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This topic has moved here: Subject: Large Scale Battle: Bird's Nest. A way Pelicans could work!
  • Subject: Large Scale Battle: Bird's Nest. A way Pelicans could work!
Subject: Large Scale Battle: Bird's Nest. A way Pelicans could work!

I know how most people want a pelican in Reach. In campaign, at least. For multiplayer, most players seem that they could do without it.

I think I know a way that Pelican battles could work.

First, the scale. Say bungie did increase the amount of players that could be in the game, then this could apply. Or they could make a whole 'nother mode. About 32 players or even in 20's would be good.

There are two bases each on a side of a large chasm with "fall to your death" style areas. Each side of the ridge has a base dug into the mountainside. Both could be similar to the inner halls of Rat's Nest (without the outer racetrack) with the rooms stocked with weapons.

On the narrow outer area (like in Rat's nest) there will be a lot with various installations. These could include Mounted Gauss Turrets, Two/Three lazers, and, of course, the Pelican landing pad (again, think Rat's Nest). The pelican can hold a driver, and six/eight passengers. One shot from the pilot's controls does about the same amount of Damage as a missile pod missile. But the reload and shot time would be about as quick as a rocket launcher, in other words, not fast enough :)

Slayer on this map would have no point, so it would probably be CTF or Assault. Imagine carrying the bomb in the pelican and getting shot down and the bomb going off in mid flight! So each base and objective would be the same, that is, all symmetrical gametypes. Asymmetrical wouldn't work.

Because the Pelican can only land on the outside areas, it must deploy troops out there who go into the base for the objective. If the Pelican is destroyed, it has a 2 minute spawn, giving the opposing team time to advance. The Pelican has about a life span of about 5 lazer shots (a full clip), and could be easily defeated or missed completely, depending on the skill of the driver.

Of course the rest is natural. Stop the enemy Pelican, get on the mounted gauss turret, defend the objective, and kick blam classic multiplayer style.

So?

Suggestions?
Thoughts?
Threats?

[Edited on 10.28.2009 1:02 PM PDT]

  • 10.12.2009 5:40 PM PDT
Subject: Large Scale Battle: Bird's Nest. This could work!

-I was here

throw in a couple hornets and banshees and maybe one covie base has a phantom instead of a pelican. also, maybe more like the hanger from the level crow's nest instead of rats nest. also, they could have a bit of distance between the hanger and the spawn base, so tunnels like on rats nest could be there with the ability for the pelicans and phantoms to carry a hog or ghost in to the hanger, where you'd drive it to the objective.

EDIT: instead of carrying vehicles on the pelican, there could be a bridge with tunnels to the bases off to the side where you could launch an attack by land or instead of the bases being exactly oppisite each other in the canyon, they could be off a little with the tunnels going towards each other, then the bridge being in the middle of the canyon this way, you could set up an ambush for the pelican. also, this bridge could be retractable/ destructable.

[Edited on 10.12.2009 5:56 PM PDT]

  • 10.12.2009 5:51 PM PDT

This could probably work if Bungie had servers. A host system would never work. Also, the Pelican should have a 2-3 minute spawn, meaning that people should actually plan out ahead and stop kamizaking. An asymmetrical gametype, like One Bomb, could work, if there were also multiple ways for troups to walk in, such as a bridge, teleporters, etc. The skies would also be open allowing easy and quick transport.

Just my two pennies ;D.

  • 10.12.2009 5:52 PM PDT

In my original post I had an Idea about tunnels going deep down under the chasm then back up into the enemy's base.

Way more dangerous, way more tedious, but still could work.

Should I put it back?

[Edited on 10.12.2009 5:57 PM PDT]

  • 10.12.2009 5:55 PM PDT

Posted by: goatman327
throw in a couple hornets and banshees and maybe one covie base has a phantom instead of a pelican. also, maybe more like the hanger from the level crow's nest instead of rats nest. also, they could have a bit of distance between the hanger and the spawn base, so tunnels like on rats nest could be there with the ability for the pelicans and phantoms to carry a hog or ghost in to the hanger, where you'd drive it to the objective.


Well, I figured carrying vehicles wouldn't work because there is only a small outer area.

I thought about a covenant base but then I thought that would make it way too unbalanced. Banshees Vs Hornets, not much of a fight. Pelicans Vs Phantoms, not much of a fight.

  • 10.12.2009 5:57 PM PDT

Posted by: goatman327
EDIT: instead of carrying vehicles on the pelican, there could be a bridge with tunnels to the bases off to the side where you could launch an attack by land or instead of the bases being exactly oppisite each other in the canyon, they could be off a little with the tunnels going towards each other, then the bridge being in the middle of the canyon this way, you could set up an ambush for the pelican. also, this bridge could be retractable/ destructable.


Good idea. Maybe.

It would be cool to have the Pelican blow the bridge.

  • 10.12.2009 6:33 PM PDT

-I was here

oh yeah, heres some game modes that could work: of course, because of the large scale, like the op said, slayer wouldn't work, but assault and ctf would. well more ideas to add variety are here
human only mode
covie only mode
humans v. covie

human only mode: weapons primarily human weps, transport ship is a pelican, 2 hornets(1 transport, 1 regular) in each base. refering back to my bridge idea, land vehicles to get across would be 2 hogs and 2 mongooses(possibly a scorpion) in each base

covie mode: carbines and plasma rifles default weapons phantoms(or spirit) instead of pelicans, 2 banshees to replace the hornets, and 2 ghosts replace the hogs. a prowler and a chopper replace the mongooses and a wraith replaces the scorpions(if available) oh and all human objects would be replaced by covie ones( fusion coils w/ plasma batterys etc) to give it a more alien-esque feel

humans vs. covie: human team gets all the stuff you would start with in human mode(pelicans, hornets, hogs, scorpion, mongoose, human weapons.) the covenant team would have covenant stuff in their base(phantom, wraith, covie weps, banshees, ghosts choppers, prowlers, etc) and it would be an epic battle of the 2 sides.


oh yeah, ways the pelican/ phantoms could work:

the pelican...
crew: 1 pilot, 1 tail gunner, 4-5 passengers
weapons: twin machine guns(like the hornets) and a missle launcher that shoots like a missle pod, 4 shots per round 2 sec delay after 4 shots, a 7 second reload, tail gun(regular detachable turret)
it would go faster than the phantom and about the same speed as a hornet, but it would have less turning capabilitys, to shake missles effectivly, you would strafe, or go up or down. troops enter/deploy out the back. weakest point would be its rear and the driver's window.

phantom...
crew: pilot, 2 side gunners, 4-5 passengers
weapons: full 360 swivelling main turret worked by pilot, fire rate of a shade turret. 2 side turrets(detachable plasma cannons)
this ship wouldn't be quite as fast as a pelican, but it would have the ability to turn in place and it would turn way faster. troops deploy out the 2 sides. side/ under armor are its weak points.

NOTE: weak points on the pelican/phantom don't necessarily mean the only point you could damage the vehicle at, just where a shot would be most effective

[Edited on 10.12.2009 8:20 PM PDT]

  • 10.12.2009 8:01 PM PDT

Woah, it's like a whole other OP.

Vehicles wouldn't work because there would only be a limited outside area. If there was a large outside, with vehicles, everyone wouldn't like it as much.

  • 10.13.2009 6:49 PM PDT

A map made into a valley would work perfectly. There could be main road for land vehicles to go through, and under it would be other passages to the objective (think Construct...kinda, with a little bit of AOTCR bridges). There could be hangers like Rat's Nest that have hornets or banshees and the pelican. In order for that to work though, Bungie would need to increase the party size from 16 to maybe 24. That would be enough to make a good fight.

Games like this is what I really want in a Halo game. Bungie could pull it off, and since this is their last Halo game, why not go out with a bang?

  • 10.13.2009 6:57 PM PDT

Posted by: LooneyCass1
A map made into a valley would work perfectly. There could be main road for land vehicles to go through, and under it would be other passages to the objective


Then no one would use the Pelican more than once.

  • 10.28.2009 1:03 PM PDT
Subject: Large Scale Battle: Bird's Nest. A way Pelicans could work!

Big Team Battle Multiflag/Slayer on Standoff/Valhalla/Sandtrap/Avalanche = Win

Halo Reach would need some anti-air weapons/turrets/equipment to be able to do this.

[Edited on 10.28.2009 1:53 PM PDT]

  • 10.28.2009 1:53 PM PDT

Wherever you roam
so far from home
you'll be safe from peril
life threatening and terrible
if you avoid David Powel
and keep track of your towel.

You know, there's a Halo Custom Edition map called hugeass that sounds a lot like that.

  • 10.28.2009 1:58 PM PDT
Subject: Large Scale Battle: Bird's Nest. This could work!

Doc: "i'm a pacifist"
Caboose: "your a thing that babies suck on?"
Tucker: "no dude, that's a pedephile"
Church: "tucker, i think he means a pacifier"

Posted by: iMomo
This could probably work if Bungie had servers. A host system would never work.


This is only part of the problem, even servers will have lag. No matter how it is handled this kind of scale, with the type of environmental detail that Halo has (currently) could lead to some serious frame-rate issues. I don't think most understand (geometrically) just how "large" a map would have to be for a Pelican to make sense.

The added player thing is something that could be aided by the use of servers, though there will still be lag. The sheer scope and size of the map is a whole other story. That would be a lot of stuff to render, meaning more lag (server or host/client) and possible clipping and frame rate drop.

It would be awesome to be sure, to have huge epic objective games like this. But I don't think it's doable on this console generation.

  • 10.28.2009 2:02 PM PDT
Subject: Large Scale Battle: Bird's Nest. A way Pelicans could work!

Da Husk.

Posted by: EldritchWarlord
You know, there's a Halo Custom Edition map called hugeass that sounds a lot like that.

i love that map but extinction and coldsnap are better

  • 10.28.2009 2:05 PM PDT
Subject: Large Scale Battle: Bird's Nest. This could work!

Wherever you roam
so far from home
you'll be safe from peril
life threatening and terrible
if you avoid David Powel
and keep track of your towel.

Posted by: SweetTRIX
Posted by: iMomo
This could probably work if Bungie had servers. A host system would never work.


This is only part of the problem, even servers will have lag. No matter how it is handled this kind of scale, with the type of environmental detail that Halo has (currently) could lead to some serious frame-rate issues. I don't think most understand (geometrically) just how "large" a map would have to be for a Pelican to make sense.



Detail isn't a problem, it's all in the physics. Only relevant data (like what players are doing) is sent across the Internet to the individual Xboxes which update their individual game worlds with the new data.

Of course, since Halo has extremely sophisticated physics tracking more players leads to problems.

  • 10.28.2009 2:17 PM PDT

Doc: "i'm a pacifist"
Caboose: "your a thing that babies suck on?"
Tucker: "no dude, that's a pedephile"
Church: "tucker, i think he means a pacifier"

Posted by: EldritchWarlord
Posted by: SweetTRIX
Posted by: iMomo
This could probably work if Bungie had servers. A host system would never work.


This is only part of the problem, even servers will have lag. No matter how it is handled this kind of scale, with the type of environmental detail that Halo has (currently) could lead to some serious frame-rate issues. I don't think most understand (geometrically) just how "large" a map would have to be for a Pelican to make sense.



Detail isn't a problem, it's all in the physics. Only relevant data (like what players are doing) is sent across the Internet to the individual Xboxes which update their individual game worlds with the new data.

Of course, since Halo has extremely sophisticated physics tracking more players leads to problems.


Scale and detail does play into it because each system needs to render the environment/character detail as well as action. This is one of the reasons that the visor is not reflective in MP, and the reason that armor damage detail was removed from the beta. More detail, more data, more time, more lag.

  • 10.28.2009 3:18 PM PDT