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> The problem with this concept (at least in terms of Multi-player) is you are just creating another control point, but this one gives the person in control a decided advantage , not just a better weapon or position , but an instant extra life as it were. Why move from the re-spawn of bio foam if I have (at worst) a usable utility weapon or , (at best) a power weapon? We found out in Reach that health packs , especially at higher skill levels , tend to be where the fights take place. 1. Get a power weapon 2. move to health pack 3. camp until out of ammo or over run.
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> They just aren’t conducive to map flow or balance. A great idea for single player , but to include them in one and not the other creates a disconnect between single and multi player which developers seem to believe that gamers at large just can’t handle.
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> Also , it adds a whole lot of questionable situations that players in general don’t like to encounter (“I put 5 bursts into that guy and he didn’t die!” , losing encounters to due to opaque systems , [how do I know the Spartan I am encountering has or doesn’t have foam?] did I lose to lag or a foam user? etc. , etc.)
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> It all comes down to the same argument against Thrusters and Sprint ; lots of people consider them get out of Jail free cards for making a bad decision ; and that is really all a portable health pack would be at lower levels.
It’s not really that different of camping with a PW on a high ground were the weapon spawns in HCE or H2. I admit that most maps in HR placed health packs in closed areas and made camping near by a valid strategy, especially in 2v2. However I barely encounter those situations in MLG forge maps or even barely in BTB and Invasion. Hell! In classic Quake and UT health packs and extra live point were a great way to force movement on the map.
I think the health system in Reach itself wasn’t the problem at all, quite the opposite. The reason why it didn’t worked too well was spawning time and map placement of health packs. That said I don’t necessarily want them back either, but not why I don’t like the system (quite frankly I prefer the health system in Reach the best), it’s just that I don’t trust 343i anymore when it comes to level design. … Quite the sad statement now that I wrote it out!^^’
The foam idea o the other hand? It would be similar to the Far Cry 2 health system and in single player that system is great - in an open world scenario at least. In MP however I completelly agree with you, there is no way it wouldn’t break the flow in 4v4 imho.
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> > > [CUT]
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> > Not sure I follow.
> > How would recharging health based on a resource you collect and store be more suitable for an open world game than a linear one?
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> > You’d still have recharging health, but you’d have to collect that biofoam.
For pacing issues. While the system alone isn’t complex at all, it still consumes more time than just plain and simple auto-recharge or a single instand use pick-up item! 
I like the idea itself, don’t get me wrong. A lot of open world shooter games use similar systems already for a reason. In fact I often claimed that such a system would have helped Destiny quite a lot and add the possibility of introducing more support classes and make it a real cooperative experience in the shared world MP. But the pacing between linear action games like Halo (although with sandbow level designs) and open world Shooters like Far Cry a quite different.
In a linear action packed game you clear an area, get a few new goodies on the way and move to the next area until a cut-scene rewards your efforts. Introducing everything that makes you stay still longer and longer in a cleared area without giving you something interesting for the time being breaks the rhythm, and for what? By being linear the dev always knows how you should be health and ammo wise, the resources are calculated. So the addition of bio-foam would give you an additional strategy aspect during the fight, but it would be fairly meaningless on the long run, because when you should be low on foam there will be more right behind the corner. Or at least an over-shield to compensate at the end of the area. In action games in linear setting there is no need to add such a layer of complexity, and if you want to add a level of difficulty and resource balancing, you can still do it by making the enemy more precise and by playing with weapons, vehicles an ammunition.
This is a luxury an open world game doesn’t have! The pacing is based on the speed the player sets for himself and balancing resources becomes a fundamental part of the game (or at least should be… Again, it’s the main reason why game like SoT and Destiny feels so empty imho - they lack a meaningful motivation for exploring the world). In this case health packs, foam, power-ups… Everything that adds to the “preparation phase” before “clearing an area” phase adds to gameplay. In this case complexity is a welcome thing, but in a linear scenario the extra layer only make things slower without really adding anything meaningful. Resources would be placed on the path anyway in a fair amount first and foremost. Also every secret addition for gratifying the player’s exploration would give him an unfair advantage over the planed difficulty curve. At least that’s how I see it!
Of course the discussion differs greatly if we’re talking about sandbox games, especially with rpg elements and even with the same linear level structure. In that case balancing resources for different game styles and a good level of exploration freedom is everything! In fact I still claim that rechargeable health in modern Deus Ex actually hurts the game. DE uses a 200 points health system and it always auto-recharges the first 100 points when depleted. Now, if they at least quartered the health system by making every 50 or even 25 points rechargeable, Eidos would have created a nice balance between action and resource usage. With 100pts recharge (50%) every second health pack and bio cell became meaningless. My fear is that the foam situation in Halo would be similar, at least if 343i aims at the same gameplay and level design structure for Hi.
PS.: Wow! I got way too in depth with this! Sorry for the long post! X’D