Halo ODST Wall Markings

[Seething Demon]

Hey,

In Halo3:ODST there are marks on the in game environment that are 3 symbols split by 3small lines converging on a central point. Does anyone have any idea what they mean if anything at all? Fair enough that they may be decorations but are they something more?

 

[ZeroMachine]

Think you could get a screenshot of it for us? If I see it and it means anything in the Haloverse, I should be able to figure it out.

 

[SniperWolf427]

I always used them as simply a guide to the next piece of evidence.

I did, however, come to the conclusion that it's probably Virgil helping you out.

 

[SharPhoe]

My friend thought they were actually being made by the Covenant, particularly the dead Elites around the city.

 

[(whitty name here)]

I see alot of them, mostly inside buildings but I don't know if its related to the audio logs.

While we're on odst: I've been really looking for audio logs after I beat he game and waht I want to know is, when Sadie talks to vergil, is it the engineer pretending to be an AI program, or is it actually an AI program(I've only gotten about 15 audio logs so if it explains further, I don't know)?

 

[Gxas]

I see alot of them, mostly inside buildings but I don't know if its related to the audio logs.

While we're on odst: I've been really looking for audio logs after I beat he game and waht I want to know is, when Sadie talks to vergil, is it the engineer pretending to be an AI program, or is it actually an AI program(I've only gotten about 15 audio logs so if it explains further, I don't know)?

No, the AI is AI until the end of the game. Then, the engineer "absorbs", if you will, the AI.

 

[TheNumber1Zero]

They are there to distarct you with thoughts of curiousity while the enemy comes from behind and blows your head off.

Maybe...

 

[Vrex360]

I imagine the people of New Mombassa thought the world was coming to an end and in the madness started writing messages like this all over the walls.
Though I like the theory that the elites wrote it, not sure where they learned to write english but still....

Also OP, Welcome to the Escapist.

 

[Chester41585]

I imagine the people of New Mombassa thought the world was coming to an end and in the madness started writing messages like this all over the walls.
Though I like the theory that the elites wrote it, not sure where they learned to write english but still....

Also OP, Welcome to the Escapist.

I think he's talking about the strange glowing glyphs in the hallways.

If I remember right, they're like sign posts or unit markers, or something like those house markings FEMA used after Katrina to mark previously searched houses. The idea is to say that a certain unit was at the location at a particular time and found "x". Like a visual S.A.L.U.T.E.

 

[Sassafrass]

Well, I've heard that they were put in as references to Reach. I may be wrong though.

 

[Jerich0]

well i'd say it's definitely left behind by either the engineer that abosorbs vergil, or somehow by vergil himself. they are often in tandem with pictures of the superintendent, and yes, they are arrows. they show you objects of interest, such as dead elites with a beam rifle, or a shortcut through a building.

the reason i say they might be left behind by the engineers is that there was one instance i remember where i followed the arrows to a couple of them unattended. in the same room, there were more arrow markings and a picture of the little face that seems to be the superintendent's 'avatar,' if you will, so i'm not really sure what to think.

they're definitely left behind to help you, i just don't know by whom: the huragok, or the superintendent AI.

 

[(whitty name here)]

I see alot of them, mostly inside buildings but I don't know if its related to the audio logs.

While we're on odst: I've been really looking for audio logs after I beat he game and waht I want to know is, when Sadie talks to vergil, is it the engineer pretending to be an AI program, or is it actually an AI program(I've only gotten about 15 audio logs so if it explains further, I don't know)?

No, the AI is AI until the end of the game. Then, the engineer "absorbs", if you will, the AI.

So...they're both named vergil or they just call the engineer vergil becasue it copied the AI. But Dare knew the Engineer was there and I thought she named it vergil. And the Password to get the VISR is vergil.THE FUCK, BUNGIE

 

[Jonci]

By the time your squad drops to the planet, the Engineer had already absorbed the AI. It's likely that information was given to the Captain before the mission started and she was going to retrieve it. The Engineer is named Vergil just because it didn't just absorb the AI, it merged with it. It became Vergil.

 

[Gxas]

I see alot of them, mostly inside buildings but I don't know if its related to the audio logs.

While we're on odst: I've been really looking for audio logs after I beat he game and waht I want to know is, when Sadie talks to vergil, is it the engineer pretending to be an AI program, or is it actually an AI program(I've only gotten about 15 audio logs so if it explains further, I don't know)?

No, the AI is AI until the end of the game. Then, the engineer "absorbs", if you will, the AI.

So...they're both named vergil or they just call the engineer vergil becasue it copied the AI. But Dare knew the Engineer was there and I thought she named it vergil. And the Password to get the VISR is vergil.THE FUCK, BUNGIE

The engineer was called Virgil because he had absorbed the AI. They would have killed it had it not contained the AI. Dare only knew the engineer was there because it made a noise. As an ONI spook, she already knew much about the engineers and what they were capable of. There's no plothole, you just have to have read the books.

 

[(whitty name here)]

I see alot of them, mostly inside buildings but I don't know if its related to the audio logs.

While we're on odst: I've been really looking for audio logs after I beat he game and waht I want to know is, when Sadie talks to vergil, is it the engineer pretending to be an AI program, or is it actually an AI program(I've only gotten about 15 audio logs so if it explains further, I don't know)?

No, the AI is AI until the end of the game. Then, the engineer "absorbs", if you will, the AI.

So...they're both named vergil or they just call the engineer vergil becasue it copied the AI. But Dare knew the Engineer was there and I thought she named it vergil. And the Password to get the VISR is vergil.THE FUCK, BUNGIE

The engineer was called Virgil because he had absorbed the AI. They would have killed it had it not contained the AI. Dare only knew the engineer was there because it made a noise. As an ONI spook, she already knew much about the engineers and what they were capable of. There's no plothole, you just have to have read the books.

I've read the fall of reach, the flood, and first strike and they only reason they killed the engineer in those was because the ODST was an asshole in it;his actions were justified, but the positives for keeping it were greater than the negatives,which makes the game make more sense now. Thank you.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Think you could get a screenshot of it for us? If I see it and it means anything in the Haloverse, I should be able to figure it out.

I think he's talking about those "Y" shaped glyphs (some right-side up, some upside-down) you see in VISR mode on walls and floors/pavement. Sometimes they have 3 Forerunner (?) circle glyphs in between arms of the "Y".

As far as I know there's no canonical source given; my guess (and others have guessed similarly) is that it's Engineers marking up the city during their survey... though the numerous empty "Y" marks over dead Elites may imply they have religious significance.

(Note that some are painted inside the supply caches you can unlock, which are only accessable when the Superintendant opens them up... which may mean that Virgil or his compatriates havd a tentacle/hand in this.)

-- Steve

 

[Hitman 43]

I only ever played FireFight at a friend's.

 

[demonblack]

The 'Y' markings are done by the engineers.
"with various types of glyphs similar to Forerunner symbols around them. The symbols are likely related to the Huragoks' Forerunner origin." - http://halo.wikia.com/

 

[Kermi]

I see alot of them, mostly inside buildings but I don't know if its related to the audio logs.

While we're on odst: I've been really looking for audio logs after I beat he game and waht I want to know is, when Sadie talks to vergil, is it the engineer pretending to be an AI program, or is it actually an AI program(I've only gotten about 15 audio logs so if it explains further, I don't know)?

I imagine since Sadie was fleeing the city at the beginning of the occupation, it was the real superintendent program that was helping her - as Sadie herself explains, Vergil was a subroutine he wrote into the SI mainframe to protect her, because she'd lost her mother and he was always working.

In some of the later audiologs, Vergil goes silent - I imagine this is after the engineer has absorbed the SI.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

I see alot of them, mostly inside buildings but I don't know if its related to the audio logs.

While we're on odst: I've been really looking for audio logs after I beat he game and waht I want to know is, when Sadie talks to vergil, is it the engineer pretending to be an AI program, or is it actually an AI program(I've only gotten about 15 audio logs so if it explains further, I don't know)?

I imagine since Sadie was fleeing the city at the beginning of the occupation, it was the real superintendent program that was helping her - as Sadie herself explains, Vergil was a subroutine he wrote into the SI mainframe to protect her, because she'd lost her mother and he was always working.

In some of the later audiologs, Vergil goes silent - I imagine this is after the engineer has absorbed the SI.

Ordinarily I'd use spoiler tags for this, but anybody reading this far will have already been spoiled for this...

Vergil goes silent for a while because Police Chief Kinsler orders the Superintendant shut down. He didn't want Sadie to have access to the Vergil routine... in part because he didn't want any witnesses recording evidence of his monstrous crimes, and in part because he wanted to get into Sadie's pants and Vergil was Sadie's most effective weapon for stopping him.

Vergil comes back online after Sadie and Mike "force" that female police officer to recind Kinsler's order with that fake hold-up. (It happens in the police HQ on the 14th floor, after the massacre at the elevator lobby and after Mike finds the guy broadcasting fake propaganda.) However, the Superintendant hardware was damaged by then (cause unknown, maybe the sudden shut down? or Covenant trying to dig out the Engineer?) and the Engineer we eventually call Vergil joined/repaired the network.

-- Steve

PS: I came upon a canonical hint about those glyphs; Bungie's story guy (and voice of the Grunt) Joe Staten mentioned that the "Y" shape is a reference to Forerunner ships. Think of what the Forerunner dreadnought in Halo 2 and 3 looked like from a distance...