FOR STARTERS:
Halo multiplayer has always been a great and popular part of each of the games, most of the popularity coming from the fact that it has always been balanced. Generally, Halo multiplayer is better than most games ahem CoD because everyone starts out with the same weapons and equal chances, causing the best team to usually win. However, the new layout idea 343 mentioned for Halo 4 goes against this by giving players the ability to customize their starting loadouts, which has worried many people who are concerned about how well this will work.
Also, many people are worried about the skill factor and how that will affect games. In Halo 2 and 3, things were generally balanced with the ranking systems. However, people who joined later or started when they were really bad ended up getting bogged down by their position and needing to put in a lot more time to get to a decent level. In Reach, the attempt to fix this with Arena was a failure, because the Arena ended up lacking incentive while the regular multiplayer had no way of separating people based on rank, causing generally unfair matches. After these, a lot of fans question how well Halo 4 will solve these problems.
My system, outlined below, offers a way to solve both of these problems.
RANKING:
The idea I had in mind to correct these problems is, put simply, a ratio that would use your player’s most recent stats in several categories to put you on a scale from 1-60. A 30 would be the middle rank, awarded for an average score each game or 1.00 win/loss and/or kill/death ratio, or resulting in a 1.00 when all averaged together. Unlike the Halo 2 and 3 systems where players slowly ranked up, this playlist would put each player with their general group of players skilled similarly to them. The system would weigh the most recent stats highest, so if a player is in a playlist too hard/easy for them they will quickly move out of it. Also, it would allow a new player who is incredibly good to not have to wait a long time to move up among the long-time veterans his skill level. You could still have an independent credit system similar to Reach separate from this ratio.
Each player would start at a level zero for five matches in a qualifying playlist. Depending on the player’s overall score in the game, number of assists, win/loss and kill/death percentage, and betrayals/damage done to teammates, they will be scaled anywhere from 1-45. They would not be able to start off as a 60 no matter what. If you betray or do 150+% damage overall damage to your teammates regularly, you will automatically be locked below a level 10 until the behavior stopped. For the top, if you were ranked a 55 or higher, doing really bad one match would be wiped off your slate. However, if it happened several times in a row, you would be knocked out of there and moved down accordingly. This means watch your little brothers, people.
And, for the heck of it, let’s say the one best player would get to be a level 61.
PLAYLISTS:
In Halo, there are three main groups of players. One is the majority who want to play for fun, but have a good, evenly matched game. Another is the major-competitive group who wants hardcore gaming in a professional arena. The final one is the people who want to kick back, relax, and do whatever they feel like, and don’t care about stats or anything.Because of this, my multiplayer would have three categories (like social vs ranked), which would be Hardcore, Ranked, and Social.
-Hardcore is an MLG-style playlist where players compete for the top ranking each match; 1-player max, no partying up, play to win. Weapon spawns are modified to reduce power weapons and advantages. Required skill of 45 to participate; playlist is only for the extremely dedicated. You would not be able to create custom loadouts.
-Hardcore FFA: 6-player FFA.
-Hardcore Duel: 1v1 playlists
-Hardcore Team Battle: 4v4 Team Slayer or symmetrical objective game variants
-Ranked is like a mixture of Halo 3’s ranked and social; playlists are competitive and divided up by the skill ranking (1-60). This will be the main multiplayer mode. Max party/local players are number on teams. This would allow limited choice in weapons, for example let’s say switching frags for stickies, Assault Rifles with Plasma Rifles, Battle Rifles for Carbines, etc. Nothing major
-Lone Wolves: 8-player FFA, Slayer and Objective games.
-Multi-team: 4 teams of 2, Slayer and Objective games.
-Classic Team Battle: 4v4 Team Slayer or objective game variants with no custom loadouts
-Team Slayer: 4v4 Team Slayer variants
-Team Objective 4v4 Objective games.
-Team SWAT: 4v4 Team Slayer, BR and Magnum, no sensors & shields.
-Team Snipers: 4v4 Team Slayer, Sniper weapon starts.
-Invasion: 6v6 Elites vs. Spartans in 3-tier objective gametypes. (I don’t know Halo 4; this might change)
-Big Team Battle: 8v8 Slayer and Objective games.
-Social is like a mosh pit of nothing but fun; takes no skill but who cares? This playlist is for the people who want to have fun and fun only; your stats don’t count. This is where you can have some fun with the loadouts; like using a concussion rifle or grenade launcher with a small amount of ammo, or sacrificing a primary weapon for extra grenades.
-Mosh Pit: 16-player FFA, Slayer and Objective games.
-The Forges: 4v4 Slayer on community forge maps, playtesting
-Action Sack: 8 players, Random game types like Grifball, Rocket Race, etc.
-Battlefield: 8v8 Slayer and Objective games.
TL;DR:
-Each player will get a ranking ratio from 1-60 based on their performance determining who they play in most matches.
-There will be three playlist groupings: One for the dedicated, one for regular players, one for having fun with guns.
-The customizable loadouts mentioned by 343 will be very limited in Ranked, gone in Hardcore, and have real choices only in a social playlist.
-Go to your doctor and get tested for AD/HD, or just learn to read. Seriously.
What do you think? Leave criticisms, additions, or comments below.
