First off, there will be a rot time on the bodies, so they won't dissapear immediatly.

Secondly, pure forms are free, and i personnaly believe they should transform for free.

Alright. Time to clarify some things.

Time for corpses to die WON'T be the bane of the Flood. They're going to be causing the casualties, right? Ergo, they'll be fighting the other players, right? Ergo, don't you think that there's going to be infection forms around to take over the bodies when they die?

The Flood ain't going to be running out of bodies here. 

Rasq'uire'laskar:

I'm sorry, but this 'Flood were already on the Gas Mine' thing doesn't hold water.

Where's the proof that the Flood were stored on the Gas Mine, and didn't fall down from higher orbit? The Containers? I'm sorry, but the Flood proved their ability to hide in containers in "Halo: The Flood".

On the other hand, why would they be stored on a gas mine, when they are held in a ultra-secure location one light-second away? 

But you don't understand that its proven that the Flood were kept on the gas mine for study. The Heretics released them to stop the Arbiter. It has been confirmed. You've got to believe me, I'm not lying. Anyways, the Flood wouldn't have survived the desturction of Installation 04 nor the re-entry into Thresholds atmosphere. I hope I'm not coming off as a *** but I really know alot about Halo. More so that I may have lead on to others. Plus, the Installation 04 security wsa rather lax if the Covenant broke in as easily as they did.

america1:

I am trying to make them more like an origonal faction because you all know how laggy it would be if the bodies didn't disapear which means that the bodies will disapear, whcih means that the flood will have a like 2% chance of winning because before they can get a lot of forces they will just get wiped out. and seeing how the bodies will disapear that means that the flood can only get live infantry so they will have a very hard time even comming close to victory and they will become that one faction in a game that sucks. now, in caase you didn't understand my idea i'll reword it.  The flood will build a barracks after a while with a lot of calcium points, then the building has a large storage of bodies. so they can buy troops to because if they can't just buy troops then that meanas that they will barely be able to get combat forms. they have to blow all the money on pure forms. and you people also forget that troops come in squads correct? so for the flood to be able to get a squad of combat forms they have to have a bunch of squads of 1 person? or maybe they have to combine squads? it would make the flood a whole lot more fun if you could just by COMBAT FORMS ALONE and not other forms. also, to keep your idea alive, rot, they can still infect regular marines to and covenant, and ambient life so that the flood would be more enjoyable seeing as how they cant get vehicles they have to capture a vehicle bay to get some tanks, it would make a player of the flood feel like they can stilll get troops and not just have to keep fighting for a small group of troops.  If you want there could be little "Graveyards" or burial sites that the flood would have to capture before they coul;d buyild a barracks. You can't just have people have to send a ton of infectious forms for a couple of troops people will ahte the flood.

The game utilizes the Xbox 360's engine not a PC's. It wouldn't be laggy unless there were hundreds upon hundreds of bodies.

raptor223:

i have an idea but what if when a pelican was landed and u took control of it and the squads inside ucould use it and as a mobile proto-gravemind but for bio-mass and the ability for it to produce infection forms u have to crash it plus if ur primary intelligence dies it can be turned into one for a price of course what ya think?

note to turn into a primary intelligence it has to of crashed

In the very rare occasion that a Pelican was landed and a Infection Form got on, the Pelican would, at least in my opinon, be allowed like you said, to dive bomb targets, releasing Flood into hard to reach spots.

Rasq'uire'laskar:

Alright. Time to clarify some things.

Time for corpses to die WON'T be the bane of the Flood. They're going to be causing the casualties, right? Ergo, they'll be fighting the other players, right? Ergo, don't you think that there's going to be infection forms around to take over the bodies when they die?

The Flood ain't going to be running out of bodies here. 

Yes, you are correct.

TNine:

First off, there will be a rot time on the bodies, so they won't dissapear immediatly.

Secondly, pure forms are free, and i personnaly believe they should transform for free.

zaki90:

anyone got a bestuirium to check the carrier thing. see if it's cannon

I wish.

Lt. d&c:

well dude thats how they explain it in the books. I believe it was the flood (I dont remeber that book well), can sombody conform?

I'm currently loaning out my copy of Halo: The Flood, so I can't be of much help here.

Lt. d&c:

Edit: wait where did that post of yours come from? man i have a glitchy time on this sight... sorry about the misunderstanding dude. (im assuming that "i give in post" was about this argument).

I believe it was.

abbadon:

Ambient life Flood!

Ambient life flood should be devastating, 

Tigers (broad category for cougars, wolves and other like beasts) should get a power upgrade, damage, health, and jumping upgrade.  

And suppose some boars wondering around the map get infected, they are now infected and are possibly your most deadly troops. But then you get a heard of cows (this is all a maybe) then you can stampede the enemy base with these juggernaut  cows. Then you could follow up the attack with your Human combat forms.

Anyone like this idea?

Ambient Life Combat Forms would be a bit stronger than regular Human Combat Forms or Elite Combat Forms, but would lack the ranged attacks of their counterparts. Also, I think that most of the Ambient Life are going to be alien-ish.

abbadon:

Yeah, carrier forms should spawn from grunts, combat forms from, Humans, elites, Brutes, ambient life.

If Brutes make it into the game. Ambient Life Carrier Forms would look hilarious.

SPARTAN GREY 12:

Yeah I think it it was The Flood that stated that they did this, but I thought this was  well known.

I know I heard it somewhere, and not on Halopedia (since I rarely take what they say there as fact without sources), but I can't remember where. Halo: The Flood sounds most likely, though.

SPARTAN GREY 12:

More soul may be corrupted, but not by Rotaretiblio, I see him as a good role model for seniors and young members alike, but I am not a slave to his cause........well at least not yet.

Lead me my dark lord!

SUBMIT!

Redlightning:

Do you know how much calcium a cow would carry? Youd probably use cows for something else, maybe give the Gravemind a huge boost in production or something?

Cows could morph directly into Pure Forms. :p

Jeteye1:

Boy, leave for one day and look how much happens. As I am pressed for time, I will not quote you directly but add my comments in italics.

Now you know how I feel. :p

Jeteye1:

Yay!

Indeed.

Jeteye1:

Ah, but you’ll see all the bodies around him are uninfected which leads me to believe that he went insane and killed the other Marines with him. Or Bungie could have just not counted on people like me going crazily in-depth with the slightest details. Who know…

Perhaps only a few of them were infected, and he shot everyone.

Jeteye1:

Ok, got it.

Good. :p

Jeteye1:

I have to say that his (America1) idea isn’t very good. No offense or anything it’s just kind of odd. The main part of being the Flood is going out and killing so you can get more combat forms. Your idea makes them more like a traditional RTS faction, which we are trying to steer away from.

But there are some merits to the concept. The direct idea I was not so fond of, but the concept was decent.

Jeteye1:

Me too.

Lol. :p

Jeteye1:

Yeah, have to agree with Rot on this one. Other than telling of the Floods devastation and the futile attempts to destroy them, it doesn’t go into depth about the Flood themselves in a physical sense.

Exactly.

Jeteye1:

Right.

Yuppers.

Jeteye1:

What!? No! The Heretics released the Flood from their containment cells to stop the Arbiter. They were already on the platform for study. The Installation 04 Flood never left that Installation, they tried but they were destroyed.

We have no solid evidence either way. However, there would be no reason for the Forerunner to store Flood on a gas mine with poor security verse an Installation that was right next door with top line security.

Jeteye1:

After the first Flood encounter in “Floodgate” you personally see a Human turned into a Combat Form.

Exactly.

shadowhawk:

Flood infection forms were already in the mine. They were being stored in hundreds of containers that were in the walls of that big elevator lift thing. The Heratics probably accidentally released them and you know what happens next.

But what possible reason could the Forerunner have to keep a dangerous pathogen like the Flood in a low security gas mine right next door to a high security research facility?

Rasq'uire'laskar:

I'm sorry, but this 'Flood were already on the Gas Mine' thing doesn't hold water.

Where's the proof that the Flood were stored on the Gas Mine, and didn't fall down from higher orbit? The Containers? I'm sorry, but the Flood proved their ability to hide in containers in "Halo: The Flood".

On the other hand, why would they be stored on a gas mine, when they are held in a ultra-secure location one light-second away?

Exactly.

raptor223:

i have an idea but what if when a pelican was landed and u took control of it and the squads inside ucould use it and as a mobile proto-gravemind but for bio-mass and the ability for it to produce infection forms u have to crash it plus if ur primary intelligence dies it can be turned into one for a price of course what ya think?

note to turn into a primary intelligence it has to of crashed

A possibility, but one I don't see as panning out.

zaki90:

i mean combat form turn into a carrier form unless the they become carrier forms if the human or thing was damaged before it was infected.

Regardless, I answered from both perspectives in my response.

america1:

I am trying to make them more like an origonal faction because you all know how laggy it would be if the bodies didn't disapear which means that the bodies will disapear, whcih means that the flood will have a like 2% chance of winning because before they can get a lot of forces they will just get wiped out. and seeing how the bodies will disapear that means that the flood can only get live infantry so they will have a very hard time even comming close to victory and they will become that one faction in a game that sucks. now, in caase you didn't understand my idea i'll reword it.  The flood will build a barracks after a while with a lot of calcium points, then the building has a large storage of bodies. so they can buy troops to because if they can't just buy troops then that meanas that they will barely be able to get combat forms. they have to blow all the money on pure forms. and you people also forget that troops come in squads correct? so for the flood to be able to get a squad of combat forms they have to have a bunch of squads of 1 person? or maybe they have to combine squads? it would make the flood a whole lot more fun if you could just by COMBAT FORMS ALONE and not other forms. also, to keep your idea alive, rot, they can still infect regular marines to and covenant, and ambient life so that the flood would be more enjoyable seeing as how they cant get vehicles they have to capture a vehicle bay to get some tanks, it would make a player of the flood feel like they can stilll get troops and not just have to keep fighting for a small group of troops.  If you want there could be little "Graveyards" or burial sites that the flood would have to capture before they coul;d buyild a barracks. You can't just have people have to send a ton of infectious forms for a couple of troops people will ahte the flood.

Alternately, we could extend rot time out to like, perhaps fifteen to thirty second, maybe even a minute, and still avoid lag. Hell, I've played custom scenarios on games on my PC (back before it had any high-end hardware in it) with infinite rot time and the game only lagged minimally (and all you could buy was units of 20 or so infantry with your automatic gold income). The Xbox 360 performs better than the average PC, so it should be able to handle a little rot time. Conversly, attacks will often include large groups of Infection Forms, meaning even with the current rot time of two seconds, there would still be reanimation. As for squads, just like how if a single Marine in a squad dies, the squad is just down a member, Combat Forms would slowly grow as units from a single squad were infected/reanimated. So if a squad of five is infected, there is now a squad of five Combat Forms.

TNine:

First off, there will be a rot time on the bodies, so they won't dissapear immediatly.

Exactly.

TNine:

Secondly, pure forms are free, and i personnaly believe they should transform for free.

True, but by forcing players to spend a small amount of Calcium on morphing, it requires players to be more fiscal and tactical with their Pure Forms.

Rasq'uire'laskar:

Alright. Time to clarify some things.

Time for corpses to die WON'T be the bane of the Flood. They're going to be causing the casualties, right? Ergo, they'll be fighting the other players, right? Ergo, don't you think that there's going to be infection forms around to take over the bodies when they die?

The Flood ain't going to be running out of bodies here.

Exactly.

Jeteye1:

But you don't understand that its proven that the Flood were kept on the gas mine for study. The Heretics released them to stop the Arbiter. It has been confirmed. You've got to believe me, I'm not lying.

When I see a source I'll believe it.

Jeteye1:

Anyways, the Flood wouldn't have survived the desturction of Installation 04 nor the re-entry into Thresholds atmosphere. I hope I'm not coming off as a *** but I really know alot about Halo. More so that I may have lead on to others. Plus, the Installation 04 security wsa rather lax if the Covenant broke in as easily as they did.

We aren't saying that Installation 04 exploded and then the Flood got thrown onto the gas mine, we're saying that the Flood got into space once, as per Halo Graphic Novel, certainly they could have done it again, but instead of a ship, they landed on the gas mine in hopes of finding an easier target.

Jeteye1:

The game utilizes the Xbox 360's engine not a PC's. It wouldn't be laggy unless there were hundreds upon hundreds of bodies.

Exactly.

Jeteye1:

In the very rare occasion that a Pelican was landed and a Infection Form got on, the Pelican would, at least in my opinon, be allowed like you said, to dive bomb targets, releasing Flood into hard to reach spots.

Most Flood Forms can reach hard to reach spots anyway.

Jeteye1:

Yes, you are correct.

Indeed.

america1:

If you say so but most RTS games i have p[layed the bodies stick around for about 5 seconds so I hope your right because if not the game would suck a$$ for the flood

Game designers can choose how long rot time lasts. If they put the Flood in, they won't leave rot time at 2 seconds like it was in the demo.

JohnDoeNo578:

It appears to me after I have read your idea that the flood faction is impossiable to defeat. Because you said that it can simply rebuild itself in another location. Is their something that I missed that makes them capable of losing?

The thing of it is, rebuilding takes a long time, and during this time, all of that player's units are controlled by a very simple AI, meaning easy pickings for the enemy. And if the enemy happens upon the rebuild location and kills it before it has finished, game over. Further, there will likely be a limit to how many times a central intelligence can be fractured and then rebuilt due to mental continuity issues dying might cause.

Jeteye1:

thunder pants:

Question.....how do the flood keep their hosts alive? surely they don’t merely fester until they fall apart; otherwise their hosts would only be useful for a while. Honestly where do they get their energy from? Do they simply cannibalize the host’s body? Not very good.

Also I heard it said that their flesh decays (spelled right?) so that suggests that bacteria are breaking the body down and will eventually render it useless.

Can anybody answer???

Since the host is dead, one would reasonably deduce that bacteria would break it down. However as the Infection Form mutates that body, these bacteria are killed and the body is turned into a chunk of preserved but fragile "meat". Over time, this form will break down due to the tear and where of moving around and fighting. Since the Flood Combat Forms are not truly alive, their muscles cannot repair from damage like humans can, making each time one fights, it becomes weaker and weaker until the limbs and torso disintegrate. Hopefully this has answered your question.

 

zaki90:

anyone got a bestuirium to check the carrier thing. see if it's cannon

Yes it is cannon

" Every Flood oubreak goes through several distinct stages :feral, coordinated, and intersteller. During feral stage the flood has only ever used 4 formes, Infection Form, Combat form, the CARRIER FORM, and the [proto-gravemind]. once the flood... ect ect"

"I have an idea but what if when a pelican was landed and u took control of it and the squads inside ucould use it and as a mobile proto-gravemind but for bio-mass and the ability for it to produce infection forms u have to crash it plus if ur primary intelligence dies it can be turned into one for a price of course what ya think?

note to turn into a primary intelligence it has to of crashed"

That could be used actually like if you saw a covenant dropship or a pelican dropping off marines you could click on a squad of infection forms and select the option "infect dropship" using this to infect and crash into the ground or into the enemy base for a surprise attack.  It could also be used to crash into remote locations to set up an outpost or secondary base where the primary inteligence could develop into a full but premature state.  Also if you infect a dropship, when you land you should get like 4-5 squads of infection forms plus 1 team of combat forms (to compensate for the pilots and the gunner).  That could make the surprise attacks more effective.  Nice idea btw. 

Actualy that seams like a good idea but the "pilot" photgraveminds are ment to spread spore and drop off troops.

When a pelican is infected a "pilot" photgravemind seeds itself in the cockpit after a certain amount of time. Then the pelican can land and take off as it will like normal. The infected pelican can now become 1 of 2 things. 1. The whole interior of the pelican will fill with spore and become an airtight incubation chamber to house and grow infection forms and become a a flying bomb that will be able to crash in an area and spew out its infectios cargo. 2. it can become a transport were units will be able to get in and out except the pelican while under enemy fire or in enemy troops vicinity will crash instead of taking the time to land and unload.

The spore infected pelicans will act as a platform to help spore expand and combined with combat forms it can become a tier 0 inteligence(cant evolve until primary intel is dead).

Lets leave pelican weapon systems a variable i doubt the flood would use them when they can just land and infect there enemies.

To avoid unnecessary confusion, I’ll only respond to the things relating to me. My stuff is in italics.

Comment: “Perhaps only a few of them were infected, and he shot everyone.”

Response: Makes sense. That’s probably what happened. During “zombie” attacks, people tend to go insane from the incessant moaning and kill themselves and/or others. (Note: Read “The Zombie Survival Guide.”) While it doesn’t actually pertain the Flood, the in-depth detail it goes into and the similarities make it a very good read for ideas and “answers”.

C: “We have no solid evidence either way. However, there would be no reason for the Forerunner to store Flood on a gas mine with poor security verse an Installation that was right next door with top line security.”

R: “In the meantime, the Heretics on the Gas Mine discovered that the facility was refit into a Flood Research Facility when they accidentally released the Flood upon themselves. They began a battle throughout the entire mine to contain and destroy the Flood.”

Quote from Halopedia.

C: We aren't saying that Installation 04 exploded and then the Flood got thrown onto the gas mine, we're saying that the Flood got into space once, as per Halo Graphic Novel, certainly they could have done it again, but instead of a ship, they landed on the gas mine in hopes of finding an easier target.

R: Okay but my above quote proves that wrong.

C: Most Flood Forms can reach hard to reach spots anyway.

R: Oh, you misunderstood. I mean places that are heavily defended on all sides. The Flood would crash the ship in the middle and spread out in a radii.

Jeteye1:

R: “In the meantime, the Heretics on the Gas Mine discovered that the facility was refit into a Flood Research Facility when they accidentally released the Flood upon themselves. They began a battle throughout the entire mine to contain and destroy the Flood.”

Rasq'uire'laskar:

Jeteye1:

R: “In the meantime, the Heretics on the Gas Mine discovered that the facility was refit into a Flood Research Facility when they accidentally released the Flood upon themselves. They began a battle throughout the entire mine to contain and destroy the Flood.”

I checked that page, and I'll need a backup source before I believe that. It just seems like lax security on the Forerunners part. However, the Heretics were a part of an artifact recovery team who were stranded when Halo was destroyed. Ergo, it's possible that the Flood might have come down in a supply run.

Boy you two are as stubborn as mules. You can see the whole study system while playing the level "The Arbiter". On the long elevator ride, all the crates contain infection forms and are sealed tight. The Threshold Gas Mine was converted by the Forerunners to act as a Flood Research Facility.

However, after the Flood was discovered, the Forerunner retrofitted several areas of the gas mine into laboratories to study Flood specimens. 343 Guilty Spark, the future Monitor of Installation 04, personally oversaw some of these modifications. A few hundred years passed, however, with no successful defense against the Flood. Thus, the Forerunners constructed the Halo Rings.

Now will you believe me?