------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Halo: Custom Edition FAQ By Fred Lowe AKA scizor20 email: Caeadas@gmail.com.com version 1.01 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Halo: Custom Edition FAQ Table of Contents: 1) Intro 2) Differences 3) How to get 4) Where to find maps 5) How to install maps 6) The console 6.1) devmode 6.2) cheat command list 6.3) the Debug Camera 7) Version history 8) Credits 9) Legal Jargon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Introduction Halo: Custom Edition (CE) is a downloadable version of Halo PC multiplayer released with the Halo Editing Kit (HEK). It was designed to play the maps that HEK users make and distribute on the internet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2) Differences from halo PC The main difference is that in CE, there is NO single player campaign mode. That is included with Halo PC. There IS the ability to import user created multiplayer maps in halo CE though. There are some technical changes too. Halo CE uses new technology designed to make the game run better. There is a new screen at the start of every game that shows all the rules, and during the game you can press a button to show the names of every player on your team. There is a icon that shows the position of your own flag in CTF, and shows if a player is holding the flag while in a vehicle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3) How to get Halo CE Halo CE is freely distributed on the internet. You can find a list of websites that have Halo CE and the HEK here: http://halo.bungie.org/misc/haloce_hekmirrors.html (if all those fail, good ol' www.google.com should do the trick) UPDATE: Download.com has Halo CE here: http://www.download.com/Halo-Combat-Evolved-Custom-Edition/3000-7453_4-10292206 .html?tag=lst-0-2 In order to install Halo CE, you MUST have a legal copy of halo PC, and you must have the CD-KEY for halo PC. CE will not overwrite Halo PC, it is a standalone program that functions like halo PC. Installation is just like Halo PC, and is pretty straitfoward. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4) Where to get the maps There are many sites that host custom designed maps. here are just some: http://halocity.org/modules.php?name=Maps http://theimperium.fragwhore.com/downloads.htm Here is a really good one: www.google.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5) What to do to your downloaded maps Now that you have halo CE installed and your downloaded maps handy, it's very simple to run the maps in Halo CE. First, decompress the file that you downloaded if its in .rar or .zip format. If you don’t have the program to open that file, go to www.google.com and look for winrar or winzip, depending on what the file is. Use that program to open the file. Now inside the compressed file, there is a file in .map format usually named after the name of the custom map. Go figure... Now unless you moved it for some odd reason, there is a folder in the halo CE directory named MAPS. Here would be a good place to look: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\maps" Now here's the difficult part. Put the .map file into the MAPS folder of the halo CE directory. Ooooh hard. Update: 7-Zip does everything that winzip and winrar does, but better. Go to http://www.7-zip.org/ and try it now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6) The console Now that we have the hard part out of the way lets get down to the fun part: playing against other people. Since CE plays almost identical to it's retail counterpart, All halo PC console commands will work in halo CE. To activate the console: - Open the properties window of the halo CE shortcut - On the "target" line, add " -console" to the end of the filename so that it looks like this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\maps" -console Note the space before - must be included. While playing halo, press the ~ key (the one directly above tab) to open the console. GameFAQS.com has another FAQ that explains how to use the console and all of it's functions and commands. We're interested in something else thats exclusive to CE... 6.1) devmode The designers of halo had a nice little toy to play with while designing halo. It's called developer mode. It is included with halo CE and can be accessed by doing the following: - open the properties window of the halo CE shortcut - on the "target" line, add " -devmode -console" to the end of the filename so that it looks like this: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Halo Custom Edition\maps" -devmode -console Note the spaces before the -'s. Now when you open halo CE using this shortcut, it will be in devmode. The main difference is that you CAN NOT access any internet multiplayer games. It is completely disabled until you open halo CE normally without devmode. The reason for this is because devmode is used by those people that are designing levels and need to manipulate the levels under construction in a way that makes multiplayer unfair. The good thing is, devmode contains many cheats and commands to make exploring the levels easy. Note that there are actually hundreds of console commands for devmode. To see them, press tab. To see a certain section type a letter and press tab. For example, "B" tab will show all the commands starting with B, or at least what the screen will hold. Most of these commands are useless to anybody who is not a game designer. Here is a list of the most useful commands: 6.2) Devmode Cheat Command List NOTE: Any command that is followed with <#> (excluding game_speed) means that you follow it with either with a 0 or 1, representing true and false. This enables and disables the cheats. Also, always include a _ where shown in the command, not a blank space game_speed <#>- Change this from 1-20 to make the game run faster. Change it to 0 to make the game pause cls- Clears the console screen cheat_active_camo- Makes your player have a permanant active camo cheat_bottomless_clip- <#> Human weapons and the needler never have to reload, and the plasma weapons can not overheat cheat_infinite_ammo- <#> This gives you infinite ammunition for every weapon cheat_super_jump- <#> This lets you jump very high. (should be used with deathless player cheat, otherwise you may die while falling) cheat_deathless_player- <#> This makes you absolutely invincible, even from falling cheat_all_powerups- This spawns one of each powerup around the player cheat_all_vehicles- This spawns one of each vehicle around the player cheat_all_weapons- This spawns one of each weapon around the player, including the flag and oddball skull cheat_spawn_warthog- This will spawn one regular warthog next to the player show_hud <#>- Turn this off to remove the HUD from the screen 6.3) debug_camera this interesting little tidbit was revealed to me just a few days before the creation of this FAQ, and is one of the reasons why it was written. I looked for days to find out how to take a screenshot from really high, and went from modding the jump height to turning secret banshees invisible. But thats another story... To separate the camera from the master cheif's head, input these two commands into the console in this order: debug_camera_save debug_camera_load Now the camera has escaped from behind the shiny yellow visor. The chief is still fully controllable, though. To control the camera, hold down the scroll button on your mouse. Now the cheifs movement commands move the camera around. Here is the default controls: W- forward S- back A- strafe left D- strafe right R- move up (gain altitude/ascend) F- move down (lose altitude/descend) mouse- look/turn scroll wheel up/down- change camera movement speed Now you can look around the level or get really cool angles of the Master Chief in all his majesty. To return the camera to the Master Chief's perspective, type the following command: camera_control 0 The camera will immediately snap back to the first person view. To make the chief teleport to the camera's location use this command cheat_teleport_to_camera and the chief will magically appear where your camera is. now you can put the chief in a really cool spot and take a really cool shot of it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) version history 1.01- Added a couple of websites Added info about 7-zip fixed some punctuation errors updated email address 1.00- original faq ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8) thanks to gamefaqs.com for hosting my horrible faq, to renamon for helping me figure out how to do most of the stuff here, to apocalypse, just because I’m copying his faq style, and to all the idiots of the halo PC board for asking how to do this stuff a million times and driving us all nuts... also thanks to the people of 7-zip for making a great file compression program ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9) legal jargon Copyright 2004 Frederick Lowe This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.