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Halo Geology
Daniel makes a few insightful observations about the underlying geology of Halo.
Daniel (7hr33) (team_7hr33@mac.com ) writes:
It came to my attention while playing The Silent Cartographer that the entire level is built to endure a much higher water table. The Map Building itself brought this to mind as I looked at the pillars under the outside landing and pondered again what the large shields on each were for. "Well, to buffer waves, of course!" The landing itself would also seem to work exceptionally well as a dock.
Examining the level with this aspect in mind shows that all buildings are well above a 'high tide' line and also produces several moments of 'yeah! that makes sense' as you see, for example, the cave leading up to the Cartographer's building and the overhead arc as those created by waves. The broken off section of the cliff face, revealing the metal structure beneath, as well as the several old, rather driftwood like fallen trees are also of particular interest. The beginning room of 'Assault on the Control Room' with it's super water splashing force field dome at the top, as well as general level design are also curious. Sure, large cliffs dropping off to reveal distant and lowly lands is a convenient way to define an area's boundaries without making the player feel as though they are in a box, but if it is not only a utility based choice, why do these especially high areas exist at all?
Whether the water level was once consistently higher, the ring once had rather large tides (not recently as one can see by all the vegetation on SC), or the installations were built to be prepared for a massive upheaval in certain special circumstances (the ring changing locations, nearby celestial objects creating massive tides, or the ring actually being activated) is up for discussion.
We've all known that Bungie provides a wealth of incidental, historical, and related information in their games, for those that know to look for it.
The question is: Why has the water level on Halo gone down?
On a related note (and I mean related ), does anyone remember the homework I assigned earlier? Did everyone's dog eat theirs?
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-mnemesis
