As everyone knows, there’s the very frustrating situation when a teammate targets you because you have a weapon that he wants for himself. He’ll follow you around doing damage until he finally kills you, and almost the entire time, you will not get the option to boot him. Yet, you know you cannot fight back because nine times out of ten, he’ll be able to boot you if you end him. This situation happens so often, and it seems also for accidental spatters or grenades, you are always booted as well.
So, in this thread, I’d like to suggest possible improvements to the betrayal-booting system that could eventually be implemented into this game or its sequel.
Idea 1- Proximity
The game takes into account whether there are enemies in your presence when a teammate is shooting you. If a teammate does enough damage to you to deplete your health entirely when you have no enemies within lets say a 75m radius of your position, there’s a good chance the betrayal was intentional, and thus it should offer you the option to boot.
Idea 2- Distress Call
This is something I thought of in that situation when you are targeted. Often this fight takes a very long time, as there is no aim assist or magnetism to help in the fight. With this idea, I’m thinking of adding a function to the “distress call” which currently activates when you press up on the D-Pad, which shows a radar pulse and highlights your location to teammates. In this added functionality, I suggest that if a teammate is attacking you, you can press the “distress call,” there will be some “Betrayal detection”, during which, if a teammate depletes all your health, or just depletes your entire shield, then you will be given the option to boot them without actually having to die. Be it kind of a way to tell the game that “Look, he’s shooting me, I’m not fighting back. He’s the bad guy here, get him off my team.”
Note, for this and the previous suggestion, exceptions should be made to give the benefit of doubt for explosive or other one-shot-kill weapons.
Idea 3- Damage and Friendly-Fire Value Points
Say for example, you have 100 points of health that includes your shield and actual health. Every player has a 150-point value for Friendly Fire. It starts at 0, increases for every point of damage you deal to a teammate, and slowly decreases over time as you don’t shoot your teammates, and faster as you damage enemies. At base value, if you deal 150 points of damage, enough to kill one teammate and wound another, you will exceed this value. If you deal the finishing blow to a teammate that counts as a betrayal while you have over 150 Friendly Fire points, you can be booted. However, certain weapons would have point-multipliers. Automatic weapons and non-power precision weapons would have a x2 multiplier, so if you fully kill a teammate with an assault rifle or battle-rifle, you will be able to be kicked, as it is very hard to completely dispatch a teammate with a spawning weapon. Melee would have a x1.5 multiplier, because it is also very hard to accidentally kill a teammate with melee. Explosives and vehicle-splattering would have less value points, because they are actually very easy to have accidents with that kill your teammates, but still if you kill too many with these, you could be booted, as eventually you need to take responsibility.
Idea 4- Discourage Betrayals for Weapons
If you kill a teammate, they will drop their weapons as usual, but for as long as that particular weapon is on the battlefield, you will not be able to pick it up. Other players will, but you cannot, until it is at least once possessed by the other team. For example, lets say Red Team consists of Players 1-4. Blue Team consists of 5-8. Player 1 has a Sniper, and Player 2 kills him. Player 2 cannot pick up the Sniper Rifle. Player 3 picks it up and is killed by Blue Team. Player 2 cannot pick up the Sniper still, because he betrayed its previous user. Player 5 picks it up, and Player 2 beats him in a fight. Now Player 2 can use the Sniper. A lot of work for that rifle, eh? Maybe not worth betraying for. However, Player 2 would still be able to pick up any other Sniper Rifles on the map, including that one once it respawns. This is in case of actual accidental betrayals, so they are not punished too much.
So, these are some ideas I have for improving the betrayal-booting system. Leave your thoughts below, I’d like to hear what people think, and I’d like to see this situation improve as it has been an issue for many Halo titles at this point.