What could a Halo BR be about?

Games Halo Infinite
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So here I am back at it, As I mentioned in my Feedback thread I would like to see a Battle Royal mode in Halo Infinite, I am going to explain my Idea and some details.

Let’s start with the map. The location could be on the Zeta Halo, means 343 could reuse areas from the campaign.

What is on the Map?
Easy since we are still on Zeta-Halo there are Banished for sure, but maybe Prometheans could also be there. FOBs with weapon supplies, hostile outposts, high value targets and ground vehicles

What is the goal of the Mode?
Since it is Battle Royal the goal is obvious to be the last squad standing, but there would be another win condition. To extract a high value AI which is somewhere on the ring and get off the ring.

What about the gameplay?
So here it comes how does it play? I think about a lobby of 100 to 120 players. The team size could be solo (Free for All like) up to 4 players (like the teams were in Halo 5). The explanation will be for a 4-player team.
When the match starts, the Team selects on the map (which is divided in squares) where they would like to drop with a drop capsule (like in ODST) the square with the most votes is selected if everyone selects a different square a random one is selected from these 4.
The Map shows also which squares were selected from other squads teams can land next to each other but not on the same square.
Landing cinematic starts (I would love to see something similar like it was in ODST) Once the Team has landed on the ring they are equipped with the ODST MP (which has yet to be added to the game) and the Sidekick Pistol and grenades. Now players can choose to take down enemy squads, FOBs, outposts or high value targets.
What will be the benefit?
FOBs → reveal the location of the AI after the quad reclaimed 3 FOBs can be used to buy supplies or respawn with credits. If a Squad takes over a FOB, guardians will spawn that defend the FOB against the other squads.
Outposts → power weapons and credits.
High Value Target → Will provide extra credits and special weapons.
Players will earn credits for taking down enemies.

Lets get going. So, lets say a Team manages to get 3 FOBs and takes in the AI they will get marked for all the remaining teams (similar to oddball) Important the player carrying the AI can still use their weapon since the AI is put into the back of the helmet. Now the fun begins the AI will replace the players AI as long as he is carrying it. The carrier squad will get a landing zone marked that at least the carrier has to reach to win the game.

So what do you guys think about it? I think it could be damn funny to battle on the ring with up to 120 players. I think to add some variety there could be a rotation of AIs within the match.
Let me know what you think or if you would like to add something to my idea.

Greetings and see you on the field!

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Sounds pretty fun to me. My main issue with a battle royale is how much time and resources it will take to build and maintain when the game needs a lot of work in standard multiplayer.

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HALO is… an A-R-E-N-A shooter. Plenty of BRs. Go play them.

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Halo’s sandbox, vehicles, setting, etc all make it perfect for a battle royale. Dropping down onto a map in drop pods, weapon crates and drops from banished and UNSC alike, maybe the ring itself is shattering and breaking down as it closes in. Or maybe lost in a slipspace-bubble. So much potential.
BUT
Right now the game across the board needs to be fixed up.
Sandbox: While the weapons are better than any other halo game (every weapon has a clear purpose and use, suiting different styles of play) it isn’t perfect.
Game modes themselves need to be tweaked.
Store needs to be changed.
Vehicles are just horrible right now for a big map.
Equipment needs rebalance too.
CO-OP still isn’t out and my GF and I aren’t playing campaign until that is out.
Forge is even further out.
People will also clamor for firefight

Basically. As cool an idea as a Halo Battle Royale is (it would be the only one I would play I haven’t played a single one yet) Halo Infinite on a base level needs work. In my opinion, the game launched too early and I still consider the game unfinished.
Lets finish the game itself before having a battle royale I would be comfortable playing.

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There are just 100 different things that Halo needs before a battle royale.

Also, you didn’t say this, but the “if you don’t like it, just don’t play it” argument made my grown adults who still haven’t figured out opportunity cost is kind of infuriating.

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" I’ve not played a single battle royale. Halo would be perfect for it. "

What even?

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I’m pretty confident that this isn’t possible, even if it’s merely a wishful idea. From some of the info we have about BTB and knowing how the game functions, 24 players seems to be pushing it, there’s no way we’ll see quadruple that in a match.

I could see smaller scale elimination style gameplay that emulates a BR (or rather a BR emulates to begin with) on a slightly larger BTB map, maybe even a revamped take on H5 Warzone. However a full scale BR would likely be impossible from a technical perspective, especially seeing how differently Campaign performs compared to Multiplayer.

On top of that, the map would have to work around the sandbox, the sandbox shouldn’t be retooled to work around the map. Basic weapons work in their roles in current map structure, and power weapons like the Sniper would just be overpowered. Just look at maps like Launch Site and Behemoth, they’re great for objective gameplay but in Slayer modes they just drag on due to unforced engagement ranges. The only thing I could see working well would be the vehicle sandbox, and that’s only with mobility, not even combat.

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Laper Larden has a good video about this topic (was released pre Infinite launch as a hypothetical devils advocate), I recommend giving it a watch.

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It’s really odd that Call of Duty Mobile can have 100 players, Battlefield 3 and V can have 64 players, Minecraft can have 200+ players, yet Halo Infinite struggles with 24 players.

This isn’t true.

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All built at its core or modded in ways that allow this.

Slipspace could probably be modified in time, but for now it’s most likely not going to allow this.

It is lol. I haven’t even played campaign yet and see how well a Sniper Rifle can utilized against open world combatants. Especially in Halo’s sandbox

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-cough-

https://imgur.com/a/tyzK3E9

-cough cough-

I wish my fans knew me better :man_shrugging:

I fail to see how this is relevant to my points in the post tho

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I’ve watched enough and looked into the genre enough to feel like I have an opinion about them on a gameplay level
However:
I’ve sworn off Call of Duty since Ghosts. I’m not going to support Activision. Especially with their current lawsuits.
I get pestered enough by others who play fortnite that I never want to play it.
Apex is EA. I’m more flexible with them, but similar boat to Activision.
PUBG is pretty much dead now.
I want to get into Battle Royale, but most companies are either too scummy for me to want to add to their playercount, or the game is dead.

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If it’s affecting Big Team Battle, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be changed.

You haven’t played campaign, and I doubt you’ve actually played a battle royale FPS either, from what you’re saying.
I’ve played several FPS games with battle royale modes, and snipers aren’t as big of a problem as you’re saying.

Not to mention that Sniper Rifles would likely be very limited in a Halo battle royale.

I’m not sure why you’d be more flexible with EA, when both are about as bad as each other.
I’d even say EA is worse, but only slightly.

Call of Duty Mobile and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground Mobile were okay when they had more players.

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I didn’t suggest the player count was the reason for the BTB issues.

I’m not playing the gatekeeper game bud, go pawn that childish crap off on someone else.

Sniper rifles work very differently from game to game, and you can’t use Warzone’s/PUBG’s shooting/sniping mechanics as an example of why it’ll be fine in Halo Infinite when they function vastly different.

In a BR, it’ll be built around around Halo’s power dynamic sandbox. No falloff damage, no bullet drop, nothing to compensate for line of sight. You see a player, you aim at that player, you shoot and kill that player, whatever distance they’re at. Right now most weapons are tuned around mid range combat, just look at how BTB works with most standoffs for further proof, with snipers being incredibly difficult to take care of if you don’t have a weapon that can compete. In a large scale BR, the current sandbox would not work well.

They’re very limited in regular gameplay, and 8 bullets is enough to swing a match.

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I’m not talking about the current issues.
You said, “From some of the info we have about BTB and knowing how the game functions, 24 players seems to be pushing it”.
Why would you think that it seems to be pushing it if it’s not causing some problem that shows that?

So you haven’t played any battle royale FPS games.
Well, gatekeeping or not, you can’t really say how it will work if you don’t know how those games work.

Why wouldn’t Halo have falloff damage or bullet drop?
Also, some weapons already have bullet drop, such as the Mangler and the Skewer.

Not only that, but sniper rifles work about the same in most of the battle royales that I’ve played.
From what I remember, most of them don’t even have sway when aiming.

Anything can be enough to swing a match.

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Because of the overall instability of the engine and game as we can currently test it as well.

Defend The House even shows that between latency, desync, and player action, even less than 24 players currently seems to stress the game.

Adding more in its current state would probably not work well at all.

Because it doesn’t now. Creating a BR based around Halo Infinite would either have to take advantage of existing assets or create new instances of them from the ground to compensate for balance. The current sandbox would not play well with a full scale BR.

Look at Cold War vs Warzone. All the weapons in CW have two versions, one that works in CW and one that works in Warzone due to engine differences that weren’t supposed to happen in the first place. I’m not saying Halo would be as extreme as that case, but it wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense logistically to create a whole different sandbox for a gamemode for balance purposes if you can avoid it.

Yes some weapons do, not all weapons. They’re all balanced around the current map sizes and engagement ranges. Again, look at how most skirmishes materialize in BTB, usually around short to medium ranges.

Long range precision rewarding weapons, that’s how snipers work in every game.

However, they work in different ways to compensate for the potential power they present.

Warzone/PUBG/Apex all feature projectile speed and bullet drop at long distances to reward skill and practice and punish sedentary strategy, but prevent the engagements from turning into mile long laser fights.

The S7 on the other hand is a Hitscan weapon at any range. No leading, no range handicaps, just point and pop. This is what sets the S7 apart and also why it would wreck the BR mode in its current state.

Actually there is a comparison to Warzone I can make. When the SP-R was added in it had the ability to equip .338 Lapua rounds. This turned the rifle from a projectile weapon with projectile speed and bullet drop into a hitscan weapon with near unlimited range. It had such an impact to the gameplay that engagement distances expanded and it was a must use. It was quickly patched with an ADS and damage nerf. But this is what the S7 currently functions as.

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“Defend The House”?

Also, as I said, they need to fix that anyway.
If they do, I doubt that the amount of players would be a problem.

There might be weapons with falloff damage, but I haven’t checked (on the Halo wiki however, the Shotgun in Halo 4 was said by 343 to have less falloff damage, so I wouldn’t doubt if there were weapons with that in Infinite).
Even if there isn’t, I don’t think it would be difficult to add or even necessary.

I haven’t played Cold War.

A battle royale mode likely wouldn’t require many balance changes if any.

There’s no reason they couldn’t add it to all weapons in another mode, but as I said about falloff damage, there isn’t any need for it anyway.
Also, most battles in battle royale modes are short to medium range.

When I played them, I didn’t notice any bullet drop, and even videos of Warzone don’t show it.

Also, a sedentary strategy likely wouldn’t work, since the maps frequently make you move with the changing playable zones, and there’s so much room on the map that the odds of finding a lot of players while waiting isn’t as likely as you think.

In addition, at the end of the match, it often puts you into an open area, so if you stay in a building outside of that area, either you’re going to die from being outside of the area, or you’re going to be found by a player trying to find whoever isn’t in that area or trying to do the same thing.

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So was CoD? Does that mean Halo has to stick to it? I am not saying that Halo has to be BR only I am only saying I would have fun with a BR (and I asume others would have aswell) in Halo since I like Arena and BR both.

Thats exactly my point there could be s much cool stuff for a BR in Halo but as you said befor they should think about working on something like that the core game needs to be fixed.

I am pretty sure that the slipspace engine is able to handel more than the 24 players, the problem in BTB is for sure not the engine… (just my assumtion)
because:

Wondering about the sense of creating a new powerfull engine that can`t keep up with engines that are used on mobiles but I need to do some more research. (What I will def. do after my exams)

Gonna have a look at it later today.

Those who say the game needs other things
Maybe check out my other post: feedback and wishes after 100h+ into multiplayer
cheers guys!

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The only BR halo needs is the one that goes pew pew in 3 round bursts.
Halo is its best when it is and plays like HALO. Halo having identity crisis’ is what made games like 4/5 bad. There are PLENTY of battle royals to play. And if u like battle royals you can PLAY THEM. Halo is a classic style arena shooter and is for people who enjoy that game play. Stop trying to change a game that many fans like as is because you prefer a different genre and want all shooters to fit that mold. Splitting halos player base between 2 diff games essentially is not good for HALO its ONLY good for fans of battle royals. It also sounds pretty entitled, be like a bunch of classic halo/arena shooter fans flooding every battle royal game, Apex, fortnight, pubg, making post after post about asking them to add an arena slayer to their already established genre

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It’s a different mode.
I don’t see you telling people to go play football, racing or zombie games because Grifball, Race and Infection aren’t arena shooter modes.

Apex and PUBG already have an arena slayer mode.
I think Fortnite has something similar to Big Team Battle as well.

Well, your point is moot anyway, because having a battle royale mode wouldn’t do anything to the arena mode in Halo.
People who want to play arena modes would still play arena modes, and people who like the battle royale mode likely wouldn’t always be playing it.

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