Allow me to reenter the fray, update the OP, and lay some more knowledge down.
(this part is entirely skippable, as its just a big rant about how I’m such a quality Halo fan and blah blah blah)
I am a pretty solid player. I should be, because at age 23, I have been playing this game since I was 10-years-old. Translation: As an adult, I have been playing this game for nearly 2/3s of my entire life. For nearly 14 years I have played Halo on a some-what consistent basis, from CE with the launch of Xbox, the hype from Halo 2’s announcement trailer, losing my mind at E3 2003, Zanzibar at E3 2004, Launch party and Xboxlive for the first time, all the DLC that launched in 2005, the Halo 3 announcement in 2006, The new DLC for Halo 2 in 2007, the Beta, E3 2007 where they showed that awesome campaign video and that band played their remix of the Halo theme song, Halo 3 launch, first wave DLC in late 2007, Legendary map pack early 2008, the MM update in 2008, Bungie’s mysterious cancelation last minute at E3 08, Prepare to drop late 2008, Mythic I early 2009, ODST’s firefight trailer at E3 2009 as well as the Reach announcement, ODST and Mythic II 9.22.2009, Reach beta mid 2010, Reach E3 campaign video at E3 2010, Reach launch 9.10.10, DLC and the end of 2010, more early 2011, The Halo 4 announcement trailer at E3 2011 and CE:A. CE:A launch in 2011, the agonizing wait for more information about Halo 4, finally seeing the first tiny little glimpse of it on Conan O’brien, the E3 Trailer that showed us prometheans at E3 2012, the launch of Halo 4 on election day, Waiting for SpOps each week and the even longer wait for episodes 6-10, Crimson Map Pack accidentally being free for a little while, the Halo Xbox One teaser at E3 2013, the brutal wait for information, MCC and Halo 5: Guardians tease at E3 2014, MCC, the Halo 5 beta, and as of right now, E3 2015’s AWESOME campaign video - I have been here from the beginning.
Every Vidoc, every article, every book, every game - I love the Halo Universe, everything from the story to the multiplayer feels right at home with me, and it always has. I have always had a very special place in my heart for Halo, and each entry has a lot of very good memories attached to them.
For more than a decade, I have been an active member of several Halo communities. You might not recognize me, but that’s because I tend not to make waves. I’m the guy gets hyped for Halo, not the guy making waves. It is people like me who’s passion for this incredibly awesome universe that have made this game what it is today, and I think for both parties involved, that is a wonderful thing.
I am not asking for special treatment, and my ideas and concepts should (and will) be weighed, examined, and judged by all those who read it with the same amount of scrutiny and brutality that the Halo Community should always bring with them - so long as they keep their objectivity, but I AM saying that I am not just some random forum dwelling troll. My opinions are formed based on thousands and thousands of hours spent discussing the game from story to core gameplay mechanics, and of course, sinking an ungodly and borderline unhealthy amount of time into the games. Ultimately, you can at least put enough faith into me that you understand that my opinions are the product of legitimate concerns that are likely very well thought out and have been tempered and adjusted as conversations just like this one play out. I don’t take sides and stick with them, I take the side that I think is the best one, and defend it so long as it holds to my standards of quality.
I’ve been staying out of this even though its my own thread because I want to see the community discuss this, not ram my opinion down everybody’s throat, but I need to squash a few things so we can get more focused on details.
First, my video is NOT out of context. It is in perfect context in fact. The entire point was showing a vehicle that is damaged being destroyed by small arms fire incredibly fast. You can see the driver at full shields, and the vehicle detonates on the same hit that drops him to half. OF COURSE THE WARTHOG IS NOT GOING TO BE THAT WEAK AT START - IT IS OBVIOUSLY DAMAGED. I assumed everybody would kind of put two-and-two together, so if there is any confusion - My bad.
Second, “Paper Vehicles” is a term often used to describe the finite vehicle health system that Halo has used since Reach. Under this system, vehicles have a set amount of “Health Points” that are dwindled away when attacked by ANYTHING that would normally cause damage.
Third, lets go ahead and clarify that Halo CE - 3, used basically the same system, which for the sake of simplicity we will call “Regen Health” system. Under this system, your vehicle’s health was linked to your Spartan’s health, and in Halo 2 and 3, once the vehicle became so weak, once you died, the vehicle exploded. Under this system vehicles that became more damaged would just increase the amount of damage you the occupant of the vehicle received, thus making the vehicle more vulnerable to small arms fire and grenades.
Now, lets talk about a few basics here.
When a vehicle is under the Health System (HS), it has a significantly reduced lifespan and this cannot be contested. A highly skilled driver will in almost all instances survive longer in the Regen (R) system simply do to the ability to perform hit and run tactics with a higher degree of safety. Thus, the Health System is a nerf to vehicles.
Additionally, HS Vehicles tend to start out more durable than R Vehicles ever are. This is especially true of heavy vehicles which are nearly indestructible when in their first encounter. This means a few things, including the fact that far less skilled players will be able to defeat far better players simply because the odds are stacked so high in the noobs favor. On the other end of that spectrum, the longer the HS vehicle stays out, the exponentially less likely they are to stay alive, meaning even the most skilled players will lose to complete noobs who can hit the HS Vehicle with small arms fire (like AR and BR shots). This creates an effect where vehicles are less skill based and more geared towards being used as a temporary power up.
Now let us factor in a few other things you might or might not think about.
Human weapons, including the sniper rifle, AR, DMR, BR, SMG, SAW, Shotgun, as well as any other projectile-based-weapons are hitscan, meaning the skill required to hit a warthog from any distance is not incredibly high. As the targets get bigger and slower, it becomes even easier to sit far back and take shots with any precision weapons. This does not include the assortment of turrets, power weapons such as the Rockets, FRG and Splazer, and of course other vehicles - all of which will make short work of vehicles.
In addition, lets look at the new Spartan Abilities, such as Thrust, infinite sprint, clamber, hover, and ground pound. They create an entirely new set of options for players to counter vehicles, by being more agile, giving a higher degree of mobility, and ultimately result in a better chance at victory. This means that while the vehicles remain more-or-less the same from H4, ground soldiers have a massive buff.
Factored all together, we can very easily draw a simple conclusion: HS Vehicles in Halo 5 will be the least effective vehicles in the entire series. If you like BTB, or vehicle combat at all, this is NOT something you want to see happen.