The implementation of Default Sprint into Halo’s multiplayer has caused a seemingly endless debate.
One side would like to keep it while the other side would like to have it removed entirely. There doesn’t seem to be a version of sprint that could work as a compromise.
But is there perhaps another mechanic that has similarities with sprint but doesn’t come with the issues and complications of it?
Recently, I have seen the thought of replacing Default Sprint with Default Thrusters popping up more often and I’ve started to think about that idea.
How would it affect gameplay and map design when the thrusters on the back of our Spartan’s MJOLNIR armor aren’t only aesthetical but become a relevant component of the gameplay as well and how could you implement it properly?
How could it work?
Basically, the current AA “Thruster Pack” would work as the basic modul for that new default mechanic.
You would achieve an instant, short and limited boost in the desired cardinal direction. Additionally, I think it could even allow a slight lift (nothing really significant) or rather temporary slow down falling.
I think the player should stay in first person while making use of the Thrusters and he/she should even be able to shoot/melee/throw grenades, so the actual combat doesn’t get “paused” and it would add another variable to it.
However, important are the intervals between the single uses. The intervals or rather the cool downs/ recharges have to be long enough to form the Thrusters to a tactical mechanic and to prevent constant and thoughtless “Thrusters spam” (what would cause chaotic gameplay).
How would the mechanic affect the game and what are the advantages/disadvantages or positive/negative impacts in comparison to sprint?
Default Sprint:
It’s a “natural” or “conventional” mechanic and addition to gameplay.
It’s a mechanic that can be used offensive as well as defensive. When it is used overly offensive it speeds up gameplay but when it is used overly defensive it slows it down.
It makes vehicle vs infantry combat more “fair”.
However, the maps have to be extremely good designed to make it work well with Halo’s general gameplay and sandbox, since you have to incorporate a combination of two significantly different movement speeds. I think that is quite much effort just to implement an actual simple mechanic.
Default Thrusters:
It’s a rather “special” or “unconventional” mechanic.
Just like Sprint, the mechanic can be used offensive as well as defensive but also flexible and creative.
It tends to speed up the gameplay (implying you stay in first person and are able to fight) and adds another form of strafing/dodging to the game.
It doesn’t have a significant impact on map design but it offers the possibility to integrate specific obstacles or areas that could only be overcome or reached by using the Thrusters.
In addition, the Thrusters could even coexist with Default Sprint in Campaign/Co-op modes. Plus it implements the currently only aesthetical thrusters of the GEN II armor into gameplay.
I’ve believed for a long time now that the Thrust Pack would be a fantastic replacement for Sprint in future Halo games. The Thrust gives another mechanic to movement that, unlike Sprint, actually doesn’t have a negative effect on the combat system of the game. It would need to be nerfed back just a little bit, as there are some silly circumstances revolving around it in it’s “110% speed” form. But I think crisp fast movement speed, with Thrust allowing you an extra option in your strafe, as well as slightly more air control, would fit the franchise just perfectly.
If you allow players to shoot while thrusting, players could use that as a way to easily (cheaply) throw off another player’s aim in an engagement. Outcomes of engagements would be decided more on who used their thrust at the better time rather than who was better at aiming and avoiding shots.
> If you allow players to shoot while thrusting, players could use that as a way to easily (cheaply) throw off another player’s aim in an engagement. Outcomes of engagements would be decided more on who used their thrust at the better time rather than who was better at aiming and avoiding shots.
> Strongly disagreed. This would add much more chaos, missed shots, longer kill times, and a whole lot of bad to gameplay.
I would like to encourage you to elaborate on your arguments since in their current forms they are simply generalized and can be used as contra for Sprint as well.
> If you allow players to shoot while thrusting, players could use that as a way to easily (cheaply) throw off another player’s aim in an engagement. Outcomes of engagements would be decided more on who used their thrust at the better time rather than who was better at aiming and avoiding shots.
I understand your point.
Nonetheless, couldn’t your argument work the other way around as well?
I mean, basically it would be a “power strafe” (avoiding getting hit while hitting the enemy).
So outcomes would still be decided who has the better aim and strafe plus who makes the best use out of his thrust (though you could also count the Thrusters to strafing).
I don’t see a need for players to be able to shoot and thrust at the same time. I think this is an idea worth experimenting with, but theoretically speaking, I think it would be better if shooting was disabled during the thrust. Balance the sudden and drastic movement with the inability to fire.
EDIT:
Also, Reach had the Evade AA, which is a lot like the Thruster Pack. What do you think Reach would’ve been like if all players used Evade instead of Sprint by default? I didn’t play Reach very much, so I wouldn’t know.
I strongly vote no because close-quarters combat would be dramatically altered, and for the worse I believe. Sure, making it standard will change things up but give you a whole new slew of problems to deal with.
Melee has always been a strong part of Halo, and default thruster would essentially turn every close encounter into a dance of thruster packs. Annoying, distracting, bad for the weapon sandbox, and IMHO will only serve to drag out combat, not speed things up. I can see it now… two Spartans square off, both jockey for thruster position, and in the meanwhile someone else comes along and cleans up from a distance while you’re trying to orient yourself.
Totally cool with it as an AA or equipment, though.
> > Strongly disagreed. This would add much more chaos, missed shots, longer kill times, and a whole lot of bad to gameplay.
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> I would like to encourage you to elaborate on your arguments since in their current forms they are simply generalized and can be used as contra for Sprint as well.
Thought it was obvious enough. To sum it up, if everybody is thrusting around then more people will miss shots, have to make a 90 or 180 degree turn over and over which both of these simply leads to frustration as well as longer kill times. It also often times would boil down to who thrusters first among other things. All in all it will add more negativity and harm to multiplayer than good.
> Melee has always been a strong part of Halo, and default thruster would essentially turn every close encounter into a dance of thruster packs.
> To sum it up, if everybody is thrusting around then more people will miss shots, have to make a 90 or 180 degree turn over and over which both of these simply leads to frustration as well as longer kill times.
I would think that could be fixed by having a recharge time like the Thruster Pack currently does. I don’t think OP is suggesting that players have infinite Thruster Pack usage like in Binary Slayer.
> Having an effective strafe ability makes having default thrusters seem pretty redundant. The major difference between strafe and thrust is…
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> Strafe is a skill that takes time and effort to develop.
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> Thrusters are achievable with just a push of a button, and is restricted to charge times,
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> I think I like strafe better. <mark>There’s no need for a default thruster ability</mark> when you can work on your strafe skills instead.
Not when sprint is so much simpler to balance, not to mention a big thing that has been overlooked by alot of us when we give input, is map design. Sprint could work easier than everybody having a thruster pack, IMO. Just take away mobility and all those things.
I think thruster and hologram are the only balanced AAs. These two should be the only abilities that should come back, except thruster should require a charge to use to its full extent, which would be a little faster than normal speed. The rest of the armor abilities should be available off of spawn, but need to be designed the way these two were, so that they are skillful and don impact maps at all.
I also think equipment should make its return, they would be more powerful, but be on the map, while AAs are in loadouts and are less powerful. If not this, than I would like to be able to set how I want AAs to be in custom games. Normal use, unlimited use, or one time use.
> I don’t see a need for players to be able to shoot and thrust at the same time. I think this is an idea worth experimenting with, but theoretically speaking, I think it would be better if shooting was disabled during the thrust. Balance the sudden and drastic movement with the inability to fire.
I think allowing to shoot while thrusting wouldn’t “interrupt” the combat plus it would allow the ability to be used more flexible.
While disabling shooting creates an overly defensive ability in my opinion but I would rather see players being able to use it offensive and defensive equally.
But of course it is just a theoretical concept.
> EDIT:
> Also, Reach had the Evade AA, which is a lot like the Thruster Pack. What do you think Reach would’ve been like if all players used Evade instead of Sprint by default? I didn’t play Reach very much, so I wouldn’t know.
Personally, I think that Thruster Pack is a more advanced version of Evade, since it can also be used in midair, hence it allows more flexibility in combat and I think it was more balanced as well.
But to your actual question.
I haven’t really thought about that to be honest. Most of the playlists in Reach didn’t offer Evade as a selectable AA, at least the playlists I’ve played most of the time. I played some custom games though with Evade as the default AA but they doesn’t really left a deciding impression on me.
I guess I don’t really know either currently. I think I would have to give it more thought.
To sum up my thoughts/points, I simply don’t see every single person having a thruster pack working as smoothly as some suggest. Sprint however can, as long as no mobility is present and the maps are designed better.
> > Melee has always been a strong part of Halo, and default thruster would essentially turn every close encounter into a dance of thruster packs.
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> > To sum it up, if everybody is thrusting around then more people will miss shots, have to make a 90 or 180 degree turn over and over which both of these simply leads to frustration as well as longer kill times.
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> I would think that could be fixed by having a recharge time like the Thruster Pack currently does. I don’t think OP is suggesting that players have infinite Thruster Pack usage like in Binary Slayer.
Exactly. To prevent such scenarios I pointed out that it is important to properly adjust the recharge times of the Thrusters. Personally, I think that you would likely have to increase the recharge time of the current one, since the current Thruster Pack is still quite “spamable” in my opinion.
> To sum up my thoughts/points, I simply don’t see every single person having a thruster pack working as smoothly as some suggest. Sprint however can, as long as no mobility is present and the maps are designed better.
The issue with Sprint is that it isn’t just as simple to balance as you make it seem. It’s actually quite the opposite. It’s really complex to balance it properly.
You don’t have to only balance the mechanic itself but you also have to balance the entire map and sandbox around a combination of two different movement speeds (Sprint and default movement). That’s definitely not an easy task.
So, when the question is if Sprint can work in Halo’s multiplayer, I personally think the answer is yes it can.
But I think the actual question is rather if all the effort to make it work properly is justifiable or reasonable when all it basically adds to multiplayer’s gameplay (aside a “natural” feeling) is temporary faster movement.
That’s why I primarily started to think about what Default Thrusters could potentially add to the gameplay and what it would need to make it work properly in comparison to Sprint.
OP I don’t know whats up with a few of the comments of this thread but i am with the yes party because me and my friends play customs but we mix it up a bit. One of the ways we do it is by not sprinting and just playing the game like in Halo CE-3. It is a bit of a drag to get around but it is still fun. So we altered it a bit and gave everyone thruster packs.
The Negatives that are being listed in the thread aren’t even there in the gameplay.Really, I find it funny how all of us hear have the basically to test a gametype like this but refuse not to. Me and my friends did this a while ago but it was still fun and well balanced. Like i said the issues listed aren’t even there.
We melee while thrusting and we use it well with ninja tactics. The only issue is the recharge time. Another reason why i agree with how Thruster pack should be evade 2.0
Tapping ht trigger will give you a mini burst like in Halo 4 that you can do twice while holding it down gives you a major boost and what ever direction you wish. This is something we haven’t tested because we don’t have the ability to do so but all of us will agree that Thruster pack is the future of Halo Mobility.