Let me start off by saying this: I love the Halo trilogy (keep that in mind).
Okay, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business. It’s a fact that Halo has been getting even less popular over the last few installments. Arguments are no longer Halo vs CoD, they’re Battlefield vs CoD. Which is sort of a shame, when one of the most successful franchises ever isn’t mentioned any more because of how far it’s fallen. Now, it isn’t impossible to fix. Probably not with TU’s to Reach/4, but there’s a chance, if ever so slim, with HXB1. Now it isn’t even like 343i has no experience with making a decent game, they handled remastering CE quite well, and they even had a classic Halo for Halo 4, that was eventually scrapped. You see, that’s the problem.
I know, I know, I’m a bad person because I don’t like some of the changes and I see major flaws with the way the past couple games have been. But before you report me for a baseless reason, hear me out. Don’t make the game entirely for a casual player. Yes, they’re going to make up most of your initial audience, but you gain respect by your fanbase (by older people who’ve left, people who’ve stayed, and newer people) if you only have a portion of the game devoted to them, and you have another portion devoted to the more competitive gamer. Look at Halo 2/3 for example. Both wildly successful, topping charts in both sales, and sustained multiplayer numbers. You know why? They included both Ranked, competitive playlists and a Social, casual playlists. Notice those “s” at the end of the words. Not one list each, but multiple.
Now how do you make a game geared to both experienced and new players? Revisit the classic idea, and use that in your Ranked lineup. Make the Ranked lists more balanced and competitive. Get rid of AA’s Classes, everything introduced in Reach/4 that was annoyingly stupid. Have more precision weapon starts on symmetrical maps (or even just precision weapon starts more often). In Social, you can have all the funky changes you want to try out with HXB1. Everyone comes out with what they want, you regain a major following, more people keep playing your game, and the next Halo game will sell a crap ton more.
Okay, now for non-MP elements. Honestly most of these are pretty simple. No content limit is always good place to start, the Active Roster with Reach was actually brilliant. Make the campaign a decent length, memorable, and well you should know how to write a good story. Expand on the lore, while still keeping true to what has already been done. Don’t over-simplify Forge. Give us a large, flat map with pieces of multiple different colors and rocks of all shapes and sizes. You’ll be amazed at what the community can do. Don’t forget us screenshot artists! Most of the awesome effects from Halo 3, and some from Reach, had gone with Halo 4. It wasn’t even fun trying to do stuff with Halo 4 because it wouldn’t allow you to do so much.
Anyway, I think that about wraps it up. No TL;DR, you can read it, it’s just a post on a website. Doubtful its going to be noticed, but eh might as well share with you.