Classic Gameplay & Enhanced Mobility Middleground

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Since the release of Halo 5, and even to some extent Halo 4 and Reach, the enhanced mobility gameplay (spartan abilities) has been a topic of controversy. Some people like it, some people hate it. Now before I go into this, I want to state that I am mostly indifferent on the enhanced mobility. On one hand, it does create a faster, more intense game, on the other, it creates problems for Halo, specifically in map design.

Halo 5’s multiplayer maps are generally the same. There is nothing really unique or special about each map, and they all feel the same when you play them. If someone asked me to name a Halo 5 map the only one I can think of is Truth, and that’s because it’s a remake of Midship.
I believe this comes down to this:
Spartan abilities have to be compensated for in each map.

This creates problems. Maps are often around mid-size, hallways are much too large with not enough cover and each map contains areas that are just vertical nightmares.
Even vehicles are absent from shipped arena multiplayer maps, which is a first for the series.
On top of this, the weapons have also been tuned to compensate for the abilities.
Bullets now have extreme magnetism, TTK is reduced by a mile, every weapon has a faster fire rate and so on. The biggest change is that a grenade’s damage radius is much larger.
This is a problem. We as the players have so many barriers that we have to get through to make custom games, or change the gameplay to our liking. We can’t even turn the bullet magnetism down, so we can never replicate classic gameplay.

Here’s my solution to this problem, and I gave it a go using Halo 5’s mini game settings:
Spartan Abilities become a part of a power-up system, akin to overshields and active camo.

I tested this out in Halo 5. I turned sprint, spartan charge, thrusters, ground pound, slide and stabilizers off for base player traits. Yes I know, I kept clamber on. I also fiddled with some other traits to replicate Halo 3’s movement and damage. The power-up I had scripted turned on sprint, slide, thrusters and stabilizers. So basically, just the abilities that affect movement. I added one of these power ups close to each team spawn on a remake of Guardian.

Some interesting things happened:

  • Players would rush this power-up to race players to power weapons.
  • TTK was closer to Halo 3.
  • It added an interesting team element to the game: the enhanced player would focus on power weapons while other players would act as general support.
  • It added an element of strategy; timing the power-up, keeping your enhanced player alive (as dying would be the only way to remove the enhancements), trying to get your whole team enhanced.

From my testing, I think this would be a good and needed change for the Halo franchise. It builds upon the equipment model of Halo 3, and still gives us the classic Halo gameplay, but also includes the fast-paced, intense gameplay of newer generations shooters.
Most importantly, it allows creative freedom. If you HATE enhanced mobility, you can just not have it on maps. The best part of this compromise is that maps, weapons and game flow isn’t affected. I didn’t have to make Guardian larger to compensate for sprint. It was a dynamic element on the map that we can have full control of.
I’m hoping that this is a possibility for the future of Halo. I think it’s an interesting, fun way to innovate the gameplay, and satisfy most people. More importantly, it means that 343 doesn’t have to add weapon adjustments in the background, like heightened bullet magnetism, that we cannot control.

Halo is at its best when it can played a million different ways.

2

I hope all of the current spartan abilities stay. I like all of them

3

I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5. At least with the enhanced mobilities EVERYBODY has them. With the pickups only one person has it which makes it an unfair game.

4

> 2533274920070188;3:
> I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5. At least with the enhanced mobilities EVERYBODY has them. With the pickups only one person has it which makes it an unfair game.

It’s a pick up, what do you expect? If it doesn’t give you the edge in a fight, it’s worthless. Same thing with power weapons.

5

> 2533274811336073;4:
> > 2533274920070188;3:
> > I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5. At least with the enhanced mobilities EVERYBODY has them. With the pickups only one person has it which makes it an unfair game.
>
> It’s a pick up, what do you expect? If it doesn’t give you the edge in a fight, it’s worthless. Same thing with power weapons.

Power weapons CAN be really good in the right hands. But they don’t HAVE to be good.

Overshield and invisibility are passive pickups that have perks no matter who uses it. No need to put running, thrusting, melees, whatever in that same category as power pickups.

6

> 2533274920070188;5:
> > 2533274811336073;4:
> > > 2533274920070188;3:
> > > I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5. At least with the enhanced mobilities EVERYBODY has them. With the pickups only one person has it which makes it an unfair game.
> >
> > It’s a pick up, what do you expect? If it doesn’t give you the edge in a fight, it’s worthless. Same thing with power weapons.
>
> Power weapons CAN be really good in the right hands. But they don’t HAVE to be good.
>
> Overshield and invisibility are passive pickups that have perks no matter who uses it. No need to put running, thrusting, melees, whatever in that same category as power pickups.

I’m a bit confused here, you want power-ups to have some sort of skill gap? That makes no sense, it’s a power-up. There is no skill gap for picking up a Fire Flower in Mario games, or Quad Damage in Quake. Power-ups are meant to boost you no matter how skilled you are.

7

> 2533274811336073;6:
> > 2533274920070188;5:
> > > 2533274811336073;4:
> > > > 2533274920070188;3:
> > > > I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5. At least with the enhanced mobilities EVERYBODY has them. With the pickups only one person has it which makes it an unfair game.
> > >
> > > It’s a pick up, what do you expect? If it doesn’t give you the edge in a fight, it’s worthless. Same thing with power weapons.
> >
> > Power weapons CAN be really good in the right hands. But they don’t HAVE to be good.
> >
> > Overshield and invisibility are passive pickups that have perks no matter who uses it. No need to put running, thrusting, melees, whatever in that same category as power pickups.
>
> I’m a bit confused here, you want power-ups to have some sort of skill gap? That makes no sense, it’s a power-up. There is no skill gap for picking up a Fire Flower in Mario games, or Quad Damage in Quake. Power-ups are meant to boost you no matter how skilled you are.

I wrote “I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5.” I would rather have NO power-ups in this game. But that is not going to happen… So my point is that not MORE abilities like sprint or thrusters should be added to the list of power-ups.

EDIT: And you made the comparison between power weapons and power pickups and I don’t agree. There are lots of ways to -Yoink- a railgun, sniper or rocket launcher. If you die the enemy can grab them. If you die with invisibility it is just gone. And you will always have an advantage with invisibility. You do not have to have an advantage with a sniper. You have to be good using it…

8

> 2533274811336073;4:
> > 2533274920070188;3:
> > I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5. At least with the enhanced mobilities EVERYBODY has them. With the pickups only one person has it which makes it an unfair game.
>
> It’s a pick up, what do you expect? If it doesn’t give you the edge in a fight, it’s worthless. Same thing with power weapons.

In terms of power ups i would like the old system personally. Where you just run, or in Halo 3’s case lightly jog, over them instead on pick them up manually.

9

> 2533274920070188;7:
> > 2533274811336073;6:
> > > 2533274920070188;5:
> > > > 2533274811336073;4:
> > > > > 2533274920070188;3:
> > > > > I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5. At least with the enhanced mobilities EVERYBODY has them. With the pickups only one person has it which makes it an unfair game.
> > > >
> > > > It’s a pick up, what do you expect? If it doesn’t give you the edge in a fight, it’s worthless. Same thing with power weapons.
> > >
> > > Power weapons CAN be really good in the right hands. But they don’t HAVE to be good.
> > >
> > > Overshield and invisibility are passive pickups that have perks no matter who uses it. No need to put running, thrusting, melees, whatever in that same category as power pickups.
> >
> > I’m a bit confused here, you want power-ups to have some sort of skill gap? That makes no sense, it’s a power-up. There is no skill gap for picking up a Fire Flower in Mario games, or Quad Damage in Quake. Power-ups are meant to boost you no matter how skilled you are.
>
> I wrote “I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5.” I would rather have NO power-ups in this game. But that is not going to happen… So my point is that not MORE abilities like sprint or thrusters should be added to the list of power-ups.

Ahh okay I understand, I see where you are coming from I’m done now.

10

> 2533274816299345;8:
> > 2533274811336073;4:
> > > 2533274920070188;3:
> > > I personally hate invisibility and overshield pickups more than the enhanced mobilities in Halo 5. At least with the enhanced mobilities EVERYBODY has them. With the pickups only one person has it which makes it an unfair game.
> >
> > It’s a pick up, what do you expect? If it doesn’t give you the edge in a fight, it’s worthless. Same thing with power weapons.
>
> In terms of power ups i would like the old system personally. Where you just run, or in Halo 3’s case lightly jog, over them instead on pick them up manually.

Plus the cube and pyramid shapes to return as well.

11

I have to ask, what/how exactly does the current ability setups create more “intense and faster” games? I’d argue they do the opposite for the most part. Look at Doom(even the OG halo games, wolfenstein, quake, etc etc) as a perfect example of never relenting on its pace, halos issues with the abilities is you have to activate/deactivate them constantly which does slow down this supposed pace people like oh so much. Every time someone runs into another player they’re most likely sprinting in the process, they then have to let go of sprint to draw out their weapon, that slows the pace down where as in DOOM you can move and shoot all at once. The intensity is also higher cause now you have the pressure of someone ALWAYS being combat capable regardless of where they are and what they’re doing. With sprint or clambor you can only use them going forward, with Doom you can move left, right, backwards and forwards all while moving fast and still shooting, the player isn’t handicapped by the abilities and movement of the game.

so do these abilities truly speed up the game and intensity? I’d say no and they do the exact opposite. You’re better off dumping the abilities and upping the BMS to get your speed and intensity because you’re not constantly fiddling with the abilities going on/off

as for making the armor abilities map pickups like how Reach did it: it still wasn’t liked, there has yet to be a compromise for 3 games and odds are H6 will be another attempt. The short story is, the abilities will not work with Halos core gameplay unless they rebuild/change it. The mechanics fight vs themselves the way they are and plus you introduce an entirely new problem once you rebuild the game to make the abilities work, it won’t be “Halo” at that point. I

I’d still take pickups over starting off with abilities nevertheless but it’s still not going to please everyone and is just another comprise that hasn’t worked and won’t work.

the impression that abilities speed up and give more intensity is nothing but a false claim and an illusion to the player.

12

> 2533274923562209;11:
> I have to ask, what/how exactly does the current ability setups create more “intense and faster” games? I’d argue they do the opposite for the most part. Look at Doom(even the OG halo games, wolfenstein, quake, etc etc) as a perfect example of never relenting on its pace, halos issues with the abilities is you have to activate/deactivate them constantly which does slow down this supposed pace people like oh so much. Every time someone runs into another player they’re most likely sprinting in the process, they then have to let go of sprint to draw out their weapon, that slows the pace down where as in DOOM you can move and shoot all at once. The intensity is also higher cause now you have the pressure of someone ALWAYS being combat capable regardless of where they are and what they’re doing. With sprint or clambor you can only use them going forward, with Doom you can move left, right, backwards and forwards all while moving fast and still shooting, the player isn’t handicapped by the abilities and movement of the game.
>
> so do these abilities truly speed up the game and intensity? I’d say no and they do the exact opposite. You’re better off dumping the abilities and upping the BMS to get your speed and intensity because you’re not constantly fiddling with the abilities going on/off
>
> as for making the armor abilities map pickups like how Reach did it: it still wasn’t liked, there has yet to be a compromise for 3 games and odds are H6 will be another attempt. The short story is, the abilities will not work with Halos core gameplay unless they rebuild/change it. The mechanics fight vs themselves the way they are and plus you introduce an entirely new problem once you rebuild the game to make the abilities work, it won’t be “Halo” at that point. I
>
> I’d still take pickups over starting off with abilities nevertheless but it’s still not going to please everyone and is just another comprise that hasn’t worked and won’t work.
>
> the impression that abilities speed up and give more intensity is nothing but a false claim and an illusion to the player.

I agree. I basically just said that for something positive for the Spartan abilities to counter-balance the rest of my points.
When I said I was “mostly indifferent” it was basically because I don’t reckon the gameplay is bad, in fact I think Halo 5 is fun. I do, however, think it isn’t Halo.

13

> 2533274816299345;2:
> I hope all of the current spartan abilities stay. I like all of them

Agreed.

I wouldn’t mind another few being added.

14

> 2533274827425787;1:
> - It added an interesting team element to the game: the enhanced player would focus on power weapons while other players would act as general support.

Is this actually that interesting? If we consider traditional Slayer in Halo, there are really only two tasks for a team: killing opponents and controlling power weapons. And traditionally, all players in a team pull equal weight. So, to me the notion that this single player with the power-up was so powerful that they could focus on power weapons, while the rest of the team was only needed for “general support”, sounds like the power-up is too powerful. Maybe it’s just unfortunate word choice, but three fourths of the team being just “general support” to me sounds like a single player is pulling most of the weight, while the rest of the team is just kind of tagging along.

Of course everything depends on the specifics of the situation. If it is the case that only the player with the power-up is needed to get power weapons while the rest of the team is just keeping them alive while killing opponents, then it seems to me like the total amount of teamwork would be diminished since the team doesn’t need to coordinate weapon pick ups as one person can just do it all.

With that said, this is just the impression I got from your description. Obviously, I haven’t actually played the gametype you made, and I would also expect that the advantage given by Spartan Abilities is small enough that keeping the player with them alive would not be easy. And if keeping them alive for extended periods of time is difficult, then maybe that does generate enough coordination within the team to alleviate my concerns about that “general support” thing.

Also, I have a couple of questions about the specifics. First, what were the exact movement settings you used to replicate Halo 3’s gameplay? Secondly, how did you come to the conclusion that the kill times were closer to Halo 3? Did you actually measure something, or did you just feel like this was the case?

15

> 2533274825830455;14:
> > 2533274827425787;1:
> > - It added an interesting team element to the game: the enhanced player would focus on power weapons while other players would act as general support.
>
> Also, I have a couple of questions about the specifics. First, what were the exact movement settings you used to replicate Halo 3’s gameplay? Secondly, how did you come to the conclusion that the kill times were closer to Halo 3? Did you actually measure something, or did you just feel like this was the case?

Movement speed was knocked down to 90%, weapon damage was knocked down to 90% (or I bumped up damage resistance, don’t remember), jump gravity was reduced to 80% I think. Grenade radius and damage was also reduced by a bit. There was some other smaller stuff that I don’t remember. It didn’t play exactly like Halo 3 because of Halo 5’s weapon settings.

I didn’t measure anything, it just felt slower.
Obviously, take most of this data with a grain of salt, as there a bunch of other things to consider, like maybe people tried to keep their enhanced player alive because I told them of the changes. Maybe if I had a bunch of random people join and have them not be aware of the power-up and what it does, it might not have affected the game as much.

It didn’t make the enhanced player OP, it just changed up the gameplay in an interesting way.

16

> 2533274816299345;2:
> I hope all of the current spartan abilities stay. I like all of them

I think that spartain charge chould be removed but others can stay.

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> 2535441342459131;16:
> > 2533274816299345;2:
> > I hope all of the current spartan abilities stay. I like all of them
>
> I think that spartain charge chould be removed but others can stay.

Thats my favorite of the new abilities. Its awesome in SWAT lol

18

> 2533274923562209;11:
> the impression that abilities speed up and give more intensity is nothing but a false claim and an illusion to the player.

I prefer the “illusion” of spartan charging into someone at an extremelly high speed rather than it looking like im taking a brisk jog up to someone for a melee. But thats just my opinion.

19

Alas, if you try to please everyone you’ll please no-one…