How the assassination system should be

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I HIGHLY recommend reading the whole post before commenting.

We’re going to refer to the player performing the assassination as: Player and the player being assassinated as: Enemy

Here’s a system I’ve been thinking about:

There are 2 methods:

  1. Full assassination: The player melees the enemy from the back while holding the melee button (RB) for the full assassination animation which results in a bonus points and a medal. For this method, the player should be allowed to cancel the animation if they haven’t reached the part where the spartan stabs the enemy (before the kill counts) in case he needs to retreat and/or was ambushed by other enemies, but the enemy (who was being assassinated) survives. If this scenario happens (cancelling the assassination), the next part depends on the tow players skill.

The attacking player has an advantage here, considering he’s the attacker and that he’s facing the enemy’s back. He can either:
a. melee the enemy from the back (if the enemy doesn’t act fast enough)
b. If they have a powerful weapon (i.e. shotgun, scattershot, fuel rod gun) they can kill the enemy easily and deal with the ambush.
c. use a tactical advantage to avoid/outperform the enemy and his teammates (i.e. hard light shield, regeneration field, resistor perk)

If the enemy acts fast enough and outsmarts the player, he can either:
a. stuck the player with a plasma grenade (depends on how fast he can turn to face the player)
b. If they have a powerful weapon (i.e. shotgun, scattershot, fuel rod gun) they can kill the player.
c. use a tactical advantage like the thruster packs to avoid the player and/or perform a Ninja assassination.

Notes:
a. The above scenarios are affected by the tow players skills and reflexes, although, as mentioned above, the attacking player has the advantage.
b. The victim can still be saved by killing the attacking player (the assassin).

  1. Quick assassination (Beat down): The player melees the enemy from the back by only pressing the melee button (RB) for a normal melee which results in a bonus points (less than the full assassination method) and the beat down medal. Totally classic. Nothing changes.
    I haven’t thought this through very much, so fell free to share your opinion about the cons of this system and how it can be improved.

Even I feel lazy too read this.

2

I don’t think a cancelled assassination should result in the enemy living. I’m not sure how they would do it, but I would prefer that if you went into the assassination and cancelled it, they just die immediately and you don’t get the assassination medal.

I don’t really want to be punished for holding the button down.

3

> 2533274803159366;2:
> I don’t think a cancelled assassination should result in the enemy living. I’m not sure how they would do it, but I would prefer that if you went into the assassination and cancelled it, they just die immediately and you don’t get the assassination medal.
>
> I don’t really want to be punished for holding the button down.

That’s where the 3 options come. If you act faster, you can perform a normal melee or one of the other options and get the normal beat down medal and bonus, OR the other player can manage to kill you first.

“I don’t really want to be punished for holding the button down.”
That’s exactly why the full assassination requires you to HOLD the trigger. You must make sure you’re in safe spot and have enough time window to perform the assassination.

4

I should be able I disable assassinations in controls. I never want to do them . Let me kill them and move on.

5

> 2533274896991506;4:
> I should be able I disable assassinations in controls. I never want to do them . Let me kill them and move on.

Have you even read my post? press “RB” for a normal melee (at the cost of lower points earned), hold “RB” for a full assassination.

6

It would be nice if the enemy (you want to assassinate) can fight back while you try to assassinate him/her. It’s hard to make to do that but it’d be interesting.

7

I’d prefer it just be like in Halo 3 with the beat down but if they do keep assassinations it should be more rewarding

8

> 2533274989165227;6:
> It would be nice if the enemy (you want to assassinate) can fight back while you try to assassinate him/her. It’s hard to make to do that but it’d be interesting.

It’ll be frustrating if after all the effort to trick the enemy and get the assassination, he just counters. His only hope is that either his teammates save him or you cancel the assassination. Although, a perk that gives you a chance to fight back sounds interesting.

9

An assassination is a beat down, but with flair. Unless someone external to the player/enemy engagement interferes, then it should count as a kill for the player.

But I like the idea of a more interactive close quarters melee system. If you replaced the boring old pistol whip/rifle butt with an advanced melee system, then you could have something really special. Engagement would last as long as an assassination animation, and players would only have time to bang out 2-4 button combos… maybe a kick, punch, grapple… that kind of thing.

10

> 2533274812739810;7:
> I’d prefer it just be like in Halo 3 with the beat down but if they do keep assassinations it should be more rewarding

Read the original post, people. Hold “RB” for the full assassination (more points awarded/assassination medal), press “RB” for the normal melee (at the cost of lower points/normal beat down medal).

11

I like the idea of being able to choose to do a full assassination for more points or being able to quickly beat down if you are in traffic and just need to get a quick kill for less points. By the way while playing Destiny I keep thinking that I wish this game had assassinations in both PvE and PvP.

12

The idea of giving more points for taking the time for an assassination is interesting, and probably relatively fair and balanced, but I feel like it would mostly just invite complaints.

What I think might be a better solution is to just make the assassination animation itself faster. The player gets to see a cool (albeit short) animation, the enemy gets to see a humiliating (albeit short) animation, and the whole process is over and done with in not much more time than a traditional beat down.

For example, one of the Halo 4 animations involves shoving the enemy’s back forward (since all assassination animations start from the peak melee pose), pulling the knife out, stabbing the back of the neck, then kicking the enemy off of the player’s knife. This is all fine, but it takes entirely too long. An easy way to shorten it is to simply remove the kick, and pull the knife out of the neck instead. Faster, cleaner, and more “Spartan” if you ask me.

I feel that it would be more balanced, as well, not just with beat downs, but with other animations. In Halo 4, airborne assassinations, where the enemy is in the air and the player jumps/jetpacks up behind them, are much faster than other animations, and consequently “superior” assassinations, simply because of their speed. In Reach, as well, the falling assassination, where the player falls from above and behind the enemy, are slower than (and therefore “inferior” to) others, especially on Elites, where the player will kick them down to the ground, then jump off of their back and stomp with both feet on the enemy’s spine. Remove the stomp, simply have the player pull out a knife immediately after the initial melee animation, then, instead of jumping, lean forward and stab the Elite’s neck, then quickly return to the default pose.

13

> 2533274872559291;12:
> The idea of giving more points for taking the time for an assassination is interesting, and probably relatively fair and balanced, but I feel like it would mostly just invite complaints.
>
> What I think might be a better solution is to just make the assassination animation itself faster. The player gets to see a cool (albeit short) animation, the enemy gets to see a humiliating (albeit short) animation, and the whole process is over and done with in not much more time than a traditional beat down.
>
> For example, one of the Halo 4 animations involves shoving the enemy’s back forward (since all assassination animations start from the peak melee pose), pulling the knife out, stabbing the back of the neck, then kicking the enemy off of the player’s knife. This is all fine, but it takes entirely too long. An easy way to shorten it is to simply remove the kick, and pull the knife out of the neck instead. Faster, cleaner, and more “Spartan” if you ask me.
>
> I feel that it would be more balanced, as well, not just with beat downs, but with other animations. In Halo 4, airborne assassinations, where the enemy is in the air and the player jumps/jetpacks up behind them, are much faster than other animations, and consequently “superior” assassinations, simply because of their speed. In Reach, as well, the falling assassination, where the player falls from above and behind the enemy, are slower than (and therefore “inferior” to) others, especially on Elites, where the player will kick them down to the ground, then jump off of their back and stomp with both feet on the enemy’s spine. Remove the stomp, simply have the player pull out a knife immediately after the initial melee animation, then, instead of jumping, lean forward and stab the Elite’s neck, then quickly return to the default pose.

No matter how fast you make the animations, there’s no way they can be faster than just pressing RB and moving on. Also, forcing the animations strips away choices. What if you wanted to melee an enemy from behind but your motion sensor detected other incoming enemies? will you shoot him and risk giving him a chance to fight back? or would you assassinate him and risk being killed by his teammates.

14

wait so… youre in the Halo 5 Forums, using halo 4 AA’s to help get your ideas across, when its already been said that there will be NO AA’s in Halo 5. nice

15

> 2533274807855010;9:
> An assassination is a beat down, but with flair. Unless someone external to the player/enemy engagement interferes, then it should count as a kill for the player.
>
> But I like the idea of a more interactive close quarters melee system. If you replaced the boring old pistol whip/rifle butt with an advanced melee system, then you could have something really special. Engagement would last as long as an assassination animation, and players would only have time to bang out 2-4 button combos… maybe a kick, punch, grapple… that kind of thing.

I don’t think that button mashing would work in Halo. ESPECIALLY in multiplayer. What does it add to the gameplay, anyway? the outcome is the same: you score a kill.

Keepin it simple is better, imo.

16

> 2533274864741156;14:
> wait so… youre in the Halo 5 Forums, using halo 4 AA’s to help get your ideas across, when its already been said that there will be NO AA’s in Halo 5. nice

Thanks for noting this, but I just wanted to give an example of how both players (the assassin and the victim) can use their skills and reflexes to turn the situation to their favor. Besides, 343i confirmed that there will be “Spartan abilities”. What if on of these abilities does something similar, if not the exact same, as the thruster packs?

The general idea of how assassinating should work is the point of discussion.

17

> 2533274973373704;5:
> > 2533274896991506;4:
> > I should be able I disable assassinations in controls. I never want to do them . Let me kill them and move on.
>
>
> Have you even read my post? press “RB” for a normal melee (at the cost of lower points earned), hold “RB” for a full assassination.

Yes I did. I don’t like your idea sorry. If this comes back from reach and h4 I would like the option to disable it. Why should you get more points just for holding a button longer??? I hope you don’t mean more points as in it would help your team score in slayer. That’s dumb you didn’t do anything special IMO except hold a button for a second longer…your animation is your reward. I don’t want the animation. I want to murder the other Spartans in the game. How I kill them makes no difference to me.

18

> 2533274896991506;17:
> > 2533274973373704;5:
> > > 2533274896991506;4:
> > > I should be able I disable assassinations in controls. I never want to do them . Let me kill them and move on.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Have you even read my post? press “RB” for a normal melee (at the cost of lower points earned), hold “RB” for a full assassination.
>
>
>
> Yes I did. I don’t like your idea sorry. If this comes back from reach and h4 I would like the option to disable it. Why should you get more points just for holding a button longer??? I hope you don’t mean more points as in it would help your team score in slayer. That’s dumb you didn’t do anything special IMO except hold a button for a second longer…your animation is your reward. I don’t want the animation. I want to murder the other Spartans in the game. How I kill them makes no difference to me.

"_Why should you get more points just for holding a button longer?"_Making yourself vulnerable in the middle of a match to perform the assassination is worth it, imo.

"That’s dumb you didn’t do anything special IMO except hold a button for a second longer"
You see, there’s more people who want the assassination to stay than those who want it gone. I think my solution makes everyone happy.

“How I kill them makes no difference to me.”
Then just press the button and move on. Can’t see the problem here.

19

They should just scrap assassinations Unless 343i has fixed the glitch or whatever its called where roughly half the time you try to use a generic beatdown you actually get locked into a five minute assassination.

20

I just want to be able to quickly beatdown the enemy in stressful scenarios. Died quite a lot in H4 since i couldn’t do so.