New Gametype Concept To Surpass Firefight

Games Halo Infinite
1

Hey you! Yeah I’m talking to you!

Do you wish that Halo: Reach’s versus Firefight had a bit more promise and depth to it? Do you like the general concept that Halo 4’s Spartan Ops provided, but just don’t think it was executed correctly? Do you want playing as a Sangheili in Halo to mean something just a bit more interesting than having flappy jaws, without ruining the balance of typical Matchmaking? All-in-all, would you like to see a gametype that benefits several varying types of players in a more casual and fun in setting?

I present to you… Battalion (That’s a sorta placeholder name for now at least)

I could write a whole essay about this idea, but I want to keep this post short, so instead I’ll leave plenty of space for anyone who’s interested in this idea to post their own ideas/suggestions to try and improve this mode! The basics are that it would be a five-player lobby with four people on Red Team, and only one slot on the Blue Team… But the catch is that this isn’t just your typical Firefight; It’s Spartan Ops vs. Halo Wars. You have the Red Team, Fireteam Whatever-The–Yoink-, deployed in a massive map fit for a strategy game, but of course with some extra structures, vehicles, weapons and whatever else they need. The objective is slightly different depending on the map (which will instead be referred to as missions, despite them not really having a connected story like Spartan Ops does) in how you execute it, but each mission will have the same overarching objective: Infiltrate the Covenant facility, and assassinate the Sangheili General before his Phantom arrives to extract him. This Sangheili General… Just so happens to be the one Blue Player, and he’s given Halo Wars controls. The base that he’s hiding in acts as a home base with structures and everything else that he can use to build up his army, and while doing his best to hold back the Fireteam by sending challenging waves of enemies at them, he can also put divide some of his forces to capture UNSC camps and convert them into extra bases. His objective is essentially just to survive, and develop his army in whatever way necessary to keep the Spartans from reaching him in time. I figured he can either hold them off until his Phantom arrives, or if he’s good enough, he can actually kill them. (I would design the Spartans to have several lives like Firefight, but they can’t respawn until the remaining members of the Fireteam all fall back to their Elephant or something similar). The General would access the Halo Wars menu via a terminal in his base, so that when the Spartans get inside, he can switch to a first person view and have one last desperate chance to fend them off by himself, and if he was smart he would have set up defensive troops within his base just as a fall-back plan to help him in this situation. By this point, it would be very akin to Reach’s Firefight with the squad of Spartans against one Sangheili backed by his AI buddies. Oh, and side note; There would be a Battalion Firefight version that changes around the roles, having the Spartans hold out for evac in an abandoned base while the General sends in swarms of enemies from a base that the Spartans can’t get to. He could even go in himself if he thinks he can deal the killing blow, but like in the base game, if the General dies the Spartans win.

I know this is a very ambitious idea, one that would probably be pretty difficult to set up, but I feel like the payoff would be insanely worth it. We would have an immensely fun gamemode that will constantly give players entirely new experiences with how they encounter the AI, seeing that these Generals would all build and command their armies differently. It’ll be like experiencing Halo’s core gameplay loop in a whole new way, if 343 was really into this idea they could even supply the General with different Halo Wars-esque Leaders to choose from that have different themes in how they’re built. I just feel like this is an immensely unique idea that we’ve never seen done anywhere before, not once in any other game have we taken the role of an Antagonistic Leader commanding a whole army against a small team of badasses. Like I said before, please leave your thoughts, suggestions, etc. below and let’s get a discussion going! I’d love for 343 to at least take this idea in consideration, it has so much potential and I feel like it would be the best iteration of Firefight/Spartan Ops/Warzone/etc. we’ve ever gotten in the Halo Franchise!

2

That is a very interesting concept. I think it would need to be fleshed out a bit more with the transition between RTS and FPS like perhaps instead of the General constantly controlling the armies, he chooses to spend resources and his armies spawn in constantly until he changes them again. That way the General doesn’t always have a sky view of the battle field so the Spartan team could in fact sneak up on him. The General could use resouces for Banshees to provide him with a more detailed and constantly updated map of the battlefield while in first person but that may cost him ground forces and require the General to fight more in first person.

I think it is cool and I would like to see the world of Halo Wars and the Halo FPS games merged in some way and this could be an interesting way of doing it. I don’t think it would work exactly as you described but with some adaptation to the Halo Wars play style I think it could be possible.

3

Wow. Very good idea, but it might be too late into the development cycle to implement such an ambitious thing but would be immensely fun if it came in later

4

> 2533274915983628;3:
> Wow. Very good idea, but it might be too late into the development cycle to implement such an ambitious thing but would be immensely fun if it came in later

Yeah something like that came to mind, I figured that if 343 needs time to develop something as ambitious as this then they could add it as a DLC. It’s definitely one I’d be willing to pay good money for.

5

> 2533274842309062;2:
> That is a very interesting concept. I think it would need to be fleshed out a bit more with the transition between RTS and FPS like perhaps instead of the General constantly controlling the armies, he chooses to spend resources and his armies spawn in constantly until he changes them again. That way the General doesn’t always have a sky view of the battle field so the Spartan team could in fact sneak up on him. The General could use resouces for Banshees to provide him with a more detailed and constantly updated map of the battlefield while in first person but that may cost him ground forces and require the General to fight more in first person.
>
> I think it is cool and I would like to see the world of Halo Wars and the Halo FPS games merged in some way and this could be an interesting way of doing it. I don’t think it would work exactly as you described but with some adaptation to the Halo Wars play style I think it could be possible.

That’s a very interesting idea, I like the premise behind it but I’m just a little worried that playing the General would get boring if he spends some of his time just standing around XD The main appeal to his gameplay would be the Halo Wars controls so that strategy game fans can get some fun from Infinite. Although I do like the idea of the Spartans being able to sneak, so maybe instead there could be a fog of war type thing like in typical strategy games. The General could only see via these radio towers or something, and if the Spartans can destroy them all expertly enough, they can go through the entire level without being seen. Of course this would be a longer process and cost them time if they aren’t efficient enough.

6

> 2533275022985379;5:
> > 2533274842309062;2:
> > That is a very interesting concept. I think it would need to be fleshed out a bit more with the transition between RTS and FPS like perhaps instead of the General constantly controlling the armies, he chooses to spend resources and his armies spawn in constantly until he changes them again. That way the General doesn’t always have a sky view of the battle field so the Spartan team could in fact sneak up on him. The General could use resouces for Banshees to provide him with a more detailed and constantly updated map of the battlefield while in first person but that may cost him ground forces and require the General to fight more in first person.
> >
> > I think it is cool and I would like to see the world of Halo Wars and the Halo FPS games merged in some way and this could be an interesting way of doing it. I don’t think it would work exactly as you described but with some adaptation to the Halo Wars play style I think it could be possible.
>
> That’s a very interesting idea, I like the premise behind it but I’m just a little worried that playing the General would get boring if he spends some of his time just standing around XD The main appeal to his gameplay would be the Halo Wars controls so that strategy game fans can get some fun from Infinite. Although I do like the idea of the Spartans being able to sneak, so maybe instead there could be a fog of war type thing like in typical strategy games. The General could only see via these radio towers or something, and if the Spartans can destroy them all expertly enough, they can go through the entire level without being seen. Of course this would be a longer process and cost them time if they aren’t efficient enough.

Fog of war with the radio towers is another good idea. I think the perfect thing would be the general controlling for about 70% of the time and the other 30% be first person (more towards the end). I would be the person the run out immediately as the general and try and eliminate the spartans early on, especially if they split up to try and take down multiple objects at once

7

> 2533275022985379;5:
> > 2533274842309062;2:
> > That is a very interesting concept. I think it would need to be fleshed out a bit more with the transition between RTS and FPS like perhaps instead of the General constantly controlling the armies, he chooses to spend resources and his armies spawn in constantly until he changes them again. That way the General doesn’t always have a sky view of the battle field so the Spartan team could in fact sneak up on him. The General could use resouces for Banshees to provide him with a more detailed and constantly updated map of the battlefield while in first person but that may cost him ground forces and require the General to fight more in first person.
> >
> > I think it is cool and I would like to see the world of Halo Wars and the Halo FPS games merged in some way and this could be an interesting way of doing it. I don’t think it would work exactly as you described but with some adaptation to the Halo Wars play style I think it could be possible.
>
> That’s a very interesting idea, I like the premise behind it but I’m just a little worried that playing the General would get boring if he spends some of his time just standing around XD The main appeal to his gameplay would be the Halo Wars controls so that strategy game fans can get some fun from Infinite. Although I do like the idea of the Spartans being able to sneak, so maybe instead there could be a fog of war type thing like in typical strategy games. The General could only see via these radio towers or something, and if the Spartans can destroy them all expertly enough, they can go through the entire level without being seen. Of course this would be a longer process and cost them time if they aren’t efficient enough.

Well, he wouldn’t be just standing around but unit would spawn in while he is in the First Person and he would still be able to direct them while in that mode and maybe set up auto turrets actually at the base. So the RTS part would be controlling units away from the base but units and structure inside the base have to be done in the first person.

Maybe also instead of a terminal, the Gernal can enter the RTS mode anywhere by hitting a button. That way he would be more like a real commander where he can stop what he’s doing and address the urgent need of his troops.

8

Sounds like an interesting concept, however the trouble would probably lie in the UI transition between overhead RTS style and back to FPS. It could probably work, but it would probably take a bit of development time. Something we might not see in Infinite, but later on if it’s considered.

9

I think that this could be a pretty cool little playlist.

I want to deploy batches of Halo 2 Jackal Snipers to every single area I can!

10

This would definitely give fighting the AI a different feel knowing that they were specifically chosen for a certain objective, whether that be killing you or capturing a base or whatever.
id love this tbh but ofc we just have to wait and see what 343 has up their sleeve

11

> 2533274842309062;7:
> > 2533275022985379;5:
> > > 2533274842309062;2:
> > > That is a very interesting concept. I think it would need to be fleshed out a bit more with the transition between RTS and FPS like perhaps instead of the General constantly controlling the armies, he chooses to spend resources and his armies spawn in constantly until he changes them again. That way the General doesn’t always have a sky view of the battle field so the Spartan team could in fact sneak up on him. The General could use resouces for Banshees to provide him with a more detailed and constantly updated map of the battlefield while in first person but that may cost him ground forces and require the General to fight more in first person.
> > >
> > > I think it is cool and I would like to see the world of Halo Wars and the Halo FPS games merged in some way and this could be an interesting way of doing it. I don’t think it would work exactly as you described but with some adaptation to the Halo Wars play style I think it could be possible.
> >
> > That’s a very interesting idea, I like the premise behind it but I’m just a little worried that playing the General would get boring if he spends some of his time just standing around XD The main appeal to his gameplay would be the Halo Wars controls so that strategy game fans can get some fun from Infinite. Although I do like the idea of the Spartans being able to sneak, so maybe instead there could be a fog of war type thing like in typical strategy games. The General could only see via these radio towers or something, and if the Spartans can destroy them all expertly enough, they can go through the entire level without being seen. Of course this would be a longer process and cost them time if they aren’t efficient enough.
>
> Well, he wouldn’t be just standing around but unit would spawn in while he is in the First Person and he would still be able to direct them while in that mode and maybe set up auto turrets actually at the base. So the RTS part would be controlling units away from the base but units and structure inside the base have to be done in the first person.
>
> Maybe also instead of a terminal, the Gernal can enter the RTS mode anywhere by hitting a button. That way he would be more like a real commander where he can stop what he’s doing and address the urgent need of his troops.

Yeah actually, I could see that working very well. Overall there’s a ton of different styles this could be done in, my hope is that it’ll be up to 343 to consider this and see what they think would work better. Thanks for your contribution! You have some cool ideas for this!

12

> 2533275022985379;11:
> > 2533274842309062;7:
> > > 2533275022985379;5:
> > > > 2533274842309062;2:
> > > > That is a very interesting concept. I think it would need to be fleshed out a bit more with the transition between RTS and FPS like perhaps instead of the General constantly controlling the armies, he chooses to spend resources and his armies spawn in constantly until he changes them again. That way the General doesn’t always have a sky view of the battle field so the Spartan team could in fact sneak up on him. The General could use resouces for Banshees to provide him with a more detailed and constantly updated map of the battlefield while in first person but that may cost him ground forces and require the General to fight more in first person.
> > > >
> > > > I think it is cool and I would like to see the world of Halo Wars and the Halo FPS games merged in some way and this could be an interesting way of doing it. I don’t think it would work exactly as you described but with some adaptation to the Halo Wars play style I think it could be possible.
> > >
> > > That’s a very interesting idea, I like the premise behind it but I’m just a little worried that playing the General would get boring if he spends some of his time just standing around XD The main appeal to his gameplay would be the Halo Wars controls so that strategy game fans can get some fun from Infinite. Although I do like the idea of the Spartans being able to sneak, so maybe instead there could be a fog of war type thing like in typical strategy games. The General could only see via these radio towers or something, and if the Spartans can destroy them all expertly enough, they can go through the entire level without being seen. Of course this would be a longer process and cost them time if they aren’t efficient enough.
> >
> > Well, he wouldn’t be just standing around but unit would spawn in while he is in the First Person and he would still be able to direct them while in that mode and maybe set up auto turrets actually at the base. So the RTS part would be controlling units away from the base but units and structure inside the base have to be done in the first person.
> >
> > Maybe also instead of a terminal, the Gernal can enter the RTS mode anywhere by hitting a button. That way he would be more like a real commander where he can stop what he’s doing and address the urgent need of his troops.
>
> Yeah actually, I could see that working very well. Overall there’s a ton of different styles this could be done in, my hope is that it’ll be up to 343 to consider this and see what they think would work better. Thanks for your contribution! You have some cool ideas for this!

Well, you got the conversation started so I think it would be a lot of fun to see fan idea implemented like this into the game!

13

> 2533275022985379;1:
> **Hey you! Yeah I’m talking to you!**Do you wish that Halo: Reach’s versus Firefight had a bit more promise and depth to it? Do you like the general concept that Halo 4’s Spartan Ops provided, but just don’t think it was executed correctly? Do you want playing as a Sangheili in Halo to mean something just a bit more interesting than having flappy jaws, without ruining the balance of typical Matchmaking? All-in-all, would you like to see a gametype that benefits several varying types of players in a more casual and fun in setting?
>
> I present to you… Battalion (That’s a sorta placeholder name for now at least)
>
> I could write a whole essay about this idea, but I want to keep this post short, so instead I’ll leave plenty of space for anyone who’s interested in this idea to post their own ideas/suggestions to try and improve this mode! The basics are that it would be a five-player lobby with four people on Red Team, and only one slot on the Blue Team… But the catch is that this isn’t just your typical Firefight; It’s Spartan Ops vs. Halo Wars. You have the Red Team, Fireteam Whatever-The–Yoink-, deployed in a massive map fit for a strategy game, but of course with some extra structures, vehicles, weapons and whatever else they need. The objective is slightly different depending on the map (which will instead be referred to as missions, despite them not really having a connected story like Spartan Ops does) in how you execute it, but each mission will have the same overarching objective: Infiltrate the Covenant facility, and assassinate the Sangheili General before his Phantom arrives to extract him. This Sangheili General… Just so happens to be the one Blue Player, and he’s given Halo Wars controls. The base that he’s hiding in acts as a home base with structures and everything else that he can use to build up his army, and while doing his best to hold back the Fireteam by sending challenging waves of enemies at them, he can also put divide some of his forces to capture UNSC camps and convert them into extra bases. His objective is essentially just to survive, and develop his army in whatever way necessary to keep the Spartans from reaching him in time. I figured he can either hold them off until his Phantom arrives, or if he’s good enough, he can actually kill them. (I would design the Spartans to have several lives like Firefight, but they can’t respawn until the remaining members of the Fireteam all fall back to their Elephant or something similar). The General would access the Halo Wars menu via a terminal in his base, so that when the Spartans get inside, he can switch to a first person view and have one last desperate chance to fend them off by himself, and if he was smart he would have set up defensive troops within his base just as a fall-back plan to help him in this situation. By this point, it would be very akin to Reach’s Firefight with the squad of Spartans against one Sangheili backed by his AI buddies. Oh, and side note; There would be a Battalion Firefight version that changes around the roles, having the Spartans hold out for evac in an abandoned base while the General sends in swarms of enemies from a base that the Spartans can’t get to. He could even go in himself if he thinks he can deal the killing blow, but like in the base game, if the General dies the Spartans win.
>
> I know this is a very ambitious idea, one that would probably be pretty difficult to set up, but I feel like the payoff would be insanely worth it. We would have an immensely fun gamemode that will constantly give players entirely new experiences with how they encounter the AI, seeing that these Generals would all build and command their armies differently. It’ll be like experiencing Halo’s core gameplay loop in a whole new way, if 343 was really into this idea they could even supply the General with different Halo Wars-esque Leaders to choose from that have different themes in how they’re built. I just feel like this is an immensely unique idea that we’ve never seen done anywhere before, not once in any other game have we taken the role of an Antagonistic Leader commanding a whole army against a small team of badasses. Like I said before, please leave your thoughts, suggestions, etc. below and let’s get a discussion going! I’d love for 343 to at least take this idea in consideration, it has so much potential and I feel like it would be the best iteration of Firefight/Spartan Ops/Warzone/etc. we’ve ever gotten in the Halo Franchise!

“I want to keep this post short” lol. No disrespect intended, but the irony kinda made me chuckle.

14

> 2533275022985379;1:
> **Hey you! Yeah I'm talking to you!**Do you wish that Halo: Reach's versus Firefight had a bit more promise and depth to it? Do you like the general concept that Halo 4's Spartan Ops provided, but just don't think it was executed correctly? Do you want playing as a Sangheili in Halo to mean something just a bit more interesting than having flappy jaws, without ruining the balance of typical Matchmaking? All-in-all, would you like to see a gametype that benefits several varying types of players in a more casual and fun in setting?
>
> I present to you… Battalion (That's a sorta placeholder name for now at least)
>
> I could write a whole essay about this idea, but I want to keep this post short, so instead I'll leave plenty of space for anyone who's interested in this idea to post their own ideas/suggestions to try and improve this mode! The basics are that it would be a five-player lobby with four people on Red Team, and only one slot on the Blue Team… But the catch is that this isn't just your typical Firefight; It's Spartan Ops vs. Halo Wars. You have the Red Team, Fireteam Whatever-The–Yoink-, deployed in a massive map fit for a strategy game, but of course with some extra structures, vehicles, weapons and whatever else they need. The objective is slightly different depending on the map (which will instead be referred to as missions, despite them not really having a connected story like Spartan Ops does) in how you execute it, but each mission will have the same overarching objective: Infiltrate the Covenant facility, and assassinate the Sangheili General before his Phantom arrives to extract him. This Sangheili General… Just so happens to be the one Blue Player, and he's given Halo Wars controls. The base that he's hiding in acts as a home base with structures and everything else that he can use to build up his army, and while doing his best to hold back the Fireteam by sending challenging waves of enemies at them, he can also put divide some of his forces to capture UNSC camps and convert them into extra bases. His objective is essentially just to survive, and develop his army in whatever way necessary to keep the Spartans from reaching him in time. I figured he can either hold them off until his Phantom arrives, or if he's good enough, he can actually kill them. (I would design the Spartans to have several lives like Firefight, but they can't respawn until the remaining members of the Fireteam all fall back to their Elephant or something similar). The General would access the Halo Wars menu via a terminal in his base, so that when the Spartans get inside, he can switch to a first person view and have one last desperate chance to fend them off by himself, and if he was smart he would have set up defensive troops within his base just as a fall-back plan to help him in this situation. By this point, it would be very akin to Reach's Firefight with the squad of Spartans against one Sangheili backed by his AI buddies. Oh, and side note; There would be a Battalion Firefight version that changes around the roles, having the Spartans hold out for evac in an abandoned base while the General sends in swarms of enemies from a base that the Spartans can't get to. He could even go in himself if he thinks he can deal the killing blow, but like in the base game, if the General dies the Spartans win.
>
> I know this is a very ambitious idea, one that would probably be pretty difficult to set up, but I feel like the payoff would be insanely worth it. We would have an immensely fun gamemode that will constantly give players entirely new experiences with how they encounter the AI, seeing that these Generals would all build and command their armies differently. It'll be like experiencing Halo's core gameplay loop in a whole new way, if 343 was really into this idea they could even supply the General with different Halo Wars-esque Leaders to choose from that have different themes in how they're built. I just feel like this is an immensely unique idea that we've never seen done anywhere before, not once in any other game have we taken the role of an Antagonistic Leader commanding a whole army against a small team of badasses. Like I said before, please leave your thoughts, suggestions, etc. below and let's get a discussion going! I'd love for 343 to at least take this idea in consideration, it has so much potential and I feel like it would be the best iteration of Firefight/Spartan Ops/Warzone/etc. we've ever gotten in the Halo Franchise!

“I want to keep this post short” lol. No disrespect intended, but the irony kinda made me chuckle.

15

I don’t mean to be altering your ideas in ways you didn’t intend or anything, but I have a couple ideas. I think it’d be cool if the General could change his units colors and armor. This would obviously be in some kind of menu outside of the game. I also think it’d be cool if players were able to create little squad presets for when they are the General, think of it like this: you have a few squads that you can customize. The squads are like a loadout in the sense that they are always there, and can be altered outside of game. The General would be able to train as many of a certain preset as he wanted. Each preset would have an amount of space that the General would fill by adding troops to that squad preset. Different Troops take up different amounts of space, grunts taking up the least space, and hunters taking up the most space, and making the squad more expensive to produce in game. The General should also have an option to train individual soldiers that would train faster than a squad, but would be alone unless manually grouped together with other units.

those are my ideas. They might line up with your vision, or they might be completely different from what you were thinking. Either way, I hope it was, at the very least, interesting to read.

16

If rather see a more direct Firefight experience in the vein of Reach’s with even more customization options including (a bit of a pipe dream here) Forge-ability into the mainline series.

What you’re taking about to me sounds more interesting as a spin off game like Gears Tactics (actually quite a bit like Gears Tactics). Super ambitious and really cool, but it doesn’t appeal to some of the great aspects FF does. The sort of idea you’re putting forward would probably be served best if it had its own dedicated development instead of being a tacked-on game type.

17

Sounds like a great idea! I could definitely see myself playing this with my friends.

18

> 2535446727334979;15:
> I don’t mean to be altering your ideas in ways you didn’t intend or anything, but I have a couple ideas. I think it’d be cool if the General could change his units colors and armor. This would obviously be in some kind of menu outside of the game. I also think it’d be cool if players were able to create little squad presets for when they are the General, think of it like this: you have a few squads that you can customize. The squads are like a loadout in the sense that they are always there, and can be altered outside of game. The General would be able to train as many of a certain preset as he wanted. Each preset would have an amount of space that the General would fill by adding troops to that squad preset. Different Troops take up different amounts of space, grunts taking up the least space, and hunters taking up the most space, and making the squad more expensive to produce in game. The General should also have an option to train individual soldiers that would train faster than a squad, but would be alone unless manually grouped together with other units.
>
> those are my ideas. They might line up with your vision, or they might be completely different from what you were thinking. Either way, I hope it was, at the very least, interesting to read.

*(Just as a quick reply to your first comment: With all the ideas I have for this, trust me, that was short XD)*As for your ideas, I 100% agree with all of those! As well as having a cost system for certain soldiers, that way just making an army full of Hunters would be too costly and not be really effective. The presets sound like an awesome idea too and would help to speed up gameplay. And as for the colors?.. You got me thinking, and what would be awesome is if your units as the General used both your primary and secondary colors from your player character’s armor. Does that sound like a cool idea to you, or do you think it would be better as a completely separate color you select in a different menu or something?

19

> 2533274861158694;16:
> If rather see a more direct Firefight experience in the vein of Reach’s with even more customization options including (a bit of a pipe dream here) Forge-ability into the mainline series.
>
> What you’re taking about to me sounds more interesting as a spin off game like Gears Tactics (actually quite a bit like Gears Tactics). Super ambitious and really cool, but it doesn’t appeal to some of the great aspects FF does. The sort of idea you’re putting forward would probably be served best if it had its own dedicated development instead of being a tacked-on game type.

I’d definitely like to see a more typical experience too, which is why I also suggested Battalion Firefight. Because keep in mind one thing that’s already true with strategy games such as Halo Wars… AI bots are very commonly done in strategy games. It would probably be even easier for 343 to program a bot for that than for a normal player Spartan, which means that you could get a traditional Firefight experience (Or even an improved Spartan Ops experience) using either of the variants of the gamemode and just making the General a bot with your choice of difficulty. I could even see it working with Forge but the only thing is, and this is also a problem I would see with a perfectly original Firefight experience, is that it would probably have to be limited in a way (such as no specific sandbox-type/open canvas maps). AI path finding tends to be really complicated and specifically set for certain maps, and player-made structures can be unpredictable so I just don’t see something even like traditional Firefight working well with an entirely Forge-built map, not unless Infinite’s AI path-finding and just about everything else was entirely redone and upgraded from the ground up. My guess is it would be a bit more like Halo 3’s Forge where you can place your own props, weapons, teleporters and stuff like that down, but nothing that dramatically alters how the map plays. (Again this is referring to not just the concept of Battalion, but Firefight or just PvE gamemodes as a whole simply due to the AI limitation)

All that being said, I do agree to a point with your last point, that this gamemode may be better as it’s own spin-off title or something similar. I’m just afraid that 343 wouldn’t be anywhere near as responsive to making an entirely new game just to support one new idea, with one side of it just including normal Halo mechanics. I suggest it as a gamemode because as ambitious and crazy as it sounds, I feel like it’s within the realm of possibility. And I feel like it could be done in a way to provide an experience practically identical to classic Firefight, while also providing a new option. Like it was already to the barest technicality experimented with in Reach with allowing you to play as a Sangheili in Firefight, that was actually my inspiration for Battalion because I always felt that was a cool idea but the way that specific feature was implemented just didn’t work. I feel like something similar to this idea has been something 343 and even Bungie have considered in the past but just didn’t know how to execute it, and I’m hoping that this thread helps them pass that boundary to make a truly unique experience.

20

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> > I don’t mean to be altering your ideas in ways you didn’t intend or anything, but I have a couple ideas. I think it’d be cool if the General could change his units colors and armor. This would obviously be in some kind of menu outside of the game. I also think it’d be cool if players were able to create little squad presets for when they are the General, think of it like this: you have a few squads that you can customize. The squads are like a loadout in the sense that they are always there, and can be altered outside of game. The General would be able to train as many of a certain preset as he wanted. Each preset would have an amount of space that the General would fill by adding troops to that squad preset. Different Troops take up different amounts of space, grunts taking up the least space, and hunters taking up the most space, and making the squad more expensive to produce in game. The General should also have an option to train individual soldiers that would train faster than a squad, but would be alone unless manually grouped together with other units.
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> > those are my ideas. They might line up with your vision, or they might be completely different from what you were thinking. Either way, I hope it was, at the very least, interesting to read.
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> *(Just as a quick reply to your first comment: With all the ideas I have for this, trust me, that was short XD)*As for your ideas, I 100% agree with all of those! As well as having a cost system for certain soldiers, that way just making an army full of Hunters would be too costly and not be really effective. The presets sound like an awesome idea too and would help to speed up gameplay. And as for the colors?.. You got me thinking, and what would be awesome is if your units as the General used both your primary and secondary colors from your player character’s armor. Does that sound like a cool idea to you, or do you think it would be better as a completely separate color you select in a different menu or something?

Regarding the colors. I think that the player should have preset color pallets that they can chose from, as well as the option to chose whatever colors they want, so that they can use their player colors if it’s what they want to do. I’ve come up with a few different color pallets presets, besides default, I’ll list them now.

  1. Old Covenant. When applied to your units, this pallet gives them bright armor colors, reminiscent of Halo CE, 2, and 3.
  2. Winter Contingency. When applied to your units, this pallet gives them darker, grittier colors, based on Halo Reach.
  3. Shield world. This color pallet is the one for you, it gives your units the bright purple coloration from the original Halo Wars.
  4. Storm. This color pallet gives your units the muted metallic colors seen worn by the covenant in Halo 4 and 5.
  5. Banished. This pallet colors your units with the battle hardened reds and grays of the Banished in Halo Wars 2.
  6. Heretic. When worn by your units, they wear the industrial oranges, reds, and silvers worn by the Heretics in Halo 2.
  7. Acolyte. This color pallet is for true followers of the great journey. It gives you soldiers the metallic whites, grays, and blacks worn by soldiers of the Forunner war machine, along with glowing light accents similar to those of the promethians and sentinels. The lights can be alternated between the colors blue, orange, and red.

also, note that the player can use different pallets for different units if they so choose. For example, you could equip your elites with the “old covenant” color pallet, but have your grunts using the “storm” color pallet. Also, the color pallets do not affect what armor you equip your units with.