Halo: Reach Forum
This topic has moved here: Subject: Rescuing and protecting marines
  • Subject: Rescuing and protecting marines
Subject: Rescuing and protecting marines

I would like Bungie to add more in-game challenges to protecting marines that fight with you. I always found it a fun side challenge to keep as many marines alive with you as possible. I was thinking that throughout Reach they could have little hidden areas where marines are trapped and pinned down and you can rescue them. Maybe each marine you rescue adds to the UNSC forces at an epic end battle. For example, you find and rescue 50 marines throughout the campaign and thus you have an extra 50 marines fighting beside you at the end.

So it would kind of work like this. You're playing the campaign and you go a side route which leads to a tucked away area that has a couple of marines in trouble. You clear out the covenant and they join your group. You can sort of collect marines throughout each mission in various ways and however many you have alive at the end of each mission would add to your forces at the end battle. They could even throw in some achievements for rescuing every potential marine in the campaign. I think it would be a fun little side challenge that you wouldn't have to do to enjoy the campaign but would be beneficial to you at the end.

  • 11.19.2009 5:43 PM PDT
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It would add a little more depth to the campaign if you had the choice of saving a marine or not. It would also be a nice risk equals reward situation. It could be something like a few marines being held down by a elite squad or something as massive as a tank.

This idea reminds of the level "Halo" on Halo: CE. I think it would be a nice little throwback to a great game.

[Edited on 11.19.2009 5:51 PM PST]

  • 11.19.2009 5:46 PM PDT
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Posted by: BTE
Posted by: Xharpan
it doese'nt look nextgen , looks good but not nextgen
If by next-gen you mean crappy, dark and colorless, I agree. It doesnt look next-gen at all.

I always liked rescuing marines even if in the end its all a waste of time. They are as smart as a rock and they don't really help much.

  • 11.19.2009 5:47 PM PDT
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I like the idea personly, that would be awesome in my opinion.

  • 11.19.2009 5:48 PM PDT

Posted by: BTE
I always liked rescuing marines even if in the end its all a waste of time. They are as smart as a rock and they don't really help much.


Yeah, and thats what was fun about it because it was so hard to keep them alive. I remember in Halo:CE I had collected like 10 marines and would try so hard to keep them alive. It was fun to do that and I always thought it sucked when the mission ended and you would just leave them there when you got on the pelican never to see them again, but if doing that in Reach added to the marines at the end it would be more rewarding and worth it.

It also helped the feeling that you were much more powerful than a regular human because the marines died so easily. In rescuing every marine possible it gave this feeling that you were aiding the effort against the covenant. It was like, okay, I kept this marine alive now there will be 1 extra marine to help fight the covenant in some other battle you won't see. Only this time you will see that battle and how there is an extra marine because you kept them alive.

[Edited on 11.19.2009 5:57 PM PST]

  • 11.19.2009 5:52 PM PDT

I like Halo, It kills all sentinel life with sufficient bio-mass... and doesn't afraid of anything.

As long as it didn't become a drag and repetitive, a cool idea.

  • 11.19.2009 6:54 PM PDT

Posted by: urk
Eat raw meat.
Punch a bear in the face.


If you don't know who I am, the feeling is mutual.

As long as they help and STOP THROWING GRENADES AT ME!!!

If I have one grudge against Halo 3's AI it's how they always throw grenades directly at me on Heroic and Legendary, killing me.

  • 11.19.2009 7:04 PM PDT

"Nah. As long as the prince of darkness is okay with it. I am too. But thanks anyway, Mr. Velvet Spider."

xD

In all the Halo's I play I always do everything in my power to keep the marines alive, even though their AI is pretty terrible at staying that way.

:D

  • 11.19.2009 7:08 PM PDT

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I also love playing the Halo campaigns looking after the Marines. They help a lot, but I really don't like having a Marine die on me in which case I normally revert to the last checkpoint and do it all again.

If the Marines you saved (particulary ODSTs) survived and followed you from area to area it would become ridiculous eventually. The only way that would work is if you could have a bunch of marines following you but only a certain number (say 5 marines) that followed you from section to section regardless. It does annoy me when Marines decide not to follow you to the next section.

An AI upgrade would be nice. Marines firing rocket launchers into my back or into other Marines is so annoying!

  • 11.19.2009 7:08 PM PDT

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Posted by: Silverwolf001
In all the Halo's I play I always do everything in my power to keep the marines alive, even though their AI is pretty terrible at staying that way.

:D


One of my most favourite things to do in Halo 1 was to play TaR on Legendary and do the reinforcement glitch at the gravity lift so I would have 10 AR Marines fighting alongside me. H1 ARs are generally pretty useless, but when there are 10 of them hammering away they cut through Covies pretty decent even on Legendary.

I love doing stuff like that. I'm hoping that Reach will have that sort of level of replayability, H2 and even H3 just didn't quite get that.

  • 11.19.2009 7:10 PM PDT

"Nah. As long as the prince of darkness is okay with it. I am too. But thanks anyway, Mr. Velvet Spider."

xD

Posted by: flamedude
Posted by: Silverwolf001
In all the Halo's I play I always do everything in my power to keep the marines alive, even though their AI is pretty terrible at staying that way.

:D


One of my most favourite things to do in Halo 1 was to play TaR on Legendary and do the reinforcement glitch at the gravity lift so I would have 10 AR Marines fighting alongside me. H1 ARs are generally pretty useless, but when there are 10 of them hammering away they cut through Covies pretty decent even on Legendary.

I love doing stuff like that. I'm hoping that Reach will have that sort of level of replayability, H2 and even H3 just didn't quite get that.


I remember that. Good times, man. In Halo 3 you could do a glitch on The Covenant so that you get like 20 pilot UNSC soldiers but you can't really do anything with them because your stuck on an island.

  • 11.19.2009 7:12 PM PDT
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Posted by: flamedude
I also love playing the Halo campaigns looking after the Marines. They help a lot, but I really don't like having a Marine die on me in which case I normally revert to the last checkpoint and do it all again.

If the Marines you saved (particulary ODSTs) survived and followed you from area to area it would become ridiculous eventually. The only way that would work is if you could have a bunch of marines following you but only a certain number (say 5 marines) that followed you from section to section regardless. It does annoy me when Marines decide not to follow you to the next section.

An AI upgrade would be nice. Marines firing rocket launchers into my back or into other Marines is so annoying!
What are you talking about? When I'm driving a vhicle and my passenger marine with rockets betrays a bunch of other marines making the living marines mad at me and shoot me is always fun (major sarcasm)

  • 11.19.2009 7:22 PM PDT

Posted by: flamedude
The only way that would work is if you could have a bunch of marines following you but only a certain number (say 5 marines) that followed you from section to section regardless. It does annoy me when Marines decide not to follow you to the next section.


I think it could work without a cap on the number of marines because the more marines you have the more difficult it becomes to keep track of them all and keep them alive. That difficulty would sort of be like a cap, but it would be limited to the player's skill and luck and not by some arbitrary number created by Bungie. Plus, there would be a limit to the total number of saveable marines in any given mission anyway. Also, I don't think they need to follow you from mission to mission. I just have fun saving marines and would like the game to reward me for doing so.

  • 11.19.2009 7:26 PM PDT
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"You must be mistaken, Reclaimer. I've met your makers, and they don't even know your name..."

This is a great idea, but only if the Marines are actually good at fighting... a lot of these "escort" missions involve you, a god-like character, escorting a VIP, made of wet newspaper and shuddering to a teary halt whenever enemies show up. Assassin's Creed 2 has a good example with the Thieves. You spend jillions getting Ezio up to ridiculous levels, and the skilled thieves you escort regularly topple off roofs to their deaths. So yes, if the Marines can fight, great.

  • 11.19.2009 7:36 PM PDT

this sounds cool but mabye with the marines there is like an odst/odsts - infact one odst could look and sound like buck but not be important to the game, as an easter egg almost

  • 11.19.2009 7:41 PM PDT

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This could be the basis for a pretty cool achievement, rescue all the marines and keep them alive to the end of whatever level.

  • 11.19.2009 8:07 PM PDT
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Keep in mind, that you can't always have too many AI on a map. (No, im not a programmer, but it is basic sense that you can't have too many AI on a single map)


Anyway, my point is, a reason why Halo CE managed to have a ton of AI, as well as having a great campaign, was because of how simple everything was in the game, when bungie designed the game, their was no heavy focus on multiple elements, like destructible objects, complex AI, or having to put a lot of effort into making both, campaign and multiplayer.

I can expect Bungie to make Reach's campaign a great experience, I don't think we can go through a map with fifty marines tagging behind us, but with a smaller number, like ten to fifteen marines to protect in a level is much more manageable, for both, everyone, and, possibly the game engine.

  • 11.19.2009 8:34 PM PDT

Posted by: Panzeereapa
This is a great idea, but only if the Marines are actually good at fighting...


Yeah, an improvement on the marines AI would be nice, but even if they are similar to Halo 3's marines I think it would still be fun. Actually, I think the fact that the marines died so easily adds to the challenge and fun of keeping them alive.

Posted by: Kasith
I can expect Bungie to make Reach's campaign a great experience, I don't think we can go through a map with fifty marines tagging behind us, but with a smaller number, like ten to fifteen marines to protect in a level is much more manageable, for both, everyone, and, possibly the game engine.


Yeah, there are technical limitations to the number of AI entities. However, I think Halo 3 had plenty at any 1 time for it to be fun. Plus, any given level would have a limited number of marines that could be saved. Ten or fifteen is a good limit for each mission I think. Also, as soon as you get that high of marines following it becomes much more difficult to keep them alive as it is harder to keep track of all of them.

[Edited on 11.20.2009 8:17 AM PST]

  • 11.19.2009 8:35 PM PDT