I understand the need to monetize certain aspects of the game. However the coatings definitely could have been done better. Allowing the player to individually customize their primary and secondary colors has been in the game since it’s debut. Infinite had the potential to expand the color customization for the player by perhaps allowing each part of the Spartan’s body to be individually color customized; arms, legs, head and torso. Granting the player to have a primary and secondary color on their arms, which differs from the primary and secondary on their legs. Instead we have coatings.
I would suggest instead of coatings, that we would have patterns. Much like how the different armor variants in halo 4 and 5 were. Offering the player the opportunity to uniquely change the design of their primary and secondary colors. This way you aren’t removing aspects of previous games but you still add a monetization factor as well as expand upon player expression. With colors most people pick the colors they want and then roll with it. Most people don’t experiment that much and that’s especially true if the colors are going to be monetized. However patterns haven’t ever been introduced as their own customization tab. Here perhaps you could offer a few basic/ugly patterns for free then reserve the more interesting and flashy ones for purchase. Patterns would entice people to purchase them since they’ve never experienced the concept before and thus wouldn’t truly know which ones they like. Perhaps you could have one pattern on the arms and a totally different pattern for the chest. It actually gives a reason to buy multiple patterns. Imagine a zebra pattern for the head and then perhaps a forerunner glyph pattern for the legs, then maybe an army camo for the chest. All with their own separate primary and secondary colors, all of which purchased individually from each other.
You would definitely win over loads of love from the fans for not only returning, but expanding the color customization, but also probably end up generating more revenue than you ever would have with just the coatings. In my opinion this rework is big brain. Please don’t pas it up!!!