Let’s talk about expanding upon the grenade sandbox for Halo 5. I definitely think this is something 343 should do, to help increase gameplay variety and longevity. Seems to me like something Halo should have done in fact a while ago.
I have some ideas how I think it should be implemented. I don’t think it should work as it did in Halo 3. With 4 grenade slots. No I think there should only be only 2. And I think as default there should only be allowed 2 grenades per slot. Though an option to increase that in custom games would be nice. Grenades will be picked up automatically as normal but if your slots are full and you want to pick up a different type of grenade you do so by holding down the switch grenade button. Which would be for example LB or X not the D-pad. It should be done this way to avoid interfering with weapon pickups. On screen it would look similar to dual wielding pick up indicators, grenades on the left, weapons on the right.
For the grenades we could have Frags, plasma grenades, Pulse grenades… The Pulse grenade I think should primarily be a field damage grenade. Kind of like Destiny Void grenades. Field damage could be devastating vs stationary or slow moving vehicles. For the visual effect I would have it look something like this:
The pulse grenade could emit 4 pulses, each pulse doing bonus damage and creating a physics impulse that could potentially flip a vehicle. Just not as easily as a frag will. 1 upon activation, one at the end, 2 in between. The grenade could last 3 seconds. If a player is killed by the field they will immediately begin to disintegrate. The Grenades could also be destructible. 3 burst of a BR or a frag could destroy them, but if they are destroyed they will explode with a larger explosion/ pulse depending on how many pulses were left over. Instead of snapping into a fixed position I would have the grenades sort of levitate. With a high tendency to stay still/ high friction. Potentially falling if they activate mid air. They should also activate just as easily off a person as a wall. Pulse grenade I think can become one of the coolest grenades in gaming if done right.
…Spike Grenades. With a twist. Now they are proximity activated. They’ll detonate on their own in maybe 4 seconds of sticking, so they are not just throw and forget weapons, but will detonate early if a player is very close to them. Very similar to Destiny Tripmine grenades only the auto det time would be quicker and they will detonated projecting spikes primarily in the direction the spike grenade is pointing. 1 shot destructible.
…Blamite. Or Shard Grenades. Based upon Needler tech. Functions like a cluster bomb but each shard can home in on nearby players sort of like a Destiny Swarm grenade. Tracks around cover and corners. Does not have the lasting area of effect like a Swam grenade. If there is no player nearby when it splits it will detonate similar to a Destiny Scatter bomb. Yes I’ve been playing Destiny a lot lately.
I’d be happy leaving it there. 5 grenade types. Other candidates could be fire bombs and power drainer/ arc grenades but I wanted to avoid too many area of effect grenades. Flash bangs maybe. not really needed. I’m open to new ideas however.
As for placing grenades on the Map. I’ve started doing something with my forge maps where I have 4 of the same grenade in one location. And only having say 4 grenade locations on a map. Smaller maps 3. 2 of which are frags. I do it that way so you can predict what grenades a player might use based upon their location. And so if 2 players on the same team go to the same location for grenades they can share. 30 sec respawn timer. Could do something similar the new grenades. 2 frag spawn locations, 1 plasma or spike and 1 Pulse or Shard location. 3 Grenade types per map.
