- Section I - Introduction and Overview I doubt I have much of a reputation on this particular forum, but if I do, it probably has something to do with making vehicle health threads. The core concept - that vehicle health shouldn’t be a static finite bar (paper vehicles: Reach - Present) but should instead regain health outside of combat (Regen Health: Halo 2 & 3) - has remained the same, but this time, I’ve considered trying a progression of the concept as opposed to full on reversion. If it works properly, it should make vehicles play as skill-based as the rest of Halo 5 is, while feeling as fun as they did in the previous trilogy by being more forgiving. This system was primarily conceptualized with Warzone in mind first, but should translate to BTB pretty well, as well as making vehicle segments in campaign a lot better.
Warzone is in general is pretty good believe it or not, but there are some things that really hold it back. I’ve read some good Warzone ideas in Ske7ch’s MM Thread but I feel like all the Warzone fixes in the world aren’t going to matter if paper vehicles still exist. Halo 2 and 3 vehicles hit the sweet spot where they felt like a pretty solid threat if it wasn’t dealt with, but could quickly be taken down with teamwork. Since Halo went to paper vehicle health in Reach, There is significantly less depth with vehicle combat. Regen Health is a much better system for Warzone, and Halo in general.
- Section II - Warzone, the Casual Player, and a Vehicle Health System that is Both Fair and ForgivingHalo 5 sold me on being a Spartan - I finally felt like one after so many games, but half the vehicles aren’t worth picking over a BR and a low tier REQ, and the vehicles that are worth it are usually just gigantic health bars and super weapons, and even then, its locked behind a lucky Gold Pack. I’ve never felt like my skill mattered as much as just knowing where to park the thing and shoot in a vehicle post-Halo 3. Halo 5 makes me feel like my skill really really matters when I’m on foot, so the transition to what is essentially a gear score when getting in a vehicle is kinda jarring and really out of place.
Getting Warzone to feel as good as Team Slayer does is how you make the casuals as happy as the competitive crowd is, and I think a big part of that is vehicle health being really unforgiving. In Warzone, everybody is going to have access to vehicles, if they can’t survive more than one encounter that isn’t completely one sided, all it turns into is a competition of who spends the most REQs. Besides significantly mismatched encounters, most vehicle-on-vehicle fights end in a kill on one side, and a flaming, useless death-trap on the other, while, besides ambushing, Vehicle vs. Infantry fights almost always end in Infantry camping somewhere the vehicle can’t reach, leaning out to chip away the vehicle with a few shots, and then ducking back in to get their health back. Rinse and repeat. This is because vehicles can’t do what you’re supposed to do in Halo: recover from any fight you survive. Every time you are DMR’d to death in a vehicle, it is simply a matter of regen being much better than paper, and its an example of Strategic Dominance
-
Section III - The Solution: Visual Segmented Health Bars that Regen
What I suggest is a medium health nerf on all vehicles. Then, we make a visible health bar, and visibly segment it into a few pieces, and each segment could regen. When a segment is broken, a visual cue would be given. Not all vehicles have to have the same amount of bars, bars don’t need to have the same amount of health, and maybe higher versions of REQs have extra bars.
Ex.
Gungoose 2 bars [|]
Corp Gungoose: 3 bars [||]
Oni Gungoose: 4 bars [|||_]
Warthog: 3 bars [||]
Corp Warthog: 4 bars [|||]
Oni Warthog: 5 bars [||||]
Scorpion: 3 bars [||]
Corp Scorpion: 4 Bars [|||]
Oni Scorpion: 5 Bars [||||]
The final bar should probably never, at its max, leave you with so little health that you cannot survive a single frag grenade, a couple of sniper rounds, or a single magazine of any loadout weapon, at least on anything than a gungoose, otherwise you will essentially wind up with the same situation we already have. I understand that currently, vehicle health in fact does regen slightly, but its max needs to be about 2.5 what it currently is on pretty much every vehicle. A major point of balancing should be considering how to properly implement these bars.
After being outside of combat for so long, tiny little repair drones pop out and slowly refill the current segment you are on, but not the entire bar (unless you’re full health obviously). I only suggest the animations so players can tell when somebody else’s vehicle is repairing and while we’re at it more obvious damage animations might also help so its more obvious when you’ve knocked an enemy down a notch.
While we’re at it, make both starting bases, and garages have repair zones where you can repair your vehicle back to full health at 1 bar per energy or something so you can continue to use the vehicle you want so long as you’re good enough to stay alive. This would also add to the strategical value of garages, as hit and run tactics with vehicles are a lot more useful when you don’t have to go all the way back to base to get a repair, and then come all the way back to the middle just to keep in the fight.
I also think that anything that is hitscan should receive a slight damage nerf on vehicles because it is far too easy to hit a fast moving hog with any hitscan weapon, let alone a slow moving tank, and while I have no problem with that, being able to effortlessly shred a vehicle with team ARs or frag spam is the majority of what is wrong with paper vehicles.
-
Section IV: Summary of Concept in Action
Regening segmented health bars are a great solution to the current paper vehicle problem, so long as the health nerf is sufficient, this should all lead to vehicles feeling more like an extension of how good you are and less of a test of the enemies ability to deal heavy damage. Seeing the health bar as visible chunks will make it more comprehensive as to what’s happening to your vehicle, and thus give you more control, and allowing the current segment to regen will allow for some room for error while still punishing players who recklessly over extend their vehicle as well as reward massive damage to vehicles that don’t quite end in a kill.
Halo has a very big foundation in a sizable amount of regenerating health, and its a core concept that has extended to vehicles in previous iterations, with overwhelmingly great success. The system helps create skill-based, multilayered encounters that can be over in an intense few seconds when severely outmatched, or several times longer when closely matched, though neither is always the case. It creates a situation where you are rewarded just as much for your skill in aiming as you are your ability to position, flank, push, fade, camp, or otherwise out maneuver your opponent, and it would not have nearly as much depth to it without the ability to completely recover from small skirmishes. Without it, vehicles lack the depth they once had, and feel much more like throw-away power-ups than they do the extension to the player they once were.