Halo: Warfleet – An Illustrated Guide to the Spacecraft of Halo
From Halopedia, the Halo wiki
| Halo: Warfleet – An Illustrated Guide to the Spacecraft of Halo | |
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96 pages[5] |
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10 1/2" x 13 3/4"[5] |
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1.7 pounds (0.77 kg)[6] |
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Halo: Warfleet – An Illustrated Guide to the Spacecraft of Halo is a reference book on the Halo universe that was released on September 5, 2017.[5] The book details the technology, scale, design, construction, and variety of ships, space stations, and colony worlds in the Halo universe.[1][2]
Official summary[edit]
| “ | From the developers of the Halo video game franchise comes an official guide to the spacecrafts of the Halo universe, featuring intricately detailed cross-section illustrations.
This is the official, authoritative guide to the spacecrafts of the Halo universe, written in collaboration with 343 Industries, the developers of the “Halo” franchise. The full-color illustrated package covers the fleets of the UNSC, Covenant, and the Forerunner factions, featuring intricately detailed cross-section illustrations of franchise favorites the Pillar of Autumn, High Charity, and the Forerunner Dreadnought. Other specialized spreads offer a closer look at the weapons used in space, the planets of the Covenant and Human colonies, and the space-faring technology that each utilize. With illustrations from the Halo team and renowned illustrator Isaac Hannaford, this is a must-have for fans of the Halo franchise. |
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Content[edit]
Described as a more "technical" counterpart to Halo Mythos, Halo: Warfleet features ten full-color cross-sections of ships by Hans Jenssen, known for his work on Star Wars: Incredible Cross-Sections, and John Mullaney, who previously worked on ship cross-sections based on the Firefly franchise. In addition, multiple all-new secondary art pieces by various artists are included. Written by 343 Industries' internal writing team, with Kenneth Peters serving as writing lead, Warfleet also includes a variety of specific technical details and terminology formerly contained to the Halo Story Bible.[1][2]
The book is divided into five sections: Introduction/Technical Architecture, Human Ships, Covenant Ships, Forerunner Ships, as well as an expansive Glossary. The book is published in an "oversized" format to accommodate the detail in the larger illustrations. Each spread includes annotations to explain the functions of given parts of a ship, along with statistics and history of the vehicle in question.[1][2]
Development[edit]
Production on what would become Warfleet was originally inspired by classic technical manuals and tabletop RPG shipbuilding systems, evolving over time into a ship-recognition manual with cross-sections for spacecraft and related vehicles, before finally being approved for production as a cross section book. Production began in early 2015 (around the time of Halo: Fleet Battles' launch), with 343 initially seeking to bring on board artists Hans Jenssen and Richard Chasemore (both Star Wars cross-section alumni). However, Chasemore was unavailable due to other commitments, and as such the team were instead able to bring on John Mullaney.[7]
Longtime Halo fan and consultant Stephen Loftus was also brought on to assist in the project thanks to his expertise in Halo spacecraft, having previously produced detailed breakdowns of the various ships featured in the early games. This proved useful when translating in-game levels into a cross-section format, as in many cases the level geometry can not fit inside the ship (such as the infamous Warthog run on The Maw in Halo: Combat Evolved). Some abstractions were made with respect to the original layouts in order to make the designs make sense, and certain details were altered or ommitted as-needed. The process of looking in-depth at the preexisting designs also meant the writers had to consider details such as Ardent Prayer's lack of any kind of barracks for the troops, which was translated into written lore about how the Covenant live on the ship.[7]
