ark.
> 2533274867519109;1:
> I’m not hating on the Halo Universe with blind, ignorant zeal like a certain trolls. I’m just conveying an observation that has bedeviled me since 2001. In every instance an unwanted party is on a Forerunner installation, be it in the games or other media, its steward never thinks to use the installation’s infrastructure to repel the intruders. For example, when Chief refused to give 343 Guilty Spark Cortana’s AI matrix, instead of sending wave after wave of Sentinels after him, why not just make gravity extremely heavy to the point of incapacitating him or crushing him, or use the teleportation grid to phase him into the floor, with just his head sticking out? He could also jettison the other meddlers, human and Covenant, out into space…or better yet, just cut life support altogether? I don’t think it will hurt their installations; a fear most stationed constructs have. Idk, just thinking out loud. You ever wonder about something similar? Please, no “it’s just a game” buzzkills.
> 2533274908138382;6:
> > 2533274807480458;2:
> > The Monitor of Installation 3 was able to implement some creative problem solving. Also there is evidence of intelligence in Last Light, I won’t get into much detail due to spoilers.
> >
> > As far as Guilty Spark goes… There is no evidence that he can crank up the gravity high enough to do such a thing. There is also no evidence that suggests that something can be teleported inside solid material that I am aware of. He could theoretically jettison parts of the installation, but that might be risking flood contamination into space so perhaps it’s against protocol if the flood are rampant on the surface. I think the spores can survive space.
> >
> > Also the “life support” of the ring is an artificial environment, something I don’t think can be drastically altered within a few minutes.
>
>
> He can do that in practice, not just theory. It’s been shown in the Terminals hat he was able to do that. However, jettisoning an entire section of his installation into space for one single Human would be overkill, plus then you have the issue of retrieving him for the Index.
>
> When it comes to Spark, it’s always safe to assume that he didn’t do something because his arrogance and apparent rampancy clouded his judgment.
>
>
> > 2533274867519109;1:
> > I’m not hating on the Halo Universe with blind, ignorant zeal like a certain “bookworm”.
>
>
> I believe calling people out on the forums is against the rules. Not sure where this would fall into that but just a little advice.
Edited. Please accept my apology, I implore.
The Flood would NOT survive because the fortress worlds’ gas giant “anchor” would absorb any debris into its gravity well…or the entire superstructure as a fail safe. That was the primary intent of this arrangement in the first place.
> 2533274867519109;10:
> The Flood would NOT survive because the fortress worlds’ gas giant “anchor” would absorb any debris into its gravity well…or the entire superstructure as a fail safe. That was the primary intent of this arrangement in the first place.
Didn’t consider that. Thanks for the information. That’s actually exceptionally clever.
I would imagine that from a writing standpoint it just wasn’t considered for the sake of ending the plot too soon which happens quite often in the books. Hell, if one thinks about it’s not restricted to just Forerunner AIs as Blue team would be dead in Ghost of Onyx if that one rebel leader didn’t have a sudden case of the twirl my mustache and monologue for days syndrome.
As for Forerunner constructs left to take care of installations the writing is pretty much set up so that the passage of time has made these constructs eccentric to some degree. Rather consistently they seem to be prone to misjudgments time and again all to satisfy their curiosity as a result of these eccentricies rather than thinking of the most efficient route to eliminate a threat. Doesn’t help that when it comes to Reclaimers in particular the constructs in question may by default give humans some leniency which may backfire on the construct later on.
The latest instance that comes to mind is probably the Contender class AI in Escalations that Halsey subverted because it gave the humans that chance… But at the very least the Contender class did show some form of efficient thought by deciding to remove the floor underneath several dozens of Sangheli rather than having Sentinels duke it out for a prolonged period.
One point all monitors were rampant. Except spark do to his hybernations.
Honestly, the more I read of them (read Forerunner books, and 82% through Last Light. Missing Broken Circle to conplete all of them though…) the more I think they are stupid.
The reasons for the enemies seemingly not using their full capabilities against the player is because they have either better things to do with said capabilities,
are batishit insane (the Covenant is medieval christianity in space, 343 Guilty Spark was really just maintaining an orderly facade,
the Ur-Didact had the “pleasure” of getting mind raped,
and then spend the next 100,000 years doing NOTHING but to think about getting mindraped over and over again)
or to make the average six year old Halo player buy more Halo games, because he gets to feel like he has overcome all the odds.
All true points. Though humans seem to be clueless at times too. In Hunters in the Dark, the humans AND Covenant are freaking out that the Halo Array is primed to fire in a few days and launch a desperate mission to the Ark. Ummm…couldn’t they just send ships to each ring and simultaneously nuke them…or crash a ship with critical engines into them PoA style? If things were as serious as the imminent death of all life in the galaxy, I wouldn’t delay a second or spare a resource to stop it.
It seems that Forerunner AI use methods with Wile E. Coyote- grade effectiveness to solve their problems, and tend to make oversights that entirely screw them over. 343 Guilty Spark tried to stop Chief by sending only 3 sentinels in. The monitor in The Next 72 hours tried to stop the Didactic from killing Blue Team- by locking him in Halo’s control room. Hell, even a Contender class AI was dumb enough to let itself be shut down by human using a basic terminal. No wonder the Forerunners lost to the Flood.
> 2533274867519109;16:
> All true points. Though humans seem to be clueless at times too. In Hunters in the Dark, the humans AND Covenant are freaking out that the Halo Array is primed to fire in a few days and launch a desperate mission to the Ark. Ummm…couldn’t they just send ships to each ring and simultaneously nuke them…or crash a ship with critical engines into them PoA style? If things were as serious as the imminent death of all life in the galaxy, I wouldn’t delay a second or spare a resource to stop it.
Neither the UNSC or other human friendly factions have the manpower or knowledge as to where all the Halos are. Remember that it was the Infinity’s mission to find and decommission the remaining Halos, but they’ve only visited two by the time they find Requiem. It didn’t help that they had an extremely small window of time either. Though, Halos being what they are, it’s amazingly risky for Humanity to set up research bases next to the ones they’ve “secured.” All it takes after all is just a single Flood subject to get out and reign all kinds of hell.
> 2533274799483156;18:
> > 2533274867519109;16:
> > All true points. Though humans seem to be clueless at times too. In Hunters in the Dark, the humans AND Covenant are freaking out that the Halo Array is primed to fire in a few days and launch a desperate mission to the Ark. Ummm…couldn’t they just send ships to each ring and simultaneously nuke them…or crash a ship with critical engines into them PoA style? If things were as serious as the imminent death of all life in the galaxy, I wouldn’t delay a second or spare a resource to stop it.
>
>
> Neither the UNSC or other human friendly factions have the manpower or knowledge as to where all the Halos are. Remember that it was the Infinity’s mission to find and decommission the remaining Halos, but they’ve only visited two by the time they find Requiem. It didn’t help that they had an extremely small window of time either. Though, Halos being what they are, it’s amazingly risky for Humanity to set up research bases next to the ones they’ve “secured.” All it takes after all is just a single Flood subject to get out and reign all kinds of hell.
True. They haven’t located all the Halos. But consider this…they would have to be at geometrically precise points in the galaxy for effective coverage of the neural pulse. So if you know the location of 3, you can infer the location of the others…which I would assume are 100,000 light years apart (their maximum effective radius)? Infinity Science can figure the numbers out. And as for the Flood…all the more reason to destroy the Halos. For absolute sterilization, they need to just send them hurtling into their gas giants.
> 2533274867519109;19:
> > 2533274799483156;18:
> > > 2533274867519109;16:
> > > All true points. Though humans seem to be clueless at times too. In Hunters in the Dark, the humans AND Covenant are freaking out that the Halo Array is primed to fire in a few days and launch a desperate mission to the Ark. Ummm…couldn’t they just send ships to each ring and simultaneously nuke them…or crash a ship with critical engines into them PoA style? If things were as serious as the imminent death of all life in the galaxy, I wouldn’t delay a second or spare a resource to stop it.
> >
> >
> > Neither the UNSC or other human friendly factions have the manpower or knowledge as to where all the Halos are. Remember that it was the Infinity’s mission to find and decommission the remaining Halos, but they’ve only visited two by the time they find Requiem. It didn’t help that they had an extremely small window of time either. Though, Halos being what they are, it’s amazingly risky for Humanity to set up research bases next to the ones they’ve “secured.” All it takes after all is just a single Flood subject to get out and reign all kinds of hell.
>
>
> True. They haven’t located all the Halos. But consider this…they would have to be at geometrically precise points in the galaxy for effective coverage of the neural pulse. So if you know the location of 3, you can infer the location of the others…which I would assume are 100,000 light years apart (their maximum effective radius)? Infinity Science can figure the numbers out. And as for the Flood…all the more reason to destroy the Halos. For absolute sterilization, they need to just send them hurtling into their gas giants.
I’d just as soon assume the Forerunners DIDN’T put them at precisely maximum radius points, but instead have a certain amount of overlap. After all, the Flood could just as easily do what you’re suggesting the UNSC do, if they got their tentacles on those locations.