v0.8.15

New features

Advanced graphics and split-screen detail

Settings → Advanced graphics sets how much detail the game draws. Shadows, Dynamic lights, Effects, Draw distance, Level of detail, Decals and Water each go from Low (or Off) to High or Ultra, and a Preset sets them all at once. High is what the game drew before; Ultra lets every object cast a shadow and keeps effects and detailed models much further away. Texture filtering sharpens floors and walls seen at an angle with up to 16× anisotropic filtering, and Antialiasing and Motion blur can now be turned off.

Split screen has a section of its own, because Halo 3 draws split screen with less detail: no shadows or decals, simpler water and fewer lights, lower again with three or four players. Auto keeps that. Choose any other level to give every player on the screen the same detail one player gets at that level. Changes apply as soon as you apply them, also during a game.

Forge maps hold more objects once their own are deleted

Deleting or freezing one of a map's own objects now frees its slot. Once every other slot is taken, a new object of the same kind (a weapon for a weapon, scenery for scenery, a crate or block for a crate) takes it, and the map's object stays deleted when the map is saved, reloaded and played. The Forge HUD and the Map tab count these slots in what the map can hold. ElDewrito maps that had too many objects for their base map now convert too: 858 of a collection of 1,025 do, up from 817. Players need this version or later to play a map that uses these slots.

Change a map's sky in Forge

The Forge menu's Map tab has a Sky row: put any installed multiplayer map's sky over the map you edit, Valhalla's over Guardian or Sandtrap's over Foundry. The host chooses for everyone and the change shows at once. The map saves the sky, and games on it show it too. The map keeps its own light and fog. Players need this version or later to play a map saved with another map's sky.

Changes

• Forge shows its object limits instead of the budget. While you edit, the bottom-right of the HUD shows the two limits that matter where the budget meter was: DYNAMIC OBJECTS, placed objects against how many the map can hold, and STATIC OBJECTS, frozen objects against the 5,000 it can keep. The Forge menu's Map tab shows the same two. The budget is gone from the HUD and the menu, along with the price on each object and the spent column: no map comes near it.

Bug fixes

• Automatic port forwarding finds the router again. Hosting Online could say Manual setup may be needed even with UPnP on in the router. After another program on the PC had looked for devices on the network through Windows, such as the Network folder or a media or casting app, the game's search for the router stayed on the PC for minutes and never reached the router. The game now searches over the connection that reaches the internet, so the router opens the game's ports again. Dedicated servers with upnp = true forward their ports again too.

Install

The game client requires Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Halo 3 installed; no game files are included.

Double-click project-reclaimer-v0.8.15.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-v0.8.15.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.

v0.8.14

New features

Build objective modes with world objects, teams, traits and HUD meters

Custom mode scripts can now control named world objects, query objective zones, change live player traits and teams, display personal HUD counters and meters, and end rounds. Shared/player/team/object state, simulation timers, conditional blocks, bounded iteration and reusable functions support more complex rules. Existing custom modes keep working.

The optional ReachVariantTool source path adds typed references, integer and timer semantics, aliases, enums and reusable functions. mode-compile turns supported source into a playable preset and reports unavailable Halo 3 engine operations before hosting. This is partial source support, not full Megalo or compiled Reach/Halo 4 variant compatibility.

Source scripts can enumerate live objects, create weapons and map templates, retain object references and labels, attach and detach objects, copy rotation, set velocity, hide objects, control damage protection and automatic cleanup, and query vitality, carriers and distance. Object overrides reach joining clients through bounded snapshots. A standalone source example demonstrates creation, attachments and timed release.

Choose Host Game → Game type → Slayer → Zone Control to try the included example: hold the zone around the first spawn alone to score. Its distance display helps you find the hill. Tune declared script options under Game options → Slayer rules → Custom mode options and save your own variant.

See each server's map and game variants and who is playing in the server browser

The server browser's Map and Game type columns and each server's card now name the map variant and game variant a server is playing, such as Guardian Towers and Team Snipers, instead of the base map and game type. A game on a map as it ships still shows the map's own name.

To see who is on a server, select it: its card lists the players' names, and View players opens the full list, where Join game joins the server. You can also point at a server's player count to see the names, or type a player's name into the search box to find the server they are on.

Servers need this update to send their variants and players. Servers on older versions show the base map and game type and don't list their players.

Play campaign mods, alone or in co-op lobbies

Campaign mods made with MCC's mod tools now show on the Campaign page. Put the mod in your Mods folder (or subscribe to it on Steam's Workshop), and it gets a tab at the top of the page, beside HALO 3: one click swaps between the two. A mod's missions, pictures, starts and your progress through it are its own. PLAY SOLO, CONTINUE and HOST CO-OP work as for Halo 3's campaign, for mods that change Halo 3's missions and for mods with missions of their own.

Players who join a co-op lobby of a campaign mod they don't have get it the same way as a multiplayer mod: from Steam's Workshop, or from the host when Host Settings → Share mod files is on. They download the whole campaign once, so the lobby can go on to the next mission. While players are in your lobby, its MISSION page changes the mission but not the campaign.

Automatic dedicated server updates

Hosts can opt in with auto_update = true in dedicated.toml, or RECLAIMER_DEDICATED_AUTO_UPDATE=true in Docker's .env. Servers check stable releases on startup and hourly, verify downloads and restart automatically to run the new version. Updates interrupt current games. Docker keeps the updated executable across container recreation; MCC files and container images still update separately. Off by default.

ElDewrito maps and game variants convert themselves

Put ElDewrito's Forge maps (sandbox.map) or game variants (variant.slayer, variant.zombiez and so on) in your Maps or Game Modes folder; either one works. When the game starts, or when you click Refresh in Host Game, each becomes a Forge map or a game type of its own name, and the ElDewrito file is deleted so it is converted only once. Maps keep their reforge pieces and objects, with spawn points, flags, bombs, hills, territories and teleporters for the same game types and teams, and their kill and garbage volumes keep working; pieces and scenery that never move are frozen in place, leaving the placements to objects that move. Game types keep their mode, scoring, rounds, respawning, traits and powerups. A file that cannot be converted (its base map is not installed, it needs an ElDewrito mod, or it has more objects that move than its base map has room for) stays, and the game's log says why.

Change the Forge monitor's speed and teleport it

While flying as the monitor, hold Move faster (Shift by default) and turn the mouse wheel to make the monitor faster or slower, from a quarter of its normal speed up to 16 times it; the middle of the screen shows the new speed for a moment. Move faster's own boost still adds to it.

To get somewhere far away, open the Forge menu's Map tab, which now shows where your monitor is: type X, Y and Z and select Teleport (or press Enter). Here fills in where you are now. In a game someone else hosts, the host needs this version too.

Hemispheres, half cylinders and equilateral triangles in Forge

Forge's Primitives gain three shapes: a Hemisphere (a dome on a flat base), a Half Cylinder (lying on its flat side) and an Equilateral Triangle. Like the Block, Cylinder and Triangle, they come in every size from 0.25 to 16 world units and take any of the map's materials and textures.

Every primitive also comes in the sizes of ElDewrito's reforge pieces (0.09, 0.45, 0.9, 1.8, 2.7, 3.6, 4.5, 9 and 18 world units), including oval domes and flattened half cylinders. A size row lists every size a shape comes in; picking one that does not go with the other sizes takes the nearest piece that has it. The first game after updating rebuilds the asset library once.

Modded playlists and automatic Workshop installation

Playlists can include Halo 3 mod maps, selected in the playlist editor or named in JSON without entering the game. Use workshop:<item ID>/<map file stem> to select a particular Workshop package, or an unambiguous installed map name. Connected players prepare each selected map before the countdown; everyone needs this version to rotate maps together.

Modded matches return to the lobby using the retail background scene's caches, and their loading screens use the selected mod map's identity.

Dedicated servers download Workshop IDs from their map selections and playlists before starting. Configure [workshop] items and run dedicated mods to install items and list their map references. Downloads use the local Steam client, or SteamCMD with a cached login on a separate server. Mod packages no longer need to be copied to the server manually. See the dedicated-server guide for setup.

Linux Docker operators can keep Steam's cached session in a separate native SteamCMD service. Sign in directly through SteamCMD; Reclaimer receives only item IDs, status and mod data, with no access to passwords, Guard codes or the login cache. The optional Compose overlay documents installation and login.

Playlist weights and random ballots

Playlist votes now offer three games drawn at random from the whole playlist instead of the next three from the top, and the game just played sits out the next vote. None of the above brings up games that haven't been turned down yet.

Give a game a weight to make it come up more often. In Host Game → Playlists → Edit, select a game and drag Weight (1 to 100, default 1). A game with weight 2 comes up twice as often as one with weight 1. Next to the weight you can see the game's share of the playlist's total weight. In a playlist file, add "weight": 2 to a game's line, for example { "map": "Guardian", "game": "Slayer", "weight": 2 }. If nobody votes, the first offered game starts, so a quiet server plays games in proportion to their weights.

Run the game from RCON: maps, modes, votes and live player stats

RCON can now change what the server plays: map, mode and load end the current game and start the chosen map and mode in the next lobby, and nextmap sets the next game without ending this one (maps and modes list what you can name). servername and password rename the server and set or clear its join password until it restarts. teamcount and shuffle spread players over teams, and startvote, passvote and cancelvote run votes (end round, end game, shuffle, kick, playlist ballot).

players now reports each player's service tag, whether they are alive, their health and shields, and how long ago they last died, and the event stream sends a kill event for every death. The desktop RCON client has Maps, Modes, Next game and Votes views and a Manage menu that prepares these commands.

Game mode scripts can put players in other bodies

A mode's script can spawn a Marine, Grunt, Jackal, Brute, Elite, Hunter or Spartan and hand a player's control over to it with player.set_biped(body), so modes like "everyone is a Grunt" or a Hunter boss round are possible. The characters' files load with the map; stock maps need nothing extra.

Changes

• Joining a co-op mission no longer pauses everyone else. A player joining a campaign mission in progress now waits on their own loading screen while their game catches up; everyone already playing keeps playing, with no pause and no loading screen. If the newcomer's game can't catch up, only they go back to the menu, and the others never notice. The host and every player need this update.
• Co-op players leaving no longer interrupt the game. When a player leaves a campaign mission, everyone else play...

v0.8.13

New features

Join a co-op campaign mission without restarting it

Players can join a campaign co-op game while a mission plays, and everyone carries on where they are: no restart and no return to the last checkpoint. The game pauses for a moment while the newcomer receives the game (usually 1 to 5 seconds, with a loading screen saying who is joining), then the new player spawns next to the others.

During a cutscene, the new player waits on their loading screen until it ends, while everyone else keeps watching.

If a join can't finish, the game falls back to restarting from a checkpoint as before. The host and every player need this update.

See every player's ping on the scoreboard

Hold Tab during a game: the scoreboard's new PING column shows each player's round trip to the host or server in milliseconds. Split-screen players show the same ping as the player whose PC they play on, and a playing host shows 0 ms. A dash means there is no recent reading, for example when the host or server hasn't updated to 0.8.13 yet.

Adjust your in-vehicle field of view

Settings → Graphics → In-vehicle field of view changes how wide you see while riding in a vehicle, independently of your first-person view. Choose 55–120 degrees (default 70) and select Apply changes to use it immediately in gameplay, including split screen.

Choose your visor and armor light colors

Open Customize → Colors → Visor or Armor lights to choose a palette color or enter a custom RGB hex code. Preview colors before equipping them, or select Default to restore the armor's original material. Other players on this version see your choices in game, including in team matches.

VSync

Turn on Settings > Graphics > VSync to stop the picture tearing during fast turns. The game then draws no faster than your display's refresh rate. It is off by default, and applies as soon as you apply your changes.

Changes

• The game's log shows when things happened. Every line of client.log (in Documents\My Games\Project Reclaimer\Logs) now starts with the time, and a map loading screen that stays up notes every 10 seconds what it is still waiting for. Send the log along when you report a problem.
• Player profiles show Halo 3's own medal icons. The Medals tab of a player's profile now shows the original Halo 3 icons for Halo 3's medals, taken from your installed game. Medals that MCC added later keep MCC's icons.
• Chat messages can be three times as long. A chat message can now be up to 360 characters instead of 120. Messages written mostly in Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters, or mostly in emoji, end a little sooner (about 266 characters or 200 emoji). Players on older versions don't see messages longer than 120 characters, and a host or server on an older version cuts them to 120, so the host and the players need this update.

Bug fixes

• Joining a co-op campaign during a cutscene no longer crashes the host. A player joining while a cutscene played (such as the end of Sierra 117) could crash the host when the game restarted for them. Players who join during a cutscene now wait for it to end and then join the running game.
• Hunter melee crash in Forge. Fixed a crash when meleeing a Hunter in the back in Forge.
• Players who leave a server stop counting at once. Fixed a server that went on listing a player in the server browser, and keeping their place, for a while after they had left over the internet. A server now lets a player go as soon as their connection closes.
• Weapon and button icons in prompts are the right size again. Fixed the weapon, mouse and controller icons in pickup and other on-screen prompts drawing too large and spreading the text around them apart.
• Keep scaled characters intact after death. Fixed small characters turning into a bone-like shape in the death camera. Scaled corpses now retain their body proportions in custom game modes and games with a player-size setting.

Install

The game client requires Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Halo 3 installed; no game files are included.

Double-click project-reclaimer-v0.8.13.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-v0.8.13.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.

v0.8.12

New features

Copy and paste in the game's text boxes and chat

Every text box in the menus, the chat line and the Forge search now take Windows' clipboard keys: Ctrl+V (or Shift+Insert) pastes, Ctrl+C (or Ctrl+Insert) copies the selected text and Ctrl+X (or Shift+Delete) cuts it. Pasted line breaks become spaces in one-line boxes.

To copy from the chat, open it (T), drag over the lines you want and press Ctrl+C. Passwords can be pasted but never copied.

End hosted games without losing the lobby

Hosts can choose End Game in the pause menu to return everyone to the lobby together, keeping all players connected.

More Workshop maps, and maps without a .mapinfo

Workshop maps whose authors never gave them a map ID now show up in Host Game and can be hosted, joined, shared and downloaded like any other mod map. That covers seven maps of The Battlefront Pack (Coruscant, Death Star, Kashyyyk, Mos Eisley, Mustafar, Scarif and Utapau) and three of Digsite Halo 3 Maps (Blam Mountain, Pump Haus and Shaft). Everyone in a game needs version 0.8.12 or later to play them.

Mods that ship their own shared.map, as Digsite Halo 3 Maps does, now load it. Before, their maps failed to start.

A multiplayer .map file on its own also works now: put it in its own folder in your Mods folder, with the shared.map it came with if it has one. It is listed under its file name, blam_mountain.map as "Blam Mountain".

Turn mods off and on, and rebuild the asset library

Settings → Mods now has an ON/OFF switch beside every mod. A mod you turn off stays on your PC, but the game leaves it out: its maps leave Host Game and its objects leave Forge. Steam Workshop mods can be turned off too. Joining a server that needs a mod you turned off asks first: ENABLE & JOIN turns it back on and joins.

The same page has a new Asset library section, which says whether Forge's objects match the mods you have turned on. After you turn a mod off or on, install or delete one, it recommends a rebuild: press REBUILD NOW to build the library in the background, with its progress shown beside the button. Otherwise it rebuilds the next time you open Forge or start the game. REBUILD also works when the library is up to date, for example to try a mod whose objects were left out again. Rebuilding is not offered during a lobby or game.

Game mode scripts can award points and react to melee kills

For mode makers: scripts can now

• award or take away points with the new score action, so a mode decides what a point is worth while the game's score limit still ends the round;
• run an action only when a condition holds, with when, and compare values with <, <=, >, >=, == and !=;
• tell how a player died: kill.melee is 1 for a melee kill, and kill.assassination is 1 for a melee attack from behind;
• hand out the Flamethrower, Missile Pod, Machine Gun Turret and Plasma Cannon (flamethrower, missile_pod, machine_gun_turret, plasma_cannon). Someone who drops one gets it back;
• shrink players, their health and their damage down to 10% (scale, health and damage now start at 0.1).

The new Gun Game and Growth use these. The scripting guide describes each one.

Vote to shuffle uneven teams on dedicated servers

When teams get lopsided on a dedicated server, any player can call a vote to shuffle them. Tap Tab to pin the scoreboard and choose SHUFFLE in its title row, next to END ROUND and END GAME, or type /vote shuffle in chat (T). Answer with F5 (yes) or F6 (no), as with other votes.

If the vote passes, every player, split-screen guests included, is dealt at random across the teams in play, so no team has more than one player more than another. If everyone was on one team, a second team comes back. Team scores stay with their teams. The shuffle evens out player counts, not skill. It works in team games while a round is being played, with at least two players, on servers that take votes.

Separate volumes for game audio and voice chat

Settings → Audio has two new sliders, both from 0 to 100% and both at 100% to start:

• Game audio volume sets the game's effects, dialogue and music without touching voice chat or menu audio. Lower it when the game drowns out your teammates.
• Voice chat volume, under VOICE CHAT, sets how loud you hear other players. At zero you hear nobody, and others can still hear you.

Master volume and Mute still cover every sound. Apply saves the sliders, and they take effect at once, also during a game.

Download server mods through Steam Workshop

Settings → Mods → Prefer Steam Workshop is on by default. When joining a server with missing mods, Reclaimer tries Steam Workshop first and verifies the files against the server's version. Direct server downloads remain the fallback when the host enables Share mod files.

Hosts need no extra Workshop setup for normal published MCC packages: keep the original ModInfo.json when copying them into the server's Mods folder. Workshop downloads work even with share_mods = false, and the host does not need Steam installed. Players need Steam running with MCC available to their account. If Steam is not running or the account cannot use MCC, the download window asks players to start Steam and sign in. That message remains visible while a direct server fallback downloads.

Changes

• Growth: start tiny, grow by your victims' size. Growth has new rules:

  • Everyone spawns at 10% size with two random weapons.
  • A kill adds your victim's size to yours: killing a 10% player adds 10%, killing a 150% player adds 150%. The most you can grow is 300%.
  • Your size is your damage and your health: at 10% you deal a tenth of normal damage and have a tenth of normal health, at 300% triple both.
  • Dying, however it happens, puts you back to 10%.
  • Every kill is worth a point. Two rounds of ten minutes, and the most points over both rounds wins.

  If you already have Growth installed and never changed it, it updates automatically the next time you open Host Game. An edited copy is kept as it is: move it out of the Game Modes folder and choose REFRESH to get the new version.

• Gun Game: every stock weapon, melee set-backs and three rounds. Gun Game now works through all 24 Halo 3 weapons, from the Spartan Laser and Rocket Launcher down to the Needler and Sentinel Beam, then the Gravity Hammer and finally the Energy Sword. Everyone starts on the Spartan Laser.

  • A kill moves you to the next weapon at once, and the weapon in your hands changes. A kill made after you died counts too: you respawn with the next weapon.
  • Each step up the list is worth one point. The first player to get a kill with the Energy Sword wins the round.
  • Melee kills don't move you up. Hit someone in the back with a melee attack, though, and they go back one weapon and lose that point.
  • Unlimited ammo, no weapon pickups, no grenades, no time limit, and three rounds per game. It plays on every map.

  If you already have Gun Game installed and never changed it, it updates automatically the next time you open Host Game. An edited copy is kept as it is: move it out of the Game Modes folder and choose REFRESH to get the new version.

• A second master server keeps the server browser going. Online games and servers now report to two master servers instead of one, and the server browser reads both. While either is down, servers stay listed and players still see them. Nothing needs setting up: hosts and players get this by updating.

Bug fixes

• Fix a crash in large campaign co-op groups. Fixed an AI-related crash with large co-op groups, reproduced on Tsavo Highway after reverting to a checkpoint with 16 players.

• Fix players 5 to 16 being left out of mission events in co-op. In campaign co-op with more than four players, the mission scripts only looked after the first four. Missions now set up as they do for four players, so The Storm opens with its warthog convoy and Halo's warthog run saves checkpoints. When a mission brings stragglers forward, players 5 to 16 are now checked and moved on their own. When a mission seats players in a vehicle, the others take any seat still free for players, and anyone left without a seat joins the group where the vehicle stops.

• Fix an intermittent crash during campaign transitions. Fixed a crash when switching between gameplay and menus or loading screens, reproduced while starting a 16-player co-op mission.

• Frame-rate settings can exceed 60 FPS. Fixed the engine's hidden 60 FPS cap overriding Settings → Graphics → Frame-rate limit. No limit, 120, 144, 165, and 240 FPS now allow higher frame rates when your hardware can render them. Changes apply live, including when reverting a settings preview.

• The server browser no longer gives up on the master server so quickly. Players far from the master server, such as in Australia, or on a connection that dropped a packet, often saw "0 / 2 masters responded" and an empty server browser: the game gave up on the master after two thirds of a second. It now waits up to two and a half seconds. Servers still show as soon as a master answers.

  Games and servers hosted far from the master are listed more reliably too, since their reports to it had the same limit.

• Player sizes in game modes now show for players who joined mid-game. In Growth and other game modes that change player size, a player who joined a game already in progress saw everyone at normal size, and aimed at bodies that were really bigger or smaller on the host. Every player now sees everyone's size.

• Fix joining a game on the same PC failing while the PC is busy. Joining a game hosted on the same PC could fail with "An existing connec...

v0.8.11

New features

Play the campaign as your own Spartan or Elite

Players can now play Halo 3's campaign as the Spartan or Elite they made in Customize, in their own armor, colors and emblem, instead of the Master Chief, the Arbiter and the co-op Elites. On the Campaign page, choose Your Spartans & Elites under CHARACTERS before PLAY SOLO or HOST CO-OP. A co-op host can switch it in the lobby's CHARACTERS row, and everyone in the game plays as their own character. Master Chief & Arbiter keeps the campaign as it was. Saved games remember the choice. Cutscenes still show the Master Chief.

Manage dedicated servers with the Reclaimer RCON desktop client

Releases now include reclaimer-rcon-v0.8.11.exe, also available from the RCON client downloads. Open it, enter your server's host, RCON port and password, and connect to see players, send commands and follow live chat and server events. Select a player to prepare moderation commands, or use Status, Players, Bans and Help. No game installation is required. The attached RCON guide explains server setup.

Bug fixes

• The asset library builds about three times as fast. The asset library holds every map's Forge objects. The game builds it on the loading screen the first time each version of the game starts, and again when your maps or mods change. That build had grown to a minute and a half or more. It now uses several cores and reads the maps far less often, so it takes about half a minute on a typical PC.

  A mod map the game cannot read no longer stops the library from being built. It is left out, and the game does not try it again on every start: only when the map changes or the game is updated. Libraries built by other versions of the game are removed.

• HUD text is no longer too bold. The HUD font added in 0.8.10 used a heavier weight of Halo 3's HUD font than the game was designed with, so names, scores and other HUD text looked too bold. HUD text now uses the light weight Halo 3's HUD uses, read from your installed game as before. The font cache rebuilds once on the next launch.

• Mouse sensitivity now uses MCC's scale. Mouse sensitivity was far too fast: even the lowest setting, 0.001, turned the view as fast as 2.6 does in MCC, too fast for many mice. Sensitivity now uses MCC's own scale, so the value you play with in MCC feels the same here. It runs from 0.05 to 20 and starts at 1.5. Settings → Keyboard & Mouse also shows how far the mouse moves for a full turn at 800 and 1600 DPI.

  Sensitivities saved on the old scale are reset to the new default, 1.5: set yours again in Settings, for example to the value you use in MCC. F2 and F3 still halve and double it in a game.

Install

The game client requires Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Halo 3 installed; no game files are included.

Double-click project-reclaimer-v0.8.11.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-v0.8.11.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.

v0.8.10

New features

Join a campaign co-op game in progress

Players can now join a co-op campaign game while a mission is being played. When someone joins, everyone sees one loading screen that says who is joining and comes back exactly where the game was, with the new player next to the others. The host sends the game to every player first, so a join takes a few seconds longer than a normal load.

Scripted game modes: Gun Game, Growth and One in the Chamber

Three new game modes come with the game. In Host Game, choose GAME TYPE, select Slayer and pick one of its variants:

• Gun Game: every kill moves you up a ladder of ten weapons, from the assault rifle to the energy sword. Dying keeps your place; the tenth kill wins.
• Growth: every kill makes you bigger, stronger and tougher, by a quarter of your victim's size, up to three times your normal size. Dying shrinks you back.
• One in the Chamber: a Magnum with one bullet that kills in one hit, and one more bullet for every kill, melee kills included. Three lives each, no shields, no other weapons.

Players who join don't need anything but this version: the mode runs on the host.

Make your own. A game mode is a Slayer game type file with a small script: what happens when a player spawns, gets a kill or dies. Scripts can change a player's size, damage, health, weapon and ammo, and keep numbers per player, such as a kill count. The three modes are installed as editable files in Documents\My Games\Project Reclaimer\Game Modes\Project Reclaimer: copy one, give it a new name, change it and choose REFRESH in the game type picker. project-reclaimer.exe mode-check <file> checks a file before you host it. Scripted modes work in playlists and on dedicated servers too.

The scripting guide at https://projectreclaimer.dev/modes explains the language step by step, with a complete starter mode, recipes for changing the bundled modes and troubleshooting.

Scripts can only change gameplay within set limits: they have no access to files, the network or your PC.

Freeze Forge objects

Maps can now go past 640 objects. Scenery you place with Fixed (or Phased) physics freezes as soon as you let go of it: it stays exactly where it is, looks and collides the same, and is saved with the map, but no longer takes up one of the map's placements or counts toward the 255 of one object. A map keeps up to 5,000 frozen objects. The game now holds four times as many objects as Halo 3 did, so a map full of frozen objects still leaves players, weapons, vehicles, grenades and bodies all the room they had.

To move or edit a frozen object, just grab it: it becomes a normal object in your hands again, and freezes again when you let go. Delete and copy work on frozen objects too. Objects with Normal physics stay normal objects, since they can move. You can also freeze any scenery from its properties (Freeze), or every copy of one object from the Objects tab (Freeze all), and turn automatic freezing off on the Map tab.

Everyone in the game builds the frozen objects on their own PC, so they don't use any of Halo 3's network traffic. Players need this version to join a game on a map with frozen objects.

Password-protected servers and lobbies

Set Host Settings → Server password to require a password when joining your game lobby. Players already in the game stay; clear the field to open the lobby again.

Dedicated hosts can set password under [defaults] for every server, or in a [[server]] block for one (password = "" opens that one again), or RECLAIMER_DEDICATED_PASSWORD in Docker's .env. It is separate from the remote console's password, and doesn't hide a server: use hidden for that.

The server browser marks protected servers PRIVATE and asks for the password when you join, including by address or join link. A wrong password can be tried again. Both hosts and players need this version for private games; servers without a password still take older versions.

Random starting weapons

In Edit Game Options → Traits, set Starting primary weapon or Starting secondary weapon to Random. Players then spawn with a new random weapon every time they respawn. The pick uses the regular multiplayer weapons (no turrets, flamethrower or missile pod), and a random secondary is never the same as the primary. Random also works for respawn, role and powerup traits, in saved game types and in playlist entries ("player.primary_weapon": "Random").

Changes

• HUD text uses Halo 3's own HUD font. Names, scores and other HUD text now use the font Halo 3's HUD was designed with, read from your installed game, with the controller button symbols kept. A few characters that font lacks come from a second font of the game's. The font cache rebuilds once on the next launch.
• The starting weapon choice "None" is now called "Map default". It always gave players the map's own starting weapons (on Guardian, an assault rifle and no secondary), never an empty hand, and its name now says so. Playlist entries that set a starting weapon to "None" should use "Map default" instead.

Bug fixes

• Arrival no longer closes the game at its end. Fixed the campaign's first mission, Arrival, closing the game as its closing cinematic ended, when the mission sets the player's look inversion.

• Select and play Hoth and Geonosis. Fixed selecting mod maps that reuse an original Halo 3 map's ID, including Hoth and Geonosis from the Battlefront Pack. These maps could appear in the map picker but fail to apply to the lobby. Switching back to an original map loads that map again.

• Campaign no longer closes when an enemy dies. Fixed campaign missions closing the game when an enemy or ally died in a way Halo 3 reports as a kill. The game's kill, death and score reports are now accepted and ignored instead of ending the mission.

• Campaign progress saves again. Fixed campaign missions not keeping checkpoints after Forge's larger object budget, so progress could not be continued and players couldn't join a game in progress. Saved games from earlier versions can't be continued and are no longer offered; play their mission again from the mission list.

• Picking up a skull no longer closes the game. Fixed campaign missions closing the game when a player picked up one of the hidden skulls, such as the Blind skull on Sierra 117.

• Copy buttons now copy to the clipboard. The COPY buttons for your Player ID in Settings and your hosted server's address now put the text on the Windows clipboard so you can paste and share it.

• Hidden games stay out of the server browser, and hosting needs one port. A game you host with Hidden server turned on could still show up in other players' server browsers. Hidden games are now never listed; players join them with Direct Connect. A game that was listed before you hid it drops off the list within three minutes.

  Games you host Online now report to the public master servers directly instead of running a master of their own, so they only need UDP 11774, the game port. The TCP port 11775 is no longer used, and its setting is gone from Host Settings; you can remove its port forward. Dedicated servers still run their machine's master on TCP 49175.

• HUD scores line up again. Fixed HUD text spacing and line heights that could misalign the scores and cut off game type names. The player and team scores at the bottom right now line up with their chevrons and color bars. The font cache rebuilds once on the next launch.

• Powerups work in game types with default rules. Picking up the overshield, active camouflage or custom powerup did nothing in games that used a game type's default rules. Now the overshield makes you invulnerable for 5 seconds while your shields charge to double, active camouflage makes you invisible for 30 seconds, and the custom powerup gives 150% speed for 10 seconds, as in Halo 3. Game types loaded from a variant file keep their own powerup settings, and Edit Game Options can still change all three.

• Placing an object no longer sometimes places two. When the server or a player's PC stalled for a moment, for example the first time an object of a new kind was placed, the game could treat what was sent during the stall as lost and send it again. The server then carried it out twice, so one Place in Forge made two objects. The game now waits longer before sending anything again, so a short stall no longer repeats actions. Both the server and the players need this update.

Install

Requires Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Halo 3 installed; no game files are included.

Double-click project-reclaimer-v0.8.10.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.

v0.8.9

New features

Play Halo 3's campaign, alone or in co-op

Choose CAMPAIGN on the main menu to play Halo 3's missions from your installed game.

• Pick a mission from the list, where it starts (Mission Start or one of its rally points) and a difficulty, then choose PLAY SOLO. Each mission shows the difficulties you have finished it on.
• Your progress is saved. The game keeps your last checkpoint, so CONTINUE at the top of the Campaign page picks up where you left off, even after you close the game. Finished missions are remembered per difficulty.
• Missions follow on. When you finish a mission, its screen shows what's next and the next mission starts a few seconds later (or press CONTINUE NOW). After the last mission you're back at the main menu.
• Press Escape during a solo mission to pause it. The game menu can also REVERT TO CHECKPOINT, RESTART MISSION or QUIT MISSION.
• Skip cinematics with Space or A on a controller, wherever Halo 3 lets you. In co-op, the host skips for everyone.

Co-op: choose HOST CO-OP to open a campaign lobby. Co-op missions start from the mission start or a rally point; your saved checkpoint is for solo play. Other players join it from the Server Browser like any game: set Host Settings to ONLINE to list it publicly. In the lobby the host can change the MISSION, where it starts and the DIFFICULTY, then START GAME. Lobbies take up to 16 players, not just Halo 3's four, with up to four players in split screen on each PC. The host can also revert to the last checkpoint or restart the mission for everyone from the game menu. Everyone who finishes a mission has it recorded as finished, and the next mission starts for the whole lobby.

Campaign games don't count toward your multiplayer rank or stats.

Any color for your armor

Your primary, secondary and detail armor colors are no longer limited to Halo 3's thirty. In Customize, pick a color row under Colors and switch its panel from PALETTE to CUSTOM: drag in the color field, use the HUE, SATURATION and BRIGHTNESS sliders (the arrow keys and D-pad step them), or type a hex code such as #1E90FF and press Enter. Pointing at a color tries it on; letting go equips it.

Other players see your custom colors on your Spartan or Elite in game, on your lobby card and on the scoreboard when both they and the server (or the player hosting) run 0.8.9 or later. Otherwise they see the nearest Halo 3 color, which the panel names. In team games your team's color still replaces your primary and secondary colors, as before; your detail color stays your own.

Choose your MCC folder and where the cache goes

Settings > Folders shows the Halo: The Master Chief Collection installation the game runs from and the folder it keeps its cache in: the Forge library of every map's objects and the fonts for HUD text, about 450 MB. Each has CHANGE… to choose another folder and OPEN to show it in Explorer.

• MCC folder: choose the MCC folder, its Steam library or its halo3 folder, for example when you have MCC installed in more than one place. The game restarts to run from it.
• Cache folder: choose a folder on another drive to free up space on this one. The game restarts and moves the cache there; MOVE IT BACK returns it to the default folder. A folder that already holds other files gets a ProjectReclaimer folder of its own inside it.

Folders change from the main menu, not during a game. Dedicated servers on the same PC use the cache folder you choose too.

Halo 3's menu sounds

The menus now make Halo 3's own sounds, read from your installed game: the cursor tick when you move to another option, the confirm tone when you choose one, and the back tone when you back out. They work with the mouse (point at an option, click it, click BACK), the keyboard (arrow keys or Tab, then Enter or Space, and Escape to go back) and a controller (D-pad or stick, then A, and B to go back), on every menu page, in popups, in the game menu and in Forge's object menu.

They follow the master volume and play at Halo 3's own balance with the pregame countdown. Turning the menu music down or off leaves them as they are.

Changes

• Host Game and Campaign menus redesigned. Host Game now lays the lobby out in three columns:

  • On the left, your game's setup: MAP, GAME TYPE, GAME OPTIONS, PLAYLIST, NETWORK and HOST SETTINGS, each showing what is set. Choose a row to change it. NETWORK switches between Local and Online right there with the arrows beside it. START GAME sits under the rows.
  • In the middle, the game: the server's name and how players can join (with the address to copy when you are online), the map's picture with the game type and its description, and the lobby chat under it. Press T to chat.
  • On the right, the players, with the count against the limit.

  Players who join see the same lobby, with the host's choices and WAITING FOR THE HOST where START GAME would be.

  Choosing a map or game type shows every map as a card with its picture and every game type with its Halo 3 emblem. Click one to see what it is and its variants on the right, then choose a variant or USE. Double-click a card, or click it again, to use it straight away. Search still finds maps and variants by name.

  Host Settings work like Settings: switches and choices, what each one does on the right, a preview of how your server will look to other players, then APPLY CHANGES or DISCARD. Game Options and Playlists match the new look, and each Game Options category shows how many settings you changed in it.

  Campaign lists the missions with their pictures and the emblem of the hardest difficulty you have finished each one on. The chosen mission fills the page: its picture and story, where it starts, the difficulty as Halo 3's emblems, then PLAY SOLO or HOST CO-OP. The arrow keys move through the missions (up and down) and change the difficulty (left and right). In a co-op lobby, step START FROM and DIFFICULTY with the arrows beside them, or choose MISSION to pick from the same mission page.

• New default ports for games hosted Online. Games you host with Host Settings: ONLINE now use UDP 11774 for the game and TCP 11775 for discovery by default, instead of 49176 and 49175. Windows and Linux hand out ports in the old range to other programs, so those could sometimes be taken or blocked.

  If your router maps ports automatically (UPnP), there is nothing to do. If you forward ports by hand, forward UDP 11774 and TCP 11775, or set your old ports in Host Settings. Dedicated servers keep their configured ports.

Bug fixes

• Host more than one game on the same PC. Hosting failed with a "port 1000" error when another game was already hosted on the same PC. Games now use any free ports on the PC for their internal connections instead of Halo 3's fixed ports, on Windows and Linux alike.

  • Several games can be hosted on one PC, and the Server Browser lists each of them under THIS PC, so players on that PC can pick which one to join.
  • A game hosted Online on a PC where another game already uses its ports takes the next free ports when your router maps them automatically. The Online status shows the ports it uses.

Install

Requires Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Halo 3 installed; no game files are included.

Double-click project-reclaimer-v0.8.9.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.

v0.8.8

New features

Centered crosshair

Turn on Settings > Graphics > Centered crosshair to put the crosshair in the middle of the screen instead of Halo 3's lowered spot. Your aim moves with it, and your weapon's position adjusts to match, using Halo 3's own hidden option for it. Split-screen players get it too.

Chat on the loading screen, and scroll back through chat

While a map loads, you can keep chatting with the other players: press T to talk to everyone or Y to talk to your team, as in the lobby and in game. Recent lines show above the map's title card. If you are still typing when the game starts, your line stays open so you can finish it.

With chat open, a scroll bar lets you read back through the last 100 lines: use the mouse wheel, drag the bar, or press Page Up and Page Down. New lines don't move you while you read; scroll back to the bottom and chat follows new lines again.

Servers stay in the browser when the main master server is down

Servers now learn other master servers from the ones they report to. If the main master server stops answering, every listed server (dedicated or hosted from Host Game with Network mode ONLINE) also reports to three of them until the main one is back, so players whose browsers know those masters keep finding it. Nothing needs setting up. Dedicated servers say in their log when they start and stop doing this.

Remote console (RCON) for dedicated servers

Moderation tools, Discord bots and web panels can now manage dedicated servers through a password-protected remote console. Set a password under [rcon] in dedicated.toml (or RECLAIMER_DEDICATED_RCON_PASSWORD) and restart the servers: each listens on TCP at its own game port number, reachable from the server's machine only unless you set address.

• Two protocols on one port. Source RCON, which ready-made RCON clients and hosting panels speak, and WebSocket with JSON replies and live events: chat lines with the sender's player ID, joins, leaves, kicks, bans, mutes, votes and the game starting and ending.
• Commands: status, players (numbers, names, player IDs, addresses and scores), say, tell, kick, ban and banip (for good or for a time such as 7d), unban, bans, mute and unmute (text and voice chat, enforced by the server), endround, endgame and cancelvote.
• From the command line: project-reclaimer dedicated rcon players, dedicated rcon kick Bravo spamming, and dedicated rcon --watch to follow a server's chat and events.
• Timed bans everywhere: dedicated ban <player ID> --for 7d too, and a banned player reads how long is left.
• Five wrong passwords lock an address out for ten minutes, and the server log records every command with where it came from.

See the remote console guide (docs/rcon.md) for every command, both protocols and the events.

Changes

• The game opens in borderless fullscreen. New players now start in borderless fullscreen, filling the monitor at its own resolution. If you saved any settings before, the game keeps the display mode saved with them: to switch, open Settings → Graphics, set Display mode to Borderless fullscreen and choose Apply changes. Windowed is still there if you prefer a window.

• The game now needs Halo 3's campaign. Project Reclaimer now needs Halo 3's campaign installed in MCC, as it is when you install Halo 3 through Steam. The main menu's scenery and Forge's Phantom, Pelican, Scarab and campaign AI come from it. Now every player has the same Forge objects, so anyone can join any game or Forge session that uses them. If the campaign files are missing, the game says which ones and doesn't start. In Steam, make sure Halo 3 is installed under Halo: The Master Chief Collection → Properties → DLC, then use Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files.

  Server hosts: dedicated init now also copies campaign.map and 040_voi.map (about 520 MB), so servers can load saved maps with campaign vehicles and AI. dedicated check says whether a server has them. Servers still run without them.

• A new Customize screen. Customize is rebuilt around your character, who now stands center stage.

  • Everything you can change is listed on the left, with what you have on: your helmet, shoulders and chest, your three armor colors, and your emblem's foreground, background and colors. Pick a row and its choices open on the right.
  • Point at a choice to try it on before you commit: your character shows it straight away. Click it (or press Enter) to equip it. Nothing changes until you do.
  • The camera follows what you're choosing: it closes in on the helmet, turns to show a shoulder, and frames the chest. Drag to turn your character and scroll to zoom; Reset View brings the camera back.
  • Emblem rows turn the stage over to a large view of your emblem.
  • Spartan and Elite sit above your character, and the stance they stand in below, with arrows to step through them.
  • Your lobby card is at the top of the list, as other players see it. Customize opens on it, with your whole character in view; change your player name and service tag there.
  • With the keyboard or a controller, the arrow keys move through the list and choices, Enter or A steps into the choices, and Escape or B steps back out.

• A cleaner player details window. The player details window no longer shows a code after the player's service tag. Your own details now show your service tag too when you left it blank, the same random one the lobby shows.

• New popups and messages. Every popup now looks and works the same way: Direct Connect, joining from a link, Required mods, the update window, Forge's Save map and Keep these settings? after display changes.

  • The page dims behind the popup, which rises into place with an icon for what kind of moment it is: a question, a warning, an error, a download or something under way.
  • The buttons sit in the same place in every popup, and the keys that press them are shown beside them: Enter for the main button and Escape to cancel.
  • Escape now closes Direct Connect instead of leaving the server browser behind it.
  • Messages now drop in at the top of the screen and leave on their own, with their time running out along the bottom: why you're back at the main menu (a join that failed, a host that left), split-screen players joining and leaving, and a Forge map saved.
  • Tooltips and drop-down lists match the popups.

• A new Settings screen. Settings is rebuilt so every setting explains itself.

  • The categories run down the left, grouped, each with its current state at a glance: your window size and frame limit, your volume, your mouse sensitivity, whether a controller is connected, who plays on this PC.
  • Point at a setting, or move to it, and the panel on the right explains it: what it does, when it takes effect, what you had saved and what the default is. Many come with a picture that follows your choice: your field of view drawn from above, the game's window on your display, volume meters, the keys of a binding, the controller with the button lit, the Discord status others will see, and how the screen splits between players.
  • On and off settings are switches you click once, lists are choices you step through with ◀ and ▶, and sliders show where their default sits.
  • Changed settings are marked with a gold dot, and the box under the categories counts your unsaved changes, with Apply changes and Discard always in the same place. With nothing unsaved it offers Restore defaults for the category you're in.
  • Split screen shows each player as a card with their number, name and controller or keyboard and mouse.
  • With the keyboard or a controller, the arrow keys (the D-pad) move through the categories and settings, left and right change the setting you're on, Enter or A switches it, and Escape or B steps back to the categories.
  • Key bindings can also be cleared with Delete or Backspace.

Bug fixes

• Fewer false virus alarms. Microsoft Defender stopped the game for some players with a "Trojan:Win32/Bearfoos.A!ml" warning. That is a false alarm: the "!ml" means Defender's automatic scanner guessed from how the game works, not that it found anything harmful. The game now looks less like malware to such scanners. It no longer watches its own game process the way a debugger does, its file carries proper version details (see its Properties → Details), and it only updates the Windows setting for join links when something about it changed.

  If Defender still stops the game, open Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Protection history, select the entry and choose Allow on device.

• Dual wielding controls can be rebound properly. The dual wielding actions in Settings > Controller and Keyboard & Mouse had the wrong names. The one called Dual wield actually fired the left-hand weapon, so moving it made LT throw grenades while dual wielding, and the button that picks up a second weapon (LB) could not be moved at all.

  Now Dual wield is the button you hold near a weapon to take it in your left hand (LB, or C on the keyboard), Fire left weapon fires it (LT, or the right mouse button), Reload left weapon reloads it (LB, or F), and the new Secondary fire is the left trigger while you hold one weapon. Swap weapon is gone: it was the same hold as Dual wield. Hold Action (RB, or E) to trade your weapon for the one on the ground. If you changed Dual wield or Fire left weapon before, check them again.

• Forge AI appear for every player. AI placed from Forge AI spawners existed only on the host's side, so only the host saw them. ...

v0.8.7

New features

Update the game from the main menu

From this version on, the main menu shows Update available at the top right when a newer version is out. Choose Update to see what's new, then Update & restart: the game downloads the new version, checks it against the release's checksums, puts it in place of the one you're running and starts again. Your settings, maps and mods stay as they are. Later closes the window, and Release page opens the release in your browser. The game keeps its file name, so shortcuts to it keep working. It looks for a new version when it starts and every few hours while it stays open.

Your game on Discord, with a Join button

While Discord runs on your PC, your Discord status shows Playing Project Reclaimer: the game type and map, the server's name, how many are playing and for how long. It also links the website for friends who don't have the game yet.

• On a public server, others see a Join game button on your status. It opens the website's join page, which starts Project Reclaimer and joins your server, or offers the download.
• If Project Reclaimer is already running, a join link switches it to that server, leaving the lobby or game you're in. If you're hosting, or in solo Forge, it asks you first.
• Hidden servers and servers you joined by address never get a Join game button, so their address stays private. Discord shows the buttons to others only, not on your own status.
• Turn the status or just its Join game button off under Settings > Connectivity > Discord.

Place Halo 3 AI in Forge

The Forge menu has a new AI category: place a Spartan or an Elite, or, with the campaign installed, a Marine, Grunt, Jackal, Brute, campaign Elite or Hunter. Its AI stands on the spawner in games and while editing, and fights players and other AI. Each spawner sets its Team (enemy of all, ally of all players, or a team color), what it Shoots at (everything, only infantry or only vehicles), whether it Moves or stands still, its Weapon and its Respawn time. AI never target Forge monitors. They hold their ground: multiplayer maps have no cover or patrol points, so they do not take cover, patrol or search yet.

Split screen for up to four players

Up to three friends can play on the same PC, each with a controller or a keyboard and mouse of their own. Add them in Settings → Split screen: each plays as a saved player from this PC or a new one with its own name, player ID and armour, kept for next time. A controller becomes a player's by pressing a button on it, and a keyboard and mouse by pressing a key on the keyboard and clicking the mouse: right after they are added, or after Assign on their row. Yours works the same way, and a key or mouse button instead leaves you on the keyboard and mouse alone. A friend's keyboard and mouse play only for them, with your key bindings and look sensitivity, and aim like yours. Every game splits the screen, whether you host it or join a server or a dedicated server, and each player gets their own view and HUD. Customize has a player row while friends are playing, so their armour, emblem, name and service tag can be changed there too. They use your controller settings.

A server's Max players now counts split-screen players too, on dedicated servers as well. The server browser only lets your group join a server with a place for each of you, and shows ROOM FOR 2 (say) when there is not; a refused join now says so at once instead of timing out. dedicated status counts every player and names each player's split-screen players.

Changes

• Chinese, Japanese and Korean text is now optional. The text fonts the game makes from MCC's took about 200 MB, almost all of it Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters. They're now left out, so the fonts take a few MB and the first start is quicker; those characters show as boxes in the game's HUD text, such as player names. To show them, turn on Chinese, Japanese or Korean under Settings → Graphics → Text languages and restart the game. Chinese or Japanese adds about 160 MB (the two share most of it), Korean about 50 MB.

• Lower default mouse sensitivity. New players start at a mouse sensitivity of 0.005 instead of 0.02, and Reset this category under Settings → Keyboard & mouse now returns to it. A sensitivity you already saved stays as it is.

• A new server browser. The Server Browser has a new look that fits many more servers on screen: each server takes one compact line with a status dot, its name and tags, host, map, game type, a player bar and ping bars, so 18 servers show before the list scrolls. Click a column title to sort by it, and again to reverse.

  • HIDE FULL and HIDE EMPTY above the list leave out servers with no open slot or nobody playing. The search box finds servers by name, host, map, game type or mod, and the tabs show how many servers and online favorites there are.
  • Selecting a server shows its card beside the list: the map's art, players, ping, the mods it needs and what is left to download, and why it can't be joined if it can't. Join Game is at the bottom of the card, with Direct Connect and Refresh above it.
  • Double-click a server to join it straight away. With the keyboard or a controller, the arrow keys move from server to server and Enter joins the selected one.
  • The same browser opens from the game menu while you play, with your current server marked.

Bug fixes

• Lobbies of four or more players show everyone's armour. Before a game starts, lobbies with four or more players showed everyone in default armour, since the saved armour players share was too large to send. It now arrives in parts. Your client also no longer resends your appearance to the host several times a second while you wait in a lobby with armour of your own choosing.
• Switching servers from a lobby could close the game. Joining another server while waiting in a lobby, such as after downloading a server's mods, could close the game instead of joining. It now waits for the lobby to be left and joins.

Install

Requires Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Halo 3 installed; no game files are included.

Double-click project-reclaimer-v0.8.7.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.

v0.8.6

New features

Push held Forge objects away and pull them closer

In Forge, hold an object and scroll the mouse wheel up to push it away or down to pull it closer, up to 100 units. Halo 3 stopped at 10, which put the view inside large objects. Holding Left Ctrl and moving forward or back does the same; with a controller, hold RT and push the left stick. Push object away and Pull object closer can also be bound to keys in Settings → Keyboard & Mouse. It works for the host and for players who joined.

Halo 3 rank insignia and a new player details window

Ranks now show Halo 3's own insignia, read from your installed maps, instead of MCC's rings; lobby cards carry it in their end tab, with the service tag right after the name. Click a player in the lobby to open their details: their character, their rank with the EXP toward the next one, a skill meter marking the officer ranks, and tabs for the service record, medals, weapons and recent games. The Left and Right arrow keys switch tabs.

Switch servers from the game menu

Press Escape in a game and choose Server Browser to see the server list over the running game, with your current server marked. Pick another server and choose Switch server: you leave the game and join the new server as soon as the main menu is back. Mods it needs that you don't have download first, while you keep playing. Hosts and solo Forge sessions get a warning about what switching gives up.

Ranks on the scoreboard and carnage report

Hold Tab in a game, or open the carnage report after it, to see each player's service tag and rank insignia after their name, as in the lobby. Players without a record yet show Recruit, the first rank. Dedicated servers now report finished games to the project's stats service, so ranks build up as people play; set stats_server = "off" in dedicated.toml to stop reporting, or give the address of your own service.

Changes

• Downloads carry their version in the file name. The game client now downloads as project-reclaimer-v0.8.6.exe. Server hosts: rename it to project-reclaimer.exe in the server folder, the name start-dedicated.cmd and the hosting guide's commands use.

Install

Requires Halo: The Master Chief Collection with Halo 3 installed; no game files are included.

Double-click project-reclaimer-v0.8.6.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.