Hello.
You might know me as one of those guys who seems to be fighting every change. I also see a lot of misconception surrounding this.
Now, most players here who resist this change offer a reason that relates back to one of a few things:
-It removes a skillful component of the game (i.e. Sprint in Map Control, CTF Changes, Binary Rifle)
-It affects the Golden Triangle (AAs/Loadouts in general)
-It removes same starts and weapon control (Loadouts, Personal Ordinance, Semi-Random Weapon Drops)
I’m not here to argue any of these cases. That’s already being done plenty of times in plenty of other threads. What I am going to say is that just about any reasonable complaint about this change going too far relates back to these three. Many consider these elements to be fundamental to Halo. So, they want changes that keep these intact.
“I don’t want Halo 3.5!/Go play Halo 3!”
Well, I don’t want Halo 3.5 either. I also want a new title. So, let’s look at past titles and what they changed, because they did it without changing these three, right?
Halo 2 added dual wielding, the utility weapon, dual weapon roles (BR/Carbine or Sniper/Beam Rifle as an example), melee weapons, 1-50, invisible health and hijacking.
Cool. Sounds significant, and it doesn’t affect those three.
Halo 3 added equipment (a biggie), Forge, Theater, new grenade types, removing turrets and the Brute weapons/vehicles.
Less changes total, but bigger ones. None of them affect the big three, although I suppose you could argue equipment. Since it is earned like a weapon I have no problem with it.
Reach added AAs, Bloom, a bigger and badder forge, the Arena to replace 1-50, visible health is back, no dual wield and no bleedthrough.
This is iffy. Many avoided Reach and consider this too far for Halo. See how it breaks the three things I listed above. Now for the big one…
“Cool, Scorch. But how about you actually give some ideas?”
Well, I have. Many times. As I just showed, there can be changes that will still draw flak, but do not affect those big three and thus are more easily accepted by the community in the end. I mean, Halo CE, 2 and 3 kept their population despite rage. Reach didn’t. Before you pull the “Halo didn’t compete with other titles” card, remember that Halo 3 fought CoD 4 and won for a long time. That was considered the best CoD by most.
So, the ideas that do not affect the big three, off the top of my head:
-Add a double jump or jumppack system to add an emphasis to platforming on maps.
-Add in a zero-G mode like the Halo 4 Reveal trailer.
-Add secondary functions to all or at least most weapons. Look at Marathon for an example of this. A more recent example is Nexuiz, if anyone played that. Maybe like the Halo 2 E3 build BR (basically like the Light Rifle) as an example of one.
-Add in a callout system done by using the D-Pad to send messages to your team quickly.
-Add in a wellthought-out division or ladder system that persistently tracks individual and team performance in ranked playlists, showing how well you stack up against others directly.
-Add in a modified equipment system with pickups like AAs are found on the map that are visible on the character and have a finite amount of uses. Can be recovered from dead players.
-Add pickups like Active Camo and Brovershield back in. Make Speed Boost another pickup.
I came up with this list in 5 minutes. I would not fight any of these changes. I would encourage them. They do not affect the big three, and they offer significant but not completely different (with the exception of Zero-G) Halo gameplay.
I refuse to believe that the Arena Shooter cannot be innovated further without moving outside of the genre. It is possible. It’s what a lot of the complainers were looking for.
So yeah, there are ideas afloat. Some are complaining for the sake of complaining, but others have reason and aren’t blindly fighting everything.
If you have any other ideas, or comments on these, feel free to share.
Oh, and thanks for reading my wall of text!