I don’t want to waste my time using weapons and playing matches over and over again just to get full completion. I want to be able to unlock armour and enjoy the game at the same time. Get rid of commendations.
Also ordnance.
No. To me, Commendations are just a fun way to track kill stats.
Do they take away from the overall experience? No. Do they affect balance in anyway? Nope. And are they forced into your face? Nope.
Keep them.
But PO? Yeah, That can be removed from Multiplayer and added to Firefight/Spartan Ops…
No, Commendations should stay.
They are a great way to have players try different types of tactics and weapons usage. They’re also a great way to unlock armor sets and such.
I do however feel there should be some tweaks made. I mean…how many people actually come close to completing the Plasma Pistol commendation needed for a Covie Weaponry commendation to be completed?
I am all in for armor to be unlocked all the way at the end of completing a certain weapon’s commendation (or maybe even something like an Armor decoration like a ghillie suit á la Emile when you’ve completed the Sniper Rifle commendation), but not for having to use weapons you know will be impossible to use and thus complete.
As for Personal Ordnance: Keep it in BTB, Firefight/Spartan Ops and Invasion. It really only fits battles on a bigger scale.
I have no problem with commendations/challenges so long the player completes them while playing the game.
Once you make them as specific as in H4 they affect the gameplay in a negative way because now people (tend to) play to complete them.
> But PO? Yeah, That can be removed from Multiplayer and added to Firefight/Spartan Ops…
I would rather see that nonsense removed entirely. It has simply no place nor does it add something positive anywhere in my opinion.
I hope it went with Requiem into the sun just like Armor Lock got glassed with Reach.
So you want to play for fun but commendations don’t allow you to? Mmkay…
I like them. You can keep track of them and unlock stuff from them while you are having fun playing.
I think I like Reach’s Commendations better than Halo 4’s.
Getting 4000 automatic kills is a better task than having to grind a specific weapon. Getting 4000 wins is better than trying to win a thousand matches for each gametype that may or may not always be available.
Either way, I see no reason to remove them.
> They are a great way to have players try different types of tactics and weapons usage.
I agree, but some of the requirements are overkill, particularly if the “tactics” players have to use to obtain them are detrimental to gameplay and winning. No Challenge, Commendation, achievement, or other goal should ever encourage players to play against the flow of the game.
The way it should have worked? Make the Commendations max out at something more reasonable, like 50 or 100 kills. This is enough time for the player to become comfortable with the weapon, but not so much that it becomes a boring grind (if he just doesn’t like it) or detrimental to team play, K/D, or W/L (if it or its required tactics are ineffective).
The reason 343i was satisfied with only 130 ranks in Halo 4 was that they figured Commendations could serve the same purpose. Lower Commendation caps mean that it is still feasible to complete them even if playlists rotate or the player doesn’t want to play that way. Higher max rank means that no matter what you do, you are still progressing somehow.
Of course, a lot of this is moot if the weapons are balanced, like Titanfall and unlike Halo 4. However, even in Titanfall, there are still some tactics that are ineffective, yet required for progression.
> > They are a great way to have players try different types of tactics and weapons usage.
>
> I agree, but some of the requirements are overkill, particularly if the “tactics” players have to use to obtain them are detrimental to gameplay and winning. No Challenge, Commendation, achievement, or other goal should ever encourage players to play against the flow of the game.
>
> The reason 343i was satisfied with only 130 ranks in Halo 4 was that they figured Commendations could serve the same purpose.
>
> The way it should have worked? Make the Commendations max out at something more reasonable, like 50 or 100 kills. This is enough time for the player to become comfortable with the weapon, but not so much that it becomes a boring grind (if he just doesn’t like it) or detrimental to team play, K/D, or W/L (if it or its required tactics are ineffective).
>
> Lower Commendation caps mean that it is still feasible to complete them even if playlists rotate or the player doesn’t want to play that way. Higher max rank means that no matter what you do, you are still progressing somehow.
>
> Of course, a lot of this is moot if the weapons are balanced, like Titanfall and unlike Halo 4. However, even in Titanfall, there are still some tactics that are ineffective, yet required for progression.
Agreed. That is basically what I meant to say with the Plasma Pistol example. I would be amazed if I even got 100 PP kills in 3 years time to be honest. There is just no way you can max out that commendation. It goes completely against the flow of the gamere where the PP is a weapon you barely even use to kill.
The max caps on BR/DMR for instance could easily be higher than it is in H4.
It is not that commendations should force masses of people to play against the flow of the game, but it needs to rewards players that use a certain way of playing. There are plenty of players that are more of the sniper type. Reward them for playing through sniper orientated commendations.
In effect: turn commendations into a ‘tree’ of sorts of thematic commendations with sub commendations below it. For instance:
Sniper Master commendation (complete): x amount with Sniper Rifle (x5), x amount with Beam Rifle (x5), x amount with Binary Rifle (x5), x amount of Snapshots, x amount of total kills, x amount of vehicle kills. etc etc.
And have armor sets and decorations etc be attached to it more or less like has been done now with Specializations.
That way you would reward players for specializing in the way they like to play anyways and giving them some visual perks to show off their game style more.
It would in no way interfere with gameplay at all. It wouldn’t give you bonusses over other players. It would simply give more meaning to the system as a whole.
As for the ranks: it is always difficult to come up with a cap. Many gamers will try to max out asap when the game is released. If the cap were to be 200 for instance people might need another week to reach it…but they will reach is soon still.
I think it is probably best to copy CoD here (yes I said it!) and have a max. rank and then be able to reset and ‘prestige’.
Or: just use 130-Rank for unlocking things only (in effect making it Specilizations from a far lower rank on) and just bring back 1-50 for competitive matchmaking.
My God, this post has given me a headache 
> It is not that commendations should force masses of people to play against the flow of the game, but it needs to rewards players that use a certain way of playing. There are plenty of players that are more of the sniper type. Reward them for playing through sniper orientated commendations.
I don’t necessarily disagree, but I just want to clarify that I’m saying you have to be very, very careful when making these decisions. What if after release, sniping is found to be underpowered or only useful on two out of twelve maps? What if after release, sniping is discovered to be overpowered and is thus removed or restricted, making the goals much more difficult to reach (like Scorpion kills in Halo 4)?
To put it another way, there are more potential problems arising from goals being too high than if the goals were too low.
I’m with you, OP.
I’ve always hated things like commendations, including achievements, because it makes people play in different-from-what-they-want-to-do ways.
Can’t stand the grind mentality of modern games. I hate the farming. I hate the way people think it means something, even though it really doesn’t. I hate everything about them.
The ONLY thing I find valuable is a true-skill rank like in classic Halo.
> Can’t stand the grind mentality of modern games. I hate the farming. I hate the way people think it means something, even though it really doesn’t. I hate everything about them.
> The ONLY thing I find valuable is a true-skill rank like in classic Halo.
Agreed. I really enjoy Titanfall and think it’s very well-balanced, but the lack of a skill rank or matchmaking system leads to a lack of competition. It’s very unfulfilling to me.
Commendations in Reach were far more satisfying for some reason. Was it because of the pretty colours? Or the fact that you could see the commendations of other players? I dunno. Halo 4’s commendations never really did it for me. If Halo 5 has commendations, I hope they’re similar to Reach’s.
> Commendations in Reach were far more satisfying for some reason. Was it because of the pretty colours? Or the fact that you could see the commendations of other players? I dunno. Halo 4’s commendations never really did it for me. If Halo 5 has commendations, I hope they’re similar to Reach’s.
There was nothing as satisfying as pulling off an overkill and watching five commendations explode across the screen.
I am in favour with them getting rid of care packages.
But not with commendations. I’d be perfectly fine with copy and pasting Reach’s commendations into Halo 5.
No one is forcing you to get commendations. Why do you care if they’re in the game or not. I just play the game and never go for commendations. But that’s just me. I agree ordinance should go, however commendations pose no problem to Halo. If anything they encourage other players to continue playing and use things they might not normally use.
No, absolutely not.
Get rid of Halo 4’s commendations, sure – they’re very poorly thought through.
Commendations should follow Reach’s setup:
- big, broad categories. Think 10,000 kills with an automatic weapon, not 1,000 kills with AR, 1,000 kills with SR, etc. The H4 commendations don’t take up enough time… Mastery can be achieved in weeks, whereas in Reach, Onyx is achieved in months, if ever.
- Earning commendations should contribute to an XP-based rank, like Reach’s Inheritor. Now that was a challenge.
- The challenges need to be more tailored toward commendations. No reason why they shouldn’t tie-together more closely
- Bring back the cool bar medals for progressing through the ranks. Nothing was cooler than seeing a fiery onyx-max commendation.
If Halo 4 did one thing right with the commendations, it was earning unlockable armor pieces/badges/whatever through their achievement. Perfect - Master earning a pair of forearms is unconscionably stupid. But Flawless Cowboy earning a really sweet set of armor (head, shoulders, etc.) makes pretty good sense – and incentive to play toward commendations.
> No one is forcing you to get commendations. Why do you care if they’re in the game or not. I just play the game and never go for commendations. But that’s just me. I agree ordinance should go, however commendations pose no problem to Halo. If anything they encourage other players to continue playing and use things they might not normally use.
Because then my teammates are running around with shotguns on Hemorrhage.
Totally agree. I was never a fan of commendations.
I would want them to keep commendations but scrap the EXP reward. Instead the reward should be like Weapon Camo or something of the sorts.
Commendations are great, and they render the point-based rank up system useless in Reach. Reach’s rank system was more of grind and less of a metagame, as to torment you into changing your play style a bit.
I don’t want to spend four hours getting only 1,500 CR for major K/D ratio differential.