Ways to improve Spartan Ops, listen up 343!

Games Other Halo
1

Safe, now I loved season one of Spartan Ops, I loved the fact I was able to explore more elements of the Halo lore apart from the Chief and because of this I was not overly bothered about the highly repetitive procedure of killing things a pushing buttons.

Please be aware people, Spartan Ops is a HUGE project. Crafting around 50 different play spaces would have added months to the release date of Halo 4. To ignore this I looked at the maps as they are the same layouts and aesthetics just set on different parts of the planet and the Forerunner Builders just copy and pasted parts of their design whilst constructing Requiem to save time due to the Flood. (Yes, i’m that sad.)

Respawning - ADD A CHECKPOINT SYSTEM FOR SOLO PLAY, WHICH WILL MAKE THINGS MORE CHALLENGING, MORE DRIVE TO STAY ALIVE RATHER THAN GRIND KILLS AND GET DEATHS.

Maps - Now if you noticed in the last few missions, different and new parts of the same maps were being explored, this means that you will have make less maps - just reveal more are more of it as time goes by = Less replay & recycle.

More Trolland - Roland is by far the best character in Halo, and in my opinion is the most human. Do you know why? Because he has a sense of humor. At not one point in the main campaign did I even produce a mild laugh as I was forced into constant depression by a certain blue woman, who kept moaning at me and breaking everything. (Well, that’s a pretty realistic woman but I digress.)

Jared Miller - Please explain to me why a Spartan is running Ops in a control room and not with all the other Spartans in the ground, is he handicapped or something?

Combat Dialogue - You really need to record more variation for Jared and Dalton, seriously there I started to cringe every time Jared marked those targets for me.

Blandness - Add something extra into gameplay, for example Spartans with personality fighting by your side. With majestic team, OR the Rooster Teeth team (or whatever they’re called) Or a specific objective, like take out a herd of 200 grunts or fight your way though a small army of vehicles. (Shootout in Valhalla = epic! You know, rice and spice it. I also love the ops where you have to snipe to defend the engine room of infinity. MORE STUFF LIKE THAT 343!! :smiley:

Palmer - I hate everything she says and does. She has so much disrespect for everybody, hates Halsey (without which nobody would be alive) and should be promptly be written out in a click of the fingers. (ahem, Kat, boom headshot, sorted.)

Input from Quetzocoetl:

Skulls - It would add replayability, and would just generally be fun. Ideally, I want to see more than just what the Campaign provided, I want to see CEA’s and Halo 2’s skulls make a comeback. Maybe they could be unlockable as players accomplish certain tasks (Commendations, # of Challenges, Certain amount of episodes/chapters completed on different difficulties, etc.)

Theater support - This one pretty much speaks for itself.

Exclusives - One of the wonderful things about how Halo handles maps means that when new map files (as in multiplayer maps or Spartan Ops maps) are added in, those maps can contain anything, even completely new weapons and vehicles. Though those things can only exist on those maps and no where else, Spartan Ops would be the perfect place to add in such things, as they don’t have to be as balanced nor as heavily incorporated as multiplayer weapons/vehicles.

It feels like you’ve had a huge ambission but just got bored while making it. I will be buying season two, as i’m addicted to the Lore, not because of the repetitive gameplay.

Thank you for reading!

2

> Safe, now I loved season one of Spartan Ops, I loved the fact I was able to explore more elements of the Halo lore apart from the Chief and because of this I was not overly bothered about the highly repetitive procedure of killing things a pushing buttons.
>
> Please be aware people, Spartan Ops is a HUGE project. Crafting around 50 different play spaces would have added months to the release date of Halo 4. To ignore this I looked at the maps as they are the same layouts and aesthetics just set on different parts of the planet and the Forerunner Builders just copy and pasted parts of their design whilst constructing Requiem to save time due to the Flood. (Yes, i’m that sad.)
>
> Maps - Now if you noticed in the last few missions, different and new parts of the same maps were being explored, this means that you will have make less maps - just reveal more are more of it as time goes by = Less replay & recycle.
>
> More Trolland - Roland is by far the best character in Halo, and in my opinion is the most human. Do you know why? Because he has a sense of humor. At not one point in the main campaign did I even produce a mild laugh as I was forced into constant depression by a certain blue woman, who kept moaning at me and breaking everything. (Well, that’s a pretty realistic woman but I digress.)
>
> Jared Miller - Please explain to me why a Spartan is running Ops in a control room and not with all the other Spartans in the ground, is he handicapped or something?
>
> Combat Dialogue - You really need to record more variation for Jared and Dalton, seriously there I started to cringe every time Jared marked those targets for me.
>
> Blandness - Add something extra into gameplay, for example Spartans with personality fighting by your side. With majestic team, OR the Rooster Teeth team (or whatever they’re called) Or a specific objective, like take out a herd of 200 grunts or fight your way though a small army of vehicles. (Shootout in Valhalla = epic! You know, rice and spice it. I also love the ops where you have to snipe to defend the engine room of infinity. MORE STUFF LIKE THAT 343!! :smiley:
>
> Palmer - I hate everything she says and does. She has so much disrespect for everybody, hates Halsey (without which nobody would be alive) and should be promptly be written out in a click of the fingers. (ahem, Kat, boom headshot, sorted.)
>
> It feels like you’ve had a huge ambission but just got bored while making it. I will be buying season two, as i’m addicted to the Lore, not because of the repetitive gameplay.
>
> Thank you for reading!

Completely agree Will, I feel the gameplay could be better since SpOps is a nice addition
to the lore so why not make it more enjoyable and make us come back to it and not some bland mission which you just want to get over and done wit

Land Grab, for example I loved it, I enjoy going back to it to relax and destroy stuff in a warthog.

Roland also ties with Johnson IMO

3

Great post. This is the constructive criticism I appreciate. Oh, you won’t like this but I like Palmer. I think she will grow on people later in Halo.

4

> Completely agree Will, I feel the gameplay could be better since SpOps is a nice addition
> to the lore so why not make it more enjoyable and make us come back to it and not some bland mission which you just want to get over and done wit
>
> Land Grab, for example I loved it, I enjoy going back to it to relax and destroy stuff in a warthog.
>
> Roland also ties with Johnson IMO

Cheers mate, I didn’t know any of my Subs were on the forums! :smiley:

5

Great opinions man. Here are my thoughts.

Maps - I totally understand the development of these maps. SO much goes into making these missions. My idea is open world maps, much like ODST. You could maybe build 3 to 4 open would areas. Now players wouldn’t be able to explore the whole world (until all areas are unlocked) but you would unlock areas through out the season. Much like you did at the end of the first season. You would go to the same map but with a new area. Just a thought about how to mix it up and keep development “lower”.

Missions - Who doesn’t like killing massive amounts of enemies? I do but I need some spice in my life. We had to slaughter enemies, press buttons, defend areas, and press more buttons. You need new and more mission types. I suggest looking into you War Games game types. Convert some of those game types into missions. Invasion from Halo Reach is a great example that would be fun.

SPACE BATTLES! The Saber mission from Halo Reach is awesome! Flying the Broadsword … EPIC! Make some space battles, it will help mix it up from ground combat.

Look at episode 7 from season 1 as inspiration. That was easily the best episode because it really made you feel you were interacting with the story. That is what I want out of Spartan Ops. I want to feel like I’m involved in the story. The first 5 episodes I just felt like I was playing Firefight. If you are going to make episodes like that, why not just put Firefight into the game?

Palmer - Although there is a lot of hate for her going around the internet, I like her. I feel like there is a lot of potential for her character to development.

Roland - This character is great and I also like how he brings humor to situation.

Jared Miller - Out of all the characters, this is my least favorite. For a Spartan, elite of the elite, he is too dumb and whiny. I don’t understand why he is suppose to be in command after Palmer. (Considering when she isn’t available, he is the one commanding you). I would either change his character or kill him off.

Combat Dialogue - Combat dialogue is a little … lame. “Crimson, do this. Do that. Press this button. Crimson. Crimson.” … It isn’t bad, I guess, it does its job. Inform the player on what is going on and what to do in the simplest way. I think it picked up towards the end of the season when stuff you were doing was actually involved in the story (for example, episode 7). Have us interact with more characters. Maybe have Majestic team informing us on their situation or commenting on what we have just accomplished. Pretty much, just try to get us involved with the story more, much like I’ve mentioned before.

6

The only new characters introduced in Halo 4 I like are Lasky, Murphy and Thorn. I think Hoya, Glassman, Grant and Roland are OK. I hate Palmer, Miller, Demarco, Maddison, Dalton and Del rio but Palmer and Del Rio are written for you not to like them like Didact.

7

Agreed OP, I believe this also applies for the way it plays also. The Halo CE A.I. where very intelligent in almost every way and were not OP even on the Hardest difficulty, you could still beat them by using tactics, now the AI are too dumb to even do that. They should reuse the Halo CE A.I. and put it into Halo 4 and buff it in some areas. In Halo CE Legendary, Elite shielding was never too much, it was considerable stronger than the other difficulties, but was not stupid, if you stuck an Elite on Halo CE Legendary it would die, it would not sponge it up and then one hit kill you. Even the way the Elites ran and dodged in Halo CE was realistic, all the way down to the way they would melee and scream when their energy shield popped or when they got stuck.

If 343 combined the elite coding from Halo CE and Halo 3 and did the same for the most of the Covenant, then they could spend more time on how the enemies look or even what tools they can use. For example, instead of giving the elites over powered shields and melee damage, why not give them a type of hand held shield like the Jackals and let it be damageable by arms fire like the normal Jackal shield but much weaker. And when that fails allow the AI to draw for some kind of Half sword that could be dual wielded and make them go into some kind of berserk mode, which could increase the A.I’s speed and evade ability but not health. This could be applicable for Elite Major ranks up to Elite Warrior/ Ultra ranks. But when you get to Zealots, then you should see a massive difference because they are meant to be the covenant’s Spartans, not an easy kill.

They should give Zealots increased shield recharge rate but not more shield power, they should have an increased movement speed and higher evade tendencies and should be able to dual wield almost any weapon, so you should be able to see Zealots dual wield energy swords in a type of berserk mode that would encourage the A.I. to engage in more aggressive close-quarters combat scenarios. They should also be allowed to have a plasma rifle and sword or any weapon that can be dual wielded or held in one hand. And instead of them doing primitive attacks on you and by that I mean the classic run up and simple hit to kill you moves, before the kill you they should sometimes perform a tactical kill that would go into an amazing animation that could be stopped by teammates if reacted to quickly.

This would make A.I. much more intelligent and fun to fight and add a whole new layer of highly intelligent combat scenarios to the game. And if an A.I is close to a weapon that is better than the one it is holding, make the A.I attempt to pick it up over it’s current weapon, primarily let this function be used for grunts who usually carry Plasma pistols. This is the kind of thing i’m expecting to see in Halo 5, if it can be done.

8

No more button pressing. ESPECIALLY no more button pressing.

9

I mostly agree, save for 2 things.

  1. I don’t need exposition to make it believable that some Spartans might be better suited for support and command rather than front line combat, especially when the current program is voluntary. If Jared showed aptitude for his position prior to becoming a Spartan IV, would it really benefit anybody to force him on the frontlines when he may have previously shown he’s more valuable back at base? Admittedly, you could argue whether or not it’s a good idea to augment someone who isn’t going to take full advantage of the enhancements, but that’s an argument without a definitive end.

  2. I never got the hate for Palmer, and I don’t want to see her die…hell, if people dislike her so much, why not ask for her characterization to be improved rather than be killed off? I’m also not a big fan of Halsey, she got results, and we can only speculate on what would’ve happened had she either not gone through with or decided to use other methods for her Spartans.

That being said, I would LOVE to see missions get mixed up a bit more. There were a few more interesting objectives (defending things, racing away on a vehicle) but those were few and far in between. The Campaigns of prior Halo games have shown us we can have large vehicle-centric segments, and segments where stealth is heavily valued. I’d love to see some more of that to break up the “press this, shoot that” monotony we seem to get.

More on topic.
I’d like to see the following additions:

  1. Skulls. It would add replayability, and would just generally be fun. Ideally, I want to see more than just what the Campaign provided, I want to see CEA’s and Halo 2’s skulls make a comeback. Maybe they could be unlockable as players accomplish certain tasks (Commendations, # of Challenges, Certain amount of episodes/chapters completed on different difficulties, etc.)

  2. Theater support. This one pretty much speaks for itself.

  3. Exclusives. One of the wonderful things about how Halo handles maps means that when new map files (as in multiplayer maps or Spartan Ops maps) are added in, those maps can contain anything, even completely new weapons and vehicles. Though those things can only exist on those maps and no where else, Spartan Ops would be the perfect place to add in such things, as they don’t have to be as balanced nor as heavily incorporated as multiplayer weapons/vehicles.

10

> I mostly agree, save for 2 things.
> 1. I don’t need exposition to make it believable that some Spartans might be better suited for support and command rather than front line combat, especially when the current program is voluntary. If Jared showed aptitude for his position prior to becoming a Spartan IV, would it really benefit anybody to force him on the frontlines when he may have previously shown he’s more valuable back at base? Admittedly, you could argue whether or not it’s a good idea to augment someone who isn’t going to take full advantage of the enhancements, but that’s an argument without a definitive end.
>
> 2. I never got the hate for Palmer, and I don’t want to see her die…hell, if people dislike her so much, why not ask for her characterization to be improved rather than be killed off? I’m also not a big fan of Halsey, she got results, and we can only speculate on what would’ve happened had she either not gone through with or decided to use other methods for her Spartans.
>
> That being said, I would LOVE to see missions get mixed up a bit more. There were a few more interesting objectives (defending things, racing away on a vehicle) but those were few and far in between. The Campaigns of prior Halo games have shown us we can have large vehicle-centric segments, and segments where stealth is heavily valued. I’d love to see some more of that to break up the “press this, shoot that” monotony we seem to get.
>
>
> More on topic.
> I’d like to see the following additions:
> 1. Skulls. It would add replayability, and would just generally be fun. Ideally, I want to see more than just what the Campaign provided, I want to see CEA’s and Halo 2’s skulls make a comeback. Maybe they could be unlockable as players accomplish certain tasks (Commendations, # of Challenges, Certain amount of episodes/chapters completed on different difficulties, etc.)
>
> 2. Theater support. This one pretty much speaks for itself.
>
> 3. Exclusives. One of the wonderful things about how Halo handles maps means that when new map files (as in multiplayer maps or Spartan Ops maps) are added in, those maps can contain anything, even completely new weapons and vehicles. Though those things can only exist on those maps and no where else, Spartan Ops would be the perfect place to add in such things, as they don’t have to be as balanced nor as heavily incorporated as multiplayer weapons/vehicles.

Good points, added to post. C:

11

One way to improve spartan ops is too improve the NPC’s engagement script.That has the biggest effect on gameplay than “button pushing” and boring dialogue, though improvements to those are certainly a necessary step to make it better.More immersion in the missions is always a bonus by making it feel a bit more personal.There was little to hold you down in spartan ops, aside from follow the waypoint and kill all the enemies.

The majority of what i would have normally mentioned has already been said.So ill just leave it at what i wrote.I sure hope 343 makes a season 2&3.They have so many ideas from fans that it could only improve and become a very large part of the Halo franchise.

If, and only if 343 utilizes better engagement algorithms, as well as better dialogue and objectives will spartan ops truly become great.