Small Additions To Improve The Game

Games Other Halo
1

It seems everyone is talking about the large scale features such as the equipment system, what weapons should be in the game and which enemy we should face in campaign, yet the small tweaks and additions are just as important and more easily added by 343. After the basic formula for a game is decided, often all it takes to make a good game great are a large number of small changes. So here’s a list of some smaller additions I thought of:

Maps

-Fusion coils. One thing I really missed from Halo 3 were the fusion coils set up in strategic positions on maps like the pit or foundry (I.E not stuffed in a corner which you can ignore for the majority of the game on countdown). Deciding whether or not to shoot these was often a split second decision which could turn the tide of battle.

Custom games

General

-Loadouts. Now before everyone puts their trollface masks on, I’m not suggesting loadouts should be in competitive games or otherwise. That’s another matter entirely. But there is no logical reason as to why they can’t be in custom games. Also we should be able to alter the base player traits of each loadout, so we can give the beserker loadout a faster running speed, or the juggernaut loadout more health.

-Sliders replace percentages. It always bothered me how the custom traits could only be set to cdertain values like 125% and 200%. I think they should be replaced with sliders which allow us to precisely select the traits we’d like.

-Fall damage modifier. Allows you to modify how much damage players recieve from falling. Just to be clear, you should also be able to select at what height you recieve damage. So you could set it to recieve damage from a 5 ft drop if you wanted. Also the ability to disable fall damage entirely.

-Explosives damage. At first I thought just a grenade modifier, but then I thought it would be better if we could have a modifier which affects the damage dealt by all explosive weapons including grenades, rockets and GLs. This would exist seperate to themelee modifier and damage modifier (which I think should be named projectile damage modifier as it would now only cover around half the weapons)

-Force and radius modifier (Sliding Ghost). Adjusts the force of impact caused by weapons like the hammer and rockets, and adjusts the blast radius of explosives respectively

Infection

New objective:

-Destination marker. This would work a little like the safe have, in that it provides incentive to keep people moving around the map and prevent camping. The difference bieng it doesn’t fail. Basically whenever a suvivor steps into a marker (which will look like the hill from KoTH) they gain a set number of points, then the objective marker will move futher back so they have to keep moving through the map to earn points. Note that no points would be earned for killing zombies in this mode, as the idea is for the humans to get through the level in one piece, not sit in a corner with a shotgun racking up kills. A player could also gain points for any teamates which make it to an objective marker, to encourage teamwork.

New medals:

-Swarm assist. This would be a medal for the infected. The medal is earned by bieng near a survivor which a teamate kills or bieng near a survivor but bieng killed seconds before he was. It rewards you for charging with your teamates all at once and overwhelming the survivors with sheer numbers, instead of just rewarding the one playyer who landed the kill.

-Saviour. Earned by killing a zombie close to a teamate

-Sacrifice. This is a medal for the survivors. To earn this medal you have to die just after saving a teamate from a zombie or die so your teamate can reach an objective marker (as detailed above).

Forge

-Pallets. No that isn’t a typo, and yes I do mean the pieces of wood found on Halo 3’s Foundry. As one of the few destructable objects, these are essential for custom games. Yet they weren’t in Forge World for one reason or another.

-Tools. Copy/paste feature, undo/redo buttons and a mirror button.

Theatre

-Rewind (JDHarbs19). Yes that’s right, an actual rewind. As in showing the frames that make up the video in reverse order! Sarcasm aside this is a much needed improvement over the current “30 second jump backwards” or whatever we have now and will also help in taking the perfect screenshot

-X64 fast forward. Seriously, the fast forward in Reach is agonizingly slow.

-2 Player theatre. Guessing this was removed to speed up loading times. But honestly that seems stupid, as now instead of bieng able to watch videos with a friend (albiet with long loading times) we’re not able to at all. I really can’t see the logic there.

I will update this list as I think of new ideas or good ideas are posted.

Thoughts?

2

> -Explosives damage. At first I thought just a grenade modifier, but then I thought it would be better if we could have a modifier which affects the damage dealt by all explosive weapons including grenades, rockets and GLs. This would exist seperate to themelee modifier and damage modifier (which I think should be named projectile damage modifier as it would now only cover around half the weapons)

In that case, let’s not forget force and radius modifier.

The Sentinel Beam could be made into a gravity gun style weapon (already is in campaign, against airborne enemies but only when controlled by AI).

The gravity hammer could be amplified so that it’s damage is nullified but it’s blast effect can be felt/seen from all the way across this map via radius modifier. This could be useful for machinima.

The EMP effect of CE plasma grenades could be replicated.

3

> > -Explosives damage. At first I thought just a grenade modifier, but then I thought it would be better if we could have a modifier which affects the damage dealt by all explosive weapons including grenades, rockets and GLs. This would exist seperate to themelee modifier and damage modifier (which I think should be named projectile damage modifier as it would now only cover around half the weapons)
>
> In that case, let’s not forget force and radius modifier.

I did think of that, however I thought that would be much, much harder to implement as it requires modifications to the physics of the game.

Then again, they can modify the jump height and gravity easily enough, so who knows? I’ll add it in just in case.

4

How about an actual rewind feature for Theater mode instead “jumping” back in intervals?

Also, how about letting us customize size/shape of forge objects the same way we do with hills/zones/boundaries/etc.

5

> How about an actual rewind feature for Theater mode instead “jumping” back in intervals?

Damn, I knew I forgot something.

6

> It seems everyone is talking about the large scale features such as the equipment system, what weapons should be in the game and which enemy we should face in campaign, yet the small tweaks and additions are just as important and more easily added by 343. After the basic formula for a game is decided, often all it takes to make a good game great are a large number of small changes. So here’s a list of some smaller additions I thought of:
>
> Maps
>
> -Fusion coils. One thing I really missed from Halo 3 were the fusion coils set up in strategic positions on maps like the pit or foundry (I.E not stuffed in a corner which you can ignore for the majority of the game on countdown). Deciding whether or not to shoot these was often a split second decision which could turn the tide of battle.
>
> Custom games
>
> General
>
> -Loadouts. Now before everyone puts their trollface masks on, I’m not suggesting loadouts should be in competitive games or otherwise. That’s another matter entirely. But there is no logical reason as to why they can’t be in custom games. Also we should be able to alter the base player traits of each loadout, so we can give the beserker loadout a faster running speed, or the juggernaut loadout more health.
>
> -Sliders replace percentages. It always bothered me how the custom traits could only be set to cdertain values like 125% and 200%. I think they should be replaced with sliders which allow us to precisely select the traits we’d like.
>
> -Fall damage modifier. Allows you to modify how much damage players recieve from falling. Just to be clear, you should also be able to select at what height you recieve damage. So you could set it to recieve damage from a 5 ft drop if you wanted. Also the ability to disable fall damage entirely.
>
> -Explosives damage. At first I thought just a grenade modifier, but then I thought it would be better if we could have a modifier which affects the damage dealt by all explosive weapons including grenades, rockets and GLs. This would exist seperate to themelee modifier and damage modifier (which I think should be named projectile damage modifier as it would now only cover around half the weapons)
>
> -Force and radius modifier (Sliding Ghost). Adjusts the force of impact caused by weapons like the hammer and rockets, and adjusts the blast radius of explosives respectively
>
>
> Infection
>
> New objective:
>
> -Destination marker. This would work a little like the safe haven, in that it provides incentive to keep people moving around the map and prevent camping. The difference bieng it doesn’t fail. Basically whenever a suvivor steps into a marker (which will look like the hill from KoTH) they gain a set number of points, then the objective marker will move futher back so they have to keep moving through the map to earn points. Note that no points would be earned for killing zombies in this mode, as the idea is for the humans to get through the level in one piece, not sit in a corner with a shotgun racking up kills. A player could also gain points for any teamates which make it to an objective marker, to encourage teamwork.
>
> New medals:
>
> -Swarm assist. This would be a medal for the infected. The medal is earned by bieng near a survivor which a teammate kills or being near a survivor but being killed seconds before he was. It rewards you for charging with your teammates all at once and overwhelming the survivors with sheer numbers, instead of just rewarding the one player who landed the kill.
>
> -Saviour. Earned by killing a zombie close to a teammate
>
> -Sacrifice. This is a medal for the survivors. To earn this medal you have to die just after saving a teammate from a zombie or die so your teammate can reach an objective marker (as detailed above).
>
> Forge
>
> -Pallets. No that isn’t a typo, and yes I do mean the pieces of wood found on Halo 3’s Foundry. As one of the few destructable objects, these are essential for custom games. Yet they weren’t in Forge World for one reason or another.
>
> -Tools. Copy/paste feature, undo/redo buttons and a mirror button.
>
> Theatre
>
> -Rewind (JDHarbs19). Yes that’s right, an actual rewind. As in showing the frames that make up the video in reverse order! Sarcasm aside this is a much needed improvement over the current “30 second jump backwards” or whatever we have now and will also help in taking the perfect screenshot
>
> -X64 fast forward. Seriously, the fast forward in Reach is agonizingly slow.
>
> -2 Player theatre. Guessing this was removed to speed up loading times. But honestly that seems stupid, as now instead of being able to watch videos with a friend (albiet with long loading times) we’re not able to at all. I really can’t see the logic there.
>
> I will update this list as I think of new ideas or good ideas are posted.
>
> Thoughts?

Love these ideas.

7

Excellent ideas.