how i think halo 4 should be done

Games Other Halo
1

my opinion guys!

currently, i’m not liking how halo 4 multiplayer is going to be by default, to root cause to most of my hatred towards it as you may have already seen me express in other topics is the extreme amount of customization, almost everything is going done through the use of customizable loadouts, basing all this customization around personal preference and has to be unlocked the more you progress just fuels my hatred towards it even more, i’m not against class based shooters as long as they’re done well but i think a full on class based system is not suited to what halo actually is, halo is an arena shooter, halo 4 is going to be a class based shooter, this isn’t evolution but more a complete mutation in species (correct term?), its going from being a mammal to being a fish, as you can plainly see the 2 are very very different and the reason that i and a lot of players along with what made halo good was that is was a mammal, turning it into a fish is detracting away from halo and creating a different game with the same weapons.

but, i don’t think halo should continue to be an arena shooter, pretty much everything it can do as an arena shooter has already been done and any more done to it is just changing things for other things, nothing new just changing the cosmetics, what i think halo should become is a hybrid between the arena shooter and class based shooter, combine elements from the 2 together to create a more deep and somewhat unique game, this is the only logical evolutionary path for halo as well, evolution is to adapt to survive and improve, combing elements from a class based shooter while keeping elements from an arena shooter is adapting to survive and improve, this should also help separate halo from the rest of the market giving people a reason to invest there time into it over other games.

so, how i think all this should be done is pretty simple, introduce a basic customizable loadout system that isn’t effected by player progression to the arena halo that we know, what would be available in the loadouts is a very small set of primary and secondary weapons to choose from, say for primary you can choose between DMR or AR, and for secoundary you get a magnum, for AAs you only get a choice between hologram and hard light shield while keeping sprint as default, you will only be able to choose one armour mod and the support and tactical packages remains the same.

with the other AAs, weapons and grenades, they will be sprinkled around the maps to add more focus and flow to maps while putting a lot more emphasize on teamwork and strategy.

you will still be spawning on even footing, more or less, its an asymmetrical design while being symmetrically balanced, this is why i said AR or DMR, because the DMRs niche is long range while the ARs niche is close range, in close range the AR wins while long range the DMR wins, at mid range you’re going to want to grab the carbine or BR off the map otherwise you should be on fairly equal footing with AR vs DMR, the AAs being on map means you have to fight for them and won’t allow the powerful AAs to completely destroy the game when only one person is using it, they only really become an issue when an entire team is using them, they’ll also add a little more strategy to how you approach your attacks on the other team, what is worth securing and what you could grab to fight back against the other teams control and so on, before this was more done through just straight up skill, power ups and power weapons, now there is another layer providing a more strategical option and depth to the game, the run and gun fast paced aggressive style of arena shooters won’t be lost in all the mix, it will actually be just as prominent as it was before in previous halos.

there will be no more advantages for people who’ve played the game longer either, everything is available at the start or when 343i decides the community has hit a certain milestone to introduce more into the game, this keeps everyone on an even footing keeping the core balance to the game which is crucial, the long term value to the game won’t be from the ranking system but from how good the game actually is, a ranking system could be introduced that only effected cosmetics, say the more skilled you are the more bad–Yoink- and intimidating you look but it really shouldn’t be what is important.

for me, personally this would be the ideal halo game and the future of halo, the classed based shooter now has nothing good going for it, the only result i can see coming from it is developers making it so weapon mechanics will be fully customizable, choose how much damage at the cost of recoil and so on which is not a good path to be going down.

2

I do agree that some of the defensive AA’s if theres any besides Hardlight Shield should be placed as pickupable AA’s on the map.

Ok, I think 1 reply with 150 views is strange as -Yoink-…

3

I like the weapon deversity. Lots of different things to choose for your playstyle.

If they continue to balance everything nice, then balance shouldn’t be a problem. Everyone will still be relatively even, just different playstyles, and the skill of the player will still outmatch the artificial skill of those relying on AAs and Modifications.

I’m fine with this kind of customization. As long as the weapons themselves aren’t affected. I wouldn’t be supporting attachable scopes and other things as much… and I really wouldn’t want customizable damage like you said. This level of customization, I’m fine with. Small gameplay enhancements through the use of personal Modifications, thats fine.

4

Well, all I could say is that there are a lot of different ways to play the game in Halo 4. It’s customizable, so you might find a gameplay to your liking.

5

I can see were you are coming from on the point of over customization to me it seems Over the top? if that’s the word I could use. The fact that leveling up allows for unlocks will simply have old vets that want to use there favorite weapons will have to wait to level up. i understand that If someone puts there hard time into multilayer than he may achieve this. The problem is that (opinion ahead) reach took out some peoples favorite weapons and abilities. these people (such as myself) want to play online using them but are denied the satisfaction that we so crave. So parts of the community will grow impatient and just leave or take ‘breaks’ from the game ultimately leaving halo 4 to be regarded like reach was to so many.

6

> what i think halo should become is a hybrid between the arena shooter and class based shooter, combine elements from the 2 together to create a more deep and somewhat unique game, this is the only logical evolutionary path for halo as well, evolution is to adapt to survive and improve, combing elements from a class based shooter while keeping elements from an arena shooter is adapting to survive and improve, this should also help separate halo from the rest of the market giving people a reason to invest there time into it over other games.

Pardon me for being so blunt, but isn’t this what Halo 4’s MP has already done?

7

Good post, Haunted. You have some interesting ideas. I certainly agree about your comments relating to the notion of separating EXP from abilities. But I diverge from you in that I don’t actually think it’s necessary for Halo to include class based additions at all. I think evolution, whilst staying strictly within the boundaries of the Arena shooter genre is perfectly possible and moreover, I think it would actually attract former Halo players back to the game, thus potentially leading to a perfectly healthy population.

I was hoping that this was what 343i were going to do with Halo 4. It would have at the very least been a great mechanism for testing just how popular a pure Arena shooter could still be in today’s market, without having to overlay auxiliary additions from other genres.

I have a fundamental problem with every Specialization, Armor Ability, Tactical and Support Package. I simply fail to see how they will serve to improve the gameplay experience in overall terms.

As I’ve said before, I would have much rathered that all the development work that went into them was instead spent on designing a large variety of high quality maps, specifically designed for their respective gametypes (no more 2v2 games on 6v6 maps), weapons and vehicles and making all of these available to everyone at launch, for no extra cost.

8

Very good points and I follow your logic.

It appears that 343i wanted to give players more options without permitting specific load outs or combinations to overpower the game. Now, PV is a game changer and I can see how some diehard Halo fans became instantly opposed to this because it single handedly put another spin of playing. What I’m interested in determining is how much of an impact will, what I deem as the core, specializations (Wetwork, Rogue, & Stalker) will have on game play. However, there will be playlists that prohibit specializations (based upon what I’ve read), but I believe there should be the same for PV (my opinion).

9

> > what i think halo should become is a hybrid between the arena shooter and class based shooter, combine elements from the 2 together to create a more deep and somewhat unique game, this is the only logical evolutionary path for halo as well, evolution is to adapt to survive and improve, combing elements from a class based shooter while keeping elements from an arena shooter is adapting to survive and improve, this should also help separate halo from the rest of the market giving people a reason to invest there time into it over other games.
>
> Pardon me for being so blunt, but isn’t this what Halo 4’s MP has already done?

sadly no, the main multiplayer experience looks like its going to be a full class based shooter instead of arena.

reach started the path to the hybrid, 343i has turned it into a full on class based shooter, i wish they would have continued with what bungie started in reach instead of trying to avoid it.

10

> I like the weapon deversity. Lots of different things to choose for your playstyle.
>
> If they continue to balance everything nice, then balance shouldn’t be a problem. Everyone will still be relatively even, just different playstyles, and the skill of the player will still outmatch the artificial skill of those relying on AAs and Modifications.
>
>
> I’m fine with this kind of customization. As long as the weapons themselves aren’t affected. I wouldn’t be supporting attachable scopes and other things as much… and I really wouldn’t want customizable damage like you said. This level of customization, I’m fine with. Small gameplay enhancements through the use of personal Modifications, thats fine.

and this makes me think of another issue with this much customization, weapon diversity, it actually creates a very shallow weapon sandbox beacause all the weapons have to be evenly matched against one another, this means similair kill times, ease of use, effective range and such catered around there niche.

with the weapons on map, it creates a much more diverse sandbox because the weapons don’t have to be so perfectly balance, they can be balanced and designed in a number of different ways, more powerfull the longer the respawn time and the opposite holds true, you can have a weapon that has regular kill time but very uesr friendly, this weapon would be on the map few and fare between spawning every 1 and half minutes with only 1 clip, the weapon has to be earned and controlled for it to be used, you just can’t have this kind of balance and set up with customizable load outs because it would create a 1 is best nullifying all the others.

sigh

11

> I have a fundamental problem with every Specialization, Armor Ability, Tactical and Support Package. I simply fail to see how they will serve to improve the gameplay experience in overall terms.

strategical elements is how they would work, armour mods give a very shallow advantage that won’t effect anything on there own but combine them through team defined roles then they add different strategies to emerge, more subtle combat enahcnments from AAs creates more meta game and player prediction, tactical and support packes offer a little more enhancement for your defined roll.

honestly though, i threw tactical and support packages into the post to keep it inline with what we’re getting in halo 4, keeping whats new but implementing it all in a more fitting way.

12

> Ok, I think 1 reply with 150 views is strange as Yoink!..

they click on the post, see a big wall of text and instantly leave.

guys, is it really that hard to try and start an intellectual discussion around here?

13

I do wonder how they will balance the unlocks with skill.

If progression is how you unlock (which is what it will likely be), but have a bad skill rating… the trueskill will match you with similarly skilled players. But you might have more weapons unlocked.

If they use skill, then it’ll make progression seem pointless.

They did say they’re refining the trueskill system for Halo 4… I hope that means the trueskill will be able to account for both skill and progression ranks. So you’re matched averagely with similarly skilled players with similar unlocks.

14

> I do wonder how they will balance the unlocks with skill.
>
>
> If progression is how you unlock (which is what it will likely be), but have a bad skill rating… the trueskill will match you with similarly skilled players. But you might have more weapons unlocked.

this is what i’m worried about, they have said they’re going to be using a more refined true skill to match players but i doubt it will take progressive rank into account because that isn’t related to skill, having more weapons unlcoked means you could have the edge over a slightly better opponent giving you the win, not a satisfying thing to look forward to.

i also wonder, how is join in progress going to effect true skill? all the rage quitting from it could create false reading, a good player rage quitting constantly causing a lower true skill could be paired up and with bad players causing him to rage quit further, i guess we’ll wait and see.

i would still prefer a game to have no ranking system though, bring back the days where we played the game because we enjoyed it not because we want to grind to the next rank even if we don’t enjoy the game.

well, looks like its impossible to start an intellectual discussion here, kind of funny though because you would expect who care about the game to be able to discuss stuff…

15

> > I do wonder how they will balance the unlocks with skill.
> >
> >
> > If progression is how you unlock (which is what it will likely be), but have a bad skill rating… the trueskill will match you with similarly skilled players. But you might have more weapons unlocked.
>
> this is what i’m worried about, they have said they’re going to be using a more refined true skill to match players but i doubt it will take progressive rank into account because that isn’t related to skill, having more weapons unlcoked means you could have the edge over a slightly better opponent giving you the win, not a satisfying thing to look forward to.
>
> i also wonder, how is join in progress going to effect true skill? all the rage quitting from it could create false reading, a good player rage quitting constantly causing a lower true skill could be paired up and with bad players causing him to rage quit further, i guess we’ll wait and see.
>
> i would still prefer a game to have no ranking system though, bring back the days where we played the game because we enjoyed it not because we want to grind to the next rank even if we don’t enjoy the game.

I think they should be able to get it right.

Luckily, if they don’t get it right, the weapons and unlocks don’t present that big of advantages.

I understand why people want a ranking system, but I still don’t get the need for a number to play a game. A ranking system, personal goals and achievement. Visible ranks and numbers, bragging rights, flaming, and boosting.

And 343i’s supposed hidden system isn’t even completely hidden. Some people just don’t understand compromises…

16

> Luckily, if they don’t get it right, the weapons and unlocks don’t present that big of advantages.

while you can only spawn with an AR i’ll just spawn with my BR… i think there could be a big issue, customizable loadouts to just an extent doesn’t work with halos sandbox.

this really is more of a wait and see deal, any advantage from playing the game more is bad no matter which way you look at it because its a deliberate inbalance in the game, if they’ve made it so that there is no advantage then unlocking more as you go a long is pointless because it doesn’t offer anything or add anything, have to wait and see though.

17

> > Luckily, if they don’t get it right, the weapons and unlocks don’t present that big of advantages.
>
> while you can only spawn with an AR i’ll just spawn with my BR… i think there could be a big issue, customizable loadouts to just an extent doesn’t work with halos sandbox.
>
> this really is more of a wait and see deal, any advantage from playing the game more is bad no matter which way you look at it because its a deliberate inbalance in the game, if they’ve made it so that there is no advantage then unlocking more as you go a long is pointless because it doesn’t offer anything or add anything, have to wait and see though.

Whoops, I forgot something important to this discussion.

For every mao, there are 2 pre-set loadouts made specifically for that map… regardless of what you have unlocked. If you don’t feel confortable using an AR but its the only thing you have unlocked, you don’t have to.

That should help keep players good until they get the weapon they want.

18

> > > Luckily, if they don’t get it right, the weapons and unlocks don’t present that big of advantages.
> >
> > while you can only spawn with an AR i’ll just spawn with my BR… i think there could be a big issue, customizable loadouts to just an extent doesn’t work with halos sandbox.
> >
> > this really is more of a wait and see deal, any advantage from playing the game more is bad no matter which way you look at it because its a deliberate inbalance in the game, if they’ve made it so that there is no advantage then unlocking more as you go a long is pointless because it doesn’t offer anything or add anything, have to wait and see though.
>
> Whoops, I forgot something important to this discussion.
>
>
> For every mao, there are 2 pre-set loadouts made specifically for that map… regardless of what you have unlocked. If you don’t feel confortable using an AR but its the only thing you have unlocked, you don’t have to.
>
> That should help keep players good until they get the weapon they want.

why would you have different load outs for different maps? surely this is a sign of “god load outs” being present?

19

> > > > Luckily, if they don’t get it right, the weapons and unlocks don’t present that big of advantages.
> > >
> > > while you can only spawn with an AR i’ll just spawn with my BR… i think there could be a big issue, customizable loadouts to just an extent doesn’t work with halos sandbox.
> > >
> > > this really is more of a wait and see deal, any advantage from playing the game more is bad no matter which way you look at it because its a deliberate inbalance in the game, if they’ve made it so that there is no advantage then unlocking more as you go a long is pointless because it doesn’t offer anything or add anything, have to wait and see though.
> >
> > Whoops, I forgot something important to this discussion.
> >
> >
> > For every mao, there are 2 pre-set loadouts made specifically for that map… regardless of what you have unlocked. If you don’t feel confortable using an AR but its the only thing you have unlocked, you don’t have to.
> >
> > That should help keep players good until they get the weapon they want.
>
> why would you have different load outs for different maps? surely this is a sign of “god load outs” being present?

What? Because some maps have more effective combinations than others. Close range maps like Adrift will use the AR. They sure wouldn’t make people use an AR on Longbow and say it was tailored to the map.

There are no god loadouts, there are loadouts tailored to the map. If a map is made for long range combat, the pre-set loadouts will keep long range combat in mind.

20

> > > > > Luckily, if they don’t get it right, the weapons and unlocks don’t present that big of advantages.
> > > >
> > > > while you can only spawn with an AR i’ll just spawn with my BR… i think there could be a big issue, customizable loadouts to just an extent doesn’t work with halos sandbox.
> > > >
> > > > this really is more of a wait and see deal, any advantage from playing the game more is bad no matter which way you look at it because its a deliberate inbalance in the game, if they’ve made it so that there is no advantage then unlocking more as you go a long is pointless because it doesn’t offer anything or add anything, have to wait and see though.
> > >
> > > Whoops, I forgot something important to this discussion.
> > >
> > >
> > > For every mao, there are 2 pre-set loadouts made specifically for that map… regardless of what you have unlocked. If you don’t feel confortable using an AR but its the only thing you have unlocked, you don’t have to.
> > >
> > > That should help keep players good until they get the weapon they want.
> >
> > why would you have different load outs for different maps? surely this is a sign of “god load outs” being present?
>
> What? Because some maps have more effective combinations than others. Close range maps like Adrift will use the AR. They sure wouldn’t make people use an AR on Longbow and say it was tailored to the map.
>
> There are no god loadouts, there are loadouts tailored to the map. If a map is made for long range combat, the pre-set loadouts will keep long range combat in mind.

thats the problem though, on the maps certain combinations will dominate the rest but a different map requires a different combination how ever on this map it dominates over the rest, this sounds map specific god loadouts to me which isn’t good and shows signs of a poorly balanced sandbox, if it was balanced well then this wouldn’t even be an issue, you wouldn’t need to worry about what loadout for what map but instead catered around your playstyle only as intended because its all balanced meaning the map is irrelevant.

… from my point of view, you just can’t win.

its 4am for me now so i’m going to go get ssome sleep, i’ll check back tommorow.