Okay so i’m just bringing up an old, but very very famous topic on the Reach forums by the user Hylebos. It’s about the gametype Overseer…and how it could really “evolve combat”
If you want to add a poll or something, one of you can do it in a separate topic. Just copy and paste the section that explains it well.
Three years sounds like plenty of time to work out the finer details of the “Mother of all Multiplayer Matches”. Its like forge, but not forge at all. For now I’m calling it “Overseer” which is a synonym for Monitor, but if you have a better name please suggest it, I’m all ears.
How would it work? A member from each team would be a sort of “VIP” and become the monitor. But this monitor’s powers would be vastly limited compared to their forge counterparts. By opening the item menu, you wouldn’t seen the normal blocks and camping stools or teleporters that you are used to seeing, but a modest selection of weapons, some vehicles, and more importantly, effects.
But to the players frustration, he would find that he can’t spawn any of these items. He looks down at his budget, and sees that it is $0. How is he expected to earn enough money to afford anything on his list?
His team, of course. By killing the enemy and earning medals, the players add money to the team’s collective money pool. That money can be used to then buy items from the menu to give to their team.
But unlike normal forge, when the monitor holds most weapons, vehicles, or armor abillities, it is represented by a wire frame of that object, and not the actual object itself. No Matter how hard he swings it at other objects, allies, or enemies, it will not come in contact with them, it is intangilible. Once he sets it down on the ground, he can’t pick it up again, and a timer starts. Once the timer hits zero, the item becomes solid and can be used by anybody. This is to prevent the aforementioned splattering cheapness and to make it so that the monitor can’t solve all of the team’s problems instantly. A team that realizes that the other monitor is going to spawn a scorpion in advance and can counter spawn a spartan laser will be rewarded more than the team who is trying to avoid tank fire while they wait for their monitor to spawn a splazer.
The monitor would also be slower than his forge counterpart, making him very vunerable to enemy weapons. If his team mates want the monitor to help them out in battle, they are going to need to protect his -Yoink- properly. If a monitor does die, a new monitor is chosen much in the style of VIP, where the next person who dies spawns as the new monitor. There may also be a loss of money for every monitor death to make it more severe.
I mentioned earlier effects. What could those look like? Special powerups and tricks that the monitor could buy to help out his team in battle. For example, one effect could be a shield door that can be used to block enemy fire from both sides of the wall. Once bought, the monitor is forced to hold it an can’t drop it until it expires, but can save his team from deadly fire if he uses it. Another effect could be a regenerator circle, once bought, the monitor places a circle on the ground and must hold it there for a small time period for it to become active. Anybody inside that circle gets their shields recharged, but you can’t just spawn one instantly like you can do with the equipment regenerator. These are just a few ideas for effects, there could be many possibillities.
As for editing this gametype for custom games, the player would be able to enable or disable certain items or effects from the monitor’s inventory, and perhaps change the cost of each item if they wish. That way, if you find it cheap that a monitor can spawn a sniper rifle for only three enemy kills, you can either take it out or make it much more expensive. And as for the monitor that chooses to just fly around the map, or just spawn pistols all day, well you could press back on your controller and you, and your friends could vote on another monitor (by pressing “Y” or some button like that)
By the way, I’m always down for more things to add into this. I thought of one earlier about how the monitor should be able to buy stuff for himself also. Like 4x overshield (since he can get shot at) or 1 Spartan Laser blast that he can use… maybe even buy a flag to put in one of the four (or so) designated spots on the map. The team has to make sure the opposing team doesn’t get in it for 15 seconds. While the flag isn’t occupied by the opposing the team, the team that has ownership of the flag get 5 or so dollars every 5 seconds or so… changes things up from slayer to objective.
The team that captures the flag can unlock either one power weapon (rockets/sniper) or one light vehicle (ghost, Avalanche esque Hornet)
Maybe even other oddities like for 2 credits the monitor can tag an enemy player. This will highlight the player, like a VIP emblem so all other players can go after him. This would be useful for the enemy player with the sniper or the rocket launcher. Or the monitor could spawn classic weapons, like the 3 shot Halo CE pistol for 10 credits. Or for huge maps, like the size of sandtrap, you could spawn something like a mini scarab for 50 credits
