Finalized List of Balancing AA's [NEW AA's!]

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

This thread is for the return of certain equipment into AA’s for Halo XB1, as well as possible tuning to the AA’s to make them more reliable, helpful, and most of all, balanced. There are just a few Equipment/AA’s that didn’t make it into Halo 4 from the previous 2 Halo titles. From that, we’d need to come up with a couple ideas on how to implement a decent AA or Equipment that can mimic:

Bubble Shield
Flare
Power Drain
Radar Jammer
Trip Mine

Bubble Shield could actually render itself nearly the same as it’s Halo Reach counterpart, in that the only difference between the Reach version from Halo 3’s is that Reach’s could recover a player’s health from Red to Blue. Normally a Player’s health would only refill to the max of whatever color their health reached (max blue, yellow, or red). An interesting take is that the hexagonal “frame” of the shield could be independent from the rest of the pieces. This means each “piece” can take so much damage before it’s destroyed. Essentially, a rocket to one side of the shield could destroy multiple (5 or so) pieces from the entire bubble of the shield. Once 20 seconds or 50% of the shield
is destroyed, then the whole shield disintegrates. It would take on the appearance of ForeRunner technology. After destroyed, the bubble shield takes 30 seconds to refill from empty and can be prematurely destroyed by pressing the
AA button a 2nd time. Destroying a shield prematurely yourself will retain the energy left and refill from it’s current position.

Flare is one of those things that is hit or miss. It is meant to blind opponents that it’s thrown at from a distance as to not blind the user or their teammates. It could retain it’s same properties from Halo 3. As an AA, pressing the AA button would throw it with the velocity somewhat to that between the Oddball in Halo 4 is thrown and grenades. This is ForeRunner technology and is a 1-time-use grenade. Since it’s an AA, it’d have to materialize in order to deploy, which ForeRunner technology can do. So it wouldn’t make sense for someone to throw 15 in a match and only die twice. The area of affect is slightly larger than grenades. Somewhat to like the Auto-Sentry does. Lasts for 5 seconds. Refill time is 30 seconds.

Power Drain is another one of those things that’-Yoink!- or miss. When thrown it can take out opponents shields from a pretty decent distance. This would utilize UNSC technology. Preferably, this AA would be activated like that of a “satchel charge” in that pressing the AA button would activate a proximity-like charge that is thrown to a surface. Whatever surface it touches first it will automatically attach itself to. It would be manually activated upon pressing the AA button a 2nd time. Would emit the same area of space the Halo 3 version does. Active for 5 seconds. Rate of drain is 1/4 shield per half second (2 seconds full-shield take out). Takes 30 seconds to refill. Deactivates or disappears on owner-player’s death.

Radar Jammer would be taken off of the Active Camo that’s been present since AA’s have been introduced. It would work exactly the same as how the Flare is used. Due to it’s Covenent-nature, it can home-out enemy radar and affect them without affecting you and your teammates. Covenent technology. Active for 10 seconds. Takes 30 seconds to refill.

Trip Mine is the biggest one missing. As an AA, the Spartan (or Covenent) would enter a 3rd-person view and smash his/her hand into the ground (reminiscent of Armor Lock) to “plant” a mine underground. The mine would emit a sound only to players within default 25m radar range and would have a faint “red” glow on the surface of the ground. Grenades can detonate it. Lasts in place for the duration of the player’s life and MUST be self-detonated by pressing the AA button a 2nd time. Takes 30 seconds to refill. Deactivates or disappears on owner-player’s death. Damage radius to that of non-Explosives Package Sticky Detonator, except within 3 meters which results in instant death to ground troops and light vehicles while roughly 60-70% damage to medium-sized vehicles, and about 40% to heavy vehicles. One-time-use activation for an instant explosion.

Updated Armor Abilities:

Thruster Pack would have a slightly longer distance of use and would be a bit quicker in performing.

Active Camo would lose it’s Radar Jammer function. While in-use, player would always retain “good” camo, unless being
damaged. This means player can sprint, walk, jump, and would be invisible. Also, player would not appear on radar AND it’s usage time would be 5 seconds with a 30-second full-recovery window before next activation. This would strongly promote movement for rushing into enemy territory, rather than camo-sniping opponents the entirety of a match, which has been a persistent problem with this ability since Reach. Induces a natural electro-magnetic field
around the player that normal players wont see. (See below).

Promethian Vision sees the biggest changes as it would lose some of it’s durability. It’s distance of use would be much shorter than that of PV, only allowing roughly 70% of it’s normal distance. Same use and recharge time as PV does now. Also, since it lost some durability in distance, it now picks up in the detection of the new AA’s for Power Drain and Trip Mine. The Power Drain satchel while in PV and Trip Mine’s object will appear red where it is buried. If either object appears green while in PV, then it belongs to a friendly. Also, any players in Active Camo, would be outlined as normal, but faintly filled in as “yellow” to indicate the player is currently in an Active Camo state. 10 second recharge time.

Regeneration Field needs a slight buff in how fast it recharges a player’s shields. The use in Halo 3 was frustrating at best, and in Halo 4 is nearly useless. However, if using Halo 4 as a base, increasing it’s recharge rate capabilities by maybe 5% would increase it’s effectiveness enough to not be overpowering, but would help promote it’s use among other abilities.

Engineer AA (cut from Halo 4), could make a return as a finalized AA in Halo XB1. In Halo 4, it seems mostly-finished, but goes unused for any number of reasons. What it does, is it forces an enemy player to be “kicked out” of their AA usage. In it’s current state, it only works in a small angle that the player is looking, and only at a short distance away. It also ONLY kicks players out of AA usage, but retains whatever was left of their AA energy. To be
a useful AA in Halo XB1, it would need to have an activation arc/bubble that could span a 15m radii, and would also completely kick out ALL players from their AA, including friendlies. If Friendly Fire is disabled, then this AA wont deplete friendly AA energy. Has a quick animation that throws out the bubble “field” of use for about 1 second. Takes 30 seconds to recharge.

This is my projected updates to existing AA’s and re-implementing some Halo 3 equipment as working AA’s for Halo XB1. What is the community’s thoughts on this? My biggest criticism I believe will come from my changes to Active Camo

2

Okay, I don’t really feel like dissecting your post, and I’m sure people are going to be doing that anyway, so I’ll just ask one question.

Why do you want to see all Equipment turned into Armor Abilities, instead of having both as separate entities that fill up the same slot?

3

Bubble Shield, Armor Lock, and Hardlight Shield will never be truly balanced, because at their concept they are just momentary godmode abilities that slow down the game.

Flare’s I disagree with entirely. You massively gain an advantage over your enemies with the push of a button.

Power Drain I would rather see as a grenade. Such as has less radius than a frag, but lasts longer and unlike pulse it doesn’t just stick to one spot until landing it eventually just stops rolling.

Radar Jammer is useless. Competitive gametypes, with the exception of FFA, don’t even use radar.

Trip Mine seems acceptable, so long as players can actually destroy it by shooting it. Otherwise would be unfair and abusable. Eh, even still, I see some situations where it would be imbalanced.

Thruster Pack I won’t comment on. I believe it has potential, not sure this is the right solution.

Camo should just go.

PV should just go as well.

Regen Shield needs a nerf if anything. Should only restart your shield recharge, then it should have a significant delay after that. Would be useful for healing outside of combat, without aiding you in combat. Even then, it’s still a bit abusable.

Assuming we have an Engineer AA, it should only disable AA’s in a small radius. Otherwise, it’s pretty OP.

4

I don’t like the sound of any of these. They all have the same negative as AAs currently. They are too constant in game. Every person in the game has one every second pretty much. Just too much. Also, not all AAs are applicable to all maps, just like all weapons are not applicable to all maps. I would be much more into the idea of them being more similar to equipment. Then they could be specifically chosen for maps, not constant in games, and maps would not needs to be based around them.

5

> Bubble Shield, Armor Lock, and Hardlight Shield will never be truly balanced, because at their concept they are just momentary godmode abilities that slow down the game.

Bubble Shield isn’t momentary god mode, you can still step into the bubble, shotgun/sword someone, melee someone, drop a grenade, fire a point black rocket at someone.

Hardlight shield is only god mode from the FRONT, your shields and health is still normal from all other angles. (Sides, back, top, bottom, feet, top of the head, and in front just behind the shield)

Armor Lock is the only one that is momentary god mode, out of all of the ones you listed. BUT even that one could be balanced. Take it, make it one use only, have it run off of a person shields, not AA energy meter, have it break at a certain amount of damage, IE 2 or more rockets at the same time, or with in 2 secs of each other breaks it. Also, any damage you take when in armor lock, is dealt to you come out of it only 75% damage. God mode, turned into delaying your death. Reusable escape from death turned into use it and lose it.

6

I hope for Thruster Pack’s return, it can only get better.

I found Regeneration Field fine in H4 and I think your Bubble Shield design where individual panels can be destroyed is a neat idea.

Even though I despise AC I think it could return. I remember AC in Halo: Reach, where the AA’s longevity is inversely proportional to how much you move. Which was an incredibly stupid idea, if anything that mechanic alone encouraged people to camo-snipe, knowing if they stand still they’ll get more use out of the AA.

Perhaps AC in Halo 5 could work the opposite whereby the more you move around the more you get out of the AA and the longer you remain stationary the faster it depletes. Going on with your suggestion, I think a 5 second duration with a 30 second recharge is too harsh for AC to be even viable to the player.

7

Since the only problem with camo now would be that you can still camo snipe for a short while I propse another feature of it.

Whilst cloaked you cant scope in with any weapon.

8

> I hope for Thruster Pack’s return, it can only get better.
>
> I found Regeneration Field fine in H4 and I think your Bubble Shield design where individual panels can be destroyed is a neat idea.
>
> Even though I despise AC I think it could return. I remember AC in Halo: Reach, where the AA’s longevity is inversely proportional to how much you move. Which was an incredibly stupid idea, if anything that mechanic alone encouraged people to camo-snipe, knowing if they stand still they’ll get more use out of the AA.
>
> Perhaps AC in Halo 5 could work the opposite whereby the more you move around the more you get out of the AA and the longer you remain stationary the faster it depletes. Going on with your suggestion, I think a 5 second duration with a 30 second recharge is too harsh for AC to be even viable to the player.

The reason I suggested changing Camo’s role from long-distance abuse to close-quarters movement is soley to promote map movement and enforce players to actually do something. With my current suggestion players would always be invisible unless being damaged. So that paired with not appearing on radar and for 5 full seconds…imagine what you could do in 5 seconds on a map as if you just weren’t there at all. The ability turns tactical rather than a deterrent to stray from combat.

9

Here are my AAs I think could see use. They are all Map pick-ups with with editable amount of uses, akin to choosing the spare magazines for weapons placed in forge. Also assume the removal of sprint for this:

Strafing and backwards moving is the same base player speed of Halo 3, but forward walking pace in 110% faster than that. This allows for the benefits of faster map crossing while we still maintain a balance in movement speed as a whole, eliminates the cheap escapes problem of sprint, eliminates basically every problem sprint caused. Further more, this benefits Automatic users to an extent. In Automatic vs Precision weapon combat, generally the Precision user is walking backwards preventing the maximum accuracy of the Automatic, and hence usually winning doing this, when possible. This feature would give Automatics the chance to close in on the precision users, gradually growing closer and hence more accurate, to give a better chance of defeating them, giving Automatics a indirect buff, not affecting the weapon mechanics themselves.

Armour Abilities

Now these are centered around more balanced Gameplay and not player benefits.

Player Self Aid:

Active Camo: Note (These ideas are from another thread and are NOT my original ideas but i liked them alot so i feel the need to spread these new Active Camo Abilities) Active Camo in its current form is an op camo campers dream. these changes take their dream and turn it against them. The new Active Camo works better the FASTER you move, causing the players position to always be revealed but they will be invisible, So now it is better for crossing open fields where there is little cover opening new strategies instead of improving old camping methods. now that you will always be on radar, there is no need for the radar Jammer, but we will come back to that. While active, Promethean Vision will not work on you while you are moving at full speed.

Evade: Now that all players have ready to use sprint, evade is limited to one use per cool down but otherwise is the same as halo reach’s. this replaces Thruster Pack.

Jump Pack: This replaces the currently OP Jetpack this is a single use upwards thrust that launches a player into the air by about 15 feet in a slow arch movement, similar to the brute jump packs in Halo 3, players cannot fire during the period they are in the air, making it essentially only useful for quick vertical movement.

Promethean Vision: Same effects as Halo 4. people are differently affected while they have active Radar Jammer or Active Camo. Drop Shields and Regeneration Fields are highlighted in blue and green respectively. Players who are not moving will be fully highlighted red through walls, not just Red outlines which moving players are.

Support Self Aid:

Armour Lock: By removing the ability to stun those who melee an armour locked player and the EMP effect on players (but will still affect vehicles) this armour ability becomes not overpowered and cannot he abused the way it was in reach. It also has a shorter effective period the more damage it takes. now it will be good for anti-vehicle and explosion surviving, the way Bungie meant it to be used.

Hard light shield: Provides an alternative to armour lock that gives the user more mobility at the cost of less protection, it will work as it currently does.

Grenade Resistance: 10 seconds (Interupptable) of lessened grenade damage (players will still killed one hit with full shields when stuck) offers yet another alternative to armour lock that allows full mobility but only reduced damage from grenades and not all forms of damage (AA version of explosives support package)

Dexterity: While active, provides the user with faster reloads and faster movement speed for 20 seconds (Mix of speed boost dexterity package)

Support:

Drop Shield: (Assume a return of the medpacks and health system) Creates a bubble shield (stronger than reaches, weaker than Halo 3s) that while within it your will automatically regain health But not shields, but they will start to recharge normally.

Regeneration Field: The Opposite of Drop Shield. This AA will automatically recharge TEAMMATES shields but not their health their is also no bubble effect or vision obscuring

Radar Jamming: Due to the new removal of radar jamming on Active Camouflage, it can be made into an AA that Does this: Creates false enemy and teammate indicators on enemy motion sensors that are within range. prevents the player being seen on Promethean Vision while walking at full speed.

EMP drop mine: Large EMP AoE detonation that stuns vehicles and drains shields but emits green light and beeps loudly, can be triggered by shooting or pressing AA button again, long recharge time.

These are MY ideas, what do think of these? which do you think are OP? Which are under powered?

10

Your comprehensive list is ok. What I really don’t like about it is having AA’s in place of Tactical Packages/Support Upgrades. AA’s shouldn’t alter any player’s base player traits (speed, damage resistances, etc) for any reason. That’s when it becomes unbalanced. With that said, I still feel my version of updates is more balanced and promotes healthy gameplay habits. Your Active Camo solution is somewhat similar to mine, however, it doesn’t make sense to have it stronger when moving and weaker when not. It technically should work harder to keep you in camo, thus using energy faster if moving. My version ignores this theory regardless.

11

> Bubble Shield isn’t momentary god mode, you can still step into the bubble, shotgun/sword someone, melee someone, drop a grenade, fire a point black rocket at someone.

  1. That assumes you’re at close range and not medium or long range.

  2. That assumes I don’t have a shotgun, energy sword, or other CQC power weapon whilst being inside the bubble shield. You have to think about how AA’s interact with other aspects of the game, as well as with each other.

  3. You’re assuming I’m an idiot and don’t know how to abuse the shield properly. You wanna come in, I’ll just toss a nade, have it land in the middle of the shield, and walk out.

> Hardlight shield is only god mode from the FRONT, your shields and health is still normal from all other angles. (Sides, back, top, bottom, feet, top of the head, and in front just behind the shield)

I can also instantly reflect rockets back at people and kill them. As well as remain untouchable at long range.

> God mode, turned into delaying your death. Reusable escape from death turned into use it and lose it.

Delaying death is the same. I stay alive long enough for my teammates to come in and clean you up.

> I hope for Thruster Pack’s return, it can only get better.

#DefaultThrusterPack2014

12

AA’s need to go all together. i liked the idea it was fun but we are talking about Spartans here. evade need to make a return, forget about thruster pack and its laughable distance.

ordinance- should become equipment based. a 2 trip mines, power drain sphere, flare, regeneration generator, and bubble shield.

overshield and active camouflage should be map specific.

13

> > Bubble Shield isn’t momentary god mode, you can still step into the bubble, shotgun/sword someone, melee someone, drop a grenade, fire a point black rocket at someone.
>
> 1. That assumes you’re at close range and not medium or long range.
>
> 2. That assumes I don’t have a shotgun, energy sword, or other CQC power weapon whilst being inside the bubble shield. You have to think about how AA’s interact with other aspects of the game, as well as with each other.
>
> 3. You’re assuming I’m an idiot and don’t know how to abuse the shield properly. You wanna come in, I’ll just toss a nade, have it land in the middle of the shield, and walk out.
>
>
>
> > Hardlight shield is only god mode from the FRONT, your shields and health is still normal from all other angles. (Sides, back, top, bottom, feet, top of the head, and in front just behind the shield)
>
> I can also instantly reflect rockets back at people and kill them. As well as remain untouchable at long range.
>
>
>
> > God mode, turned into delaying your death. Reusable escape from death turned into use it and lose it.
>
> Delaying death is the same. I stay alive long enough for my teammates to come in and clean you up.
>
>
>
> > I hope for Thruster Pack’s return, it can only get better.
>
> #DefaultThrusterPack2014

Thruster and hologram are the only two abilities I want returning. The rest need to be built like these two are.

14

> Bubble Shield Once 20 seconds or 50% of the shield
> is destroyed, then the whole shield disintegrates. Destroying a shield prematurely yourself will retain the energy left and refill from it’s current position.
>
> Flare It is meant to blind opponents that it’s thrown at from a distance as to not blind the user or their teammates. is a 1-time-use grenade. Since it’s an AA, The area of affect is slightly larger than grenades. Lasts for 5 seconds.
>
> Power Drain When thrown it can take out opponents shields from a pretty decent distance. a “satchel charge” in that pressing the AA button would activate a proximity-like charge that is thrown to a surface. Whatever surface it touches first it will automatically attach itself to. It would be manually activated. Would emit the same area of space the Halo 3 version does. Active for 5 seconds.
>
> Trip Mine would enter a 3rd-person view and smash his/her hand into the ground (reminiscent of Armor Lock) to “plant” a mine underground. The mine would emit a sound only to players within default 25m radar range and would have a faint “red” glow on the surface of the ground. Grenades can detonate it. MUST be self-detonated by pressing the AA button a 2nd time. Takes 30 seconds to refill. One-time-use activation for an instant explosion.
>
> Updated Armor Abilities:
>
> Thruster Pack would have a slightly longer distance of use and would be a bit quicker in performing.
>
> Active Camo[/b While in-use, player would always retain “good” camo, unless beingdamaged. This means player can sprint, it’s usage time would be 5 seconds with a 30-second full-recovery window before next activation.
> <em><strong>_Engineer AA_forces an enemy player to be “kicked out” of their AA usage. It also ONLY kicks players out of AA usage, it would need to have an activation arc/bubble that could span a 15m radii, and would also completely kick out ALL players from their AA, including friendlies.
[/quote]
Here are my views on what you said. I quoted and left everything that I saw that needs work inside. So…</strong></em>
> Bubble Shield- shouldn’t last 20 seconds. It should last closer to 10. This allows you and your teammates a mobile spot in which to regain shields in the heat of battle or if under sniper fire and needing to cross a small open area. For balance reasons, destroying the shield prematurely should NOT give you back the remaining energy. That would allow a wall of shields if multiple people as little as 2 were using them to cross wide open areas.
> Flare- this should be a special grenade. If you could start with it, it should be like the Pulse Grenade in that you only get one. Shouldn’t last 5 seconds. If affected by it 2 seconds is plenty of time. That’s enough time to bounce it off the wall and rush in while the enemies are blind. Best used with a team that way or for retreating.
> Power Drain- this should also be a special grenade. However, it should work over a larger area and affect both friend and foe. It should not be manually activated, and it should stay active for 1.5x the amount of time it takes to reduce someone to one shot. Giving the thrower a slight advantage. If his timing is slightly off.
> Trip Mine- this is seriously broken. In a big team match many people could use these to completely fortify their base. Meaning the enemy team would either waste all their grenades or die. With a 30 second respawn these would be everywhere at all times and get annoying fast. It could at best be turned into an equipment.
> Thruster Pack- should be Evade. Spartans don’t need anything to do a realistic roll dodge. Should go 1.5x the distance of a sword lunge OR a shotgun’s kill range. Whichever is farther. There is currently no counter to instakill close range weapons aside of overshields which scattershot still destroys. Having this ability move just outside that range would effectively give you the advantage AND actually save your life.
> Active Camo- active time should be 10 seconds. You should NOT be able to stay invisible when sprinting. When running however is fine. Sprinting should make you halfway visible.
> Engineer- OP AS FUUUUUU. This would counter all defensive abilities by allowing an engineer with rockets to dominate. Fire a rocket, cancel armor lock or shield just in time. Bam. What it should do is actually double your AA energy consumption rate and slow their recharge timer to half speed. It would make sense if this ability used their hands in some manner that prevented shooting for a second. This way, if someone is jetpacking they won’t just fall, but their pack will start to quickly drain. Their thruster pack Ninja won’t lead them into an assassination. Instead they just won’t be able to use it as often. Their camo won’t insta reveal them, but they’d have to find a safe spot faster, possibly sprinting and revealing themselves in the process. You couldn’t fire a rocket at a hardlight shield and make it drop just before impact. Etc.
> It’s currently more OP than the engineer class on Brink.