Halo - The Next Steps

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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So I started a couple posts with a similar title in the Halo 4 section but I think it would be better to post them here. On that note, I will use one thread, this one, to post all the points I will make in how I see Halo developing. As a gamer I sit on the precipice between the casual and competitive gamer. I play to win but enjoying myself is more important at the end of the day. With this, I will try to offer the most balanced perspectives on matters and how I think they should be changed or improved to better suit the community. Please remember that with all the posts I make and changes I would like to see that this is all the opinion of one person. If I say, or appear to be speaking for a group then please dismiss it as that is not the intention of any post.

So to kick things off I will start with the smaller things and work my way up the the longer sections

> Table Of Contents
> Theatre
> Spartan Ops and Campaign usage
> Improvements to Functionality
>
> Spartan Ops
> Gameplay and Story Connections
> Story and Ability to Perform
> Gameplay
>
> Custom Games
> Lobby Control
> Custom Games - Options

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> Theatre - Spartan Ops and Campaign usage

In the first post we need to start with the basics. Allowing users to use theatre in all modes of the game.

The ability to use theatre in campaign and spartan ops is a huge deal. For starters you have an entire community (High Spped Halo if I remember correctly) based off of these parts of the campaign. When doing speed-runs the theatre was the only way to validate that the run was actually done in one life with no cheats. Currently, if your good enough, you can edit together clips seamlessly of you speed-running the campaign or even spartan ops. I myself when making Halo videos for Youtube have edited clips together while it appeared to be one seamless clip.

The basis is that an entire community has more or less died off because of a supposedly small feature not being in the game. This part of theatre is required for the next instalment of the Halo franchise.

On top of there being a community dependent on the use of theatre for validation we have the community of YouTuber’s that would frequently use theatre for campaign and Firefight in Halo: Reach for the purposes of comedic video’s such as Rooster Teeth’s Fails and laughs videos. Apart from the large groups, many smaller channels would do the same and I myself find that I am trying to start a similar series in Halo 4 but am limited to the multiplayers Exclusively unless I download them off of YouTube or I go in myself and hope fore the best. Even then I still am limited to a first person perspective and cannot use a wide angle shot to better convey the humour of the situation.

So the very basic use of theatre in these sections of the game are very fundamental in producing content for the game, and in term, free advertising for the game and company.

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> Theatre - Improvements to Functionality

As the second and final part of the improvement of theatre we have added functions. There are many things that we can add and I have only thought of a couple. I hope those on reply will have more to add and see to it that we may improve theatre to its best potential.

So to start I think that theatre could be improved through many things and here they are:
Setting Camera Points - This is something that I believe Call of Duty currently has in their version of theatre. This would allow players to go into the theatre and set camera points. The player would go to the desired location at the desired angle and set it as a camera angle in the pop up box (the blue rectangle with the record option and everything else). The player would also be able to set numbers (or channels like teleporters in forge) so that they could switch between these angles with the click of a button and not have the menu appear. As a YouTuber I know I would love this because it would make my job video editing easier and seam more professional without the extra work needed.

Affect Selection - Currently when a player activates or is forced into a visual affect the free-camera in theatre puts on the same affect. So if I were to activate Promethean Vision at 5:26 in the game and it lasted until 5:12, then the camera in theatre would have the same visual affect regardless of the direction faced or if the camera is attached to the focused player or in free-camera. In the next instalment it would be greatly appreciated (coming from the YouTuber’s view again) to have it where the affect wouldn’t appear unless I have an option activated that would enable the camera to change affects with the player. Also with that, having the option to always have a certain affect active would be nice as well. Lets say I wanted to take a screenshot I could go straight to theatre with any random game on the desired map without having to go into customs first and activate the ability.

These are just two things that I have come up with that could be added to better the theatre. I am sure others will come up with many more and I will add them if I like them to this post, and include the creator of the idea in said post.

The majority of this post is finer details that would be nice to have added. They are however not overly high on priorities because the current theatre offers enough for us to be satisfied in terms of options for recording.

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I applaud you for making constructive feedback. I hope every single theatre idea makes it into the next installment!

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> Spartan Ops - Gameplay and Story Connections

When Halo 4 launched it did so with the first 5 chapters of Spartan Ops ready to and waiting to be unlocked. The first 5 however were questionable at best for gameplay and lacked any sort of connection to the cutscenes and story that was unfolding apart from the fact they were on Requiem and helped with various things here and there. The second half of the season improved on this but it could still be better.

Many times the player was thrown into combat with the enemy for very weak story purposes. The cutscenes would greatly contribute to the story but the gameplay only filled a gap or reason for having them.

The best way I can see to improve the connection is to have the missions tie directly into the cutscene’s as they unfold. The best example of this present is the mission where the player is on the infinity fighting the Covenant as the boarded the ship. The chapter offered some very interesting backdrops and play-spaces but still lacked that direct connection to the cutscene. So the solution to this is to have the player directly in contact with those events happening. What I mean by this is, lets say the ship mission agin, the player would be working to defend the bridge where Captain Lasky is.

At the end of the season it appeared that this was finally in terms with the game. The ship was locked onto Requiem and the series of missions was to deactivate the tethers so the ship could escape. This is a prime example of the story tying into the gameplay. If the next season of Spartan Ops (assuming it is in Halo 5) then it will add greatly to the immersion of Spartan Ops and further it to being a more enjoyable experience.

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> Spartan Ops - Story and Ability to Perform

These are two shorter points (or at least they are planned to be) about Spartan Ops. Firstly we have the larger of the points, story. The story told in Spartan Ops was well done. It shed light on various things and conducted some character development while introducing us to some new characters.

Thorn himself is a very interesting character. He portrays someone who has lost a lot and still performs due to s sense of duty. His reasons for joining the spartans is made clear somewhere early on in the series where he talks with Doctor Halsey. He stated that he fights to stop others from losing what he has lost. While not overly obvious to most players he is a very relatable character to the Master Chief who has lost his entire life to the UNSC and now his only companion, Cortana.

The second major development in the series was with Doctor Halsey. She was presented in the beginning of the Halo 4 campaign as part of the prologue. Later she is now shown again in Spartan Ops as a war criminal for her actions with the Spartans. While to the player with a knowledge of the deep story behind Halo you can derive many things from the events of Halsey. In the books you see what she did, who funded it, and how she ultimately felt about the entire situation. Halsey has one of the most controversial characters in the Halo universe. Its a very deep and debatable story filled with great evils and good one one person trying to balance what is right and what is needed, while making the reader question what really is right and wrong. The issue in Spartan Ops is that most players won’t know any of this so it is a very clear “She is a bad guy and a traitor” to those players. So the solution is that 343 Industries needs to bring that past forward or else they can’t really develop these characters properly with the general community.

Apart from these two characters we had very little development of any characters (Lasky and Palmer a decent amount but not enough for a true mention). and the only real events we had were Halsey’s betrayal and Requiem burning and the Key thing. While these are important plot developments we run into the issue of those who played the campaign but not Spartan Ops (might not have Xbox Live Gold) now have no idea what is going on. “The janus Key?” or “What Happened to Requiem!”. My point is that you shouldn’t demand live here and make that many plot twists in it.

So after what I said would be short, onto the second part (shorter bit). 343 Industries ability to make Spartan Ops for such an extended period and make it fun and replayable. I, along with many others, agree Spartan Ops missions were a “one and done” thing. The reason for this was gameplay and a lack of variety but I will cover my recommendations on that at a later date.

For now I say this, if you can get it done right then do it. If you can’t then maybe shrink it. Add less missions, maybe 2 or 3 a week, and still have the cutscenes. This will lower the work effort and allow you to focus on the rest of the game more.

One thing I have to say is that while Spartan Ops was going on the rest of the game seamed to get very little love. I get that Spartan Ops was big and cool and new but it appeared that 343 Industries had their eye’s set on Spartan Ops alone. One of my biggest reasons for saying this is that once the season was over I noticed a lot more attention to matchmaking among other things.

So moral of the story, to much story in SPartan Ops with not enough explanation of who the characters are and what they have done (ethics and all). Secondly, only make it if you can, and if you want to still but you find yourself short on time then make fewer missions per week, we will understand and stick with you.

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> Spartan Ops - Gameplay

So this is probably going to be the one of the largest so prepare yourselves (although going by my track record this could be very short).

So Spartan Ops opens an avenue for players to fight over stretches of land against the Covenant and the Promethean’s. Sadly this was not taken to its full potential but rather given a quick job. This is in no way the fault of any one or group really, this is the fault of a lack of time. Creating an environment, adding enemies and movement patterns, and all the other all around stuff takes a lot of time.

I mentioned this in a previous post where I recommended that they decrease the mission count to 2 or 3. This would allow the developers to cut out unneeded parts of Spartan Ops and can now focus on the 2 or 3 remaining ones. The nice thing with this is that Spartan Ops acts as icing on the cake. It is’t a required part of the game and if the community were to receive a smaller amount but at a higher quality it would probably have a higher replayability to the missions.

For myself, I find that the current Spartan Ops missions, while enjoyable to play the first time, but after that I feel no reason to play them again unless I am trying to get a commendation.

So assuming we have a smaller number of missions to design the developer has more time to create a better mission. Better placement of enemies, better challenges to surpass, and possible more environments to explore.

In terms of the actual design of the missions it would be really cool to see more creative combat situations with more options for how to fight the enemy presented. Seeing fights where the enemy is dug deep into s structure and you have to get them out. Rather than having one entrance with a linear path as seen in most current missions, you could have some back entrances that would offer flanking routes.

Another option would be to have a heavily defended area with multiple tanks but give the player tanks or heavy weapons as well. The most important thing is to have more open environments. The biggest issue that caused some replayable issues was that it was very linear. Creating an open environment and having the player move across that area in various ways offers its own flanking routes without the creator having to place them. This also creates more options on how to fight your enemy.

So thats my 2-cents on the gameplay issues, hope to see your opinions in the comments.

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> Custom Games - Lobby Control

The current setup of the custom games menu’s is, in itself, fine. This post is to bring forward an idea for better management of your Customs without having to go through the gritty bits that we currently do.

So currently when a player joins a custom games lobby and wants to test or play a certain map and or gametype they have two options. The party leader can either promote them to party leader, sacrificing control in the hope the player will return it when he/she is done or they can have the player upload it to their fileshare and then download it from their. Both of these ways have pro’s and con’s to each that affect what a party leader will do.

Firstly we have the option to promote the other player. While I will do so based off of the game of the player and how they act, it is still a possibility that they will not return the party leader to you after the game or pass it along to the next player with a map. Too many time I have had this happen to me and so I am always hesitant to promote another player.

Secondly we have the option to have the player upload the map to their fileshare and then the leader download it. The issue here is that files will not upload until a game has been played or the player leaves the game entirely. The files will also not upload many times making it impossible to play the map unless he/she is promoted. SO this option, while safer, is slow and not guaranteed to succeed and doesn’t most of the time.

My solution to this is to have a sub-division of the party leader called the map leader (name open to change). The map leader would be promoted to the rank by the party leader. The map leader would be able to put on the map and gametype for the lobby and start it when he/she is ready. The party leader on the other hand would have the rest of the power. They would be able to kick players, set players caps, and promote the map leader. If they so chose they could also promote themselves to map leader.

And on one final side note. The Promote to party leader and kick from game option are immediately beside each other. Also their is no “are you sure” safety check for the player. Too many times have I and many others gone to kick an disruptive player from the game and then accidentally promoted them. This forces you to restart the lobby which is a huge inconvenience for all the players. On the other side of that (the funny one) is when you go to promote a player and accidentally kick them. The easy solution is to move the buttons away from each other and add a confirmation message before the action is taken. Also in the confirmation message, the words “kick” and “promote” should be highlighted or bolded to make it clear what action is being taken.

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> Custom Games - Options

So this seems to be one of those things that everyone and their mother has brought up but I would like to take it a step forward. While the options for settings in Halo 4’s custom games was lacking I don’t think that we should stop at simply having the options that Halo Reach had, in that case we would have 3 games without any advancement in the field.

So the idea is this, and its a simple one at that, take we had in Reach for options and add. You claim to be able to change weapon damages at a whim with Halo 4 so why not try to incorporate that for the community. THis is a little more of an extreme option but you get the idea. Adding more options makes the game infinitely more replayable. If you add a single option you change the way people can play the game. So many things can come from the community, and I mean all of it, even the bits you don’t like.

Short one today but it covers a lot in a little.