Halo Wars: 2 (Wish list)

Well, firstly. Halo Wars was the first RTS I played and I loved it.

The simplicity of it makes it easy to casually play while still makes it competetive. Though I’d love to see some changes done to the game, more variety to the leaders, each leader should have a unit specific “Uber” unit, and there should be leaders that are somewhat tailored to each class, air, ground and vehicle.

Along with that, I also wouldn’t mind seeing 4-5 different leaders per race,and maybe even have Foreunner, Rebel and Flood in the mix too, all don’t need multiple leaders, just a variety to some degree.

Another thing I would like is to have a customizable unit tendancy, I’m not sure how you would call it, but before a game, you can kinda program how your units react when you order them like prioritize targets unless otherwise ordered to target one unit, for example youselect all units, target a tank, once that tanke is destroyed, your jackles target infantry units first. And be able to do that for all units. Aswell as making them none-arrgessive unless otherwise ordered to do so (makes it easier for stealth missions).

Another thing would be awesome would be space battles, where frigats and other UNSC vessles take the place of your base, you can upgrade their defences and use their weapons to your advantage, build units and send them to fight from your ships, heck, you could even have boarding parties and try and take over their vessles.

I would also like to see 4v4 games, obviously the games would have to be tweaked so they don’t go on for 2 hours and so they can’t rush you in the first 30 seconds and force you to resign, that’s just a thought though.

That said, I’m looking for suggestions for everyone too, and feedback. I will keep adding more when I think of it.

A few more suggestions are to be able to select a path for your unit/units to take. Perfect for scouting. Say you hold ‘A’ and you draw a line where the unit will go .

Another suggestion would be for changes to Cobras. They’re awesome at what they do when locked down. But anything beyond that they’re useless, you can’t use large group of them for they will do a cluster F$%# and either half will lock down when you tell them to, will be confused and keep switching from locked down to unlocking on their own and be massacred in the process. I don’t have much of a suggestion for this because at their current power locked down, they’re gods to anything that’s vehicle/building and if they had that power unlocked, they would be spammed and complete death. But currently they’re also just a trap vehicle and serve no great offensive powers to combat against tanks or anything unless they willingly walk into it and willingly stay around and get pwned by them.

I will suggest my unit/ leader specifics here.
-UNSC unit’s specific to heavy machinery specialist- -Uber tank unit-Large tank, maybe a bit smaller than a Scarab. Basically a portable mini mass driver platform in the from of a BIG tank.

Say in campaign it’s main purpose would be to combat corvette class ships, but it would be effective against tanks and air units. It’s upgrades should be along the lines of added armor and turrets/ canister shells to combat infantry and other units. In my head it’s basically a UNSC version of a Scarab, only more effective in a few ways.

-Super Unit-

Either the Grizzly tank or some other vehicle along those lines
-Infantry Specialist- (Would suggest colonel Ackerson for this infantry leader)
-Uber Unit-The prototype infantry mech unit from “Prototype” from Halo Legends.

Since it was stated that it’s basically a kamikaze unit, it’s “Y” Ability should bring the unit fully online, give it shields and all the weapons we see in Halo Legends. It should have a countdown before it’s core goes critical and they should basically head towards them and do some damage with their explosion… Though the explosion wouldn’t be anywhere near as big as seen on Legends.

Upgrades could be like:

-Increase the duration of the countdown

-Emergency shutdown. Allowing the unit to survive but is left vulnerable for a period of time.
-Super infantry unit-

Spartan 3 squad. Each should have a different weapon, sniper, DMR, shotgun, grenade launcher/ rocket launcher. I don’t know what to suggest in the ways of how many people per squad but I just wanted to suggest a variety of the squad.

Another idea of mine is to be able to take a unit you have made, send it to your base and add your leader to that unit. Kind of like what a Spartan does. Increasing it’s attack and defense. I would suggest it not to be exactly like Spartans. I would say give it some more attack power but mostly focus on the defense. The main role of the leader unit is to give an area of effect around it, giving your unit’s a tad bit more offence and defense. And the cost for the upgrade should be either the cost of the unit or something like 500-1k resources.

All units should be usable

Too many units in Halo Wars are not practical and are not useful in most situations.

Space battles yes.
More factions, forerunner, flood, rebels.
Non-fixed bases, C&C3 style
Formation options, like in C&C when you hold A you choose the units formations.
More gamemodes.
More UNSC air units
Better base defenses, face it the turrets suck.

> Space battles yes.
> More factions, forerunner, flood, rebels.
> Non-fixed bases, C&C3 style
> Formation options, like in C&C when you hold A you choose the units formations.
> More gamemodes.
> More UNSC air units
> Better base defenses, face it the turrets suck.

Turrets do suck, they’re only useful for about 15 seconds, army of Banshee’s, PoR or hawks can take them out and only lose about 1-3 unit’s until they’re all gone. Perhaps have 2 types of upgrades to the turrets, added power and heavy armour. I would also almost say UNSC should start with either some or all turrets being built in the beginning for the current Halo Wars game for 3v3 matches. My team normally instant resign when faced with 2 or more covies rushing one person within 30 seconds of the game.

> > Space battles yes.
> > More factions, forerunner, flood, rebels.
> > Non-fixed bases, C&C3 style
> > Formation options, like in C&C when you hold A you choose the units formations.
> > More gamemodes.
> > More UNSC air units
> > Better base defenses, face it the turrets suck.
>
> Turrets do suck, they’re only useful for about 15 seconds, army of Banshee’s, PoR or hawks can take them out and only lose about 1-3 unit’s until they’re all gone. Perhaps have 2 types of upgrades to the turrets, added power and heavy armour. I would also almost say UNSC should start with either some or all turrets being built in the beginning for the current Halo Wars game for 3v3 matches. My team normally instant resign when faced with 2 or more covies rushing one person within 30 seconds of the game.

turrets are fine in halo wars and they shouldnt be automatically made for unsc in hw2.
you said “an army of banshees” takes out turrets. i say an army of any unit takes out turrets
there are ways of stopping double and even triple covie rushes.
as for having more options for upgrades i agree.

> > Space battles yes.
> > More factions, forerunner, flood, rebels.
> > Non-fixed bases, C&C3 style
> > Formation options, like in C&C when you hold A you choose the units formations.
> > More gamemodes.
> > More UNSC air units
> > Better base defenses, face it the turrets suck.
>
> Turrets do suck, they’re only useful for about 15 seconds, army of Banshee’s, PoR or hawks can take them out and only lose about 1-3 unit’s until they’re all gone. Perhaps have 2 types of upgrades to the turrets, added power and heavy armour. I would also almost say UNSC should start with either some or all turrets being built in the beginning for the current Halo Wars game for 3v3 matches. My team normally instant resign when faced with 2 or more covies rushing one person within 30 seconds of the game.

If you are also getting tired of being rushed you could help me out in this topic:
http://halo.xbox.com/forums/games/f/7/t/4817.aspx

I’m trying to propose some kind of no rush playlist. :slight_smile:

> > > Space battles yes.
> > > More factions, forerunner, flood, rebels.
> > > Non-fixed bases, C&C3 style
> > > Formation options, like in C&C when you hold A you choose the units formations.
> > > More gamemodes.
> > > More UNSC air units
> > > Better base defenses, face it the turrets suck.
> >
> > Turrets do suck, they’re only useful for about 15 seconds, army of Banshee’s, PoR or hawks can take them out and only lose about 1-3 unit’s until they’re all gone. Perhaps have 2 types of upgrades to the turrets, added power and heavy armour. I would also almost say UNSC should start with either some or all turrets being built in the beginning for the current Halo Wars game for 3v3 matches. My team normally instant resign when faced with 2 or more covies rushing one person within 30 seconds of the game.
>
> If you are also getting tired of being rushed you could help me out in this topic:
> http://halo.xbox.com/forums/games/f/7/t/4817.aspx
>
> I’m trying to propose some kind of no rush playlist. :slight_smile:

Rushing is a part of all RTS from what I hear, the only problem with Halo Wars is it’s not a balanced game for 3v3.

Good space battles
More units
More races, [flood]
Kinect Eneabled?
Map editor?

GENERAL STUFF
*More choice in base placement.

*Initial player locations and Character are hidden.

*No Heroes(Spartan style units are fine) and Covies get leader powers.

*Larger Population cap

*UNSC and Covenant need equal populations

*More Characters:
-UNSC: Marines(Johnson), Navy(Keyes), Army(Ackerson/Holland), Air Force(???), ODSTs(Buck)
-Covenant: Elites(Regret), Brutes/Covy(Truth), Reach Elites(Arbiter), Brutes(Tartarus), Spec-Ops(Half-Jaw)

NEW UNSC UNITS
*Pelicans
*Falcons(Army only)
*Rhinos
*Snipers
*Tank Hunter
*Rocket Hog upgrade
*Missile Hog upgrade
*Shock Troopers(Anti-Infantry/ replaces Hellbringer)
*Hawk(separate from Hornet, Air Force only)
*Combat Engineers
*Spartan III Squad(SPI replaces Spartan II in some cases)
*Mongoose
*Unique: Elephant(Johnson), Albatross(Keyes), Gremlin(Air-Force), Hellbringers(Ackerson/Holland), Bullfrogs(Buck)

NEW COVY UNITS
*Separate Jackal Snipers and shields
*Zealot, General, Hammer Chieftain, War Chieftain, Ultras( Covy versions of Spartans)
*Spectre
*Prowler
*Revenant
*AA-Wraith
*Shadow
*Drones
*Phantom
*Spirit
*Unique: Stalkers(Truth), Stealth Elites(Half-Jaw), Honor Guards(Regret), Jump Brutes(Tartarus), Skirmishers(Arbiter)

Don’t Look at me like that. I can dream can’t I?

There are 100,000-200,000 people that would buy this game based on the fact that it is an RTS and it says the name Halo on it.(Many buy it to get the halo achievments and many more buy it cause they are Halo die hards) If you just took the same game, fixed the glitches, and changed the maps, possibly keeping the good ones, you would make a platinum hit. I don’t understand at all how this isn’t already in the making. This is a guranteed success and a game that will make millions. I am very confused why there is no Halo Wars 2. There is money waiting to be made and nobody has stepped up for some unknown reason. It’s already 90 percent completed by the first game so the sequel should be a cake walk. PLEASE MAKE HALO WARS 2.

As far we know it isn’t being made because Ensemble Studios was shut down following the release of Halo Wars.

It is still possible that 343i is making a Halo Wars game, Frankie came out and said there is still interest.

But realistically Halo Wars 2 will not be made as it would 343i’s first game, and would be a high risk situation.

What about BUNGIE? Any major video game compayn can just copy its basic concepts, and make another successful rts game. It doesn’t have to say halo to be legit and gather a huge RTS following. Millions of people play starcraft and other PC RTS games and I know most would take some time out to enjoy a console rts if its up to par.

> GENERAL STUFF
> *More choice in base placement.
>
> *Initial player locations and Character are hidden.
>
> *No Heroes(Spartan style units are fine) and Covies get leader powers.
>
> *Larger Population cap
>
> *UNSC and Covenant need equal populations
>
> *More Characters:
> -UNSC: Marines(Johnson), Navy(Keyes), Army(Ackerson/Holland), Air Force(???), ODSTs(Buck)
> -Covenant: Elites(Regret), Brutes/Covy(Truth), Reach Elites(Arbiter), Brutes(Tartarus), Spec-Ops(Half-Jaw)
>
> NEW UNSC UNITS
> *Pelicans
> *Falcons(Army only)
> *Rhinos
> *Snipers
> *Tank Hunter
> *Rocket Hog upgrade
> *Missile Hog upgrade
> *Shock Troopers(Anti-Infantry/ replaces Hellbringer)
> *Hawk(separate from Hornet, Air Force only)
> *Combat Engineers
> *Spartan III Squad(SPI replaces Spartan II in some cases)
> *Mongoose
> *Unique: Elephant(Johnson), Albatross(Keyes), Gremlin(Air-Force), Hellbringers(Ackerson/Holland), Bullfrogs(Buck)
>
>
> NEW COVY UNITS
> *Separate Jackal Snipers and shields
> *Zealot, General, Hammer Chieftain, War Chieftain, Ultras( Covy versions of Spartans)
> *Spectre
> *Prowler
> *Revenant
> *AA-Wraith
> *Shadow
> *Drones
> *Phantom
> *Spirit
> *Unique: Stalkers(Truth), Stealth Elites(Half-Jaw), Honor Guards(Regret), Jump Brutes(Tartarus), Skirmishers(Arbiter)
>
>
> Don’t Look at me like that. I can dream can’t I?

Awesome ideas. I was thinking about having Colonel Ackerson in there with Spartan 3’s. Since he’d probably represent an infantry leader I would have had his Super unit Spartan 3’s and his Uber unit the “Prototype” mechanized infantry combat suit from the Halo Legends.

I would also suggest that the Spartan 3’s should be in a group of 3+ rather than an indavidual unit like a Spartan 2.

WerepyreND, could you tell me what are the following units? I’ve read most of the books but I haven’t come across their names, or they don’t look familiar to me:Spectre, Shadow, Albatross.

You listed them as units and I was curious what they are.

If it is made i guess it will be a joint effort by Robot Entertainment and 343i.

Still the want for a more advanced RTS on 360 is huge and the sales will be solid, for many reasons.

What I want from HW2, should it ever be made: Make it a far better game.

How to do this:

Step 1: Gameplay. Command and Conquer 3: Kane’s Wrath on the 360 used the exact same radial interface as Halo Wars, yet managed to include every function (that I noticed) from the PC version. also, my buildings could be placed anywhere, any orientation. It was all pretty easy, once you got the hang of it, and I don’t remember that taking too long.

I do like what they did with the resources, so hard-coded limits could be put on how many of them you can have per core building. Let’s say the Covenant Citadel is the core building, which allows construction of other buildings. It would allow up to four resource buildings to be built. If you build more, you would be allowed more resource buildings. Of course, you could make Citadels/core buildings extremely expensive to prevent people from building a million of them.

Also, allowing base freedom allows for new tactics to emerge. I’ve seen Starcraft players use Terran Supply Depots to make barricades, and SCII introduced the ability for them to go underground, allowing them to function as gates. This would allow you to block potential flanking paths, or slow down an enemy advance if properly done.

Step 2: A much better story. I didn’t care about any of the human characters presented in HW because I’d seen them all before, back when we called them Cortana, Captain Keyes, and Dr. Halsey (Forge was just there.) I want to see new characters with new personalities, not old characters wearing new masks.

And let’s get to the Flood. They served, quite literally, no purpose beyond padding. Remove the levels dedicated to them and replace further instances with various types of Sentinel, and you have the same effect. They didn’t add to the urgency of us needing to find and kill these Forerunner ships the Covenant were so eager to get their hands on, the Covies handled that just fine. They weren’t an interesting enemy to fight, either. If you’re going to include them, make it integral to the plot. Halo CE did this well. You remove the Flood from that story, Halo would have no reason for existing. And even if the Forerunners built Halo because it would be cool, 343 Guilty Spark would have no reason to seek a Reclaimer, Keyes would have found what he was looking for or been killed by Covenant, as the Flood is not there to justify why other plot-critical events are happening.

Oh, and be consistent with canon. If a sangheili = Master Chief in MJOLNIR in strength, and MC can snap bones without really trying without it, Forge getting punched in the stomach in Monsters (or whatever that godawful cutscene was called) would have been game over. His insides would be paste. There’s probably a few other things in there I can pick on if I wanted to watch.

Last, but not least: A Covenant campaign. I cannot think of a single RTS that doesn’t allow for a campaign, or even a segment, that allows you to play as all primary sides. I know there’s StarCraft II, but that also had the Protoss in it as a playable side, despite being told that it was Terran only. I have no idea why Halo Wars didn’t have one. Make it an alternate story if you must.

Step 3: ???

Step 4: PROFIT

Hits the ‘like’ button on Azo Galvat’s post

It might also be nice for the xbox 360 (or maybe the next xbox) to have support for kb+mouse on certain games and playlists. HW2 might be a great reason for MS to finally put support for that in the xbox. Because quite frankly, a controller is a pretty limited input system for an rts, they did a fine job with HW on mapping the controller but I still often notice certain limitations.

What I also would like is to be able to zoom out further. Sometimes I just like having a full view on the map to quickly see what’s happening everywhere and then zoom back in. But now I’m fixed to the max zoomlevel because anything lower then that is completely useless.

A second halo wars would be amazing, it wouldn’t be too hard to find another strategy developer to take on the task of a quite dissapointing game.

I would want:
Space battles
Better graphics
Custom base building
Neutralization options
Larger, more realstic armies (With say a marine army of over 40000 men/women)