How Halo 5 can appeal to a casual audience

Before you lay the hate on this, what I want to talk about is how Halo 5 can appeal to casual audiences, and more prominently - CoD fans WITHOUT compromising it’s skill gap and that core gameplay feel that Halo has had from the beginning.

Now the first way is through some modifications to the single-player:
This first one concerns the A.I.in the campaign as well as Warzone. What they should do with the A.I., mostly with the elites, the promethean knights and the new promethean enemies, is implement player-like strafing on the higher difficulties… Now what this can do is teach the player the basic movements and aiming techniques found in the multiplayer, let him do trial and error, without that impacting his stats and reputation.
Such a system can be implemented by analyzing strafing and aiming patterns from gameplay footages and recorded data during the betas, whether it’s Halo 5 or even Halo 3, because I’m sure 343i has access to that data, even if it is archived. So for instance in heroic you have your average top-level player, who has developed that strafe skill, has very decent aim, and has a very good idea how to use his environment(i.e. knows all the maps, but a given A.I bot only needs to know his own area of the campaign/Warzone map). And legendary can be at the level of an HCS player. Here you can add some hive mind algorithms, to simulate team coordination, when faced against a bigger group of A.I enemies.
Another thing that can be done in the single player and is a lot less far fetched, is let A.I(which isn’t flood) use Human weapons. That way you can get a pretty good idea what it’s like to get killed by a BR before going through an FFA BR fight on Midship, ending the fight with a score of 2/15, the 2 being some unlucky -Yoinks!- who got temporarily disconnected after spawning, but I digress. Now you can argue that there is generally no reason for either the elites nor the promethean knights to use a BR or an SMG and there never has been, but in the entire original Halo trilogy, you had a lot of situations, where covenant are fighting flood, you could have them run out of energy in their plasma weapons or needlers etc. and have them pick up an SMG nearby, or a BR, then they start shooting at you with it. This makes for a perfect environment in which you can learn the fundamentals of BR fights, you know, minding your aim, making sure the entire burst is on target, trying to avoid a full burst if not the entire one etc. This is a small gesture, which can help a more casual player get introduced to the Halo multiplayer in a less hostile manner.

I was going to talk about bringing back load-outs in Halo multiplayer BUT restricting their presence to specific game modes or maps, maybe put it in a variation of BTB, but then Warzone happened so nvm. But I think the Req system should be put in one or 2 game modes in arena BTB ONLY. This way, those with a preference to CoD could be attracted to playing Halo more often as they can have the equivalent of load-outs in a non-Warzone game mode, because the addition of AI on a multiplayer map is quite awesome, but not everyone will like it, especially if they prefer playing more often with the req system

I know the first idea with the A.I. is very far fetched, and most likely impossible to be implemented into the A.I. system so late in development, but it could be considered for Halo 6 or future titles.

I respectfully disagree. Yes, the Covenant can sometimes use human weapons, but not most of the time, because when they run out of ammo they have crates of them so this is not a solution. Halo 5 has already made plenty of changes to appeal to COD players and I think it’s enough. I asked 2 COD players at work why they played this game over Halo and they said: “because it’s hard”.

COD multiplayer is super easy and killing someone is too often based on spawning behind him. Halo and COD are worlds apart. Halo 3 had a huge success and yet was nothing like COD. What Halo needs is to pull back the players who have abandoned Xbox for Playstation. The console race was almost 1 to 1 last gen and 2 to 1 this time around. This is the real problem. To do that, Halo needs to be its own thing.

> 2533274817907732;2:
> I respectfully disagree. Yes, the Covenant can sometimes use human weapons, but not most of the time, because when they run out of ammo they have crates of them so this is not a solution. Halo 5 has already made plenty of changes to appeal to COD players and I think it’s enough. I asked 2 COD players at work why they played this game over Halo and they said: “because it’s hard”.
>
> COD multiplayer is super easy and killing someone is too often based on spawning behind him. Halo and COD are worlds apart. Halo 3 had a huge success and yet was nothing like COD. What Halo needs is to pull back the players who have abandoned Xbox for Playstation. The console race was almost 1 to 1 last gen and 2 to 1 this time around. This is the real problem. To do that, Halo needs to be its own thing.

Ok, interesting point, I agree. When it comes to elites using human weapons, I only meant for them to do it in a few sections. Just add in a few short sections in which you learn some of the most fundamental techniques in multiplayer that are specific to Halo, you know apart from how to aim with the analog sticks.

Also I’m all for Halo being it’s own thing, this isn’t about tailoring to the CoD audience, but rather luring them towards Halo, the things I talked about for single player is just to help them learn the Halo specific stuff. This isn’t about the CoD community, but rather the more casual community overall, because not all casual gamers play FPS-s, and it isn’t about altering the game but rather building over what is already there. I love Halo multiplayer because of it’s skill gap, because this is the only place where getting a triple kill feels so satisfying, I’m playing H2 on PC, because I still haven’t saved up for an x-box one, and I love it’s multiplayer. I still play it to this day, whenever the servers are up, and I don’t want the Halo feel to go away. What I recommended was minor additions, which I doubt would have an impact on traditional arena, nor the Halo feel.

i read your post and its full of derp. i would sooner play campaign with every enemy being player controlled than AI on legendary, it’d be easier.

you want to be able to jump from CoD to halo easily, im sorry but that’s not going to happen. CoD is a twitch arcade shooter with near instant kill times and gameplay built around a “he who shoots fastest wins” philosophy. while halo is a game with slower kill times, up to 4seconds, whos gameplay is designed around a “he who shoots best wins” philosophy. this results in a focus on teamwork and map awareness that just isnt needed in CoD. but the ability to aim fast and well is useful in both games making CoD players reliably good in 1v1 combat in halo, even before they fully handle the difference in movement mechanics. playing the campaign will not improve their reactions or aim because that doesn’t need improving all it will give them is experience with a vast variety of guns and the high mobility in combat that is a staple of halo’s gameplay.

so no op, you don’t need to make them accessible to causal players, it already is all they have to do is aim and move. not exactly rocket science. now stop trying to sound intelligent because it is not working

<mark>Do not make nonconstructive posts.</mark>

Halo has been appealing to casuals since Halo 4. Halo is dead. Now we have the ultra-casualized CoD: Space Marines.

the covenant have no reason to use human guns

instead we should be able to fight rebels, Oni and criminals to simulate fighting humans

> 2533274798350930;5:
> Halo has been appealing to casuals since Halo 4. Halo is dead. Now we have the ultra-casualized CoD: Space Marines.

Halo 5 has retained the Halo skill gap, and again this isn’t about the skill gap, but rather the learning curve.

> 2533274865708979;4:
> i read your post and its full of derp. i would sooner play campaign with every enemy being player controlled than AI on legendary, it’d be easier.
>
> you want to be able to jump from CoD to halo easily, im sorry but that’s not going to happen. CoD is a twitch arcade shooter with near instant kill times and gameplay built around a “he who shoots fastest wins” philosophy. while halo is a game with slower kill times, up to 4seconds, whos gameplay is designed around a “he who shoots best wins” philosophy. this results in a focus on teamwork and map awareness that just isnt needed in CoD. but the ability to aim fast and well is useful in both games making CoD players reliably good in 1v1 combat in halo, even before they fully handle the difference in movement mechanics. playing the campaign will not improve their reactions or aim because that doesn’t need improving all it will give them is experience with a vast variety of guns and the high mobility in combat that is a staple of halo’s gameplay.
>
> so no op, you don’t need to make them accessible to causal players, it already is all they have to do is aim and move. not exactly rocket science. now stop trying to sound intelligent because it is not working

Exactly. What happened to all the MMOs who tried to copied WoW ? They failed horribly. Because gamers would rather play the original than a pale copy. Adapting Halo for potential transitioning COD players is bound to be fruitless.

Halo is a game of real adversity. Its challenging even when not playing ranked. It will make you tense and sweaty. With all due respect, most COD players just can’t handle it.

> 2533274870790671;6:
> the covenant have no reason to use human guns
>
> instead we should be able to fight rebels, Oni and criminals to simulate fighting humans

If they add the insurgency, it can’t be in the main Halo series, but rather ODST 2 or something like that, because I doubt master chief would start killing humans when all of humanity is endangered by the guardians. My idea was not so much to have elites use human weapons, but rather A.I in general.

> 2535463106424241;7:
> > 2533274798350930;5:
> > Halo has been appealing to casuals since Halo 4. Halo is dead. Now we have the ultra-casualized CoD: Space Marines.
>
>
> Halo 5 has retained the Halo skill gap, and again this isn’t about the skill gap, but rather the learning curve.

I’ve seen Halo 5 gameplay footage. No Halo with sprint will be competitive or skill-based. Sprint removes the methodical pacing of Halo and encourages bad plays. Bad plays that you can get out of by sprinting around a corner or out of sight. Further, not only are they copying CoD this time, but also copying Destiny with air-to-ground “charges” and -Yoink- like that. I’m good. Game is for casuals. That’s where the moneys at. Just waiting for a bunch of ex-343 and ex-Bungie employees to start a new company and make the spiritual successor to Halo. I’m good on this casual -Yoink-.

Ok, I may have relayed my message incorrectly, but what I’m proposing is nod CoD-ifying the game. This is not about the skill gap, it’s not about tailoring to CoD players, and if I failed to make that point, I’m sorry. What I wanted to talk about were ways of leveling the learning curve of the game, not diminishing the skill gap, and not for CoD players, but for everyone who is considering getting in to Halo, but is frightened by the learning curve. I don’t want this game to turn into C0D, because I have a ton of experience with Halo. It’s the H2 Vista, but I’m using a controller and I mostly have positive scores. I no the intricacies of team play in Halo, I know it’s worlds away from C0D and again, it’s not about the skill gap. It’s about the learning curve.

Halo 5 should have at launch many social playlists that can be used as training or just relaxing far away from the penalties that you can receive in arena. Just like Halo 3, where you have social and ranked playlists, where social playlists have unranked version of slayer and breakout alongside infection, action sack and griffball, that are always fun modes that can be played by everyone

> 2533274798350930;10:
> > 2535463106424241;7:
> > > 2533274798350930;5:
> > >
>
>
> I’ve seen Halo 5 gameplay footage. No Halo with sprint will be competitive or skill-based. Sprint removes the methodical pacing of Halo and encourages bad plays. Bad plays that you can get out of by sprinting around a corner or out of sight. Further, not only are they copying CoD this time, but also copying Destiny with air-to-ground “charges” and -Yoink- like that. I’m good. Game is for casuals. That’s where the moneys at. Just waiting for a bunch of ex-343 and ex-Bungie employees to start a new company and make the spiritual successor to Halo. I’m good on this casual -Yoink-.

Sprint has mostly been balanced, for one with the no recharging shields thing that was in the beta, and also since the beta they slightly reduced sprint speed and slightly increased base movement speed, so there isn’t so much of a difference. I think the more recent warzone footage from E3, Gamescom and a few smaller conventions, shows it. IMO it’s not really a problem, especially since the difference between regular and sprint speed has been reduced, it’s general function is basically moving faster from engagement to engagement, and not so much doing bs plays during a match. Also ground-pounding is also balanced, because dashing makes it easy to evade, and because you have a delay after the ground pound, if you miss you are pretty much dead there and then. It’s not casual at this point by far, so I don’t see a problem with the current state of the multiplayer. But that’s just me.

> 2535463106424241;11:
> Ok, I may have relayed my message incorrectly, but what I’m proposing is nod CoD-ifying the game. This is not about the skill gap, it’s not about tailoring to CoD players, and if I failed to make that point, I’m sorry. What I wanted to talk about were ways of leveling the learning curve of the game, not diminishing the skill gap, and not for CoD players, but for everyone who is considering getting in to Halo, but is frightened by the learning curve. I don’t want this game to turn into C0D, because I have a ton of experience with Halo. It’s the H2 Vista, but I’m using a controller and I mostly have positive scores. I no the intricacies of team play in Halo, I know it’s worlds away from C0D and again, it’s not about the skill gap. It’s about the learning curve.

I don’t think I’ve misunderstood you. What you want is basically more tutorials/more ways to learn to be good at Halo for COD players. But it’s useless. No Halo veteran was good at his first match. There is no secret. The truth is to be good at Halo you have to play a lot of matches, have a perfect knowledge of maps, communicate with your teammates and maybye watch a couple of pros play the game. Basically, you have to invest time into the game and COD players give up too early in this process.

> 2533274817907732;14:
> > 2535463106424241;11:
> >
>
>
> I don’t think I’ve misunderstood you. What you want is basically more tutorials/more ways to learn to be good at Halo for COD players. But it’s useless. No Halo veteran was good at his first match. There is no secret. The truth is to be good at Halo you have to play a lot of matches, have a perfect knowledge of maps, communicate with your teammates and maybye watch a couple of pros play the game. Basically, you have to invest time into the game and COD players give up too early in this process.

Well for the most part. First of all I’m only suggesting this, because at this point the learning curve of such a game is a downside. And by far, I don’t want this to become the norm for Halo, it only has to attract that type of audience once, and if it works Halo 6 will be the hard core shooter it was in the original trilogy days.
And this isn’t just about C0D. This is also about people that want to get in to FPS-s, and have decided to take on Halo. I’ll be it those people would probably know by now what Halo is and will probably be prepared to take on the challenge, but they might not be. What I’m proposing is to just make the game a little more welcoming to those people.

> 2535463106424241;15:
> > 2533274817907732;14:
> > > 2535463106424241;11:
> > >
> >
> >
> > I don’t think I’ve misunderstood you. What you want is basically more tutorials/more ways to learn to be good at Halo for COD players. But it’s useless. No Halo veteran was good at his first match. There is no secret. The truth is to be good at Halo you have to play a lot of matches, have a perfect knowledge of maps, communicate with your teammates and maybye watch a couple of pros play the game. Basically, you have to invest time into the game and COD players give up too early in this process.
>
>
> Well for the most part. First of all I’m only suggesting this, because at this point the learning curve of such a game is a downside. And by far, I don’t want this to become the norm for Halo, it only has to attract that type of audience once, and if it works Halo 6 will be the hard core shooter it was in the original trilogy days.
> And this isn’t just about C0D. This is also about people that want to get in to FPS-s, and have decided to take on Halo. I’ll be it those people would probably know by now what Halo is and will probably be prepared to take on the challenge, but they might not be. What I’m proposing is to just make the game a little more welcoming to those people.

Can you describe exactly how Halo is not welcoming towards new players ? You haven’t elaborated on this subject.

Also, in your first post you mentionned that there should be time for new players to learn the “basic movement and aiming techniques” of Halo. As for movement, I’m pretty sure you’ll learn to clamper and use thrusters in the first mission of the campain. Aiming on the other hand is the same in all FPS. I don’t think a tutorial can make you good at using two analog sticks simultaneously. Again, practice.

> 2533274817907732;16:
> > 2535463106424241;15:
> > > 2533274817907732;14:
> > > > 2535463106424241;11:
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > > I don’t think I’ve misunderstood you. What you want is basically more tutorials/more ways to learn to be good at Halo for COD players. But it’s useless. No Halo veteran was good at his first match. There is no secret. The truth is to be good at Halo you have to play a lot of matches, have a perfect knowledge of maps, communicate with your teammates and maybye watch a couple of pros play the game. Basically, you have to invest time into the game and COD players give up too early in this process.
> >
> >
> > Well for the most part. First of all I’m only suggesting this, because at this point the learning curve of such a game is a downside. And by far, I don’t want this to become the norm for Halo, it only has to attract that type of audience once, and if it works Halo 6 will be the hard core shooter it was in the original trilogy days.
> > And this isn’t just about C0D. This is also about people that want to get in to FPS-s, and have decided to take on Halo. I’ll be it those people would probably know by now what Halo is and will probably be prepared to take on the challenge, but they might not be. What I’m proposing is to just make the game a little more welcoming to those people.
>
>
> Can you describe exactly how Halo is not welcoming towards new players ? You haven’t elaborated on this subject.
>
> Also, in your first post you mentionned that there should be time for new players to learn the “basic movement and aiming techniques” of Halo. As for movement, I’m pretty sure you’ll learn to clamper and use thrusters in the first mission of the campain. Aiming on the other hand is the same in all FPS. I don’t think a tutorial can make you good at using two analog sticks simultaneously. Again, practice.

Well it’s a bit different, since there isn’t any bullet-drop(that I’m aware of), also I was mostly referring to the BR and probably the sniper rifle when it comes to aiming, because those guns IMO require the most skill and have their intricacies that are specific to Halo (intricacies that almost Halo weapons have, but I digress). Map control is different from one Halo game to another, since the maps are different, I understand that, but most of the power weapons are the same, and their use in the campaign is often different from their use in multiplayer(for obvious reasons). When talking about aiming I mean those things in which Halo differs from other shooters, that are specific to Halos weapons. I agree about the movement learning, you are right about that, but learning for instance how to use a sniper is different in the campaign from the multiplayer, simply because the A.I. doesn’t strafe as much as a player does, even on legendary. Sure they are stronger and on higher difficulties know when to take cover, but they are not as mobile as a moderately skilled player at best.
You make a good point though, it takes practice, but for a generation of players who don’t like to practice, and fail in order to learn, the franchise would benefit from leveling the learning curve a bit. Retaining the skill gap will help regain it’s original audience, but it still needs a fresh generation of players in order to thrive in the future.

> 2533274798350930;10:
> > 2535463106424241;7:
> > > 2533274798350930;5:
> > > Halo has been appealing to casuals since Halo 4. Halo is dead. Now we have the ultra-casualized CoD: Space Marines.
> >
> >
> > Halo 5 has retained the Halo skill gap, and again this isn’t about the skill gap, but rather the learning curve.
>
>
> I’ve seen Halo 5 gameplay footage. No Halo with sprint will be competitive or skill-based. Sprint removes the methodical pacing of Halo and encourages bad plays. Bad plays that you can get out of by sprinting around a corner or out of sight. Further, not only are they copying CoD this time, but also copying Destiny with air-to-ground “charges” and -Yoink- like that. I’m good. Game is for casuals. That’s where the moneys at. Just waiting for a bunch of ex-343 and ex-Bungie employees to start a new company and make the spiritual successor to Halo. I’m good on this casual -Yoink-.

Sprint literally changes nothing…

Warzone is also for casual appeal

> 2533274798350930;5:
> Halo has been appealing to casuals since Halo 4. Halo is dead. Now we have the ultra-casualized CoD: Space Marines.

Not this again…

H5 is Competitive

im guessing you didn’t play the beta.