As a long time Halo fan, customizing my Spartan to give it that personal WHAM has always been a key part of multiplayer and with the new addition of the coatings feature I am ecstatic! A wonderful idea from 343 that gives us players an extra layer or personalization that is greatly appreciated from many parts of the community.
But why I wish I could only say great things about the new system, I do have a few issues… The main one being a lack of customization… while I’m pleased utilities and armor options for chest, shoulders, kneepads and etc. have been reintroduced again…
For the first time ever (since online multiplayer) we’re no longer able to select a color palette for our armor, but instead have to rely on the colors provided by the coatings created by 343. This feels like a step in the wrong direction personally since it limits the players freedom and forces them to grind for coatings for the wrong reasons.
This system could easily be updated to include a customization tab to an armors coating (next to the existing lore tab), simply allowing players to change their primary, secondary and accent colors at a minimum.
An even better option would be to allow them to change colors and materials from metallic to plastic and maybe even reactive materials that activate animation/decals on certain events… similar to how shields are reactive to bullets and the position they hit.
A system like this would be beneficial for both sides of the coin, players get customization options while 343 then have an extra avenue for players to earn materials (plus an extra item type for the shop) that could be applied to most armor sets.
However… this could be too much freedom and removes the fun of making these AWESOME unique palettes by 343 and instead just forces them to render new materials… a fix I believe might work however is giving legendary armor a forced material unique to that armor… a good example would be the platinum anniversary coating, forcing that nice shiny material and even a unique color option of chiefs original green not accessible on common coatings.
This is my take on coatings and how I believe they could be improved, I hope you the community will join this discussion by leaving a comment and letting me know what you think of this new system.
PS: I had some concept art of the system I proposed above, but I cannot post them as a new user.
I will do so however in the comments below once I have permission.