Are these going to be Loadouts where everyone is forced the same weapon or reach style with a choice of three primary’s (which I prefer).
Also regarding the Spartan abilities are they the given things, dual wield, vehicle boarding, and what appears to be a useless Crysis style slam dunk which will first be OP then nerfed to be useless. Or the sort of thing where everyone might get given a Hardlight shield/Jetpack (Or some completely new things like EMP etc) depending on the map.
P.S. If they are doing away (completely, not just competitive arena) with Hardlight shields, jet packs, etc I’m wondering what the alternative must be because a completely arena Halo (far too simple) would not be as fun IMO as a casual playlist.
Not sure on what everyone here thinks but I loved deflecting Scorpion rounds with my shield and getting the edge with the high ground. I don’t see why people (generalised) seem to hate AAs, to me they were a fun way to mix it up a little and randomise the situation you were in, causing you to act differently against who you were up against.
I can understand some people don’t like the variety and claim it’s too altering and over the top so it makes it unfair. So would it be possible to nerf these abilities somewhat into Spartan Abilities where everyone get the choice of everything, and nothing is too altering to the gameplay?
Also does anyone know if BTB is returning or if they are removing the large playlists altogether?
Loadouts are unknown, but considering EVERYONE has equal starts and will be using the same weapons and have the same attributes, it is likely they won’t be featured. Maybe for custom games though.
As for Spartan Abilities, all we know is they are new base player traits. What you saw at E3 was a CGI trailer, not a gameplay one. We don’t know if that ground pound will be featured.
AAs are not in, 100%.
People hate AAs because they do exactly what you say - randomize the situation and makes the game unpredictable.
Big Team Battle without a doubt will be returning, but the focus of the beta is 4v4 Arena gameplay.
Equal starts, means no loadouts. Anything that is a Spartan ability will be available to every other player as a base trait. We don’t know what they will be, but thruster pack seems likely so far.
Nothing has been said about BTB, but it has returned for every game so don’t sweat it…
> I don’t see why people (generalised) seem to hate AAs, to me they were a fun way to mix it up a little and randomise the situation you were in
I have no words.
> > I don’t see why people (generalised) seem to hate AAs, to me they were a fun way to mix it up a little and randomise the situation you were in
>
> I have no words.
OP answered his own question lol
> People hate AAs because they do exactly what you say - randomize the situation and makes the game unpredictable. .
No, everyone hates AA’s because they do not contribute to any particular aspect of gameplay. They were simply a grab back of additional abilities that Bungie threw into Halo Reach instead of thinking about ways they could actually improve the core elements of the FPS. Each one could have easily featured as the standard ability of some other game (see. Jetpacks in something like Tribes or Armor Lock in a Mario platform) but together in Halo they’re simply an uncoordinated mess of stuff that doesn’t build anything fun or competitive depending on how you like to brand that chemical rush you get from gameplay.
They are NOT random, they are NOT unpredictable because while the exact probabilities no one can possibly know the point of comparison is ON-MAP WEAPON SPAWNS which is home of what is perhaps the greatest worst expression of chaos in action gaming has yet known. Where you might not know the exact frequency at which player A will choose loadout B and AA C, you know that it is at least governed by a single variable. WITH THE ALTERNATIVE you have the choices, location, direction, and competency to consider of ALL PLAYERS IN THE GAME, plus the incidental availability of any given item, to even guess at what are the odds that Player A has active camo or an overshield.
That is randomness, or to put it a more accurate way that is a more random situation than armor abilities as deployed through a loadout system, but that is what gameplay is. There is nothing inherently wrong with that format because when you get right down to it its simply a microcosm of life. AA’s on the other hand are poorly thought out gameplay devices that do not have a constructive influence on Halo, at least as they have thus far been implemented. You can certainly criticize them on THAT score, but do try to avoid the popular tropes because this one, in particular, does a great disservice to what makes Halo, or any FPS for that matter, playable.
As for Halo 5’s loadouts (ie. the point of this thread), either Halo Reach’s system or no loadouts whatsoever fit the description 343 left in the last vidoc, neither of which are particularly appealing to me at the moment. Its conceivable that they may instead be referring to some new system but with the heavy emphasis on small maps anything new they do to tweak these “fair starts” will take a very poignant back seat to what I’ll start to call now the Great Retreat from whatever life and variety Halo 4 seemed to be struggling to bring out of Halo and back to the safety of the conventions of the old franchise.
Its shaping up to be so utterly tedious that if it wasn’t for the fact that they haven’t talked about the campaign I’d have checked out of Halo 5 altogether. With the Master Chief collection there is absolutely no excuse to try to revert Halo. We’ll have every opportunity there to relive nostalgia. With the next game we should definitely get something we haven’t played tens of thousands of times before.
> > People hate AAs because they do exactly what you say - randomize the situation and makes the game unpredictable. .
>
> No, everyone hates AA’s because they do not contribute to any particular aspect of gameplay. They were simply a grab back of additional abilities that Bungie threw into Halo Reach instead of thinking about ways they could actually improve the core elements of the FPS. Each one could have easily featured as the standard ability of some other game (see. Jetpacks in something like Tribes or Armor Lock in a Mario platform) but together in Halo they’re simply an uncoordinated mess of stuff that doesn’t build anything fun or competitive depending on how you like to brand that chemical rush you get from gameplay.
>
> They are NOT random, they are NOT unpredictable because while the exact probabilities no one can possibly know the point of comparison is ON-MAP WEAPON SPAWNS which is home of what is perhaps the greatest worst expression of chaos in action gaming has yet known. Where you might not know the exact frequency at which player A will choose loadout B and AA C, you know that it is at least governed by a single variable. WITH THE ALTERNATIVE you have the choices, location, direction, and competency to consider of ALL PLAYERS IN THE GAME, plus the incidental availability of any given item, to even guess at what are the odds that Player A has active camo or an overshield.
>
> That is randomness, or to put it a more accurate way that is a more random situation than armor abilities as deployed through a loadout system, but that is what gameplay is. There is nothing inherently wrong with that format because when you get right down to it its simply a microcosm of life. AA’s on the other hand are poorly thought out gameplay devices that do not have a constructive influence on Halo, at least as they have thus far been implemented. You can certainly criticize them on THAT score, but do try to avoid the popular tropes because this one, in particular, does a great disservice to what makes Halo, or any FPS for that matter, playable.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> As for Halo 5’s loadouts (ie. the point of this thread), either Halo Reach’s system or no loadouts whatsoever fit the description 343 left in the last vidoc, neither of which are particularly appealing to me at the moment. Its conceivable that they may instead be referring to some new system but with the heavy emphasis on small maps anything new they do to tweak these “fair starts” will take a very poignant back seat to what I’ll start to call now the Great Retreat from whatever life and variety Halo 4 seemed to be struggling to bring out of Halo and back to the safety of the conventions of the old franchise.
>
> Its shaping up to be so utterly tedious that if it wasn’t for the fact that they haven’t talked about the campaign I’d have checked out of Halo 5 altogether. With the Master Chief collection there is absolutely no excuse to try to revert Halo. We’ll have every opportunity there to relive nostalgia. With the next game we should definitely get something we haven’t played tens of thousands of times before.
TL;DR too much for my brain
Joking I read the whole thing.
But then what is constructive from Halo without causing it to decend into “chaos”, what is the point of multiple weapons that are all very similar surely one should suffice (aside from power weapons of course)?
Do you mean there must be a limit to how many variables they can introduce? That can affect the situation as a whole? Is there no way to add these constructive variables withot causing the chaos?
Finally in my opinion they (AAs) do bring fun and competitiveness to the game. I believe you are being over the top with the uncoordinated mess, I believe this mess or chaos is a more of a ladder (GoT reference), those who can learn to adapt to any situation with factors (AAs) (that are not as uncoordinated and pointless as you might think) such as these will be the more skilled players.
But I can completely understand your view of preferring to know all the variables, also that you do not support the idea of a feature that does not add to gameplay (which I cannot agree on due to the fact that I do believe they add to the experience of gameplay.