I know this forum is flooded with ideas for Halo Wars 2 but I think these are some great ideas. I would just like to say that a game like I have described would probably only work on the third generation Xbox. This is a re-post but the old thread never really had a chance.
Campaign:
Instead of a proper story why couldn’t we just have missions that focus on some of the most important battles during the Human-Covenant War and the UNSC’s war against the insurrectionists.
e.g.
Harvest/First contact:
Halo Wars touched on this but we didn’t get to see much of it.
OPERATION Prometheus:
The battle in which 300 Spartans fought and died on K7-49 (A covenant shipyard).
The Fall of Reach:
One of the most epic battles fought in the war.
The Battle of Earth:
Not the real battle but the false story created by ONI to cover up knowledge of the Halo Array and the Forerunners.
A first person aspect could help certain missions move along as well such as OPERATION Prometheus because of the lack of other units for the player to control.
Gameplay:
Because their will be different maps and different time periods it would not make sense canonically if you could use something such as a sabre in the Battle of Harvest and so some units, powers and building such as energy shielded spartans (Mark V armor and up) and non-energy shielded spartans (Mark IV armor) would have to be map specific.
Mechanics
For starters cant we use the mechanics from all the other Halo games such as 1-2 rockets take out a Banshee and a Scarab can actually be disabled. To go with this unit prices would have to be lowered and uprades more expensive to compensate for how easy some units would die and be destroyed.
Abilities
The circle menu, this is a major part of Halo Wars and needs to return but for both Covenant and UNSC leaders. Each leader needs a reconnaissance power, the UNSC could have a UAV depending on the map and the Covenant could have a Phantom dropship depending on whether or not the UNSC has their reconnaissance power. A healing power, if a UNSC leader chooses this power a Pelican dropship should drop off a team of UNSC engineers and medics with no combat capabilities at all. If a Covenant leader selects this power a Phantom dropship should drop off 7 forerunner engineers. Rage, Vortex, MAC Blast, Cleansing beam and Prophets should be removed but Brute Chieftain and Arbiter should stay as ground units with the same amount of health and attack power just minus their special ability. Carpet bomb and Cryo bomb should have higher damage but at a large cost of resources.
Buildings
The ability to build bases and turrets anywhere you like would be innovative too at the cost of more resources and a longer build time compared to a base turret or building. Being able to share techs with your teammates would be a great feature if you had to make a building just for it and it took about 2x the research time. I have an idea for a building similar to the spire on Reach that cloaked the Super-carrier in the Viery Territory, it would cloak any unit, building or even an entire base but it would have to use alot of resources and have a long build time. Spartans should be able to build from the centre building also.
Units
I want to see more variations in units too specifically UNSC infantry eg. Snipers, anti-tank teams and demolition squads. Replace the Vampires with the Anti-air Wraith and basically make it more like the other Halo games but in an RTS style (Im talking about not having 5 ODST’s in a single pod). Units should change appearance and abilities depending on the time period of Halo canon the mission/map is taking place in.
Feedback?