- Hylebos
- |
- Fabled Mythic Member
I realize that this is a sensitive topic amongst many people, so I'm going to take the time to try to make the OP as unbiased as possible. Please honor my effort by not flaming the heck out of people in this thread, post intelligently, attack the ideas, not the speaker, basic stuff we all learned in kindergarten. If you guys come up with other pro / con points than the ones I mentioned, then I will be happy to add them.
First, what is flag running?
If you have played Halo for a while, you probably have seen flag runners in action. In default CTF settings, the flag carrier moves slower than a normal player while he holds the flag. To get around this, clever players found out that if they drop the flag ahead of them and then pick it up very rapidly, they could move at normal speed while still carrying the flag, allowing for quick transport of the flag.
Some people believe that flag running is cheap. They argue that since Bungie clearly intended for the flag carrier to move slowly, thinking outside of the box to circumvent this game mechanic ruins the spirit of the game. They think that when an attacker grabs the flag, he should try to stealthily leave the base, and have his team mates back him up as he makes his slow retreat across the map, as his team mates back him up, defending him while the other team searches for their lost flag and attempt to retrieve it. Others simply believe that it is annoying as hell to hear the announcer say "Flag stolen flag dropped flag stolen flag dropped..." over and over.
Other people believe that flag running is a legitimate strategy. They argue that flag running is no different than camping or supressing an enemy advance with battle rifle fire, it is just another tactic. If the other team can't counter it, then that is their problem, they could do it just as easily. They point out that there is a clear disadvantage for running the flag, for the extra speed you gain, you scream your current position to the entire enemy team every time you drop the flag. They continue by saying that smart players will know when to run the flag and when to walk it.
Bungie has an opportunity in Halo Reach to either end the practice of flag running or to allow it.
How could they do this? Its quite simple really, besides flag running, there should only be two reasons why you drop the flag:
A) You die.
B) You drop it to defend yourself before you pick it back up and continue on your merry way.
For Option B, they could make it when you drop the flag there is a two to three second delay until you can pick it up again. You really shouldn't be able to kill your pursuer in under that time limit, so you drop it, defend yourself, and the delay is up by the time you pick it back up.
With a delay in place, flag runners will find that it is much faster and stealthier to simply walk the flag normally. Implementing such a feature would end the usefulness of Flag Running.
As an alternative, by keeping things like they were in Halo 3, flag running would be able to continue as it has been.
There is also several mitigation options.
One is to keep flag running, but to balance it so that it is easier for defenders to spot where the escaping attacker is, as it is sometimes hard to catch the the glimpses of where the flag symbol is when the flag runner is moving quickly. Its a bit of a mitigation option, where people who hate flag running would be satisfied because it would be official and balanced, and people who like flag running would be able to continue to do it.
Another possible one is to create a new option under the custom settings for a capture the flag game for "Flag Grab Delay" where you could set your own time limit for how long it takes before you can pick up the flag again, so regardless of whether flag running is allowed or not, people will be able to play their custom games the way they want to.
I hope I did a good enough job at being impartial in my descriptions. In case you were wondering, I am leaning more towards the mitigation or delay option myself, so if anyone thinks I did a bad job representing the "Keep Flag Running" viewpoint, I would be happy to edit the OP to reflect any neccesary changes.
Have fun discussing, and remember...
Be Civil or I will Feed your Souls to the Halo Reach Dragon.
-Hylebos