Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Equipment and Customization: Two Key Features
  • Subject: Equipment and Customization: Two Key Features
Subject: Equipment and Customization: Two Key Features

The biggest thing I want from Reach is customization. No, not weapon customization, you MW fans. I want things like HUD display customization. Maybe I don't like the blue HUD, maybe I don't like the yellow HUD. How about green? Purple? I want to take it a step further than that. I want to be able to move the weapon indicators, the motion tracker, the health bar. With that, you could make a more ODST-like HUD.

Then, I want secondary colors (or their equivalent) to show in team gametypes. Right now the detail color shows. I think it'd be way cool to mix things up visually. So we all keep the primary red or blue, but the secondary adds some personality to the team. I would also like more than three coloring areas.

Finally, I think the vehicles should be customizable through Forge. Maybe I want a red or blue 'hog for the red or blue team. Desert camo? just activate it in the Forge menu.

On a totally different note, Equipment in Halo 3 was almost more of a gimmick. It comes down to bubble shields, power drains, and grav lifts. Even those aren't used all that often, and no one relies on them.

I think in Reach, equipment can totally be capitalized on. There could be speed boosters, something like that could satisfy those who want a sprint button. Rear shielding could temporarily protect from assassinations. An offensive equipment piece could be used to tag the enemy team so they all have way points over their heads. I also think invisibility and overshields should be useable equipment so you can control when its activated.

Those are features I'd like to see that haven't seen in other places, try to think of new and innovative things that could be added to the Halo experience.

  • 11.13.2009 4:37 PM PDT

The idea behind equipment is not to give a direct advantage to one side but to change how the game is played. Equipment effects both teams evenly in a local sense, so ideally one team would use the equipment so that they can gain a global advantage.

Thinks like speeding up and rear shielding as equipment does really match up with the core idea behind equipment.

  • 11.13.2009 4:40 PM PDT

The main thing you want is more colors..? I do like the idea of moving the HUD around.

Im pretty sure some of the things you wish to see in Reach might be on the way.. not positive though.

I know you dont want weapon upgrades, but check this thread to get some ideas of things Id like to see. (Similar idea)

  • 11.13.2009 4:41 PM PDT
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I never thought of the customizable HUD idea, but I really like it! The same with the customizable vehicles for matches.

  • 11.13.2009 4:42 PM PDT

Posted by: Hylebos
The idea behind equipment is not to give a direct advantage to one side but to change how the game is played. Equipment effects both teams evenly in a local sense, so ideally one team would use the equipment so that they can gain a global advantage.

Thinks like speeding up and rear shielding as equipment does really match up with the core idea behind equipment.


Yeah, I could see how tagging wouldn't work. It was just an idea. Though if Bungie just loaded up on equipment, when the dust settles, only three or four will probably be used much anyways. People are pretty good at filtering.

  • 11.13.2009 4:45 PM PDT

Posted by: Homeboyd903
The main thing you want is more colors..? I do like the idea of moving the HUD around.

Im pretty sure some of the things you wish to see in Reach might be on the way.. not positive though.

I know you dont want weapon upgrades, but check this thread to get some ideas of things Id like to see. (Similar idea)


I hear you on the idea, and shoot, enough people are asking for it, maybe it should be added as an optional playlist. To me though, stuff like that just isn't Halo.

  • 11.13.2009 4:48 PM PDT

I love my pancakes [:

when you say customizable HUD do you meen things like Crosshair: halo CE style, Halo 2 style etc
and health bar on left side of screen vertically stuff like that?
and brutes as a playable charecter and detail affects your spartans 'eye' thingy (that orange thing) and then elite eyes and brute eyes or skin and fur?

i really like the idea of an item that increases speed does it last for like 1min ones activated or is there a bar that declines(sheild bar goes yellow perhaps)

  • 11.13.2009 5:07 PM PDT
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Equipment in H3 sucks. They kept in all the cheap equipment (bubble, regen) and took out the good one(s) (radar jammer, maybe the flare). Morons complained that the radar jammer jammed their own radar and was useless, but they were too dumb to utilize one of the most powerful pieces of equipment.

Here is my view on equipment. As it stands, I hate it. It's a great concept, but the problem is they turn it into such a cheap -tactic- but I don't even like to call it a tactic. It's just cheap. Equipment has fast spawns (1 min.) and typically spawns at several places on the map. It's too abundant to play like any other weapon and control it, so it saturates the gameplay. How many times do you run into someone with a regen Isolation? It's ridiculous.

But not only is it unlike power weapons controllability, it's also unlike a perk. I despise COD in that I utterly hate the gameplay of spraying and praying, lying prone in bushes, etc. But at least with perks everyone gets them and they can play to their advantages. If they fall to the advantages of someone else, they either should have chosen different perks or shouldn't have fallen into the trap. Perks give advantages, but they are very tactical (not all of them, like "last stand") and don't typically cheapen play.

Equipment now is just a cheap tactic because we have equipment that gives you a large advantage in gameplay, is too prevalent to control, etc. Equipment needs to become more like the radar jammer, as it gives you tactical advantages. Pair a radar jammer with a coordinated assault, grab the camo, infiltrate the base and use the jammer, assassinate someone and distract, and then have your team hit. It gives you a slight advantage that requires teamwork, planning, and precision to execute as opposed to the "Oh, F me, I was dumb and suck and got myself into a bind" equipment that keeps your shields up for a minute unless someone rockets you or snipes you in the head.

I know that's a long rant, so I'll reply to your OP. I think equipment can be great, and customization is always helpful for games. It would also make it easy for the community and Bungie to edit the equipment that they first come out with as they find flaws.

[EDIT] Don't tell me the radar jammer was taken out because you could equipment jump with it. You can do the same thing with a power drainer.

[Edited on 11.13.2009 5:11 PM PST]

  • 11.13.2009 5:08 PM PDT