a new old enemy?

Community Halo Universe
1

we’ve had many debates over theories for the H4 storyline and the enemies, ranging from precursors to forerunners and even including other human empires…

but i haven’t noted anyone talking about a possible return of the covenant, or - to be more precise - at least single species that were formerly part of the now defunct covenant.

recently hunter action figure boxes with the H4 logo on them were seen and yes, i “heard” bs_angels talking about “placeholders” BUT i can’t stop feeling like we’ll meet some old enemies again.
completely exchanging all enemies is a very dramatic step. after all, IMHO, the enemies we fought so far contributed a lot to halo’s success. fearless elites, brutal brutes, annoying drones, mighty hunters… even the little guys - though making the game feel even more “childish”, especially due to their squeaky voices - were part of the halo-identity and added to the walking tank feeling you should get when assuming the role of master chief, contrary to elites & brutes, although of course they made the gameplay more interesting.

due to the forerunner saga books and the forerunner setting seen in both the teaser and the concept art trailer, i’d say it’s save to assume that the flood will be back, but the flood alone would be boring and - btw: the flood need’s “food”, so there HAS to be someone else.
assuming that we, the reclaimer, don’t fight against forerunners & their technology (sentinels, enforcers & co), there has to be another enemy - but probably not precursors since “there’s no difference” (quoting the timeless one) between them and the flood.
that leaves us with the ex-covenant species, if there’s no new species introduced (crashed ship on installation 04 ?).

i haven’t read glasslands yet, but from what i get an elite-civil war is on it’s way and the brutes are still alive and kicking and despite them all bringing it onto themselves, they’re really pissed at mankind. i don’t see a motivational problem with sangheili or jiralhanae fighting “the Demon” again, question is: how could they be related to the “ancient enemy” and get to Master Chief’s legendary planet?

all assumptions, no proof whatsoever, just a feeling in my bladder.
i, for myself, would like to see some of the old fiends return - if the story sums up.

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If Covenant species return, I don’t think they will be the main enemy. Im sure Frankie’s statement of “We’re not finished with the Covenant yet” is going to mean somethingnfor the next games, but not a main enemy. Halo 4 is apparently set against an ancient enemy that threatens the entire universe, and without the rings, the Covenant are now a small threat to this galaxy. Of course the universe thing could have been an exageration, but I think we’ll be seeing a bigger and older enemy than Covenant.

3

I want hunters with T52 Plasma Cannons (Minor) while Assault Cannons are for Msjors

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I feel people that are new to halo are the only ones that say this kind of stuff because the lore doesn’t support them having relevance in the new trilogy. Not to mention I cannot understand the logic of people wanting new things but continue to ask for enemies that can be killed without and type of thinking.

Seriously.

Brutes= Head shots

Elites= Grenades+ Head shots

Grunts, jackals= Grenades+ headshots

Hunters= Run right behind them and beat them down

It honestly isn’t fun anymore since you know exactly how to fight them. If we had the halo 2 brutes i wouldn’t make them out to be such whimps but we don’t.

5

how long did it take for you to find out that you have to headshot brutes?
me: about 5 mins into H3. loved the game anyway.

if you’re really serious and not just trying to be a pain in the -Yoink-, always having to critizise other users and bashing their opinions with more or less well hidden personal insults, i’ve got bad news for you: H4 will have a different set of enemies (probably) and again every class will have a weakness to exploit. within 5 mins into the game. bored yet?

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While I hope I’m wrong since I like fighting the Covenant, John is on a mysterious new planet, unless it’s a Covenant colony or something, I dont see the Covenant playing a significant part in Halo 4.

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> how long did it take for you to find out that you have to headshot brutes?
> me: about 5 mins into H3. loved the game anyway.

So you saw something with a head and for some reason you didn’t think to shoot at that part more than the others? Wow.

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> While I hope I’m wrong since I like fighting the Covenant, John is on a mysterious new planet, unless it’s a Covenant colony or something, I dont see the Covenant playing a significant part in Halo 4.

i completely agree - in my original post i asked how they could be related to the “legendary planet”.
but still there’s a H4 Hunter at the NY toy fair - having re-read the bulletin: bs_angel wrote that the figurine depicted isn’t important, as long as people can see that it’s a covenant unit. imho that makes the toy an even stronger hint towards ex-covenant being in H4 than i thought when writing the OP.
fact is, we don’t know anything about what’s going to happen in H4 and based on the revelations in the forerunner saga i’m pretty sure that the game itself will contain even more plot twists and new revelations. i just recently read how 343i wanted to bring the games on a level with the novels, in terms of more depth universe-lore wise (don’t remember if it was in a bulletin or an interview).
we ain’t seen nothing yet.

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> > how long did it take for you to find out that you have to headshot brutes?
> > me: about 5 mins into H3. loved the game anyway.
>
> So you saw something with a head and for some reason you didn’t think to shoot at that part more than the others? Wow.

stop being ridiculous, you’re just embarassing yourself now.

i wrote that i realised after the first brute in h3 that headshots were the way to go on those types. you said that it ain’t fun “killing” something that you know how to kill.
fact is: it usually doesn’t take that long to solve that riddle in fps, but they’re still fun to play.

and btw - answering a question with a counterquestion is impolite.

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I can certainly see the Covenant still retaining remnants. The battle at the Ark may have been a serious blow for the leadership present, but i’m sure when the Prophet Truth got himself skewered; Remaining Shan Sayumm(sp?) likely took up the position amongst the covenant remnants.

In regards to the means of taking down the Covenant member races; perhaps some behavior alterations are in stow. Things to diversy the potential tactics to use against them. I found fighting off Brutes, Jackals, Grunts, Hunters, drones, etc to be routine in Halo 3; but in Halo 3 ODST, the expereince was remarkably different with the gameplay features (Fighting close quarters with a burst shooting and stream shooting Hunters is a frantic experience on odst legendary).

Improved ai would likely go a long way towards that. Hunters that actually watch each others back would make it far more difficult to pull the ‘dance right past the swinging shield and punch some worms’ dance off.

They really shouldn’t step away from the Covenant so soon anyways in my opinion. They have barely covered the 20+ span of time in the Human-Covenant war and just looking over the still kicking half of the covenant would be fool hardy.

They might have lost their central leadership, but it is clear the Covenant was spread far across the Orion arm of the galaxy and it’s more than likely someone stepped up to the plate rather than the Covenant falling apart all together.

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> > > how long did it take for you to find out that you have to headshot brutes?
> > > me: about 5 mins into H3. loved the game anyway.
> >
> > So you saw something with a head and for some reason you didn’t think to shoot at that part more than the others? Wow.
>
> stop being ridiculous, you’re just embarassing yourself now.
>
> i wrote that i realised after the first brute in h3 that headshots were the way to go on those types. you said that it ain’t fun “killing” something that you know how to kill.
> fact is: it usually doesn’t take that long to solve that riddle in fps, but they’re still fun to play.
>
> and btw - answering a question with a counterquestion is impolite.

I am being ridiculous because you actually had to decide if shooting something in the head would be the best way to damage it? Yea, Lets fight the same enemies for 20 years and see how fun that is.

Feelings are irrelevant if i cared about them i would be on a barbie forum.

> They really shouldn’t step away from the Covenant so soon anyways in my opinion. They have barely covered the 20+ span of time in the Human-Covenant war and just looking over the still kicking half of the covenant would be fool hardy.
>
> They might have lost their central leadership, but it is clear the Covenant was spread far across the Orion arm of the galaxy and it’s more than likely someone stepped up to the plate rather than the Covenant falling apart all together.

The Covenant does not exist anymore all the Client races went back to minding their own business. The only race to get seriously messed up is the elites since they were the only race stupid enough to believe in such an idea. The Other client Races economies are sufficient seeing how they didn’t believe in the religion nor did they invest too much into the covenant. Though i feel the Grunts might have it worse since their homeworld is FUBAR.

And that is true. But we have been fighting the covenant for ten years now. Is it wrong to take a break and then have spin off games pertaining to the war? they seriously don’t need to be in every single new trilogy because that is just uncreative and milking.

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> The Covenant does not exist anymore all the Client races went back to minding their own business. The only race to get seriously messed up is the elites since they were the only race stupid enough to believe in such an idea. The Other client Races economies are sufficient seeing how they didn’t believe in the religion nor did they invest too much into the covenant. Though i feel the Grunts might have it worse since their homeworld is FUBAR.
>
> And that is true. But we have been fighting the covenant for ten years now. Is it wrong to take a break and then have spin off games pertaining to the war? they seriously don’t need to be in every single new trilogy because that is just uncreative and milking.

I take it there is Canon material i missed regarding the Covenant breaking up? I always presumed that the Battle at the Ark was a serious leadership blow for the Covenant remnants, but not necesarily the makings of a full collapse.

And True, new variation in enemies to face is nice. As long as they are not Skirmishers…those jackal relatives drive me nuts. I can see that the Covenant member races have become dull, but maybe their new found independence could buy some variation. If the flood do reappear(which it sounds like they may) i’d hope they’d come up with new Flood forms for more combat variation amongst them.

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> I am being ridiculous because you actually had to decide if shooting something in the head would be the best way to damage it? Yea, Lets fight the same enemies for 20 years and see how fun that is.

repeating nonsense doesn’t make it any better.
it was your point, that it ain’t fun killing elites, brutes etc. because we already know their weaknesses - to which i replied that the weakness of fps enemies are no big secrets, easy to find, which therefore happens early in the game and still it doesn’t spoil the fun.

now you’re twisting my words and changing your argument to “it ain’t fun because they are the same”.

i’m done with this, if you need the last word: go ahead.

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> > The Covenant does not exist anymore all the Client races went back to minding their own business. The only race to get seriously messed up is the elites since they were the only race stupid enough to believe in such an idea. The Other client Races economies are sufficient seeing how they didn’t believe in the religion nor did they invest too much into the covenant. Though i feel the Grunts might have it worse since their homeworld is FUBAR.
> >
> > And that is true. But we have been fighting the covenant for ten years now. Is it wrong to take a break and then have spin off games pertaining to the war? they seriously don’t need to be in every single new trilogy because that is just uncreative and milking.
>
> I take it there is Canon material i missed regarding the Covenant breaking up? I always presumed that the Battle at the Ark was a serious leadership blow for the Covenant remnants, but not necesarily the makings of a full collapse.
>
> And True, new variation in enemies to face is nice. As long as they are not Skirmishers…those jackal relatives drive me nuts. I can see that the Covenant member races have become dull, but maybe their new found independence could buy some variation. If the flood do reappear(which it sounds like they may) i’d hope they’d come up with new Flood forms for more combat variation amongst them.

It was a full collapse All the leaders are dead and the capital city is destroyed. The Elites are having an Extremely hard time relying on themselves while the other races are doing fine.

The only logical way the covenant could be in the reclaimer trilogy is if their are human sympathizers on what ever ship we might end up encountering.

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> > I am being ridiculous because you actually had to decide if shooting something in the head would be the best way to damage it? Yea, Lets fight the same enemies for 20 years and see how fun that is.
>
> repeating nonsense doesn’t make it any better.
> it was your point, that it ain’t fun killing elites, brutes etc. because we already know their weaknesses - to which i replied that the weakness of fps enemies are no big secrets, easy to find, which therefore happens early in the game and still it doesn’t spoil the fun.
>
> now you’re twisting my words and changing your argument to “it ain’t fun because they are the same”.
>
> i’m done with this, if you need the last word: go ahead.

not all FPS games have the same weakness so you are generalizing and most FPS games don’t have the same enemies for 10 years let alone the 20 you are asking for.

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> not all FPS games have the same weakness so you are generalizing and most FPS games don’t have the same enemies for 10 years let alone the 20 you are asking for.

name another FPS series that’s been running for ten years.

and i’m not asking for the same enemies, i said that i have doubts that 343 will abolish the old enemies completely and that i wouldn’t mind keeping them in the series, along with other, new enemies.

EDIT - and what the heck do you mean by “not all FPS games have the same weakness”? you’re talking about FPS enemies not all having the same weakness? thanx for pointing that out, captain obvious. my point was that even if you’ve never played a game before, it is easy to find the weak spot, hence - according to your logic from the 1st reply - a fps would become boring after the first few levels.

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> > not all FPS games have the same weakness so you are generalizing and most FPS games don’t have the same enemies for 10 years let alone the 20 you are asking for.
>
> name another FPS series that’s been running for ten years.
>
> and i’m not asking for the same enemies, i said that i have doubts that 343 will abolish the old enemies completely and that i wouldn’t mind keeping them in the series, along with other, new enemies.

I thought you said you were done? And i don’t understand the logic of

Not being in every single trilogy= Not being looked at in the universe anymore

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In halo 3 the Arbiter does say "There was honor in are Covenant once and there shall be agian " Interesting .

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Which was completely trashed by Glasslands.

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> > > not all FPS games have the same weakness so you are generalizing and most FPS games don’t have the same enemies for 10 years let alone the 20 you are asking for.
> >
> > name another FPS series that’s been running for ten years.
> >
> > and i’m not asking for the same enemies, i said that i have doubts that 343 will abolish the old enemies completely and that i wouldn’t mind keeping them in the series, along with other, new enemies.
>
> I thought you said you were done? And i don’t understand the logic of
>
> Not being in every single trilogy= Not being looked at in the universe anymore

it’s almost cute how you ignore questions you have no answers to and everything else that doesn’t suit your opinion.