Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Halo : Reach and Beyond, Something New
  • Subject: Halo : Reach and Beyond, Something New
Subject: Halo : Reach and Beyond, Something New

Tally smoke, Pheta 4, two bogies 4 O Clock Low. Request to engage accepted. Foxes are free of the hole. Fox 2!

▀▄1 Stop Shop to get 4 Shot...Quitters Never Prosper▄▀
▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀BRs Incorperated▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄

I haven't read any of the novels or anything like that so my ideas might be complete BS, feel free to point out mistakes and improve my ideas.

Perhaps I shouldn't even be writing this, but I think my creative talents deserve some merit.

As everyone already knows the Halo franchise combat system is quite unique, in the sense that it is in its own genre of game. Sure it is a First Person Shooter but that's about all that it shares with its game counterparts.

For instance, in Halo the crosshair does not expand, lowering accuracy and spewing your ammo everywhere except into your opponent. Weapons are picked up, not chosen and spawned with. i.e.: choosing kits or classes. Death does not come instantaneously, (unless you stand around and wait for your head to be blown off by a sniper) and everyone gets a chance to defend themselves. Weapons are well balanced and there is no "cheap" gun. Take the M16 in COD 4, epitome of cheap. Although you will still encounter the odd BK that will complain about you being a BR whore. Not to mention the tiny details that make the game great. Such as being knocked out of scope, the medal system, armor permutations, Forge. When you take the time to think about it the Ninjas at Bungie have created a truly innovative and expansive shooter experience.

OK so I'll stop with the suck up. My point is Halo is different and that's what makes it good.

But Imagine a Halo game with a completely different Combat System, try to render a mental of image of Hundreds maybe thousands of Spartans, ODST's and Marines rushing across a wide battlefield. Tracers whizzing overhead, Wraith mortars incinerating the ground and brand new vehicles rushing by and overhead. The following is a list of Ideas for a Halo game; it doesn't have to be Reach, but just a Halo game. I know these are still ideas, but comment on them and add your own

1. Squad System and Chain of Command

A squad system would be very enjoyable. There would be a squad leader, the leader would have to create a squad and then others would join it. A squad can include up to a maximum of 6 people including the squad leader. The Squad members can spawn* on the leader if they so wish, in order to be closer to the combat. (*See section 3. Set Spawn Points.) Everyone in the squad can communicate with each other via their headsets. The Squad is obviously objective based, meaning that they have a set objective: attacking this position or defending this position. That brings me to the person who orders these objectives. The Commander.

In order to become a commander a random draw or highest skill or some other form of lottery will be conducted pre game. The commander will be in direct contact with only the squad leaders, he can issue orders to them such as attack here, defend here or set up ambush. The commander will have special abilities only he can use, some might include being able to initiate an airstrike, Air dropping vehicles, or with a single push of a button being able to send forth laser beams from the sky that devastate anyone or anything unlucky enough to be caught in its path. Think Hammer of Dawn from Gears of War 2 except there are many beams and are stationary. Another ability will be the radar ability, on the commanders screen will be a real time map of the map. He will be able to start a radar scan that will temporarily reveal the positions of all enemies to only him. No one else can see this, all the 'Infantry' have the standard MJOLNIR radar sensor. He will then be able to alert his forces if the enemy is trying to flank his forces or are sneaking up behind them. The final ability will be to deploy a temporary spawn point anywhere on the map. He can strike the enemy even within their main base.

2. Large Team Based Game types and Maps.

This is not taking into account lag, or server capabilities. This is just a what if, inevitably in the comments below someone will say "didnts u think about lagz?"

Here I opt for 36 Vs 36, 36 is good number because then you can have 6 full squads with one squad of 5, this could be an all Sniper squad or otherwise. In order to have hordes of troops sweeping across a battlefield as mentioned above you require hordes of players. So logically the maps need to be large enough to contain 72 players while at the same time giving them breathing room. Imagine 72 people on guardian! One sticky= Killionaire! Moving on, a large map leads to a critical problem: transportation. No one wants to walk their way across a huge map just to be blown up by a banshee. We could stick with teleporters and stick half a dozen of them into the maps, but then the routes of attack would be predictable and it would be easy to bottleneck the enemy. My solution solves this problem, add new vehicles.

A new type of air transport and ground transport, vehicle class should be introduced. These would be heavily armored, slow moving and lightly armed. The upside is that they can carry an entire squad far distances safely. Large maps are a snipers paradise so to counter this I think additional physics elements should be added, such as: Bullet drop, wind direction and a moving scope to simulate tiny body movements. And to make sure that Hornets and Banshees don't over power everything there should be a couple of mounted missile pods every 5 kilometers or so. The maps would have weather effects that would make it hard to see all the way across the map, like haze or fog, maybe even incorporate a set draw distance into the games engine.

3. Set Spawn Points

In normal Halo you don't have the choice of spawn locations because of the size of the maps but in a large or even huge map random spawning would fail horribly. So the need arises for some sort of spawn system. Here two things come to mind, main base spawn and squad leader spawn. Everyone always has the option to spawn at the Main base, that's where all the vehicles and cool stuff are. But if you want in closer on the action the squad leader will be able to deploy a mobile spawn point anywhere within 2.5Km of the opposing Main Base. Only that squad can spawn on that point and only if the leader is alive. To balance things out MSP's (Mobile Spawn Points) can be destroyed by the enemy. This will ensure that you won't be killing the same six guys the whole round. In addition the leader can only deploy ONE MSP and can later pack it up and deploy another making sure that the minimum number of available spawn points is always 2. The squad can spawn on the leader if he is within 1km of a Main base or other friendly location regardless of whether an MSP has been set. As well as the main base spawn other spawn points can be captured and lost, just like a territory in Halo 3. Players can also spawn on these locations if they are currently held by their team. And finally they can spawn on the mobile spawn point deployed by their commander. This spawn point will have a maximum number of players that can spawn on it depending on the proximity to enemy positions to ensure that all 36 players don't come rushing out of it into the enemies main base.

4. Requesting a Kit
Perhaps the most controversial thing I am about to write

Instead of finding weapons on the ground, which you may still do, players will be able to request a 'Kit' from the main base. You will still originally spawn with a BR or an AR but can request the Sniper Kit which come with a Sniper and a silenced SMG or Anti-Armor kit which will include the Spartan Laser or Rocket Launcher. Of course kits may be varied and might be customizable ( I Don't want this to be COD). Kits will be handed out based on how many are available. That means that there will only be said amount of Snipers, this is done to balance the game out and make sure everyone isn't sniping. You don't NEED to request a Kit you can still find weapons lying around. It's just easier if you ask for one and get it including the SMG and extra 'nades and a bubbleshield rather than looking for all four things yourself on the map. This part is simple and self explanatory so I don't need to delve any further.

These are just some of the ideas I have and will add more as I can organize them. When thinking of the game think Halo Wars without the base and resources and all that BLAM!
I know there will be a bunch of haters saying stuff like "you phail u nu0b" but you know what you guys make my day. I laugh when I see someone who has to criticize others to raise their self esteem. So go on flame all you want. Any questions and comments are appreciated, and if you wanna know more just ask in the thread or send me a PM.

Thanks guys
Shamikh

  • 06.24.2009 1:27 PM PDT

.-=~4L13N5 H012D3~=-.

sounds awesome.. but theres one thing i dont know about. those "MSP's" you were talking about... whats not keeping the enemy from not destroying them and just spawn kill you as you pop out. other then that sounds awesome. i would tottaly play. but the lack of intelligence and maturity on XBL could be another problem

  • 06.24.2009 2:21 PM PDT

Tally smoke, Pheta 4, two bogies 4 O Clock Low. Request to engage accepted. Foxes are free of the hole. Fox 2!

▀▄1 Stop Shop to get 4 Shot...Quitters Never Prosper▄▀
▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀BRs Incorperated▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄

You could have a destroy MSP option, or could always spawn at a farther position and ambush the guys camping the MSP

  • 06.24.2009 2:27 PM PDT

Maybe but I have a felling its going to be more true to the traditional halo gameplay then that but the squad idea could work because there are going to be like 30 spartans in the story if it holds true to thr book.

  • 06.24.2009 2:30 PM PDT

Tally smoke, Pheta 4, two bogies 4 O Clock Low. Request to engage accepted. Foxes are free of the hole. Fox 2!

▀▄1 Stop Shop to get 4 Shot...Quitters Never Prosper▄▀
▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀BRs Incorperated▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄

I redirected this thread Here

  • 06.24.2009 2:30 PM PDT