So basically how it sounds, what should 343 do to make the Prometheans better. Please state how you think they should work.
Here are my ideas
Knights: I feel the way they are done in Halo 5 is pretty good,
Crawlers: I feel they should go back to wall crawling crawlers from 4 as well as do a more Alpha mechanic, where a group of Crawlers follow their alpha crawler and will all attack the same target and just be more effective overall where if you take the Alpha out they scatter and no longer operate as a unit and instead just a random crawler and may try to form up with existing packs,
Watcher: these are support and feel good the way they are as they are as long as they dont have to many.
Soldiers: These are the problem child, as they are just bullet sponges and are everywhere. so they need a way to make them more enjoyable, first tone down how often they teleport, and when they teleport they go into a ball, maybe allow us to damage the ball and deal a large amount of damage to them while adding different ways to damage them,
Warden: well I actually like the Warden, the issue is over exposure, as hes everywhere so just tone down and maybe give him more attack patterns (the only issue I have is the gravity bomb as its a instant death and just annoying.
I’d like to add onto the following:
- The Soldiers’ teleportation needs to be toned down in terms of range and frequency. Perhaps if you damage them enough, you’ll cripple / eliminate their ability to do so. - The Warden should have more physical attacks, something like a kick, stomp, or a backhand punch considering his size. More weak spots would be nice too, even if they’re minor. Something like blasting off a limb or stealing / destroying his sword would make him more interesting to fight against.
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> I’d like to add onto the following:
> - The Soldiers’ teleportation needs to be toned down in terms of range and frequency. Perhaps if you damage them enough, you’ll cripple / eliminate their ability to do so. - The Warden should have more physical attacks, something like a kick, stomp, or a backhand punch considering his size. More weak spots would be nice too, even if they’re minor. Something like blasting off a limb or stealing / destroying his sword would make him more interesting to fight against.
yeah your right as when I think about it his only melee attack is him swinging his sword which really isnt the best close range attack, but yeah I did mention a tone down of frequency of teleportation and allow us to still interact with them while they do so but yeah a tone down in range would work, but crippling the ability to much when they are damaged defeats the point of it being away for them to escape danger, I feel the crippling should mostly affect how fast they move,
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> I’d like to add onto the following:
> The Soldiers’ teleportation needs to be toned down in terms of range and frequency. Perhaps if you damage them enough, you’ll cripple / eliminate their ability to do so.
Bold for ephasis, this had been my biggest concern with any of them. It just happens far too often which while I do feel them to really be a bullet sponge, they’re just so annoying to take care of. Which, I guess, is probably the intention. If they could just teleport about half or even a third as often I would be so happy.
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> > 2535429593088083;2:
> > I’d like to add onto the following:
> > The Soldiers’ teleportation needs to be toned down in terms of range and frequency. Perhaps if you damage them enough, you’ll cripple / eliminate their ability to do so.
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> Bold for ephasis, this had been my biggest concern with any of them. It just happens far too often, which while I don’t feel them to really be a bullet sponge, they’re just so annoying to take care of. Which, I guess, is probably the intention. If they could just teleport about half or even a third as often I would be so happy.
Get rid of them would be my choice. They weren’t fun to fight in H4 and they aren’t fun in H5 either.
I think giving them weapons which aren’t homing weapons would be a big improvement especially in Firefight. I would also like some ground vehicles. Less teleporting from the Soldiers would be good, but I would also like more of a mix between the ones that can be killed with one hit to the face and normal ones. Give Warden more attacks like already mentioned and more than one weak spot.
I think they should work their way out of halo and never come back
My way of balancing them or make fighting them a more fun experience on Legendary difficulty
- Completely revamp the Warden, most of his attacks are one shots so make his eye beam move slower and nerf the gravity vortex’s tracking and shorten the reach/arc of his blade, more methods of vulnerability apart from just the weak spot in the back and being more vulnerable towards Promethean weapons, maybe get stunned more from explosives. Might take notes from DOOM’s bosses if Halo 6 wants to keep enhanced mobility and value moving to be critical to beat the Warden, because most of the time I was just hiding behind cover or using safespotting tactics since actively moving to avoid the Warden is useless. - More emphasised soldier classes (there are only three in the campaign, standard, sniper and captain), there’s no variety apart from snipers can get shot in the head and captains use more OP weapons and are more bullet spongey. Give some more emphasis on forerunner tech such as hardlight shields and autosentries with soldiers actively covering each other with knights serving more as a frontliner. This unfortunately is more reliant on the AI and its fidelity with the sandbox, so mileage will vary. - Revamp the boltshot again, this weapon just doesn’t fit in both Halo 4 and 5. In Halo 4 it’s headshot semiauto capability was beaten by the lightrifle and the pocket shotgun was gimmicky and you may as well use a scattershot. In Halo 5 it’s a pistol version of the suppressor with burst fire. Not enough variety and uniqueness has still been given to the Prometheans. Also this makes too many Prometheans have tracking weaponry, which makes combat encounters far more frustrating than they should be - Knights are fine, actually a good revamp from their somewhat broken nature in Halo 4 - Soldier’s teleports need to be more predictable and have a ‘cooldown’ related to how frequent they can use it. It’s moreso a time waster rather than a smart tactic to keep the player on their toes - Soldier’s melees shouldn’t deplete the entire shield, makes CQC against soldiers almost useless unless you have a scattershot - Watcher’s hitbox are still weird. Seems strange that shooting the watcher’s rotors doesn’t do anything - Add a Promethean ground vehicle, it seems lazy that the soldiers can drive Covenant and UNSC vehicles. I myself cannot think of my own Promethean design due to it being too similar to already existing vehicles, maybe think of the Spectre in Halo 2 since it looks similar to the Phaeton
The soliders are definitely the biggest problem, but the knights are also an issue in my opinion. They’re basically the hunters of the Promethians but more difficult to kill. The whole, “power orb” thing on their backs is basically fighting a mini warden, and when they have the River of Light, it really is. I remember playing the campaign on legendary and dreaded seeing one appear. If 343 continues to use this version of the knight, then they need to tone down its power. The soliders meanwhile need to teleport less and actually fight rather than run. Their melee attack does WAY too much damage as even a Spartan with full shields is susceptible to it.
Wow I agree with all of your points. I also want Promethean vehicles.
I just don’t like the soldier’s rapid teleportation, I think they just shouldn’t have the ability to teleport at all. The mechanic could be replaced by a thruster (like what Halo 5 spartans have but with forerunner colours). They would still be able to move to higher and lower areas (and dodge the occasional attack / vehicle) as they do right now but it could be set to a 5 to 10 second cooldown so that they don’t rapidly jump around.
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Also I agree with the idea of forerunner weapons not tracking targets, its just annoying and means you don’t really have to aim
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So basically: cooldown thruster > rapid teleportation
I suppose my opinion is biased, but the best way to improve Prometheans is to remove them altogether. They’re not particularly fun to engage with and they share too many similarities with the Covenant (Knights/Hunters; Soldiers/Elites; and so on).
Warden Eternal is an interesting concept that was executed poorly. The fact it talks like a human, but looks like a giant robot isn’t very impressive. It also seems very out of place, even for a Halo game.
If Prometheans should stay, I propose a do-over. Redesign the factions in a way that isn’t so obviously inspired by the Covenant. Without this, they’ll remain as dull and uninteresting as ever.
I agree with all your points OP. It would also be nice if the AI were improved, specifically the crawlers. They should be taking tactical positions like out of reach perches or trying to flank. Instead they calmly walk around in the open and get splattered by gunless warthogs.
My other issue is with the soldiers. They just feel too much like generic robots. They don’t feel like living things that were composed. Their voice also bothers me. If you ever wondered how your toaster would sound if it could talk, the promethian soldiers have your answer.
The knights and watchers perform fine as is in my opinion
Honestly, I’d prefer them gone or at least very limited in 6. I would much rather have Cortana recruit Atriox’s army as her main force in the next game.
Soldiers need an overhaul in design. The design does not communicate anything more than “this is guy with gun” to the player. Elites and Brutes can inform the player of how they fight and combat role but the Soldiers don’t. I would suggest simplifying the design and what is added be a visual connection to the Knight. If it’s going to be a biped it needs to resemble the Knight or Warden to provide some continuity to the player or really make it better apparent. I would also suggest the softening of colors to blue. I get the colors in the Forerunner hierarchy have meaning, but they also need to visually stand out from Captains, Knights, and Crawlers. Coloration (blatant at that) would greatly assist the player. As far as gameplay goes they should either stop or be limited in how often they teleport artificially inflating fights. They also should only use 1 or 2 weapons. They are usually flanked by crawlers and so someone is always firing the boltshot. Both a precision and assault weapon is fine for this.
Easy, get rid of them. They suck. But since they will be in Halo six…
Knights: Make it easier to see what weapons they have. At this point I can’t tell if they have a scattershot or an incinerator cannon.
Crawlers: Make the alpha crawlers occassionally pause and roar at you, which makes its pack focus on you, instead of all of them attacking at random. This gives you a brief moment to kill them.
Soldiers: Less teleporting. And when they do, make it like how the knights teleported in 4.
Watchers: Have another variant that rushes you and detonates itself, creating an emp-type effect.
On top of all this, having less prometheans to fight would be nice, because they’ve taken up enough gameplay time in 4 and 5. I want to be able to fight sentinels again.
I’m fine with all the enemies in Halo 5. I can see why Knights are basically just straight up tanks for baddies but I wish they would tone down the soldiers damage resistance a bit. It is literally so much easier fighting the covenant in H5 and it may just be because the AI are pretty damn stupid (not as bad as H4 though) but they are literally just a relief anytime you have to go against them where as if you fight Prometheans you gotta watch out from being swarmed and be sure to have a ton of ammo. Fact is they just aren’t very fun to fight like the covenant (though I wish the covenant was a bit tougher).