The Levelling System Seems Pointless, Unless...

Games Halo Infinite
1

Unless a sense of achievement is added to the system.

At the moment you play, you get XP, your progress bar goes up until you hit the limit and then you’re promoted to the next Spartan level. This could be for example from level 57 to 58… great… doesn’t mean much, and it basically only represents the amount of time you’ve played the game. My opinion is that, I believe not many people pay attention to anyone’s Spartan level or even care about it.

My recommendation is that we move more towards a system where you must achieve certain milestones to get promoted to your next rank instead of just grinding XP. This method has previously been achieved in halo 3 (Sorry for the “Make everything like halo 3!!!” comment). If you are unaware how that system worked, i have provided a link below.

As for an example, I remember (back in halo 3 days) when I got promoted from Colonel Grade 3 to a Brigadier Grade 2 because I worked hard to get to Skill Level 45 (Others may not think this is a big deal). This made it feel much more of an accomplishment in achieving a new rank as I actually had to work for it, instead of just being given XP to grind to the next level and then only being given a number increase and a lousy Req pack. It made me want to strive to continually get to the next promotional rank.

Now, I’m not saying to just make the system like halo 3, I’m saying to take pieces of that system and parts of systems from other halo games that worked well and expand on it. So, onto my actual recommendation;

We have all these different progression systems and stats in halo now, Spartan Level, Skill Level, Commendations, Challenges (Halo Reach), XP & RP. Why not try to integrate them into a Global Ranking System that adds a lot more accomplishment for promotion and levelling up.

Get rid of the number based Spartan rank system and move back towards the halo 3/Reach military ranks scheme (preferably similar in size to the Reach ranks List (Link below)). The XP & RP system will still be in effect, but similar to halo reach (again…) where you gain XP for playing any part of the halo game. (then maybe the RP can be used to buy Req Packs and Armour).

To get promoted to the next rank, you gain a certain amount of XP, but then you also must complete 6 out of 8 challenges/commendations that a specifically attached to that specific rank. These will include achieving a certain skill level, winning a certain number of matches, completing campaign on a certain difficulty on solo, gaining a certain number of kills, surviving 15 waves of legendary firefight (If firefight makes a return).

To prevent this system becoming a straight up barrier for progression of Rank, if you do not achieve the challenges set, you stay at the same rank, but then advance through that rank’s grades E.g. Captain, Captain Grade 2, Grade 3… and so on. This promotion will be achieved by gaining XP only, with no challenges.

Looking further into this system I would say that as you advance further through the ranks, the challenges start to focus more on matchmaking and less on campaign and firefight. E.g. once you’ve hit a certain rank that needed level 30 Skill, campaign on legendary isn’t really that hard for you anymore and doesn’t really match the next promotional ranks difficulty range (unless, I guess SLASO comes in as a challenge). The challenges shouldn’t be extremely easy as you get near the far end of the ranking system and perhaps add in extreme challenges of earning champion status (top 200 in the world) in a ranked playlist to advance to the next level. We can even add exclusive armour unlocks and req packs to each promotion level too.

I have created a quick visual example to better help understand the system i am suggesting (Link below).

Link to Halo 3 ranking system: Rank (Halo 3 Multiplayer) | Halo Alpha | Fandom
Link to Halo Reach Ranking System: Rank (Halo: Reach) | Halo Alpha | Fandom
Link to System Example: Halo Ranking Idea

I would love to hear what you think of this idea and please comment if you have found any faults or would make certain amendments to the system.

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I’m against your CSR deciding your level progression. I’d consider that a bit TOO high an achievement. With the current system, most people can strive for max rank because they know that, if they play the game they love enough, they would eventually make it. If max rank is associated to CSR, then most people would give up before they even started, because they know no matter how long they play, they would never be good enough to reach it. Nobody would strive for it, since they know it’s forever beyond their reach.

I feel this would only work if the game were as competitive as Halo 5, if not more. Then only competitive, sweaty players would get it. I agree with your other suggestions, though, campaign and lesser multiplayer challenges would be a nice change to the usual grind, maybe have an achievement worth 500g for completing all rank challenges. That would be great.

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Your point sheds a new light on what i was suggesting, but also is making the assumption that a higher percentage of the halo community would be more of a casual player than competitive. This could turn into another debate which would be, should the ranking system be tailored more for competitive players or casual?

From my Idea above i believe it caters for both (agreed slightly more competitive) as if you cant rank up through CSR/skill level you can rank up through just playing halo. The grades of that rank, which i’m thinking should be more than just 3 grades. Maybe even 10 grades and more! The higher the grade the longer it takes to get so that it doesn’t take just 10 days to hit max grade of a certain rank.

Again, thanks for your input, really opens up the discussion to a bigger argument now, but then i guess we will never fully legitimately know if the halo community has a bigger causal or competitive population. is that fair to say?

Would love to hear more of yours and other peoples thoughts on this