Good point.

: But it isn't a option if you want to avoid deaths at all costs.

I normally like to play like things are real, so I'm not about to put my life in the hands of a Marine, even if he'd do a decent job a lot of the time. For serious play I want my safety margins way up there.

: Taunt enemy corpse is the name of a behavior that is built into the game.

Originally I thought the behaviour was an AI failing, but after uberfoop's reply I assumed the behaviour was gratuitous firing / taunting after all. So you're a bit late with the correction that it's taunting.

: A programmer had to do work to make it happen.

Not magical coding pixies? Aw, I'm disappointed.

: It's OK if the shooting is brief and there are no live threats and there is
: dialog to let you know what is happening.

Indeed.

: The name, "Taunt enemy corpse" came from an explanation from Bungie
: about why Keyes died so much in the original game when you tried to escort
: him from the brig on the Truth and Reconciliation. The NPCs had taunt
: enemy corpse turned on and were carrying needlers. They filled enemy
: corpses with so many needles that they exploded and the explosions killed
: those nearby.

I'm skeptical that nearby needle explosions are why he dies so much. I think it's just because he's really weak and (sadly) also a complete idiot about running to the front to get shot. I don't recall any abundance of times when the footage of him dying involved a nearby needle explosion.

: Halo 3 Wraiths were excellent shots and would shot mere milliseconds after
: seeing you.

Those things could spot you the moment you peeked your head out from hundreds of yards away! E.g. as you come though the high short tunnel in The Ark, overlooking the area where a space cruiser evenually comes in. Very annoying, and felt unfair.

: I imagine that the Hog would decelerate when the driver takes his foot off
: the accelerator

Yeah, it should behave just like when you take your foot off the pedal. Maybe it would usually come to a stop by the time you're switched.

: All those overloads can lead to jumping into a vehicle when your intention
: was to reload.

One of my biggest annoyances in the original game. Many's the time I got yanked into a vehicle or Shade by accident.

: Being able to swap weapons can be useful but it can lead to too much
: micro-management. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it.

Unless trying to set up some special situation, I tend not to mess around with such micro-management. Aside from being laborious and potentially frustrating, it somewhat takes you out of the game. It can feel rather artificial.

: It is fairly common practice to put these parameters into text files that can
: be read by the game engine. This way you can alter game behavior without
: having to recompile the game. So you could tweak a file in a text editor,
: restart the game from a checkpoint, and see the new behavior.

Just so you know, I'm pretty famiiar with programming. I couldn't help chuckling at having this rudimentary stuff explained to me.