Oh boy here we go. out of all the subjects and concerns about this franchise Armor Abilities are by far the most debated. Some like them, others despise them and don’t believe they belong in Halo. after giving the topic some thought, i believe i have found a solution that benefits all.
Lets look at Halo 2 for a second. Most would consider halo 2 the ultimate multiplayer experience. It was essentially you, your gun, and grenades. There were 2 pickups ( OS, AC). It was amazing. Everyone was on equal ground at the start and you always felt like you won because you were better, not because you picked the right loadout for the occasion.
Now halo 3. Halo 3’s big addition was equipment. They worked as pickups similar to weapons. Some were used for defense like bubbleshield, others for offense like the power drain. Because they were pick ups and not available at spawn, they were able to provide fun new gameplay options without destroying the most important part of Halo…balance.
then came halo reach. They took the idea of Equipment and turned it in to a whole new monster…Armor abilities. The most controversial addition possibly ever in Halo. It took the philosophy that everyone starts the same and stomped on it. Now everyone was different. Some were fast, some were invisible, others could fly. The balance was just dismantled. Though the abilities were fun, they were frustrating to players and made the game more situational and less about skill.
So now with Halo 4 we have a problem. How do we return to the formula of balance and skill without going backwards. Many would just want to remove AA all together and essentially clone Halo 2. But we just can’t do that. we can not take a step backwards.
here is my plan.
In Halo 3 your right bumper controlled your weapon, the left bumper controlled grenades/secondary weapon/ and the x button was for equipment. In Reach they removed dualwielding and equipment and designated the left bumper for armor abilities.
In Halo 4 loadouts are gone. Everyone starts with the same thing like 2/3. Everything is essentially the same except for the LB button. The LB button now has 3 seperate functions.
It can pick up
-A Secondary weapon
-An Armor Ability
-An equipment.
Thats right Halo 4 is bring back all 3. The left bumper has the ability to control 3 very different features. This means if you choose to dualwield, you can not use an armor ability or equipment. if you pick up an armor ability, you can not dualwield or use equipment.
Everything the LB controls is found on the ground and not spawned with. Each category functions completely differently.
A secondary weapon functions as you would expect. It allows you to dualwield guns essentially doubling your power. not all guns can be dualwielded.
An armor ability is a rechargeable ability that ranges from a jetpack, to holograms etc.
An equipment works much like an armor ability but can only be used once. Once it is used the player uses the item.
Now please remember. You do not spawn with an armor ability. Armor abilities will be far more rare in Halo 4. They spawn like weapons and equipment do, and when the player dies with one, it is not dropped and is put on a respawn timer. A jetpack, which in reach was incredibly irritating, becomes a vital piece of equipment. It allows for easy traversal of the map, and can give a height advantage. But because it is gone when you die, it becomes a very important piece of equipment and you can no longer just act like an idiot with it. If you die with it, your team can lose out on an opportunity to gain the upperhand.
I hope this makes sense. Your LB button now controls 1 of 3 things. Your secondary weapon, your armor ability, or your piece of equipment. You can only have 1 of the 3 equipped at a time. So players are not going to be able to dualwield there SMG’s and fly around the map like a crazy person dropping bubbleshields.
Now lets get in to specifics on each category of the secondary tools.
Secondary weapon- Essentially all of the small arms weapons, ( SMG, Magnum, Spiker, etc.) Maybe as an addition, you can choose to pocket your secondary weapon meaning you can have 2 weapons in inventory.
Equipment: ( can only be used once)
-Bubbleshield: Just like Halo 3.
-Regen: Halo 3
-Powerdrain: Halo 3
-Target Locator ( new idea) Calls in a drop pod that contains random weapons/ not power weapons, and ammo.
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Sentry turret ( small forerunner turret that will follow you around until you die or it gets destroyed)
-
Trip Mine: Halo 3
-grav lift
- and one or 2 more new ones
Armor abilities ( rechargeable, until player death)
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Jetpack ( like reach, blanced for Halo 4)
-
Hologram deployer : more believable holograms that perform animations like reload
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personal shield: Like the jackals use. Only protects front, can be destroyed, can not shoot when using, can still move when activated.
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Enhanced Agility module: Sprint is another discussed topic and this is my solution. Sprint as an armor ability never made much sense anyway and because Halo 4 will most likely feature faster movement speeds and greater jump heights, the sprint feature seems pointless. That is where the agility module comes in. This is an actual armor ability. While sprinting was more of the lack of an ability, the agility module actually provides some other benefits. the agility module is almost like braces that go around your legs. Dead Space comes to mind. When activated jets activate on your legs and tap in to your suits systems increasing your movement speed greatly. No weapons can be used during activation. It provides a similar function to sprint in a way that is more useful and makes sense. Here is how it is balanced. In Reach sprint could be used to easily run away from targets. In halo 4 the ability has a charge up time. So a player is moving at normal speed, he activates the module and enters a sprint, the jets fire up and the player gradually picks up speed until they hit top speed. The top speed is pretty fast, but takes time to get there and is not instant so players can not siply run away. As an added bonus, it is given a double jump feature. By tapping jump while in the air, the jets fire up and gives you a slight boost.
That is my idea. It is essentially dualwielding, equipment, and armor abilities all coexisting in the game. active camo and overshield become powerups again and everything is now in the form of pick ups.
I believe this is how the main playlists should work, but I also believe there should be special playlists for those who prefer the other styles of Halo play.
