Halo 5 - New Invasion / Firefight Idea

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Halo - 5 Historical Battles ( Invasion / Firefight Gamemode )

As we all know the infinity ship has a battle simulator known as war games. Also in Foward unto dawn tv series there was a brief 10 minute run down of tactics and maneuvers that Hannibal battalions used against roman legionaries.

I propose an idea to bring back and breath new life into the invasion game mode that was only seen in Halo: reach.

Halo 5 historical battles will use the infinity ships “war games” simulation program to dive back and look at past battles in the war against the covenant. This would allow a history lesson for all new Spartans and cadets and dive more into the lore of the halo franchise without having to make separate games…

Halo 5 Historical Battles would use battles from books or other scource material and recreate them in a game mode where players choose a side (cuvy or unsc). Each side would have human players as well as AI players to make the fights seem larger. (mixing in both elements of invasion and firefight) The battles would use narrative compents and relate to the historical facts of each battle.

for example…

The battle of Actium

With a broken chain of command and in a suicidal effort against the fearsome covenant armada that sought to capture and glass Actium. Colonel Akono Menith assumed command of the 53rd armored division where he gave his famous speech…

“Let no one here question our place in human history. That we are here right now is not a coincidence or accident. It is our fate. And this war, our birthright, our legacy. Our generation was born to fight the Covenant, and you, my fellow soldiers, were born for this very day. Today the enemy will hear the roar of humanity, and they will fear us.”
— Colonel Akono Menteith to 12,000 men and women

At the end of the month Colonel Akono led the remaining UNSC Forces deep into covenant held territories. His objective was to take control of three main staging areas of the covenant army, these three army staging grounds where the three largest recorded in history. Detonating two HAVOK Tactical Nuclear Weapons nearby the Covenant Army took heavy casualties at the cost of the UNSC forces that activated them. With no significant military presence remaining the Covenant Navy was no longer under threat and the colony was quickly glassed.

The Covenant empire had prevailed victorious that day but at the cost of 3/5 of the covenant fleet that later slowed their progression against the war on humanity and most likely was a huge loss to the covenant armada…

Outnumbered a 1,000 to 1 Colonel Akono and the men under his command made best of the situation and knew they probably wouldn’t be successful, however, they were determined to fight to the last breath for their home world and to let the covenant know that they would not sit idly by as planet after planet would be glassed…

(For example in the gametype players would control the covenant and unsc forces. The objective for this mission would be to take control of the three main staging grounds. Again players as well as AI would both be in the same battle.)

Battle of Hat Yai

The Covenant, after landing on the main continent of Hat Yai, killed most of the civilian population and established a base. The UNSC was quick to respond, and a hundred Orbital Drop Shock Troopers led by Major Sedavian were dropped near the base by the Destroyer UNSC Clearidas. Unfortunately, ten soldiers were picked off during insertion by Covenant Cruisers in low orbit, and two more were killed in landing accidents. Sedavian landed far away from most of the ODSTs and until he arrived, a Marine Fireteam Leader named Rahud took command. Under Rahud’s command, the ODSTs were able to regroup and take the Covenant base with no casualties.

Battle of new Harmony

This engagement was fought in-orbit or around the Human colony of New Harmony, and was one of the few UNSC naval victories of the war. During the battle, a prowler, the UNSC Razor’s Edge, managed to attach a telemetry probe to a retreating Covenant frigate, allowing it to track the ship and locate K7-49. This subsequently led to the strategic, though costly, victory during Operation: PROMETHEUS.

K7-49 is an asteroid that housed a Covenant shipyard complex. It is located only seventeen light years from the space border of the UNSC; less than two weeks travel via Slipspace

operation: PROMETHEUS

K7-49 was discovered when the prowler UNSC Razor’s Edge was trying to probe an enemy ship during the Battle of New Harmony. They followed the vessel through Slipspace and discovered the asteroid, along with a dozen partially constructed Covenant ships latched to an orbital shipyard. The volcanism on the planet was determined to be artificial; created by 30 high-output plasma reactors that liquefy metallurgical components. Each resulting element was refined, shaped, and shipped away for final assembly in the nearby warships.[1]

Having confirmed the location of a major Covenant shipyard, the SPARTAN-III force designated Alpha Company was to disable as many on-site reactors as possible. If enough power plants were sabotaged, the liquid contents of the facility would solidify and permanently clog the Covenant’s assembly area, rendering both it and the warships under construction worthless.

Although the mission was a success and the K7-49 shipyard was disabled, all three hundred members of Alpha Company were killed in the fighting (other than those handpicked by Franklin Mendez). Despite the annihilation of the SPARTANs, UNSC High Command viewed the operation as a formidable strategic victory, ultimately saving millions of civilians from Covenant glassing. In fact, the training and deployment of future SPARTAN-III companies were accelerated as a result of Operation: PROMETHEUS.

Battle of Skopje

The Battle of Skopje took place in 2547 on the inner colony of Skopje. During the battle, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers were sent to protect the headquarters of a shipbuilding corporation during the evacuation of their shipyards, under the justification that the machines, tools, and personnel that could be saved would be relocated to Reach to continue building parts for the war effort. As such, the ODSTs were told that they had to hold the perimeter at at all costs. The Covenant deployed Unggoy against the humans in waves, then followed these waves with Kig-Yar Snipers, then Jiralhanae shock troops, and finally Sangheili. The Covenant’s sheer numbers and military strategy proved effective against the ODSTs.

These are all examples. As there are a lot of battles that took place in the covenant human war.

…

Or perhaps a different direction can be taken where 343 looks back at specific battles in the human forerunner war.

or because halo 5 is a chief story maybe look back at some of the major battles he fought in that haven’t been covered in games.

Fans have always wanted to dive more into halo lore via games (myself included) this would be a great addition to the halo 5 multiplayer as well as something that hasn’t really been done in first person shooters.

What do you think?

would a majority of players be willing to partake in these events, or should 343 not waste their time?

what other battles would you like to see if this was implemented?

2

In my mind halo multiplayer needs to stand out against other fps like halo 2 did back in the day…

Halo has always been about story… and has excelled at it. so why not mix an ward winning story with an unbeatable multiplayer.

This edition of “historical battles” would allow the use of Halo’s critically acclaimed story driven narrative and mix it with multiplayer.(a recipe for disaster or epicness)

3

All these as backgrounds for invasion maps would be incredible.

4

This is cool. The only downside is that 343 would have to make a lot of large scale maps… Otherwise this would be fun to play.

5

not backrounds miraak but actual battles sort of the campaign in titanfall

6

> This is cool. The only downside is that 343 would have to make a lot of large scale maps… Otherwise this would be fun to play.

That’s exactly what I was thinking too… However I think there are some ways around it… 343 is very talented, and with MS funding this game galore its not an impossible task.

instead of devoting so much of their attention to spartan ops I think that this can be a reasonable target and if not a post launch wouldn’t be bad either. (maybe a month later after halo 5 launches or sometime after)

you could have 1 story be 3 maps the size of blood gulch and link them together with a small cutscene. giving the illusion of the play space without having to build a vast world. ( maybe if unsc won the first battle it shows them moving up to staging ground 2 or something along those lines…)

7

They could even use some battles from the Halo books! This would be great for setting up interesting and awesome battles. Maybe let me play as Ungoy or Kig-Yar :smiley:

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> They could even use some battles from the Halo books! This would be great for setting up interesting and awesome battles. Maybe let me play as Ungoy or Kig-Yar :smiley:

Absolutely! there are multiple battles they could use in the books, foreunner era or covenant era.

That would be cool addition to play as a jackal or a grunt! cool idea!

Curious, what other battles would you like to see if this was implemented?

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> Halo - 5 Historical Battles ( Invasion Gamemode )
>
> The battle of Actium
>
> With a broken chain of command and in a suicidal effort against the fearsome covenant armada that sought to capture and glass Actium. Colonel Akono Menith assumed command of the 53rd armored division where he gave his famous speech…
>
> “Let no one here question our place in human history. That we are here right now is not a coincidence or accident. It is our fate. And this war, our birthright, our legacy. Our generation was born to fight the Covenant, and you, my fellow soldiers, were born for this very day. Today the enemy will hear the roar of humanity, and they will fear us.”
> — Colonel Akono Menteith to 12,000 men and women
>
> At the end of the month Colonel Akono led the remaining UNSC Forces deep into covenant held territories. His objective was to take control of three main staging areas of the covenant army, these three army staging grounds where the three largest recorded in history. Detonating two HAVOK Tactical Nuclear Weapons nearby the Covenant Army took heavy casualties at the cost of the UNSC forces that activated them. With no significant military presence remaining the Covenant Navy was no longer under threat and the colony was quickly glassed.
>
> The Covenant empire had prevailed victorious that day but at the cost of 3/5 of the covenant fleet that later slowed their progression against the war on humanity and most likely was a huge loss to the covenant armada…
>
> Outnumbered a 1,000 to 1 Colonel Akono and the men under his command made best of the situation and knew they probably wouldn’t be successful, however, they were determined to fight to the last breath for their home world and to let the covenant know that they would not sit idly by as planet after planet would be glassed…
>
> Battle of Hat Yai
>
> Battle of new Harmony
>
> operation: PROMETHEUS
>
> Battle of Skopje

Firstly good job… with the historical canon ideas…

But for example, maybe it should be more like how Halo: Spartan Assault is explained to the Spartan-IV. But I am pretty sure… people don’t want to be watching a cutscene or something like that… so perhaps this could be a new gametype, similar to how Spartan Ops and Firefight is?

Roland: Spartans today is a history lesson on courage, valor and most of all loyality to the United Nations Space Command… We are going to be discussing the Battle Of Actium and the sacrifice that those brave men and women did for Humanity.
During the year 2545, the planet Actium faced a planet-wide glassing… 12 000 men and women were the only thing standing between the Covenant Hegemony and genocide. Although these men and women were outnumbered and their odds favored on the 1000 to 1, they still never faultered in their quest to at least slow, the Covenant… because in their hearts and minds, they were never truly gone and their legacy remains in us all.
I am showing you this historical battle to simulate how far the UNSC has come and how much influence a Spartan-IV can have on the battlefield, compared to entire armies… if we had the resources of the Spartan-IV Program at the earlier stages of the war perhaps those brave souls would have gone on to serve the UNSC in other brave conquests… HOORAH Spartans, its history time.

^ Something like that… and it could be a cross between firefight versus and spartans ops were their are AI on either side… so marines, ODST, grunts and jackals… with players controlling Sangheili and Spartans.

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Adm P Cole

I could see this actually becoming a thing. I am trying not to get my hopes to high because quite frankly, this becoming reality is a long shot. (but maybe not if people show interest).

I LOVE your speech Roland (infinity Ai) gives to the new Spartan recruits I also like how you set it up as a history lesson. I was thinking along the same lines. As for bot controlled players this is also a great idea. Like you said grunts jackals and marines can fill the void of the player count to make it seem like a large scale conflict without having to have so many players running around. This was an awesome addition to the post thank you, your Roland speech made it seem like something that would be in a game.

The “hoorah Spartans its history time” got me pumped :wink:

Some these battles implemented advanced tactics that “rewrote” the tactics book (so to speak) such as the last hold on Skopje and the retaking of hat yai without losing a single odst. Not only could this be used as a history lesson but as a way to learn about some of the creative and inspiring tactics as well as courageous feat’s these unsc forces pulled off. (not that I expect anyone running around in multiplayer flanking enemy fixed positions with suppressive fire, but you get the point)

Someone has pointed out that one of the big problems with this idea is 343 having to make a lot of large scale maps. How do you feel about that? Do you think its possible for 343 to pull something like this off?

Thanks for the post again mate :slight_smile: it was a good read!!

11

Really Cool idea. IF this did ever happen I would deffinalty love to play.

Maybe they could have a special title that appears on your halo player card for serving in one of the battles or something.

12

INB4 “It can’t be done because Halo is an arena shooter.”

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> INB4 “It can’t be done because Halo is an arena shooter.”

Its been done before with invasion on halo reach.

I think this would add more replayability then spartan ops

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> > INB4 “It can’t be done because Halo is an arena shooter.”
>
> Its been done before with invasion on halo reach.
>
> I think this would add more replayability then spartan ops

I know. It’s just that there were other threads where different games were brought up for discussion and they were all pounced upon by people that insisted that any game that drifts away from Halo CE is not Halo.

I not only like this idea, but I also believe it could be done Spartan Ops style, where in one scenario you could be a Spartan II on Blue Team, or you could be a Spartan III on Onyx, or an ODST just about anywhere. They could do ten episodes like before, or each week a different episode, or mix it up, I don’t know. Point is they already have the infrastructure for weekly episodes with chapters. They just need to use better writers, have the chapters actually match up with the cutscenes, and have missions that involve more than pushing buttons.

And before anyone says they don’t have the time or resources, please remember that they are producing the MCC, Halo 5, a TV series, and still looking to make a movie, all at once, and they’re up to stuff they haven’t told us about yet so…

15

Got another idea you could have you could have a commander on both sides. UNSC and CUVY. could give orders or something. would be cool

16

Hard to do, but very cool.

17

> 2535415668308855;15:
> Got another idea you could have you could have a commander on both sides. UNSC and CUVY. could give orders or something. would be cool

This.

18

If you’re going to do invasion again, it has to be done right, with full on class roles. UNSC can have: Marine (AI) , ODST (Scout/Sniper/Stealth), Spartan II (Shook troop), and Spartan IV (Mainline Infantry), each having unique stats, speeds, loadouts, and roles. There would be a minimal, if any, amount of customization, at least during the game. Each class would be built and balanced to play a unique role in the game, and I strongly feel the need for at least basic level of AI to make its way to the game.
For the Covenant, you would have Elite/Brute, which would match the Spartan IV as mainline infantry, Jackals, which would be a scout similar to the ODSTs, and Hunters, who would provide a heavy assault type. Covenant AI would include Grunts Squads lead by either an Elite or a Brute.
The game types would have to be scenario based, but could boil down to a very specific set of simple objectives. Each Scenario would have to be made by 343i, meaning limited if any custom made invasion gametypes. I know this sounds like a bummer, but it means they don’t have to make the gametype super simplistic to allow the simple forge and custom game options to work with it.
The upside to that is that 343i would be able to make this with a level of detail they did Spartan Ops, and in fact, could create a campaign of Invasion maps to serve as a story like Titanfall did for its campaign (at least, that’s what I’m told is in Titanfall, I played it like three times so…)
Finally, enable smartglass or some other way to add light RTS elements, such as capturing points allows for the deployment of more equipment/reinforcements/AI, and giving waypoints for both human and AI controlled players, and what we have is a gametype that hits a home run.
The thing is,] Invasion is a class-based gametype at its core, built in a game that succeeds on equal starts. I think both can be done - build the default multiplayer as pure arena style, then add the classes for Invasion only, and pour a lot of work into balancing it - and on top of all of that, I think 343i may very well be planning on doing more than just basic arena shooter mechanics in Halo 5: Guardians. Will we see something like this in H5:G? Almost certainly.

19

Okay, so I love you. First off, and foremost.

Invasion has always been my favorite gametype, due to it’s ability to tell a story. When they got rid of it in Halo 4, I was saddened, and confused.

What you are suggesting right here? Is a brilliant idea. Not only, would it give MP actual canon to implement into MP, but it gives us the excitement of actually acting out some battles we currently only had text about.

Quite frankly, it’s brilliant. And I have faith that 343i could make this a promising gamemode if they decided to work on it. We’ve had large scaled maps in a Halo game before. It isn’t impossible to do.

Thumbs Up Bro

20

I like this idea my fav gametype with more epicness im game