Hybrid - When Classic & Infinity meet.

Community General Discussion
1

Hello there. I am Pfeuff (Foyf), and welcome to this here thread.

Let me start by asking you this…

  • Are you a person that believes in fairness and balance?
  • Do you still hold true to the basic principles of arena-style gameplay, from the good old days of the FPS genre?
  • Do you also see potential in what 343i has brought to the table with the release of Halo 4?
    If your answer is yes to the above, then you are in the right place.

I am here now to bring you, what I believe to be, something which may very well be the answer to what you have been craving for, a truly fun & competitive arena experience.

I give you…

Hybrid!

When I was finally fed up with the absurd level of randomness and stupidity on Infinity Slayer, I decided to work on a variant of my own, one that combines the tried & true elements of classic arena-style gameplay, and certain new features brought into Halo. I have been working on this, along with my own arena-style map variants, since early 2013.

Now I feel that it is time to bring all this to your attention.
You may be wondering… what makes these so great?

Well, why don’t you see for yourself.

||
||
V

2

Gametypes

In Hybrid Slayer (or HS), players spawn with the same primary/secondary weapons, grenades, and no AA. Instant respawn has been disabled as well. Now, don’t be alarmed… the Armor Abilities are still here, just that they are now placed on the map (similar to equipment from Halo 3).

All AAs spawn randomly at the center of the map, at 2 minute intervals, which adds a little variety to gameplay (without breaking it… hopefully lol).

With Personal Ordnance, I have decided to use Powerups, and two types of (what I consider to be) Tier 2 weapons (Shotguns, and Automatics), with two weapons available in each type, which include: UNCS Shotgun/Scattershot, and SAW/Needler. PO has a 100 point requirement to call in.

I have also enabled Personal Loadouts, which gives players the ability to choose their own Tactical Package & Support Upgrade, even those which you unlock through Specializations! The only issue I have with this, is that having multiple loadouts seems redundant. If it were possible to disable individual Personal Loadouts, then I could fix this.

*Update: 8th May, 2013

  • Removed Energy Sword & Gravity Hammer from Personal Ordnance
  • Added Powerups to Personal Ordnance (now available in middle PO slot)
  • Changed Base Player Traits

*Update: 12th May, 2013

  • Changed Shield Recharge Wait Time - “4 seconds”, to “Unchanged”

Hybrid Slayer V1.5 settings

Score to Win: 50/(FFA) 25

Time Limit: 12 minutes

Lives per Round: Unlimited

Number of Rounds: 1

Teams: Enabled (default)

Hybrid Slayer Options:
Kill Points: 1 Point
Betrayal Points: -1 Point
Suicide Bonus: -1 Point

General Settings:
Friendly Fire: Enabled
Betrayal Booting: Disabled
Team Changing: Not Allowed
Map Loadouts: Disabled
Loadout Usage: Personal Loadouts
Game Loadouts: All Hidden
Vehicle Set: Map Default
Indestructible Vehicles: Disabled

Respawn Settings:
(Instant Respawn Disabled)
Respawn Time: 3 Seconds
Suicide Penalty: 5 Seconds
Betrayal Penalty: 5 Seconds
Sync with Team: Disabled
Death Cam: Disabled

Ordnance:
Initial Ordnance: Enabled
Random Ordnance: Enabled
Infinity Settings:
Min. Timer - 120 Seconds,
Max. Timer - 120 Seconds

Ordnance Substitution: Map Default
Personal Ordnance: Enabled
PO Options:
Customize PO - Enabled,
Left - First Possibility (Shotgun, Weight 1),
Second Possibility (Scattershot, Weight 1)
Middle - First Possibility (Speed Boost, Weight 1),
Second Possibility (Damage Boost, Weight 1),
Third Possibility (Overshield, Weight 1)
Right - First Possibility (SAW, Weight 1),
Second Possibility (Needler, Weight 1)

Point Requirement: 100

Traits:
Base Player Traits:
Shields and Health - Damage Resistance (110%)
Weapons and Damage - Damage Modifier (110%), Primary Weapon (Assault Rifle),
Secondary (Magnum), Grenade Count (2x Frag)
Equipment - Armor Ability (None)
Movement - Player Speed (120%), Fall Damage (0%)
Appearance - Waypoint (Visible to Allies)

Respawn Traits: Unchanged
Leader Traits: Unchanged

Link to Fileshare.

Key features of HS Pro variant: I have set it to Game Loadouts, and players spawn with the same primary weapon (BR), grenades (Frag), & equipment (TP - Resupply, & SU - Explosives). No secondary weapon on spawn, & no AA (same deal as the original gametype). Radar is set to show Ally Movement (the main reason for this is to allow players to detect Active Camo being used).

With Personal Ordnance, players get the choice of three Powerups:
Speed Boost, Damage Boost, & Overshield.

Sprint has also been disabled!

*Update: 8th May, 2013

  • Sprint disabled
  • Personal Ordnance enabled
  • Added Powerups to PO, with Point Requirement set to 100
  • Changed Base Player Traits

Hybrid Slayer: Pro V1.5 settings

Score to Win: 50/(FFA) 25

Time Limit: 12 minutes

Lives per Round: Unlimited

Number of Rounds: 1

Teams: Enabled (default)

Hybrid Slayer: Pro Options:
Kill Points: 1 Point
Betrayal Points: -1 Point
Suicide Bonus: -1 Point

General Settings:
Friendly Fire: Enabled
Betrayal Booting: Disabled
Team Changing: Not Allowed
Map Loadouts: Disabled
Loadout Usage: Game Loadouts
Game Loadouts:
Loadout Alpha - Primary Weapon (Battle Rifle),
Secondary (None), Grenade Count (2x Frag),
Armor Ability (None),
Tactical Package (Resupply), Support Upgrade (Explosives)
Vehicle Set: Map Default
Indestructible Vehicles: Disabled

Respawn Settings:
(Instant Respawn Disabled)
Respawn Time: 5 Seconds
Suicide Penalty: 5 Seconds
Betrayal Penalty: 5 Seconds
Sync with Team: Disabled
Death Cam: Disabled

Ordnance:
Initial Ordnance: Enabled
Random Ordnance: Enabled
Infinity Settings:
Min. Timer - 120 Seconds,
Max. Timer - 120 Seconds

Ordnance Substitution: Map Default
Personal Ordnance: Enabled
PO Options:
Customize PO - Enabled,
Left - First Possibility (Speed Boost, Weight 1)
Middle - First Possibility (Overshield, Weight 1)
Right - First Possibility (Damage Boost, Weight 1)

Point Requirement: 100

Traits:
Base Player Traits:
Shields and Health - Shield Recharge Wait (4 Seconds)
Weapons and Damage - Damage Modifier (110%)
Equipment - Sensor Mode (Ally Movement), Sensor Range (25 Meters)
Movement - Player Speed (120%), Fall Damage (0%)
Appearance - Waypoint (Visible to Allies)

Respawn Traits: Unchanged
Leader Traits: Unchanged

Link to Fileshare.

3

Maps

Haven (Arena) V1.2 details

*Update: 6th April, 2013

  • Fixed weak spawn zones at Red/Blue Initial
  • Added 2 Battle Rifles.

*Update: 8th May, 2013

  • Moved AAs: Thruster Pack, Hologram, & Regen Field to Random Ordnance
  • Removed Powerups from Random Ordnance (now available in Personal Ordnance)
  • Placed 2x Shotgun on Initial Ordnance, with 90 second resupply timer

Weapons & Grenades (placed on map)
4x DMR - Spawn Time (60), Spare Clips (2)
4x Battle Rifle - Spawn Time (45), Spare Clips (2)
2x Assault Rifle - Spawn Time (30), Spare Clips (2)
2x Covenant Carbine - Spawn Time (45), Spare Clips (2)
2x Magnum - Spawn Time (15), Spare Clips (2)
2x Plasma Pistol - Spawn Time (30)
1x Light Rifle - Spawn Time (45), Spare Clips (2)
1x Boltshot - Spawn Time (40), Spare Clips (2)

4x Frag Grenade - Spawn Time (10)
4x Plasma Grenade - Spawn Time (20)
4x Pulse Grenade - Spawn Time (15)

Initial Ordnance (Power Weapons & Armor Abilities)
2x Shotgun - Resupply Time (90)
1x Sticky Detonator - Resupply Time (120)
1x Sniper Rifle - Resupply Time (120)
1x Railgun - Resupply Time (150)

1x Active Camo - No Resupply Time

Random Ordnance (Armor Abilities)

Promethean Vision
Thruster Pack
Hologram
Jet Pack
Hardlight Shield
Active Camouflage
Autosentry
Regeneration Field

Overhead of Ordnance Drops, Weapons & Equipment placement coming soon!

Link to Fileshare.

4

Nice. But will this get to MM? Probably not.

5

I honestly don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t.

6

This looks great! It’s a good mix of the old and new, taking Ordnance down a notch to make it fair, while still keeping in the interesting ideas.

7

I wish they would change the default Slayer playlists with something similar to this, Hybrid Slayer is a good compromise between the two. May I suggest that the PO has ammo for your load out weapon included in the possible options?

8

Thanks for the positive comments guys. I have taken a great deal of effort & care to make this as balanced as possible.

With your concern darkfire, I don’t see a need to use the loadout weapon in PO, as I have already placed some on the map in my Haven variant for quick ammo refills, and there wouldn’t be much incentive to pick it when you have other, more useful weapons to choose from. Perhaps I could use loadout weapons on Personal Ordnance in the Pro variant, but even then I’m not so sure.

9

Understandable, my thoughts were that you could call ammo down wherever you are instead of hunting out ammo, as well as resupplying yourself with ammo that may not be on the map, or may be unavailable to you for other reasons. If ammo is scattered throughout the map however you would be correct, there would be little need for ammo through PO outside BTB and even in BTB, provided the maps are altered to accommodate the need for the ammo, it would be unnecessary. However having ammo dropped in could be a good reward for playing well without giving players power weapons that can cause the complaints we have seen most commonly brought up with PO.

10

Hmmm…

I do see where you’re getting at darkfire. I guess it could work in the Pro variant, but I feel very comfortable with the current PO in the standard Hybrid Slayer. If there’s enough interest in your idea, then I may add it in a future update. I’m thinking of something along these lines…

Left - Secondary Weapon(s)

Middle - Primary Weapon(s)

Right - Grenades

11

I like the idea. I think 343 should atleast do this or a variation of this, and put it in as a trail run.

12

From what I can tell, the competitive people seem to prefer having faster kill times… so I feel inclined to have similar gametype settings which are being used on MLG, Unity etc… on my pro variant, so as to gain their attention.

Does this sound like a good idea?

13

As far as faster kill-times goes, 110% damage feels amazing. It narrows the gap between the BR and the DMR and makes them more role-specific, and it makes the LR a powerful but unwieldy weapon. Even makes the carbine a smidge more useful. Overall, I find it brings a much nicer balance to the sandbox.
I wouldn’t just put that in the pro variant. If you’re going with the increased speed and everything, it just makes sense to include it in both.

As far as PODs goes, you’ve got it set for all CQC weapons. That’s going to put a definite focus on rushing once you start winning, which isn’t to some players’ tastes. Seeing as you have your AAs already on-map, I think you should consider all-power-up PODs. I tried it in a few gametypes a while back and it played really well. You’ve got the PODs requirement set nice and high, so I don’t think it would overwhelm gameplay, and it would give players a more general reward that would interest them regardless of style or situation. It wouldn’t introduce random power weapons into gameplay, and it would be predictable if you just had one power-up per slot.
I’ve found that it has a sort of classic quake-ey feel.
One thing though - you might want to take off the point requirement increase, just to make it easier to predict. Maybe set the requirement to 12 kills or something to compensate. In score-limited games, players shouldn’t be seeing more than 2 at that rate.

14

> …

Hmmmm…

Well, perhaps when I have some free time, I will update the gametype variants in my fileshare with the damage increase. I was also considering 110% damage/110% resistance for regular Hybrid, and only 110% damage for pro to give it slightly quicker kill-times.

Concerning PODs on regular Hybrid, I was intending to build this gametype as part equivalent of Infinity Slayer, and felt that using lesser power weapons seemed fitting to give general players something of value to work towards, and I have no doubt in my mind that many players of the new Halo audience would prefer it, but I do like your idea of using powerups.

Guess it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try… but if not in regular, then most likely in pro.

I might start working on making these gametypes compatible with other canvas & forge maps asap, just so we’re not stuck playing on Haven, but it may take some time before that happens.

15

I’ve made a few changes to the Hybrid Slayer/HS: Pro settings, and weapons/equipment on Haven (Arena). I’ve also added the updated gametype/map variants in my fileshare for everyone to try out the new settings/changes.

Details on updated files can be found in the Gametype & Map sections at the top of the thread.

16

> …the Armor Abilities are still here, just that they are now placed on the map (much like the equipment from Halo 3).
>
> All AAs spawn randomly at the center of the map, at 2 minute intervals, which adds a little variety to gameplay (without breaking it… hopefully lol).
>
> I have also enabled Personal Loadouts, which gives players the ability to choose their own Tactical Package & Support Upgrade, even those which you unlock through Specializations!

Wouldn’t allowing Personal Loadout choices mean people will start matches with AAs?

Is that the intention? …or do you wish to have no AA starts with them only being map pick-ups?

If so, don’t you either need to have multiple pre-determined Loadout choices for players to pick from which don’t include AAs or one specific Loadout w/o an AA?

I like this hybrid, it’s pretty similar to what I’m hoping the “Legendary” gametype setting will be.

The last thing I would question is the need for a 5 second respawn in a Slayer gametype. Wouldn’t 3 seconds be more than enough, especially with the shield recharge wait time you want?

17

> Wouldn’t allowing Personal Loadout choices mean people will start matches with AAs?
>
> Is that the intention? …or do you wish to have no AA starts with them only being map pick-ups?
>
> If so, don’t you either need to have multiple pre-determined Loadout choices for players to pick from which don’t include AAs or one specific Loadout w/o an AA?

The beauty of traits in the game options, is that you can override and/or disable AAs, as well as the Primary/Secondary weapon, Grenades, Tactical Package, and Support Upgrade in Personal Loadouts, through Base Player Traits if you so choose to. If this weren’t possible, then I most likely would have just gone for a pro gametype instead.

Both Hybrid variants feature no AAs off spawn, and they are available as map pickups. I like to think of them as “powerups” in Hybrid Slayer.

> I like this hybrid, it’s pretty similar to what I’m hoping the “Legendary” gametype setting will be.

I like it as well… :slight_smile:

> The last thing I would question is the need for a 5 second respawn in a Slayer gametype. Wouldn’t 3 seconds be more than enough, especially with the shield recharge wait time you want?

Whoops, I got the respawn timers mixed up there. XD
I’ll have that fixed in a jiffy.

While we’re on the subject, I assumed that 5 second respawn was the standard for pro/MLG-style gametypes. If that is not the case however, then I may as well change it on my pro variant to something everybody is comfortable with.

18

I haven’t really messed with custom games in Halo 4 because of no race mode, so I wasn’t aware of the player trait capability to remove loadout AAs on spawn, which is awesome. I suppose I should go back and modify the playlist offering I’ve suggested to 343i.

Also, I just want to raise a possible concern to the role of the “Shield” Tactical Package if the default shield recharge rate is modified to 4 secs. Does the code for that Tactical Package effectively cut the default wait time and increase the recharge rate by some set percentage(s) per the game setting’s default rates or does it simply offer a hard coded number for those changes and by altering the default game settings you’re effectively greatly dimishing or removing the benefit of that particular perk entirely?

Oh and the only thing I’d truly advocate against within your Hybrid suggestions is the removal of the Sprint trait under your Pro settings. I don’t believe Sprint is a deterrent to higher levels of play and is a feature that should be permanent for all Halo gametypes, and games, going forward.

19

> I just want to raise a possible concern to the role of the “Shield” Tactical Package if the default shield recharge rate is modified to 4 secs. Does the code for that Tactical Package effectively cut the default wait time and increase the recharge rate by some set percentage(s) per the game setting’s default rates or does it simply offer a hard coded number for those changes and by altering the default game settings you’re effectively greatly dimishing or removing the benefit of that particular perk entirely?

I’m glad you pointed that one out for me.

Well… I did find a potential problem with the 4 second wait time on my standard HS settings. From what I can tell, the total recharge time (recharge wait + recharge rate) with Shielding enabled is slightly longer than without it. To fix this, I’ve decided to set the recharge wait back to Unchanged, and hopefully this should still make the Tactical Package useful.

> Oh and the only thing I’d truly advocate against within your Hybrid suggestions is the removal of the Sprint trait under your Pro settings. I don’t believe Sprint is a deterrent to higher levels of play and is a feature that should be permanent for all Halo gametypes, and games, going forward.

I can guarantee that many people wouldn’t agree with you there. XD

Jokes aside, I wanted to bring back the old Halo feel with this, and I don’t find the gameplay bothersome without sprint… I suppose it gives you more room to think about other, more important stuff. I’ve had many incidents where the delay from canceling sprint to being in firing stance has resulted in a death, so in a way it’s nice not having to rely on it.

20

I’ve decided that it’s time to start getting more arena maps ready for Hybrid Slayer, and have recently begun work on Adrift & Black Site (I will pick more maps to use for my gametype soon).

I have found Ordnance placement to be rather difficult on Adrift, due to having only one level to place them at the very center of the map… unlike Haven, which has two levels at the center. This means that I can’t have both Armour Ability Ordnance & Power Weapon Ordnance at the center, so it will most likely be AAs only.

Nevertheless, I shall hopefully have it all figured out soon, and then finally get some other maps added to the list for Hybrid.