Halo 4 Should Have A Gentler Learning Curve

Games Other Halo
1

Just to be clear, I am in no way saying the game should take less skill to play. At all. Period. Don’t think I’m trying to dumb the game down, I’m not, I’m just trying to make it more accessible.

To be successful in Halo, your individual skill level is only half the battle. The other half is your knowledge of the game, its maps, its weapon timers, its spawn locations, its spawn system and its weapon mechanics. Without that knowledge you won’t succeed, yet in past halo games it was made far from obvious that this was the case.

I and many other players I know who started out with Halo 3 were terrible at using the BR for a very long while in Halo 3, for the simple reason that we had no idea it wasn’t hitscan, or that you had to lead your shots.

Halo Reach tried to aid the learning curve in small ways by doing things like giving preset callouts of a map location on your HUD, and giving messages during the MM lobbies with tips on how to better use weapons like the DMR. But IMO, this could be taken futher.

I’m not trying to say the game should give detailed essays underlining how the weapons work, but it should, at the very least, come with concise, imformitive map overviews, showing the power weapon locations, their spawn times, the spawn locations for each game mode, and the map callouts, either in the game or via waypoint. As well as messages in matchmaking lobbies like in Reach, briefly explaining weapon mechanics such as bloom, spread, and recoil (note these are just examples as we don’t know what’s in Halo 4 yet).

Agree/Disagree?

EDIT: Guys, just to be clear, it’s not like I’m asking for the devs to hold your hand through the multiplayer, just a simple overview of the maps. If you don’t want to use it, then don’t, I’m sure even the competitive players would find it far easier and more convenient to learn the map’s spawns with that than with forge. Unless of course you think roaming around forge trying to burn multiple images of the spawn points into your mind should be considered a neccesary skill for Halo.

2

I think that should be up to the player to figure out, and I don’t want the developers wasting time on it.

3

I disagree. It’s up to the players to learn these things. 90% of what they need to know for multiplayer is usually covered in the campaign anyway, so there isn’t any need to further aid newer players.

4

> I think that should be up to the player to figure out, and I don’t want the developers wasting time on it.

Compared to the vast amount of time spent in designing all of the maps, building them and setting up the spawns, a simple overview diagram should take no time at all.

5

I don’t know if anyone here has played Quake, but the way they introduce new players is fantastic. They have a intro to the game in which a bot leads you through a series of challenges to determine your skill level. These challenges require skills to use in game. Once you cannot go any further with the challenges, you enter a 1v1 with a bot to get used to the game. While Halo wouldn’t have as much to introduce to new players (although it could have been much appreciated in Halo 2 with all the button glitches), it could still be useful. The challenges could range from crouch jumping to strafing. I feel this would be a great way to introduce new players to Halo and all of it’s mechanics/skills.

6

> I disagree. It’s up to the players to learn these things. 90% of what they need to know for multiplayer is usually covered in the campaign anyway, so there isn’t any need to further aid newer players.

The campaign covers the extreme basics, and I mean extreme, it basically gives you a feel for the guns, equipment and vehicles, and that’s it. Halo is much more complex than that.

7

> > I think that should be up to the player to figure out, and I don’t want the developers wasting time on it.
>
> Compared to the vast amount of time spent in designing all of the maps, building them and setting up the spawns, a simple overview diagram should take no time at all.

I think in multiplayer now the HUD shows where the weapons spawn.

8

I learned the ropes of Halo 2 when I was 10 and I turned out to be a fantastic player. Halo 4 doesn’t need a “gentler learning curve”.

9

> > > I think that should be up to the player to figure out, and I don’t want the developers wasting time on it.
> >
> > Compared to the vast amount of time spent in designing all of the maps, building them and setting up the spawns, a simple overview diagram should take no time at all.
>
> I think in multiplayer now the HUD shows where the weapons spawn.

That’s certainly usefull to new players, but it could be better if they showed the respawn timer next to the weapon’s icon.

10

> I learned the ropes of Halo 2 when I was 10 and I turned out to be a fantastic player. Halo 4 doesn’t need a “gentler learning curve”.

Good for you, but not everyone’s a boy genius. And now that Halo’s been running for 10 years, throwing new players with no idea of the multiplayer mechanics into a game filled with Halo veterans is a great way to turn off new players.

11

> > I disagree. It’s up to the players to learn these things. 90% of what they need to know for multiplayer is usually covered in the campaign anyway, so there isn’t any need to further aid newer players.
>
> The campaign covers the extreme basics, and I mean extreme, it basically gives you a feel for the guns, equipment and vehicles, and that’s it. Halo is much more complex than that.

The campaign covers all that it can in helping the player get a feel for the gameplay mechanics and sandbox. It’s up to the player to work out the rest in multiplayer.

Halo does more than most games in helping out new players.

12

No. Figure it out for yourself.

13

> > > I disagree. It’s up to the players to learn these things. 90% of what they need to know for multiplayer is usually covered in the campaign anyway, so there isn’t any need to further aid newer players.
> >
> > The campaign covers the extreme basics, and I mean extreme, it basically gives you a feel for the guns, equipment and vehicles, and that’s it. Halo is much more complex than that.
>
> The campaign covers all that it can in helping the player get a feel for the gameplay mechanics and sandbox. <mark>It’s up to the player to work out the rest in multiplayer.</mark>
>
>
> Halo does more than most games in helping out new players.

RE Highlighted: And it should be up to the devs to give them the tools necessary to do so.

RE Bold: It’s a mechanics are more complicated and less apparent than most games too. Most games don’t have to teach the player much because they are generic shooters, and the concepts from one game are much the same in another, this is true for anything from CoD, to BF3 (though a jet flying mission would have been nice) to FC2.

14

The campaign is the only tutorial one needs.

15

> > > > I disagree. It’s up to the players to learn these things. 90% of what they need to know for multiplayer is usually covered in the campaign anyway, so there isn’t any need to further aid newer players.
> > >
> > > The campaign covers the extreme basics, and I mean extreme, it basically gives you a feel for the guns, equipment and vehicles, and that’s it. Halo is much more complex than that.
> >
> > The campaign covers all that it can in helping the player get a feel for the gameplay mechanics and sandbox. <mark>It’s up to the player to work out the rest in multiplayer.</mark>
> >
> >
> > Halo does more than most games in helping out new players.
>
> RE: Highlighted. And it should be up to the devs to give them the tools necessary to do so.

They do. Everyone else found out how to play the game properly. What makes you think the series is so hard to get into? It’s actually not. A few weeks ago I gave my cousin a go at Halo 3 for the first time, and while bad at first, she got better within a couple of games.

16

> > > > > I disagree. It’s up to the players to learn these things. 90% of what they need to know for multiplayer is usually covered in the campaign anyway, so there isn’t any need to further aid newer players.
> > > >
> > > > The campaign covers the extreme basics, and I mean extreme, it basically gives you a feel for the guns, equipment and vehicles, and that’s it. Halo is much more complex than that.
> > >
> > > The campaign covers all that it can in helping the player get a feel for the gameplay mechanics and sandbox. <mark>It’s up to the player to work out the rest in multiplayer.</mark>
> > >
> > >
> > > Halo does more than most games in helping out new players.
> >
> > RE: Highlighted. And it should be up to the devs to give them the tools necessary to do so.
>
> They do. Everyone else found out how to play the game properly. What makes you think the series is so hard to get into? It’s actually not. A few weeks ago I gave my cousin a go at Halo 3 for the first time, and while bad at first, she got better within a couple of games.

That’s one example, and “better” is extremely vague.

17

Between Campaign/Firefight to get a feel for moving and shooting and Forge to examine the maps I don’t think much else is necessary.

If players don’t use the tools already available to them in order to learn then it’s their own fault for not understanding the basics.

18

> The campaign is the only tutorial one needs.

I never mentioned a tutorial.

19

> Between Campaign/Firefight to get a feel for moving and shooting and Forge to examine the maps I don’t think much else is necessary.
>
> If players don’t use the tools already available to them in order to learn then it’s their own fault for not understanding the basics.

Forge is a map editor, not intel. Roaming around a map in forge looking at each spawn point and weapon timer is a very long and tedious process, it would be much easier to store this info in a concise manner like a map overview, where it’s much easier to analyze. The game shouldn’t take 10 hours of flying around in forge for as preperation.

20

An Icon showing where and when weapons spawn is a terrible idea. Those can be figured out through either practice, custom games, or forge. No need to add that in.