First of all I gotta say that I love the pelicans new design apart from two things.
Bad Stuff.
Good Stuff.
I would love to see Pelicans in matchmaking and it would be a great addition to Big Team Battle. Being able to transport your team, drop off supplies, and provide support would be my dream in a large map designed for vehicles. (I hope they add a few large maps just for BTB and vehicle combat.)
I would like to see the Pelican move back towards the H3 design but that’s just me. What you are talking about is the Assault Pelican which was designed to be fully modified for combat. I think a normal transport Pelican would be fine for multiplayer so that it wouldn’t be overpowered. As I stated before it would be VERY useful as a support vehicle and I hope to see it in H5 multiplayer.
I thought it was goofy we could get in it (kind of) in Spartan Ops.
Anyway.
My idea?
Think of it as an airborne Elephant with the controls of the Hornet or Falcon.
There would be only one position you could “sit” in, being the pilots seat.
Everything else inside the Pelican would be modified turrets, and for the sake of balance I’ll just say a Spartan Laser Turret and a minigun in the back.
They could be destroyed with enough fire - imagine putting Mantis shields on a Scorpion and then doubling the health - and they could also be boarded with enough skill. Maybe you could sneak on when it’s grounded, try to jump into it from a Banshee or a high enough spot, that sort of thing.
Last but not least, when the Pelican is “destroyed” it would simply lose speed and altitude until it landed. Once it landed it would kick the driver out, strip everyone’s shields, and despawn after a minute. You could never get a massive killing spree going by shooting them down, but you could pick off everyone as they jumped out after (or sometimes during) it going down.
I can’t seem to find the design anywhere… can I has linky?
EDIT: OOoooooh, I thought we were talking about that new one, the Condor… oooooh… hang on. 
Response incoming.
EDIT PLATINUM EDITION!
I’ve honestly always loved the Pelican design in all the games.
You say Spartan Laser turret…? You mean Railgun…? I don’t recall a Splaser turret in Halo 4.
I’d love to see a level section in Campaign where you have to deliver reinforcements, vehicles, and have an aerial fight in a Pelican. That would be cool!
!
I had mixed feelings about the tricked out Pelican. It always felt to me like a lightly armed dropship/transport, adding all kinds of firepower to it felt… jury rigged.
Missile pods, splasers, chain guns… they’d all make much more sense on something that doesn’t unnecessarily risk the lives of infantry.
If I ever made a modern comparison, the Pelican would be the equivalent of a Chinook transport, and <something else> would take on the role of Apache gunship.
But maybe I’m picking nits here… it was still pretty cool.
Just to note, the Pelican you fly in the Halo 4 campaign is not a standard Pelican, but a heavily outfitted gunship. The standard Pelican has a forward turret and rear facing turret. Pelicans can be outfitted with a number of different armaments, including what we see in Halo 3 and Halo 4.
I pray that the Halo 5 Pelican looks nothing like the Halo 4 one because it was awful in almost every way.
I’ll start off with what I liked, since it’s a shorter list.
Liked:
It felt larger. I don’t know if it actually was, but in the Spartan Ops cutscenes it looked significantly bigger. I could believe there were 30 something kids in there as told in the Fall of Reach book.
The chin turret. I felt the stubbier-looking chin turret looked better than the longer turret Pelicans had in the past.
I thought the external weapon storage was a neat touch.
And now for what I disliked, which is pretty much everything else, covering the look, gameplay, and technical side of it. I’ll go into specifics as I can recall them.
Disliked:
The new Pelican’s front looks like it was heavily inspired from a Russian Mi-24 helicopter, right down to the swing open bubble canopies, which are dumb for a spacecraft. You’d usually want something more re-enforced in case of decompression, or at least be able to have some kind of emergency shielding cover the canopy. Something that really can’t be done on the new design.
The pilot, while not completely separated from the rest of the cabin, can only really be accessed through the canopy. If anything were to happen to the pilot, the rest of the Pelican is pretty much screwed. And with this restricted set up, there couldn’t be moments like Noble 6’s last face-to-face with Carver, or even small moments like when Chief looks out at the Ark as they descend.
The loading ramp, as you can see at the opening cutscene in Spartan Ops is massive, about 15 to 20 feet long it seems. With the Halo 4 Pelican, there is no way there can be a rapid deployment of troops. Moments in past Halo games such as the opening of Silent Cartographer would be impossible. If the ramp was out, it would create so much drag on the Pelican that it would have trouble flying, and if they waited till touching down before opening the ramp, everyone in the Pelican would probably get killed before they could even get out. It would also be impossible for the ramp to open if the Pelican was carrying anything, so the opening cutscene of The Covenant in Halo 3 wouldn’t have been possible either.
The non-pilot turrets, all of them are terrible from both a technical and gameplay perspective. The co-pilot controls a Scorpion tank cannon, which fires from on top of the Pelican. What’s worse is that cannon can only aim at things above the Pelican, so the pilot has to put themselves below targets for the co-pilot to have a chance of hitting anything, and even then the body of the Pelican blocks the line of site. Why this wasn’t just a swarm of missiles like in Halo 3 is beyond me, it could have even used the same missiles as the Rocket 'hog and it would make more sense. And then there are the terrible turret seats on either side of the loading ramp. These are like a punishment to be in, you can’t shoot at things in front, and you can’t shoot back beyond the side of the Pelican, and the body of the Pelican gets in the way of anything you can aim at anyways. Also, let me remind you that the Pelican is a spacecraft that travels through the atmosphere, and with it’s placement behind the engines you would have to be suicidal to even use them. It’s like a child wanted to strap a bunch of guns to a plane and everyone else thought it was a great idea. And speaking of those engines.
What is with the engine placements? I have to admit, I like the glowing bar effect on the engines, very Star Wars like. But the placement of them doesn’t seem to make any sense. There are ones added to the side of the cabin, which really don’t need to be there as there were already the four main engines for that. Also, why are the wings connected to those engines? It’s a bad design choice as I doubt it’d be very structurally sound. And why replace the hovering thrusters on the wings with four dinky thrusters that hang off the bottom? It looks bad, and without the underside thruster, the wings have to rotate 90 degrees or more when slowing itself to land, as seen in Spartan Ops. Also there isn’t anything really wrong with the two new ones on the back, but it looks really odd when that was part of the structure to the tail before.
And finally, why were the wheels removed? Most military aircraft have wheels, even ones that can take off and land like a VTOL, such as a helicopter. One reason for it is so they don’t need a pilot if they need to move the aircraft a few feet or so, or to store it in a hanger. They just attach a cart to it and drive it to where it needs to go. I’m sure not every place in the UNSC has a pedestal for each Pelican like on the Infinity, or crane or pilot always there when they need to be moved.
That’s the end of my rant for now, felt like I was losing my mind there toward the end. Just that I’ve always loved the Pelican’s design, and it has only gotten better in each installment. Then Halo 4 comes with finally a campaign mission to fly it, and it’s an abhorrent abomination in all aspects: Design, gameplay, and UNSC aesthetics. It’s like waiting 11 years for something only to get kicked in the balls in the end.
> Just to note, the Pelican you fly in the Halo 4 campaign is not a standard Pelican, but a heavily outfitted gunship. The standard Pelican has a forward turret and rear facing turret. Pelicans can be outfitted with a number of different armaments, including what we see in Halo 3 and Halo 4.
Yes isn’t that just called the Assault Pelican?
> > Just to note, the Pelican you fly in the Halo 4 campaign is not a standard Pelican, but a heavily outfitted gunship. The standard Pelican has a forward turret and rear facing turret. Pelicans can be outfitted with a number of different armaments, including what we see in Halo 3 and Halo 4.
>
> Yes isn’t that just called the Assault Pelican?
Pelican Gunship you fly in campaign
Only differences are the additional turrets, and one of the chin gun machine guns being replaced with a laser.
> I pray that they Halo 5 Pelican looks nothing like the Halo 4 one because it was awful in almost every way.
>
> Disliked:
> - The new Pelican’s front looks like it was heavily inspired from a Russian Mi-24 helicopter, right down to the swing open bubble canopies, which are dumb for a spacecraft. You’d usually want something more re-enforced in case of decompression, or at least be able to have some kind of emergency shielding cover the canopy. Something that really can’t be done on the new design.
>
> - The pilot, while not completely separated from the rest of the cabin, can only really be accessed through the canopy. If anything were to happen to the pilot, the rest of the Pelican is pretty much screwed. And with this restricted set up, there couldn’t be moments like Noble 6’s last face-to-face with Carver, or even small moments like when Chief looks out at the Ark as they descend.
>
> - The loading ramp, as you can see at the opening cutscene in Spartan Ops is massive, about 15 to 20 feet long it seems. With the Halo 4 Pelican, there is no way there can be a rapid deployment of troops. Moments in past Halo games such as the opening of Silent Cartographer would be impossible. If the ramp was out, it would create so much drag on the Pelican that it would have trouble flying, and if they waited till touching down before opening the ramp, everyone in the Pelican would probably get killed before they could even get out. It would also be impossible for the ramp to open if the Pelican was carrying anything, so the opening cutscene of The Covenant in Halo 3 wouldn’t have been possible either.
>
> - The non-pilot turrets, all of them are terrible from both a technical and gameplay perspective. The co-pilot controls a Scorpion tank cannon, which fires from on top of the Pelican. What’s worse is that cannon can only aim at things above the Pelican, so the pilot has to put themselves below targets for the co-pilot to have a chance of hitting anything, and even then the body of the Pelican blocks the line of site. Why this wasn’t just a swarm of missiles like in Halo 3 is beyond me, it could have even used the same missiles as the Rocket 'hog and it would make more sense. And then there are the terrible turret seats on either side of the loading ramp. These are like a punishment to be in, you can’t shoot at things in front, and you can’t shoot back beyond the side of the Pelican, and the body of the Pelican gets in the way of anything you can aim at anyways. Also, let me remind you that the Pelican is a spacecraft that travels through the atmosphere, and with it’s placement behind the engines you would have to be suicidal to even use them. It’s like a child wanted to strap a bunch of guns to a plane and everyone else thought it was a great idea. And speaking of those engines.
>
> - What is with the engine placements? I have to admit, I like the glowing bar effect on the engines, very Star Wars like. But the placement of them doesn’t seem to make any sense. There are ones added to the side of the cabin, which really don’t need to be there as there were already the four main engines for that. Also, why are the wings connected to those engines? It’s a bad design choice as I doubt it’d be very structurally sound. And why replace the hovering thrusters on the wings with four dinky thrusters that hang off the bottom? It looks bad, and without the underside thruster, the wings have to rotate 90 degrees or more when slowing itself to land, as seen in Spartan Ops. Also there is anything really wrong with the two new ones on the back, but it looks really odd when there is part of the structure to the tail before.
>
> - And finally, why were the wheels removed? Most military aircraft have wheels, even ones that can take off and land like a VTOL, such as a helicopter. One reason for it is so they don’t need a pilot if they need to move the aircraft a few feet or so, or to store it in a hanger. They just attach a cart to it and drive it to where it needs to go. I’m sure not every place in the UNSC has a pedestal for each Pelican like on the Infinity, or crane or pilot always there when they need to be moved.
>
> That’s the end of my rant for now, felt like I was losing my mind there toward the end. Just that I’ve always loved the Pelican’s design, and it has only gotten better in each installment. Then Halo 4 comes with finally a campaign mission to fly it, and it’s an abhorrent abomination in all aspects: Design, gameplay, and UNSC aesthetics. It’s like waiting 11 years for something only to get kicked in the balls in the end.
OH. MY. GOSH. You just perfectly described everything I dislike about the new Pelican. Well at least I don’t have to go and make another huge rant. XD
I think it should go back to the previous designs (of course improvements with each game as you said.) and I was also very disappointed with the controls.
When I took control I felt like I was flying a hovering elephant. If they bring it back (and I really hope they do) they need to change the controls.
I also hope it available in MP (or Forge) because this would be great for support. Transporting teammates, dropping off supplies, and providing cover would be my dream in a BTB or vehicular combat map.
> OH. MY. GOSH. You just perfectly described everything I dislike about the new Pelican. Well at least I don’t have to go and make another huge rant. XD
>
> I think it should go back to the previous designs (of course improvements with each game as you said.) and I was also very disappointed with the controls.
>
> When I took control I felt like I was flying a hovering elephant. If they bring it back (and I really hope they do) they need to change the controls.
>
> I also hope it available in MP (or Forge) because this would be great for support. Transporting teammates, dropping off supplies, and providing cover would be my dream in a BTB or vehicular combat map.
It’s a rant that has been festering in the back of my mind since we saw the concept models for them on the Conan O’Brien show. So I probably put in more time than necessary to convey my dissatisfaction of them, with looking up all the links and clips. But I’m happy to get it out there, and hopefully I can just copy and paste my quote if I ever need to relay my feelings about them again.
But I agree, I’ve always enjoyed the idea of having them in multiplayer, just that the past player count limits didn’t make it a necessity. And as I said above, there are a lot of things 343 needs to work on with it for it to not be terrible.
Halo 4’s Pelican suffered from the same design issues everything else in Halo 4 suffered from - “let’s make drastic changes for no apparent reason.” The Pelican in Halo 4 looks like a flying brick.
imo they nailed how the pelican should be in Halo 3, as they did a lot of things. It just feels like Bungie made a lot of things (pelican, warthog, phantoms, etc.) look as spectacular as they could in Halo 3, and as the games go on they’re forced to try and reinvent the wheel for the sake of changing things and it never feels or looks as good as it did in 3.
For one, the pelican looks super bulky and clunky. It has an incredibly long hangar door that just looks out of place, but its wings look flimsy. Not to mention its color and texture looks like -Yoink- compared to Halo 3’s pelican. The Halo 3 pelican looks and feels ten times more functional than the scrap metal in H4.
> imo they nailed how the pelican should be in Halo 3, as they did a lot of things. It just feels like Bungie made a lot of things (pelican, warthog, phantoms, etc.) look as spectacular as they could in Halo 3, and as the games go on they’re forced to try and reinvent the wheel for the sake of changing things and it never feels or looks as good as it did in 3.
>
> For one, the pelican looks super bulky and clunky. It has an incredibly long hangar door that just looks out of place, but its wings look flimsy. Not to mention its color and texture looks like -Yoink!- compared to Halo 3’s pelican. The Halo 3 pelican looks and feels ten times more functional than the scrap metal in H4.
I agree that H3 is the best design so far. I hope 343 (or whoever is in charge of vehicle designs) changes the Pelican design to be a lot more similar to the H3 version.
> Disliked:
> - The new Pelican’s front looks like it was heavily inspired from a Russian Mi-24 helicopter, right down to the swing open bubble canopies, which are dumb for a spacecraft. You’d usually want something more re-enforced in case of decompression, or at least be able to have some kind of emergency shielding cover the canopy. Something that really can’t be done on the new design.
I really like the new hind inspired look, but agree with pretty much everything else you said, so you get a thank.
I kind of hope if Bravo is lurking around the forums that he could see my post and maybe forward it to someone on the design side at 343 so they could look into it. I hate the idea of typing all that and it just disappearing amongst all the other pages.
As I’ve reflected above, I’ve always loved the Pelican’s design, but when you design its successor to be vastly inferior to the predecessor, it is a bad design. And I will call 343 out on it.
I think for both looks and design that the older version if the pelican should be brought back. In multiplayer I think that the pelican should be very lightly fitted with arms but should transport many players, the falcon should be more capable if killing being more agile and turrets on each side and should house atleast 6 players total, and then the hornet should only hold three but be very heavy on ordnance. Of course, this would not work for regular halo matches, this is assuming there is a much larger game mode in the works.
You guys realize its almost 100% guaranteed for them to use the new design right?
> You guys realize its almost 100% guaranteed for them to use the new design right?
Maybe… maybe not. I really hope they go back to the original design though.
