Since the forums are quiet at this time, and since I haven’t quite met my quota for self-punishment this week (I’m sure that will be rectified within the first few responses), I’ve decided to take a leaf out of almost every other forum member’s book, and post a list of those things that I, if given the helm at 343 Industries, would incorporate into Halo 4. I do this not because I think my ideas are any more or less compelling or relevant than anyone else’s, but because I think that some of them are probably a little different to what people normally see in these posts, and because I personally feel that I represent a very strange contingent of players that lie somewhere in the no-man’s-land between casual and competitive players and whose desires are seldom heard. In addition, many of these ideas have been synthesised from the ideas of other forum members, and I have attempted to give credit where I can.
I’d be interested in hearing any feedback, but please refrain from personal attacks and non-constructive criticism. If it’s too long, feel free to comment on individual points. At the very least, you might get a laugh or two.
The Sandbox
All weapons from Halo 3 return, along with several new additions. Any existing weapons that no longer make narrative sense (e.g. the Brute weapons) may be omitted from the campaign, but are incorporated into the non-canonical multiplayer experience.
Bloom does not return.
The pistol/magnum features 2x zoom and is as powerful as the battle rifle at close to close-mid ranges; beyond this, it is significantly less accurate and, therefore, not very useful. This would bring it in line with how (I think) a handgun is meant to be used.
The sniper rifle spawns less frequently in multiplayer than it has in previous games and with less ammunition. As a temporary trial, it also fires only two bullets before reloading is required, though this alteration is subject to feedback and may be removed if it proves more of a hindrance than a boon. Additionally, auto-aim with the sniper rifle also decreases as the distance between the sniper and the enemy decreases, and vice versa. [Credit to Natasatchaa for that last one.]
Armour abilities do not feature in the game, but equipment (ala Halo 3) does. Different playlists have different map loadouts to either encourage or discourage the use of equipment in matchmaking. For example, more competitive, Slayer-based game types may have only a single piece of equipment spawning in the centre of the map, or no equipment at all, while Big Team Battle involves most or all of the available equipment. The equipment is as follows:
• The Halo 3 variant of the bubble shield, which is impenetrable to projectiles;
• The land mine, which is triggered only by objects of sufficient mass (i.e. vehicles) and, if untriggered, detonates spontaneously after one minute;
• The Covenant shield, which may be damaged but is impenetrable from either side to both plasma- and bullet-based weaponry;
• The radar jammer;
• The flare.
The shield/health regenerator will not reappear, as it serves a function too similar to that of the bubble shield. New equipment may also be introduced.
Fragmentation grenades now have a slightly longer fuse time to discourage their overuse. Plasma grenades are relatively unchanged. Spike grenades return, but will not stick to MJOLNIR armour; in this way, they are the opposite of the plasma grenades, in that they will stick to walls and ceilings, but will not stick to opponents. Incendiary grenades return mostly in objective-based game types, as they play a good defensive role.
Voting in matchmaking is replaced with vetoing, such that, the first option being vetoed, players must accept the second option.
In the Big Team Battle playlist, Big Team Slayer appears as an option approximately 40% of the time; objective-based game types appear 60% of the time. The objective-based game types include:
Zombie Invasion is a game type in which zombies (who move more slowly than humans, but have significantly more health) are charged with destroying an objective (e.g. a shield generator). The original zombie may choose to focus his or her attention on conversions for the first part of the game, but once the number of zombies has increased sufficiently, the objective may then become the primary target, mixing classic Infection gameplay with objective-based play.
Matchmaking playlists include the following:
• Capture the Flag
• Assault
• King of the Hill
• Territories
• Multiball (Oddball with two or more balls/skulls)
• Infection
• Invasion
• Special (a playlist that changes each week, and incorporates some of the less popular and novelty game types, such as Rocket Race, Instagib, Low Gravity Slayer, and matches involving the use of Skulls)
Any playlist that is seen to be in demand by the community would also be added, but there will no division of Ranked and Social playlists, for the sake of maintaining sufficient population.
One carefully selected fan-made Forge map will be incorporated into each playlist each week. After this time, they will be made available for download from a certain section of Waypoint.
The ranking system progresses from 50 (beginner) to 1 (expert), and these will be given appropriate names–for example, Recruit and Reclaimer, respectively.
In objective-based game types, the number of credits awarded for completion of an objective is significantly higher than the number awarded for a successful kill. Additionally, all post-game statistics and medals are based around objective completion; the kill/death ratio is not shown. [Credit to whoever posted about this approximately one week ago]
The number of credits awarded for an assist have increased, and less credits are awarded for kills that were assisted than for kills that were not.
The number of credits awarded for vehicle-based assists, such as driving the flag carrier and a particularly deadly gunner, has increased.
A first betrayal in Matchmaking incurs no penalty. A second betrayal leads to the deduction of a sizeable number of credits. A third betrayal leads to another sizeable deduction and permits the most recently betrayed teammate to boot that player from the game. If the betrayer is not booted, the next betrayal nets another sizeable deduction, followed by a deduction and booting permission, followed by a deduction only, and so forth, such that betrayed players may choose to keep the betrayer in the game in order to reduce his or her credit bank further. The number of credits that are deducted is determined by the betrayer’s number of lifetime betrayals, a statistic that is kept as part of his or her career record on Waypoint. When the player reaches zero credits, the option to boot him or her is displayed after every betrayal. In this way, players will know that if the option to boot arises, then the person they are booting likely deserves it.
The number of credits deducted from a player who betrays a teammate carrying the flag, bomb, or other important objective item, is significantly higher. Additionally, if a player carrying the flag, bomb, or other important objective item is betrayed within a certain to-be-determined radius of their goal (i.e. their own or the enemy base), a more severe penalty awaits the betrayer (credit deduction, immediate booting, and exclusion from matchmaking for an appointed period of time).
Alternatively, the developers may choose to work in a more entertaining anti-betrayal mechanic, whereby betrayers, for example, have their damage output halved, their speed cut, their health reduced, or are even pursued by immortal Flood combat forms for the remainder of the game.
Armour pieces are now stratified into a number of levels (perhaps four), so that, while tier 2 items are seen as being superior to tier 1 items, no tier 2 item is perceived as being inherently better than any other tier 2 item. Accordingly, all tier 1 items have the same price, all tier 2 items have the same price, and so on. Because of this change, each player will no longer progress along the same linear continuum from the cheapest item to the most expensive item, ultimately resulting in a deluge of visual clones in Matchmaking. Instead, all players given access to tier 1 items will be able to spend their credits on their own personal favourites, giving rise to more visual variation in Matchmaking.
A feature will be worked into the game such that if the game detects another player crouching above a recently deceased corpse a certain number of times (say, three), said corpse will explode, killing the player who was tea-bagging, but causing no splash or collateral damage to surrounding players.
Firefight
The number of enemies in Firefight has increased, to the point where players are eventually overwhelmed by seemingly infinite numbers of them. While the primary adversaries in the campaign (i.e. whoever replaces the Covenant) feature as the default enemy in Firefight, an alternate mode allows players to face off against the Flood. In this mode, all Flood forms are used, beginning with infection forms, progressing through the combat forms, and eventually involving the appearance of “pure” Flood forms. Throughout the fight, the Gravemind can be heard speaking to and mocking the player through the various Flood forms.
No character from the campaign lends his or her voice to Firefight; voices are instead culled from previous Halo titles or other bonus characters.
What does that stand for, by the way? Based on the context, my guess is “too long; didn’t read”, in which case I find it ironic that you found the time to post an unhelpful reply.
Edit: I Googled it and I appear to have been correct, so thank you very much for taking the time to let me know about your short attention span. In future, may I suggest simply leaving a thread that you don’t plan to read.
I certainly don’t expect people to read all of it. They’re just some interesting points that I haven’t really seen here before. Also, as I said, the forum was very quiet when I wrote it. Despite taking a significant amount of time to write, only four threads had been updated by the time I’d finished. Boredom, in this case, rather than necessity, was the mother of invention.
I don’t think ALL of the Halo 3 sandbox should return. I think that besides the Mauler, all Brute weapons should be scrapped, and replaced with new equivalents. I think many human weapons should be modified- Spartan Laser, Assault Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Flamethrower, Carbine, and others. I think that aesthetically the weapons should be changed in some way for each weapon, like the Assault Rifle having a larger clip, visibly too. The Flamethrower should have RANGE, and be used more often. The Energy Sword should be split in half for dual-wielding, an Energy Stave should be added with huge + slow lunge distance, and the Gravity Hammer should be bigger and badder, where holding RT makes you pull things to it (like the Fist of Rukt from H2 that Tartarus uses) so that you can pull, for instance, a Mongoose towards you. This would stun the hammer for a while so you cant pull stuff and smash it.
There should be a BR type weapon, and a DMR type one that is silenced with greater zoom, less damage, faster rate of fire, and seriously zero noise. No 21st century silencer btw- something more badass that what Agent 47 has. There should be also a Forerunner technology machine gun that is a power weapon because of ts accuracy and and rate damage to shields and vehicles. There should be a SWAT Shield equivalent to the Halo universe, like what the Jackals have but bigger. This would be used for Dual-Wielding. There should be a heavy weapon that has just one rocket in it, and works like the Reaper in MW3, where you aim where you want it to go. There should be Flux Grenades that are rare but when thrown (maybe actually an Equipment) cause all non-hitscan projectiles to curve to it, so if thrown somewhere and a rocket is shot near it, it will be sucked in, but wil still have an explosion.
> I don’t think ALL of the Halo 3 sandbox should return. I think that besides the Mauler, all Brute weapons should be scrapped, and replaced with new equivalents. I think many human weapons should be modified- Spartan Laser, Assault Rifle, Rocket Launcher, Flamethrower, Carbine, and others. I think that aesthetically the weapons should be changed in some way for each weapon, like the Assault Rifle having a larger clip, visibly too. The Flamethrower should have RANGE, and be used more often. The Energy Sword should be split in half for dual-wielding, an Energy Stave should be added with huge + slow lunge distance, and the Gravity Hammer should be bigger and badder, where holding RT makes you pull things to it (like the Fist of Rukt from H2 that Tartarus uses) so that you can pull, for instance, a Mongoose towards you. This would stun the hammer for a while so you cant pull stuff and smash it.
My wish is simply for the weapons to return; I’m happy to see them undergo some sort of metamorphosis. I do, however, want to see the return of the Spiker and the Brute Shot (two of my favourite weapons), and I think the idea of dual wielding energy swords is a little unnecessary.
> There should be Flux Grenades that are rare but when thrown (maybe actually an Equipment) cause all non-hitscan projectiles to curve to it, so if thrown somewhere and a rocket is shot near it, it will be sucked in, but wil still have an explosion.
That actually sounds really cool–sort of like watching general relativity in action.
