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> > > > There was hundreds of Spartan IIIs, so it isn’t a numbers problem. Hundreds makes sense too, considering how big space is.
> > > >
> > > > I think the Spartan IVs feel less special because they are less special. A lot of them are just ODSTs that have been given enhancements, so they act like regular soldiers. Halsey brings up this idea in Spartan Ops, by basically saying that the Spartan IVs aren’t real Spartans. When you compare their training to the IIIs, and especially IIs, she’s not wrong. They’re just better ODSTs now, with the only reason we’ve seen such a high concentration of them in particularly Halo 4 being because The Infinity is their home.
> > >
> > > So how would you feel on other generations?
> > > Personally I think they should follow the rules that the latter generation should be weaker than the prior one (without armor). Which is why I came up with my story concept on future generations to include adding an insurrectionist element to it. Also after Halo 4 it is hard to call Master Chief still a Spartan II (the rest of blue team is). The only known surviving III is Juan and a few of those from Ghosts of Onyx. After the 4th generation gets depleted by the AI wars then it is only natural that a 5th or even 6th generation would have to be made. I went up to 7 that seems like a good number to stop at.
> >
> > I don’t think the IIIs were particularly weaker than IIs, other than the armour and combat experience. All Spartan IIs wore MJOLNIR, but most IIIs wore SPI armour instead, because MJOLNIR was far too expensive for Humanity at the time during the Human-Covenant War to give to hundreds of Spartans that would be sent on suicide missions. Their augmentations were just safer. That being said, the IIs were the genetic, and intellectual prime of Humanity when they were selected for abduction, whereas the IIIs were the best of those that could be adopted. The IVs are weaker outside of the armour than IIIs and IIs, but GEN II MJOLNIR armour supposedly makes up the difference against a II or III in GEN I armour. That being said, most remaining IIs and IIIs wear GEN II now, so there is once again a gap.
> >
> > I don’t think latter generations should be weaker, as a general rule of thumb, because it doesn’t make sense. You make the best Spartans you can, and as many as possible, not intentionally make weaker and weaker ones. I also don’t understand why you think Chief isn’t a Spartan-II anymore, unless you’re referring to the stuff that the Librarian did to him. But all she did was make him immune to being composed. He’s still a Spartan-II.
> >
> > Post Human-Covenant War, the greatest difference between Spartan generations is experience and training. IIs simply had the better training, and obviously have a lot more experience (bar Red Team on the experience front). IIIs had good training, and then obviously less experience than IIs. IVs had the relative worst training, and even though they were already soldiers, had less experience than Spartans, as well as being less experienced as Spartans. It would make more sense to me that GEN V/VI/VII would be better than IVs, not worse, as technology improves. But I don’t know if they’d top the years long, unethical training of the IIs and IIIs. Publicly, the Spartan-IV Program is trying to save face, as it was somehow leaked that the IIs were kidnapped as six-year-olds.
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> Now of course intentionally making weaker Spartans doesn’t make sense but the idea is the higher attrition rate for augmentations means that only the strongest ones survive. Now of course attrition in augmentation is something that would naturally want to be avoided because on a numbers standpoint an ODST recruit is better than a crippled former Spartan selectee. With safer augmentation they are not as aggressive so they sacrifice the increase in strength of the augmentation for the increase in probability of successful augmentation. However more successful applicants also means weaker one as those that survive the safer augmentation may not have survived the process in the 2nd generation, but the 2nd generation most defiantly would survive the safer augmentation process.
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> Naturally if safer augmentations means weaker Spartans (still stronger than an ODST) then there would be a search for a solution to that problem, which could come in one of two ways, quantity and the power armor. UNSC would no doubt look into power armor as they have more resources to do so, Insurrectionists would likely look for quantity. They could still have UNSC generations in their ranks from the defectors (besides Mickey), but they would look first for a faster way to make them then an easier way to make their Spartans.
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> As for the Master Chief yes he is a Spartan II but he was also further augmented by the Librarian pretty much making him the Spartan Prime, (1st Generation). What the humans were capable of before the flood.
Safer augmentation =/= weaker Spartans. We’re much better at performing operations than we were 200 years ago, and they’re also safer. Attrition for selecting candidates for the augmentation…That’s just what special ops units do in the real-world. You have to pass tests, and their standards don’t really change. Some years, you’ll have more. Others, you’ll have less.
Chief isn’t a Spartan Prime…That isn’t a thing, and he isn’t on-par with the ancient Humans either. The Didact still throws him around without difficulty. It was just to prevent him from being composed, as far as I’m aware. Halo 4 didn’t make it particularly clear, and Halo 5 didn’t even mention it.