What the heck went wrong with the Covenant...

Community Halo Universe
1

They were never that intimidating. I mean, when I look for a sci fi game I think of Halo. But the Covenant just are laughable at most points. Their main battle tanks are just mobile artillery batteries, their most common soldier is a 2 foot dwarf with suicidal tendencies ( religious yes, yet still cowardly ) and god awful weapons… Anyways, my point is; maybe it’s time for a change. The covies should have better tech than the UNSC. Face it (sorry UNSC fans) they have been at it for hundreds more years than the UNSC and for some reason the UNSC still trash them. What the covies need is a Faction reboot, better vehicles, units and a more intimidating presence.

I will be going over each of the covenant units the next week and will be throwing out ideas for discussion. Feel more than welcome to give input. I realize that the course has been taken and these ideas will be seen as irrelevant to 343’s upcoming halo games, but maybe Fanon ( comics, art, all that great stuff you guys put out) will utilize some of these ideas.

First the original Covie list:

– Vehicles –

  • Ghost
  • Chopper
  • Spectre
  • Prowler
  • Revenant
  • Locust
  • Wraith
  • AA Wraith
  • Scarab

– Air and space –

  • Space banshee
  • Phantoms ( seriously there are way to many variants)
  • Banshees
  • Space Banshee
  • Vampire
  • Lich
  • Seraph

SDV - main corvette
CCS - main battlecruiser
RCS - heavy battlecruiser
CAS - assault carrier
CSO - often flagship and a super carrier

– Infantry (heck of a list, won’t bother right now) –

Any ways, let’s begin with the Lich. For such potential my expectations really fell short in 4. It was poorly armed and it’s crew mostly consisted of grunts. Don’t get me wrong, the look was awe inspiring; and I think many of the fans would agree slipspace compatibility was a nice feature. It just needs a tech overhaul. First off, how about some shade turrets? There is plenty of room, 2 shades for the lower hanger and 1 for the top. To really spice it up how about 4 revamped fuel rod shades with homing capabilities and 2 dual barrel plasma shades?

For the main weapon, why just EMP the mammoths main gun? I mean, for the rest of the mission the Mammoth served no purpose…maybe shooting the occasional banshee but anyone can do that with a DMR. How about a pulse cannon for the Lich? Something powerful that would nuke the mammoth into oblivion, thus setting the next stage of the level where chief and a few others ( a limping Lasky, Chief valiantly carrying a marine out of the smoldering wreck, and majestic team) would survive the blast, climb out of the burning wreckage and then proceed to engage the Lich. It’s not far fetched, the CCS cruisers could do catastrophic damage to entire cities, so why the heck can’t a flying scarab with supposedly advanced tech finish off a Mammoth?! It makes no sense…

Here would be a great weapon to base the Lich’s main gun off of. Keep in mind the blast radius would be significantly smaller. Powerful precise, but not to far fetched. –

So yeah, summary of much needed features:

  • Main gun upgrade
  • 2 shades
  • 4 fuel rod shades with homing on AA combat only
  • Some shields ( It’s a flying scarab for crying out loud, talk about high priority target)
  • A hurogok as a support for troops inside and repairs

Too far fetched or not? Post what you think, you guys matter!

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Oh, and the list is just the generic list. Covies have a crap ton of classes, ranks units etc; especially with infantry! :confused:

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A point that it appears that you aren’t realizing in your first paragraph is that gameplay =/= canon. For balancing reasons, the Covenant weaponry is going to be on par with its UNSC counterparts. However, in the actual universe, Covenant tech is superior in literately every way.

Other than that, I agree with you. For a heavy assault platform that’s reason for not being noticed by the UNSC (not sure if retconned by the Halo 4 EVG) because of its attacks leaving no survivors, the Lich is pretty underwhelming.

4

We don’t know if the Lich is slipspace-capable. We only know that it is capable of surviving in slipspace. The Liches in H4 use the Didact’s wake to travel to the Halo. I very much doubt that they have a slipspace drive built into them…

5

It is established in the halo canon that the UNSC usually always wins battles on the ground but the Covenant will always be superior when it comes to space battles. The time it takes for the UNSC to destroy a single covenant carrier five or more humans ships are already destroyed. Getting past their shields is tough and the Covenant ships are all equipped with a death ray that literally turns the surface into glass. I would disagree that the Covenant is not intimidating. Plus you have to remember that, for the most part, wee see halo through the eyes of a spartan. Being able to do the things Spartans can do I wouldn’t be afraid of a giant, vicious, gorilla-looking alien that’s charging at me with a giant hammer either.

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Actually, Grunts tend to be from 4’6 to up to 6 feet in height in some cases. They’re much bigger than viewed considering you’re a 7’2 super soldier in the games.

Covenant weapons roflstomp UNSC weapons. A plasma bolt from a plasma pistol is lethal as is. Melts right through the UNSC battledress. You need to consider the Covenant also had superior numbers. The humans must’ve fought tens of billions of grunts on the ground over the decades of the war.

I don’t really need to get all that much into space. A Supercarrier crippled Reach all by herself. A dozen carriers held off Homefleet for Regret to make it to Mombassa. For every Covenant ship, 5 more UNSC ships are destroyed. The UNSC don’t have much numbers as is. It’s a bloodbath in space.

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Great points guys. Guess I really did not figure Halo mythos, comics etc when I made this.

I was more frustrated with the games. Maybe 343 is biased to the UNSC side, because I really just did not feel the Covenant as an overwhelming threat in 4. Sure, the damage increases as you bump difficulty to Legendary but the cutscenes, storyline etc were just kind of…well… sad in a way. Not as real, not vivid. Too much roll stomp with these new random spartans ( the marines in suits, not the good ones from online. :] ). Not at all like what it could have been.

We need a movie. Legends was really good, Forward unto Dawn played it’s part; but a real movie showing Halo’s entire saga through Cortana’s view sounds really great right now… the Covenant relentless, throwing everything they have at the UNSC, valiant spartans taking a last stand…and then later…just as the UNSC is about to crumble and all hope is lost, the flood emerge. And both sides take a stand… to the death, maybe so few survivors that humanity is but just a colony… and the covenant is haggard and worn from fighting. Each of the leaders for both sides lost in the war…to the point where the Covies lose the prophets and realize the lie they have been living. Not this great schism crap followed by marine supersoldier roll stomp. Idk…

8

The covenant in 4 were meant to be sort of shadows of their former selves. They aren’t the super empire they once were.

That said, I felt Reach, despite its flaws and retcons, did the best job making the covenant seem a credible threat. A lot of missions don’t end with a perfect victory but rather “the best they could do”. Even though winning many ground battles, and finally taking out Long Night of Solace, they still couldn’t save the planet.

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OP says “Covenant ain’t intimidating enough…” Blames the fault on 343 Industries and Bungie… should be ‘blaming’, or rather rectifying, the fact that graphics were rising… and so it would have been, initially too hard, to fully capture the fear and alien feeling…

But with the next-generation… we can see massive improvements. Halo 4… was originally intended to be next-gen, yet the graphics were down trodden to 720p 30fps… rather than 1080p 60fps like intended. Other games would be Halo 2: Anniversary and Halo 5: Guardians…

Halo 2: Anniversary - Arbiter Thel 'Vadam

Halo 2: Anniversary - Prophet Of Regret

Halo 2: Anniversary - Spec Ops Commander of the Covenant Rtas 'Vadumee and Arbiter Thel 'Vadam

Seems to me like the Covenant is really quite scary and now we can finally see it’s true essence, along with the Flood… :confused: in Halo 2: Anniversary.

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Great pictures!

I apologize if I sounded like I was ranting, it’s just halo 4… covies outside of the games are awe inspiring. Just want more real and less… marine spartan pwnge stuff. Looks like it’s headed in the right direction from these pics. :slight_smile:

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In reply to UrbaneRocket…

Agreed. Reach really did capture that last man standing essence. I was pleased with the ending, it felt right. The spartans did everything the could, yet in the end reality sets in and the plot really does a good job of portraying that.

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> They were never that intimidating. I mean, when I look for a sci fi game I think of Halo. But the Covenant just are laughable at most points. Their main battle tanks are just mobile artillery batteries, their most common soldier is a 2 foot dwarf with suicidal tendencies ( religious yes, yet still cowardly ) and god awful weapons… Anyways, my point is; maybe it’s time for a change. The covies should have better tech than the UNSC. Face it (sorry UNSC fans) they have been at it for hundreds more years than the UNSC and for some reason the UNSC still trash them. What the covies need is a Faction reboot, better vehicles, units and a more intimidating presence.

Maybe this would apply to gameplay, but in canon this is all wrong.

The Wraith mortar has a vaporization radius of 20 meters.

Grunts are the size of humans and stronger to boot, know to eat humans alive alongside Jackals.

And a single plasma pistol discharge can vaporize heads and melt organs.

So by no means does the UNSC ever trash the Covenant. Typically it is the other way around until the Spartans get involved.

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> It is established in the halo canon that the UNSC usually always wins battles on the ground but the Covenant will always be superior when it comes to space battles.

The UNSC usually win if Spartans are present. The UNSC lose just as much on the ground as they do in space.

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> > It is established in the halo canon that the UNSC usually always wins battles on the ground but the Covenant will always be superior when it comes to space battles.
>
> The UNSC usually win if Spartans are present. The UNSC lose just as much on the ground as they do in space.

Yes you are correct. I guess I forgot to mention the Spartans are really the ones who win ground battles.

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Like mentioned, for gameplay reasons they don’t seem superior.

Wait for the TV show…

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> Great points guys. Guess I really did not figure Halo mythos, comics etc when I made this.
>
> I was more frustrated with the games. Maybe 343 is biased to the UNSC side, because <mark>I really just did not feel the Covenant as an overwhelming threat in 4.</mark> Sure, the damage increases as you bump difficulty to Legendary but the cutscenes, storyline etc were just kind of…well… sad in a way. Not as real, not vivid. Too much roll stomp with these new random spartans ( the marines in suits, not the good ones from online. :] ). Not at all like what it could have been.

They weren’t supposed to be, it was a splinter faction. If it was the Covenant Empire then they would definitely be an overwhelming threat.

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> Like mentioned, for gameplay reasons they don’t seem superior.
>
> Wait for the TV show…

What TV show might that be? It’s not Forward Unto Dawn is it?

> Maybe this would apply to gameplay, but in canon this is all wrong.
>
> The Wraith mortar has a vaporization radius of 20 meters.
>
> Grunts are the size of humans and stronger to boot, know to eat humans alive alongside Jackals.
>
> And a single plasma pistol discharge can vaporize heads and melt organs.
>
> So by no means does the UNSC ever trash the Covenant. Typically it is the other way around until the Spartans get involved.

ROBERTO, where do you obtain your canon?
Could you PM me with some sources please, I really don’t blog much so I may miss future posts…

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> > Like mentioned, for gameplay reasons they don’t seem superior.
> >
> > Wait for the TV show…
>
> What TV show might that be? It’s not Forward Unto Dawn is it?

You haven’t heard? There’s going to be a Halo TV show produced by Steven Spielberg.

19

> I was more frustrated with the games. Maybe 343 is biased to the UNSC side, because I really just did not feel the Covenant as an overwhelming threat in 4.

No, you think?

> We need a movie. Legends was really good, Forward unto Dawn played it’s part; but a real movie showing Halo’s entire saga through Cortana’s view sounds really great right now… the Covenant relentless, throwing everything they have at the UNSC, valiant spartans taking a last stand…and then later…

I wouldn’t expect any improvement from a movie, simply because Covenant are the bad guys and humans have to win. And it’s easier to write them as dumb cannon fodder than it is to show how deadly a threat they are.

There’s a reason why the Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy trope is so common.

20

> They were never that intimidating. I mean, when I look for a sci fi game I think of Halo. But the Covenant just are laughable at most points. Their main battle tanks are just mobile artillery batteries,

With a kill radius of 80 meters.

> their most common soldier is a 2 foot dwarf with suicidal tendencies ( religious yes, yet still cowardly )

Actually, grunts are around 5’6" tall. Don’t forget you’re playing from a 7’2" super soldier’s POV. While they may be suicidal or cowardly, don’t forget the Covenant use them as canon fodder. Even then, they breed incredibly fast to the point of the Prophets having to administer anti-pregnancy drugs into their food or water supply (can’t remember which) during times of peace so they don’t overcrowd locations like High Charity.

> and god awful weapons…

That can melt through tank armor and dismember limbs.

> Anyways, my point is; maybe it’s time for a change. The covies should have better tech than the UNSC.

They do. Gameplay=/=canon.

> Face it (sorry UNSC fans) they have been at it for hundreds more years than the UNSC and for some reason the UNSC still trash them.

No they don’t. The UNSC lost close to 800 colonial worlds in 27 years, and was pushed to the brink of extinction, with Earth having several billion dead at the hands of the Covenant.