Ideas for Spartan Ops Missions

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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While talking to Pureeey in Naqser’s SURVIVAL FOR NEXT GEN CONSOLE thread, we we’re talking about Firefight, and well, I went off topic. This got me thinking more about spops.

Personally, I haven’t played since the first time to go through as i would with a campaign, but the concept of going on missions as a spartan and continuing the campaign really appeals to me.
I just feel with spops, all the story went on in the cutscenes (which were amazing i must say), and the rest was just a watered down firefight or pressing buttons.

So bringing me to the point of the thread, ideas for spartan ops missions. This was an idea for firefight which is probably more appropriate for spops that i conjured together:

> > Personal additions:
> >
> > Destruction & interactivity:
> > I would really like to see a destructible and interactive environment.
> > I’ve been thinking about an amount of destruction roughly similar to BF3, what would mean you could not destroy supporting walls or piers and would not be able to damage certain buildings but still a large amount of stuff would be destructible.
> > What I’ve also imagined is some sorts of ‘interactive’ destruction.
> > For example, partly blowing up a bridge or blocking a street with debris so it becomes unusable for ground vehicles.
> >
> > A month ago I created a thread that focused on the introduction and implementation of objectives into Firefight. I think the objectives I suggested in there could work very well with your idea and vision of Firefight.
> >
> >
> >
> > Like many others, I would really like and hope to see Firefight return but in an improved, advanced and simply ‘bigger’ version.
> > But aside the classic survival aspect, I would like to see some and more objective-based aspects in Firefight as well.
> > I imagined that you could implant main and side objectives into Firefight’s game play, what I mean by that and what exactly I have imagined, I will explain now.
> >
> >
> >
> > Main Objectives
> >
> > Main objectives would simply create different and separated game types in Firefight, aside the classic surviving game type.
> > Instead of just focusing on surviving, you would have to complete a specific objective as well.
> >
> > Examples for possible main objectives:
> >
> > Defending
> > The main goal is to hold and defend specific locations or important devices for a certain amount of time or simply as long as you can. It would play kind of like ‘Rush’ from BF3. So you only defend and have access to a part of the entire map and once you lose all objectives in that part, you have to fall back to the next part of the map until you find yourself in a ‘last stand situation’.
> > An example how I imagined it could look like in Halo:
> > You start out on an open battlefield, behind you some ONI or UNSC building, which you cannot enter yet, that keeps an important artefact or top-secret knowledge what has to be protected from the Covenant. Your first objective would be to defend several antiaircrafts or MAC Cannons which the Covenant tries to destroy with planting bombs. Once the Covenant manages it to destroy them, they will be able to send air support and you would have to fall back, perhaps to the atrium of the building and have to defend the gate(s) that are leading inside it, which the Covenant would either try to blow up again or to hack.
> > Once you lose those objectives as well you would have to fall back to your last defense position, maybe a room with the elevators that lead to the basement. Now your Spartans would be the last barrier that stands between the Covenants and the artefact.
> > Of course the longer you manage to defend certain objectives, the stronger will get the forces that the Covenant sends.
> >
> >
> > Search and Rescue
> > The main goal is to search, find, protect and rescue a group or groups of civilians. The groups would always spawn in random locations of the map, so you would always have to search them. After you find and collected the civilians, you have to get them to one of maybe 3 evacuation points of which you would have to choose one (by marking it locally) and have to hold out there until the Pelicans arrive to pick you and the civilians up. Every evacuation point would have different advantages and weak spots.
> > In addition, I think a part of a city would be perfect as a map for a game type like this and I could imagine instead of the Covenant, the Flood could be a nice enemy in that game type as well.
> >
> >
> >
> > Side Objectives
> >
> > Side objectives could be implanted in nearly every game type in Firefight, be it only survival or objective based. Completing them would be optional but they would reward you with several goodies that help you out and make things a little easier.
> >
> > Examples for possible side objectives:
> >
> > The key card
> > A key card would give you access to a small armory, garage or hangar but the card has to be searched first. You should look out for corpses.
> >
> > Requesting Ordnance
> > I think in some game types you should be able to request supplies after a certain amount of time. The supplies could be delivered by a Pelican, so you would have to clean a certain LZ and make sure there are no enemy vehicles around that could mean trouble for the Pelican (Wraith, Banshees, Phantoms, etc). If you clean and defend the LZ successfully, you get rewarded with the supplies, otherwise you risk that the Pelican gets shot down and to waste your requested ordnance because of that.
> >
> >
> > There were also many other good suggestions and improvements from other people in this thread, so in case you are interested and would like to read through it click here
>
> I too would like to see more interactive and destructible environments in halo 5.
>
> I’m liking your suggestions for main objectives. It also made me think of one: assassinate. You have to kill a high target covenant leader who is surrounded and protected by a huge army of covys. You are encouraged to go stealthy and take out some enemies silently (pummel, assassinate or with silenced weapons). Also there’s an achievement if you perform an assassination on the target.
>
> Inspiration: the babysitter , but hopefully a bit more faster paced :stuck_out_tongue: Sorta like the gametype VIP.

If you (like me) need structure for an idea like this then you might want to think about the below:

Introduction cutscene:
Environment/Setting:
Purpose of the mission:
What happens on the mission:

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Part I
Introduction cutscene: Lasky addresses the spartans saying that they may have found a lead to where Jul m’dama is keeping Halsey. He displays a hologram of the compound and shows where they may be holding her and briefs them on the battle plan.

Environment/Setting: Rocky Cavern during a sandstorm

Purpose of the mission: To retrieve Dr. Halsey

What happens on the mission: You are dropped off outside a storm covenant outpost. You and crimson team make your way up to the compound. You scout the area finding only one way in, a heavily reinforced door. You must find the elite holding the keycard to open the door without the elites sounding the alarm. You come across an elite with a group of grunts. You take them out. You find the keycard. You proceed to the entrance. Once inside you make yourway down several corridoors. You find a control room. You insert a device allowing Roland to gain access. You leave the room and proceed to the room which Roland indicates. Once you enter, Elites corner you from every angle. Its a trap. You are forced to surrender…

Part II
Introduction cutscene: Crimson team are put in a cell. Roland watches from CCTV.

Environment/Setting: Jul m’dama’s Compound

Purpose of the mission: Break out of the elite compound and rescue Halsey.

What happens on the mission: You start off by playing as Roland in the digital realm. You find the access points to release crimson team. The door opens. You switch to crimson team. You gently push the door open and assassinate the elites guarding the cell. Roland indicates that Halsey is not actually in the compound and that the beacon was a decoy. He searches the files while you make your way back the way to came to retrieve Roland and escape.

Closing Cutscene: Roland Debriefs Lasky on the files he found.

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I have a whole little episode that I’ve thought out quite thoroughly.

“The Glass Mountain Campaign”

The Infinity is called to the planet Corvus IV to investigate claims that a Covenant fleet has appeared at this former human colony where the UNSC fought the Covenant off during the war.

Mission 1
Crimson is sent down in the forests to investigate Covenant activity in the area. They discover the Covenant are excavating something at a battle site known as Glass Mountain where many UNSC soldiers held off the Covenant for days during the first battle. Crimson fights through several Covenant patrols and Miller orders them to destroy a staging area the Covenant and Prometheans set up on a cliff face. The mission is finished when you destroy the Phantoms and Banshees in the area.

Mission 2
UNSC forces have taken the staging area and built a firebase there. Crimson and other Spartan teams head to the planet’s abandoned capital city to push the Covenant back to the mountain while several frigates engage the Covenant ships which have positioned themselves over the mountain. Crimson fights through the city in Warthogs alongside some marine forces and push the Covenant back to the lake between the city and the mountain. At the end of the mission the Covies detonate a slipspace drive near the mountain opening a portal which vaporizes much of the mountain and causes a massive earthquake.

Mission 3
Crimson must escape Covie forces back into the forests while Infinity tries to get the remaining ground forces back in order. Crimson fights their way through Covenant and Promethean checkpoints guided by Roland. They become pursued by 3 Liches which they finally are able to evade. Crimson gets picked up by a Pelican.

Mission 4
Infinity launches a huge ground and air assault on the Covenant forces that have gathered around the Forerunner device located at the crater where the mountain once laid. Crimson leads the ground assault in scorpions and mantises and destroys Covenant forces around the crater forcing the Covie ground armies back. They reach an entrance to the structure and head up to a control pilon that Dr. Glassman and Roland believe control the device. They activate it and it turns out this section of the device simply activated a storage of Promethean Knights which engage Crimson. Meanwhile the Liches return and destroy most of the marine forces outside and blast through a window in the control room forcing Crimson outside. They then use banshees to board one of the Liches and escape.

Mission 5
The Lich runs out of fuel and Crimson is forced to survive a wave of Covenant and Prometheans in the wreckage of a Covenant cruiser. They gradually get pushed farther into the hull. Eventually the mission ends once Crimson is forced into this cave area where they are able to escape by collapsing the entrance to it. The mission ends with you discovering a door into the Forerunner complex and the episode ends.

Well that’s all I got.

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I would suggest coloring the text in the spoiler section. Light blue on white is virtually unreadable.

OT: At the very least not only SpOps need to tell more story through gameplay but they need to incorporate more objectives into the gameplay. Not just cutscenes and voice overs while you’re slaughtering Crawlers.

Slayer, Oddball, CTF, KoTH, Territories, Assault, Extraction, and Ricochet. All can be dressed up with the proper trappings and used as a purpose for a mission.