AI Wraiths should not be able to...

Games Other Halo
#1

See you if their line of sight is blocked.

I usually don’t make threads here but this is something I was thinking about yesterday.

The Problem:

In Halo: Reach, the Wraith can fire from phenomenal distances and even if it’s line of sight is blocked by a huge cliff, it can somehow still see you.

My Proposal:

Instead of outright getting rid of this, have Wraiths deploy UAVs. Kinda like Promethean Watchers only they are non-combat and just act as floating cameras that focus in on the player. There would be some way to locate them and they would be within firing range so you don’t have to fire a dozen rockets into the air…

The Reason:

The Scorpion has:

-4 seats on the tread
-antennae

What does the Wraith have to compare?

The Wraith has:

-mortar
-wheelie (hold A), but nearly all Covie ground based vehicles have that
-boost, but nearly all Covie vehicles have this

Seriously, this is the King of Ghosts? There’s nothing unique other than it’s projectile/way of firing.

In fact, the 3 classic Covie vehicles (Ghost, Wraith, Banshee) have barely changed with each game. There hasn’t been any major changes since H2 (with H3 making one change: adding turret seats).

I have a little fear about the Reach Banshee just being thrown into H4 with minimal changes to it’s gameplay (like how the H4 Banshee will have less faster evasive maneuvers and won’t be so vulnerable and hopefully won’t have such a big splash damage) and with new effects and lighting.

Last I checked, Halo was evolving. H4 should strive to be as radical as H2 and CE. Look at how H3, ODST, and Reach turned out. Predominantly mp (in ODST, firefight) with campaign ending within 8 hours even on Legendary. Very cautious, very lacking. This should not be the case.

I find that the Wraith is something unpleasant to now use. It doesn’t deserve to be merely given a new coat of paint with barely any gameplay changes.

#2

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#3

> > Instead of outright getting rid of this, have Wraiths deploy UAVs acting like floating cameras.
>
> Good idea, but how would the player control it?

Not necessarily available to the player. Remember how the H2 Wraith had auto-turrets? It’d be AI controlled. Perhaps using the d pad could get Cortana to control it.

#4

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#5

> > > > Instead of outright getting rid of this, have Wraiths deploy UAVs acting like floating cameras.
> > >
> > > Good idea, but how would the player control it?
> >
> > Not necessarily available to the player. Remember how the H2 Wraith had auto-turrets? It’d be AI controlled. Perhaps using the d pad could get Cortana to control it.
>
> Then I can see it working. Of course, then you’ll have to convince everyone that it’s a good implementation. You know how these forums operate.

Thanks. Well I was just trying to give an explanation to it. I feel like the Wraith got downgraded in H3.

Other issues to address:

-Wraith pilots firing the mortar from odd angles. With enemies, it seems rare. With allies, it can be induced by getting the Wraith stuck
-Wraith pilots firing at dropships when they should be firing at the troops being dropped off

#6

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#7

good idea but you gotta think its alien tech so it might not need drones or something like human technology. also the driver cant physically see through the front of the wraith, so there is obviously some kind of screen or thermal imaging- this might be like PV

#8

Every Halo AI Wraith has had a super auto aim. In Halo CE the motor would actually turn in the air to hit you.

#9

This is hundreds of years from now, the technology is much better and can probably track the player. Plus, the driver of the wraith has gone through a lot of training to fight on the battlefield.

But, I agree. It’d be much better if you could, strategically, hide behind objects and the wraith would have to drive over or make random shots. That’d be much better, in my opinion. :stuck_out_tongue:

#10

One obvious way to make the Wraith more pleasent to drive is to not make it take an hour to turn 90 degrees, and speed its acceleration up.

#11

> good idea but you gotta think its alien tech so it might not need drones or something like human technology. also the driver cant physically see through the front of the wraith, so there is obviously some kind of screen or thermal imaging- this might be like PV

You have a point there.

Though that doesn’t account for the fact that some Grunt gunners can see you from a long distance, despite having no screen.

> This is hundreds of years from now, the technology is much better and can probably track the player. Plus, the driver of the wraith has gone through a lot of training to fight on the battlefield.
>
> But, I agree. It’d be much better if you could, strategically, hide behind objects and the wraith would have to drive over or make random shots. That’d be much better, in my opinion. :stuck_out_tongue:

Yep.

Agreed. When I see drunk Wraith drivers, falling off the edge, it’s funny and sad. It just seems kind of lazy to make them automatically know instead of giving them better pathfinding.

> One obvious way to make the Wraith more pleasent to drive is to not make it take an hour to turn 90 degrees, and speed its acceleration up.

Yep.

The H2 Wraith is the one that I have in mind as the best Wraith so far. It had good traction and could squeeze through obstacles to participate in the Tartarus battle.

#12

Well, think about how our Battleships work in current times. We are able to call in locations and have battleships fire from miles away and hit the target. Artillery has done that for ages. I don’t think it’s hard to assume that some Covenant could spot you, and then let the Wraith know what general area you are in.

#13

> I don’t think it’s hard to assume that some Covenant could spot you, and then let the Wraith know what general area you are in.

I find that hard to believe given how Covies don’t even care how many of their allies are dead.

The only AI in Reach that try to avenge their comrades are Brutes (berserking) and Grunts (kamikaze) but only the latter actually looks believable.

The lack of cohesion is quite prevalent in Covenant AI. The aggression and prioritization on the player has increased significantly with each Halo game but the regard has been demolished in Reach.

Glitches like Elite piloted Wraiths splattering multiple Elite allies are definitely not convincing. Actions like sticking each other or blowing up oneself with an explosive weapon (because of trigger happy fingers) also isn’t very convincing.

Ever since H2, there has been a ton of safety implementations (allies can’t damage each other with their melee, reduced damage for accidental hits, not firing explosive weapon if ally near enemy) to prevent all this and it’s still happening, quite prominent in H3 and Reach.

Yet in H3, there was improved recognition for allied deaths:

-certain Brutes berserked over Grunts
-Kamikaze Grunts
-Grunts panicked over leader’s death
-Elites knelt at dead marines and Elites
-Hunter berserking over partner’s death
-killing a Covie with melee, sending their bodies flying in front of or through a Covie would alert them

Several things did not return from H2:

-Brutes berserked over Brute deaths
-Brutes wept over Brute deaths
-Jackals panicked over leader’s death

But were compensated by new additions

ODST implemented Engineers self destructing when it was the last unit.

With Reach, only 3 of the above have returned:

-kamikaze Grunts
-Grunts panicking over leader’s death
-Brute berserking over Brute deaths

Mindless robots. Swarm behavior for Elites. Everyone cannon fodder. That is not Covenant AI. That is Flood AI.

H4 is doing the right thing by making AI work as a team. There was none of that with the Covenant. It’s every man for himself. I’d have preferred the cinematic that would have had happened instead of Lone Wolf, which becomes absurd in it’s final stages.

#14

Or maybe they use their radar just like everyone does…

#15

This annoyed me so much in Reach, especially on Legendary. Enemies should only fire if they have a line of sight on you at all times.

#16

I really like the UAV idea. if a Wraith is pummeling the crap out of you, you can find the UAV and destroy it. it would make it a new way to fight against ranged Wraiths.

however, it should only be for AIs, like the Auto Turrets in Halo 2. UAVs for Wraiths in Multiplayer would be broken and be more of use for communications than actually using the Wraith.

though don’t Covies have, I don’t know, a radio to let the Wraith know where you’re at?

#17

> Or maybe they use their radar just like everyone does…

What?

#18

> > Or maybe they use their radar just like everyone does…
>
> What?

In Reach (and perhaps Halo 3) your radar expands so you can pretty much know where everyone is. Maybe the “Covies” have that too. With of course Enchanted Mode on to see you at all times.

EDIT: You can’t see everyone on the map if you misunderstood what I meant. I meant as in range.

#19

> > > Or maybe they use their radar just like everyone does…
> >
> > What?
>
> In Reach (and perhaps Halo 3) your radar expands so you can pretty much know where everyone is. Maybe the “Covies” have that too. With of course Enchanted Mode on to see you at all times.

Ha never thought about that. I always thought they have some sort of covie radio on coordinates for a general area artillery bombardment.

#20

what if the wraith had a auto lock feature i mean the shell moves so slow anyways what if it would barely move from side to side tracing its target you know inch by inch