How to Improve: Commendations

Games Other Halo
1

This is the first in my series of constructive posts. Not that anyone will read them…

Overall, I like the concept of commendations. It gives people something to work toward, to brag about and show off. However they, are in my opinion, very poorly executed.

1. Weapon Commendations

Some weapons just aren’t made for killing but rather debuffing the enemy. Some weapons are harder to use than others. I really don’t think 343I took this into account when designing commendations.

The plasma pistol and pulse grenades for instance. Yes, it is possible to get a kill with them. But it is very, very hard to do it effectively or the amount of times required in order to master the commendation.

Instead of “Kill”, why not track “Shields Drained” or “Vehicles Disabled” or something that the weapon is actually designed to do?

Another issue is some weapons rarely ever show up in matchmaking. For example, the Gravity Hammer or Concussion Rifle (Or really just any of the covenant weapons in general). It’s not on any of the maps by default, and is only in personal ordnance on a few maps.

Weapons such as these should be put on maps in the future, or have more weight in ordnance drops.

2. Spartan Ops Commendations

In Matchmaking, all the missions are on Heroic or Legendary difficulty. This means you rarely, if ever, see any of the basic enemies. Standard grunts, standard crawlers, standard elites, etc.

I have almost mastered Crawler Prime, but I am only adept on Crawlers.

Spartan Ops missions should start out fighting the standard enemies, and the enemies should get more advanced as you progress through the mission.

3. Player Commendations

Some of these, are quite frankly, awfully thought up. “From the Brink” for instance. You reward players for doing something that isn’t even in their control (taking damage from the enemy).

A player should always have control over their commendations. Commendations should never be based on luck.

4. Vehicle Commendations

A minor issue, but still an issue in my opinion. There are tons of commendations for destroying vehicles, but none for actually using them. And again this is also out of the player’s control, as some vehicles such as the mongoose usually go unused.

I’d rather have commendations based around using vehicles than destroying them. Such as how many kills you have gained with a specific vehicle, or maybe even more unorthodox things such as achieving a certain height in the mongoose.

If nothing else though, remove the Mongoose Destroyer commendation. I’ve only seen them used maybe five times in my entire Halo 4 career.

Some responses adding to the topic:

> maybe when you master or get to a certain level with a gun you could equip it in your player-card. Instead of being stuck with an assault rifle, pistol or knife, I could equip a rocket or battle rifle.

2

I agree with all your points, nice post.
I have mastered Plasma Pistol and Pulse grenade, but ruined my K/D ratio in the process. I’ve always thought an EMP Assist medal from use of the Plasma Pistol, or performing a charged shot/headshot combo yourself should result in a +1 to your Plasma Pistol commendation as it is very difficult to get kiils with.

3

Good post, I also agree with you.

I’ve just written a tip for the SpOps commendation ‘Backstab’. Unfortunately I posted it in an inappropriate topic, so I repost it here, maybe it would be more helpful.
For the Backstab commendation Ep6 Chapter 3 is very good. There are lots of sleeping grunts at the beginning who are easy to assassinate. Spawn with active camo and use it to assassinate the elites, who are not asleep (look around carefully in camo and don’t wake up anyone). Later on the mission when you encounter Knights, use your camo, wait till they turn around after spotting you, then rush to them from behind and assassinate (but be careful with those with the scattershots). When your camo is low on energy or more than one enemies spotted you, get to a cover where they can’t see you and wait till your camo recharges. I also recommend getting an energy sword or scattershot ASAP (Swords are placed at 2 or 3 crates throughout the map and elites may drop them also. Scattershots are available at the forerunner structure in 3-4 crates and at some of the Knights), so if things go bad with the backstabs, you can quickly clear out your surroundings.

4

I think the pp kills and Mongoose destroyer are the only commendations that are unreasonable. PP should really track something else. I think knocking down vehicles with a charged shot would be too easy, but getting kills is really hard.
Mongoose destroyer is stupid. It’s too hard to blow up the mongoose without the driver dying first. Another vehicle that’s hard to get it’s commendation for is the scorpion. There’s only one on one level in one playlist in the entire game!
To finish off the enemy commendations just do it solo. You can choose whatever difficulty you want. You don’t have to do it online. And you get a lot more kills going solo.
I found that I get a lot of Pulse grenade kills too. You just have to hurt the enemies first before you throw the grenade. You just have to use the grenades differently than normal grenades.
Player commendations i think are fine. Actually i felt like some of them should’ve been harder to get. I got some without even knowing i was getting them. The only ones that actually took effort were the assassinations and perfections. I just mastered perfection and almost master assassins. The other commendations just come with playing. Nothing wrong with them.

5

I agree with everything op said. Commendations are a great idea but were not executed well. Making the changes purposed would be good but just to add, maybe when you master or get to a certain level with a gun you could equip it in your player-card. Instead of being stuck with an assault rifle, pistol or knife, I could equip a rocket or battle rifle.