Halo 4: How we see it. (Excluding the already-mentioned.)

Games Other Halo
1

Hey, all.
Don’t fret, I am not here to enforce any pretentious feelings of mine over the entire community. CoughCoughUnlikeSomePeopleHereCough

Let’s dive right into the topic, shall we?

So, the Halo 4 First Look trailer was released. Woohoo.
Now, I believe it is safe to say that most all of us realize the mass of topics being formed, with most of them being rant posts, typically with the title “OmgZ0rs mEy opinin ez BeTR THAN URs.” (At least, that’s what a lot of them feel like…).
However, there are some threads rejoicing and praising 343i’s work.
I haven’t really been on the forums here for the past few hours, and that’s because of a certain reason: There’s nothing else to talk about. We, as a community, have talked about all there is to talk about.

You have the threads about…

Perks, Yay or nay?
Sprint, Yay or nay?
OMFG, Guyz, Nu Skor sistem?
LOLOLOL 343i is stooped.
Why 343i?!?
Perks have been confirmed to not exist!
I hate how the new BR looks! >:[
I love how the new BR looks! :smiley:
OMFG, guyz, is theyur gun b a Beta!?
No Beta confirmed, OMFG!
I hate/love the New HUD!
Armour Abilities confermd! (Not really.)
Guyz, I would be deeply appreciative if you would refrain from speaking. about why you don’t like Halo 4. >:[
GuyZ, wut if Marty is a secret agent!?

NOTE: Mispellings are purely for comedic purposes. I’m not attempting to put anyone down, but rather poking fun at both the illiterate, and extensively detailed topic titles, such as this one.

…You get the idea.
We’ve all read 'em.
So, what’s the point of this thread, you may ask?

To discuss what has not been discussed.
To let the people discuss something aside from the topics listed above, should they want to browse the forums without the wave of copy/pasted topics.
Or, at least, to let the people of Waypoint know: Yeah, we get it.

  1. What do you like/dislike, in great detail with your reasoning, about the concepts and plans for Halo 4?

  2. Do you expect the Dev-cycle to be smooth/rough?

  3. What do you think of the graphical capabilities and potential that Halo 4 has, considering what we saw in the Pre-Alpha stages?

  4. How do you expect/want a lot of the MP maps to play out?

  5. What are some things that could potentially happen within the Halo 4 campagin?

*6. What would you like to see from a file browser/creation/sharing system in Halo 4?

These are some topics that I think aren’t talked about too much, but could potentially be big matters. (Yes, even #1. Keyword = “Great Detail”.)

If you want me to, I can add various other topics that you think be beneficial to discuss. Remember, my goal is to let the people of Waypoint be aware that various topics are merely being copy/pasted, and that there are some other, interesting topics to be conversed about. I do not want this to become a “master thread” of any kind.
So, without further adieu, this thread should be used to DISCUSS VARIOUS, STRANGE, UNCOMMON, INTERESTING, OFTEN OVERCLOUDED TOPICS, ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL, AS AN INDIVIDUAL, OF HALO 4, UNTIL THE WAVE OF COPY/PASTED TOPICS SETTLES DOWN.

  • = Replied concepts to discuss.
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> 1. What do you like/dislike, in great detail with your reasoning, about the concepts and plans for Halo 4?
>
> 2. Do you expect the Dev-cycle to be smooth/rough?
>
> 3. What do you think of the graphical capabilities and potential that Halo 4 has, considering what we saw in the Pre-Alpha stages?
>
> 4. How do you expect/want a lot of the MP maps to play out?
>
> 5. What are some things that could potentially happen within the Halo 4 campagin?

  1. I like all of the changes that we’ve read. I have faith that what 343 is doing with Halo 4 to make it a NEW Halo experience, but I won’t be able to say I like what they’ve done all together with the gameplay untill I’ve actually played it.

I like that they’re not throwing the DMR out the window completly I honestly preferred it to the BR. 1 burst > 3 burst.

  1. I’d assume it’s Rough at the moment, seeing as how they stated that they’re crunching the rest of the game, I’d say it’s pretty early compared to Bungie, because they’ve crunched many times just before shipping the game. They might already be working on Halo 5, I just hope the next few games aren’t annual releases.

  2. The graphics look amazing in Pre-Alpha I can’t wait to see them on my crappy SD tv!

  3. I want the maps to play like something we haven’t played before. Out with the old, in with the new.

  4. I’m not a campaign person usually, I only play a campaign once, or twice.

3

I would like a multiplayer map that focuses heavily on aircraft (as in a base that is very vertical and contains lifts and landing pads, along with Hornets, Falcons, Vampires, Banshees and Pelicans) with ground vehicles acting as fire support.

Also, a random fact:
The BR reticule in the Vidoc is in fact the same reticule that the Falcon pilot has in campaign. Weird, but probably a placeholder.

4

> 1. What do you like/dislike, in great detail with your reasoning, about the concepts and plans for Halo 4?

The brief MP bits shown seemed to have a Halo 3-ish movement speed – well, certainly faster than Reach – and this is something that’s gotten my hopes up.

Reach was an unmitigated disaster; even those who find it fun can’t deny that it has had the lowest population, most stagnant online community activity, and worst word-of-mouth of any game in the series. I’ll refrain from elaborating as I don’t want this to turn into a Reach-dissatisfaction post (“hate” is a strong word), but suffice it to say that the less of Reach I see in 4, the better, in my opinion.

> 2. Do you expect the Dev-cycle to be smooth/rough?

Smooth-ish.

> 3. What do you think of the graphical capabilities and potential that Halo 4 has, considering what we saw in the Pre-Alpha stages?

I think Halo 4 is gonna be just fine for defaults, though I have worries in the back of my mind regarding Forge.

They have some incredibly talented people at 343i. My memory is hazy but I think one of them is literally an everything-programmer: this person’s done stuff involving space, stuff involving computers, stuff involving everything. Plus, I guarantee you that 343i has hired people from the community to work on development – they’ve hired community members for other roles, IIRC bs angel – and the community has a ton of talented developers, as the past seven years of Halo Custom Edition modding history so readily demonstrates.

With all that in consideration, it’s possible that they can optimize the graphics engine enough to get better visuals than Reach while still also having better performance. It’s possible.

> 4. How do you expect/want a lot of the MP maps to play out?

Balanced. Fast, but not oppressively so. They need recognizable locations to help with callouts (which happen to be the only thing I’m good for in team games).

> 5. What are some things that could potentially happen within the Halo 4 campagin?

shrug

> If you want me to, I can add various other topics that you think be beneficial to discuss. Remember, my goal is to let the people of Waypoint be aware that various topics are merely being copy/pasted, and that there are some other, interesting topics to be conversed about. I do not want this to become a “master thread” of any kind.

How 'bout the File Browser?

There are a huuuuge number of things that can be improved when it comes to Halo’s file-sharing. I’m working on a little something in this regard – an “interactive suggestion”, a little demo of how I think Halo 4’s File Browser should work – but here are some of the things I’ve finalized in my mind:

First of all, we need to improve content previews. When it comes to maps, it has never been possible to know what you’re getting based on what you see in-game. The primarily distribution medium of maps is the Internet, not the game, because we can share tons of information. The thing is, not all of this information is unique to the Internet; given sufficient changes to how the game stores and tracks files, it would be entirely possible for the system to allow us to link screenshots to maps, connect required map-gametype pairs (i…e minigames), and write longer descriptions. Basically, it’ll never be possible to replace map threads, but there are a lot of things that map threads do that we ought to do in-game.

Second of all is content discovery. The tagging system in Halo 3 and Reach is weak. Again, most people find content randomly or by searching the Forge communities: few people look for typical community content using tags and expect to find anything good. Tags are limited in their potential, and most people use them as an improvised comment system, or to troll (i.e. the “author rams babies” fiasco). Furthermore, there have been cases where people have actively “sabotaged” particular tags, by applying them to as many irrelevant files as possible. What we need is a system where authors have to improve tags: you should be able to tag files as you like, but until the author approves the tag, only you (and others who’ve applied it) can see it on the file, and only you (ad others who’ve applied it) can see the file in searches for that tag.

Third of all, the File Browser itself needs to be more fluid. It’s too clunky, too on-rails, in Halo: Reach. If I see a file that I like, I have to write down the author’s name, back out all the way to the File Browser’s main menu, and then do a File Share search (and if the author used “lookalike” characters, i.e. lowercase L to mimic uppercase I, in their gamertag, them I probably won’t find them even then). It should not be that slow and that manual to see more of an author’s work, after seeing a screenshot that I like; a “Go to Author’s Share” menu option would be perfect. This is just one example – there are countless other “clunky” aspects in the Browser – but I think it gets the idea across.

Personally, I could go on all day about the File Browser. One of the main reasons I love Halo is because of the potential for community content, but community content only has as much potential as its best distribution system.

5

One little extra I would love is a file maker thing… ehim I guess a file system for your memory. lemmie explain like I have a lot of videos and games and my files are a mess it would be cool to be able to make a file that says “sniper videos” and its full of snipes for gametypes have a file labeled “race maps” for all the race maps. Instead of the jumbled mess of vids for “forge world” lol its hard to find the vid im looking for

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I agree with you totally your a very smart person there OP
That being said here are my opinion

  1. I like the fact they seem to be going for and even more immersive feel and adding more realism IE sound effects, hud bobble, and other small things of that nature. Im excited to see what 343 really means by all these new mechanics, and i have faith that 343 is tailoring this new halo experience into the best halo that there is.

  2. I think there probably working very hard and im sure there are small hiccups just like in everything else but im sure its pretty smooth, well as smooth as something like this cant be programming and developing a games pretty intense.

  3. Seriously this always gets me pretty up the footage shown of the Nose wrinkle is just amazing with a very high level Of motion detail not necessarily textural yet seeing as it is Alpha but that like on the of the first stages(alpha Beta[not like the game testing seeing as betas are usually Gamma in real life]gamma epsilon) that pretty good i think. Though old time fan will know what im talking about i wanna see some water effects lol but im sure with frank we will see some lol.

  4. Quick paced, action packed, interesting, Fun, Classic halo, as well as new interesting playlist

  5. Spartan II new Spartan IV and alot of character development and Interesting interactions

7

> How 'bout the File Browser?
>
> There are a huuuuge number of things that can be improved when it comes to Halo’s file-sharing. I’m working on a little something in this regard – an “interactive suggestion”, a little demo of how I think Halo 4’s File Browser should work – but here are some of the things I’ve finalized in my mind:
>
> First of all, we need to improve content previews. When it comes to maps, it has never been possible to know what you’re getting based on what you see in-game. The primarily distribution medium of maps is the Internet, not the game, because we can share tons of information. The thing is, not all of this information is unique to the Internet; given sufficient changes to how the game stores and tracks files, it would be entirely possible for the system to allow us to link screenshots to maps, connect required map-gametype pairs (i…e minigames), and write longer descriptions. Basically, it’ll never be possible to replace map threads, but there are a lot of things that map threads do that we ought to do in-game.
>
> Second of all is content discovery. The tagging system in Halo 3 and Reach is weak. Again, most people find content randomly or by searching the Forge communities: few people look for typical community content using tags and expect to find anything good. Tags are limited in their potential, and most people use them as an improvised comment system, or to troll (i.e. the “author rams babies” fiasco). Furthermore, there have been cases where people have actively “sabotaged” particular tags, by applying them to as many irrelevant files as possible. What we need is a system where authors have to improve tags: you should be able to tag files as you like, but until the author approves the tag, only you (and others who’ve applied it) can see it on the file, and only you (ad others who’ve applied it) can see the file in searches for that tag.
>
> <mark>Third of all, the File Browser itself needs to be more fluid. It’s too clunky, too on-rails, in Halo: Reach.</mark> If I see a file that I like, I have to write down the author’s name, back out all the way to the File Browser’s main menu, and then do a File Share search (and if the author used “lookalike” characters, i.e. lowercase L to mimic uppercase I, in their gamertag, them I probably won’t find them even then). It should not be that slow and that manual to see more of an author’s work, after seeing a screenshot that I like; a “Go to Author’s Share” menu option would be perfect. This is just one example – there are countless other “clunky” aspects in the Browser – but I think it gets the idea across.
>
> Personally, I could go on all day about the File Browser. One of the main reasons I love Halo is because of the potential for community content, but community content only has as much potential as its best distribution system.

Huh. Excellent topic to discuss.
I personally would actually love to see a lot of these things added/improved on in the full game. And, I can’t agree enough with the highlighted part. That function was a tad disappointing, for me.

> One little extra I would love is a file maker thing… ehim I guess a file system for your memory. lemmie explain like I have a lot of videos and games and my files are a mess it would be cool to be able to make a file that says “sniper videos” and its full of snipes for gametypes have a file labeled “race maps” for all the race maps. Instead of the jumbled mess of vids for “forge world” lol its hard to find the vid im looking for

I’ve actually been secretly hoping something like this would happen. It would make for a more streamlined experience.

Thanks for the contributions, guys!

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You sir, know how to make a thread. :wink:

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> You sir, know how to make a thread. :wink:

Hey, thanks.
Things like that brighten up my mood. :smiley:

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> 1. What do you like/dislike, in great detail with your reasoning, about the concepts and plans for Halo 4?

Likes - BR <3 Floaty jump’s, Multiplayer map’s designed around competitive play.

Dislikes - Sprint, from what i have seen so far there is nothing to show enough how fast base movement speed’s are like, since i see sprint i can only assume that the chances of slower speed’s being implemented just to add in sprint is likely but this is only until i see more actual gameplay, while i could go into detail on why sprint should not be/cant work in Halo there are other thread’s that already detail this (but i will state that anyone who believe’s sprint speed’s up Halo is severely misguided).

‘Perks’… while not exactly being perk’s a la CoD or anything remotely similar (Frankie’s quote on the work ‘perks’ being used was not the right word to describe them did a lot to remedy my initial fear’s) the fact remain’s that these ‘armour enhancement’s’ are more a less taking away from Halo’s “every one start’s equal” formula and to me that’s another bad thing.

Another thing that is worrying is the statement about a change from the normal 0-50 slayer scoring system, i cannot for the life of me figure out anything that could possibly be better than a simple yet effective slayer scoring system but until more details are released only time will tell.

Lastly i fear Halo 4 wont give me the same feeling as Halo 2 and 3 did, but that’s a personal thing i guess.

> 2. Do you expect the Dev-cycle to be smooth/rough?

At this point probably smooth, from what i read in the the bulletin it seem’s it’s mainly polish etc that is needed.

> 3. What do you think of the graphical capabilities and potential that Halo 4 has, considering what we saw in the Pre-Alpha stages?

Graphical capabilities are far less important to me than how the game actually play’s.

> 4. How do you expect/want a lot of the MP maps to play out?

Intense and fun a la Halo 2 and 3.

> 5. What are some things that could potentially happen within the Halo 4 campagin?

I just want to be amazed, personally im hoping for the feeling of exploration, some epic setpiece’s, the ‘Ancient Evil’ to be good in term’s of combat (just like covies) and a plot with several twists and turn’s.

11

…Huh. I never actually gave my own thoughts on this.
Well, as far as the Dev-cycle, I’m not too sure how it might play out.
However, this is how I honestly want things to happen, despite the fact that it would be extremely unlikely; Personally, I’d like the game to go gold in September, with a public BETA in October, to test networking and such, so the launch could potentially be less rough.