If Elites return in H5 what design would you like to see? The hunched over and smaller design of H3 OR the taller and more intimidating design of Reach?
Would you also like to see species specific mechanics? (EX. Elites walk slightly faster because of their longer legs.)
The number one essential I need to get out of the way right now:
THEY MUST GO ‘WORT WORT WORT’ AGAIN. EVEN IN MP.
I’d want the Elites to have the more upright, straighter posture like you said was in Reach. Making them all hunched over make them look weaker and less menacing and civilized. Elites are quite complex beings, fighting for honor and glory, and those aren’t the characteristics of a hunchback.
As for the faster movement speed, I’d say no. Maybe only if Spartans have default sprint… :\ I mean, they don’t move faster in Camapign, why in Multiplayer?
While we’re n the topic of default mechanics, Elites could have default Evade. AAs are gone, but still let there be a ‘recharge’ time after two rolls like when Evade was an AA in Reach.
Now this is a little small, but I’d like to see the Elite melee kick animation in MP… 
Good Stuff
They need to look wortastic.
I think there was something said about gametypes like elites versus humans, but as far as that goes I am not going to lie about how I hated things like in H3 where it was much harder to headshot an elite then a human. So in terms of fairness and not personal choice I would honestly prefer the taller and more intimidating look just so that it wouldn’t be an issue. And then again I also think taller and more intimidating is cooler then a hunchback enemy.
Elites being in MP is always going to be a tough one.
On one hand, you want a balanced multiplayer playing field and you can execute that perfectly when everyone is using the same player model with the same hitboxes.
On the other hands, you have those who prefer playing as an Elite, use Elite models for machinimas, Elite specific custom games and most importantly - mixed race gametypes like Invasion.
If you want to introduce Elites into Multiplayer, you need to make them have the exact same hitboxes and traits as a Spartan - something Halo 3 tried and failed. You ended up with Elites which were shrunken down from their actual height canonically, and had spots in their player model that could be shot through (specifically their neck).
Those same models were used in the Campaign and obviously didn’t compare to what Elites should actually look like.
Fast forward to Halo: Reach and Bungie introduced Elites that matched what they should be - Aliens which were tougher, taller and faster than Spartans. Issue with this was - larger hitboxes, stronger shields and faster movement.
For cross-species gametypes, it works perfect i.e. Invasion.
For gametypes in Matchmaking outside of Invasion, you played as a set species by Bungie. For a majority of the time, you were playing as a Spartan - minus Elite Slayer, Dino Blasters, etc.
If you truly want Elites in Multiplayer, then canonically they need to be stronger, faster and obviously have larger hitboxes.
Now, the issue you run into is - do we make a smaller Elite model for the Multiplayer which matches the Spartan model in terms of height, movement and hitbox size but confuses the player when they look at the Elites in Campaign which are WILL be taller, move faster and have a larger hitbox size?
It’s a tough situation. We have no idea what 343’s plans were for Halo 4 because they never made the cut. It should be an open discussion with the community to be perfectly honest once talks about the upcoming beta has begun.
I think they should be tall and upright, but we need to have the model shrunken from it’s normal size to be about Spartan height. Also, no species-advantages. Elites should act as a skin, not a perk.
Hey so, quick question and thought. I know that there were obvious design changes from H3 to REACH but the SPARTAN-IIIs were also supposed to be a bit shorter than SPARTAN-IIs right? So that explains, canon-wise, why the REACH Elites were “taller:” because our avatars (SPARTAN-IIIs) were shorter.
Anyway, I like the REACH Elites more. I just wanted to post the thought above.
Good Stuff
I prefer the big Elites, so the compromise I would make is to have playable Elites limited to specialty gametypes. So if you really want to play as/against an Elite - you could. But it won’t cause you to have to try and balance the larger hitbox size with capabilities in the more competitive playlists . . . which will never work because no one will agree on what constitutes “balance” for that. Ever.
> I prefer the big Elites, so the compromise I would make is to have playable Elites limited to specialty gametypes. So if you really want to play as/against an Elite - you could. But it won’t cause you to have to try and balance the larger hitbox size with capabilities in the more competitive playlists . . . which will never work because no one will agree on what constitutes “balance” for that. Ever.
Yes I agree. People think that because Elites are bigger, taller, and stronger that means the game will become unbalance. That is why Invasion and Customs Games are great… the people who play as Elites can have them while those who don’t can play in the other game types.
Reach Elites all the way. Maybe in combination with h3 armor.
> They need to look wortastic.
Basically this
> Hey so, quick question and thought. I know that there were obvious design changes from H3 to REACH but the SPARTAN-IIIs were also supposed to be a bit shorter than SPARTAN-IIs right? So that explains, canon-wise, why the REACH Elites were “taller:” because our avatars (SPARTAN-IIIs) were shorter.
>
> Anyway, I like the REACH Elites more. I just wanted to post the thought above.
Elites canonically are bigger than Spartan IIs and IVs if I’m not mistaken.