New features
Dedicated campaign lobbies and campaign Forge canvases
Dedicated hosts can run campaign co-op with a campaign setup in their server configuration. Choose the mission, difficulty, and insertion point; players join from the Server Browser or by address. Co-op supports up to 16 players and the server advances missions automatically.
Host Game → Maps also lists each playable area of installed Halo 3 campaign missions as a separate Campaign Canvas. These preserve terrain and lighting while removing stock objects, AI, campaign scripts, and cinematics. Choose Forge, add spawn points and objects, save the map, then host it with a multiplayer game type. Every peer rebuilds the canvas from their own installed campaign files.
See and equip your unlocked cosmetics
Customize → Armor → Helmet fire shows normal and blue fire, with colors you haven't unlocked marked Locked. Pick an unlocked color or Off; your choice is saved. Helmet fire is now off until you pick a color, so a profile that had it on shows no fire until then. All current armor stays free to wear.
Game hosts check unlocks with the stats service. A choice you haven't unlocked is shown to everyone else as that slot's default, and nobody is removed from a game for their customization. When the stats service can't be reached, everything is unlocked.
Your selected fire also appears on the character in player details and stays on surviving ragdolls after death and respawn. Grants come from the stats service instead of a developer list, and refresh during play.
Lower your weapon with one key
Settings → Keyboard & Mouse and Settings → Controller have a new Lower weapon binding (under Combat) that does Halo 3's lower-weapon button combo in one press. Press it to lower your weapon and again to raise it; firing, melee or throwing a grenade also raises it. Other players see your Spartan or Elite carry the weapon lowered. It starts unbound: choose a key or button, then Apply changes.
Proximity voice and text chat
Press U to type to nearby players, or hold N to talk to them. Both reach living players on either team within about 30 metres. Nearby lines show [NEARBY] before the sender, and nearby voices fade with distance until they go silent at the edge of that range. While typing, Tab now cycles GLOBAL, TEAM and NEARBY. Proximity chat works only during a game, not in the lobby, while loading or while you are dead, and it never falls back to global chat. With Team voice only on, N reaches only nearby teammates.
Settings → Communication has new Global voice volume, Team voice volume and Proximity voice volume sliders, so each channel can be louder, quieter or muted on its own. Friendly players' name tags show a speaker icon while they talk on any channel you can hear.
Change the keys under Settings → Keyboard & Mouse; Proximity push to talk can also be bound under Settings → Controller.
Changes
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Tougher UNSC vs Covenant classes. ODSTs have 150% durability, Grunts and Jackals 200%, Brute Minors and Captains 250%, and every Spartan, Elite and Chieftain 300%; Marines stay at 100%. Elite Majors and Chieftains have double shields.
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Expand UNSC vs Covenant deployment rosters. Choose from 14 UNSC and 13 Covenant classes with new Scouts, Snipers, ODST and Spartan specialists, Elite ranks, Brute Captains and War Chieftains. Costs and deployment limits follow the expanded lineup. Elite Spec Ops Dualists deploy with a plasma rifle in each hand; ODST Recon carries a silenced SMG and Automag.
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Forge menu on X, faster monitor speeds and a steadier camera. In monitor mode, X now opens the Forge menu's Objects tab (it was 1); 2 still opens Properties. R switches between the map's and your view's rotation axes. F cycles eight speeds: after ×4 come ×8 and ×16.
A newly placed object stays centered under the crosshair, and moving the mouse or look stick orbits the view around it. Letting go of the movement keys brings the monitor to a quick, smooth stop instead of letting it drift. Selected objects no longer get a yellow box that hid vehicles and scenery; the object under the selector shows a white outline instead.
Saved custom bindings keep their choices; resetting controls restores the new defaults.
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Campaign saves from older versions may not continue. Dedicated co-op changed how campaign checkpoints are laid out, so a checkpoint saved by an earlier version may no longer appear under CONTINUE. Finished missions and difficulty progress are kept; choose the mission again to replay it.
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Everyone in a game needs 0.9.11. Servers admit only players on exactly their own version, so players and servers on 0.9.11 can't play with those on 0.9.10 or older. The server browser's Version column shows a server on another version in red. Update dedicated servers and players together.
Bug fixes
- Fix Brute hammer attacks and Hunter melee. Brutes can now attack with the gravity hammer, and Hunters in custom class rosters can damage enemies with their melee attack.
- Show class selection while joining deployment game modes. Fixed a case where UNSC vs Covenant could leave a joining player waiting to spawn without showing the class-selection screen, even after the server sent their class choices.
- Show class selection after the respawn countdown. Class selection now opens after the server's respawn countdown finishes. Class purchases are also held until the countdown ends.
- Transport Warthog and Scorpion passenger seats. Players can now enter the transport Warthog's three rear seats and the Scorpion's four side passenger seats in multiplayer and campaign, with both the campaign characters and customized Spartans and Elites.
- Start games on Workshop maps with uppercase filenames. Fixed maps such as Death Island leaving START GAME disabled because their filenames contain uppercase letters. The same fix applies when loading them in Forge.
Install
The game client requires Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Halo 3 installed; no game files are included.
Double-click project-reclaimer-v0.9.11.exe to start the game. It finds Halo 3 in any Steam library and opens without a console window; its log is Documents\My Games\Project Reclaimer\Logs\client.log.
For remote server administration, double-click reclaimer-rcon-v0.9.11.exe, enter the host, RCON port and password, and connect. The RCON client needs no game installation. See the attached RCON.md for setup and commands.