Gone are the days where invisibility was just a powerup located on the map. Today we have it, more or less, in the form of an armor ability. In my opinion, neither the powerup or the current armor ability is very good.
What made the invisibility a ‘go to’ item/powerup in any Halo Reach precursor was the fact that it was mostly balanced (equidistant) from both teams, and a heck of a lot of fun to have. Although it was a go to item, you wouldn’t always have a chance to come across it, or if you or your team mate got to it, it may not have been used very well.
In reach, everyone was given the opportunity to use invisibility in the form of an armor ability. As soon the news rolled out and we heard this was going to be option, everyone cheered. I was very excited at the possibilities. Needless to say, it’s probably the least used ability because it is in fact, so useless. It’s useless because the amount of invisibility you see on your screen does not reflect how visible you really are. You may think you’re safe, but everyone on the map can see you. You walk faster than a crawl, you’re completely visible. You melee or jump, you’re visible. If you use it, everyone within 60 feet are penalized with a malfunctioning motion sensor. It’s utter crap unless you’re camping in a corner.
How can it be tweaked to make it fun and strategic at the same time? Simple, create a hybrid of the original power-up and the armor ability’s effects to have the best of both worlds.
Assuming 343 keeps invisibility an armor effect and that doesn’t change before the game’s release, this is what we could expect. Let’s say, in order to make Invisibility fair, there has to be pros and cons to its use. We can agree to this right? Let’s say that it has an internal timer of 20 seconds. You can use it for 20 seconds and then it takes 20 seconds to charge. Does this sound logical? Next, let’s not impair the strength of your invisiblity by the speed you travel. Using this ability should make the user as invisible (completely) as was represented in Halo CE, 2, 3. This would make it fun for the user so they can run, jump, slip quickly past enemies, etc without being seen. That’s the whole appeal to invisibility in the first place.
What next? Well, we need to make sure that it’s not too overpowered for the user. Let’s keep Reach’s system of invisibility interference with the motion detectors but let’s say it only effects the user. I would imagine this too look like a grayed out sensor with effects similar to that of an unused tv channel. This way, the user has no motion detection what-so-ever. If one was to use invisibility, they shouldn’t know who is coming around the corner. Maybe it should also have a much more dramatic sound dampening effect than Reach has that way the user can’t use their 5.1 speakers to pinpoint which direction fire is coming from. Also, let’s say the users screen goes mostly black and white, or with a dramatic decrease in contrast causing the user to see everything as a haze or blur. Using invisibility should severely impede audio and visual functions. As an added kicker, let’s say to everyone else, their motion sensor might have a ‘blind spot’ located on it that represents a medium sized gap in its ability to sense movement. This way, everyone else knows there is an inivis player within the vicinity. Just my take. What do you all think?