A spectator “mode” in Halo has been a long-time request now. But there seems to have been a major misunderstanding regarding the said “mode”. I post this in hope to clear up the confusion regarding this, and, hopefully make 343 reconsider their decision regarding the implementation of the said feature.
People tend to think of a “mode” as a deep, complex part of the main Halo experience. Think of Forge or Theater; both are huge, standalone features that revolutionized Halo. Spectator “mode” wouldn’t be that big of a feature, and for the sake of making this post clearer, I will refer to it as “Spectator Function”.
Who says function, also says options, and options are for custom games. So it would be no more than an option for custom games, rather than a complex Matchmaking system or standalone mode. Here’s an idea of how it could work.
NOTE: I’ll use Reach as a template to showcase how it would be shown in game.
In custom games, when editing settings, the main screen shown is this. The spectator function would be available from there.
GAME OPTIONS
SCORE TO WIN: X
TEAMS: DISABLED / ENABLED
SPECTATORS: DISABLED / ENABLED
[GAMETYPE NAME] OPTIONS
WEAPONS AND VEHICLES
GENERAL SETTINGS
LEADER TRAITS
When enabled, the spectator function would allow a predetermined amount (depending on what the game engine allows) of players in the lobby to switch to the spectator “team”. This cannot be changed in-game.
In-game, the spectators would be invisible, and have no effect on the game itself, regarding spawns or whatever else. Perhaps the host could be forced upon them as well. The spectators would watch from a 1st-person perspective, but would have the option to go in 3rd-person, like in Theater. The spectators would also have an option to switch between players by holding (or toggling) a button and using the d-pad to switch between the names, and releasing it to switch to that person. This would work and look better than the Theater’s d-pad-spamming until reaching the wanted person.
There could also be an “auto-follow” button which switches on its own depending on a list of factors in order of importance. There would be a slight cooldown timer (2-3 seconds) to prevent the auto-cam from being all over the place and confusing.
Example:
- Player is earning a potential multikill
- Player has a power weapon / power-up
- Player is on a spree
- Player has the objective
- Player has earned multiple medals in a short amount of time
- Player is in battle (follow until kill happens)
etc.
NOTE: This is more or less a random list to give an idea.
Post-game, a recording of NOTHING MORE than what the spectator has witnessed (including all the POV switches) during the game would be available to view in Theater mode. These recordings would not allow free control like other Theater files, in order to limit their size, and would be more similar to an actual video rather than scripted actions.
In the case of this still being too much of a bandwidth hog, the minimal numbers that would work best should be something along these.
In-game players: 8-10
Spectators: 2-4
REASONING: Most matches (looking at Team Slayer from H3 and Reach) happen in the 4v4 format, and two spectators would allow for one to focus on a team each. It is also the amount of players on an MLG team, which would give the give the spectator mode an use for tournaments and would lower the cost in a SIGNIFICANT manner, allowing for more tournaments, and more exposure for Halo in general in regards to e-Sports, which means more sales for 343 as the game / series becomes more and more popular… win / win.
In the case of this still being too much of a bandwidth hog somehow, then perhaps limit it to System Link / LAN usage. It would still have its use for tournaments, and allow streams to be more interesting.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you (343) reconsider your decision regarding the spectator function.
Credits to U4iX from The Halo Council for some of the ideas.