> So it seems that many of you are worried about the gameplay changes in Halo 4. That is fine, I’m worried myself. However I am far more worried about the progression and unlock system that that game will have. We should all know by now that Halo 4 is going to use the same kind of ranking system that every game is using nowadays. This is going to hurt the game. Despite how good gameplay can possibly be the progression system alone can ruin what made Halo 2 and Halo 3 so special. Even if reach’s gameplay was 100% like Halo 3’s the ranking system would still make it feel very different and had negative impacts on the game.
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> So what did Reach’s ranking system do? Well their leveling system was based solely on gaining credits/exp just like any other FPS game nowadays. The only motive to play the game was to unlock your armor which was a grind. The ranking system was designed to take up to a year to get to the max rank at 60K credits/day. The game just became about grinding credits to rank up and then grinding more credits to buy the armor your want. That is all people wanted to do so they could have a bad–Yoink- looking spartan, but what many of them also did was grind the fun out of the game. After they got their armor it didn’t really seem as great as they thought so they just stopped playing and went on to a different game.
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> So what did Halo 3’s ranking system do? It was based on skill. If you couldn’t get to a 45 (like me) you couldn’t get to a Brigadier. Simple as that. Yet, no one had a problem with this. It matched people with your skill whether you were a veteran or just started so it was fun and you didn’t have to worry about having to constantly play multiplayer to unlock crap. The system also gave you an actual sense of accomplishment rather than a false sense. If you finally hit that 45 and leveled up it mattered more. You actually felt like you accomplished something, you knew you got better and that you earned it. You played ranked to get better and to be competitive. You weren’t grinding to get your level just so you can get armor Where as any other game such as CoD, Battlefield, Reach, etc. that is all it is about and you never have that feeling a feeling of accomplishing something. It wasn’t a perfect system but it was perfect for Halo.
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> So what effects did these 2 very different ranking systems have on Halo. Two words. Custom games! They thrived in Halo 3 because again it wasn’t about having to constantly unlock crap if you couldn’t get a higher skill level you couldn’t level up nor did you have to worry about unlocking something that was ranked based so you played custom games. They died in Halo Reach. It killed custom games. How? The same reason no one plays private matches in CoD. They same reason private matches aren’t even in Battlefield. It isn’t rewarding. This system spoils players so if they aren’t doing something to get exp/credits to get their unlocks then it isn’t worth doing. If I would try to get a custom zombie game going players would respond with, “No have to get 30k more credits today.” or something along those lines. I had 5,000 custom games alone in Halo 3, I had maybe a couple hundred in Reach. Imagine if Halo 3 required you to level up to get armor. It would of kill it like reach did because players would try to grind for it. Then once they got it or give up they would of went to play CoD 4 because it was much easier to unlock things and far less frustrating. 343i doesn’t realize that other than gameplay Halo 3’s ranking system is also what made custom games so popular which contributed to it’s 2 year reign as the most played game on XBL.
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> Today the FPS genre is plagued with the same progression system. Developers do this because they think it will give players a reason to keep playing their game for months or years to come if they keep having -blam!- to unlock through matchmaking. It has been popularized which is why Bungie used it with Reach and why 343i is using it. They are trying to appeal to the masses to get people to play their game. Deep down they and Microsoft want Halo to be the most played game on XBL again and they think this is the way to do it. They are wrong! The FPS genre are becoming games about the more you can unlock rather the more you can do. This is a tired and overused formula. There is a reason Halo 3 was the top played game on XBL, beating out CoD 4 and WaW put together for 2 years. Why? Because it was different and wasn’t all about worrying about unlocking -blam!-. When it comes to longevity, the more you can do > The more you can unlock.
I propose a new ranking system in place of Halo 4’s current one. My proposal combines the elements of Halo 2’s, Halo 3’s, and Reach’s ranking system. Here it goes. Please read carefully and don’t be a jerk. If you don’t like something that is a part of my idea, let me know.
My idea for the new Halo 4 ranking system:
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Separate Matchmaking into two categories; Ranked & Social again like Halo 3. Bring back the 1-50 system. Tweak it. Make it more efficient so that it’s impossible for players to manipulate the system. Make them have to earn it like many tried to do in Halo 2/3 and succeeded in by doing so legit. Make the rank progression system like that of Halo 3’s. Recruit being the lowest rank. 5 Star General the highest. This way, people actually have something to show for so long as the systems tweaked so that players can’t boost it.
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Bring back the EXP system. By doing this, you encourage players to actually work as a team and not quit to get that 1 experience point to rank up. Bring back double EXP weekends too. This encourages more people to play the game on a weekly basis. It increases teamwork and team effort unlike Reach’s sloppy system where it only encouraged you to grind credits for your spartan model. This kind of system makes players selfish and only increases selfish behavior in matchmaking. For example, anyone who has gotten team killed for a power weapon for a daily challenge will know what I mean. After you hit Inheritor and bought everything (like me), there wasn’t much else to do Multiplayer wise other than move on.
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Make the credit system for cosmetic nature only. In other words, bring back the credit system and tweak it like you should tweak the 1-50 system, and make credits for buying armor permutations. Having both the credit system and Halo 3’s ranking system back tweaked so that it is nearly impossible to manipulate Halo 4 will guarantee it’s success. By bringing back the Halo 3 progression system, double EXP weekends, and Reach’s credit system for cosmetic purposes only, it will encourage people to actually work as a team once again if they want to rank up.
This topic will probably get buried. All of the people too lazy to take the time to read any of this will probably just make a stupid post, then move on. But for those of you who actually read this all, thank you. Thoughts?
