I’m not exactly new to the forums here, I just lurk… a lot. If you’ve ever seen me post, it’s probably about vehicle regen, and for a good reason.
Vehicle Regen is what made BTB in Halo 2 and 3. I’ve seen a few people complain that Halo 4’s vehicles are “made of paper” and that’s not the exact way I’d describe it. I’ve also seen people mention that they have to go back to Reach to get “An actual game of BTB”, which is strange, considering both Reach and 4 use a very similar type of vehicle health system.
The problems with the current vehicle health system are a combination of all the things in Halo 4’s sandbox not playing well with vehicle combat.
While one can complain about all the different power weapons, ordinance drops, and loadouts being a central issue, in reality, they do little to harm the vehicle combat.
It comes down to the fact that the vehicles have a finite amount of health, and every weapon in the game helps tick that down. This is especially a problem because every precision weapon in the game is hitscan, which makes hitting a fast moving warthog, or banshee, very easy.
Now, I’m not against hitscan, actually, I like it, but I am against static health. I could go on about how Halo cut it’s teeth with energy shields and vehicles that didn’t explode after getting shot by a rifle (unless you count campaign vehicles, but that’s a different story.), but either way you look at it, vehicles are not able to stand up to a decent team for very long, no matter how good the person in the vehicle is.
Finite health doesn’t work on two levels. For one, as I’ve mentioned above, it’s extraordinarily easy to just sit at the back of the map, and take potshots at enemy vehicles until they literally explode. For two, on the other end of that coin, when people get into a fresh vehicle, they can drive it straight into an enemy team, and expect to get out alive. That’s because the base health is so high, even a Ghost can survive anything short of a direct rocket blast.
This system completely eliminates the skill involved in vehicle combat, and instead, makes vehicles feel more like a power up. With regen health, hit and run was a very viable tactic, and for the smaller vehicles, like the Ghost and Warthog, it was the only tactic that kept you alive for very long, but because of the way finite vehicle health works, you wind up getting more kills going on a “suicide run” because you spend less time getting to and from the enemy, and more time shooting them. The game rewards the players who simply rush to get as many kills as they can with no regard to their own safety, while punishing those who prefer to use skill.
A lot of people complain about how BTB is a boring DMR fest, but just imagine how much things would change with vehicle regen. You wouldn’t see teams camping at the back of the map when they’d be at risk of getting strafed by a banshee, or gunned down by a warthog. You’d see people using the ghost to support their team, instead of going straight into enemy lines in hopes of getting at least a few kills before being team shot. You’d see people fighting for control of the AV weapons on the map. Ultimately, you’d see a much more dynamic game.
The solution to vehicle combat is pretty simple, and there are a few ways that could fix it in theory, though I’m not sure what 343i can and can not do to Halo 4.
Option A:
True Regen.
Lower the base vehicle health, and add regen. Vehicles would continue to take visual damage, and such damage would determine how much damage to your shields each shot does, but ultimately, wouldn’t change the maximum health the vehicle could have, and the vehicle would never explode unless the driver’s shields were down.
Option B: Weapon Damage Tweak.
Assuming for whatever reason, True Regen cannot be accomplished, the next alternative would be to change all projectile weapons damage output towards vehicle health to 0. This way, only explosives, or other anti-vehicle weapons (and perhaps heavy MGs) would “destroy” enemy vehicles. Team BRing a ghost could still bring it down, but if the ghost escaped, it wouldn’t be critically wounded. This system, while imperfect, would allow for the return of hit-and-run tactics, and would ultimately fix a lot of problems in BTB.
Ultimately, whichever choice would certainly alter BTB in a positive way.