Let's Talk About The Armor Cores & Coatings Systems...And How They Could Be Improved

Games Halo Infinite
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As many have echoed, the customization system we have in Halo Infinite feels extremely restrictive in comparison to previous titles. A wise person once said, “Drip is the true endgame”. As someone who creates a headcanon for every custom RPG character I’ve ever made, this couldn’t be a truer statement. The elements that seem to be limiting our options in comparison to previous titles are the coatings and cores systems, so I’ll break this down into two parts. TL;DR at the bottom.

COATING SYSTEM

Armor coatings were always controversial because they took a great degree of player choice out of the equation. 343’s explanation was that coatings allow players to explore options never-before seen, and that most color combinations that were possible in previous titles were under-utilized by the majority. Of course, we can infer that part of this decision is for monetization purposes since this is a free-to-play game, and I think that’s fair. The problem is that Halo games throughout the years have always grown to give players more cosmetic control than the previous titles, and coatings take a lot of thought out of customization. For diehard fans of Halo’s unrivaled aesthetic expression options, this system oversimplifies a whole lot. We now have a situation where everyone has access to the coolest curated color combos, meaning people who want to wear cool colors don’t have to put in much thought, and the people who love spending time customizing their heroic spartan (or evil, everyone has different headcanon for their spartans) and strive to visually stand out are having a harder time than ever.

Here’s my solution to keep preset colors while separately giving players back their freedom.

The new system would have the “armor coating” refer to a combination of elements that the player can individually customize (and 343 could monetize). Coatings currently seem to consist of 4 elements:

  • Shading Pattern
    Refers to what parts of the armor can be affected by color options.

  • Skin
    Refers to any pattern overlaid on top of the armor. An element independent to color or texture. Things like camo, tiger stripe, pin stripe, honeycomb, plaid, etc.

  • Texture
    Refers to the visual effects that determine the armor’s overall look. Metallic, Plastic, Matte, etc and shiny/war-torn variants of each.

  • Color
    Refers to the color shades applied to the rest of these elements.

Players should be able to customize these elements individually. On the other side of the coin, 343 could monetize these elements. They could simply sell color palettes on the shop, even combine them with textures. For example, the Roses of War palette that would give you access to several shades of red, all in a clean matte texture. Or the ONI Classified palette, which gives you shades of gray and black in a gritty, metallic texture. Individual shading patterns (ex: Scorpion Punch only alters the color of a single arm and partial helmet elements) and things like different skins (camo, plaid, etc) all could be unlocked/sold on the shop. Once we own these elements, we’re free to mix and match everything however we want.

For simplification, we could still have coating presets that are unlockable. Using a preset means you can’t use the individual colors within the preset independently, unless you buy all the palettes/textures/skins associated with them. Effectively, this means all of the current “armor coatings” in the game would still exist as presets. This is a good option for those who don’t really care about all the extra stuff and just want that quick, cool look. As for the exclusive coatings, players could simply be locked from using any custom combinations that mirror an exclusive coating, even if they earn/buy all the necessary pieces of the puzzle.

ARMOR CORE SYSTEM

This is the other piece to the puzzle that makes it difficult to fully enjoy customization. The biggest issue I have with the cores system is that it looks and feels like an attempt to separate eras and art styles. We have MK VII to represent the new styles of Halo Infinite, and the UNSC’s next gen of Spartan gear. MK V is Reach stuff. Yoroi looks like it represents Japanese samurai/fantasy visuals. I love how it all looks, but I’m deeply saddened that I can’t mix these things if I want to. Halo MCC currently give me more freedom than I ever imagined. I can mix MK VI with ODST Fireteam Raven and Hayabusa, and as of recent I can now mix in some pre-Halo CE armor and even a fur scarf to top it all off. The new options and flexibility of H3 MCC armor is some of the best enjoyment I’ve had in customization. I understand that clipping is an issue and may get in the way of some future gear in Infinite.

My proposition:

Armor cores should have strict requirements only on the gear pieces that are integral to the base of the aesthetic, and that would absolutely clip if mixed with a particular piece. Instead of a “some things might clip, so nothing from other styles is allowed” approach, why not a “everything is allowed, EXCEPT for the specific pieces we know will clip” approach. And regarding the argument that the visual styles wouldn’t look good together…In a game that aims to give players the freedom this franchise always has, it shouldn’t be up to a handful of people to decide what gear combinations would look aesthetically pleasing and what wouldn’t. We’re going to be spending so much of our money and time on this game over the next 10 years. Give us the freedom to choose what kind of Spartan we want to look like.

TL;DR
Armor Coatings in the current sense just become color presets. Still unlockable/purchaseable, and a great option for people who don’t want to spend time figuring out cool colors. For other players, there would be a sort of “Coatings Workshop” that allows you to customize color, texture, skins, and shading pattern. All those elements could even be unlocked or sold. We get freedom, 343 still gets paid.

Armor Cores no longer stop you from mixing and matching pieces across styles. Cores include always include their integral pieces (Yoroi core would probably only ever use the Yoroi chest). Armor is only restricted from a core if it will definitely clip. Styles will not be kept from blending, only specific problem pieces will be excluded on a case by case basis.

2 Likes
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I would be more than willing to accept it if 343 had monetized everything you listed but colors in that list of 4 regarding the coating system but they had to take even that and that bums me out.
Armor cores I would have understood more if they were gonna segregate them to artstyles but from what I can tell Mark 7 core and Reach core appear to be nearly identical artstyle wise and I feel there is almost no reason at all to keep the separate. Yoroi I understand because that is a very heavy Japanese samurai armor set. But I had hoped 343 would have made these cores very distinct from eachother as to prevent clashing styles (as this was a major complaint about the gen 2 armor designs not feeling modular to a base armor set like gen 1 armors were) but with how it currently is I feel like its just needlessly restrictive on armors that seemingly pair well with eachother.

3

Cores and Coatings limit the customization by a metric ton.

Coatings:
An improvement would be to toss it in the trash and bring back the color customization we had. Most of the chest pieces are grey for no reason, make those change to the color of the rest of the armor. But when you make a game Free to Play you need to scalp something.

Cores:
I’d have cores be changed to what coatings are. So people can have the color coatings of the campaign characters without being locked to a prebuild set of armor. Although I do not know why this could not be achieved with custom color selections.

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Pretty similar to what ive been saying, though while im fine with the armour cores atm, the armour coatings and to a point visors, are something that shouldn’t be restricted to an Armour Core, that just aggressively limits basic customisation.

I think what makes this worse is the fact that there are proven methods to monetise colour customisation while allowing players to choose their Colours, Warframe comes to mind with its Pallet system, along with Anthem’s materials, which impacted the look of the colour, making it either metallic or matte, or even carpet-like.

this is a good proposed solution to the issue with armour customisation atm.

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Tbh cores should really act more like a loadout for customization, or at least just let them only be full sets that have their own unique pieces like Carters. Individual pieces however should be allowed on any core. I’d be fine if coatings stayed behind certain cores but not individual pieces you unlock in the battle pass

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Rn Coatings are like a more restrictive version of Destiny’s shaders, which is shocking.

1 Like
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I agree. It would be like if Destiny shaders couldn’t be used across all 3 classes

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I think some people touched on it, but figured I’d add my own personal elaboration.

I think the basic, legacy colors should be openly available for primary and secondary layers; think red helmet/armor with white shoulders/knees. Same for emblems. All additional colors/textures and tertiary layers/patterns on top of and between the primary and secondary, by all means make those Battle Pass only.

And Reach aside, since when is Chief’s armor not the default?? For a game whose marketing is based on “become Master Chief”, kinda doesn’t make sense that you start us looking like Spartan Palmer.

At this point, I basically can’t customize anything without the BP, which is very disappointing.

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For starters, they can stop locking things like the color red to $5 bundles.