Don't dumb the game down, do this instead!

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I am too lazy to find the quotes on this, but I believe the reasoning behind personal ordinance drops and random ordinance drops in Halo 4 was to allow lesser skilled or experienced players the chance to pick be able to use the items and weapons on the map that, in previous halos, were usually reserved for the more skilled and experienced players, due to them knowing when and where they would be on the map. There is nothing wrong with trying to accomplish that goal, but don’t do it by dumbing the entire game down. You do it by teaching those lesser skilled and experienced players(noobs) when and where the items spawn! This can be done very easily and will be much better for the integrity of the game.

There are so many opportunities to teach players the basics of Halo(the original style of gameplay, as in Halo 1 2 and 3) in a seamless and intuitive manor. Here are a few of my ideas.

-Make a game mode where human players face bots, where the bots never pick up any items. Then, through the HUD, you display when and where each item is on the map, and how long each item takes to spawn. This will be separate from match making, having no ranks gained from the matches, and of course, in real match making players will not have the display in their HUD showing them where the weapons are.

-Instead of showing a useless picture of the map in the pre-game lobby, show a slideshow of the location and respawn time of every major power item on the map.

-Limit the number of items on the map and place them on exact timers so that players can more easily remember when they will show up. Dynamic respawns only serve to confuse players who do not have the experience or time to learn the nuances of a dynamic respawn system!!!

-Reduce the spawn time of items, so that they will appear more frequently giving more opportunities for all players to to pick them up, as well as making them spawn on easy to remember times, like on the 30 second mark or on the minute mark. Remembering that they come up at every minute mark is easier than remembering they come up every 2.5-3 minutes (and thanks to dynamic spawns it is hard to tell exactly when in that 2.5-3 minutes).

Furthermore, matching players according to SKILL, whether visible or not, will ensure that there is not a very experienced player in a game with a bunch of noobs, picking up every item on the map.

Every game humans learn, from board games to sports, have a learning curve. We teach humans how to play through instructions, from a manual or from other players. There is no need to dumb the game down to put everyone on an equal playing field. Halo is not that mechanically difficult and there is not that much knowledge to be learned. I find it laughable that you think a game as simple as Halo(1,2 and 3) is too hard for a human being to learn, quickly. Just look at League of Legends it has a knowledge barrier 1000X larger than any Halo game, yet it is played my millions. Riot does a splendid job of holding a players hand through the game, while not dumbing down the features just so a noob can have the same experience as a veteran.

Why would you resort to destroying the integrity of the game, instead of just teaching players how to play?

2

THIS x100. It is ridiculous how true this is. Instead of removing or dumbing things down because it is a skilled attribute, teach people how to do it. Also, the ranking system will solve this problem and others.

3

I couldn’t agree more.

4

Great post mate, agree whole-heartedly.

5

I couldn’t agree more with what you said, also, a better matchmaking system would allow for more even battles between skilled and less skilled players

6

Though I think the suggestion with the bots isn’t going to happen, all other suggestions are very creative and handy. It allows people to get better at the game faster, without having to dumb it down to the point where there is no real skillgap.

7

Couldn’t agree more. I love the idea of players who want to learn everything can go into dummy matches that shows them everything, but when the real game comes up they better remember. HALO should regain its learning curve that it should’ve never lost.

8

I hope they will go back to predictable power weapon spawns. The random/personal ordinance drops felt out of place and hinder Halo 4’s multiplayer experience.

9

No one plays tutorials anymore anyway, even if they should. People are impatient and would much rather just jump into the action. This usually isn’t a problem because most games nowadays teach you what you need to know as you’re doing it.

I don’t like the idea of pictures or etc. showing locations of weapons because pictures still don’t tell you how to get them. Sure, the Sniper Rifle is in the green room, but where the %!#@ is the green room?!

Halo 3 had a “training” playlist that was only available until a certain rank. The next Halo could do something similar, showing waypoints where power weapons spawned, spawn timers, or whatever.

10

> I don’t like the idea of pictures or etc. showing locations of weapons because pictures still don’t tell you how to get them. Sure, the Sniper Rifle is in the green room, but where the %!#@ is the green room?!

Assuming they have never seen a map in their entire life, then that might actually be a problem. However, I’m fairly certain that even the dumbest of common people can find out how to use a map to get from one place to another.

11

There is one suggestion I heard around the forums a few time that sounds really interesting to me. Instead of having a default loading screen in multiplayer, we could instead of a top-down view of the map showing all of the major weapon spawns and their timers. That way, we still have the predictable weapon spawns that we all love in a Halo game, yet it gives a little help to new players.

Honestly, Halo needs to regain its skill gap, and bringing back weapons on-map is one of the best ways to do that. Nobody should be handed free power weapons for any reason at all.

12

> No one plays tutorials anymore anyway, even if they should. People are impatient and would much rather just jump into the action. This usually isn’t a problem because most games nowadays teach you what you need to know as you’re doing it.
>
> I don’t like the idea of pictures or etc. showing locations of weapons because pictures still don’t tell you how to get them. Sure, the Sniper Rifle is in the green room, but where the %!#@ is the green room?!
>
> Halo 3 had a “training” playlist that was only available until a certain rank. The next Halo could do something similar, showing waypoints where power weapons spawned, spawn timers, or whatever.

I consider myself a pretty competent video game player, whether it is a game I play all day or one I have never touched. I played the tutorials in both LoL and QuakeLive when I first played them. Obviously I can’t speak for the rest of the community, but if you have a well made tutorial I would imagine most people would use that tool. Also, the “tutorial” I was thinking of would be a “training” playlist re-defined as my bots vs humans idea, where the bots never pick up weapons and they are shown on the HUD to the players.

There could also be text and other things guiding the players. For example, the first time you play the tutorial there could be text at the start of the game saying “Halo is a game with many useful items placed around the map, from weapons to grenades. Find the rocket launcher on this map.” Then it could have a Skyrim style path finding thingy that leads you straight to rockets. Then when you pick them up a text could pop up saying “these spawn in this location every 1.5 minutes.”

I mean, this -Yoink- isn’t complicated. 343 has the resources to do this with EASE.

Also instead of pictures, they could show a map overview like they did in gears of war. You might not know what and where everything is the first game, but after a few you will learn it. Even with the pictures, once you learn where green room is then you will remember “oh hey, that picture showed a sniper spawned here.”

IDK its a hell of a lot better a solution than destroying one of the most fundamental aspects of Halo gameplay.

13

> I consider myself a pretty competent video game player, whether it is a game I play all day or one I have never touched. I played the tutorials in both LoL and QuakeLive when I first played them.

I understand. I’m like that too–for games that I’m really interested in, I’ll play the tutorials, look up guides and wikis, and experiment myself just so that I know everything there is to know about the game. However, when you’re talking about people who are too lazy, too incompetent, or too impatient to learn the weapon spawns without a tutorial, you’re probably talking about the same people who don’t bother with tutorials anyway.

> Then when you pick them up a text could pop up saying “these spawn in this location every 1.5 minutes.”

You have to be careful with stuff like this. Ever since Forge, Bungie and 343i have messed with maps, changing spawns, adding and removing stuff, etc. If one thing is changed, that entire script in the tutorial would need to be changed too, or else the tutorial would be giving false information.