I had an epiphany.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

I just got done reading xAmberlampSx’s post on how AA’s could be fixed and was inspired. I have come up with a way that AA’s, loadouts, and personal ordinance can be kept.

First thing, sprint should be gotten rid of in place of a higher base movement speed and thruster pack as default. This would help with map design.

AA’s and eqiupment would be grouped together with three general groups, starting, mid-range, and power(just like weapons). Starting would be the equipment that goes into your loadout. Mid-range would be things like the needler and DMR(should be map pickup but thats just me). And power would be the eqiupment eqivelent of power weapns and consist of mostly the AA’s. Just like in H3 you can drop and pickup the equipment and AA’s. AA’s would now have a limited amount of uses. The jet pack would be changed to a jump back similar to but not exactly like the one that the dark trooper has in battlefront 2. And invis would be changed back to a pick up. Obviously things would have to be changed on the balence side when it comes to some of the eqiupment and AA’s but im not going to get into that side of things. Now that AA’s/eqiupment are not ment to be balenced 343i can play on that and maximize their potential.

Personal ordinance would be harder to get, requiring 12 kills initialy and increasing from there. There would be always be the same 3 choices, Speed boost, Overshields, and invisibility. Whenever someone picked one of these up(not call one in), it would say who picked it up in the feed. These would also be easy to tell if someone has one of them similarly to H4. Personal ordinance would be consitant with every player.

Loadouts would be scaled back taking perks away and replacing the AA slot with the equipment slot. Grenades would also be limited to frags only. Grenades would be changed to allow 3 but would be changed to a “gears of war” style where you are only allowed to have one type at a time and have to change types just like you change weapons. Like before I’m not going to get into the balence side of things but the loadouts would be Primary, Secondary, and equipment. Primary would consist of AR, BR, Plasma repeater, carbine, suppressor, and light rifle. Secondary would be magnum, a rebalenced plasma pistol, and a new promethean sidearm because the boltshot is exteamly broken. Equipment would be balenced accoringly so that there could be options to pick from and balenced. The important thing here is asymmetrical balence.

All of these things are just ideas, I want to create discussion as these are some of the most controversial issues with Halo 4 and they must be addressed for Halo Xbox One.

#2

Awesome approach. I especially like breaking out some AA’s into equipment, and adding more restrictions to how AA’s are used or behave.

For me, personally, I’d rather they be rid of PO and keep a version of Sprint. But to each their own!

As for loadout weapons, I prefer variety but might not hate a smaller weapons set, or frags as standard. It all depends on how it plays…

#3

I am also against PO returning and i guess i didn’t come across that way. The whole PO part was just a way that I thought the two sides could compromise.

#4

If we are allowed different equipment on spawn, then the should be able to be distinguishable with either icons that float above the player or just making the ability itself visible on the player, similar to how the rocket launcher can be seen on the players back.

#5

> First thing, sprint should be gotten rid of in place of a higher base movement speed and thruster pack as default. This would help with map design.

But…why?
I mean. Higher base movement, sure. But Sprint is still a far better option than Thruster Packs. Those things are far more annoying in 1v1 combat, when the other can just shoot away, whereas with Sprint the transition is far smoother.
Add to that: Thruster Packs and little ramps and bumps…need I say more? I think all of us have at one point cursed those things for shooting is off of the map at some point.

> And invis would be changed back to a pick up.

Completely agreed!

> Personal ordinance would be harder to get, requiring 12 kills initialy and increasing from there.

In a row? That would be impossible for most.
In total? Look at a regular game of TS or Swat for instance. Most players never get higher than 10 kills, maybe 2 to 4 players go somewhere between 10 and 20+. So this system would reward those who are already far better than the rest with stuff that makes them even better than that. The balance would just be off.
Sure: the way it works now is also rewarding stronger players. But at least now somebody who is just lagging behind, perhaps from having a streak of bad luck, can easier get back into the game. The difference is far smaller than what your system will lead to…most likely.

> There would be always be the same 3 choices, Speed boost, Overshields, and invisibility.

Why? Adding Invis to the ordinance would just render its return to a pick up as useless again. Same for Overshields. They should just be map pick ups, and nothing more than that.

> Grenades would be changed to allow 3 but would be changed to a “gears of war” style where you are only allowed to have one type at a time and have to change types just like you change weapons.

Oh…no. Lets just not do that.

I understand something needs to change with Loadouts, but I don’t think this is the right way.
The right way would be to have Loadouts limited to BTB and Invasion and Spartan Ops/Firefight. Things that are by default better suited for such additions to gameplay due to their bigger set up.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the way they work at the moment (apart from some points like Invis), but they just should not be in the smaller, arena styled, gametypes.
Toying around with limited Grenades and stuff is only going to make things worse.

#6

A more simple solution would be just to remove it all and go back to simplifying things.

Everyone starts with the same weapons/grenades, and items can be picked up on the map. No ordinance, no armor abilities, no loadouts, no perks. Keeping it simple will make it easier to balance and more fun to play with fewer (if none at all) inconsistencies across the board.

#7

> A more simple solution would be just to remove it all and go back to simplifying things.
>
> Everyone starts with the same weapons/grenades, and items can be picked up on the map. No ordinance, no armor abilities, no loadouts, no perks. Keeping it simple will make it easier to balance and more fun to play with fewer (if none at all) inconsistencies across the board.

Well fun us a subjective term, and while I find classic gameplay great, things like armor abilities and loadouts should stay but be severely reworked, they are not inherently flawed concepts. Perks and ordnance can be glassed for all I care.

#8

> A more simple solution would be just to remove it all and go back to simplifying things.
>
> Everyone starts with the same weapons/grenades, and items can be picked up on the map. No ordinance, no armor abilities, no loadouts, no perks. Keeping it simple will make it easier to balance and more fun to play with fewer (if none at all) inconsistencies across the board.

You do realize that Halo 3 is a viable option right? Right now it has a decent population and you will be able to find a match easy.
What people like you need to realize is that things like AA’s, loadouts, and sprint are part of Halo now. Instead of coming here and preaching how they all suck you could actually be part of a discussion on how you think these things could be changed for the better. If you don’t like my ideas, fine, no one says that you have to. But coming in and saying that all the new things are the worst is just stupid and contributes nothing.
It sucks that Halo didn’t turn out the way you wanted, trust me Halo 4 wasn’t my cup of tea either but being an -Yoink- doesn’t help anything.

#9

> A more simple solution would be just to remove it all and go back to simplifying things.
>
> Everyone starts with the same weapons/grenades, and items can be picked up on the map. No ordinance, no armor abilities, no loadouts, no perks. Keeping it simple will make it easier to balance and more fun to play with fewer (if none at all) inconsistencies across the board.

Except that Halo 5 will be on a new generation console and the game will be server based. Using all that horsepower just to provide an old-school experience would be a tragic waste.

No denying that what you describe would be welcomed by a segment of the community, but other segments want the other stuff, properly implemented. Both can be provided. We have the technology.

#10

> > First thing, sprint should be gotten rid of in place of a higher base movement speed and thruster pack as default. This would help with map design.
>
> <mark>But…why?</mark>
> <mark>I mean. Higher base movement, sure. But Sprint is still a far better option than Thruster Packs. Those things are far more annoying in 1v1 combat, when the other can just shoot away, whereas with Sprint the transition is far smoother.</mark>
> <mark>Add to that: Thruster Packs and little ramps and bumps…need I say more? I think all of us have at one point cursed those things for shooting is off of the map at some point.</mark>

I realize that things would have to be balanced to keep things fun, and this is one of those things. Obviously there are some broken parts of the thruster pack and those things would have to be addressed and I don’t think it’s fair to judge the idea on something is broken. If you had thruster and default the distance you travel would have to go down dramatically and the bugs would have to be fixed. Other things would have to be fixed too such as making it so you stay in first person instead of being kicked to third.