[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] b0skiewheels i cant believe this thread went on to two pages. just absurd. and odst is essentially a spartan without the genetic growth horomones, cloning, mjolnir armor, and the training from 6 years old. odsts are better in the fact they choose to do this and knwo there can be other stuff to do. spartans had no choice. they were tortured and mutilated throughout thyre childhood in hopes of a few surviving. in a fist fight, the books clearly stated, when joh FIRST got into his armor, he annihilated 7 ranking odsts. and even without his armor he put 3 in the hospital. so really there is no more comparison its basically a matter of preference. do you want to be a psychotic marine who jumps feet first into the middle of a battle with no hope of survival, or do you want to be a navy supersoldier who who jumps feet first into the middle of a battle with no hope of survival, but has special armor and ai in your skull.[/quote] actually, for the SPARTAN 2 program, they did kidnap them wen they were 6, but if u read the books, John actually enjoys the training, and they didn't torture them. they did inject them w/ crap w/out their permission and killed a bunch of them (they started out w/ about 75, but ended w/ 33), but most likely, most of them would have wanted it anyways. and they did have a hope of survival, before The Fall of Reach, almost none of them died on missions. for the SPARTAN 3 program, they took about 300 volunteers, had a more precise gene pool so none of them died from the augmentations, w/ a few extra illegal augmentations that basically gave them extreme adrenaline rushes whenever they are about to die, had weaker armor w/out shields less body armor, but had high-tech camo plates, and usually got completely wiped out after a few high-priority missions, though they did take out thousands of covenant w/ them. the SPARTAN 1 program is never seen, but probably didn't have the MJOLNIR armor, and might not have had the augmentations. they were used mostly for rebels, probably never fought covenant. so the SPARTAN 2s and 3s had equal training, 3s had better augmentations, weaker armor, and sent on more dangerous missions, and were super-duper uber top secret. 2s had better armor, lived longer (till Reach), and were top secret for a while, but eventually were made public to raise moral. basically the SPARTAN 2s were better, but more expensive. they were sent for back up mostly, and to take out high-priority targets. they worked in teams, but, as the Chief shows, they can lone-wolf it to. the SPARTAN 3s were good, but were basically mass produced. they sent them to take out bases usually, and were used exclusively for fighting the covenant. they were trained by a SPARTAN 2 named Kurt. also, according to a couple wiki's, Noble Team were some of the best SPARTAN 3s that were taken out and given better armor. [Edited on 05.07.2012 2:20 PM PDT]