> > Halo 3 didn’t have visible health, just shields.
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> I know. I said that Halo 3’s shields were visible, but that both the shields and the health regenerate. Hence, Halo 3 (and Halo 2, and Reach) has both regenerating shields and regenerating health. So your distinction of how health regenerates but shields don’t is kind of silly; most of the games even in the Halo series disagree with this distinction.
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> That was my point.
That’s not at all what I’m saying, I’m saying shields regenerate but health doesn’t (fully and in Reach).
> > And so your health regenerates in small increments, what’s the bid deal? You don’t magically go from 3 bars to full bars without a healthpack, which, incidentally, aren’t available to vehicles.
>
> True, you don’t go from 3 bars to full without a healthpack. But vehicles can take a lot more fire without dropping beneath a threshold than spartans can, which makes that regen a lot more relevant; hide a banshee for a moment, and when it comes back, it can survive another brief absorbance of DMR fire without taking any permanent damage.
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> This is hugely relevant in gameplay, especially in BTB games on maps like Paradiso or Boneyard.
It can survive a “brief absorbance” because it’s shields recharged. This is how it should be. In fact, no vehicle should be damaged by a DMR. It’s solid metal. Do you think if you took a standard rifle and shot a tank repeatedly it would explode? What about an armored Humvee? Maybe if you hit the gas tank or engine. Maybe. Helicopter? If you hit the blades (which would be way to easy and unbalanced). Super-alien-technology-far-superior-to-that-of-humans? Not a chance!
The general conception of a vehicle is wrong, and as such, they are handled wrongly on maps. The game would play much better if vehicles were actually vehicles and big power weapons, if weapons were weapons and not power weapons, and power weapons were power weapons and not weapons.
Every base (assuming a large, BTB environment) should have a few power weapons–inside the base–and many vehicles. This, however, requires an actual base. Not Hemorrhage circles, bases! Paradiso or Valhalla bases at the least, Standoff and Sandbox bases ideal. Why? This prevents someone from simply walking in and taking your anti-vehicle weaponry (a-la Hemorrhage–get the slightest bit spawntrapped and you can kiss that sniper goodbye).
What exactly is a base? A base is the center of operations. It’s your stronghold. It’s the ultimate goal of any game, whether under the likeness of slayer or CTF, or anything else. Take control of the enemy base, you should win.
With such a high payoff, the base should be hard to take. There should be few and small entrance points (no vehicles inside), good vantage points that offer good cover, chokepoints, and many friendly spawnpoints. Getting completely wrecked outside due to enemy vehicles? Retreat inside. Defend your base. Use the power weapons that weren’t stolen because they were in your nearly-impenetrable base to defeat the enemy vehicles. Wait until your sheltered vehicles spawn and take the fight to them. Or make them so bored they leave their vehicles and try to enter your base.
In short, a base is safety. It is an objective. It is a stash of weapons and vehicles.
With proper bases, we can have proper vehicles.
What’s a proper vehicle? A vehicle should be impervious to “small” arms fire. I highlight small because some may not call the DMR small, but for the sake of ease, it will be considered a small arm. As such, it could easily be overpowered. Two things balance this out–exposed drivers/gunners and many power weapons.
Consider Valhalla. The enemy has pushed you back inside your base and is circling with a Warthog while their Banshee stalks down anyone who tries to sneak away. You use a power drain (safely stashed inside your base) to down the Warthog long enough to stick it (with the grenades that were also conveniantly put inside your base). The missile pod can then be used to down the Banshee or scare it away long enough to hide somewhere else (and again, it is convienantly inside your base). The sniper can pick off, say, whoever’s holding the laser, letting your Warthog cover a teamate’s journey to the now free laser. Soon enough, your Banshee spawns and you take the fight to their Banshee.
This setup allows teams to gain advantages, but at the same makes it difficult–while possible–to hold the advantage.
If Halo could return to real bases with many (but not too many) power weapons, it could return to real, fun, yet challenging vehicles and intense, fun battles. I don’t think we really need to argue that pitting your brains against the enemy’s brawn, or your brawn against the enemy’s brains, or brawn vs. brawn/brain vs. brain is some of the most rewarding, challenging, and fun gameplay.
The game should depend on more than you accuracy with a single, all-purpose weapon. Reach fails miserably at this. And a great way to bestow strategy on a game is to implement proper vehicles. If proper vehicles were implemented directly into Reach, however, the game would suck even more than it does. Which is why other things need to change before the vehicles do.