You're only paranoid if they're not out to get you.
Hey. HEY. Wake up. Wipe that drool off your chin. My post wasn't that boring.
Except for the points part (which, frankly, at this point I don't think they would be able to implement without some major code changes), I like it. I have really been wanting a map to have the HEVs (heck, I'm planning on making one in Forge mode with my own cobbled-together set). The vehicle drops again might be very hard to do without some major code rewrites, unless there is code from, say, a campaign level they could cut and paste in to help, but I'd say those wouldn't work.
Other than that, I'd love this as a game mode. Now, personally, I feel that, if this is utilizing all weapons, it should become, say a gamemode called ''Grand Battle'' or something, and it should be Human vs. Covenant. It would feel really weird if both teams had UNSC gear with all the Covenant stuff available (obviously, though, if you were on, say, the UNSC team but you wanted a beam rifle, you could either find one or kill a guy and take it). By the way, if it was made to be UNSC vs. Covenant, I would vote to make available the Covenant style drop-pods as well asthe UNSC ones (It'd work if Bungie just used the UNSC for both sides, but it'd be kinda weird).
All in all, except for that points thing, I say Bungie should go for it! (I'm a sucker for anything with HEVs). A possibility to get vehicles in the field without a drop zone would be a giant ''cargo pod'' that would deploy with any vehicle driven into it. (It'd be a bumpy ride though.) Two thumbs up on this one!
[Heh. 117. :D]
@lolcopteroflgun: I'd love it if you could control where they went (maybe use a birds-eye-view of the map and just allow you to put a marker on it?), but making it so you would control them with your controller would require a huge addition in controls for the HEVs. My personal thoughts on it would be that they would drop on a semi-random vector, so you wouldn't always land in the same spot, but (very rarely) would you land in the middle of a Covenant base or something).
Having Squad radio channels might be interesting (i.e. they just copy the code from, say, team doubles over into squads while keeping it on two teams). A ''commander'' role might be nice, but I'd say it should be select partway in, or by popular vote, that way you could get someone who knows what they are doing and won't be yelling ''GOLD TEAM, TAKE THAT SHIP! BLUE TEAM, WHY ARE YOU DEAD? YOU COULDN'T KILL A TANK WITH A PISTOL? YOU SUCK! RED TEAM, WHERE THE HELL IS MY SODA?!!'' I don't think we'd want that guy leading us into battle, no thank you. One addition to your 'squad radios' I would suggest is that, at certain points around the map there should be long-range radios (and btw Covenant could use the UNSC radios and UNSC could use the Covenant radios.. or we could all use UNSC radios to keep it simple). If a member of your team is at one of these long range radios they could communicate with all other squads and the commander on the ship (by the way, the Commander would not be able to leave the ship unless we're about to lose the fight). While other squads would not be able to reply to the long-range transmission unless they were also at a long-range radio, the Commander could (and possibly make it so that any squad could contact Command at any time, and Command could relay information to other squads).
So... DO IT BUNGIE! :D
Edit: Yeah, I def. think we should go with the armory rather than points or loadouts. I mean, personally, I'd love, say, a DMR and a shotgun, or an Assault Rifle plus a Rocket Launcher. I don't want my weapons chosen for me. Also, regarding the 'drop timer' at the beginning, I'd make it so that the players would spawn in a barracks (i.e. there would be bunks and other personal effects, little as we would have on a ship), then you have, say, a minute and a half (I'm being generous with the time here, I mean a minute can go by pretty damn fast when you're choosing weapons and all.). At 00:01:30 (a minute and a half in), all drop pods would launch in a massive wave (i.e. the empty ones would be decoys). I would assume, at least some of the time, some friends would form their own squads and would make a plan for themselves (this is assuming that the 'Commander' doesn't have a plan, or if they're an idiot). Since they will be going over their plans on the ship, they'll most likely miss the first drop set. After the first wave of pods, they will go down individually; this way a team can drop together at once.
Controlling the pods would be.. difficult to do, coding wise. It'd be possible, yes, but only after a lot of work. I'd say give each pod a semi-random drop point (but every now and then one will go waaayyy off track, just like in the books and such). I don't know how exactly enemies would board the cruisers, but I'd say leave it as a ground battle, but that's just my vote.
[Edited on 08.10.2010 7:25 AM PDT]