So, uh....Killstreaks and Ordnance

Games Other Halo
1

First of all, I wouldn’t want to build another great wall for my country. I’m not adding a TL;DR at the end - If you’re lazy, just read some of the replies and reply to that, or something.

So my topic for today - or tonight, I should say - is Ordnance Drops. That, and Killstreaks.

First of all, I’m pretty sure we all know that Ordnance was inspired, even if just a little bit, by Call of Duty’s killstreaks. Cod might not have been the creators of such a mechanic, but they are the biggest series out there that uses it, and is also famous for.

Now, Halo 4’s personal ordnance drops. There are many differences, but at the core, they are similar. But the differences…Does Halo do it good, or bad?

First of all, I think we all know why there wasn’t any ‘Pick 3’, or, ‘Its set with your loadout’ Ordnance. We just have the chance of getting them, on both small and big maps. Reason? Its waaaay to ‘Cod-ish’. It might be a good, or a bad thing, but if we put that in, Cod players will diss Halo for “Copying” and many halo fans will simply say the same. But was the alternative such a good thing?

Think about it for a second. In Call of Duty, Killstreaks are reset upon death… (Excluding MW3’s Support package, or any similar things.) In Halo, this is not the case. Now, Halo’s Ordnance obviously try to make you be more of a team player…right? Uhhh…Lets just say that as a guy who loves getting tons of kills, this has not changed my play style one bit other than me saying to my randy random teammates with no mics, ‘Get the laser!’ or ‘There’s a rocket launcher here!’ or things that could mutually benefit everybody on our team. Other than that, I still go for kills. Except in objective. We have no Ordnance there.

I think the implementation of that is a good thing. Cod had many campers, and when Black Ops 2 revealed that instead of ‘Kills’ it would be ‘Points’, much like Halo, it was well received news.

Next, Assists. Many people have complained about killstealers. Why? The chances of it being ‘Ordnance’ is pretty high. So what I would suggest is - Like BF3, have it so that it gives you a set Assist point (+5), and then what you did. For example, Distraction gives another +5. But maybe, if they did a ‘Damage assist’ where you got the points equivalent to the amount of damage, even better. Lets say you got the guy to 1 shot, and then somebody else finished him off. You would get, like, 7-9 points +5. Way more than normal.

Now, being able to choose your ‘prize’. In Cod, this is great. You can pick certain ones which are beneficial to your playstyle and skill. For example, maybe in a team game, you’re gonna run support streaks such as UAV (Shows enemy on mini-map), Counter UAV (Blocks their minimap) or EMP (Stops all their killstreaks, gun counters and HUD from working.). If you were going for kills, you’d go for offensive things. Maybe an Attack Chopper, or an AC-130. This then progresses into teamwork - Maybe several players going for kills, the other several supporting them. However, this can have a downside too. As an example, there’s a guy with a gamertag that has the word ‘JNasty’ and then numbers behind it consisting of a 7, 2, and 0. He makes epic gameplay on his youtube channel where he gets tons of high killstreaks. But why? He has a bunch of ‘Lackeys’ all running support classes just so he can look good. If you actually ‘hear’ him when he plays, you’ll see a lot of rage, as if he was touched when he was young.

But the good thing when in Halo? Well, Halo has always been about fairness. IMO, I think it’s much fairer that you can [Pick a slightly less powerful weapon and have a higher chance of getting it, or pick a more powerful weapon and have a lower chance at getting it] rather than [Simply get Ordnance, and leave it to chance between having some piece of crap like 2 grenades that you already have, or a Binary rifle while running the Ammo perk. Good or Bad? Your pick.

I’ve just about said all I wanted to say, so I really suggest you give it a read. I know it’s long, but I - hope- it’s also interesting to you.

Please, discuss: How would you rather have Ordnance implemented in Halo 4?

2

TL;DR:

  • “I like the ordnance system.”
  • “Should Ordnance meter fill up for assists(maybe dependend on damage inflicted)?”
  • “some CoD-player on Youtube is an angry guy”
  • “does the word ‘fairer’ really exist?”
3

Those assists, distractions, close calls, etc. that give you +5 points while not directly killing an opponent do increase your ordnance meter. I’ve had several times where I was close to getting a drop and then had it pushed over by one of the above. (Getting it off of a close call is mildly disturbing, because you limp away from battle, think whew! my shields are recharging and then the screen lights up and some guy is yelling at you “Ordnance Ready!”, and I panic thinking I’m being shot at again.)

4

Imo ordinances should be score “streaks” (without dying). Campers die often in this game, because teams move together and he’s separated from his team.

Not so sure about obj types, campers do very well camping in KOTH or Flag.

5

My eyes. Paragraphs OP. A thousand hells await you!

Just kidding. You just created a barbed wire fence, not the great wall of China. :stuck_out_tongue:

I would have preferred “select” weapons in the ordnance drops (personal). Weapons that are not snipers or rockets but say, Railgun or Sticky Det (SAW and Needler is fine as well). Set the weightings to either have 50/50 split in what pops up or have them set to 10, which is “static”. Meaning it will always be that choice on the D-pad, limits randomness this way too.

Also; i don’t care that assist are rewarded because they should. However, i think the ordnance gauge should be decreased or reset to zero after every death. You want to dangle the carrot in front of the player and reward them if they jump high enough. If they fail to do so, you obviously shouldn’t reward them with power weapons.

A risk-punishment system would ensure not to many power weapons are being called in all at once. For every kill, a player must die correct? If you want to get all the cool toys, then you’re going to have to earn it. It’s incentive to try; to aim for something. If your going to copy COD elements, just go all the way in this respect and have player gauges take a hit after every death.

It’s not punishing the casual by doing this. Not really. It actually gives them reason to try harder than they normally wouldn’t if they want to spray and pray with SAW or blow someone up with a Railgun.

But no killstreaks like Hornet Strafing runs, Pelican gunship, attack Alpha Crawlers, Laser Strike (Target Locator), or HAVOK nukes. They have no place in Halo IMO.

6

Ordnance doesn’t belong in Halo.

It rewards players for doing next to nothing.

It causes a severe amount of power weapons on each map, and every gametype is now a Heavy gametype.

It is unfair to one of the teams, when one team receives Rockets, Sniper, or Hammer while the other team receives Pulse grenades and Speed Boost.

Random =/= beneficial. Ever. It doesn’t work. Go back to the old weapon system and we’ll be much more happy.

7

The ordinance meter fills up the same for an assist as it would a normal kill, for it is filled up by obtaining medals, not points or kills rewarding you for doing what you like to do, whether it be hijacking vehicles or being an idiot running in and getting a death from the grave triple kill. Also ordinance isn’t too bad as it only rewards you with a really good power weapon (rocket launcher, incineration cannon) every other drop and it only has 3 bullets. Not only that but since it is only available on slayer, this applies particularly to big team slayer, the maps are quite big so a good player will kill that idiot on your team running around with the rocket with a quick few DMR shots. All in all I personally preferred Halo: Reach and Halo 3, but each man to his own and I think they implemented it in a good way, especially since you can’t get it on something like King of the Hill or Oddball and just rocket the objectives.