I’d like to put forward the idea that Objective gameplay in Halo is due for an overhaul. Up to now, it’s always been the younger sibling to Slayer variants, and that’s fine – slayer is obviously de rigueur for Halo. But let’s talk about how Objective can be updated for Guardians, taking into the next generation of console play.
First idea I’d like to put forward is to break out CTF from an objective playlist. CTF is huge in Halo, and deservedly has its own playlist. But the fact it appears in the Objective playlist only serves to undercuts the other gametypes. I say let CTF have its own fiefdom, where big or small teams can capture the flag. Leave Objective (big and small) for all the myriad of other gametypes, because CTF drowns out the other options.
Which brings me to my second idea. An Objective playlist needs lots of gametypes. I feel all the past offerings should be given consideration, especially those which were left off in Halo 4. Territories, KotH, Oddball, the Bomb variants (neutral, assault, etc), Juggernaut, Headhunter… have I missed any?
Third point, make the scoring and ranking for objective less dependent on K/D. I don’t know what it should be --I’ll leave it to better people than me to figure that out-- but I feel there needs to be more consideration spent on the variety of ways a player can contribute to achieving the objective. Halo 4 made an admirable start with this, providing feedback on a variety of objective-minded achievements (base captures, time in hill, oddball assists, etc. Reach did this too, with the Skullamanjaro. Let’s improve on that direction in Guardians, give us ways to really excel at Objective play where killing is a secondary consideration.
I’d love to hear your comments about my ideas, and I’d really love to hear your thoughts about Objective in Guardians and how you would like the experience to play out.
At first I thought this thread was going to be about CTF getting combined with objective to which I would have disagreed (CTF deserves to be seperate) BUT I agree with all of this except, while slaying should be a secondary…I feel it should still count towards K/D and score because when I am playing with a team or competitively I am appointed to be a “slayer” along with one other.
Deathmatch is always the most popular gametype in any shooter.
As far as stats go, I think win/loss is the best stat. Having a high number of Flag Taken medals means nothing if you lost because you weren’t coordinating those grabs with your team and thus kept dying because you didn’t have teammates to assist.
I too agree with both of you.
A lover of the CTF gametype, I can’t really say any bad things about it. Yes, it should have it’s own playlist.
The Objective playlist is also a good idea, as long as CTF still gets it’s own spotlight.
And Kit said this as well, K/D should still count in Objective gametypes. However, I would like to see it be less weighted towards K/D, because after all, Objective is objectives. The terms ‘kill-farmer’ and ‘camper’ strike negative connotations, and you can see why. Admit it, we’ve all been one at least once.
In Objective based matches, K/D shouldn’t be as heavily weighted, but should still count. Or weighted in a different way. Allow me to explain:
Instead of K/D being simply the ration of your kills to your deaths, make it a bit more advanced for objective. For example, in CTF matches, the kills that count as ‘flag defense’, ‘flag kill’, and ‘flag carrier kill’ count more than just generic kills. Teamwork medals such as 'Flag Driver’and ‘Flag Assist’ should count as well towards an Objective-based K/D. Just an idea to throw out there.
EDIT: Vektor’s win/loss ratio is also good.
I’m all for K/D having a place in the objective ranking, but I’m from the school that thinks it’s a secondary consideration. It’s all about the weighting, is all.
So far I’m inclined to agree, W/L is probably the most direct and appreciable approach.
Another thought I just had: we learned in Halo 4 that a playlist per gametype was a great idea but hindered by overall population. What do you all think about its viability if the population were much, much stronger? If Guardians had population along the lines of H2 or H3, would you rather each gametype get a playlist instead of a big Objective bucket?
I would say that instead of having CTF alone, it might be bundled with Bomb gametypes as well. They both have a lot in common, Assault even started out as reverse flag if I recall correctly.
We would have Flag/Bomb together in the capture/plant objective gametypes while the gametypes that rely on ‘holding’ objectives(Oddball, KOTH, Extraction, Territories) have their own playlist.
As far as stats go win/loss should be the only criteria for ranks, that said I think that we should just separate kills and objectives. Kills work in the traditional kills, assists, death, +/- spread. Objectives use a Halo 4 style system to track flag caps, hill/oddball times, disarms, etc. These screens would be separate in the post games. The Halo 4 points allow for a more flexible system to separate the worth of one flag cap vs timed objectives like Oddball and hill.
Leaderboards would be separate for both so Top objective players are separate from top slayers.