How to add life to Halo's one sided objective gametypes

Games Other Halo
1

I’m sure we all realize that Halo’s objective playlists have always had low populations.

Why? Well, they aren’t really all that interesting for the most part.

The issue with one sided objective games like one-flag, one-bomb, and invasion where teams take turns attacking and defending is that ties happen way too often.

The current system: (for example)
One bomb on Asylum.
Round 1 (5 minutes): Team A detonates the bomb in 2 minutes, 3 secs. Score is 1-0
Round 2 (5 minutes): Team B detonates the bomb in 4 minutes. Score is 1-1
Round 3 (5 minutes): Team A detonates the bomb in 1 minute. Score is 2-1
Round 4 (5 minutes): Team B detonates the bomb in 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
Final score: 2-2 Tie

Why is this a tie? Team A is obviously the better team since they successfully detonate the bomb way earlier than Team B does.

More problems with the current system: Games are way too long, often unnecessarily. Take for example a game where Team A is way better than Team B and wins the first 3 rounds with a score of 2-0 going into the 4th round. Why is the 4th round being played? Team B can only make the score 2-1. They can’t even tie it. All this is does is frustrate them and cause them to quit and possibly quit playing objective games.

You might ask then, “How do we solve this problem?”

It’s actually extremely simple. Make the rounds go into stopwatch mode, which means that the first round starts off at the default as usual, whatever it is (5 minutes for example) and then the next round is set to the time that Team A successfully completes the round (if they do.) For example, if Team A attacks first and detonates the bomb in 1 minute, Round 2 is set to 1 minute instead of the default 5 minutes.

This ensures that the team that captures/detonates faster WINS. This works best with 2 rounds. 4 rounds are arguably way too long anyways.

This has been used in other games like Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and it provides very competitive gameplay. Think about it! You and your team have to come up with a strategy to finish the round off as quickly as possible while the other team has to hold back for as long as possible so that they have more time to capture/detonate in the next round. EVERY single second counts!

Another issue with the current system that stopwatch mode alleviates is the issue of people turning objective into Slayer. With stopwatch mode, every second counts.

With stopwatch mode:
One bomb on Asylum.
Round 1 (5 minutes): Team A detonates the bomb in 2 minutes, 3 secs. Score is 1-0
Round 2 (2 minutes, 3 secs): Team B couldn’t detonate the bomb in under 2 minutes and 3 seconds, meaning they failed to beat Team A’s time.
Final score: 1-0, Team A wins

Conclusion (tl;dr):
Stopwatch provides for faster, and more competitive games that are more fun and take up less time. It should also help alleviate the issue of quitters and low populations.

2

i like your idea, but for a gametype like one bomb, this idea seems impractical.

this is because when you are searching MM with randoms, against un-coordinated randoms (and anything less than a team of 4 coordinated people), most of the time 1 bomb ends in a 0-0 tie anyways.

at least for me it does. its so easy to stop a team from arming a bomb, its borderline ridiculous.

this being said, this problem could easily be remedied by tweaking the time it takes to arm the bomb (3 seconds is probably about perfect). when its longer than that the game becomes an oh-so-easy ‘hide till you see =ENEMY IS ARMING THE BOMB=’ then throw grenades at the bomb.

for 1 flag, however, this would be a super cool way to have an additional gametype for objective, regardless of settings.

3

I really want MLG Main Stage rules to apply to MM,

5 Flags to win,
30 mins game time,
If it hits 15 mins first to three win,

Excellent.

4

> i like your idea, but for a gametype like one bomb, this idea seems impractical.
>
> this is because when you are searching MM with randoms, against un-coordinated randoms (and anything less than a team of 4 coordinated people), most of the time 1 bomb ends in a 0-0 tie anyways.

Yes, 0-0 games can still happen with stopwatch mode (it is an entirely different issue IMO). The way to fix it is, as you suggested, to tweak the gametypes. Then and only then would it work well with stopwatch mode.

5

I think the real problem is the maps where you can find the perfect balance between how easy and how hard it is to score the objective and create sort of a skill gap. I don’t really think your idea would work right IMO.

6

Wouldn’t you agree that it’s much, much better than the current system where capping fast isn’t rewarded?

7

Objective games require teamwork.

This is the sole reason they are so unpopular. In Slayer, a good player can carry his team for the most part. All your teammates have to do is not die and even if they’re completely limited, you’ll probably still be able to get the victory for them. You can get matched up with anyone of your relative skill level and if you’re good, you’ll be able to win.

The situation is completely different for Objective games. Objectives require you to make setups and be able push the enemy base as a team. This is something that Randy the random just won’t be able to get his team to do.

Slayer is just better suited to online play.

8

The reason why Objective really isn’t played so much nowadays is simple.

The maps are poor for Objective gametypes.

Look back to say, Halo 2 for instance and pretty much every map could support an Objective game and it would be fun. Even popular Slayer maps, such as Lockout and Midship were a blast to play CTF/Assault/KotH on.

Now look at the maps Reach has… Not so much. They seem Slayer orientated. You mention Asylum. Of course, it was a Halo 2 map. Pinnacle you can play one-sided gametypes on too with no problem. A Halo 2 map. Reflection? A Halo 2 map.

Halo 3 also had this problem but not as much as Reach has.

Then there’s the maps that Reach has, they simply just aren’t fun to play Objective on. Zealot, is too clustered, feels like a bloated version of Midship/Wizard.

Sword Base… Well, we all know about Sword Base. (Ironically the beta setup for Objective was a ton of fun)

Powerhouse, this one probably works the best but only because it’s so easy for an attacking team because the defending position is ON TOP OF A BUILDING. It’s less frustrating as the gameplay is more offensive. Thus, fun.

Boardwalk, it’s okay. Just a mediocre map in general.

Then of course there’s the mechanics of Reach, the AA’s (Sprint/Evade/Jetpack) that destroy map control, the AA’s (Camo/AL) that promote camping. Sure if you’re defending your going to probably play in a way people will define as camping but it’s a hell of a lot harder to attack when someone is hiding in their base and they are invisible. The AA’s (Sprint/Evade) that make it damn near impossible to escape or arm a bomb.

Plus there’s the obvious argument of teamwork and considering how poor the Reach community is, it’s unlikely that your going to get random players communicating with each other. (though this is more of an XBL issue as it’s slowly evolved into a more individualistic thing these days)