Halo: Infinite Armor Customization - It's Been Twenty Years

Games Halo Infinite
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I’m just one guy, talking to what is effectively a huge corporation. I expect that, if this finds eyes somewhere in 343, it may just be passed over. Still, I’m the type that just has to try anyway.

It’s been twenty years since I was introduced to Halo by my computer nerd uncle. I wasn’t even ten years old, but he figured that since I’d enjoyed Unreal Tournament in the past and played Star Wars: Jedi Academy, I’d like this game too.

From that point onward, I loved Halo and its universe for many years. I started using a certain emblem and color scheme in Halo 2, and continued to do so until Halo 4, then in the MCC on PC. I couldn’t afford a good computer or Xbox One to run Halo 5 - and I’ll leave that there.

Regardless, it brings me to my point: I’m more than happy to pay for good Halo content. I’ve already bought this first season pass for Halo: Infinite, in fact.

But I’m not so keen on paying for things I’ve had for almost twenty years. I can’t use my old emblem anymore; it isn’t in the game at all, even the store. I can’t use my old colors anymore; not only do they not exist for my armor, but neither are they a choice for my emblem.

Now, Warframe has sold cosmetics for a long time, and they are a good example of what my feedback here is: Sell me patterns, not colors. Let my limbs look like hot-rod flames, or have my entire right arm be blue, sure - but let me choose my colors again from a palette. Even if you sell new palettes down the road like in Warframe! Not being able to bring mySELF, the Spartan I’ve always been in this multiplayer experience, into this game REALLY detracts from the experience.

Sure, there’s some minor balance issues, but that’s all spreadsheet stuff that can be fixed in a quick patch. The issues I have with monetization, though, won’t be changed without enough outcry; I doubt just my words alone will convince anyone.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t make money, far from it. But I’d rather buy vehicle color schemes, Spartan paint PATTERNS, NEW emblem PARTS for customizing an emblem, new armor or attachments, gun colors, ASSASSINATION ANIMATION SETS - all of that would be perfectly fine, excellent even… But I’m not only NOT willing to pay for the color blue, I’m actually turned away from the game by this, and I’m not the only one in my group who thinks this way.

I hope the full release will let us have the classic emblems back. I hope it will give us the chance to choose our own colors, not force us to use the Destiny-like “Shaders” we currently have, for both armor and emblem. And I hope in the future, when looking to fill out your storefront, you provide value, not a solution to a problem you purposefully introduced in the first place.

I don’t think this is an unfair ask. Looking forward, you have plenty of money to be made, and I know part of why Halo: Infinite’s multiplayer component was separated was for this kind of “recurrent monetization,” but it needs to start on the right foundation - and we don’t have that just yet. If I’m looking at a future where I wait years before I can use my colors or my emblem, and to do so I either need to spend hundreds of hours making battle pass progress or pay $10 here for my emblem, $20 there for my color scheme on the armor core I want to use, $20 there for my emblem colors? That isn’t a game I want to support, now or in the future.

I’d rather be giving my money to a work of art I believe in, rather than feeling forced to buy a bunch of armor pieces I don’t want so I can access a certain set of colors, then a bunch of vehicle stuff I don’t want so I can have my emblem back, and THEN another pack for my emblem color scheme. That’s what I’m seeing in the store right now. It’s very disheartening, and borderline insulting as someone who’s been playing Halo for so long.

I hope 343 will reconsider some of what they’ve chosen to take away from us to sell back.

A few concrete suggestions would be:

  • Introduce a “chroma-key” style color choice for each Armor Core that allows the player to choose each node’s color. Even if this ends up as a separate purchase for a small fee, it’s a big deal to some of us older players.
  • Introduce a customizable emblem and emblem colors, at least with the contents of Halo 3. Later sales could be for newer emblem parts, either original to Halo: Infinite or from later games in the series over time.
  • Sell armor patterns rather than colors, which can change where each color sits on the armor core, creating more unique looks and allowing players more free-form expression.

I hope my feedback and the feedback of others does not go unheard on this front. I’ve loved and supported Halo for a long time, and seeing it take what I feel are steps back in any way never feels good. Stepping back from player driven customization of their avatars in this way hurts the most, I think. Being unable to carry the banner I’ve fought with - played against others from around the world wearing - just takes something out of me I can’t fully describe. Still, I’ve done my best.

Thanks for your time.

11 Likes
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I’m with you 100% on this one. I just want to have my teams original emblem back. It sucks having created something specific for your team in H2 then getting to use it for the next few halo releases and now we can’t even make our emblem if we wanted to. Something so simple has been made impossible for no reason.

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Extremely great take and opinion on the current situation, calm and collected.

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Selling patterns and not colors is an excellent request imo. It’s a rare case of how monetization of F2P could be win- win for players and dev’s, because it would give those that want specific colors that option back, and yet still give 343 something to make money from

1 Like
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I’ve tried to be calm about the whole thing, but it’s not been easy. Destiny had the excuse that in D1, Shaders were all we had, and they were full-body. D2, once they ripped out the MTX stuff surrounding them, Shaders were actually a step UP from that, since they were piece by piece AND could go on weapons.
This is a worse version of D1’s as it is, since not only are they full body, but there’s far fewer AND you have to pay real money for them rather than earning them through achievement in game.

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Since several people at 343 have asked to continue to make our concerns known, even as they go on holiday for Thanksgiving, I’m going to bump this.

With the Tenrai event (lol @ the armor core being called “Yoroi” which literally means “armor” in Japanese) being live, I can say that the pace of completing battle pass challenges is much better this week - but that their EXP gains toward the pass LEVELS is still slow.

Deep Rock Galactic recently added their take on a pass system like this, and they emphasized “1 hour of play for 1 level in the pass” as their goal. I think Halo: Infinite should look into this perspective; people have lives, jobs, and perhaps other games they want to play. After completing all weekly challenges and having my progress capped without the 50 per match, I just don’t even want to play anymore since I won’t be making headway. I never felt like that in Halo 3, Reach, or 4. I played because it was fun.

Now, granted, I had Forge, the File Share system for tons of custom games, and more maps and modes - but we’re in beta here too and don’t have all the content just yet. THAT IS FINE, because if it means 343 can spend more time making the content GOOD CONTENT, and the devs don’t have to crush themselves to do it “on time” I am VERY happy with it.

HOWEVER, that still leaves us without custom colors and emblems. Until that’s addressed, I hope the community will continue to join me in my outcry over it, because it is the one thing I find truly unacceptable about the current implementation. My stance from the OP hasn’t changed.

7

20 years and they made it worse, 343 keeps crapping on halo.