Who honestly thought this was a good idea? This shows that 343 once again doesn’t know their community. Instead of catering to their large fan base they want to attract players who won’t even play the game long term. It would actually be easier to make a system to let players choose their armor colors than spend so much resources on my armor coatings and having them configure to each set of armor. 343 has shown yet again that they don’t understand halo and chose to prioritize microtransactions and a battle pass system than their fans. Remember Multiplayer is gonna be free to play so what am I spending $60 on? Campaign? Firefight? Forge? Theater if it works? That isn’t worth $60 in my book plus there might be Battle royale in halo?! Stop chasing trends and make a game that your fans want.
> 2533274823664396;10:
> > 2533274847563380;9:
> > > 2533274823664396;8:
> > > I’m telling you right now, if I pay for the game & then get pay walled out of picking a freakin’ color… especially if it is a one time use… oh man oh man. The nail in the coffin would finally be here.
> > >
> > > GG guys, its been a good 19 years.
> >
> > I wouldn’t even buy it if that was confirmed. This would be the definition of 1 step forwards and 2 steps back as far as customization goes. But hopefully those fears are unjustified.
> >
> > Honestly though we just have no idea what to expect. We’re so desperate for info that we crack the whip at the smallest things.
>
> I agree, I’m not trying to just crack the whip, but I just don’t see the appeal to armor coatings if I can just make my character the same color… hmm
Well, looks like we both are pretty much in the same camp now… Yicks, wasn’t expecting them to confirm the loss of Primary and Secondary colours like this…
Well, I can guaranty my intrest is waning further for this game. I fervently believe that video gaming is becoming a lost hobby for me since devs seem to be so out of touch with what we want.
Or perhaps I am in the vocal minority and everyone else wants games that follow monetized trends, either way I’m starting to see myself as a dieing breed.
> 2533274927191044;119:
> I can’t be the only person who yet again has been let down by 343. I always try defending them and try to give them a chance but this is the deciding factor. Armor coating is awe full. I don’t even want the game anymore knowing that I won’t be able to choose the colors of my Spartan. What’s the point of having customizable armor if everyone is going to be running with the same colors on. Poor decision making. 343 I hope you actually see what your community wants. Armor coating is not what they want. Boy cott halo infinite. I’ve been playing halo since halo CE came out. They killed the franchise for me because they can’t do the simple things
Your not i personality feel the same way
Wait so if I wanted to paint my Spartan Colour to White & Blue I have to pay for it?
> 2533274847563380;122:
> > 2533274823664396;10:
> > > 2533274847563380;9:
> > > > 2533274823664396;8:
> > > > I’m telling you right now, if I pay for the game & then get pay walled out of picking a freakin’ color… especially if it is a one time use… oh man oh man. The nail in the coffin would finally be here.
> > > >
> > > > GG guys, its been a good 19 years.
> > >
> > > I wouldn’t even buy it if that was confirmed. This would be the definition of 1 step forwards and 2 steps back as far as customization goes. But hopefully those fears are unjustified.
> > >
> > > Honestly though we just have no idea what to expect. We’re so desperate for info that we crack the whip at the smallest things.
> >
> > I agree, I’m not trying to just crack the whip, but I just don’t see the appeal to armor coatings if I can just make my character the same color… hmm
>
> Well, looks like we both are pretty much in the same camp now… Yicks, wasn’t expecting them to confirm the loss of Primary and Secondary colours like this…
>
> Well, I can guaranty my intrest is waning further for this game. I fervently believe that video gaming is becoming a lost hobby for me since devs seem to be so out of touch with what we want.
>
> Or perhaps I am in the vocal minority and everyone else wants games that follow monetized trends, either way I’m starting to see myself as a dieing breed.
If Halo 4’s customization on MCC means anything the Armor Coatings are just skins with a new name. I’m disappointed we aren’t getting a skin editor like many have been asking for, but I guess this isn’t the worst thing.
Edit: just saw that terrible news… I really hate how what we’re seeing with this game as of late is just downgrade after downgrade.
> 2535428779736382;124:
> Wait so if I wanted to paint my Spartan Colour to White & Blue I have to pay for it?
There is no confirmation whether all coatings will be purchasable or if any will be free/earnable through in game achievements.
> 2533274807537946;114:
> > 2533274819446242;91:
> > > 2533274807537946;78:
> > > If this is what it takes to have a modern Halo game that doesn’t have a population nose-dive after a few months, and for content for Infinite to continue to be developed over the course of the 10 years for which they said it’s gonna be the main Halo platform (as well as whole new games that I assume they’ll slot in like with MCC), then I’ll take it. As much as I liked armor customization in the prior games, I’d also like for players to keep coming back to the game week to week to earn cosmetics stuff, see what new modes/maps/events get released, and for the devs to be able to pay rent.
> >
> > If a game can’t sustain a population without manipulative game design tied to microtransactions it never deserved a population in the first place. Until such time the game industry, particularly the AAA game industry becomes vastly more transparent, they don’t get to plead poverty about how they need to “pay rent.”
> >
> > You are not actually looking out developers when you overlook or attempt to justify this kind of thing, you just end up looking out for corporate shareholders.
>
> Looking at the current landscape for multiplayer games and games with solo campaigns but also significant multiplayer components, the most successful of them combine good gameplay with cosmetic things to earn, unlock, or buy. And then the revenue from people buying the cosmetic things is used to fund more substantial gameplay-based content that goes out to all players for free. This is just how things work nowadays; modern game players like progression systems, feeling like they’re being rewarded for their time, and dropping some spare cash on tidbits that they think look cool. If enough people truly believed that they were ‘manipulative’ then games like Fortnite, Rocket League, R6 Siege, and more would be dead now. The Halo fanbase is much more than the dedicated relative handful who use these forums, and the MP going F2P and it also being on Game Pass in general means that more players can be brought into the fold. Giving those players more things to earn, unlock, or buy so they can get convinced to stick around for a long while is a trade-off that I’ll gladly take. 343i just needs to make sure that earning things isn’t a ludicrous grind, and with the advent of seasonal Battle Pass-style systems, I think that they’d be able to hit that mark if they used that.
Using the fact that people spend a lot of money on games with their own manipulative microtransaction based systems to demonstrate how they can’t possibly be that manipulative is certainly an interesting defense, I’ll give you that. Given how much money people have spent and continue to spend on lootboxes I guess gambling mechanics couldn’t be that manipulative either, I mean folks love Overwatch right? It isn’t that they find the actual gameplay compelling, nope must be their progression systems.
You are correct that the vast majority of the Halo fanbase(or any other fanbase for that matter) don’t spend much time on forums or follow the industry at all. The whole point of the more dedicated fanbase making a fuss is that these issues make it into the mainstream because that can create real pressure as we saw with Battlefront 2.
Also since we are on the subject of the general playerbase from what we know about player spending habits with microtransactions the vast majority of revenue comes from a very small percentage of “whales” so let’s not mark down more casual player’s as being pro manipulative MTXs just yet.
You realize you don’t actually have to play devil’s advocate or compromise right? You don’t actually have to find a middle ground with the giant corporation.
You can just say “Hey, removing the ability to customize our color scheme and then selling those colors back to us is kind of scummy” even if you are fine with the concept of additional content being sold to support the game long term. I’m not against dev’s creating new content to sell to support a game long term, skins included. What I have a problem with is dev’s taking away features from players in order to sell them back while incorporating it into game systems that are explicitly designed to frustrate the player into spending more money.
> 2533274927740213;126:
> > 2535428779736382;124:
> > Wait so if I wanted to paint my Spartan Colour to White & Blue I have to pay for it?
>
> There is no confirmation whether all coatings will be purchasable or if any will be free/earnable through in game achievements.
I really hope it isn’t, it’s been my colour combo since 2004 & I don’t wanna something like that to happen
> 2533274927191044;119:
> I can’t be the only person who yet again has been let down by 343. I always try defending them and try to give them a chance but this is the deciding factor. Armor coating is awe full.
You’re clearly not given the amount of threads that were being created in such quick succession once the news dropped. And to think, 5 years ago, Armour Colours being the next thing to get restricted and sold back to us in “Halo 6” was a meme, turns out it was bleeding prophecy we were making.
There’s no reason to bake the base colour layer(s) other than having an excuse to monetize armour colour, unless theres some SERIOUS performance issues they’re causing which paints them in an equally terrible light, just in a different department. Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fuelled opted for this exact same shader system, except there it was a new addition to create go-to options that matched with characters & karts as well as brand new ones for a remake of a 5th console generation game.
Here, you’ve got a 7 layer shader with everything being baked when there’s absolutely no need to bake something like base colour, normal/bump texture maps; absolutely, but colour? What truly infuriates me is that after MCC and 5 they still have this lunatic idea that we’ll get told we’re having the first ever customisation option removed in favour of what is clearly a monetization strategy… and be HAPPY that they’re so proud of this obvious monetization strategy?! If they actually cared about player expression, they wouldn’t bake the colour layer(s), they’d keep it unlocked and let us pick the individual colours ourselves, that way, you’d still have an excuse to monetize skins, “hey look, pretty patterns and colour layout”, (Red Shift changes the inner thigh undersuit colour, cool, be nice if I could choose what colour it is myself though) but we wouldn’t have a repeat of Halo 5 with what’ll result in 10+ variations of the exact same armour skin in different colour pre-sets clogging up the customization screen.
How is this supposed to be better than Halo Reach’s? Could someone whose making the decisions at 343i actually provide an answer to THAT question without a forum mod banning this post for some vague reason just to silence the criticism?
You’ve got a delay on your hands 343, I recommend getting this sorted quick-sharp and being VERY public that you’re getting it sorted.
> 2535428779736382;124:
> Wait so if I wanted to paint my Spartan Colour to White & Blue I have to pay for it?
Pay/Earn/Grind/Use Junk Food Codes, whatever. At this point, you’ll just have to hope that the color combination you want is represented in 343i’s arbitrary pool of “Coatings” - Shaders.
It’s an extremely confusing choice and the fact that Unyshek didn’t reveal to us what they were in conjunction with the announcement of the Monarch coating in the last update means they likely knew this was going to be a very unpopular change.
Here’s hoping there’s a coating that you like in all dimensions (texture, color combination, etc) that you can unlock relatively quickly and easily.
> 2533274847563380;122:
> > 2533274823664396;10:
> > > 2533274847563380;9:
> > > > 2533274823664396;8:
> > > > I’m telling you right now, if I pay for the game & then get pay walled out of picking a freakin’ color… especially if it is a one time use… oh man oh man. The nail in the coffin would finally be here.
> > > >
> > > > GG guys, its been a good 19 years.
> > >
> > > I wouldn’t even buy it if that was confirmed. This would be the definition of 1 step forwards and 2 steps back as far as customization goes. But hopefully those fears are unjustified.
> > >
> > > Honestly though we just have no idea what to expect. We’re so desperate for info that we crack the whip at the smallest things.
> >
> > I agree, I’m not trying to just crack the whip, but I just don’t see the appeal to armor coatings if I can just make my character the same color… hmm
>
> Well, looks like we both are pretty much in the same camp now… Yicks, wasn’t expecting them to confirm the loss of Primary and Secondary colours like this…
>
> **Well, I can guaranty my intrest is waning further for this game. I fervently believe that video gaming is becoming a lost hobby for me since devs seem to be so out of touch with what we want.**Or perhaps I am in the vocal minority and everyone else wants games that follow monetized trends, either way I’m starting to see myself as a dieing breed.
Bold - this is how I feel as well. My interest is becoming less and less and I also believe that video gaming is becoming a lost hobby…well, new video gaming. I’ve actually gone back and started to play a lot of older video games. 8 bit era, 16 bit, Sega games, etc I grew up in the Atari, 8-bit Nintendo Sega era. I also started playing a lot more “old school” style games.
Games like Ori are amazing! Streets of rage 4, Monster boy, Operencia the stolen sun etc. Competitive, challenging, great stories, fun to play/compete against your friends and above all else are just fun to play…but too much of gaming has become “You want this, pay two bucks” and/or it just feels like work. I don’t want to log on to a game everyday just so I make sure I get x item down the road because I need to log on consecutively for so many days…or I need to play everyday because if I don’t I will be so far behind in level that I can’t compete. I hate that garbage!! I literally stopped playing all those kinds of games and I’m so much happier.
That’s one thing I always loved about Halo. If I didn’t play for a few weeks or even a month, I can come back and just continue where I left off. I wouldn’t have missed any special thing that I can only get in two weeks time, or my character wouldn’t be 10 times weaker than everyone else’s because I haven’t played…nothing! The only thing that will happen is I won’t be as good at the game because I’ll be rusty lol 
Unfortunately, I do think we are a dying breed, But I do think there’s hope. You just have to look a bit harder to find these companies that are making these kind of games and support them. Not these microtransactions “free to play” garbage games.
I am honestly legit worried about Halo Infinite multiplayer being free to play. It could be a pretty good thing or it’s going to be absolutely atrocious…time will tell.
Hmm, I think I changed my mind while reading to the replies. This armor coating system will only lead to endless hours of grinding for us to get the color we want. The frustrating part is that not only you have to grind to get the cool coating with nice materials, you have to grind again to get a color combination you like because the other you got the colors are awful. But what if you’re tired of that coating and want to change it? Well, sit down and grind again to get it in red/grey. Or you can ease the pain and just pay for that color if it is available.
This is not good at all.
I mean, the current color customization system is very outdated and lacking. I cannot even change the hue of the purple or make it darker as a simple color wheel option would fix it, giving the players endless color combinations with precise adjustments, just like you can change the color of your car in any racing game.
I thought the coatings would resolve this problem by giving more color options, but I doubt there will be armor coatings for precise color combinations because that would end up with like hundreds of variations of the same armor coating.
Not only the armor coatings not address the outdated color system from previous titles it adds another step that would take hours to complete just for you to get the color you want, opposed to simply going to the menu and changing it. This makes a basic feature into a grind fest.
How to fix it? Add a color wheel as basic customization option for endless color combinations and monetize the coatings with specific material finishes like chameleon paint or flame skin to the Spartan and problem solved everyone is happy and nothing has to be removed for another be added.
I’m really hoping 343 comes out and says “oh sorry guys, we weren’t real clear on that, you can still choose the colors in the coats” but some how I feel like that isn’t the case. if the coats really are predetermined color palettes then this is the most disappointing decision in halo history. I’m super confused on how they came to this conclusion. did something happen in development that made basic color selection unusable? surely profit can’t be the only reason right? there are way better ways this could’ve been handled if that were the case.
I think the main issue they’re facing is only being able to reveal these miniscule snippets and essentially saying “Just trust us guys, this system will be good, I promise!”. However without actually giving us enough information about the game to go off of, they’re making it so much worse for themselves and the fans. They haven’t shown us enough of their new system to convince us that it’s a positive change.
At the moment it sounds like such an awful idea, but this could simply boil down to a communication issue. It’s crazy for a game intended to be released so soon, we have so little information on it. Even if they were fully transparent about the development process and were like ‘Here’s what we got so far, we know it’s still missing a lot but we have a long list that we’re working through to build this properly and polish it off for the fans’, the negative feedback could at least create open discussion rather than building up so much frustration and hate in the community.
TL;DR: The decision to remove a custom color selection is bad, however made so much worse by a continued lack of communication regarding Infinite
> 2533274889282194;133:
> I’m really hoping 343 comes out and says “oh sorry guys, we weren’t real clear on that, you can still choose the colors in the coats” but some how I feel like that isn’t the case. if the coats really are predetermined color palettes then this is the most disappointing decision in halo history. I’m super confused on how they came to this conclusion. did something happen in development that made basic color selection unusable? surely profit can’t be the only reason right? there are way better ways this could’ve been handled if that were the case.
This was their chance to do that, I’m not expecting any further clarification.
I hope they at least give us basic colors we can use to color our spartan. Maybe as we unlock coatings, we can use their colors to combine them with our spartan’s current ones. If the coatings are locked, there’s the chance that some players may look nearly identical to each other, so hopefully something changes before launch. Also, it’ll basically be like Halo 5’s customization but for colors instead.
For me I don’t really care about color coating as much as how other people feel about it, but I do want to choose my spartan’s colors so it can look unique. They might announce something which clarifies us more on how coatings work, too.
I’ll put what I posted in my thread before a mod locked it:
Honestly, this armor coating thing is a huge negative for the game. If 343 really wants to keep them in the game as they are, and don’t want them to change, I don’t see why those who buy the full game, can’t have access to the full color customization. Or if they offered up some paid method to get access to the color selection that’s been in every game since the start. Reducing player choice and customization is a HUGE mistake.
I am afraid it may be difficult to change the system, not for technical reasons, but because marketing deals have already been made with other companies. Certain promises will have been made, and if 343 cannot change things in such a way that allows them to keep their end of the bargain, they can’t change it even if they want to.
> 2535473333514874;136:
> I hope they at least give us basic colors we can use to color our spartan. Maybe as we unlock coatings, we can use their colors to combine them with our spartan’s current ones. If the coatings are locked, there’s the chance that some players may look nearly identical to each other, so hopefully something changes before launch. Also, it’ll basically be like Halo 5’s customization but for colors instead.
>
> For me I don’t really care about color coating as much as how other people feel about it, but I do want to choose my spartan’s colors so it can look unique. They might announce something which clarifies us more on how coatings work, too.
As stated from their recent community update:
“Coloration, along with materials and patterns, will now be baked into the coating, taking the place of the primary/secondary armor color options found in prior games.”
Pretty much confirms that we won’t be getting basic primary/secondary colors.
> 2535428779736382;128:
> > 2533274927740213;126:
> > > 2535428779736382;124:
> > > Wait so if I wanted to paint my Spartan Colour to White & Blue I have to pay for it?
> >
> > There is no confirmation whether all coatings will be purchasable or if any will be free/earnable through in game achievements.
>
> I really hope it isn’t, it’s been my colour combo since 2004 & I don’t wanna something like that to happen
You’d have to be lucky enough for them to make a coating that’s white and blue, and has a pattern that please you. Like, I don’t know. I just feel like Rich from Red Letter Media when he talks about new Star Trek. Just equal amounts of genuine laughter and crying at the absurdity. Why go so far to please the “core fans”, then gut such a staple, basic and important feature? Like, I’m just at a loss for words.