Halo in the past has been a game that is very easy to pickup and play, but a -Yoink- to actually master. Now in the last couple games loadouts have made it more complicated, and therefore harder to pickup and play. Or at least that’s how I feel. I originally posted this in a different thread and while I was writing it I felt that it deserved its own.
Loadouts need to be simpler. By packing on more to what is already there you are just making the game more complicated, and therefore further and further away from Halo’s roots. Now I’m not one to preach making the next game exactly like Halo 2 or 3, but I do believe that the game should be simpler when it comes to loadouts. This is because the more they add to them the harder and harder it is to balance them to make them equal. I am not necessarily for identical starts but you have to admit they do a great job at making starts equal. That’s why I, personally, want a hybrid AA and equipment system where AAs have a limited amount of uses and appear on the map as pickups. That way you could have a couple “starting AAs” that are balanced against each other in loadouts and then have “power AAs” on map that people can battle over and win. Going even further AAs could be mixed with equipment in a system where AAs are the “power weapons”(they give you 1-5 uses, depending on how powerful they are, and are overall more useful for the individual) and equipment are the “starting/low tier weapons”(can only be used once, and are more useful to the team). Now in this system the loadout would be Primary, Secondary, Grenade, and Equipment. Now it is important that equipment be in the loadout as they are, like I said before, more useful to the team. AAs would be fought over just like power weapons are.
This system would allow things that are similar, but marginally different, exist together. Things like Hardlight shield, and deployable cover could easily exist together because deployable cover would be equipment(only used once) and the hardlight shield would be an AA(useable 1-5 times). I feel like it is important to say that you would not be able to have both an AA and a piece of equipment, both would be used by the same button and would occupy the same space in your Spartan’s inventory allowing for you to only carry one or the other. Now I have come up with a small example list of the equipment and AAs.
AAs(all pickup)
Jet Pack(2-3 uses)
Hardlight Shield(3-4 uses)
Hologram(5 uses)
Thruster Pack(3-4 uses)
Promethean Vision(2-3 uses)
Armor Lock(you would only get one use)
Equipment
Autosentry(loadout)
Regen field(loadout)
Deployable Cover(loadout)
Bubble Shield (pickup)
Grav Lift(loadout)
Power Drainer(pickup)
Flare(loadout)
Trip Mine(loadout)
Now that is just a small list(even though it contains all the AAs and equipment from 3, Reach, and 4) and I fully encourage 343i to add more if they feel it necessary. I just don’t want them to add things for the sake of adding things. I also want to point out that this will work better for loadouts because all they have to balance out against each other are the equipment. AAs will be more effective, and they are meant to be.
i think hardlight and jetpack shouldn’t be mesured in uses, but in seconds.
I saw this limited AA idea everywhere.
thanks for writing it down ^^
> i think hardlight and jetpack shouldn’t be mesured in uses, but in seconds.
>
> I saw this limited AA idea everywhere.
>
> thanks for writing it down ^^
Timing them would make sense. They should still have a limitation like they so in Reach and 4. Their total time should be made up of a full use 2-4 times. Does that make sense?
> AAs(all pickup)
> Jet Pack(2-3 uses)
> Hardlight Shield(3-4 uses)
> Hologram(5 uses)
> Thruster Pack(3-4 uses)
> Promethean Vision(2-3 uses)
> Armor Lock(you would only get one use)
>
> Equipment
> <mark>Autosentry(loadout)</mark>
> <mark>Regen field(loadout)</mark>
> <mark>Deployable Cover(loadout)</mark>
> Bubble Shield (pickup)
> <mark>Grav Lift(loadout)</mark>
> Power Drainer(pickup)
> <mark>Flare(loadout)</mark>
> <mark>Trip Mine(loadout)</mark>
What makes these even remotely equal in your eyes? You can’t have equal starts present when players can choose equipment that do various things (from healing/protecting you to blinding enemies or automated assistance in a 1v1 encounter). Also, the Trip Mine would be just as destructive (if not more so) to vehicular combat than the PP/PG combo is if made available at-spawn. Selection of weapons is different because they all have the same end result (kill the enemy), but AAs/Equipment are designed to be effective game-changers. I firmly believe that neither of them have a place in Personal Loadouts, but should be placed on-map with limited uses.
> > AAs(all pickup)
> > Jet Pack(2-3 uses)
> > Hardlight Shield(3-4 uses)
> > Hologram(5 uses)
> > Thruster Pack(3-4 uses)
> > Promethean Vision(2-3 uses)
> > Armor Lock(you would only get one use)
> >
> > Equipment
> > <mark>Autosentry(loadout)</mark>
> > <mark>Regen field(loadout)</mark>
> > <mark>Deployable Cover(loadout)</mark>
> > Bubble Shield (pickup)
> > <mark>Grav Lift(loadout)</mark>
> > Power Drainer(pickup)
> > <mark>Flare(loadout)</mark>
> > <mark>Trip Mine(loadout)</mark>
>
> What makes these even remotely equal in your eyes? You can’t have equal starts present when players can choose equipment that do various things (from healing/protecting you to blinding enemies or automated assistance in a 1v1 encounter). Also, the Trip Mine would be just as destructive (if not more so) to vehicular combat than the PP/PG combo is if made available at-spawn. Selection of weapons is different because they all have the same end result (kill the enemy), but AAs/Equipment are designed to be effective game-changers. I firmly believe that neither of them have a place in Personal Loadouts, but should be placed on-map with limited uses.
I see where you are coming from. And the trip mine should probably not be a loadout equipment, you made a good point with that. The others, while different could be balanced against each other though. They all serve a different role, yes, but so do automatic and precision weapons. Plus the fact that they only get once use helps out. They would clearly have to balance them out against each other, I’m not blind to that. They could do this by limiting how long they can be used and how many bullets they take before they break. Just because they cannot be identical does not mean that they cannot be equal, 343i just needs to get them right to make sure that that happens.
> > > AAs(all pickup)
> > > Jet Pack(2-3 uses)
> > > Hardlight Shield(3-4 uses)
> > > Hologram(5 uses)
> > > Thruster Pack(3-4 uses)
> > > Promethean Vision(2-3 uses)
> > > Armor Lock(you would only get one use)
> > >
> > > Equipment
> > > <mark>Autosentry(loadout)</mark>
> > > <mark>Regen field(loadout)</mark>
> > > <mark>Deployable Cover(loadout)</mark>
> > > Bubble Shield (pickup)
> > > <mark>Grav Lift(loadout)</mark>
> > > Power Drainer(pickup)
> > > <mark>Flare(loadout)</mark>
> > > <mark>Trip Mine(loadout)</mark>
> >
> > What makes these even remotely equal in your eyes? You can’t have equal starts present when players can choose equipment that do various things (from healing/protecting you to blinding enemies or automated assistance in a 1v1 encounter). Also, the Trip Mine would be just as destructive (if not more so) to vehicular combat than the PP/PG combo is if made available at-spawn. Selection of weapons is different because they all have the same end result (kill the enemy), but AAs/Equipment are designed to be effective game-changers. I firmly believe that neither of them have a place in Personal Loadouts, but should be placed on-map with limited uses.
>
> I see where you are coming from. And the trip mine should probably not be a loadout equipment, you made a good point with that. The others, while different could be balanced against each other though. They all serve a different role, yes, but so do automatic and precision weapons. Plus the fact that they only get once use helps out. They would clearly have to balance them out against each other, I’m not blind to that. They could do this by limiting how long they can be used and how many bullets they take before they break. Just because they cannot be identical does not mean that they cannot be equal, 343i just needs to get them right to make sure that that happens.
The difference between balancing AAs/Equipment and balancing weapons (AR and BR, for instance) is that weapons all achieve the same result. They damage other players. AAs/Equipment, on the other hand, usually don’t. They offer radically different results with their use. How do you balance a Grav Lift with an Auto-sentry? How do you balance a Flare with a Deployable Cover or Bubble Shield? You can’t balance them with each other, only balance them into the sandbox as a whole. That’s why they were placed on-map in Halo 3, as well as why you didn’t see every one of them on any given map.
Not all maps play well with Bubble Shields or Grav Lifts, either. Other maps are made with certain ones in mind to be used (Grav Lift on High Ground) and so a Grav Lift is placed there. One Grav Lift. Allowing everyone to spawn with one would make it less about the best possible application of that equipment, and more about getting a boost and shooting down at your enemy while he/she is still looking forward (same problem occurs with the Jetpack). That’s another problem with AAs/Equipment at-spawn. Overabundance of something like that makes it too forgiving to misuse one, because you can simply respawn with another one.
> > > > AAs(all pickup)
> > > > Jet Pack(2-3 uses)
> > > > Hardlight Shield(3-4 uses)
> > > > Hologram(5 uses)
> > > > Thruster Pack(3-4 uses)
> > > > Promethean Vision(2-3 uses)
> > > > Armor Lock(you would only get one use)
> > > >
> > > > Equipment
> > > > <mark>Autosentry(loadout)</mark>
> > > > <mark>Regen field(loadout)</mark>
> > > > <mark>Deployable Cover(loadout)</mark>
> > > > Bubble Shield (pickup)
> > > > <mark>Grav Lift(loadout)</mark>
> > > > Power Drainer(pickup)
> > > > <mark>Flare(loadout)</mark>
> > > > <mark>Trip Mine(loadout)</mark>
> > >
> > > What makes these even remotely equal in your eyes? You can’t have equal starts present when players can choose equipment that do various things (from healing/protecting you to blinding enemies or automated assistance in a 1v1 encounter). Also, the Trip Mine would be just as destructive (if not more so) to vehicular combat than the PP/PG combo is if made available at-spawn. Selection of weapons is different because they all have the same end result (kill the enemy), but AAs/Equipment are designed to be effective game-changers. I firmly believe that neither of them have a place in Personal Loadouts, but should be placed on-map with limited uses.
> >
> > I see where you are coming from. And the trip mine should probably not be a loadout equipment, you made a good point with that. The others, while different could be balanced against each other though. They all serve a different role, yes, but so do automatic and precision weapons. Plus the fact that they only get once use helps out. They would clearly have to balance them out against each other, I’m not blind to that. They could do this by limiting how long they can be used and how many bullets they take before they break. Just because they cannot be identical does not mean that they cannot be equal, 343i just needs to get them right to make sure that that happens.
>
> The difference between balancing AAs/Equipment and balancing weapons (AR and BR, for instance) is that weapons all achieve the same result. They damage other players. AAs/Equipment, on the other hand, usually don’t. They offer radically different results with their use. How do you balance a Grav Lift with an Auto-sentry? How do you balance a Flare with a Deployable Cover or Bubble Shield? You can’t balance them with each other, only balance them into the sandbox as a whole. That’s why they were placed on-map in Halo 3, as well as why you didn’t see every one of them on any given map.
>
> Not all maps play well with Bubble Shields or Grav Lifts, either. Other maps are made with certain ones in mind to be used (Grav Lift on High Ground) and so a Grav Lift is placed there. One Grav Lift. Allowing everyone to spawn with one would make it less about the best possible application of that equipment, and more about getting a boost and shooting down at your enemy while he/she is still looking forward (same problem occurs with the Jetpack). That’s another problem with AAs/Equipment at-spawn. Overabundance of something like that makes it too forgiving to misuse one, because you can simply respawn with another one.
That is a great point. The way I look at with the inclusion of AAs at start in Reach there is no going back. I am just looking for a compromise between identical starts, and the AA starts. I think that having an AA all the time is what ruins the game most. Starting with a one use piece of equipment would be a big step toward the right direction. And one where both fans of AAs and fans of identical stars can see a middle ground.