I was discussing with a friend things that I would like to see implemented in more video games, especially Halo. Below are a few things that were discussed. What ideas do you have that you would love to see in Halo 5 and up (since it is likely too late in development for any of this to be considered for H4 if it is not already in the game)?
Forge:
What if Forge served two purposes? One can be as a simple map editor. The other, as a cutscene editor. Although you can use the ghost camera in theater mode to capture acting for machinima, what if there were controls to allow you to take it much further? Stock animations, stock dialog, stock effects (e.g. timed explosions), event triggers, post-processing effects, facebook/youtube integration, editing separate clips into one video, access to the resources used in campaign (e.g. campaign dialog, animations), etc.
As for map editing a low barrier that allows for great content to be created fast is key. What Valve is doing for Portal 2 in an upcoming in-game editor (http://store.steampowered.com/app/104600/) looks interesting. Although Forge is already easy, finding workflow improvements can help people make great content much faster and easier. Also why not offer Forge specific DLC items/packs to extend the options available at launch?
Theater:
Theater set a new standard for Halo and I hope to see the return of parties in theater in Halo 4. For the future this mode can be expanded to offer an intelligent camera system, controlled by AI, that will work in an optional “director” mode. In this mode the camera can switch to the POV of other players on the fly to capture action much like you’d expect when watching a sporting event in TV. This is being done in the DOT2 beta and so far it is interesting to go into spectator mode in random live matches and watch with a directed camera. This mode is optional and would be a good feature for a next-gen Halo game (wink, wink 720).
Also if would be great if, while watching a replay in theater, helpful information would appear on the HUD. For example if you got out BR’d what if the game showed a tip on ways to get better if it generally deemed you getting killed was your fault and avoidable? I doubt AI would be able to analyze game play like a person, but some info would be interesting. Also so would heads-up stats like hit/headshot probability, kill probability, etc at any given moment. Of course this could all be toggled off.
Matchmaking:
Spectator mode - Being able to join a MM game as a spectator and hopefully use the director camera mode (mentioned in the theater mode section above). Since Halo doesn’t have dedicated servers, I wouldn’t be surprised if the spectator count wouldn’t be too high but it would be an interesting option. If there is worry about more than 8 players in a 4v4 hurting performance for those playing in ranked matches, then this could be limited to social and custom game types. But if it doesn’t affect performance, then allowing it in all game types would be pretty awesome. That would mean big-team, internally, could offer 16 player stops and N number of spectator spots.
Custom games search - Wouldn’t hurt having another option.
Tournaments - Microsoft sponsored XBL tournaments would be awesome. It is not the same as a live event, but it is something. I remember the Halo CE Microsoft tournament. Great time.
Announcer - Currently in Halo games the only time you hear the announcer is when the game starts (e.g. “SLAYER”), when the game ends, or when you get a multi-kill. Wouldn’t it be interested in the announcer could use our service tags to announce plays as they happen, such as “H442 just dominated 007 and stopped the flag run!”? If a good text-to-speach API was used, then it could actually say our gamer tags. If there are tags that can not be deciphered, then maybe add an option in the options menu where we can specify the pronunciation using a simple editor. I’m pretty sure this will get inappropriate really fast but, hey, it is a mature game right? At the very least if it can’t say your tag then it could fall back to your service tag.
Clans/Teams - Clans and teams have always been a big part of Halo. What if we could have our clan/team name show up in the pre-game lobby as a subtitle next to our gamer tags? What about the return to Halo 2’s clan friend list, which essentially gave us another friend list on XBL?
Country - Same as team names mentioned above.
Others:
No kill zones outside of matchmaking - Remember goofing off in a custom game in Halo 2, leaving the map and exploring areas you were never meant to go? Although I can understand this not being in matchmaking (which it shouldn’t be allowed) but in custom games why not let us goof off how we want? How useful could that jetpack have been if we could remove the blocking zones? Same with the campaign. Why limit what we do when we goof off with our friends or by ourselves?
Content shared by 343 - Remember in Halo 3 where content like videos and screenshots where suggested in the menus? What if there was something called Halo TV where you can watch a replay stream of games highly recommended by 343 (or games they play themselves against other studios)? Celebrity matches?
Bots in Custom Games - Outside of Firefight of course. It could allow those that want to practice as a team of 4, but not enter matchmaking, an option if they all don’t happen to have enough friends on looking to play.
Those are just a few. I’m interested in hearing feedback or even your own ideas.