I find Mobas to be very entertaining to play, and as such, I often ponder on the thought, “What would a Halo MOBA play and look like?”.
So I thought I’d compile the ideas I have.
Arena:
The maps on which you play are of course important to a game. DotA has had pretty much a single map, with changes now and then, since the days of The Frozen Throne, while LoL isn’t at all familiar to me, I’d say they follow the same concept. Then there’s HotS, Heores of the Storm which has a plethora of different maps with different objectives and lane counts.
I think a Halo MOBA should follow HotS and have different arenas with their own styles and features. Not only this, but the Arenas should be on 3D objects. For instance, inside a very small Halo ring, on the inside of a very small sphere world. Or why not on the outside of them? Or other objects for that matter. Those of you familiar with Planetary Annihilation may know what I’m talking about, if not it’s worth a look. Not all maps would need to be on 3D objects, regular plane ones could have their uses as well, especially if older maps from the FPS games would be up for a remix / remake.
This would also allow the maps to be different from each other and promote different types of gameplay and playstyles.
Gameplay:
DotA, LoL and HotS goes for an RTS top down view and function. Smite and Paragon are basically third person “shooters” to some extent. Guardians of Middle Earth took the Twin Stick shooter approach, somewhat.
Given Halo’s nature, I’d lean towards either a Twin Stick Shooter, or as an FPS. I don’t know why but I think in terms of abilities, I’d see it to be preferable to have it as a twin stick shooter, a full twin stick shooter.
Fast mobility, full mobility in all directions while firing in whatever direction. Okay, somewhat depending on what kind of hero / unit you use.
All players would have unlimited ammo for their basic weapon. Then they would have inventory slots in which to have extra equipment such as extra weapons, defensive items or armor abilities. Would require ammo, energy and so forth to be refilled.
Heroes / units would also have abilities of their own, and a special trait.
As per usual waves of stat identical “creeps” attack move towards the enemy base along lanes on the map.
Players could influence these creeps by upgrading them, the players themselves then perhaps falling behind a little as their own resources do not go towards their character. Upgrades could be new weapons, better armor, more grenades and so forth. An upgrade would of course increase the bounty, the amount of resources acquired by killing it, and XP.
Another feature in a lot of MOBAs are neutral creep camps, an area in which a number of creeps hostile to everyone spawn. Depending on the map, these camps, when killed off, could in some way provide a bonus to the player that killed them off, to the team or do something negative against the opponents. For instance, there could be a Pirate’s Camp. Jackals having acquired some sort of generator, killing the jackals and then capturing the generator could yield an increased resource generation for a minute, having more than one generator active at a time could have the effect be exponential. Another camp could provide you with a bonus special wave, or just resources and XP.
Bases and races that fight could be based on different timelines. You could “easily” have Covenant vs Heretics, UNSC vs Loyalists, Prometheans vs Hand of the Didact. What heroes that are for which side don’t really matter, to me.
Hero selection happens once the match has started, and only one hero type per match, unless it’s a special mode or a special hero. All heroes unlocked from the start, no need to grind and buy the heroes. Levels do not carry over from one match to another, but hero XP could be a thing for a player’s profile to showcase how much that hero is played by the player.
Something else I’d like see incorporated would be vehicles. Which either spawn at a regular rate, and/or can be bought by players for their resources to use on the battlefield.
The objective of the match would be to destroy the enemy’s HQ.
In the base there are the regular shops, barracks that spawn units, upgrade locations, possible teleporters and man cannons, turrets, towers, sniper towers for players and so forth.
cont.