In the Lab: Armor Abilities

Games Other Halo
1

Hopping this is under 7000 characters…

Just my thoughts for taking the whole system of upgrades (Power Ups, Equipment, and Armor Abilities) and how they might work for future Halos.

Everything would be on map, except Sprint and Evade.

There would be two types of pick ups, temporary and “permanent.” Temporary would act in the same fashion as the Power Ups in previous Halos. You pick them up, they last a certain amount of time, and they are generally more effective.

“Permanent” would be more like Equipment and weapons on map. Equipment you could pick up and use at your leisure. Weapons on map, such as Power Weapons, can be held for the entirety of the game, even if they were empty, and be resupplied by picking them up again.

Temporary:

Overshield: As it was in prior Halos, add a small damage reduction % in addition to the flat layer of hit points it provides but add a small nerf to attack damage with weapons and melee. Lowers player’s base movement speed. Take OS to a somewhat “tanky” approach, higher damage reduction/absorption, lower damage output. Make it last 5 seconds longer.

Invisibility: 100% invisibility. No “Predator” ripple effect. Pure invisibility. However when in use player will always be on radar, crouching or not. Lasts say… 30 seconds. Ends earlier if player performs any sort of attack.

Permanent:

Sprint: Boost the speed by perhaps .5 and boost the duration by 2 seconds, however put a .5 sec extra buffer on weapon draw. Spartans starts with Sprint. Elites can pick Sprint up off of dead Spartans. Headshots cancel out Sprint.

Evade: Lower the speed of it by .5, reduce the length at which it travels (as it is currently arguably better than Sprint) but give it a small damage reduction bonus. Elites start with Evade. Spartans can pick up Evade off of dead Elites.

Jet Pack: Faster off the ground speed with a .5 duration reduction, buff the speed of left/right movement slightly so aerial characters can have a pseudo strafe.

Active Camo: Severely nerf the speed:visibility ratio. I want to move quickly while remaining unseen. Remove scrambler for enemy units and Active Camo user, keep it for teammates. Lower the total duration time to 10 seconds to make this a quick burst ability, increase damage to user slightly while in use. Scoping in drains duration at double speed.

Armor Lock: Have Armor Lock work on Shields rather than on it’s own duration. Have a flat % of Shields needed to activate Armor Lock. Have Armor Lock drain a flat % of Shields per second of use. Have outside damage reduce Shields by 25% of the actual damage.

Basically, if you don’t have Shields, you don’t have Armor Lock.

EMP radius and Shield damage is relative to duration
25% Shield damage and smallest radius - 1 sec
50% Shield damage and medium radius - 2 sec
75% Shield damage and large radius - 3 sec
100% Shield damage and largest radius - 4 sec+

45 degree up, down, left and right view instead of 360
90 degree left and right exit
Does not “stun” players if meleed while in Armor Lock

Drop Shield: Buff the damage it can take slightly, slow people’s movement speed slightly for a short period when entering/exiting it. Single use.

Hologram: Double waypoint.

Jammer (new one): Single use item to stop all power ups (temporary and permanent) from being used within radius of the Jammer.

Halo 3 Equipment should be included.

Picking up one power up replaces the one you have, if you picked up a temporary one when you had a permanent one, your permanent one goes on a respawn timer.

Kind of jumbled right now, not sure if I’m presenting these well enough.

Please note, not all maps/game types/playlists will have each and every one of these.

I would suggest start with Sprint/Evade and then 4 of these at most on map.

2

This is what people don’t seem to understand.

Armor Abilities were only a part of Halo Reach. They are not a part of the Halo Universe. Halo Reach is not part of the Halo Universe either. Why do you think some of the main Bungie employees left for 343 and didn’t want to work on Reach due to it not being a Halo title.

Halo games has tested equipment throughout the years and it has shown to make the playing field less skillful and more random of how a game is played. For example, having a shotgun in an open part of a map is useless, but with Armor Lock/Bubble Shield(either Reach or Halo 3) you can sit in the middle of the map and just wait for people to come to you and use the shotgun at a close range.

It changes how a game could be played yes, but for the worse. A hammer on halo 3 was amazing to have in guardian because of the bubble shield, and in Halo Reach, it’s amazing to have the hammer with Armor Lock. This makes it seemingly unfair to someone who is shooting a person who then becomes invulnerable for 7 seconds and waits for his teammates to come and distract his opponent so he may then smack him in the face.

Now, people might say “Halo is a futuristic game, of course it should do these things”. Halo never had AA’s until Reach, and equipment were rarely used in Halo 3. When they were, it made it a complete unfair advantage towards someone who has the equipment. As well, there are differences between having a power up (active camo) on the map that is temporary/placed in a specific location and AA’s that reload/respawn. Camo can still be seen in some circumstances, and when people shoot/melee, it gives their location away. This is different from equipment which could heal you instantly, give you some cover for a time being, or completely blind the person.

Examples of combinations of weapons and AA’s/Equipment that are abused.

Active Camo (Reach) - Shotgun, Sniper, Sword, Rockets, Hammer

Armor Lock (Reach) - Shotgun, Sword, Hammer

Evade/Sprint (Reach) - Shotgun, Sword, Hammer

Bubble Shield (Halo 3/Reach) - Shotgun, Sword, Hammer, Mauler

Jetpack (Reach) - Rockets, Sniper (camping somewhere high)

3

> This is what people don’t seem to understand.
>
> Armor Abilities were only a part of Halo Reach. They are not a part of the Halo Universe. Halo Reach is not part of the Halo Universe either. Why do you think some of the main Bungie employees left for 343 and didn’t want to work on Reach due to it not being a Halo title.

/looksatboxart
/looksatdvd
/looksattitlescreengraphic

Pretty sure Halo Reach is a part of Halo.

4

> > This is what people don’t seem to understand.
> >
> > Armor Abilities were only a part of Halo Reach. They are not a part of the Halo Universe. Halo Reach is not part of the Halo Universe either. Why do you think some of the main Bungie employees left for 343 and didn’t want to work on Reach due to it not being a Halo title.
>
> /looksatboxart
> /looksatdvd
> /looksattitlescreengraphic
>
> Pretty sure Halo Reach is a part of Halo.

Look at the Star Wars games. They keep making new ones when the movies are stopped being made. Why is that you wonder? Because they can make money off of it by continuing their story that would give them a profit. That was what Halo Reach was.

Halo: Reach was the same as ODST, telling a story that isn’t from Halo, but another side of someone that was in the Halo Universe. Read the book “Halo: the Fall of Reach” and you’ll see they are different stories. Bungie did not follow the books that always made sense with the games of Halo.

If you say “That is completely different”, please explain how.

5

> > > This is what people don’t seem to understand.
> > >
> > > Armor Abilities were only a part of Halo Reach. They are not a part of the Halo Universe. Halo Reach is not part of the Halo Universe either. Why do you think some of the main Bungie employees left for 343 and didn’t want to work on Reach due to it not being a Halo title.
> >
> > /looksatboxart
> > /looksatdvd
> > /looksattitlescreengraphic
> >
> > Pretty sure Halo Reach is a part of Halo.
>
> Look at the Star Wars games. They keep making new ones when the movies are stopped being made. Why is that you wonder? Because they can make money off of it by continuing their story that would give them a profit. That was what Halo Reach was.
>
> Halo: Reach was the same as ODST, telling a story that isn’t from Halo, but another side of someone that was in the Halo Universe. Read the book “Halo: the Fall of Reach” and you’ll see they are different stories. Bungie did not follow the books that always made sense with the games of Halo.
>
> If you say “That is completely different”, please explain how.

Star Wars is a bad example my friend, considering that George Lucas has said much of the expanded universe, such as KotoR, is part of the actual universe.

ODST, and Reach, are part of Halo. That’s all there is to it.

6

> ODST, and Reach, are part of Halo. That’s all there is to it.

Read every Halo book created and they all work within the Halo’s 1-3 campaign. Reach and ODST fall outside of the book story line that flows so smoothly.

Watch the panel at Comic Con, they even explain that they will be bringing the story BACK towards the books, meaning 343 knew it was going astray in the first place.

And seriously? You actually think George Lucas care about any of those games that come out? Of course they would say they are part of the story line, it makes him money.

7

Weren’t you immediately against this idea? I mean… you did say Reach is not a part of Halo.

Don’t have an open mind? Aren’t you the one saying Reach and ODST AREN’T part of Halo, or part of the Halo story? Isn’t it alluded to, several times, in the Halo games that Master Chief is the last SPARTAN when, by the books, he clearly isn’t?

If you’re going to discuss with me, use logic. Because right now, you just defeated yourself.

8

Bungie made Halo…Bungie made Halo Reach. When Halo was Bungie’s child, they decided what was and was not “Halo Universe” Halo Reach is Halo Universe…

Before the books, the wikis, the websites, the comics, action figures, fanboys, and everything else Halo was a video game. A first person shooter with an entertaining story and addictive multiplayer that drives you to keep playing. At it’s core that’s what the series always will be. Everything else has just been extra go-juice for those of us that want more Halo.

> This is what people don’t seem to understand.
>
> Armor Abilities were only a part of Halo Reach. They are not a part of the Halo Universe. Halo Reach is not part of the Halo Universe either. Why do you think some of the main Bungie employees left for 343 and didn’t want to work on Reach due to it not being a Halo title.

Heresay. Back this up with some journalistic evidence and I’ll listen to it.

> Halo games has tested equipment throughout the years and it has shown to make the playing field less skillful and more random of how a game is played. For example, having a shotgun in an open part of a map is useless, but with Armor Lock/Bubble Shield(either Reach or Halo 3) you can sit in the middle of the map and just wait for people to come to you and use the shotgun at a close range.

You can sit and wait all you want, but after 6 seconds of Armor Lock, or about 30 seconds of bubble shield, you’re in the same situation you would have been without armor abilities or equipment.

> It changes how a game could be played yes, but for the worse. A hammer on halo 3 was amazing to have in guardian because of the bubble shield, and in Halo Reach, it’s amazing to have the hammer with Armor Lock. This makes it seemingly unfair to someone who is shooting a person who then becomes invulnerable for 7 seconds and waits for his teammates to come and distract his opponent so he may then smack him in the face.

You know what’s more amazing? Having Armor Lock and using it to help take down the guy standing in the narrow hallway with the hammer getting the running riot. And you seem to think that him being invulnerable for 7 seconds precludes you from using other tactics. If the bad guy with the hammer armor locks, then you should take the opportunity to get some distance. Back away from the guy, maybe even give up the kill…Someone with short-range power weapons like the sword or hammer only has the advantage in two situations:
a) You don’t know they have a hammer/sword
b) You know, but you can’t get away.

> Now, people might say “Halo is a futuristic game, of course it should do these things”. Halo never had AA’s until Reach, and equipment were rarely used in Halo 3. When they were, it made it a complete unfair advantage towards someone who has the equipment.

I disagree. Having the equipment never created an unfair disadvantage. Equipment was placed on maps in highly contested areas. whichever team was able to secure the equipment did so, most often, by fighting the enemy on even ground. The only thing which could legitimately create an unfair advantage would be the placement of equipment in locations where one team would have a much easier time acquiring it.

I’ll also point out that things like Sprinting and Melee Combos were intended for implementation as early as Halo 2, but due to overhalls in the game design and being a little rushed, these things had to be dropped. (Reference: Halo 2 E3 Demonstration, Bungie’s “Oh Brave New World” Vidoc.)

> As well, there are differences between having a power up (active camo) on the map that is temporary/placed in a specific location and AA’s that reload/respawn. Camo can still be seen in some circumstances, and when people shoot/melee, it gives their location away. This is different from equipment which could heal you instantly, give you some cover for a time being, or completely blind the person.
>
> Examples of combinations of weapons and AA’s/Equipment that are abused.
>
> Active Camo (Reach) - Shotgun, Sniper, Sword, Rockets, Hammer
>
> Armor Lock (Reach) - Shotgun, Sword, Hammer
>
> Evade/Sprint (Reach) - Shotgun, Sword, Hammer
>
> Bubble Shield (Halo 3/Reach) - Shotgun, Sword, Hammer, Mauler
>
> Jetpack (Reach) - Rockets, Sniper (camping somewhere high)

To be perfectly honest, the only thing I’ve ever complained about while playing Halo were people using Modem Standby and briefly about BXR. Weapon combos, Armor Abilities, Equipment…That’s all tactics and technique. You have to realize that the only time the enemy is ever more dominant than you, is when they have better tactics and techniques. Your job is to figure out how to improve your own tactics to beat them…complaining about the game being unfair is probably the least efficient method.

9

> Bungie made Halo…Bungie made Halo Reach. When Halo was Bungie’s child, they decided what was and was not “Halo Universe” Halo Reach is Halo Universe…

Bungie made Halo’s 1-3, Reach was not the full team of Bungie, therefore not Bungie. It’s like saying Microsoft is Microsoft without Bill Gates. It wouldn’t work if Bill Gates left because he didn’t agree with the way the business was moving, since it would then continue to make Microsoft more like the way the CEO’s who still work at Microsoft wanted it. Switch Bungie with Microsoft, Bill Gates with Frank O’Conner, Business with Halo, and CEO’s with Employees. (And if you say a business can run the same without the same root employee’s/passion/motivation, then you don’t know how business works.) Why do you think the very first games are always the best, and sequels are worse? Because the passion tends to go away and the profit end seems to take over, which is make it appealing to everyone, which ends up making the games become worse and worse each time they make a new game.)

> Before the books, the wikis, the websites, the comics, action figures, fanboys, and everything else Halo was a video game. A first person shooter with an entertaining story and addictive multiplayer that drives you to keep playing. At it’s core that’s what the [Halo] series always will be.

Really? I didn’t know Halo was a FPS in the beginning? It was supposed to be an RTS actually.

Addictive multiplayer? That was when Halo 2 was out, yes, having the greatest ranking system/most consistent online players. Reach doesn’t drive people to keep playing, you can either; play for fun, play to try to become an Inheritor, or play to show that you are better than the person who you’re playing against.

How can an “addictive online multiplayer” like Reach be fun if there’s no competition to be the best in the world? Everyone can be an Inheritor with enough time, you just have to play enough Halo. This game is “fun” if your opinion on it is fun, but competition is the main driving force for people to continue playing. How are you supposed to have competition, when the enemies you are going to face are always random and not at the same skill? True skill/finding opponents that are your skill level does not exist in Reach, therefore how can beating someone feel good when you know they suck. This is where the game fails at, playing people at your skill level. If Reach had a ranking system, it would make the game so much better. Want evidence? I played a game this morning for you just to show you the skill gap of players in Team Snipers, this is what happens where this is no ranking system: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Reach/GameStats.aspx?gameid=771541789&player=Chuurch

> Everything else has just been extra go-juice for those of us that want more Halo.

There’s a difference between creating a game that story only stays inside video games, such as CoD, and creating a game like Halo that has a whole history in books that match the story line with the games. Now, with Halo being as big as it is, they created Reach. This is the only game that is outside the story line of the Halo Universe. It does not correlate.

Bungie created Halo that became bigger than them, so to ignore the books and history of something you created seems stupid, yet they then made a game with unused idea’s and no real thought of how they would affect the story line because they wanted to test their ideas before their contract ends. How can you look at it any differently?

You referenced me on the O Brave New World Vidoc, so I will do the same to you. Listen to how they talk about corporate businesses. The employee’s of Bungie were the people who said “-Yoink- you” to the man because they didn’t want to sell out. In the end, they sold out. Bungie was pushing out games for Microsoft because of a contract. Look at ODST, the only reason they made that game was because Microsoft told them too. It was in their contract. Bungie seemed sick and tired of working for Microsoft, so they were giving a big middle finger to Microsoft, release a game that would make people say “-Yoink- You Bungie” and all they would have to say is “Microsoft made us”.

> Heresay. Back this up with some journalistic evidence and I’ll listen to it.

Evidence of people leaving due to Reach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMVC7-SYHak&feature=channel_video_title (It’s not direct, but you don’t have to be an idiot to really see the truth)

> You can sit and wait all you want, but after 6 seconds of Armor Lock, or about 30 seconds of bubble shield, you’re in the same situation you would have been without armor abilities or equipment.

This is the part that makes me giggle. Without Armour Lock, you would have never had that chance to survive. In Halo 2/CE, you would have to use skill to stay alive as opposed to choosing the right loadout.
Example of skill: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOWGdZuIusc&feature=related
Those are some of the best Halo 2 players of all time, playing for money. In Halo Reach, each of those enemies could have went into Armour Lock, preventing themselves from dying, and call one of their teammates to help them. That is not skill. If you think that is skill, then you have a very funny way of looking at skill.

> You know what’s more amazing? Having Armor Lock and using it to help take down the guy standing in the narrow hallway with the hammer getting the running riot. And you seem to think that him being invulnerable for 7 seconds precludes you from using other tactics. If the bad guy with the hammer armor locks, then you should take the opportunity to get some distance. Back away from the guy, maybe even give up the kill…Someone with short-range power weapons like the sword or hammer only has the advantage in two situations:
> a) You don’t know they have a hammer/sword
> b) You know, but you can’t get away.

All I keep seeing is that you would use Armor Lock because it’s overpowered. Do you not see that? You say “Having Armor Lock and using it to help take down the guy standing in the narrow hallway with the hammer getting the running riot.” Since that person also has Armour Lock, how are you in any better of a position than he is? He still has the power weapon, so you would lose. If he had sprint and you had Armour Lock, if he tries to hit you, he will lose his shields/get stunned, and you can them beat him down. That’s not a tactic, that’s not a strategy, it’s not skillful, that’s just bad game mechanics, an overpowered AA, and someone choosing the overpowered loadout.

10

> I disagree. Having the equipment never created an unfair disadvantage. Equipment was placed on maps in highly contested areas. whichever team was able to secure the equipment did so, most often, by fighting the enemy on even ground. The only thing which could legitimately create an unfair advantage would be the placement of equipment in locations where one team would have a much easier time acquiring it.

Lets use Halo 3 High Ground as an example:

Team spawning at Beach: Two get into the mongoose and rush for rockets, one goes for the rocket while the other goes for Camo. Rockets are closer for Beach so anyone on the other team trying to rush for them will get blown up/help from Camo guy. The other two split up, one goes sniper, one goes Over Shield. OS grabs shotgun, goes grabs the grav lift, lifts up into the spartan laser, has Spartan laser with shotgun at high control. Rockets now are sitting in the middle/bridge waiting for anyone to come out, sniper is sitting in the back waiting for anyone to stick their head out, and a Camo guy can run around the base and pick up the mauler just to the right grated stairs. They now have full control of the map.

Team spawning at Backside:

Two get into mongoose trying to stop those rocket guys, but since rockets are closer for Beach, you both get blown up. Two other teammates now remain trying to either get the power drain, bubble shield, or Spartan laser, one goes for the Spartan laser, but it can’t do anything against the shotgun at close range. Three teammates down now. Last guy went for the mauler, but since he can’t see the guy with active camo, gets back smacked.

This is just one example of a map that has equipment for people that are supposed to be given the disadvantage to have the lower ground. Without equipment, no one would have been able to lift up and kill that guy with the Spartan laser, possible being able to defend his team a little more. Equipment has changed the game for the worse, not for the better.

> Zenner:
> I’ll also point out that things like Sprinting and Melee Combos were intended for implementation as early as Halo 2, but due to overhalls in the game design and being a little rushed, these things had to be dropped. (Reference: Halo 2 E3 Demonstration, Bungie’s “Oh Brave New World” Vidoc.)

Sprint and Melee Combo’s was never planned on being introduced into any Halo until Reach. I watched the Vidoc, and Marty said that they showed a playable piece that was never in the final game. Do you know what he was talking about? The DMR. The one shot rifle was never in the game. Want to know something else? That whole level is not in the game, meaning that it was either cut out or never was supposed to be put in there. There is no mention of any AA’s, sprint, etc. The only thing they added was boarding vehicles, which had a small animation to it. This is different than an assassination as well, because assassinations are optional, the animation for boarding is not. There’s a difference between cutting out levels and then cutting out things like AA’s/Equipment.

> To be perfectly honest, the only thing I’ve ever complained about while playing Halo were people using Modem Standby and briefly about BXR. Weapon combos, Armor Abilities, Equipment…That’s all tactics and technique. You have to realize that the only time the enemy is ever more dominant than you, is when they have better tactics and techniques. Your job is to figure out how to improve your own tactics to beat them…complaining about the game being unfair is probably the least efficient method.

Tactic (Noun)

  1. An action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end.

Strategy (Noun)

  1. A plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.

Technique (Noun)

  1. A way of carrying out a particular task, esp. the execution or performance of an artistic work or a scientific procedure.

Tell me how any piece of equipment/AA on a map that causes an unfair advantage towards the person who has it has to use any of the above words in order to win that battle. BXR’ing is a technique, it’s a skill, it takes talent. To complain about that just shows that you don’t want to practice to have the upper hand on someone, you just want to hold a button for 7 seconds to survive. This is not a technique, a tactic, or a strategy, it’s just a button that makes you invulnerable, and it recharges every 7 seconds as well. You can evade away, in 5 seconds it recharges, then evade away again. You can fly away so high the bullets can’t register. You can create a bubble shield so that there is a barrier between you and your opponent so he can’t kill you. There are SO many options you can use to

And oh so help me if you say that using an AA is a tactic/strategy/technique, then you obviously have no idea about what takes skill and what doesn’t. Preventing a rocket death by dodging it takes skill, clicking right bumper

  1. Having that rocket bounce off your enemies body and right back towards you
  2. Creating a bubble shield that stops the rocket
  3. Evading away from the rocket
  4. someone sprinting towards you, beating you down twice when you had rockets
  5. Flying high into the air so he can’t shoot a rocket anywhere near you besides directly at you
  6. Sending a hologram in front of you so that it impacts the hologram, taking all the damage and none of yourself.
    takes no skill what so ever.

If people knew what AA that person had at all times, the game might be slightly more fair since you would know what that person could do, but you have no idea until they use that ability. This makes this game unfair and unpredictable. Imagine a 1 million dollar Texas Hold’em Tournaments with 2’s as a Wild Card. That would be the biggest joke of competitive poker ever. This is what Halo: Reach is like.

Hopefully you understand that I have extensive Halo knowledge and I know what is best for Halo. It is a surprise that the number of copies sold for Each Halo game has increased except for Reach? No, not at all. When people found out there was bloom, I know so many people who never purchased it. They did so many things wrong with this game, that they lost their core audience. Want to know what that core audience is doing now? Playing Xbox Connect or Halo 2 Vista/Halo PC. There are 20,000 people playing Halo 2 on a regular Basis. You wonder why Microsoft didn’t renew their contract with Bungie? Look at Halo’s sales
(All in millions)
Halo CE: Worldwide = 6.43
Halo 2 : Worldwide = 8.43
Halo 3 : Worldwide = 11.30
Halo ODST: Worldwide = 5.89
Halo Reach: Worldwide = 8.62

Reach and ODST failed.

11

Jesus! God! NO! NO friggin’ AA’s in Halo 4!
If Halo 4 should be similar to a Halo game, it should be Halo 2/3. Forget about Reach and all the dissapointments it brought.

NO AA’s in Halo 4!!!

12

Chuurch,

I apologize but I have neither the time nor the inclination to argue with you. You’re set in your ways and arguing isn’t going to change that. I don’t need a textbook to define tactics, techniques, and procedures. Seven years in the military gives me a much better understanding than you could find in any dictionary.

BXR is not a “skill” it’s a loophole. It was never intended for use by players, that’s why you won’t find it in any Halo game save Halo 2. I never attempted to use BXR because Bungie made it very clear that it wasn’t intended.

Alluding back to the hammer armor lock because you claim choosing an armor ability isn’t a tactic, and quoting you here… An action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end…I’ll break this down.
Problem: Enemy with hammer is annihilating the team.
Desired Outcome “Specific End”: Eliminate enemy by minimizing his advantage.
Possible Actions: Avoid enemy. Use Ranged Weapons only. Use an Armor ability to defeat the advantage.

Again, I’m not going to continue arguing with you…I just had to correct your most glaring flaws.

13

> Jesus! God! NO! NO friggin’ AA’s in Halo 4!
> If Halo 4 should be similar to a Halo game, it should be Halo 2/3. Forget about Reach and all the dissapointments it brought.
>
>
>
>
>
> NO AA’s in Halo 4!!!

+39, 999, 999, and I support Chuurch’s example above this too.

It’s just massive and probably shouldn’t be quoted in its entirety.

14

If Halo reach is not a Halo game why is it listed here?
http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/games

It seems 343i, Bungie, and Microsoft disagree with you. Since they created and published the game I’ll side with them.

15

StartFragment I agree with Chuurch and others, any progress in video games like Halo is wrong and should never happen. Halo 4 should play and look exactly like Halo 2. I want lower polygon counts and less dynamic game changing features like AA. I’ve spent many years learning to play Halo 2-3 and I refuse to accept anything that makes me change the way I think about playing these games. Anything that forces me to evolve as a gamer and play any different than I have in the past is not acceptable. I don’t even want new maps because I’ve worked too hard to learn the one’s that exist now. All the Bungie employees agree with me, that is why they don’t work on Halo anymore. They know that games should never be changed in any way once I like them. By the way, Bill Gates isn’t part of Microsoft and it is still Microsoft. He retired in 2008. EndFragment

16

StartFragment Darkside Eric,

I really like some of the ideas you are proposing. I particularly like the Armor Lock limitations you listed.

I would make AA loot stores rather sparse on the map or the difficultly would need to be ramped way up.

Evade should be some kind of thruster boost feature since the idea that a Spartan can’t dive for cover without a special piece of technology is kind of dumb. So make the evade AA something that grants high maneuverability in zero G. and a dive roll/high jump in earth normal gravity.

The Jammer idea is very clever. I think it should be temporary AA though. It would be a great equalizer but there would need to be a short range on it. 2x melee range max and reducing over time would be fine. Entering the field should kill the entire hud readout of the opponent. It could also be an instantaneous thing like a blast and people caught in the blast radius lose their abilities for say 5 seconds and then AA’s will begin to slowly return along with the players HUDs. EndFragment EndFragment

17

> Chuurch,
>
> I apologize but I have neither the time nor the inclination to argue with you. You’re set in your ways and arguing isn’t going to change that. I don’t need a textbook to define tactics, techniques, and procedures.

How does 7 years in the military let you automatically know what a definition of a word is? You have more balls than me to go into war for 7 years, that’s for sure, but you can’t say you’re field experience gives you the ability to define a word. You know the ways of executing strategies, tactics, and techniques in a WAR environment. That is all.

> Alluding back to the hammer armor lock because you claim choosing an armor ability isn’t a tactic, and quoting you here… An action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end…I’ll break this down.
> Problem: Enemy with hammer is annihilating the team.
> Desired Outcome “Specific End”: Eliminate enemy by minimizing his advantage.
> Possible Actions: Avoid enemy. Use Ranged Weapons only. Use an Armor ability to defeat the advantage.
>
> Again, I’m not going to continue arguing with you…I just had to correct your most glaring flaws.

Your view of what a “tactic” is, is basic common sense. A tactic is something that you would have to actually plan and think out. If you had to do that for that little thing, then good lord, give yourself a pat on the back.

What you keep going back to, and something I sure you cannot understand, is that person with the Hammer AND Armour Lock only has to click a single button to go invincible, let his shields recharge, and run away. This involves no hard thinking, no panic, because he has this button that makes him invincible. Regardless of what “tactic” you have to do in order to kill the person with the hammer, he will rarely die unless he screws up due to the ability to go into Armour Lock anytime possible (unless he screws up). Armour Locking takes no skill.

> BXR is not a “skill” it’s a loophole. It was never intended for use by players, that’s why you won’t find it in any Halo game save Halo 2.

Do you know what a loophole is? It’s a way of making things easier for you to kill someone with. A BXR didn’t make it easier, because you could -Yoink- up and screw yourself over. It’s a skill to be able to preform the BXR. If you’re reloading a rifle faster because you have quicker hand movements, does that make it not a skill? Sure they are different types of movements, ones more physical than the other, but it’s still hand-eye co-ordination/practice over time that you have to do in order to get it perfect. Don’t hate on it because you didn’t learn the time to do it, just practice the loophole so that you can get better. Same way you did to practice how to reload the fastest.

> If Halo reach is not a Halo game why is it listed here?
> http://halo.xbox.com/en-us/games
>
> It seems 343i, Bungie, and Microsoft disagree with you. Since they created and published the game I’ll side with them.
>
> I agree with Chuurch and others, any progress in video games like Halo is wrong and should never happen. Halo 4 should play and look exactly like Halo 2. I want lower polygon counts and less dynamic game changing features like AA. I’ve spent many years learning to play Halo 2-3 and I refuse to accept anything that makes me change the way I think about playing these games. Anything that forces me to evolve as a gamer and play any different than I have in the past is not acceptable. I don’t even want new maps because I’ve worked too hard to learn the one’s that exist now. All the Bungie employees agree with me, that is why they don’t work on Halo anymore. They know that games should never be changed in any way once I like them. By the way, Bill Gates isn’t part of Microsoft and it is still Microsoft. He retired in 2008.

Microsoft has the same company name, but if you actually know Microsoft as a company, they have been failing hardcore since Billyboy has left. It’s funny how people are so ignorant. A companies values change when the person who created the company leaves, that’s a fact. When a board of CEO’s don’t have to worry about Bill Gates saying “No, this is a bad idea for my company” anymore, they will be taking risks that Bill Gates wouldn’t of allowed Microsoft to do because they need to keep the business running. They have no care in Microsoft, they only care if it is a business that is profitable.

Here’s just one thing you can look at that shows Microsoft slow decline as a business: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Enterprise-Applications/10-Lessons-Microsoft-Has-Learned-Since-Bill-Gates-Departure-603257/

Oh, and their stock hasn’t split since 2003. Just an FYI.

P.S. thanks for calling me “fully limited” for having passionate opinions with legitimate facts. I know that my three cousins, who are actually mentally handicapped, will always be better than a piece of scum like you because they have souls. I can’t believe you can say someone is mentally handicapped because of something they wrote on a website. What type of person are you?
(Someone on the Forums deleted it, but I fully saw that post of him calling me mentally handicapped for not wanting a game to change for the worse. If you care to disagree, look at Page 1 and my posts.)