Vehicle Suggestions For Future Halo Titles?

Buzzsaw_PhD · June 9, 2013, 4:15pm

I love vehicles, and Halo 4 didn’t really do it for me. Not as many vehicles as its predecessors, and vehicle combat has been pretty much destroyed by custom loadouts. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about future vehicles in future Halo titles in the future on future consoles that we’ll be playing on in the futuristic future.

So let’s spitball. We shall not only spitball, we shall spitball with reason. Here’s a list that I made some time ago concerning vehicle balance and uses. The reason I’m doing this is to help Sir Boobington create a comprehensive list for the next Halo game, and if possible, other future Halo titles. So please, feel free to critique and come up with your own ideas.

-Every single vehicle, even the Halo Wars vehicles can make it in for the large scale battles. 128 players max on the One? Oh boy!
-The laser will be used as a base damage model for comparisons

-First person vehicle driving is toggleable
-Only the transport can crash as stated later in the posts. Think of this as the same mechanic as Battlefield’s disabled vehicle mechanic. The vehicle slowly loses health and becomes harder to control.
-When entering a transport vehicle, you sit as if you were sitting in the passenger seat of a Falcon
-Dropship pilots can pick up vehicles by pressing the Y button after flying over the vehicle and landing on top of it. Some dropships don’t need to fly as low as others to pick up the vehicle.
-Plasma Pistol does not disable the Mammoth, Elephant, Lich, Vulture, Scarab, Pelican, Shadow, Phantom, and Spirit. These vehicles also cannot be hijacked in the traditional sense, instead, it acts like the Elephant in the sense that you must kill the driver in order to commandeer the vehicle.
-The Plasma Pistol or any other EMP device will impede dropship movement by 5% if a weak spot is hit
-Disabled vehicle systems, like a Scarab’s AA, will respawn after 1 minute. If you can stay alive for that long with a disabled weapon, you deserve to get it back after a minute

Here is a vehicle list. Here is also a vehicle capacity list. Refer to this when reading about vehicle transports. No one can ride in the vehicle while it is being transported.
-Scorpion/Wraith/Wolverine/Cobra/Locust/Mantis/Cyclops takes up 4 slots
-Warthog/Spectre/Revenant/Prowler/Chopper/Gremlin takes up 3 slots
-Mongoose/Ghost takes up 2 spots

-Mammoth
-1 driver
-1 Mac operator
-The Mini Mac is slightly more powerful than the Scorpion’s cannon, say, 20% stronger. It has a cooldown of 20 seconds. The operator sits in a box behind it, like Reach’s Onager. It takes 3 Sniper shots to break the cabin. It also takes 2 Laser shots to disable the MAC.
-3 second charge up sequence
-Maybe 1 Laser shot to each wheel and a shot to the cabin will destroy it, totaling 7 shots.

-Elephant, a smaller but more agile Mammoth. Invincible, but a Laser shot through the window can kill the driver. Remains basically the same as the Halo 3 Elephant, but with one new feature.
-1 driver
-1 crane operator
-Can act as a spawn point
-The crane operator can pick up vehicles and repair them

-Scarab. 4 Laser shots to one leg disables it for 20 seconds, the core must be destroyed to kill it. 5 Laser shots to its back plating take off the
plating, with one Laser shot to the core shutting the Scarab down. It takes 15 seconds for it to start glowing before it blows up. Functions like a smaller, weaker Halo 3 Scarab.
-1 pilot, sits at the bottom of the Sarab, protected by an energy shield
-1 main gun operator, sits behind main gun
-AA gun operator, sits below the AA gun
-Can carry as many players as possible, but they just stand around, they don’t sit down.
-AA Gun will be as powerful as a Splaser at 75% strength, but with a 3 second recharge rate. It does 75% Splaser damage to aerial vehicles, but Railgun damage to anything else. Rotation speed is high. 3 Laser shots to disable it.
-The main cannon will do 150% of the Railgun’s power. The reason I think this should be is because I see it as a more kinetic beam. It’ll have a huge amount of kinetic force and will blow light vehicles away. If it focuses on, say, a Warthog for 3 seconds, the hog will blow up. The beam lasts for 5 seconds with a 12 second recharge time.
-2 second charge up sequence for the main Plasma Beam
-The beam acts like how it was in Campaign. If you want to kill infantry, you have to focus on them for 2 seconds, unlike the full second in Campaign.
-Getting stepped on is instant death

-Vampire, weak spots are the two cabins. 1 Laser Shot kill
-1 pilot with control over Stasis Cannon
-1 weapons officer with control over the Needle Cannon and Plasma Cannons, interchangeable by pressing Y
-Vampire’s Needler works similar to a regular Needler, but an immensly slower ROF and doing Brute Shot damage. Supercombines with 7 Needles, doing as much damage as a Laser. ROF of 1 Needle every 3 seconds should keep this balanced.
-Vampire’s Stasis Cannon will drain enemy vehicle health and add it to its own at a rate of 3% a second. It’ll be as powerful as a Grenade Launcher. It will impede aircraft movement by 5%. It lasts for 10 seconds with a 12 second recharge.
-The Stasis Cannon’s effects stack. Here’s an example. There’s an enemy Falcon, flying around. You and your buddy in another Vampire see him and you stasis him. Instead of getting slowed down by 5%, he get’s slowed down by 10%
-1 second charge up for the Stasis Cannon
-Plasma Cannon will be the same as the default Plasma Cannon, but with twice the projectile speed and a 3% stun effect
-if the stasis cannon kills the vehicle, it violently explodes.
-Stasis Cannon does half its regular damage to land vehicles

-Wolverine, a less mobile, more powerful Rocket Hog. Think Revenant/Wraith int erms of the relationship. 1.5 shot Laser kill
-1 driver
-1 weapons officer
-Fires 8 Rockets
-Same damage as the Halo 4 Rocket Hog
-Recharge rate of 6 seconds
-Lock on is similar to the Halo 2 Rocket Launcher

-Cobra, 1.5 Laser shot kill.
-Similar to the mobile artillery from BF3
-1 driver, and one player only.
-in order to fire, it must lock down. Lock down is initiated when the driver presses LT and it initiates a 3 second lockdown sequence.
-Driver is then able to fire a railgun with a 270 degree field of view.
-Damage is 150% stronger than the Gauss Hog with a recharge rate of 7 seconds.
-2 second charge up sequence

-Vulture, a slow aerial tank. Weak spots are the cabins, engines/thruster, and rocket silos. 7 Laser shots to kill, 4 when the shots hit the weak points.
-1 pilot
-2 weapons officers, one for each missile silo, which contain 5 rockets each
-1 machine gun operator
-Rockets do 20% Laser damage a Rocket, but a direct impact on infantry kills instantly
-Rockets lock on, but both rocket pods cannot lock onto the same vehicle
-5 rockets in each pod
-Rockets fly slowly
-Recharge rate of 10 seconds
-Rockets fly upwards first, so if there’s another vehicle above the Vulture, that vehicle gets damaged or destroyed.
-Rockets have a lock on function similar to Halo 2’s Rocket Launcher, but it takes 3.5 seconds to acquire a target.
-2 turrets. In Halo Wars, they’re autocannons, but this might make the powerful Vulture too OP.

Continued in a following post.

Buzzsaw_PhD · June 9, 2013, 4:17pm

Continued from the previous post.

-Locust, slightly smaller than a Scorpion with the same durability. 2 Laser shots to kill.
-One driver, handles like a Mantis. Main beam and secondary plasma cannons
-Main beam does as much damage as a single Mantis Rocket. It can maintain fire for 5 seconds when you hold it. Each second does as much damage as a Mantis’ Rocket. It has a recharge as long as the Mantis’ Rocket Pods.
-When you press the melee button, your shields go to 50% integrity and the beam goes into overdrive, doing 20% more damage.
-Plasma Cannons are as strong as the Mantis’ machine gun, but not as accurate. Instead, it stuns, impeding movement by 3-5%

-Shadow. 3 Laser shots to kill, 2 to the cabin
-Shade turret on top controlled by a weapons officer
-Medium speed
-Holds 6-8 players
-One driver
-Can hold one Ghost or Mongoose, but it takes up capacity
-The Shade turret on top will have projectiles that travel twice as fast as a normal Shade
-Can act as a spawn point

-Pelican, has multiple variants, like the assault Pelican. Its engines start smoking more and more, becoming less controllable until it crashes. It doesn’t explode until 7 seconds after hitting the ground; it loses its cargo load as it crashes. Medium speed. Weak spots are its engines. It takes 5 Laser shots to take out, or 3 hits to an engine.
-One pilot
-One weapons officer
-Holds up to 7 players, with one in the machine gun in the back
-Can drop off one vehicle and one Mongoose, but it takes up capacity
-Can drop off starting weapons
-Chin mounted minigun will act like the Warthog’s LAAG, but it can only keep up the fire for 10 seconds. It’s as powerful as a Dominion turret
-Chin turret is inaccurate
-Chin turret can be disabled
-Hind turret can be torn off
-Troop bay is always open
-Can act as a spawn point

-Phantom, when damaged, it glows brightly for 15 seconds, giving the driver time to land. It slowly becomes less uncontrollable as it glows brighter before it explodes. It loses its cargo as it crashes. Multiple variants. Medium speed. Weak spot is its tail and the two turbines in front. It takes 6 Laser shots to disable, 4 when a weak spot is hit.
-One pilot
-One weapons officer
-Holds up to 10 players, with two in each Plasma Cannon
-Can drop off one large vehicle or two Ghosts, but it takes up capacity
-Phantom Plasma Cannons can be torn off. These cannons stun movement by 3%
-Phantom troop bay doors can be blasted off, will open when 6 feet above the ground. Grav Lift will activate when the Phantom is stationary 20 feet above the ground. People have the option to press X to get in or out of the lift.
-Back door can get shot off, will open in a similar manner to the regular troop bays.
-Option to open troop bays by pressing the jump button?
-Pilot must activate the lift by pressing the Armor Ability button after hovering for 3 seconds
-Can act as a spawn point

-Albatross, a slower, stronger Pelican. Weak points are its thrusters, it becomes harder to control when each thruster gets hit. Each thruster can take 2 Laser shots.
-One driver
-One weapons officer
-Can carry 2 Scorpions or 4 Warthogs. Can carry 4 players.
-Optional minigun with half the damage of the Pelican’s.
-Can drop cover in the form of supply crates, barriers, traffic cones.
-Can lock down when landed, making it an invincible spawn point

-Spirit, 1.5x faster than a Phantom, weaker Phantom. Multiple variants. Weak point is the Captain’s cabin. Takes 3 Laser shots, 2 when the weak point is hit.
-Can carry up to 16 players with one vehicle, but the vehicle takes up capacity.
-One pilot
-One weapons officer
-Can drop weapons
-The Concussion Cannon on it will have the strength similar to the Reach Sniper Rifle. The recharge speed will be 3 seconds. It will have significant kinetic force, like a Revenant’s mortar. Also has slight splash damage.
-The chin mounted Plasma Cannon will be the same as the Pelican’s minigun, but with a 2% stun
-These cannons may be disabled
-Can act as a spawn point
-Troop bay acts the same as the Phantom’s

-Sparrowhawk, 1 Laser shot to kill
-1 pilot with control over the laser
-1 machine gun operator, same as Warthog’s LAAG.
-The laser is as strong as a a Splaser at 75% strength. It has a recharge of 4 seconds.
-1 second charge up sequence on the laser.

-Anti-Air Wraith, same as the regular Wraith in Halo 3 and ODST
-1 driver
-1 gunner
-Fires 6 long range Fuel Rods
-Fuel Rods have slight tracking on aerial vehicles
-Fuel Rods does 10% less damage than regular Fuel Rods
-Recharge of 7 seconds

-Gremlin, 1 shot Laser kill
-One driver with control over the weak machine gun
-One weapons officer in charge of EMP
-EMPs enemy vehicles with a recharge rate of 4 seconds
-Can get collateral EMPs

-Lich, 9 Laser shots to kill
-1 pilot
-1 weapons officer
-Similar Plasma Beam to the Scarab, firing for 5 seconds every 10 seconds doing 170% of the Railgun’s damage
-4 enhanced hitscan Plasma cannons that cannot be taken off, controlled by individual players
-Has the same Gravity Lift as the Phantom
-Can carry as many players as possible, they just stand up
-Destroying the core causes the Lich to glow brightly and dip 20 meters in the matter of 10 seconds, then it explodes. If it touches the
ground before 10 seconds, it explodes immediately.

-Cyclops, 1 shot Laser kill
-Purely auxillary repair vehicle, repairs at a rate of 20% a second
-Can punch the ground, similar to a Mantis stomp
-Punches do 200% Laser damage

I would link to first person vehicle mods to show how awesome they are, but I’m not sure if I’m allowed to.

Next up: Space vehicles.

Assassin_11D7 · June 9, 2013, 6:43pm

Interesting, I don’t think I can fully critique this post as that would take a while, but I’ll throw out some general points.

I’m not sure how well having certain vehicles require a gunner would work. The Pelican, Phantom, and even Scarab can be very vulnerable without any means of offense. Pelican pilot needs at least control of its machine gun to protect itself, same with the Phantom. The Scarab also needs to be able use its main cannon, aircraft can ruin a Scarab’s day, that’s why only the AA gun should need a gunner.

What are the point of some of these vehicles? The Gremlin in particular stands out as something that will be unused as it’s mostly useless except for its EMP. Is the Sparrowhawk supposed to be the equivalent of the Vampire? If so, I’d give them more similar health attributes.

Where are the fighters? Seraphs, Longswords, Space Banshees, and Sabres would fill this missing area. Now, their ingame attributes don’t match so they would need to be refitted to fill a standard fighter or Interceptor fighter role.

Rocket hog should be 1 laser kill.

These are some of the main issues I see, but if you want to I could offer more suggestions.

Buzzsaw_PhD · June 9, 2013, 8:09pm

Bear with me, I’m replying on my phone, it’s too hard to separate quotes in to sections.

The reason I didn’t give vehicles pilot-controlled guns is to promote teamwork. The transports especially, to highlight their role as support and transport craft. The Scarab is so just one guy doesn’t have that much power to himself, adding more emphasis on teamwork.

I added in the Gremlin because I see its use as a powerful support vehicle. It saved me a couple times in Halo Wars when my Hawks were in trouble.

The reason I made the Sparrowhawk more strength is due to more people operating it. I don’t really see it as a Vampire counterpart, seeing as how it’s effective against anything.

Didn’t I make the Rockethog a 1 shot Laser kill?

I have no idea how to balance fighters, so if you want to do it, be my guest.

i_Elite_BoB · June 9, 2013, 8:26pm

Agree with getting most vehicles back.

I think that the vehicles should be balanced as simply as possible for most effectiveness. Then and only then, should other random factors be considered.

Concerning the pelican:

I appreciate that the engines are going to be it’s weak spot so most parts of it will be higher.

I do however think that once ‘destroyed’, that instead of blowing up, it crashes down to the ground (with very little or no control), giving some equipped people the chance to bail if and when they want.

(again a little work is needed with this idea)

Buzzsaw_PhD · June 10, 2013, 2:36am

I’ve already went into detail concerning the Pelican’s destruction physics. I’m basing that idea off of the disabling mechanic on Battlefield.

i_Elite_BoB · June 10, 2013, 4:13pm

> I’ve already went into detail concerning the Pelican’s destruction physics. I’m basing that idea off of the disabling mechanic on Battlefield.

so you do, sorry I was quite tired when I read it. Sounds great!

Assassin_11D7 · June 10, 2013, 5:02pm

> Bear with me, I’m replying on my phone, it’s too hard to separate quotes in to sections.
>
> The reason I didn’t give vehicles pilot-controlled guns is to promote teamwork. The transports especially, to highlight their role as support and transport craft. The Scarab is so just one guy doesn’t have that much power to himself, adding more emphasis on teamwork.

I can tell from experience that unless the Scarab’s beam has tracking that can fly around in circles it is vulnerable to aircraft that can easily take it down. This became an issue in Halo PC as it got to the point where a skilled pilot could take down a Scarab in under a minute.

I also feel the Phantom and Pelican should be Transport/Gunship, while the Albatross and Spirit would be mainly transport. This would separate the ships more but would help them maintain important roles. The only thing is that the Pelican should not be like the Halo 4 version as that one is ridiculously overpowered, even the main turret.

> I added in the Gremlin because I see its use as a powerful support vehicle. It saved me a couple times in Halo Wars when my Hawks were in trouble.

While it has potential I worry about how it would work in the game. It’s similar to a Plasma Pistol, but for large vehicles and you can’t swap vehicles in a second, so a coordinated attack would need to be done. Since Halo players generally are far from strategists this concerns me.

> The reason I made the Sparrowhawk more strength is due to more people operating it. I don’t really see it as a Vampire counterpart, seeing as how it’s effective against anything.

Effective against anything is a concerning line. Nothing should be the anti everything weapon or vehicle, we don’t need a jack of all trades vehicle or else it would end up like the DMR pre update.

> Didn’t I make the Rockethog a 1 shot Laser kill?

It was mashed in with the Wolverine and said 1.5 laser kill, I think.

> I have no idea how to balance fighters, so if you want to do it, be my guest.

Without testing it’s impossible to hit head on, like all of these vehicle stats. Put simply, Longsword and Seraph(fighters) wouldn’t be as maneuverable as the Sabre and Space Banshee(interceptors). Fighters have better weaponry, interceptors have weaker weaponry.

Buzzsaw_PhD · June 10, 2013, 5:39pm

> I can tell from experience that unless the Scarab’s beam has tracking that can fly around in circles it is vulnerable to aircraft that can easily take it down. This became an issue in Halo PC as it got to the point where a skilled pilot could take down a Scarab in under a minute.
>
> I also feel the Phantom and Pelican should be Transport/Gunship, while the Albatross and Spirit would be mainly transport. This would separate the ships more but would help them maintain important roles. The only thing is that the Pelican should not be like the Halo 4 version as that one is ridiculously overpowered, even the main turret.

I see where you’re coming from with the Scarab, I’ll update the AA.

I also see where you’re going with the dropships. I’m not changing the Pelican and Albatross, though. The Albatross, from what I’ve read, is basically the love child between a firebase and a Pelican. However, I see the redundancy between the Spirit and Phantom. You’re right, but I don’t think the Phantom should be a true gunship, maybe a quasi-gunship.

> While it has potential I worry about how it would work in the game. It’s similar to a Plasma Pistol, but for large vehicles and you can’t swap vehicles in a second, so a coordinated attack would need to be done. Since Halo players generally are far from strategists this concerns me.

Don’t worry, with the One and the new buttons we’re getting, I hope we can get something like Battlefield’s Commo Rose to help coordinate attacks. Also, everyone will have mics (Kinect 2.0), which could help coordinate attacks.

> Effective against anything is a concerning line. Nothing should be the anti everything weapon or vehicle, we don’t need a jack of all trades vehicle or else it would end up like the DMR pre update.

Good point, I’ll get to work nerfing it.

> > Didn’t I make the Rockethog a 1 shot Laser kill?
>
> It was mashed in with the Wolverine and said 1.5 laser kill, I think.

The only reason I put it in there was to state the relationship between the two, I’ll clear it up.

> > I have no idea how to balance fighters, so if you want to do it, be my guest.
>
> Without testing it’s impossible to hit head on, like all of these vehicle stats. Put simply, Longsword and Seraph(fighters) wouldn’t be as maneuverable as the Sabre and Space Banshee(interceptors). Fighters have better weaponry, interceptors have weaker weaponry.

[/quote]
The reason why I’m having such a difficult time with this is because of the limited amount of screentime the space vehicles got. For the Halo Wars vehicles, we got to see and use all the vehicles, giving me an idea on how they worked.

Will think of ways to work on space vehicles, and I’m thinking of adding in the Cyclops for repairs.

i_Elite_BoB · June 11, 2013, 4:03pm

Here’s a more accurate view of vehicles:

Start off, UNSC:

Scout:

Mongoose: Needs to be faster (to be keep up with sprint).

> - Something like the Switchblade glider for the UNSC. No Weapons/passengers.

Should be a one shot kill against: Splaser (weak spots) / Scorpion cannon / wolverine and rocket hog volley / and other such weapons [I’ll edit if i need specifics]
Few shot kill: Rockets / missile pod / guass ect.

Warthogs:

Default
Guass
Rocket
Troop: For customs

Should be buffed against infantry and faster since we’re hoping for larger maps.

Heavy:

Scorpion
Wolverine
Cobra: possible
Grizzly: possible although OP. Could have two scorpions on one team for one grizzly on the other. or just for customs.

Air:

Hornet: ‘Anti’-Air/Ground
Falcon: ‘Anti’- ground/troop transport.
Broadsword: Only anti-air
Suppose this is more relevant here:

> - Something like the Switchblade glider for the UNSC. No Weapons/passengers.

Transport:

Pelican: VERY HARD to kill.
Mammoth: Could be used in place of bases in some game modes.
Elephant?: Just for fun?

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