Armor Ability Concepts v1

Games Other Halo
1

Loadout abilities are what you can spawn with.

On-map abilities are equipment styled abilities that wouldn’t be balanced in loadouts. They could still be forced into loadouts via custom games options though.

Short Cooldown: 5-10 seconds
Significant: 10-15 seconds.
Long: 15-30 seconds.

Loadout Abilities

Hologram
Same as now except with an alternate fire. You can hold down the ability button to move and aim the hologram at the cost of more energy and being forced to stay in place. Short cooldown.

Teleporter
Allows you to place destructible teleports on the map, significant cooldown.

Target Lock
Alternative to Promethean vision. Allows you to feed enemy locations to your ally’s HUD (puts a red triangle above them) by aiming at them and pressing the ability button. Significant cooldown and enemies only show up within a small range of you and your allies.

Mounted Turret
Place down a user-mounted turret to support your team. Significant cooldown. Moderate damage to vehicles.

Thruster Pack
Slightly more range, allows you to hover while in use. Short Cooldown.

Mancannon
Alternative to jetpack. Shorter range, destructible version of on-map cannons, allows combat while in flight but only in a linear direction. Can be used to boost or oppose vehicles. Significant cooldown.

Noise Emitter
Alternative to Camo. Placed like radar jammer from Halo 3. Blurs vision and hampers hearing of those within its radius. Significant cooldown.

On-Map Abilities

The ability the player has equipped will show up above their head when they are aimed at.

Remote Controlled Sentinel
Allows you to spawn and control a Sentinel in the same manner as hologram. Damages user upon ‘death’. Long cooldown.

Sentry Gun
Buffed version of the campaign sentries, long cooldown, altered appearance.

Tripmines
Self explanatory, significant cooldown.

Jetpack
Self explanatory, short cooldown.

Regeneration Field
Better than Halo 4’s, worse than Halo 3’s. Significant cooldown.

Miscellaneous

Active Camo is a powerup again.

2

> Active Camo is a powerup again.

This is about the only thing in your post that I like, although I do like the idea of being able to set deploy gadgets. Overall, I think there was a lot more potential for equipment when they were single-use. Now that they have unlimited ammo and are available on spawn, their effects have to be subtle. IMO, they don’t all currently work well in Halo 4. Camo and Jetpack are the most egregious violators. They don’t complement Halo gameplay. They’ve changed it, actually making it less dynamic.

The other thing I like that you posted is similar to something I included in my thread on an alternative approach to armor abilities a while back. The idea would be to complement Halo gameplay by streamlining classic abilities and altering some base player traits.

Your Target Lock is equivalent to my TacPad, which was an armor piece in Reach that we couldn’t actually use. If you pressed the armor ability button while aimed at an enemy, it would mark them on your team’s HUD. If you pressed it while aimed at a friendly, it would command your team to help that teammate out. If you pressed it while aiming at a point on the map, it would set a rally point for your team to group up around.

These functions have been available in other AAA shooters, and they work extremely well, streamlining chatter so your team can talk about other things. I think it would work very well in Halo, but it would require 343 to re-evaluate their approach to armor abilities. Right now, armor abilities are essentially special powers. Instead, I’d like to see them be more complementary to Halo base mechanics.

3

I vote for no AAs at all.

4

> Instead, I’d like to see them be more complementary to Halo base mechanics.

I’ll try to work around that next time.

> although I do like the idea of being able to set deploy gadgets.

What do you mean by this sentence here?

5

> > > although I do like the idea of being able to set deploy gadgets.
> >
> > What do you mean by this sentence here?
>
> Typo. Oops. It simply means I like deployable gadgets. I think they worked very well in Halo 3 and could work well again. For example, the deployable grav lift was great and is so much more appropriate for this game than the jet pack.
>
> But I think you have some good ideas with, for example, being able to throw down a mounted turret. I wouldn’t like to see this as an armor ability, mind you, but being able to pick up a turret “package” somewhere and then deploy it where you want? I actually think that’s a phenomenal idea.
>
> The autosentry armor ability? Terrible idea. A deployable, one-time-use pickup autosentry or mounted turret? Fantastic idea!

6

I do like your idea of meshing loadout armor abilities with map-based equipment. I suspect Halo 5 will look to incorporate Reach/H4 style AAs with H3 style equipment. It could be really cool.

But, I really don’t have a problem with the way it is now. I find it pretty enjoyable, actually.

7

<mark>Just get rid of them and make loads more pick-ups.</mark> Invulnerability, quick reload, bottomless clip, infinite ammo, power boost (instant beat down), all of these things could be tested as pick-ups but have instead been swapped out for frustrating AA.