I would just like to say that out of all of the Halo’s I believe Halo 2 and 3 had the best vehicle combat. This is due in part because of how the vehicle health works. In Halo Reach and 4 the vehicle health and player health were seperated. The player could have full shields and still be taken out by a single DMR shot when the vehicle health was low. Halo 2 and 3 were the opposite of this and I believe they were better for it. In halo 3 I could have a heavily damaged vehicle and it would still be able to last for as long as I was able to avoid heavy weapons and grenades. It played similarly to being on foot because your shields basically acted as the shields for the vehicle. If your shields got low enough then you would die. However if you were a good enough driver you could get to cover, regain your shields and be ready to plan your counter attack. While this doesn’t necessarily make sense lore-wise I believe it made the vehicle combat much better and in turn, a lot funner. I really hope 343 is able to bring back the amazing vehicle combat of the previous games.
I thought Reach actually had overall good vehicle combat, though I agree it should’ve used Halo 3’s health mechanics. The main problem with Halo 4 was the lack of good maps and the poor vehicle palette. While I can’t adequately express my feelings towards the 343 employee(s) who decided to remove the Revenant and add the Mantis without being banned, I will say that I disagree with their decision in the strongest possible terms. The Revenant was a great vehicle - fun to drive, good against infantry without being overpowered, balanced in combat against Ghosts and Warthogs - while the Mantis is slow, sluggish, dull to pilot and so overpowered versus anything that isn’t a tank that it’s not really “versus” at all. Halo 5 needs less boring OP vehicles (Mantis, Scorpion) and more light vehicles, which is why I’m going to keep spamming the need for 343 to include the Locust until I get written confirmation it’s been added.
As for maps, we need more maps along the lines of Hemorrhage and Sandtrap. Wide open spaces and gently undulating terrain are where it’s at, not obstacles that force you into linear paths. No more Longbow and please, no more Valhalla. It’s an insultingly poor shadow of the glory of Blood Gulch.
I think Reach and Halo 3 had the best vehicle combat because there was a wide range of them. Halo 4 only had the basic ones.
BRING BACK THE FALCON!
> Halo 5 needs less boring OP vehicles (Mantis, Scorpion) and more light vehicles, which is why I’m going to keep spamming the need for 343 to include the Locust until I get written confirmation it’s been added.
Sorry, but the Locust would be way too OP. Larger than a wraith and possessing a main cannon designed to destroy vehicles and buildings hardly makes it a light vehicle.
That aside, it would make an awesome edition to campaign.
I agree that Reach and 3 had some good vehicle combat systems i place but id personally like to see a bit of a divide between human and alien vehicles.
My main problem with H4’s vehicle roster was the mantis. This is mainly because it did not function as a human vehicle. Traditionaly unsc vehicles where better technically in comparison to covi tech in game. The reason for this being that covie veh only needed 1 person but had major weaknesses that could be exploited but with the unsc stuff you needed teamwork to bring out thier full potential. Just compare the average outcome of ghost vs warthog or falcon vs banshee.
The mantis however obliterated this rule and we got a vehicle that required, the main reason vehicle combat suffered like it did in h4, plasma pistols and nades to be avalible off spawn to defeat.
As for how vehicle health should work i believe it should be divided based on how much of a risk is placed on the user(s).
Vehicles like the ghost or wraith that require 1 user the health should be liked to the user. This is because the reward of using one of these,the chance of being able to single handedly turn the tide of battle, should be greater than the risk of +1 deaths by something other than enemy fire aka a wall.
Vehicles like the warthog or falcon that require multiple occupants should be set on vehicle health. Since the offer far greater a threat to your enemy as well as being a bigger loss to your team should it be destroyed it should be balanced by forcing its users to be more careful.
Basically a risk/reward system needs to be in play for them in terms of the loss they pose to you and your team vs the fire power they bring.
In the HCE Custom community this was done on several occasions and it worked just fine.
Edit: Spell check i hate you
> > Halo 5 needs less boring OP vehicles (Mantis, Scorpion) and more light vehicles, which is why I’m going to keep spamming the need for 343 to include the Locust until I get written confirmation it’s been added.
>
> Sorry, but the Locust would be way too OP. Larger than a wraith and possessing a main cannon designed to destroy vehicles and buildings hardly makes it a light vehicle.
>
> That aside, it would make an awesome edition to campaign.
You know, it wouldn’t have to be completely identical to the Halo Wars version. Also, comparing the sizes of the vehicles based on the Halo Wars gameplay isn’t very valid due to how the vehicles and units and buildings and everything are scaled for the sake of gameplay.
> > Halo 5 needs less boring OP vehicles (Mantis, Scorpion) and more light vehicles, which is why I’m going to keep spamming the need for 343 to include the Locust until I get written confirmation it’s been added.
>
> Sorry, but the Locust would be way too OP. Larger than a wraith and possessing a main cannon designed to destroy vehicles and buildings hardly makes it a light vehicle.
>
> That aside, it would make an awesome edition to campaign.
The Halo Wars vehicle sizes aren’t always accurate. The size difference between the Scarab and UNSc vehicles, for example, varies massively between Wars and Halo 3. 343 could use the same trick here, make a smaller Locust, give it a different model number to smooth the canon out.
Also, the Halo Wars Locust is utterly abysmal against anything that isn’t a building. It’s the opposite of anti-vehicle. Vehicles are anti-Locust.
I’m ok with what vehicles H4 has.
But to make the vehicles worth using, plasma pistols and plasma grenades should be removed from loadouts. It’s almost useless to hop into a warthog, when you know how it’s going to end.
Reach had a terrible health system for vehicles. Look at Halo 2 for the best one. Ghosts were powerful, Banshees were not crazy, and Gauss Hogs were not too easy to use. And on top of all that, there were no Spartan lasers, Grenade launchers, or EMP pistols to ruin the fun.
> Reach had a terrible health system for vehicles. Look at Halo 2 for the best one. Ghosts were powerful, Banshees were not crazy, and Gauss Hogs were not too easy to use. And on top of all that, there were no Spartan lasers, Grenade launchers, or EMP pistols to ruin the fun.
Yes, I always thought Halo 2 had the best vehicle combat.
> I think Reach and Halo 3 had the best vehicle combat because there was a wide range of them. Halo 4 only had the basic ones.
>
> BRING BACK THE FALCON!
While I agree that both games had great vehicles I felt that Reach vehicles could be destroyed way too easily. However I would definitely like to see the falcon return.
I think Vehicle Health should not be related to your shields and health like Halo 3. However the Vehicle Health System for REACH and H4, the vehicles are way too weak.
A new system is needed, where each part of the vehicles would have certain amount of hit points.
IMO, The vehicles should last as long as they did in H3, but damage would be more obvious to areas where damage was taken. You would have a image of your vehicles on the left, above the motion sensor, and this would indicate the levels of damage ti the parts of the vehicle.
Example:
Green = No Damage
Amber = Minor Damage
RED = Major Damage
This would be a good indicator of what parts of your vehicle was damages and how bad.
This may make you change the way you drive if you had one side of the vehicle all re. It would be wise to drive in a way that avoided that side of being hit.
If your vehicle became all red, it be a good time to abandon ship.
Vehicle combat pretty much met its first steps towards downfall when Bungie decided to make UNSC weapons deal extra damage to their armor in Reach.
We should start by eliminating that statistic.
> > > Halo 5 needs less boring OP vehicles (Mantis, Scorpion) and more light vehicles, which is why I’m going to keep spamming the need for 343 to include the Locust until I get written confirmation it’s been added.
> >
> > Sorry, but the Locust would be way too OP. Larger than a wraith and possessing a main cannon designed to destroy vehicles and buildings hardly makes it a light vehicle.
> >
> > That aside, it would make an awesome edition to campaign.
>
> You know, it wouldn’t have to be completely identical to the Halo Wars version. Also, comparing the sizes of the vehicles based on the Halo Wars gameplay isn’t very valid due to how the vehicles and units and buildings and everything are scaled for the sake of gameplay.
True. If that’s the case what size would it be? What kind of mobility are we talking about? I would love to see what kinds of maneuverability you could get with 4 legs since we have never controlled a vehicle like that before.
The locust could fill a role of a long range line of sight attack vehicle, with a moderate speed, and low health. Firing would require the locust to stop moving to take a shot. This would require players to focus on the positioning of the vehicle.
For the record the Halo Wars Locust is 39 feet wide and 19 feet long according to the visual guide (scorpion is 33 by 26).