Warzone Conquest

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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Before we start, this is hypothetical, and in no way going to appear in Halo 5, and most likely not in Halo 6. But I still intend to post this “suggestion”/idea for a Warzone gamemode/change. Keep this in mind, as this is also not confirmed leaks or anything of the sort.

So, onto my idea for something I’d like to call “Warzone Conquest”

I’m sure some of us are familiar with the Battlefield commander mode? Where if the players captured control points you could use abilities, drop vehicles, or mark targets for elimination. Ofcourse that was designed for Battlefield, and it didn’t end too well with Hardline, and never continued in the newest of Battlefields.

But we already have a top down game, designed for controlling units and using abilities… Halo Wars 2.

My idea is that a new gamemode for Warzone could be made called Warzone Conquest. It would of course take place in normal warzone maps, but would go down far differently as both Halo FPS players, and Halo Wars 2 players would be in the same battle.

General Info
For the Halo FPS players, it will be mostly normal, aside from certain buffs a Halo Wars 2 player could drop you would play the game normal, but there would be larger conflicts between AI (as there is one HW2 player per team, who control AI to fight with), and the AI would be smarter due to specific player control.

The score to win as of now would be 2500 due to other reasons described below.

FPS Players
Gameplay for Spartans will be relatively normal, capture bases, kill AI, destroy the core etc. But there will be marked objectives on the map, that if captured will give the HW2 players extra resources or a small buff (for example +5 unit limit up to a max of +10). The HW2 player will be able to make a spartan their dedicated spartan (described later down) and will also be able to mark enemy units or players for elimination. AI damage on FPS players will be toned down from the normal extreme amounts of damage to make up for the larger unit count.
Some units spawned in by the RTS player will be marked as bosses based on their level (ultimate units and some rare units). The Spartans will be able to kill the unit for points as if it were a normal boss, although it will be defended not only by rts controlled AI, but enemy Spartans too. If the unit is not killed in maybe 3 to 5 minutes, the boss icon will go away and it will be a normal unit (although if the unit is a legendary as described later, it will not lose the boss icon ever, but the icon will fade if not in LOS)

Map Objectives
Scoring 2500 points will be the main way to win, killing a core is able to occur, and the normal points awarded for killing Spartans or owning a base will also be present. But a line will be placed somewhere on a map to mark the main “battleground”, this is the line of conquest. (Think For Honor). AI units will automatically spawn and duel it out to cross the line and hold it, Players will be told to kill AI that are around the line in order to help their AI push the line of conquest. The HW2 player will be most dedicated to helping reinforce or capture the line, their units will be able to capture the line but Spartans will not be able to (by killing AI they allow their own AI to push). After gaining hold of the conquest line, the generic AI spawns will begin to take cover behind boxes and various other blockades in order to get a better hold. At the same rate that bases give points the line will give 1.5 per rate, so it will be worth more than having one base.
Depending on the map, there could be more than one line of conquest. Per match there will only be one, but just as boss spawns change, the line of conquest can be different each match.
Line of Conquest

AI Benefits for players
Not only will the AI controlled by HW2 players fight for the Spartans, but a HW2 player can select a squad of AI and tell them to follow the player. 3 players max can be followed, and can only be followed by infantry. One squad per player (max of 3 squads on players at a time). One a squad is given to a player, they are removed from the HW2 unit limit, and can no longer be controlled. If a Spartan doesn’t want AI with them they can remove the squad at any time with a req station by going into the menu and either disbanding the squad, or blocking themselves from ever being given squads again (in order to prevent griefing). The units given to a player will have arrows above their heads with a colored icon to show ownership for the player (and only the said player can see this). If a player goes into a cooperative vehicle (warthog, tanks, etc) the units will attempt to enter it with them (in gunners or passenger seats, never driver). If another player wants to get in, they can hop in as if nothing was in the vehicle and the AI will be kicked out.

Notifications
The HW2 players will be able to use a dialpad to notify Spartans that they need to Defend, Attack, Retreat, or that there is danger. Spartans will see this as an icon in the sky and will see another icon on their minimap to show which direction/where it is. The icon will also appear and blink in the top left corner of their screen if they are within the zone of effect. The HW2 player will not be able to spam a notification multiple times in one spot, and if they spam more than 4 in a short duration a small block is put on temporarily.

Yes I know it’s not the best made idea, but just think about it, it fulfills the wants of the HW2 players who want to “control a unit on the ground” and the FPS players who want to fight in a battle where two sides of massive amounts of units are dueling it out. It also allows greater conflicts for both fan bases and pulls them together for a major game mode.

Or maybe even make a blitz variant of this for weekends :wink:
Also sorry for my rambling on, I didn’t go and revise my word structure too well.

Disclaimer : The RTS description will be present in a comment below, 7500 letters was not enough for the entire post!

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Bases
For HW2 players it would be far different from base gameplay. There would be one player from HW2 on both teams controlling their AI armies. The starter base with the core would be your HQ, and marines or basic vehicles could be trained from it. The 3 dropzone platforms that FPS players drop in would be build locations, with upgrades leading up to a maximum of 5 alongside two turrets on the outside of the base. Further on, each “Minibase” (the tiny captured bases by FPS players) would have a maximum of 1 build spot and 1 turret spot. Ofcourse larger bases on maps would start with 2 slots that could be upgraded to 3 build slots alongside 2 turrets.

Unit Limits
The HW2 players would have a maximum of 20 unit points (the cap on amount of units spawned in Halo Wars 2), and that would not be upgrade able aside from with help from FPS players (described above) And ofcourse custom buildings for the gamemode would be present due to the fact many vehicles in HW2 are not accessible in current Halo FPS titles. Some upgrades for units would be present, and others would upgrade them to Halo variants (common > uncommon > rare) (And ultimate vehicles would be legendaries).

HW2 Spartans
Now due to player controlled Spartans (Which is requested for HW2 by many, regardless of how broken it’d be) , the HW2 player cannot spawn any. But now they could select a player to be “their spartan”. With kills on other spartans and AI the player spartan would rack up points, when they “level up” the HW2 player can use their resources to give said player an upgrade. From faster movement, to targeting upgrades (Will go into depth in a bit), the player would be buffed, and any enemies who spot said spartan would see a crown above their head (2d image). And the leader board would show this aspect too.

HW2 Abilities
Halo Wars 2 abilities are extremely powerful, and wouldn’t fit properly in Warzone. So changes would have to be made, passives for HW2 units would remain, and some passives could buff the Spartans themselves (although minor buffs). Giant lasers and bombs would still exist, but if used by a HW2 player, there would be a 5 to 10 second timer after selecting a location, and all player Spartans (alongside the HW2 players) would see a highlight of all locations that are going to be hit by the power, giving them time to run from the location before everything blows up.

Alongside the normal abilities, some powers could drop a crate near a player, giving them extra armaments, ammo, a vehicle, or a req station to spawn weapons in.

Ultimate Units
While basically all Ultimate units in HW2 are not available in the FPS games, they could be replaced with legendary variants of vehicles or units. When spawned they will either be built at a base or teleported in (via forerunner tech). When spawned both teams would be notified, and killing the Ultimate would give the opposing team 100 points. Using an ultimate would enforce a large cooldown and each team could only have one ultimate up at a time (taking up a separate slot from normal unit counts)

Deeper Into Upgrades
While the normal run of the mill HW2 upgrades will be present in some forms, upgrades for the bases the FPS players could capture would be accessible. You could upgrade the marines / grunts in a base to increase their spawn amount, give some of them power weapons (shotguns, saws, etc), or to give the base a temporary shield preventing fire coming from the outside (forcing close combat between players).

Controlling Units and Fog of War
Fog of war would be difficult, but having a player who knows where everyone is, is also broken. So any “captured” bases would give vision, any allied AI would give vision, spartans would give vision, and enemy units hit by a player spartan would be revealed for 5 seconds with a minor vision circle around them. Units automatically spawned in bases are uncontrollable and the HW2 player only has indirect control of them with upgrades (above). AI units would be controlled as normal, and if they are the only ones present in a base, the base will be captured (although slowly, as spartans will be the main way to capture bases). AI units spawned by the HW2 player could be directed to target any AI units, and can be told with a button to target Spartans. You cannot target a specific spartan, but you can tell them to favor shooting spartans over AI, and they will target the closest spartans.

Vehicles can be spawned, including all FPS vehicles, from wasps, to phaetons (Using Anders ofcourse)
If a player chooses a brute leader, all units in bases will spawn as grunts or elites, and they will have access to covenant vehicles.
If a player chooses a UNSC leader, units in bases will spawn as normal, and they will have access to UNSC vehicles. (Although Anders could summon a phaeton or forerunner troops through abilities)

As I said earlier in HW2 spartans, there is something called targeting. This is not based on the “chosen spartan”, and can be used for up to 3 Spartans at a time. If you select some spartans, you can tell them to target a specific target, from AI to enemy spartans. The targets will be notified of being marked, and will take 10% extra damage from the spartans told to target them. If a spartan is marked as a target, killing the enemy spartans targeting them will give 5 points towards victory rather than the normal 1. Upgrades for the targeting (for your dedicated spartan) will give upgrades such as increased speed near the target to 15% increased damage (having targeting upgrades will give the targeted (the one who is marked for death) unit up to 10 extra points for killing the spartan who targeted them, so someone cannot abuse targeting).

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I see where you are coming from as both a HW gamer and regular halo. The idea seems good until you start upgrading your units. I myself whenever I play RTS I’m a giant turtle. And once I literally max out every unit I’m using and cap my army limit. It will be like a tsunami just washing everything away because of numbers and how powerful my army is down to the unit. It is a fun idea and would love to see it come to life in one game but 30 unit cap and can be extended can be a little op if I say so my self. I’d say leave the army limit to like 15-20 spaces and have an upgrade to 25.