It’s time. Reach is nearly a year old and there are many of us out there who still don’t have the time or energy to constantly play round after round of Halo every single night just to unlock a new pair of shoulder pads or visor tint. The time has come to finally unlock the Armory and release all of the armor pieces to the general public.
I realize the purpose behind purchasing armor pieces is to give the player an incentive to keep playing. But let’s be realistic. At this point, the year anniversary of Reach’s launch, that carrot has since expired. Anyone who hasn’t already unlocked everything there is to unlock has already given up on ever trying to. Aside from those who somehow derive satisfaction out of grinding out credits, I’d like to think the rest of us can collectively say we’re tired of grasping at brass rings. Our loyalty and perseverance deserves to be rewarded.
There will be those who will oppose this out of some selfish sense of accomplishment. As if they’re hours of hard work are somehow being squandered by others being gifted items they spent hours attaining. But they have had their year of bragging rights. The rest of us have lives, responsibilities and in some cases even families. We paid the $60 for Reach just like they did, and it would be nice if we could finally have access to everything that came included with that price tag.
On a more personal note, I truly hope 343i considers bypassing the entire unlocking system for Halo 4’s Armory. There is no reason to force your customers to grind away in order to attain a majority of purely cosmetic items that serve no other purpose. I have no doubt some of the younger fans and basement dwellers alike love this false sense of accomplishment. But there are those of us out there who still prefer LANs and the company of others over Xbox Live and the “virtual pizza party” nonsense. Being denied the ability to visually customize even just our guest accounts for local and system link absolutely sucks.
My friends and I might not be hardcore gamers who take this sort of stuff as seriously as some of your more rabid fans, but that doesn’t mean our voices shouldn’t be heard as equals. It would just be nice on those rare occasions when we can sneak away from our wives/responsibilities/etc. for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon to be able to customize our avatar beyond the basic color scheme and emblem.
> It’d be good, but only for offline profiles. I think it would be better for online profiles to get the cR and buy the armour.
>
> Offline profiles, yes.
> Online profiles, no.
I wouldn’t be opposed to that. But, again, its been a year. At this point, what difference does it make?
As far as Halo 4 is concerned, your logic is spot on.
> > It’d be good, but only for offline profiles. I think it would be better for online profiles to get the cR and buy the armour.
> >
> > Offline profiles, yes.
> > Online profiles, no.
>
> I wouldn’t be opposed to that. But, again, its been a year. At this point, what difference does it make?
>
> As far as Halo 4 is concerned, your logic is spot on.
Ah, you see though. cR would become useless and would only be used for levelling up. The whole reason we have cR is for the new ranking system and buying the armour. If you were to let everyone have all pieces of armour there would be no point to have cR in the first place. You may as well call it EXP points.
That’s why only offline profiles should have everything unlocked.
> Ah, you see though. cR would become useless and would only be used for levelling up. The whole reason we have cR is for the new ranking system and buying the armour. If you were to let everyone have all pieces of armour there would be no point to have cR in the first place. You may as well call it EXP points.
>
> That’s why only offline profiles should have everything unlocked.
I get that. But what I think you’re not acknowledging is that there are a large group of players - most of which I doubt take the time to bother making accounts on forums such as this - who simply don’t care about cR/EXP/etc. Just like Achievement Points, cR and EXP are trivial marketing tools aimed at keeping players playing. People like me understand that. But the truth is we don’t need incentives to keep playing. At this point, we just want the stuff we don’t have the luxury of time to gather.
To put it bluntly, you’re right. It might as well be EXP. Having to work to unlock things you already paid for in advance is rubbish. Some of us don’t have the time to play enough games to advance to the rank we need in order to unlock any of the higher-tier items for purchase. As result, I have something like 250,000 credits (I’d have to double-check to be sure) - all of which I have really no use for because I’m a Major Grade 3.
> > Ah, you see though. cR would become useless and would only be used for levelling up. The whole reason we have cR is for the new ranking system and buying the armour. If you were to let everyone have all pieces of armour there would be no point to have cR in the first place. You may as well call it EXP points.
> >
> > That’s why only offline profiles should have everything unlocked.
>
> I get that. But what I think you’re not acknowledging is that there are a large group of players - most of which I doubt take the time to bother making accounts on forums such as this - who simply don’t care about cR/EXP/etc. Just like Achievement Points, cR and EXP are trivial marketing tools aimed at keeping players playing. People like me understand that. But the truth is we don’t need incentives to keep playing. At this point, we just want the stuff we don’t have the luxury of time to gather.
>
> To put it bluntly, you’re right. It might as well be EXP. Having to work to unlock things you already paid for in advance is rubbish. Some of us don’t have the time to play enough games to advance to the rank we need in order to unlock any of the higher-tier items for purchase. As result, I have something like 250,000 credits (I’d have to double-check to be sure) - all of which I have really no use for because I’m a Major Grade 3.
I do see your point and I do agree with it. Good discussion.
Bottom line - You have all armour except the Haunted Helmet. You still get it at Inheritor. Special helmet is special.
> I do see your point and I do agree with it. Good discussion.
>
> Bottom line - You have all armour except the Haunted Helmet. You still get it at Inheritor. Special helmet is special.
Indeed. So far much better than anything you’d come across over at B.net. Wonder how much longer that’ll last before all the little kids wise up and realize the Halo forums are over here now.
That being said, I don’t have all the armor. I can’t even view portions of sections yet. For instance, in the helmet section I don’t see anything past the Mark V.
> > I do see your point and I do agree with it. Good discussion.
> >
> > Bottom line - You have all armour except the Haunted Helmet. You still get it at Inheritor. Special helmet is special.
>
> Indeed. So far much better than anything you’d come across over at B.net. Wonder how much longer that’ll last before all the little kids wise up and realize the Halo forums are over here now.
>
> That being said, I don’t have all the armor. I can’t even view portions of sections yet. For instance, in the helmet section I don’t see anything past the Mark V.
Shouldn’t generalize other communities, gotta be nice to each other.
I’m a Colonel, so I can preview almost all the armour. I can preview up to stuff unlocked at Brigadier.
They will never do that. Ever. Even if it has been a year. They may consider it not costing anything to unlock and once you as a player get to that level you needed to unlock it. Cause it wouldn’t be fair and I know your side but calling us selfish is really dumb when we went through all the work to get it. So maybe this way it would be fair. For example the armor that you would need General for should not be given to some one for free if they are Warrent Officer. Also with the release of Halo CEA and new map packs for Halo Reach coming with it, they probably wouldn’t even consider that. As for Halo 4 come on man getting everything for free there is really no fun in that, id probably play mulitplayer but not all that much id move on to other games if there wasn’t anything i wanted to get. Halo 3 was one such game i got everything i wanted and moved on to Call of Duty because i wanted to work on advancing my character and earning stuff.
> Shouldn’t generalize other communities, gotta be nice to each other.
>
> I’m a Colonel, so I can preview almost all the armour. I can preview up to stuff unlocked at Brigadier.
You’re right. I didn’t mean to generalize. But let’s call it like it is/was - those forums were cesspools of nonsense that often drowned out any legitimate discussions or constructive criticism.
> They will never do that. Ever. Even if it has been a year. They may consider it not costing anything to unlock and once you as a player get to that level you needed to unlock it. Cause it wouldn’t be fair and I know your side but calling us selfish is really dumb when we went through all the work to get it. So maybe this way it would be fair. For example the armor that you would need General for should not be given to some one for free if they are Warrent Officer. Also with the release of Halo CEA and new map packs for Halo Reach coming with it, they probably wouldn’t even consider that. As for Halo 4 come on man getting everything for free there is really no fun in that, id probably play mulitplayer but not all that much id move on to other games if there wasn’t anything i wanted to get. Halo 3 was one such game i got everything i wanted and moved on to Call of Duty because i wanted to work on advancing my character and earning stuff.
Yikes. Paragraphs, bro. And it is selfish. You’re essentially saying, “I don’t want you to ever have this because you didn’t go through what I did to get it.” Don’t get me wrong, your logic is sound to a point. But, again, let’s be realistic. I would have gotten to where you are too if I had the time. But I don’t. Seeing as I paid just as much as you did for the game, why should I be penalized simply because I can’'t afford the time needed to unlock everything?
> almost all the armor is ugly anyway so who cares…
>
> the armor effects and haunted helmet should not be ‘unlocked’ though…
That’s funny, but it’s really besides the point. Ugly or not, it should all be accessible by now. And if it were up to me, I’d abolish armor effects all together. But that’s just me.
> Sadly, I’m aware of this. Doesn’t make it right, though.
Right is relative. Bungie/343/Microsoft is a business, and have a reason to give you an incentive to play online since that’s more profitable for them (because you have to shell out for Live and you’re more likely to buy DLC).
I’m just glad unlocks don’t mess with gameplay (unlike CoD), or cost actual money (like CoD in the near future…).
> > I can’'t afford the time needed to unlock everything
>
> Then surely you don’t have the time to make threads complaining about your lack of armor, right?
Please don’t belittle your own intelligence. There is a significant difference between having the time to fire up an Xbox and compete online and sparing a few moments while at the office to write a brief forum post. You should know that.
I see where you’re coming from, but wouldn’t it be a kick in the nuts to those have have invested the time to unlock it all? And where’s the fun of striving to get that one piece of armor you have been wanting for a while? It’d mean more to me, struggling to get it because you know you wanted it enough to put that much effort forth.
> > Sadly, I’m aware of this. Doesn’t make it right, though.
>
> Right is relative. Bungie/343/Microsoft is a business, and have a reason to give you an incentive to play online since that’s more profitable for them (because you have to shell out for Live and you’re more likely to buy DLC).
>
> I’m just glad unlocks don’t mess with gameplay (unlike CoD), or cost actual money (like CoD in the near future…).
I hear ya. It just seems to me that, given how much time has passed, they really won’t be seeing much of a return these days on people who are trying to level up. At the end of the day, this isn’t WoW. It’s a two, maybe three-year lifecycle FPS. Unlocking the Armory isn’t going to hurt their profits at this point.
Totally agree with you in regards to the COD point. Same goes for Battlefield. It’s hard to jump into games like those months after their release because you always wind up being outclassed. That’s what makes Halo special. It’s a level playing field every time.