Looking back at Halo 4’s lack of teleporters really saddens me. Teleporters in the past have really helped Halo with map movment from CE all the way to (arguably) Reach. I’ll use Beaver Creek as an example, you could flank your enemies from the teleporter, in CTF/Oddball go through it and have your team mates kill the people who followed you. Not only does it promote movement, looking back it created a really fun experience!
I wouldn’t say teleporters promote movement. They’re a means of moving around the map instantly from A to B. However they’re not that much of a challenge. In that sense, most teleporters were traded for mancannons.
One good example is Blood Gulch/Coagulation to Valhalla. The latter map is labeled as a spiritual successor to the two former maps, but man cannons were used instead of teleporters as mancannons are a little more dangerous to use while getting to a point faster, not instantaneously.
Halo 3 didn’t have that many shipped maps with teleporters, if any at all if I recall correctly.
If teleporters are more present, I would actually like to see them replaced by Portals like those present in the Portal games. But not exactly like them if possible.
We have the teleporter you can enter from anywhere. Why not make the cylinder shape of the teleporter so that you see the other end in the same angle you’re looking into the “portal”. The Portal game does this to some extent but if possible it should be 360 degrees, in my opinion.
I remember many games on Reach where I’d be packing a shotgun or grenade launcher, or even in a Wraith/Revenant (usually the latter) and parked myself just a distance away from Red Base’s Receiver Node and awaited people to come out of it. Of course, that behavior spawned from being on the receiving end (no pun intended) of that strategy numerous times. I generally stuck to front-line combat though, only resorting to that in the later half of a game as a way to ‘secure’ any additional escape routes the other team might have. I’ve seen wraiths stolen from us by lone spartans and elites just dashing across the side of the map while everyone’s busy elsewhere heh, don’t want that happening!
I also remember teammates coming out of a teleporter in the middle of a firefight only to randomly hear “Betrayal!” moments later and see the ‘You have been booted’ screen coming up before the announcer even finishes saying Betrayal.
I’m actually missing the teleporters now…
Teleporters were a decent way chunk XL maps like Hemorrhage into more manageable pieces.
They could certainly live alongside the man cannons.
While on the topic of man cannons, H4’s were weak sauce. I much prefer Halo 3’s, which behaved like a cannon and not a nerf gun.
Teleporters = confusion.
Unlike man cannons where there is a smooth transition from one location to another, teleporters are instantaneous from one frame to the next. This requires that the player reorient himself (however briefly). If you know the map, the reorientation will consist only of noting where friendlies / enemies are. If not, the reorientation can take some time.
While teleporters can be useful (they’re done well on Opus), for the most part, I would prefer maps to be designed such that teleporters are unnecessary.
An exception would be maps designed for heavy vehicle combat (huge maps), where there is no other way to avoid the tediousness of foot travel to get to an interesting location. Even there, they should be used sparingly.
My opinion, anyway.
> -snip-
I do like the idea of being able to see what is at the other end of a teleporter.
I disapprove of Mancannons on BTB maps. Yes, having a risk-reward system like a mancannon makes sense on a smaller map. But on a BTB map you need something that can move you long distances for the sake of keeping gameplay at a decent pace, there shouldn’t be much risk to it.
> An exception would be maps designed for heavy vehicle combat (huge maps), where there is no other way to avoid the tediousness of foot travel to get to an interesting location. Even there, they should be used sparingly.
A teleporter should effectively cut down the size of a BTB map into 1/2th or 1/3rd for infantry in my opinion.
> A teleporter should effectively cut down the size of a BTB map into 1/2th or 1/3rd for infantry in my opinion.
Yeah . . . I just wouldn’t want 15 of the damn things on the map.
> I do like the idea of being able to see what is at the other end of a teleporter.
Or even shot whatever’s there.
> I disapprove of Mancannons on BTB maps. Yes, having a risk-reward system like a mancannon makes sense on a smaller map. But on a BTB map you need something that can move you long distances for the sake of keeping gameplay at a decent pace, there shouldn’t be much risk to it.
I think being able to see and interact with whatever’s at the other side of the portal would make man cannons more redundant on big maps. Not to talk about the limitations of man cannons, they can’t place you in places you can’t see from their location, unless it’s a domino of man cannons.
But, man cannons do have their charm.
I believe man cannons were much better ways of map movement than teleporters.
I wouldn’t mind if they brought back teleporters, though.
I agree with the general consensus that mancannons are a more organic way of putting quick movement routes into the map. The idea of a portal you can see through isn’t bad either, but the current iteration of teleporters simply don’t flow well.
> I agree with the general consensus that mancannons are a more organic way of putting quick movement routes into the map. The idea of a portal you can see through isn’t bad either, but the current iteration of teleporters simply don’t flow well.
It depends largely on how the map is designed.
If you can see the exit of the teleporter from the teleporter’s entrance (such as on Blood Gulch and to a lesser extent Sidewinder) there’s a lot less of a threat of getting tele-camped because you can spot any potential threats before actually taking the teleporter itself.
Mancannons can also only shoot in one direction. They can’t bring you to a specific spot that isn’t a straight line from your current location.
Another solution is to have the exit in an enclosed area, and place a Shotgun or such at the entrance so you can be prepared for what’s on the other side.
Halo 4 had teleporters. Just saying.