A solution to the Assassination problem

Games Halo Infinite
1

The devs said themselves that assassinations won’t be in the game at launch but that they are big fans of them. They said that they wanted to find a way to make assassinations not slow the flow of combat, which it did in the previous games due to the 1-2 second period in which you would be stationary and vulnerable. Due to the fact that many people love them and are disappointed at their removal, I have come up with a possible set of solutions.

New Assassination Requirements:

#1) Faster animations than in previous games, fast enough that if you had motion blur on it would literally be pretty difficult to see what was going on.

#2) Movement speed and direction must be imputed into the animation, for example: You hit an assassination while coming out of sprint, the resulting animation shows you leaping onto the target, knifing them while your momentum carries both of you, and then hitting the ground running while your target falls to the ground dead behind you, essentially, you don’t lose speed when engaging in an assassination, which makes you harder to hit and helps to keep the pace of combat going. And you also keep going in the direction you were running.

#3) Control is instantly reverted back to you once your target is killed, for example: You walk behind your target and quickly shove your knife into their back, toss them roughly to the side when tearing you knife out as you keep moving, and then control is instantly given back to you even before you target hits the ground. In past games many of the animations didn’t give you control until your target actually hit the floor, which was precious time spent just standing there.

#4) Camo stays on while assassinating someone, this may seem obvious but its actually very important, the purpose of camo is to have greater stealth, so this would essentially be one of its main perks, it makes it so that you are practically impossible to hit while doing an assassination since you are both moving at a fast speed, your hitbox is changed due to your changed pose, and you are also invisible. This would be a great way to make Camo more useful on a more common basis.

#5) Assassinations can be done WHILE using the Grappleshot, this helps keep the flow of combat moving AND would allow for some pretty darn awesome moments.

Those are all the things I can think of, what do you think about it and what do you think should change on this list?

(Note: In MP Assassinations would be toggleable.)

2

It is a little disappointing that assassinations won’t be in the game, but I can see how it does slow down the game play. I had to turn them off in H5.

But yes… Some cool assassinations in the scenarios you’ve presented would be pretty awesome.

3

> 2533274872013539;2:
> It is a little disappointing that assassinations won’t be in the game, but I can see how it does slow down the game play. I had to turn them off in H5.
>
> But yes… Some cool assassinations in the scenarios you’ve presented would be pretty awesome.

Thanks! I was trying to find a way to essentially make the result of assassinations no different than a back smack and I wanted to find a way to have assassinations make you less vulnerable.

4

The problem is you’re still locked in an animation which will result in the sweats disabling assassinations again. Realistically the only solution is having a toggle. Even if the player doing the assassination was invincible during the animation it’s still a “disadvantage”. Fun and competitive are difficult to mix without them canceling eachother out.

5

Off in multiplayer on in campaign. Problem fixed.

6

> 2533274975565198;4:
> The problem is you’re still locked in an animation which will result in the sweats disabling assassinations again. Realistically the only solution is having a toggle. Even if the player doing the assassination was invincible during the animation it’s still a “disadvantage”. Fun and competitive are difficult to mix without them canceling eachother out.

Well they would be toggleable of course, but I was just trying to find ways to soften the effects of Assassinations which is impossible to completely do but can be partially done. The devs said they wanted Assassinations but needed a way to make them have less of an effect on gameplay. But the devs didn’t say that they wanted Assassinations to be just as viable as a normal melee.

7

Make the animation quicker and keep it in campaign only
multiplayer doesn’t need it but if they wanna add an option where you can turn it on or off like halo 5 that’s fine too

8

> 2535438636443468;6:
> > 2533274975565198;4:
> > The problem is you’re still locked in an animation which will result in the sweats disabling assassinations again. Realistically the only solution is having a toggle. Even if the player doing the assassination was invincible during the animation it’s still a “disadvantage”. Fun and competitive are difficult to mix without them canceling eachother out.
>
> Well they would be toggleable of course, but I was just trying to find ways to soften the effects of Assassinations which is impossible to completely do but can be partially done. The devs said they wanted Assassinations but needed a way to make them have less of an effect on gameplay. But the devs didn’t say that they wanted Assassinations to be just as viable as a normal melee.

Oh yeah, I know where you’re coming from. It’s always great to explore new possibilities. The problem is even if it’s just a very slight disadvantage the sweats will still disable it, because muh E-sports. Regardless of how the impact is minimized I don’t believe it’s possible to fix. The nature of assassinations pretty much makes it impossible to not impact gameplay. Seeing as they weren’t added I think 343i came to this conclusion as well. As long as we keep bringing up assassinations, and voicing our interest in them they’ll likely return as they were in Halo 5 with a toggle.

9

> 2533274975565198;8:
> > 2535438636443468;6:
> > > 2533274975565198;4:
> > > The problem is you’re still locked in an animation which will result in the sweats disabling assassinations again. Realistically the only solution is having a toggle. Even if the player doing the assassination was invincible during the animation it’s still a “disadvantage”. Fun and competitive are difficult to mix without them canceling eachother out.
> >
> > Well they would be toggleable of course, but I was just trying to find ways to soften the effects of Assassinations which is impossible to completely do but can be partially done. The devs said they wanted Assassinations but needed a way to make them have less of an effect on gameplay. But the devs didn’t say that they wanted Assassinations to be just as viable as a normal melee.
>
> Oh yeah, I know where you’re coming from. It’s always great to explore new possibilities. The problem is even if it’s just a very slight disadvantage the sweats will still disable it, because muh E-sports. Regardless of how the impact is minimized I don’t believe it’s possible to fix. The nature of assassinations pretty much makes it impossible to not impact gameplay. Seeing as they were added I think 343i came to.this conclusion as well. As long as we keep bringing up assassinations, and voicing our interest in them they’ll likely return as they were in Halo 5 with a toggle.

Well its also possible that 343 is trying to just soften the blow as much as they can, but they have accepted that they cannot remove its effects completely which is why it won’t be in launch because it isn’t really a requirement for many players. They said that they wanted to find a better way, so they probably won’t just put in a solid copy of Halo 5 since obviously they didn’t think it would work or else we would have assassinations in Halo Infinite.

10

Agreed. I’d say making assassinations non-stationary and very fast would be the best way to do it, or make the animation no longer than one-two seconds. This way because it’s so fast it wouldn’t disrupt the flow of combat too much. OR, you don’t even get put into an animation, instead the enemy does. Let’s say maybe you back smack em with an assassination, and your AI boards their mjolnir and messes with the armor to break their bones in the suit, or it overloads their shields and shocks them to death, or activates a grenade in their inventory to blow them up. All the while you’re still running and gunning because the animation is separate from yourself!

11

As someone who only really plays in the social playlists, I never once viewed assassinations as any kind of problem. Even if they were slow and I made myself a target afterwards due to the long animation, that was a price I was willing to pay for dunking on someone, and I was fine with that. Perhaps they could offer fast fluid assassinations like OP mentioned, but also put in some ones that we have seen in the past for those who just enjoy the spectacle. At the end of the day, the competitive players will have them turned off anyway, so does it really matter that much? Regardless, I think the game will be enjoyable enough without them, but I will be pleased to see there return in the future.

12

> 2533274882898126;10:
> Agreed. I’d say making assassinations non-stationary and very fast would be the best way to do it, or make the animation no longer than one-two seconds. This way because it’s so fast it wouldn’t disrupt the flow of combat too much. OR, you don’t even get put into an animation, instead the enemy does. Let’s say maybe you back smack em with an assassination, and your AI boards their mjolnir and messes with the armor to break their bones in the suit, or it overloads their shields and shocks them to death, or activates a grenade in their inventory to blow them up. All the while you’re still running and gunning because the animation is separate from yourself!

That sounds interesting, but it kind of removes the point of assassinations in my opinion, which is to feel super awesome when ambushing someone. If it happens while you are gone the point is kind of removed. Also, when I said fast animations, I meant FAST. As in I would say that a good time would be at max 1 second, and a half second would be preferable for most assassinations. Fast enough that it really feels like a normal soldier just simply couldn’t do it at that speed, giving a sense of power and uniqueness in your spartan.

13

> 2535438636443468;1:
> The devs said themselves that assassinations won’t be in the game at launch but that they are big fans of them. They said that they wanted to find a way to make assassinations not slow the flow of combat, which it did in the previous games due to the 1-2 second period in which you would be stationary and vulnerable. Due to the fact that many people love them and are disappointed at their removal, I have come up with a possible set of solutions.
>
> New Assassination Requirements:
>
> #1) Faster animations than in previous games, fast enough that if you had motion blur on it would literally be pretty difficult to see what was going on.
>
> #2) Movement speed and direction must be imputed into the animation, for example: You hit an assassination while coming out of sprint, the resulting animation shows you leaping onto the target, knifing them while your momentum carries both of you, and then hitting the ground running while your target falls to the ground dead behind you, essentially, you don’t lose speed when engaging in an assassination, which makes you harder to hit and helps to keep the pace of combat going. And you also keep going in the direction you were running.
>
> #3) Control is instantly reverted back to you once your target is killed, for example: You walk behind your target and quickly shove your knife into their back, toss them roughly to the side when tearing you knife out as you keep moving, and then control is instantly given back to you even before you target hits the ground. In past games many of the animations didn’t give you control until your target actually hit the floor, which was precious time spent just standing there.
>
> #4) Camo stays on while assassinating someone, this may seem obvious but its actually very important, the purpose of camo is to have greater stealth, so this would essentially be one of its main perks, it makes it so that you are practically impossible to hit while doing an assassination since you are both moving at a fast speed, your hitbox is changed due to your changed pose, and you are also invisible. This would be a great way to make Camo more useful on a more common basis.
>
> #5) Assassinations can be done WHILE using the Grappleshot, this helps keep the flow of combat moving AND would allow for some pretty darn awesome moments.
>
> Those are all the things I can think of, what do you think about it and what do you think should change on this list?
>
> (Note: In MP Assassinations would be toggleable.)

Honestly I don’t mind having the pace of combat slowed down in order to nail an assasination. Particularly the ones with the plasma grenade, hammer, and sword are all super cool. I don’t care that much if I’m vulnerable while it’s happening, or even if I get killed during the process because it’s still worth it in my mind.

14

Why not just grant the ability to cancel assassinations?

15

> 2533274814550076;14:
> Why not just grant the ability to cancel assassinations?

The reason is that I didn’t actually say that assassinations wouldn’t work as they were in Halo 5, the devs did, I’m just trying to find the type of solution that the devs would have preferred.

16

Just do like Apex and make them part of the gameplay instead of just another cosmetic. Reward players for pulling off a slow stationary animation, and make it so you get some sort of buff/advantage for pulling off a risky move.
It could be an overshield, a speed boost, damage boost, camo, revealing enemies, refill power weapons, make it so enemies stay dead longer, award bonus points, etc.
Control-wise, just stick to the Reach method of: Single press= regular melee. Hold button= Assassination.

17

I’d say just keep it toggleable and have short animations pretty much what the OP said. :slight_smile:

18

Make it so the last kill of the match, if a melee from behind, is an assassination.

Everyone gets to watch it…