I posted this originally in Halo 5’s forum, but maybe it would make more sense to post it here. This is a slightly updated version of my post from that.
Based on all my time playing, I have noticed trends in how Halo 5’s map designers come up with Warzone maps. They are comprised of several Points of Engagement. While the term might be phrased differently internally amongst 343i’s developers, the concept should still be the same which is that Points of Engagement are areas where 343i intended players to have skirmishes within the map. The map designers seem to be a bit inconsistent in how they make these maps though.
Several of these Points of Engagement seem to always cater to or at least be designed to give all types of units (infantry, vehicle, air) a chance to engage. All this is done for balance, but I would argue that it is not necessary. This would only be necessary if there was only one Point of Engagement on the map, but when there are several, it is only important that the average of all these Points of Engagement create a map that is balanced overall. To get my point across, I will try with an example to explain that a balanced map can be comprised of components that are unbalanced.
(I will from now on refer Point of Engagement to PoE)
Imagine a map that is shaped like a donut with 5 PoE. PoE 1 will be the center (a lake) which caters to air only. PoE 2 will be structure on the northern outer ring that caters to infantry only. POE 3 will be open space tunnel on the southern outer ring that caters to vehicles only. PoE 4 and 5 could be where the bases on the east and west side that are for all three classes, and sort of act as buffers to allow all classes to traverse the map. I might make a hypothetical map in forge if necessary to get my point across.
In this example warzone map, some spots will favor one class over another, but if you take an ‘average’ of sorts of all these points, you can intuitively figure that it is actually balanced overall. I think maps like this would be more interesting long-term because they would offer more diverse options for players. For Warzone 2.0, this could be compounded if the capture points were in one of these PoE that catered to only one class.
Imagine a capture point that is in the center of the donut map and so would almost require air exclusively to capture and hold, one on the mostly infantry only, and another on the mostly vehicle only section. Players could then choose the spot to fit their playstyle or preference. I hope 343i reads this and thinks about it, even if just for one warzone map for Halo 6.
I would love others opinion on this!