Would You Want A Weapon Stow Feature for Halo 6?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

Now hear me out, while not exactly “revolutionary,” having this as an added ability for players could actually prove somewhat useful.

Weapon stowing is essentially the act of holstering your current weapon so you are hands-free. In the few other games that support this, it usually gives your character certain increases of stats, but at the same time puts your player at a disadvantage.

I feel with the competitive nature of Halo, along with it being fast-paced and an Arena shooter, it could benefit from another ability to hasten the gameplay and add another tactical way we play. Here’s how it could potentially play out:

-Holding Y (default Y press is weapon switch)will stow your current weapon on your back, on top of your secondary weapon should it be stowed in the same location (pistol types on hip, bigger weapons on your back). This doesn’t interfere with other buttons because Y-Hold isn’t used in H5.

-Once stowed, we can be given sets of minor perks to give functional usage that Spartans being hands-free would have over Spartans holding a weapon. There’s are generally movement-oriented perks (good and bad) such as:
(+)10% Sprint speed increase (run easier)
(+)Spartans could melee faster (1-2 punch quickly)
(+)Seamless Clamber (retains Sprint after Clamber in 1 fluid motion.)
(+)Thrust while stowed could be reminiscent of Evade from Reach (roll/dodge).

(-)Cant shoot. So you’re extremely vulnerable.
(-)Unstowing a weapon could possibly take 1 or 2 seconds to unstow.
(-)Melee could be weaker (no weapon hit) or stronger (more force behind a hit) based on developer balancing.

Now before you have any doubts, weapon stowing would be a playstyle for objective playstyle that could require immediate attention, such as crossing a map in as short a time as possible or getting to an objective faster (flag/ball), with the tradeoff being that your methods of fighting are reduced to grenades and melee. The way H5 handles sprinting and shield regeneration, if carried to H6, means simply running from danger a tad faster still puts you at a disadvantage in a gun fight as Unstowing and getting shields back are unlikely to turn tides.

This type of ability would be more satisfactory for CQC type maps (traversal) and extremely wide open maps when long range weapons aren’t readily available (speed advantages).

What is the community’s take on something like this for Halo 6? Could a latent ability like this, that actually makes some sense, have a place in the gameplay of Halo? What changes would you make to balance the tradeoffs so it’s viable for use if everyone else uses weapons? I’d love to hear your thoughts :wink:

#2

I actually really like that idea - especially the faster sprint speed and seamless clamber. I don’t see them ever doing this, but I think it would be an interesting addition to play style that wouldn’t harm the fundamentals of Halo.

#3

I think the game currently has enough weapon down time as-is and adding another mechanic to the controller would be a bit much. I do really like the creativity and balancing ideas though.

#4

Would be a nice feature but I doubt they’ll add it. Plus I doubt an 8-pound rifle would slow you down in Mjolnir armor.

#5

> 2535457901035640;4:
> Would be a nice feature but I doubt they’ll add it. Plus I doubt an 8-pound rifle would slow you down in Mjolnir armor.

Understandable, although it’s not entirely about the weight, but rather the effectiveness of using your body. The entire point of seamless clambering could be visualized along the lines of vaulting or “parkour” over ledges, since both hands are free to help with movement and orientation, while having weapons out means slowing down to pull yourself up.

The same benefactor goes for Sprinting as well. For instance, take something like a gallon of milk. It’s roughly 5lbs. Try running with it held in your hand or like a weapon in both hands. The weight distribution, including force and momentum on it with regards to yourself, can make it field awkward to handle. However, strap or attach that 5lbs to your back and have your hands open, the weight is better managed and easier to control during movement. Fundamentally you should be able to run faster AND easier with weight closer to you. Not only that, but when you run, you tend to Pace faster when you have ranged movement of both your arms. :wink:

#6

This is a really cool idea, and I think it would be really cool in Social/Custom games, but it may take some experimentation before putting it in the game. Be really cool if they add it and it would add to the button combos you can already do (i.e. ground pound).

#7

Would be very interesting; using a weapon’s nature - one handed or two handed - and its weight to affect your Spartan’s performance is something I’d like to experiment with.

#8

No thanks because I am hoping that things like Sprint and Clamber are not in the next Halo. The game is already fast paced enough with increased abilities to traverse maps by using various slide/jumps. Melee works fine we don’t need increased melee ability. This has no appeal to me.

#9

I like it.

#10

I think that would be cool actually. It would also help machinimas. Mostly i nust think it would be cool to run around with your weapon down without having to be in custom games

#11

This is a terrible idea. It wouldn’t add much to the campaign, and would be extremely detrimental to multiplayer. The last think multiplayer needs is a bunch of trashbags running around with spartan charge on crack.

#12

> 2533274826056477;11:
> This is a terrible idea. It wouldn’t add much to the campaign, and would be extremely detrimental to multiplayer. The last think multiplayer needs is a bunch of trashbags running around with spartan charge on crack.

But how exactly is that detrimental? Spartan charge isn’t a one hit kill. You would still need shot afterwards or melee’d, and the stow ability would only give default melee a speed buff and probably a reduction to damage for a 3 hit melee to fully shielded Spartans, and unstowing a weapon would take a second or two, which is more than ample time fir the victim to counter that. Its all about balance. You can’t expect Halo 6 to be a mirror to Halo 5. Innovation and change have to happen somewhere.

#13

I actually like this idea. It would be a fun way to change up the gameplay in a semi-realistic way. I’m on board as long as players aren’t actually overpowered in any way using this ability. As stated above it could be a great feature for certain custom games.

#14

Ehh, I don’t know. This reminds me of Battlefront where equipping certain perks allowed the user to take advantage of the melee system basically just running around the map meleeing people instead of shooting because it could kill so fast. If it’s a weaker melee, then it might be feasible. Not really a fan of the evade feature either unless there’s a big cool down after each use. I also wouldn’t be excited about having another button press with an already convoluted control scheme. It might be interesting though if done right.

#15

> 2533274795739611;12:
> > 2533274826056477;11:
> > This is a terrible idea. It wouldn’t add much to the campaign, and would be extremely detrimental to multiplayer. The last think multiplayer needs is a bunch of trashbags running around with spartan charge on crack.
>
> But how exactly is that detrimental? Spartan charge isn’t a one hit kill. You would still need shot afterwards or melee’d, and the stow ability would only give default melee a speed buff and probably a reduction to damage for a 3 hit melee to fully shielded Spartans, and unstowing a weapon would take a second or two, which is more than ample time fir the victim to counter that. Its all about balance. You can’t expect Halo 6 to be a mirror to Halo 5. Innovation and change have to happen somewhere.

How is it not detrimental? Spartan charge is ridiculous, it breaks up the flow of gameplay, it’s like having a sword if you come up behind someone, and has no place in Halo. Making it more op would be a terrible idea. As for the last point, this idea is not innovation, it is just more of the same. You can innovate without jumping on bandwagons.

#16

Feel free to use any of the <mark>existing wish list threads</mark> in General Discussion or Universe to talk about future Halo games. This forum is for discussing