Attachments; an alternative to AA's

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Having almost reached the halfway point in Halo 4’s lifecycle, I find myself thinking more and more about what could be done to Halo “Xbox One” (henceforth referred to as Halo 5) to improve it. First, a disclaimer; I really enjoyed Halo 4. I reached SR 130 in the multiplayer and played through the campaign twice. That being said, I don’t believe it is in any way equal to the original trilogy, and feel that a lot of features introduced in 4 should undergo some pretty drastic changes as we move forward.

One of these features is Armor Abilities. I do not think the AA’s are a broken concept, but I believe their implementation could be done better and in a way that will appeal to a larger portion of the Halo fanbase.

I believe that the system in place for Halo 5 should mix Halo 3’s equipment with Halo 4’s armor abilities. Combining the two would give us a feature that would marry the old and the new – I would call them “attachments.” Like equipment, they would be placed on the map. Given that everyone around here seems conscious of the fact that having things on the map balances teams and brings exciting levels of strategy and tension to a match, its clearly the superior option.

When you pick up an attachment, it should be placed somewhere on your armor and be very apparent that it’s in your possession. Sort of like how the Jet Pack or Thruster Pack are always visible on your back, we would have it so that something like Promethean Vision is always visible on your helmet. We could have cool accompanying animations of our Spartan equipping his attachment, which the Xbox One’s graphical fidelity would undoubtedly make look badass. Naturally, Jet Pack, Thruster Pack, and Promethean Vision would all decay with use.

With Active Camouflage, instead of activating with pickup, it would be up to you when to turn it on. Once you do, it would function as it does in the original Halo trilogy, staying activated until its time runs out. Like all attachments, the camouflage module would be visible somewhere on your armor, indicating that it’s in your possession.

The Bubble Shield, when picked up, would appear similar to an Overshield (going on top of your regular shields.) When activated, this outer shield would emanate from the Spartan and surround him or her with the bubble we are familiar with. However, the shield is now tied to the Spartan, so if he or she is to leave the bubble, it will disappear. The Bubble Shield won’t decay until you activate it, but it will decay faster should it take heavy damage.

The Hardlight Shield would be smaller and always visible on your arm, but adjustable with the right trigger while in use. The Hardlight Shield would decay as it absorbs damage.

We could also have a Hardlight Blade; it would make your next melee attack a one hit kill (the blade gets stuck in the enemy Spartan, causing them to explode). However, should the need arise, the Hardlight Blade could also be used as a projectile; while highly innacurate (since it would be without a reticle), it too would be a one hit kill if it makes impact. The Hardlight Blade would be done after one use.

The Autosentry would have to be changed a bit to fit in with the attachment motif. Basically, it would be very similar to its current form, but it would go onto your Spartan’s shoulder and fire at enemies within a certain radius, giving precendence to those closest to your reticle. It too would decay with use.

Anyway, those are just some ideas I had for attachments. I’m sure 343, or some of you guys, could come up with some concepts that are way more creative. I think it would be awesome to have some of these placed strategically on maps. Naturally, certain attachments would be better suited to certain maps, and 343 would be able to pick and chose which attachments go where (ensuring that each of their creations gets adequate and appropriate use, and that each of their maps is balanced). I hope that 343 sees the advantages map placement provides them going into Halo 5, and would love it if they manage to combine the best features of equipment with armor abilities.

What do you guys think?

2

Not at all. This ruins equal footing even more than AAs. Now I like AAs in halo 4, most of them are balanced. Attachments like hard light blade ruin any shred of originality halo has, and also allows people to win because of a fancy knife not because of skill. AAs can definitely be made to be skillfull, hologram and thruster prove this. They can also be team based, regen field shows this also( though it needs to be tweaked a little), attachments do none of this, and fail to deepen the game. Adding to the game is different than deepening it. You should create a poll for thi post.

3

Some of your examples weren’t perfect but I like the general premise.

4

I like this idea, hardlight blade maybe not but I see how its done after one use would be good, placing it on the central location and having a long respawn time would be good and would be a good replacement for the dreaded Boltshot. Your view of an Active Camo attachment seems good IMO. Halo 3 had the best active Camo but it was rather useless if someone saw you pick it up as it would take effect as soon as you did. Bubble shield overlaying your own armor makes incredible sense to me as the bubble shield should technically be an “explosion” of your shield that now covers an area, having it incredibly obvious as an overrshield would make your team players protect you more as your objective now is to share the shield, and enemies will try to focus all fire on you to prevent you from aiding your allies, much like BF3 the assault/medic needs to always be targeted first.

Now the auto sentry in your idea wouldn’t be good at least I would think because having a shoulder mounted sentry with limited range would cause players to jump into the fray, which isn’t bad, but it begins to negate team orientated gameplay. Also if it has sucha short range it’s damage would need to be buffed up to be effective and also imagine trying to sneak up on a guy and getting shot by the sentry on his shoulder? No one likes a player with eyes behind his head.

5

> Not at all. This ruins equal footing even more than AAs. Now I like AAs in halo 4, most of them are balanced. Attachments like hard light blade ruin any shred of originality halo has, and also allows people to win because of a fancy knife not because of skill. AAs can definitely be made to be skillfull, hologram and thruster prove this. They can also be team based, regen field shows this also( though it needs to be tweaked a little), attachments do none of this, and fail to deepen the game. Adding to the game is different than deepening it. You should create a poll for thi post.

The hardlight blade was just a brainstormed idea. I’m not entirely sure how it would “shred the originality of Halo”, however. I’m also not quite sure how you think attachments would ruin equal footing, given that they would be in neutral positions (like power weapons). Are you trying to say that you like things the way they are, and would rather not have anything on the map? Your post is a little hard to follow. You use terms like originality, but wasn’t Halo more original back when it was an arena shooter, with things on the map and equal opportunity for both sides to acquire them? You seem to prefer the system used in Halo 4 as opposed to Halo 3. If this is the case, its totally understandable (everyone is entitled to their own opinion) but I think you might be in the minority on that one.

> Some of your examples weren’t perfect but I like the general premise.

I’d love to hear any ideas you might have!

> I like this idea, hardlight blade maybe not but I see how its done after one use would be good, placing it on the central location and having a long respawn time would be good and would be a good replacement for the dreaded Boltshot. Your view of an Active Camo attachment seems good IMO. Halo 3 had the best active Camo but it was rather useless if someone saw you pick it up as it would take effect as soon as you did. Bubble shield overlaying your own armor makes incredible sense to me as the bubble shield should technically be an “explosion” of your shield that now covers an area, having it incredibly obvious as an overrshield would make your team players protect you more as your objective now is to share the shield, and enemies will try to focus all fire on you to prevent you from aiding your allies, much like BF3 the assault/medic needs to always be targeted first.
>
> Now the auto sentry in your idea wouldn’t be good at least I would think because having a shoulder mounted sentry with limited range would cause players to jump into the fray, which isn’t bad, but it begins to negate team orientated gameplay. Also if it has sucha short range it’s damage would need to be buffed up to be effective and also imagine trying to sneak up on a guy and getting shot by the sentry on his shoulder? No one likes a player with eyes behind his head.

I totally understand what you’re saying about the autosentry. The sentry would target based on your reticle position, though, so sneaking up wouldn’t be an issue. You say it would need to be buffed to be effective, but if it was left somewhat weak, do you think that it would then have much bearing on team oriented gameplay? I basically just envisioned it as a very slight edge in battle; one that could be easily negated by a player that’s better than you.

6

What if we have the ability to actually shoot off the sentry?

7

I think that would be pretty cool! Like I said though, I’m not particularly attached to any of the examples, so they are totally open to criticism. I’m more interested in other people’s concepts / improvements they would make to the general premise.

8

You’re attachment idea is definitely better than the current Armor Abilities, but I’d still prefer the old style of equipment.

9

Some simply wouldn’t work, like Invisibility and Jetpack. However, for once Wall hacks would work, as it activates the second you pick it up, and would end if you tried to turn it off, or after a set amount of time. As for Auto sentry, I feel that like TP, and hologram, it should stay as an AA.