Spartan119 the Red Raven.
"So officer tell me how it feels to be at the wrong end of that barrel?"
Posted by: pitbullfathead
Sorry for the lengthy read, I feel you are on to a possible vehicle here!
First of all I think going back to the roots of Halo and heading in the direction of Vehicular Combat is sexy.
Fun Fact: Halo: CE was originally thought up as a game that would showcase large-scale vehicular combat...
A few things I would change:
Name: Bungie names Covenant vehicles using a simple theme ghost-like names. We have a Ghost, Banshee, Phantom, Spirit, Wraith, Shadow, Specter, Shade etc... Though Reaper does fit, I would say it is more fitting to either call it an Apparition, Soul, perhaps even a Revenant etc.
My personal pick would be to call it a Phantasm, similar to a Scarab's smaller variant being a Locust. A Phantasm would be the smaller and quicker version of a Phantom, more ideal for squad drop off rather then dropping a small regiment.
The design could look like anything so long as it loosely resembled a Phantom, which could easily be down with the dual Engine heads, or whatever they are.
Seats: I definitely agree with and like your current setup of seating!
Weapons: I always loved dodging the Shade projectiles, but if they were to be used I would suggest a tone-down in damage versus vehicles, especially tanks. If it were to be a Plasma-turret I would say a dual barrel turret would give of a decent shooting feel. I would also like to see a first-person view for this turret.
Toughness: I agree it should be pretty tough, I think something like the SMG or any other small arms fire should be completely ineffective. I think the Warthogs Chain Gun should do a small amount of damage, since this thing would be somewhat of a sitting duck in comparison to a Banshee, and gunners don't usually have a problem hitting those. The Gauss should do about have as much damage as a Rocket.
My opinion is:
1 Spartan Laser/Rocket to the turret destroys the turret and the gunner.
2 Splaser shots destroy the vehicle
3 Rockets destroy the vehicle
3 Tank rounds destroy the vehicle
I think the controls should be:
Driver -X exits vehicle (you'll see why), Y and/or B opens and closes doors (they can switch from open to close at any point and take about 2 seconds to do so), RT could make a Shield Flare-up (A momentary shield that draws from the core power supply, simply acts as an Energy Shield, 3 seconds to activate and deactivate), LT could be a risky boost similar to the Banshees except it builds up speed and then is harder to slow down (It can also cause immense damage to the ship and its crew if it hits a wall or cliff), A is for landing (Similar to Starwars: Battlefront II space flight, except it won't just dead stop, and is safest used at a dead stop).
Now flight controls:
It would control more similarily to a Monitor, the left stick controls basic 2D movements; Forward, Strafe left and right, and Brake/Reverse. The right stick would behave the similar in that it allows you to turn left and right, however looking up and down is only for locating things. It would have a Wraith like turn rate. RB would allow the craft to ascend, and LB would cause it to descend. LB's descend rate would not stack with A's landing descend rate, A's landing feature would Highjack all controls and only allow the driver to look around with the right stick.
Using the (Energy) Shield Flare-Up and the Boost Drive would hinder the craft greatly, if struck by the bolt of an overcharged Plasma-Pistol, the craft will lose all machinery funtions and plummet to the ground below, if it survives the impact against the ground, it will take around 10 seconds to reboot its powergrid (The doors could be Hydraulic so the passengers aren't stuck, it could also be humourous if they were).
For the rest I pretty much agree with everything you say, I would like to see opening and closing doors, that way you get the protection and feel that a Spirit gives, and you give the pilot the ability to let the troops try to drop in airborn. Which if there is fall damage could be risky.
If this vehicle was made would there be a human-counterpart? If so what would that be like!
ya i like alot of what u changed
personaly RB to get in/out
b should open/close
and the trigger buttons (as the driver to use any special ability, keep reading!)
it should move like a banshee but just tilt less (like u look 45 degrees up u start to acend 45 degrees up but the ship just tilts 25 degrees because its trying to stay stable)
what im thinking right now is no turret at all. and have it resemble a phantom. still have the duel generators but smaller and have harness seats (2 on each side) between the front and back generators. the driver is obviously in front (and enters from there) and the door swing up from the bottom of the craft so that when u land (and or just open them) they flip out to be a little platform/ramp) they also have little view slits in then so ure not completly bored while riding.
this makes it a 5 person vehicle
1 driver and the 4 passangers (2 on each side) and therefore practical for halo's current smaller scale multiplayer. it is still a large target but when is ure warthog ever full, or ur mongoose? at most 5 kills but in reality u may have 2 to 3 passangers (exept at the beggining of the game)
now special abilities.
first id like to propose an energy bar that recharges (kinda like shields but continuously refiling unless draining)it would be placed were the weapon on ure hud is. running out of energy all together is just like being hit with a plasma bolt except lasts half the time (so if ure high enofe ull regain power before crashing)
personally i think the shield ability isnt that great and would be used in combine with the turret to simply kill stuff instead of defend itself. however if it is to be used it should dramatically drain ure energy and any damage to it would further drain ure energy.
the boost is good but as said before should be exponetial in speed. starting of slugish and then quickly building to mock speed, however this should drain ure energy bar in relation to youre speed. therefore if u poured all youre energie into boosting away from a spartain lazer u will be able to out move a rocket or something. the idea is that u will be able to go fast but not on a dime and it leaves ure energie bar drained and therefore the reaper (or whatever u want to call it) vunerable.
now i would personally like to see a cloaking field upon this vehicle. it would still shimmer like normal cloaking and since its a larger object it would still be noticable but only if u were looking for it. therefore i suggest this as a prime defensive ability because it will let it tacticaly insert troops on a point or escape with the flag. and while this is on u wouldnt be able to activate any other ability (tho i personally believe it should only have one and this would be my pick, followed by boost) this fits the reaper in its job perfectly. also if u had cloaking everyone inside would be cloaked as well (as long as they stay inside) and therefore could see all around them in there passanger seats (or as all around as the harness allowed)
now with all this in mind i believe it should be fragile (tho not as glass)
1 direct lazer to the engines and pilot seat would destroy the vehicle, causing it to explode. this would not instantly kill the passangers however (unless the beam dirsctly passes through them) and they are thown from the seats outward pushed by the explotion and badly hurt, probably dieng from fall damage. however it is not garantied. a lazer to the main body of the ship from the sides (witch since its so compact in my mind would be the only way to hit the main body) and would kill any passangers it passes thru but not destroy the vehicle entirly.
1 rocket to the engines would destroy the reaper, but it would take 2 hitting the cockpit and or passanger seats.
warthog chain gun would be effective and would take longer than a banshee to down, unless directly hitting any of the 4 generators, and small arms fire would only hurt (minutly) hitting the generator.
a single stuck spiker or plasma would not destroy the vehicle but if set upon the cockpit would kill him.
it would overall move slower than a banshee normaly does with apropiat fowards and reverse acceleraton.
in size its just larger than a warthog in every direction.