It seems people can’t get over the name. There are too many replies that apparently stopped right when they saw AA and made a knee jerk reactionary post. The subject has been changed.
Claims that AAs aren’t Halo or fundamentally bad are completley silly in my mind because AAs at their core concept ARE Halo. They are Power Ups. What Equipment and AAs did to the concept of Power Ups was add variety and greater control. And I fail to see how either one of those is a bad idea. The biggest problem with AAs in Reach wasn’t the AAs themselves but Loadouts. If AAs were map pickups they would be a lot better than they currently are. That’s not to say that there aren’t some problems with the current implementation of AAs or AA specific problems but the biggest gripe isn’t their fault.
What I want from H4 isn’t AAs like how we have them in Reach or Equipment from H3. I want them to be map pickups like Equipment, I want them to have a few uses per pick up but a finite amount of “ammo” per pickup kinda like AAs, and I want them to drastically alter the player profile so you know exactly what AA your opponent has at a glance. That last part is something neither game did. AAs were even going to have that last part, AL during the pre-Beta footage had a nice, big backpack contraption that could have immediately signaled which player had what. Jetpack is the only AA to retain that.
So 343: Don’t bring back AAs or Equipment. Instead bring back the best parts of both and further improve upon them.
Because I find it silly that we throw the baby out with the bathwater and go back ten years in time.
What I think is the problem is bungie failed to make Armor Abilitys work in reach because they combine several equipment together.
Jet pack (limit it in matchmaking), sprint, active cammo (no radar jammer), drop sheild (make it stronger, be able to be destroyed from inside and get rid of the healing effect to make a new AA),
evade, holo-gram should all stay and add a deploy-able radar jammer that can be destroyed for invasion
armor lock (fix it so they can’t get in and out so fast or get rid of it)
> Sounds nothing like AAs and very reminiscent of equipment. Why did you choose to use the handle “AAs”?
>
> AA’s: Infinite ammo, generally not pick-ups
> Equipment: Finite ammo, always pick-ups
>
> …
>
> Pardon me if I’m missing something; it’s late.
AA’s aren’t pickups because of Loadouts.
And I viewed the differences between Equipment and AAs more as one shot use and multiple use.
But also because AAs balanced or at least tried to balance some of the problematic peices of Equipment.
Bubble Shield was a golden soccer ball of invincibility. Drop Shield is destroyable. Regen made you a much harder target to kill, if not nearly invulnerable, to specfic encounters.
I disagree. It’s just too difficult for 343i to have to balance them correctly. It’s obvious that they don’t have the access to gameplay testers that are any good at the game. They won’t be able to tell how Armor Abilities function at high skill levels until after everyone’s screaming at them to take them out of Halo 4.
> Bubble Shield was a golden soccer ball of invincibility. Drop Shield is destroyable. Regen made you a much harder target to kill, if not nearly invulnerable, to specfic encounters.
true though the bubble shield was more fair imo it was a one use piece of equipment that you didn’t always have i just think they hit it with halo 3 and went over board in reach they need to fix what we have in reach but use the style they did it with in halo 3 make them have a certain amount of uses (no more then 2 imo) if they just have to keep them in
armor lock (effective against vehicles explosives still do half damage can get shot through it 2 uses)
bubble shield (same as halo 3 one use)
camo (useable while walking invisible on radar a bit easier to be seen one use)
jetpack (has a limited amount of fuel once it’s used up it’s gone)
evade (3 uses has the same effect as reach)
sprint (if you must keep it it has a sprint bar it lasts maybe twice as long as in reach once it’s gone it’s gone)
maybe they could add more to but keep them spawning on the map in limited uses if they really have to keep armor abilities keep them more like spawnable equipment honestly I’d rather see them gone maybe even replaced by something a lot better and just get rid of loadouts completely
As long they can be pick ups like How MLG has it set up, Im fine with that. Like others said before no load outs please, Everyone should start on even footing in halo. Like it always has been and should be.
> I disagree. It’s just too difficult for 343i to have to balance them correctly. <mark>It’s obvious that they don’t have the access to gameplay testers that are any good at the game.</mark> They won’t be able to tell how Armor Abilities function at high skill levels until after everyone’s screaming at them to take them out of Halo 4.
Why wouldn’t they have access to good gameplay testers? I would imagine the MLG guys would be lining up for the opportunity. I am referring to those that actually compete.
My point is: I don’t think 343 is lacking in resources if they wanted/needed something I would assume they’d get it.
I think a better version of halo3’s equipment system should be made where everything is a pick up, everything can be used more then once, but nothing is infinite. You would have a small energy bar for cloak, jet pack, 0-G Thruster pack, double over shield. For bubble shield, EMP grenades, grave lifts, land mines and whatever ells like that would have a small amount like 2 or 3.