I’d like to discuss balancing stealth in Halo Infinite.
Stealth, Camping, Ambushing are all strategies mostly done for defense and guarding locations.
Run-n-gun, sweaty, drop sliding, high octane movement is undoubtedly offensive in game play.
I do enjoy sprint, slide, clamber, and movement enhancing equipment in Halo. However, I think there needs to be better balance between these to game styles. I would hope a big budget game like Halo seems to be, could make a welcome play space for all kinds of players.
I’ll start with the radar. It made complete sense when Bungie put in the now legacy radar. The game play was simple and approachable. Walk, jump, crouch. Walk you show on radar, crouch you don’t. This or that, risk/reward, two sides same coin. Jump to gain higher ground and you are pinged on radar.
Non-movement radar pings were guns and vehicles (offensive things). I don’t recall if throwing a grenade popped radar, so I won’t comment on that.
In Infinite the balance for offensive to defensive, Run-n-gun vs stealth seems heavily swayed to advantage Run-n-gun game play. Stealth players can still crouch to stay off radar, however more aggressive players now search the maps much faster with new features and tools designed to benefit just that style of game play. With sprint, slide (which seems to add a slight speed boost), drop/ramp slides, Grapple Shot, Repulsor, and Threat Sensor, more aggressive players have more advantages to hunt down stealth players much faster than ever before. Stealth players are still just restricted to crouching, not a single balancing mechanic for defense has been implemented. I was hoping walking would be considered just for a small balancing mechanic but I realize now that the 2 hours of testing and feedback was all 343 needed to hear the community’s voice. 343 is very noble and wouldn’t bottleneck time frames or feedback to benefit any agenda.
I do like the radar, I find the information about player elevation and direction very informative. However, I think there should be more ways to circumvent it if you are actively trying. Just like having to sprint in order to slide. I would like crouching be a utility to stealth and not just crouch walking. Here’s what I mean. If you crouch and then jump or crouch then jump to clamber it should stay off radar. Also crouch walking off a ledge to a lower level, these would help stealth players traverse maps while staying off radar and not have to be limited to using ramps. Stealth players would still be limited by the map unlike anyone using Grapple Shot.
Now on to the other tools and feature that are added on to hinder players options to play defensively. Player outlines, I know they are here to stay because 343 cares about how we express ourselves to the gaming public, and I know everyone knows how they impact stealth so I won’t even get into those.
Grenade hit markers, mainly used to indicate a grenade has damaged someone you can’t see, because if you could see them as the grenade hit them you would know it due to the feedback from shields, grunting spartan battle chatter, maybe a little blood splatter or sparks from shrapnel pinging off the opponents armor. I would hate to see a brilliant gaming company waste money on implementing a redundant mainstream feature just for no reason.
I do see a good reason for the threat sensor and I did use it a lot in the BTB CTF flighting. It was great to see the squad camping the flag with power weapons. It was so nice that I could even see what weapons they had. It gave me a chance to rethink my approach to try to lure them out rather that rush right in. I wouldn’t have stood a chance against those defenders. I just picked up some dynamo grenades and cleared them out of the bottom of the base for flag 2.
I really don’t want to see any human military weapons with silencers. However I was thinking if the plasma weapons like the original plasma rifle were used by Elites in active camo and 343 is altering utilities for weapons like plasma not emping vehicles. Wouldn’t a new/revisited utility be stealth for plasma weapons. If plasma weapons wouldn’t ping the radar but be balanced by glowing rounds that are easier to see coming at you and have a higher TTK. It would also give players an actual reason to pick one up.
I’m sure this is a lot to get through so I will save anymore for thread discussion. Thanks 343 for the opportunity to share my ideas with the community.
EDIT: I would like to add that the drop wall would make a great option for stealth if it acted like concealment instead of cover. It would help let is shine on its own rather than being inferior to the deployable cover from H3. There were a lot of benefits DC had over DW. The DC was tangible and could be stood upon also speed runners used it as a great tool to traverse terrain.
Drop Wall could be better utilized as either opaque or a wall of camo/invis just like in that Mission Impossible Movie, I think it was Ghost Protocol, not sure. However they used it to invisibly approach a guard down a hallway and enter a room unseen. I wouldn’t like to see the wall movable like in the movie but a wall of Invis could be used to pile up a team to scout and assault a location from concealment. It could also potentially hide lens flare and muzzle flash depending on the implementation. Do anyone else agree this would help drop wall shine in its own unique way?