Improving our enemies

Games Other Halo
1

What would it take to improve our enemy factions? I will specifically focus on Knights and elites but all forms of our enemies are welcome to be discussed.

My own personal ideas for knights and elites would be as following:

First of all, make them do more damage with ordinary weapons, especially on higher difficulties. A knight on legendary should be a threat on his own and an elite a respectable opponent. Groups of these characters on legendary would be downright dangerous to attack and would require something more than shooting enough bullets until they eventually go down.

Elites would be easiest to fix. Simply draw from the past halo’s and see how dangerous elites used to be. Halo 2 elites were ridiculously hard to fight on legendary and personally id be more for a halo 2 level of challenge for legendary. I realize not every player wants something that difficult so perhaps the halo reach elites would be more appropriate.

Knights are a little trickier. It is my belief that they maybe should be slightly bigger and stronger. Like hear their footsteps big. You would NOT want to get meleed by one on even heroic. They should be more aggressive also. By this I mostly mean using their teleporting ability aggressively rather than passively. Their teleportation would have to be sped up and perhaps they could do it multiple times within a few seconds to throw you off to their final location that they will try to use to get an edge on you.

Obviously this would require knights to be slightly more rare than they currently are with such buffs.

2

> Knights are a little trickier. It is my belief that they maybe should be slightly bigger and stronger. Like hear their footsteps big. You would NOT want to get meleed by one on even heroic. They should be more aggressive also. By this I mostly mean using their teleporting ability aggressively rather than passively. <mark>Their teleportation would have to be sped up and perhaps they could do it multiple times within a few seconds to throw you off to their final location that they will try to use to get an edge on you.</mark>
>
> Obviously this would require knights to be slightly more rare than they currently are with such buffs.

I thinks thats already their berserker attack.
I agree with your statement on the elites. Too passive in H4. The armor doesn’t help them act scary like in previous titles. I was freaking out when an elite in H2 dropped his plasma rifle, and just came at me swinging a sword.

3

In my opinion, elites in halo 2 were not fun to fight on legendary. Better than brutes, but still far from enjoyable.

4

Each Knight should be more of a challenge, like more aggressive. Also they should actually command there units - crawlers and snipes.

Usually crawlers come in, followed by knights with watchers. The player will usually take out the crawlers then the watchers and focus on the knights who have no support. Knights should play smarter when around other units.

5

Enemies on higher difficulties should be SMARTER, not just more powerful

tougher difficulties should make you think, as well as shoot

6

I think it’s cool in SpOps how the covenant used promethean weapons it made the grunts more difficult :stuck_out_tongue:

But really want the blade arm of the knights to be more powerful maybe one hit kills even. But yeah with the elites make them more like Halo 2
With wraiths more like Halo 1

Like Twizzsted said smarter ai for higher difficulties

7

> Enemies on higher difficulties should be SMARTER, not just more powerful
>
> tougher difficulties should make you think, as well as shoot

This pretty much, enemies being tougher to be taken down is a given, but enemies being smarter should make players think. Additionally, enemy count shouldn’t go up with difficulty. It should be relative toward how many players are playing.

8

> > Knights are a little trickier. It is my belief that they maybe should be slightly bigger and stronger. Like hear their footsteps big. You would NOT want to get meleed by one on even heroic. They should be more aggressive also. By this I mostly mean using their teleporting ability aggressively rather than passively. <mark>Their teleportation would have to be sped up and perhaps they could do it multiple times within a few seconds to throw you off to their final location that they will try to use to get an edge on you.</mark>
> >
> > Obviously this would require knights to be slightly more rare than they currently are with such buffs.
>
> <mark>I thinks thats already their berserker attack.</mark>
> I agree with your statement on the elites. Too passive in H4. The armor doesn’t help them act scary like in previous titles. I was freaking out when an elite in H2 dropped his plasma rifle, and just came at me swinging a sword.

I don’t mean a forward, rushing attack. More so rapid teleportation just to throw off the player and to relocate to a better position to your side or under or above you. Just an idea of how to make them more interesting to fight. MM should be predictable, not enemy AI. Instead we have the opposite for some reason.

9

I agree with what people have been saying, obviously they need to be improved to behave more intelligently.

10

I’m actually replaying Halo 2 on legendary right now and elites are pretty easy to kill.

All I need is my plasma pistol and a rifle/magnum.

IMO, the hardest elites would probably be Reach, with their 360 degree roundhouse kicks.

11

It should make enemies more intelligent, instead of just upping their shields and damage.

12

I would like the crawlers to be a bit more offensive. 343 can really take advantage of the crawlers ability to walk on walls to help flank the player, forcing them to either get out of cover, or signal the other forces that you are being occupied and should move in while your back is turned.

13

Also can we get some improved AI love, like I don’t want the ally ai to be smart, but players should be able to tell squads where to go and what to do.

Master Chief, John-117 is one of, if no the best Spartan-II Squad Leader. Halo games should start to reflect this.

14

-I would love to see the knights behave like a Bioshock: Infinite “Handymen”. What I mean by this is that they pursue you, will attack you very aggressively, use their surroundings to destroy you (throw allies or other enemies at you or detonate explosives nearby you), and give them a terrifying charging stance; something like stalking around you like a lion or a shark, then roar or something, and rush you.

-For elites, I want them to be like Reach’s elites only they will use a bit more teamwork.

-Coveys should be able to use Promethean weaponry.

-All enemies should have enhanced team work and intelligence.

-I hope for the day where scouting enemies can be found even outside of or on the borderline of enemy lines.

-Watchers should have less armor, but faster mobility and agility.

-Only high ranking Knights should have watchers.

-Alpha crawlers should be less common and with greater health (maybe shielding) or what’s the point of calling them alpha crawlers when there are just half as many of them as their are normal crawlers?

-Knights should be less common and more strategic and dangerous.

15

> First of all, make them do more damage with ordinary weapons, especially on higher difficulties.

This is madness!

> A knight on legendary should be a threat on his own and an elite a respectable opponent. Groups of these characters on legendary would be downright dangerous to attack and would require something more than shooting enough bullets until they eventually go down.

It’d be H2 all over again! I refuse to accept this unless Black Eye skull gets a buff (overshields) r u reading this 343?.

> Elites would be easiest to fix. Simply draw from the past halo’s and see how dangerous elites used to be. Halo 2 elites were ridiculously hard to fight on legendary and personally id be more for a halo 2 level of challenge for legendary.

H2 Elites weren’t challenging. They just did a lot of damage and kept firing after you had gone to cover. Sword Elites were a significant downgrade from CE sword Elites. Most Elites did not seek cover until they had completely lost their shield (Zealots are the only Elites to seek cover before losing their shield).

Speaking of which, who could forget the unforgivable act of nerfing Zealots? These are not Zealots! GOLDIE, WHY U NOT SHOOTING PLASMA RIFLE?! For some reason, they could not shoot with guns and always tried to whack enemies with 'em. Furthermore, they could not get in vehicles!

> I realize not every player wants something that difficult so perhaps the halo reach elites would be more appropriate.

Thank the gods! I was about to inflict my heavier arguments upon your apparent sacrilege… WAIT DID YOU SAY REACH?!

> Knights are a little trickier. It is my belief that they maybe should be slightly bigger and stronger. Like hear their footsteps big.
>
> You would NOT want to get meleed by one on even heroic.
>
> They should be more aggressive also. By this I mostly mean using their teleporting ability aggressively rather than passively. Their teleportation would have to be sped up and perhaps they could do it multiple times within a few seconds to throw you off to their final location that they will try to use to get an edge on you.
>
> Obviously this would require knights to be slightly more rare than they currently are with such buffs.

Slightly bigger makes them easier targets.

I guess.

I don’t want them to rely on teleport at all in combat. They should just use it to scout and alert, not to retreat into cover (especially when you’re fighting on a structure with multiple floors and they teleport all the way to bottom floor…).

Something else needs to fill the vacuum left by the absence of teleport abuse and I believe we have seen the solution: Auto Sentry, Watcher, Promethean turret. They need to carry more drones with them!

16

> > > Knights are a little trickier. It is my belief that they maybe should be slightly bigger and stronger. Like hear their footsteps big. You would NOT want to get meleed by one on even heroic. They should be more aggressive also. By this I mostly mean using their teleporting ability aggressively rather than passively. <mark>Their teleportation would have to be sped up and perhaps they could do it multiple times within a few seconds to throw you off to their final location that they will try to use to get an edge on you.</mark>
> > >
> > > Obviously this would require knights to be slightly more rare than they currently are with such buffs.
> >
> > <mark>I thinks thats already their berserker attack.</mark>
> > I agree with your statement on the elites. Too passive in H4. The armor doesn’t help them act scary like in previous titles. I was freaking out when an elite in H2 dropped his plasma rifle, and just came at me swinging a sword.
>
> I don’t mean a forward, rushing attack. More so rapid teleportation just to throw off the player and to relocate to a better position to your side or under or above you. Just an idea of how to make them more interesting to fight. MM should be predictable, not enemy AI. Instead we have the opposite for some reason.

Huh that is actually a good point, I’m guessing you’ve got the idea from the Knights at the Infinity holdout?

17

> I think it’s cool in SpOps how the covenant used promethean weapons it made the grunts more difficult :stuck_out_tongue:
>
> But really want the blade arm of the knights to be more powerful maybe one hit kills even. But yeah with the elites make them more like Halo 2
> <mark>With wraiths more like Halo 1</mark>
>
> Like Twizzsted said smarter ai for higher difficulties

Wraiths are already hard as -Yoink- to hijack. The Elites are a lot more trickier to assassinate (I could go around H2 and Reach Elites).

The key issue is the plasma pistol overcharge. No matter how much they nerf it, it’ll always be effective.

18

> Huh that is actually a good point, I’m guessing you’ve got the idea from the Knights at the Infinity holdout?

Not sure what exactly you are talking about so no I guess…? If they do it somewhere then good but I was just thinking how to make their teleport less annoying. It is a cool function but used passively which I think was a mistake.

> It’d be H2 all over again! I refuse to accept this

I loved H2 campaign BECAUSE the legendary setting was so hard. Legendary should not be for everyone. Beating halo 2 on solo legendary was something to be respected for. Halo 4 legendary is a joke in comparison to ALL the other halos

> H2 Elites weren’t challenging. They just did a lot of damage and kept firing after you had gone to cover

Again I disagree, that is precisely what made them so challenging. You could not be dumb about how you engaged them or they would wipe the floor with you. It actually played a bit more like a shooter where you had to use your cover against enemies with superior tech and weapons. The incessant shooting AFTER you were in cover was a bit much though.

19

Does anyone have any ideas to make watchers less annoying? Any additional functions, weapon changes, or behavior changes that would make them fun to fight somehow?

20

I don’t want halo reach elites all over again. Some elites would just charge you off spawn not stopping or flinching.

For elites we should just build off of CE elites. Plenty damaging and plenty smart. Just make them smarter. Maybe have them pick up prom. weapons that are laying on the ground.

Grunts can PP over charge now. About the only change i’d like to see is A grunt major leading a pack of grunt minors. Like an elite (no pun intended) grunt group. More agressive.

Jackals are pretty good as well. Only way i can see them getting better is forming shield lines or if surrounded trying to make a circle of their shields. If there is a jackal scouting party a marksmen MUST hang in the back to keep lines of sight on them.

I kinda want hunters to be more aggressive. Plus give them the ability to either stream shot or fire in ball shots. Not limited to either.

I really don’t know how to improve the knights. They already gain shields back incredibally fast. Probably just make them smarter.