I appreciate 343i’s work on Halo and look forward to Guardians. Although they’ve probably locked down much of the features included in Guardians already, in the chance that they actually haven’t (and that they occasionally mine these forums for community ideas), I have a few suggestions related to improving custom games.
Handicapping individual players (and/or teams) – I’m not the über-competitive Halo player I once was. Nowadays, I prefer getting together with 10 friends in a custom match and socializing, while also introducing people new to Halo to a great multiplayer experience. One of the barriers to Halo newbies is that they get crushed. A lot. They struggle to have fun while being bullet magnets and simultaneously missing everything they shoot at. They need a little help to get up to speed. Maybe better armor, maybe a 500% shield, maybe lasting invisibility. (For one of my friends, all of the above.) They need a handicap. Hence, the request, which could do some good toward creating new Halo fans.
More variety in win/loss parameters – We need a little shakeup to the same old routine. In past Halos, we’ve had the usual victory conditions, i.e. kill totals, flag captures, etc. Would like to see something new that the gaming community can experiment with, maybe leading to some creative new MP game types. Personally, I’ve been looking for a way to signal victory when all players on a given team are in a specific zone/area. To be more specific, one of my favorite game types was a PC mod (for Quake, UT, etc) called Jailbreak – i.e. when a player is killed, he is captured and placed in a “jail” until either a) the whole team is captured, and they lose; or b) he is freed by another teammate. I would like to recreate that in Halo, but currently there is no way (that I know of) to do this. More options/variety for the community in custom games would be awesome and appreciated.
Bots – Yeah, this request has probably been done to death, but what a great addition it would be. Bots take a lot of work to do well, I get that. So do them well and make them amazing! Sorry to borrow again from PC gaming, but I loved UT’s bots – they allowed me to inch my way back into competitive online competition when real life kept me away for weeks. I could load up several offline games with bots, stay acclimated to the speed and timing, then jump into an online match without feeling like I was five steps behind. Bungie said no to bots, but they were simply wrong. Make it right, 343. If not in Guardians, in 6 then.
And that’s pretty much it. I have some other thoughts, but these are enough to chew on. The custom games niche within multiplayer has been where I’ve had the most fun the past couple years, and I imagine it will continue to be, regardless if it undergoes any changes or upgrades.
Anyone else have additional ideas regarding how 343i can improve custom games in Halo 5?
> 2749742451060221;1:
> I appreciate 343i’s work on Halo and look forward to Guardians. Although they’ve probably locked down much of the features included in Guardians already, in the chance that they actually haven’t (and that they occasionally mine these forums for community ideas), I have a few suggestions related to improving custom games.
>
> 1) Handicapping individual players (and/or teams) – I’m not the über-competitive Halo player I once was. Nowadays, I prefer getting together with 10 friends in a custom match and socializing, while also introducing people new to Halo to a great multiplayer experience. One of the barriers to Halo newbies is that they get crushed. A lot. They struggle to have fun while being bullet magnets and simultaneously missing everything they shoot at. They need a little help to get up to speed. Maybe better armor, maybe a 500% shield, maybe lasting invisibility. (For one of my friends, all of the above.) They need a handicap. Hence, the request, which could do some good toward creating new Halo fans.
>
> 2) More variety in win/loss parameters – We need a little shakeup to the same old routine. In past Halos, we’ve had the usual victory conditions, i.e. kill totals, flag captures, etc. Would like to see something new that the gaming community can experiment with, maybe leading to some creative new MP game types. Personally, I’ve been looking for a way to signal victory when all players on a given team are in a specific zone/area. To be more specific, one of my favorite game types was a PC mod (for Quake, UT, etc) called Jailbreak – i.e. when a player is killed, he is captured and placed in a “jail” until either a) the whole team is captured, and they lose; or b) he is freed by another teammate. I would like to recreate that in Halo, but currently there is no way (that I know of) to do this. More options/variety for the community in custom games would be awesome and appreciated.
>
> 3) Bots – Yeah, this request has probably been done to death, but what a great addition it would be. Bots take a lot of work to do well, I get that. So do them well and make them amazing! Sorry to borrow again from PC gaming, but I loved UT’s bots – they allowed me to inch my way back into competitive online competition when real life kept me away for weeks. I could load up several offline games with bots, stay acclimated to the speed and timing, then jump into an online match without feeling like I was five steps behind. Bungie said no to bots, but they were simply wrong. Make it right, 343. If not in Guardians, in 6 then.
>
> And that’s pretty much it. I have some other thoughts, but these are enough to chew on. The custom games niche within multiplayer has been where I’ve had the most fun the past couple years, and I imagine it will continue to be, regardless if it undergoes any changes or upgrades.
>
> Anyone else have additional ideas regarding how 343i can improve custom games in Halo 5?
Yes please, this is number 1 on my wishlist. It makes DLC maps a lot more worthwhile.
Bots would be nice. What I really want is for people to be able to host a custom game, have the option to include it on a search list, and for people to be able to join the custom game. Much like the server list on Halo 2 Vista.
> 2749742451060221;1:
> 3) Bots – Yeah, this request has probably been done to death, but what a great addition it would be. Bots take a lot of work to do well, I get that. So do them well and make them amazing! Sorry to borrow again from PC gaming, but I loved UT’s bots – they allowed me to inch my way back into competitive online competition when real life kept me away for weeks. I could load up several offline games with bots, stay acclimated to the speed and timing, then jump into an online match without feeling like I was five steps behind. Bungie said no to bots, but they were simply wrong. Make it right, 343. If not in Guardians, in 6 then.
Definitely bots. I haven’t been into PvP since Halo 3, GRAW 2, and Chromehounds. Hopefully we’ll be able to drop in AI for player slots in Custom Games.