Good evening my fellow Spartans,
It is important to state beforehand that this system is a work in progress, and any and all feedback is appreciated and will be taken into consideration regarding future streamlining.
Now, with that bit of housekeeping out of the way, let me start from the beginning. In a past life I was a Marine Corps Infantryman/Presidential Guard at Camp David who got to do some pretty cool stuff with some pretty cool units. In the military there are alot of acronyms. Most of these are designed to enable you to remember and regurgitate a large amount of information with relative ease, but a few select acronyms fall under what you would consider a decision cycle. One example is the OODA loop, which stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act. Essentially this is a simplified list of steps used on a repeating, or looping basis, which give the individual a framework to simplify complex tasks.
Another commonly used decision model is the Action Priority Matrix. This is a 4 quadrant diagram, similar to a graph used in mathematics; which allows the individual to visualize and prioritize tasks based on their impact and the time needed to complete them. This process can and is used without the visual aid, and can be simplified into what is known as priority of actions. A real life example comes in the room clearing process during military operations in urban terrain (MOUT). Shooters at the basic level are taught to first consider the immediate danger when entering a room, the open doorway in front of them (this is known as the fatal funnel), then to dig their corner as they move into the room. More advanced shooters are taught to look for trip wires or pressure plates, murder holes, dead space inside the room, or even possible suicide bombers. The key to processing all of this information quickly enough to survive the gunfight is the framework provided by these priority of actions, and the repetition of the steps therein.
Now how does this relate to Halo?
Recently I started really falling in love with this game again. After a brief temper tantrum in which I quit for a few days then came back, I started watching the pros and really focusing on what they pay attention to, and what sort of processes they may be going through in order to come away victorious. I applied my knowledge of high level operators and professional athletes, and what I found was that the higher you get in the skill curve, two things become more and more apparent. Firstly, the amount of information you have to process quickly accelerates rapidly to a point, then levels off as you become accustomed to it, which is self evident that a system is being created at some point in the minds of the players which allows them to stop focusing on paying attention to this stuff and frees their minds to focus on outplaying the enemy.
And secondly, the fundamental aspects of halo become exponentially more time sensitive the closer you get to the pros. Example, the process in which you engage and neutralize a target. The difference between a good player and a pro player is often the time it takes the individual to complete this task. In professional sports they call this “compressing the fundamentals.” A good example is the time it takes a Quarterback to go through his reads and throw the ball. Up and through college, Quarterbacks can get away with up to 4 seconds before throwing, but if you look at the average time to throw for say, Tom Brady in 2016, you’re looking at upwards of 2.7 seconds. That’s 2.7 seconds to go through both progressive and defense reads, make a decision, and release the ball, and you can bet somewhere along the line there is a decision model that he has practiced a million or more times, consciously or unconsciously.
With this info in mind, and knowing that I am personally a very systematic thinker, I set out to develop a similar decision making model for Halo based on what these guys seem to be doing and in what order. Ideally this model would combine the looping nature of the OODA loop with the priorities of action needed to win in Arena multiplayer. It’s important to note that this model applies to ALL game modes, as fundamentally they are all very similar in terms of decision making, although slayer tends to be more dynamic in terms of posturing and map control(More spawn based in fact). Also since slaying is continuous throughout the process, there is no need to actually make this part of the model. Finally, it is crucial to understand that this process takes places in fractions of a second. This is designed to expedite and streamline your decision making process so you can be a better player. In essence, we’re looking at Halo’s gameplay under a microscope here. So without further ado, this is what I came up with:
Halo 5 Looping Priority of Actions (In order of precedence)
Locate enemies/callouts
camo/overshield/power weapons (time check)
Map positioning
Check kill feed
Posture up (map control)
Move on objective
Repeating continuously until end of match.
The process starts with locating the enemy as well as your initial callouts, because enemies are your most immediate threat. This allows your team to adjust to what the enemy is doing, but also applies to you no matter where you are in a given match. For example, you round a corner and see an enemy. The first thing you do is to orient yourself towards the threat and call them out, then you engage. Again, slaying can and does occur at any given point in this decision model. Slaying is continuous.
Once this process has been completed, you move on to the next priority of action which is camo/OS/powerweapons. This is second in the priority of actions because these things are you second most immediate threat. I don’t think anyone here will disagree that power weapons are absolutely critical. Secondary to this is noting the times at which these weapons or powerups were last taken. You should always be aware of this, and should have that internal clock that let’s you know when the next camo is going to drop so you can get there first.
Once you have oriented yourself, know where the enemy is, and power weapons are taken care of (Usually the first 5-10 seconds of the match, repeating every 2 minutes or so after until the end of the game) your next thought should be positioning. Where am I in relation to the enemy and my team? Where do I need to be? Get there.
Next is check kill feed. I consider this a “hard check”, to remind you not to get too sucked into the game to forget about keeping track of who is alive in the game and when they will respawn. Ideally you should be glancing at the kill feed every couple of seconds, but sometimes we get sucked into gun fights etc and forget about it. This is why this step is right in the middle. Once you are in position, check your kill feed. You’ll never go wrong.
Once you are sure who is up, your team is set to either posture or regroup depending. If the team is at 50%, stay alive until your buddies respawn, then attempt to posture. Posturing is essential in both map control and setting up for the next step, which is moving on the objective. Lastly, once the objective is taken, you move right back to the top of the list and start again, repeating as necessary until the match is over.
I made a chart to help visualize the model, thanks to Stckrboy for helping me with links. You can find that here. Thanks for reading guys and happy slaying!
Jon