Sparkast #16 “Sandbox” | Direct Link | Also available on Itunes and Zune.
Present during the podcast: Josh Holmes (Creative Director), Frank O’Conner (Franchise Development Director), Chris Blohm (Systems Designer), Chris King (Lead Sandbox Designer) and David Ellis (Spartan Ops Designer).
I’ve edited my original post because this one more accurately describes the info I had previously listed and offers extra info as well. Portions of my original post have been quoted throughout the thread.
> •Holograms appear red on radar at all times and red with reticle. They also trigger your auto aim.
Oh thank god.
> •Pulse grenade has to land on ground before it activates in a sphere.
Sure about this?
In the Bulletin they were talking about throwing it at a wall or a ceiling, unusual spots for grenades, to fake out players.
Thanks for this, something happened with my connection and it cut off half-way through. Of course it wouldn’t let me skip to where I was.
I really like how you can only spawn with 1 Pulse grenade.
•Shield recharge mod recharges your shield ~15% faster than regular, but it still takes 5 seconds out of combat before it will recharge as regular shields do. Doesn’t do anything if you’re still in combat.
Finally, confirmation. That should stop the “It’ll break the game” posts I see sometimes.
But then again, I’m over-optimistic.
This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not post inappropriate content. This includes leaked content, real or fake.
My connection cut off too and I had to download it and find my way after that.
I guess it was an ominous thing though, because their podcast also got cut when a laptop crashed during their recording.
> Thanks for this, something happened with my connection and it cut off half-way through. Of course it wouldn’t let me skip to where I was.
>
> I really like how you can only spawn with 1 Pulse grenade.
You can right click and save as through the link on the bulletin, then you can skip to wherever you like.
> Finally, confirmation. That should stop the “It’ll break the game” posts I see sometimes.
Nope.
> But then again, I’m over-optimistic.
Yep.
I’m happy with just about everything except Holograms activating auto aim. That would be an instant rage inducer if my reticle gets pulled away from an enemy due to Hologram.
> I’m happy with just about everything except Holograms activating auto aim. That would be an instant rage inducer if my reticle gets pulled away from an enemy due to Hologram.
I could be mistaken, but I think what they said is it triggers your auto turret. Not auto aim. If you have an auto turret it will fire at holograms first, so it’s the auto-turret’s weakness. I don’t remember them saying anything about auto aim.
Glad to hear Hologram got a nice buff, and that Regen Field won’t be as OP. Still would have it for support my bro when we get together and play. Game sounds great!
…now if they would talk about that vehicle…
Oww, the green, the seizures, my eyes…
Anyways, Holograms activating auto-aim? Whut? Medon’tunderstand.
> Oww, the green, the seizures, my eyes…
>
> Anyways, Holograms activating auto-aim? Whut? Medon’tunderstand.
Does the green really bother you? I thought it would help to differentiate the posts from the others, especially considering green is supposed to be the easiest color to see.
I’ll change it.
> Oww, the green, the seizures, my eyes…
>
> Anyways, Holograms activating auto-aim? Whut? Medon’tunderstand.
Hologram didn’t fool me in Reach because there were too many tells.
The blue reticule and lack of auto aim tracking being one of them.
Still has the lack of a nameplate and basic AI scripting going against it.
Seems a little contradictory to say the game is faster paced and then lengthen the BR and DMR kill times to make it “more on pace with past games”
I love the sound of the vehicle improvements.
The Binary Rifle with it’s glow is going to scare the crap out of people.
I like the knock out of zoom clarification.
Also, I can’t quite remember, but I heard them say that the pulse nade will stick to walls, which is very interesting and cool. I’d have to go 2 that part again to see if I heard right. If so, it should be safe to assume that it can stick to vehicles or a person as well, or maybe it’s just ground and walls they said.
> •Regen field isn’t as powerful as Halo 3. If you connect all of your shots on somebody inside of it, they can still die. If you miss, their shields have a chance to go back up.
Good.
> •Auto Sentry can look 180 degrees. Dies when you die.
Nice to know.
> •At one point, Auto Sentry used to follow you around. Now it just stays in place.
That makes it more balanced IMO. So, good.
> •Auto Sentry tracks (attacks) holograms
Nice to know. Also makes Hologram more useful.
> •Holograms appear red on radar at all times and red with reticle. They also trigger your auto aim.
This makes Hologram much more useful.
> •Game is faster paced than Reach
Thank God.
> •They initially started with the BR and DMR being 4 shot weapons, and but they were ultimately toned down along with the rest of the sandbox across the board to match the traditional pace of past games.
DMR 4sk? Ridiculous. BR 4sk? In a balanced sandbox? Don’t see any problem with this. 5sk just makes it useless now.
> •BR’s recoil depends on how fast you fire, but you can learn how to readjust between each trigger pull.
Don’t care. Not using that 5sk turd.
> •Aim assist and bloom were toned down on DMR significantly. DMR and BR are vastly different from their previous iterations.
DMR vastly different? Good. BR vastly different? What a waste of good art.
> •ALL weapons no longer get knocked out of scope when you’re shot at. Instead, your camera ‘flinches’ while in scope, and this depends on the weapon you are using. The stability mod just controls how bad your camera shakes while you’re being shot at.
I thought they got rid of that because of lots of complaints? Now they brought it back?
> •Binary rifle has 6 shots total, but only 2 shots before you can reload.
6 shots total? Nice to know. Makes it much less overpowered too. Good.
> •There’s a bright laser for when somebody is zooming in with the binary rifle (like the spartan laser flare from Halo 3).
Good. That makes the Binary Rifle more balanced.
> •“Bi-Ri” has large reticle from the hip and shotgun-like spread, so can’t run around 1sk no-scoping unless it’s in extreme CQB.
Great decision.
> •Armor mods only effect how you play and not who you are as a player. They emphasize that it behaves very differently than how it sounds on paper
Thought so. So tired of everyone comparing them to Perks.
> •Shield recharge mod recharges your shield ~15% faster than regular, but it still takes 5 seconds out of combat before it will recharge as regular shields do. Doesn’t do anything if you’re still in combat.
Good. I thought this would be overpowered. Looks like I was wrong.
> •Nemesis tells you location of person who killed you for a few seconds after you respawn and then goes away.
Good. Thought this was going to be overpowered too.
> •Banshee has more health. It had 330 HP in Reach and has 475 HP in Halo 4
With slower barrel rolls and weaker bombs, I’m glad it got a health buff.
> •They changed how the the vehicles take damage, which they say happens in ‘buckets’. Different parts have different health that contribute to its overall HP
This sounds really good.
> •Scorpion Tank’s top speed and acceleration are faster. Cannon shells are slower and hdrop over distance.
Very good. Now it’s not as overpowered as it was in all previous games.
> •All turrets (vehicle and mounted) are more powerful.
Awesome! Turrets in Reach sucked. Glad these are more powerful, which makes complete sense too.
> •Warthog and Mongoose are sturdier, heavier, and more stable
Warthog? Good. Mongoose? It’s always been a classic to have it roll and flop everywhere, but oh well.
> •Some games have preset loadouts and those will change based on the game’s lifespan and rate at which people unlock stuff
This will make people happy.
> •Can only spawn with 1 pulse grenade in loadout (2 with grenadier mod) vs 2 frags or plasmas.
Very nice to know. Makes sense too.
> •Pulse grenade has to land on ground before it activates in a sphere. It does constant damage in a few waves and then builds up to explode on a final wave. Can be used for area of denial.
HappyFace!
> •Binary Rifle, Scattershot, and Incinteration Cannon are the 3 weapons that do the disintegration effect on players.
Shame the others don’t. Which doesn’t make sense either canon-wise.
> > Oww, the green, the seizures, my eyes…
> >
> > Anyways, Holograms activating auto-aim? Whut? Medon’tunderstand.
>
> Does the green really bother you? I thought it would help to differentiate the posts from the others, especially considering green is supposed to be the easiest color to see.
>
> I’ll change it.
Actually, it’s red, due to its long wavelength.
> > > Oww, the green, the seizures, my eyes…
> > >
> > > Anyways, Holograms activating auto-aim? Whut? Medon’tunderstand.
> >
> > Does the green really bother you? I thought it would help to differentiate the posts from the others, especially considering green is supposed to be the easiest color to see.
> >
> > I’ll change it.
>
> Actually, it’s red, due to its long wavelength.
Is it really? They lied when they told me why the chalkboards in school were green!
Oh and I like the shield recharging mod clarification. Before, as well AA others assumed that the mod decreases the default time until recharge starts up and it goes up faster.