AA ideas for halo 5

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

Magnet: Allows the user to stick to surfaces. The player is allowed to move (at a slower pace)look around and shoot while sticking to a surface. possible to move from wall to ceiling while using the AA. Being shot at causes you to fall down. all in 1st person. Recharge time 15 seconds.

Hacker: Disables enemies AA’s for 5 seconds and the user will not show up on motion trackers of those effected by the hack for 12 seconds. 20 second recharge.

Hard light shield (revisited:) Shield is slightly smaller enough to move at normal walking pace but cannot sprint. Player is able to “bash” enemies with shield (normal damage as melee) and if holding a secondary weapon out when activating the ability it is duel wielded with the shield. It blocks just like the HLS and it’s usage is just like the HLS where the longer it’s out the more you drain. 20 second recharge if emptied.

EMP blast: weakens enemy shields at the cost of your shields taking longer to recharge for 20 seconds. weakens means less shots to take down an enemies shields. Will disable light vehicles similar to an over charge of a PP but things like scorpion wraith and mantis will be uneffected. recharge time 15 seconds.

Regen revisited: you + allies with in 5m of you will have shields recharging just like regen in halo 4. except you are the ability so it’s mobile both you and allies will have a green glowing outline to show other players you are under the effect and in first person your screen will have a light green tint. run time is 15 seconds recharge time is 20 seconds.

Armor lock (not what you think!:slight_smile: Upon activation you go into 3rd person and your spartans armor “locks up” into a death pose falling onto the ground. Essentially you are faking death to get the drop on enemies. When on the ground you can be shot and killed. A player can check for this by shooting you to see if your shields flare. If an enemy has his back turned to you and he is right next to you you can activate a special assassination animation where you pull the spartan down and stab him/her in the base of the spine. Run time is 25 seconds recharge is 30 seconds. You can quit out of the AA anytime by moving the left thumb stick but the remaining energy is depleted and the ability has to recharge.

Jump pack: If you just press the ability without a direction you will burst up into the air. If you press forward or backward and the AA button you will jump burst back or forward. While falling you have some control over where you land by moving the left thumb stick. You cannot fire or throw a nade till you reach the peak of your jump and then while falling you are free to nade or fire. Recharge time 10 seconds.

Hologram revisited: same as 4’s but with the addition to stun a target if someone falls for it and punches your hologram. The “stun” does not effect your shields it simply makes it hard to turn fast and your movement is slowed by 20%. those effects last 5 seconds. Ability recharge is that of halo 4’s.

PV revisited: It behaves almost exactly like halo 4’s. Except you cannot shoot when using PV and your radar is gone. Can “spam” it 3 times before it’s drained. run time is 15 seconds if left on and recharge is 20 seconds but can use one portion after 5 seconds.

Sprint: honestly either of these could work.
Option 1) Turn it into an ability called over drive. This ability can be activated 2 different ways. A single press or a quick double press. The single press lets your guy move slightly faster say…110% also animations like assassinations would be faster. You would reload weapons pick up weapons and swap weapons faster.

The second mode or “double press” would let your person go into a full on sprint animation going much faster then sprints current speed. This would be only really helpful in BTB as it has big maps. the double press also has everything the single press does. Also you move at base speed while carrying a turret. The draw back though is the weapon ready time from coming out of sprint would be present and slightly longer then it is right now and the cool down for the overdrive double press is longer then a single press. Lastly to distinguish the modes to the player one press turns the HUD a light blue like speed boost does and double press would be a light orange tint.

-or-

Option 2) I call it sprint V2(couldn’t come up with a name) Basically we would be adding more movement options to sprint. For instance pressing sprint in any direction but up would cause said player to do a mini 1st person dodge in that direction. Sprinting forward is the same as halo 4 up till you run into a flat surface like a wall. Then you would begin a short run up the wall. If the player presses A while sprinting up the wall the spartan will press off the wall still facing the wall. This would allow someone to assassinate a possible threat.
Option 1 would have to be an AA option to could be either an AA or default like halo 4.

Active camo: Turned into a scouting tool. you have good camo regardless of movement. But how fast you move directly effects how much energy you use. Firing while cloaked breaks cloak and puts you in immediate recharge. Run time 20 seconds if sitting still the entire time recharge time is 20 seconds.

Thoughts?

#2

Magnet would be hard to implement, as it negates the need to jump up to a ledge, as you can just climb the wall to it.

#3

> Magnet would be hard to implement, as it negates the need to jump up to a ledge, as you can just climb the wall to it.

I know. IMO it seems like the hardest ability to get to work. But i really want it to. That way we can use more of the map by using the walls and ceilings as potential combat areas. This would make making maps both more simple and more diverse.

#4

> Magnet: Allows the user to stick to surfaces. The player is allowed to move (at a slower pace)look around and shoot while sticking to a surface. possible to move from wall to ceiling while using the AA. Being shot at causes you to fall down. all in 1st person. Recharge time 15 seconds.

I did give this at least some consideration, but in the end my answer is no.

Knowing that anyone could be above the ceiling on any portion of the map would lead to overly cautious, slow gameplay, similar to camo.

> Hacker: Disables enemies AA’s for 5 seconds and the user will not show up on motion trackers of those effected by the hack for 12 seconds. 20 second recharge.

Well, not bad I guess. You sacrifice an AA for the ability to fight other people on even ground.

Of course, removing AA’s entirely from the equation isn’t necessarily a good thing if AA’s become an integral part of play. In a round about way, this idea is a bit of a crutch in that it lowers the depth of the game.

> Hard light shield (revisited:) Shield is slightly smaller enough to move at normal walking pace but cannot sprint. Player is able to “bash” enemies with shield (normal damage as melee) and if holding a secondary weapon out when activating the ability it is duel wielded with the shield. It blocks just like the HLS and it’s usage is just like the HLS where the longer it’s out the more you drain. 20 second recharge if emptied.

Still going to say No. Adding offensive capabilities to something that already makes you a defensive powerhouse isn’t wise. Even if smaller, I assume it’s large enough to block most small arms fire along with sniper rifle rounds.

> EMP blast: weakens enemy shields at the cost of your shields taking longer to recharge for 20 seconds. weakens means less shots to take down an enemies shields. Will disable light vehicles similar to an over charge of a PP but things like scorpion wraith and mantis will be uneffected. recharge time 15 seconds.

No. For one, would promote suicide tactics and trading kills. For another, stopping vehicles is problematic.

> Regen revisited: you + allies with in 5m of you will have shields recharging just like regen in halo 4. except you are the ability so it’s mobile both you and allies will have a green glowing outline to show other players you are under the effect and in first person your screen will have a light green tint. run time is 15 seconds recharge time is 20 seconds.

No. Being able to heal teammates in the middle of a firefight is bad, especially if it affects yourself AND it’s mobile.

> Armor lock (not what you think!:slight_smile: Upon activation you go into 3rd person and your spartans armor “locks up” into a death pose falling onto the ground.

So, similar to Feign Death in TF and Dead Ringer in TF2.

The problem with these type of abilities, along with Hologram, is that they are inherently underpowered. They rely on your enemy ‘falling for it’.

In TF2 they added 90% damage resistance to Dead Ringer, simply because the concept of feigning death alone hardly ever fooled anyone except the newest players.

And before you say it, no, we can’t do that in Halo. For one, it’s incredibly annoying in TF2, and for another, it would be incredibly overpowered in Halo.

> Jump pack: If you just press the ability without a direction you will burst up into the air.

Not a huge fan, just as I am not a huge fan of jetpack.

> Hologram revisited: same as 4’s but with the addition to stun a target if someone falls for it and punches your hologram.

Eh, I disagree. Would be extremely situational.

Perhaps the opponent takes minor damage for hitting or shooting it instead.

This means people would be more cautious when shooting enemies, and would at least punish people for making bad mistakes.

Still, I can see it having a similar effect to Magnet, where everyone is ultra cautious so no one ever shoots until they are absolutely sure it’s a hologram.

> PV revisited:

Lolno. Radar is bad enough.

> Sprint:

I like the concept of Overdrive, but I’m not certain it would be balanced.

Perhaps if, when coming out of overdrive, you move significantly slower for a bit.

You used overdrive to reach the rockets, but now you’re moving at a snails pace with them.

As for “full on sprint animation”, no. Thruster Pack is similar and better designed, and taking control away from the character isn’t generally a good idea.

> Active camo: Turned into a scouting tool. you have good camo regardless of movement.

Taking inspiration from Team Fortress again, though I don’t think it parallels well into Halo 4. The spy can use camo to get behind the enemy, but the spy also has drawbacks when it comes to combat.

Whereas in Halo, I can pick up a rocket, cloak to get behind enemy lines, then uncloak and destroy the enemy team.

> Thoughts?

Some ideas have potential, at the very least better than the average AA thread.

#5

Stasis Field:

Activates in a similar manner as Regeneration Field/Drop shield.

Generates a “Stasis Sphere” with a radius that of the Bubble Shield. Slows down objects proportional to their speed. Projectiles and vehicles would experience a greater effect than a player moving through the field.

#6

> > Magnet would be hard to implement, as it negates the need to jump up to a ledge, as you can just climb the wall to it.
>
> I know. IMO it seems like the hardest ability to get to work.

Actually, the coding is kind of still there. We see it in Flood spores, Crawlers, and buggers.

Trust me, I’ve done it in Halo PC, all it was, was a check box in the biped data tag settings.

#7

Going to be brutally honest, I really disliked each and every one of your ideas, sorry that’s just my opinion. They all seem to be far too overpowered and unbalanced. AAs need to be simple and have one function rather than multiple functions for example, hologram should only produce a hologram and not have a secondary stun effect.

I think Promethean vision and Active camo need to go too. Camo can at least return as a pick up as it always had done before though.

#8

> > > Magnet would be hard to implement, as it negates the need to jump up to a ledge, as you can just climb the wall to it.
> >
> > I know. IMO it seems like the hardest ability to get to work.
>
> Actually, the coding is kind of still there. We see it in Flood spores, Crawlers, and buggers.
>
> Trust me, I’ve done it in Halo PC, all it was, was a check box in the biped data tag settings.

Yeah i used to place a modded version of CE on my first xbox. You could stick to things and atleast the mods name on mine was “spiderman head.”

What i mean as it would be hard to properly balance.

#9

@Rami

  1. Magnet was by far the AA i wanted most. But i’m having a hard time trying to balance it. Originally i was thinking you could only be on the ceiling or wall for a set time before the ability ran out. But then i was feeling like the AA was UP because of that and being able to be shot off. So i decided to remove the first part.
    Would you be more for this ability if you had a set time you could be stuck on an object?

  2. This idea was more for wanting a stealthy build/preventer. A lot of people dislike camo as an AA so i thought why not make another ability that makes you “invisible” without actually being invisible. Also it would be for situations where someone tries to thruster/sprint away if sprint became an AA.

  3. This idea can be toyed with. I.E. being destroyable similar to a jackals shield or something like reaches AL where the more damage it takes the less time you get to use it. Mainly wanted to make this a more appealing option for players as few run with HLS.

  4. I see your point. But imo i think this effect is better as an AA then as a weapon. A player is potentially sacrificing more this way.

  5. The mobile part is the focal point of this ability. Possibly we can remove the healing effect on you or make it so it only works outside combat. Again wanted the idea to be more appealing.

  6. We already have the situational hologram so i don’t see the problem with adding another.

  7. noted.

  8. Doubtful. People bait with hologram all the time but that doesn’t slow down the game. I honestly find nothing with this idea wrong.

  9. There is a FPS on PC that uses a goggle system like PV that does the same thing as my idea. It works well.

  10. The full sprint animation refers to how halo 4’s animation is. Simply stating the single button press doesn’t have this animation where as the double press does.

  11. Actually pulled this cloak idea from crysis. The situation you provided seems fair. He was able to fight over and win the rockets and was smart enough to use cloak at the right time to flank.

#10

> @Rami
> 1)
> Would you be more for this ability if you had a set time you could be stuck on an object?

Not really.

The thought of walking through a door way just to have someone shotgun me from above it doesn’t appeal to me. Even if it’s only just a fraction of a second, it can still be used for quick assassinations or for dodging grenades.

> 2) This idea was more for wanting a stealthy build/preventer.

For one, no radar is not a downside. Competitive gametypes don’t even use radar. You can’t use it to balance out AA’s.

For another, it disables other AA’s, killing any strategy that comes with those AA’s. Not a fan.

> 5)

Still OP. The only way I’d support this is if it simply re-starts your ally’s shield recharge, so it can heal them outside of combat without affecting them in combat.

> 6) We already have the situational hologram so i don’t see the problem with adding another.

Because it’s too situational, thus too underpowered, to even justify adding.

> 8) Doubtful. People bait with hologram all the time but that doesn’t slow down the game. I honestly find nothing with this idea wrong.

I was mainly talking about my ideas for it.

Punching holograms doesn’t slow the game, it’s also something no one would ever do regardless.

> 9) There is a FPS on PC that uses a goggle system like PV that does the same thing as my idea. It works well.

It really doesn’t. Rather than requiring situational awareness and communication, it just feeds you enemy information.

> 11) Actually pulled this cloak idea from crysis. The situation you provided seems fair. He was able to fight over and win the rockets and was smart enough to use cloak at the right time to flank.

He’s moving around completely invisible with a rocket launcher. Instant win button. The enemy team doesn’t even have a chance to contend with that.

This also affects snipers. I can sit and hide with the cloak enabled, and it only disables the moment I pull the trigger, which is irrelevant because if I have good aim, the first time I pull the trigger is also the last.

#11

Not too big on your idea’s I’ll admit minus one…the EMP thing is an interesting concept. Maybe something could be implemented like this. If halo 5 has AA I hope they’re a one time use map pick up thing like equipment was in H3.

Random comment… I’ve always thought the hologram should be holding whatever weapon your holding. Makes sense to me.

#12

Some concepts are interesting, but honesty AA’s are a wacky thing to mess with. And the one’s you posted are hideously OP, minus Jump-Pack.

I’d keep thruster pack, Jump-pack, and Drop-shield and build from those three. They seem to represent the most balance in my opinion than any other AA’s that have been introduced. (I would include Hologram, but until it does something more than fool a new player, it’s pointless.)

#13

<mark>Do not necropost threads.</mark>

They should comeback but only for warzone modes.

#14

Halo has had its run with AA’s. The ones you mentioned are either overpowered or almost worthless (what’s the point of a jump pack if you have to sit still to use it?) Balanced gameplay and AA’s cannot coexist. Go play CoD or Destiny if you want all that stuff.