Let’s all face it… the AI squads in H5 were atrocious. I just played through legendary, and the amount of times they were (1) Useless, (2) Blatantly stupid, and (3) Absolutely unresponsive to commands was countless. IF Infinite fixes the AI, would you rather have a squad back for most missions, a tiny handful (like 2 or 3), or just not at all and go back to have the marine squads with you sometimes?
Personally, I’d be fine if we had a small handful of missions, in which the other spartans were actually useful and we didn’t have to babysit them. Otherwise, I’d like to go back to marines starting with you in some levels. What also made the marines fun is they had personality.
Never again do I want an experience like H5’s campaign. It had some beautiful level designs and scenery, but it was a bit less immersive with your squad yelling “I’m down!” every 30 seconds.
What are your thoughts?
I’d like Squads as they are good for Co-OP, but agree that there must be some significant AI improvements for solo players
Well I think the root cause of this issue was H5’s stupid concept of reviving-fallen-teammates-with-your-gadget. Reach’s approach of invincible Spartan teammates + player can get killed and respawned normally worked out much better, at least for me. That H5 failed to make feasible commands (like those in real tactical squad-based games) and enemy AI’s ridiculous shooting accuracy (that downs you and you teammates over and over) only made it worse.
It’s a safe bet that Infinite’s basic combat design should be pretty much finalized now, and our discussion’s probably not going the change anything. But if Infinite does end up keeping the squad system, I hope it’s either a slight improvement upon Reach: you don’t worry about Spartan teammates at all but get to choose and command marines, or something like this: take Blue Team as an example, you are in this enviornment where various enemies are all over you, but you only have an AR and plasma rifle. Aside from normally playing through just like Reach, you can also actively command Linda to focus on taking out distant targets with her sniper, leave Fred behind to watch your six with his DMR, as you and Kelly (shotgun) blast through hords of close-range hostiles to reach your objective, or any use other tactic you come up with. This idea will of course take much more resources to properly implement, but if Infinite does include squads, I think this will be the best way to do it.
No. I did enjoy it in reach but i want to play a new halo while being just chief.no squads, just like old times.
If there are squads, it needs to only be a handful of missions and it should be handled like the squads in Reach. The mechanics like reviving and giving commands should stay in the past.
I’d like a mixture of solo/AI. For all we know though there might not even be any Spartans available to squad up in Infinite.
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> New engine. New AI
Halo 5 was a new engine too… but we can be hopeful that it improves at least in the enemies. I’m still not really onboard with a thing like blue team with you all the time.
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> Well I think the root cause of this issue was H5’s stupid concept of reviving-fallen-teammates-with-your-gadget. Reach’s approach of invincible Spartan teammates + player can get killed and respawned normally worked out much better, at least for me. That H5 failed to make feasible commands (like those in real tactical squad-based games) and enemy AI’s ridiculous shooting accuracy (that downs you and you teammates over and over) only made it worse.
>
> It’s a safe bet that Infinite’s basic combat design should be pretty much finalized now, and our discussion’s probably not going the change anything. But if Infinite does end up keeping the squad system, I hope it’s either a slight improvement upon Reach: you don’t worry about Spartan teammates at all but get to choose and command marines, or something like this: take Blue Team as an example, you are in this enviornment where various enemies are all over you, but you only have an AR and plasma rifle. Aside from normally playing through just like Reach, you can also actively command Linda to focus on taking out distant targets with her sniper, leave Fred behind to watch your six with his DMR, as you and Kelly (shotgun) blast through hords of close-range hostiles to reach your objective, or any use other tactic you come up with. This idea will of course take much more resources to properly implement, but if Infinite does include squads, I think this will be the best way to do it.
Come to think of it I forgot Reach had the squad with you pretty much the entire game, and that’s most likely because it didn’t drive you insane because you weren’t stuck babysitting them! And they actually fought well and were smart in battle! And that’s true that Infinite already is fairly final… I just hope either the squad mechanics are really good or we a lone spartan again.
No, squads detract from the feel of the prior halo games 1-4 in that you were alone to explore the various locations. Co-op play was there but that was with live friends which adds a different element of fun.
I’d say no to squads but I’d be ok with a lobby system where players can use either drop in coop style game or/with normal coop lobby. Halo 5’s squad felt too much like hand holding…even though the AI wasn’t perfect.
I hope the squad mechanic returns along with blue team, though I do agree the AI should be better.
I don’t want to be in a squad the entire game. I think CE did it perfect in terms of being alone and meeting up with marines to fight the Covies, and later on the Flood before the marines disappeared entirely from the campaign. It made me feel abandoned at times and that I was the only one left to get things done. I want to get that feeling again in Infinite, but when I do link up with marines or other Spartans, I want to feel relieved to encounter friendlies again in such a hostile environment. And when I’m with allies, I’d like to have the same squad mechanics as 5, I don’t want revives though. I should care about keeping them alive because if they go down, they’re down for good. In the older games I always tried to keep my marine allies alive for that reason. In 5, I didn’t care as much because if they died they just respawned because they were essential to the plot anyway.
I really enjoy the ways friendly AI worked in past games. Instead of 3 other super powered Spartans, you had anywhere from 0 to a dozen marines just bopping around and kicking -Yoink-.
You didn’t need to command or give them direction as much, but keeping them safe and using them to turn the tide of battle was a fun little game in and of itself!
depends on what you mean. I am fine with how bungie games treated squads. They were just friendly AI running around with you. I would say completely remove the squad system from 5. it added nothing but instead was more of a headache to manage (let alone ultimately pointless) and ended up making the game easier with the revive system.
The revive mechanic was… Eh… At best for me, making anything other than Legendary irrelevant, but I did like the Squad Mechanic itself.
That being said I’d actually like to have things be a bit of both - meaning, some missions you’d be entirely alone for some duration of the mission (Either some of it or all of ti) and other missions you’d have some assistance. Rather than “Always having a team” like in 5 or “Always alone”.
I’d be OK with a Halo 5-style squad system IF your squad members’ A.I. was good. In Halo 5, the actual intelligence of your companions was by far the worst part of the squad system, with your allies often standing over your downed body doing nothing.
In addition, I’d personally prefer if the squad was not with the player the whole game like in 5. It’s cool fighting alongside allies, but you need those moments and levels for the player to shine on their own without help from allies. Being alone can also make some moments more impactful: the reveal of the Flood in Halo CE wouldn’t be nearly as powerful if you had allies helping you at that moment.
you could cheat effectively by simply waiting long enough for your team members to miraculously come back to life and this aspect was ridiculous. Same with Reach and you’re able to exploit this design making it all feel a bit daft. I’d imagine Halo Infinite will do away with them altogether such was the negative reaction to them regarding Halo5. Not that Squads in Halo5 were entirely badly done concerning all aspects but they did sacrifice a lot by their inclusion
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> you could cheat effectively by simply waiting long enough for your team members to miraculously come back to life and this aspect was ridiculous. Same with Reach and you’re able to exploit this design making it all feel a bit daft. I’d imagine Halo Infinite will do away with them altogether such was the negative reaction to them regarding Halo5. Not that Squads in Halo5 were entirely badly done concerning all aspects but they did sacrifice a lot by their inclusion
Reach was better since sometimes you were alone, sometimes not, and your team never died so you weren’t babysitting, but it did feel more like it was your job to keep yourself alive
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> > 2533274895787994;2:
> > New engine. New AI
>
> Halo 5 was a new engine too… but we can be hopeful that it improves at least in the enemies. I’m still not really onboard with a thing like blue team with you all the time.
I wouldn’t want them all the time. But when they are there I want them to be expert assets and not annoying liabilities.