Changing the Ecosystem

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Alongside the announcement of H5G, 343 has announced they are looking to push the entire “ecosystem” forward. Frankie quoted CE’s dual stick controls, and vast environments, as well as H2’s broadband multiplayer as a few examples of how this was done in the past. These examples lead me to believe they have something huge planned, and something that is not specific to Halo. Lets face it, innovative controls, environments, forge and theatre are all things that were big improvements in their day but were also things that could exist in almost any game, not just an FPS. How do you think 343 will change the ecosystem not just for Halo but for all other games as well?

To get you started I’ll share a few things that I’ve come up with that could be game changers if done correctly:

1. Custom Achievements & Playback Videos

These sorts of things have been done in the past but to my knowledge haven’t been incorporated in any large way. I’m thinking we might be able to create challenges and post them to some sort of public browser (think Hitman Absolution’s Contracts). Then achievements would be tied to completing X amount of challenges or by acquiring a certain amount of challenge XP. The completed challenges would be visible though the player profile, and others would be able to see a video of how each challenge or achievement was completed.

2. The New Engine

The idea of a new engine has me really excited. We could see lots of new environment interaction/manipulation, new weapon types, player abilities etc.

Edit: There’s endless possibilities here: destructible environments, improved AI etc.

3. A Complete Map Editor

Okay this one might be a bit optimistic…

So yeah what do you think 343 is up to?

  1. Multi-gravitational maps - Naqser
  2. Next-gen Survival - Naqser
  3. Large player counts (32v32) - I IZ CABOOSE
2

Well, I’m hoping for multigravitational maps and a survival worthy of the name “next gen survival”.

Bringing the “ecosystem” forward, in terms of previous additions and improvements I’d have to say the A.I is one big important part of the whole game. Bringing it a few steps forward would improve the game on the PvE part quite a lot.

What they’re actually up to on the other hand, I can’t really say. Not much happened with the supposed Promethan Class co-operation A.I, or how older players wouldn’t have an advantage over new ones (perk/weapon/AA unlocks), so whatever they do say at this point I’m not going to get my hopes up all too fast.

3

My guess is that one of the biggest things will be much larger numbers of simultaneous players in a match . . . 32, 64, whatever . . . along with larger map environments that allow vehicle play to feel natural rather than restricted. Perhaps even as sophisticated having some of the team assigned to “air” squads and others to “ground” squads so there can truly be multiple levels and types of play within a single match.

At least, that’s what I would like to see. Battlefield in scale, but Halo-style.

4

Multi-gravitational maps and a next gen survival mode are definitely feasible additions, as 343 are working on a new game engine which will probably be used for physics, and AI alike.

I wouldn’t count out larger player counts either, as some of the concept art points in that direction (large open arenas). 343 may take a page from battlefield on this one, they must tread lightly though as we all know what happened with Halo 4. Does anyone know if the player cap was increased on the XB1 compared to the 360? One of my friends brought this up and I hadn’t heard any news of this beforehand.