[Maxwell]

you don't understand right, according to the storyline the Covenant are 300 years more advanced.

The Covenant are not one race, but multiple races from multiple worlds. The two lead races got into a spat then were bonded together partially by religion, also by ones need for reverse engineered forerunner tech and the others need for strong men. Several of the lesser races were found along the way and clearly bullied into the deal.
There are few timestamps in the covenant storyline, but theres more than enough evidence to suggest that these guys have not developed in a linear way.


Edit: Now that I've pondered it a bit.
Story wise the covenant should be behind on tech and mental development.

The halo network, when activated (if it ever was), would have destroyed all sentient life.
Means everyone started who was "thinking"  could only have started 100k years before stories start.

If humans are descendants or allies of the forerunner, their evolution could go back lord only knows how long.  Where the covenant would all be new kids on the block... but ones who happened to stumble on better tech sources.

[Roanoke]

There's no way you can run at an elite on legendary, spraying Assualt Rifle fire and expect to kill them with a melee blow. Even a low level Blue Elite wouldn't stand for that.


I'm lost without the pistol 

[Kaboodles]

Huh.

I was all about the plasma pistol on Legendary runs.  Stuns elites and knocks out their shields!

Of course, this was less effective on the sequel, but still worked for me.

[Roanoke]

Huh.

I was all about the plasma pistol on Legendary runs.  Stuns elites and knocks out their shields!

Of course, this was less effective on the sequel, but still worked for me.

yeah, plus it had a much better rate of fire than the plasma rifle.

[bloated]

There's no way you can run at an elite on legendary, spraying Assualt Rifle fire and expect to kill them with a melee blow. Even a low level Blue Elite wouldn't stand for that.

I did it at least a hundred times and I loved it every time.

"flawless victory", most of the time you could see the elite trying to rise up to fire as I closed in then finnished with the "whack" and he was done, on occasion a 2nd crack on the head was required but not usually.

See, there's this thing called game balance.  It would really kinda suck to play a game which was impossible to win.

the problem being Halo wasn't hard to beat.

the game was easy to beat in general because the AI wasn't the greatest simply getting distance led to easy slaughters of covenant in all situations.

game balance and decent AI are 2 different things.

I agree though the MA5B sliced through flood heads like crazy and I loved every moment of it..... using the MA5B against the flood was just more fun.

[Turnsky]

There's no way you can run at an elite on legendary, spraying Assualt Rifle fire and expect to kill them with a melee blow. Even a low level Blue Elite wouldn't stand for that.

I did it at least a hundred times and I loved it every time.

"flawless victory", most of the time you could see the elite trying to rise up to fire as I closed in then finnished with the "whack" and he was done, on occasion a 2nd crack on the head was required but not usually.

See, there's this thing called game balance.  It would really kinda suck to play a game which was impossible to win.

the problem being Halo wasn't hard to beat.

the game was easy to beat in general because the AI wasn't the greatest and because getting distance led to easy slaughters of covenant in all situations.

game balance and decent AI are 2 different things.

I agree though the MA5B sliced through flood heads like crazy and I lvoed every moment of it..... on the whole I enjoyed using the MA5B against the flood the most it was just more fun.

halo's last level was winnable for one reason: roadkill.

[bloated]

The halo network, when activated (if it ever was), would have destroyed all sentient life.
Means everyone started who was "thinking"  could only have started 100k years before stories start.

If humans are descendants or allies of the forerunner, their evolution could go back lord only knows how long.  Where the covenant would all be new kids on the block... but ones who happened to stumble on better tech sources.

your forgetting that 800 year gap in mankinds evolution we lovingly refer to as "the dark ages"...... remember the crusades, the inquisitions, the centuries where the Church withheld all knowledge from mankind and discouraged anything that they deemed went against the teachings of the bible.....

any race moving along the same timeframe immediately was granted an advantage.

that said yeah according to the storyline the Covenant are a compilation of species and have stumbled across tech along with developing their own and if their religion embraced tech as a means of getting closer to their gods then they benefited far more than we over the ages which would assuredly give the Covenant a 300 year lead.

also the storyline has shown that the Covenant socially are as evolved equal to the humans in regards to the prophets, the Elites and likely the Brutes while the grunts may be simpler the games hinted they aren't quite as stupid as they come off as while hunters are likely more animal than intelligent.

but yet again the books lacked any particular inspiration to go further than being superficial in regards to the game and it took Halo 2 to reveal a more in depth look at Covenant culture....... have I mentioned enough how stupid the books really were.

[Roanoke]

I've always figured the Covenant stumbled across a kind of  "tech stash" that had been intended for Humans ( as the forerunners decendents). I have nothing to back this up, just my own assumptions.

[bloated]

one of the races not shown in the games but mentioned in the books is a worker class that is incredibly keen at assembly and dissasembly for the purpose of creation and application.

they hover around with tentacles and basically build and figure out how to build better and that's all they do..... they do have distinct personalities but their only genuine concern is making things better.

the idea that the covenant simply stumbled across a tech stash would be nicely convenient but would diminish the games series entirely, really cheapen it.

whats likely is that whatever planet the Covenant started from likely had some "pyramids" and they interpreted the writings to suit.... as for the tech it's possible but doubtful, the whole instructions how to use, and build more arguement really goese against the possibility as would the evident advanced tech demonstrated by Covenant cruisers which don't resemble forerunner tech at all.

[Maxwell]

any race moving along the same timeframe immediately was granted an advantage.

The covenant seem just as unbalanced as us when it comes to religion and affairs of state.  I think they would have suffered enumerable setbacks, just as we have. 
All I take issue with is the idea that tech comes in preset stages. While they have better ships than us and nifty weapons, theres no assurance they understand whats going on in those systems any more than humanity at this point.
They don't even secure their network traffic from an enemy who regularly uses electronic warfare tactics.
That doesn't strike you as a tad odd for someone thats been going at this for so much longer? 

What I suspect is this prophet race (with forerunner bits) posed themselves as a messiah to the big blue fanatics and together both races went about dominating all the surrounding star systems.
They've now got plenty of followers and found even greater things of mystery they cant even comprehend... 
...but then come the humans who can turn all the widgets in these halos and artifacts on.  The humans seem to have a native grasp for the tech (Cortana dances through halo's computer like its nothing) and can at times even turn the covenants own stuff against them (AI's don't seem to have much trouble ripping information from covenant networks, I can only assume they'd be able to shut them down or cause other forms of havoc).
Left alone, humanity would reclaim its old role as galactic power in a very short time.

That would be bad for the prophets. Who are now trying to eradicate us reclaimers/usurpers at the same time getting rid of the elites (who are losing faith) and looking to prove themselves by making something, anything, happen with regards to a forerunner artifact.
Thats my going theory anyway...

[bloated]

They don't even secure their network traffic from an enemy who regularly uses electronic warfare tactics.
That doesn't strike you as a tad odd for someone thats been going at this for so much longer? 

live and learn, first time for everything.

how long did it take for humans to decipher their language were others offered the time and opportunity.... doubtful?

if their is one thing the Covenant have demonstrated it's loyalty and focus and not opportunism..... humans chase the mighty buck anyway they can and at the expense of all others, Covenant strive to save themselves from a doomed existence, right or wrong purity of purpose and while they may compete the end goal is the same.

the reality that they began to guard against intrusions indicates they do know their technology and they know how to adapt it to suit..... this is a concept overlooked by the book series as it try's to hang onto the idea that the Covenant are too stupid to change all the while the author demonstrates that they can and do all the time....... it's one of many reasons why the Halo books suck so badly.

The covenant seem just as unbalanced as us when it comes to religion and affairs of state.

irrelavent, what would matter in affairs of state is stability which the Covenant have shown with the prophet caste in charge throughout and if the prophets were in control throughout then they would have a huge advantage over mankind born from a society of broken nations all striving to keep their own secrets from anyone else in a race for dominance that was likely achieved in Covenant society far earlier.

What I suspect is this prophet race (with forerunner bits) posed themselves as a messiah to the big blue fanatics and together both races went about dominating all the surrounding star systems.

in order to meet a new species they would have to travel space meaning they had to build, meaning they had to be intelligent, meaning they not only had to create but had to apply and innovate.... additionally it's not all about the Elites as demonstrated by the inclusion of the Brutes..... even if the prophets stumbled across forerunner technology one still has to learn how to use it and apply it to practical purposes.

the Covenant has their own distinct technology differing entirely from forerunner tech from weapons to ships and add to that their extensive knowledge of forerunner tech.

mankind had the "dark ages" stifling 800 years of advancement for the sake of control.... additionally mankind evolved in a society where it was all about the individual, the individual nation, the individual leader in the Halo storyline it wasn't until the Covenant showed that it became a fight for survival of the species......  and while makind screwed the pooch for 800 years along with another 1000 of self indulgence they did advance only slower..... to the tune of being 300 years behind the covenant..... like it or not that is where Halo begins with mankind 300 years behind.... and it would explain why mankind can't sort out Covenant tech considering I doubt any scientist from the 1700's could figure out how to program a computer let alone build for example an E6600 conroe processor.

[aldo_14]

Surely it only indicates the Covenant have found more Forerunner tech........

[bloated]

Surely it only indicates the Covenant have found more Forerunner tech.

you'll have to let me know how that matters.

[Maxwell]

what would matter in affairs of state is stability which the Covenant have shown

...or lack there of.
Even at the peak of the prophets control there is distention in the ranks. Now that the elites have been expelled from the covenant and a prophets been assassinated, all hells broken loose.
This is not the behavior of a people who've mastered the art of diplomacy, more like power hungry fanatics.

while makind screwed the pooch for 800 years along with another 1000 of self indulgence they did advance only slower..... to the tune of being 300 years behind the covenant.

Thats a tad unfair...

With  no timestamp and lacking the full background, We don't know how long each race mulled about on its own homeworld or what got them to travel space at first.  We don't even know if our experiences with the dark ages were unique, or meaningful to the time scale.
Some of the speculation is suggesting halo is on the order of 100,000 years old. Plenty of time for each race involved to rise and fall multiple times.  It only takes us ~5,000 years to dig out from the ashes of whatever put us here the last time.

If the use of artificial intelligence or building your own stardrive from scratch is not the mark of an impressively advanced species, I'd say being able to pump blue crap out of a pistol isn't much of a trick either.

[aldo_14]

Surely it only indicates the Covenant have found more Forerunner tech.

you'll have to let me know how that matters.

If I give you a 1p, and I give, say, Dave a 1p, 2p and 5p piece, who learns more about currency?

[bloated]

or lack there of.
Even at the peak of the prophets control there is distention in the ranks. Now that the elites have been expelled from the covenant and a prophets been assassinated, all hells broken loose.
This is not the behavior of a people who've mastered the art of diplomacy, more like power hungry fanatics.

agree to disagree Elites competing with brutes..... that's not dissention although their was mention of a minor rebellion brewing and both up until the very end of Halo 2 were equally dedicated and zealous with the Elites being the royal guard until the prophet was assasinated... the first time it ever happened apparently and it was the Brutes that started the war not the Elites so if the Elites were the chosen for so long their must have been stability all of that time given no other Prophets have ever died.

If the use of artificial intelligence or building your own stardrive from scratch is not the mark of an impressively advanced species, I'd say being able to pump blue crap out of a pistol isn't much of a trick either.

sigh..... have you even read the books?  even remotely know anything outside the games?

Covenant ships are superior to human ships in every way, speed weapons, shields, maneuverability they usually slaughter human warships on a scale of 3 for every 1 of theirs and they generally only lose theirs not because of anything the Humans do but because the authors decided that the Covenant would refuse to maneuver when terrans fire a MAC round at them.... on a scale comparable to 1 minute between the round's firing unguided to actually reaching the Covenant ship, while Covenant ships can guide a plasma stream and even turn it around in the event of a miss to re-acquire a target and destroy it......... and without MAC weapons as admitted by the Authors the Humans would be dead.  MAC (mass acceleration cannon=they throw a big nickel/iron ball at the Covenant)... very sophisticated.

Covenant ships can track any ship through slipstream they can also jump ahead of a ship in slipstream so quickly that they can summon other ships to meet them on the other side of the jump.

additionally Covenant are so adept with their technology that upon first encountering a Human AI and also having for the first time had their network hacked they have since learned how to outwit the terran AI Cortana, they've developed their own AI and they have changed all of their protocols in an attempt to avoid being hacked again..... doese this sound like an inferior race that is only capable of throwing blue blobs from a gun?  additionally it's one of the many contradictions of the book series that the authors allow logic and initiative only when it suits the storyline and then throw it away the moment they need the Covenant to be incompetent.

p.s. given all of the above in addition to the "blue gun" comment whether you believe it or not the Covenant are as dictated by the game and book series 300 years minimum.... more advanced than mankind.

300 years minimum.

[Deepblue]

Wow. This seems like it belongs on HBO...

Anyway, the books seem to indicate that while the Covenant have quite advanced technology, it is mostly due to stumbling upon Forerunner tech. Hence why a forerunner ship powers, or used to power, their holy city.

[bloated]

Anyway, the books seem to indicate that while the Covenant have quite advanced technology, it is mostly due to stumbling upon Forerunner tech. Hence why a forerunner ship powers, or used to power, their holy city.

c'mon man.... jesus.

they've been searching for forerunner tech for as long as the books can mention they've based their religion on forerunner tech but their holy city was a forerunner facility they moved to and it has nothing to do with their technology other than they are sitting on it.

[Deepblue]

Quote from Ghosts of Onyx (paraphrased):

"The Covenant doesn't innovate, they imitate."

Hence my above assumption.

[Turnsky]

i'm am totally amazed...



amazed that ONE little teaser would cause all those conjecture!