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This topic has moved here: Subject: we have had a game on reach, now lets have one on Ballast
  • Subject: we have had a game on reach, now lets have one on Ballast
Subject: we have had a game on reach, now lets have one on Ballast

I enjoy halo for it's story and when I am in the mood, its gameplay. Reach was significantly worse then I expected but was still a great game (minus the european hitscan fiasco). I am sitting on a two mile wide fence on the subject of halo 4. Most of the things I like a technical aspects though and not story or game play. Plus I am slightly mad they took my elites from MP.

to get people educated Ballast was a UNSC colony that was attacked by the Covenent in the later part of the Human/Covenent war and unlike many Human/UNSC worlds the Covenent were defeated by the UNSC defense force and the planet was providing support for the Sol system during the battle of earth.

Now story wise there isn't much canon involved around Ballast to suit those fans who insist bungie blew up there previous canon with Halo: Reach and so the game can be made pretty much in any direction as long as it does not defy tech. canon (i.e. what technology was available) and the UNSC victory.

My idea: seeing as it is not referenced that there were any spartans (SII's or SIII's) on planet and what the population was, I am going to base the plot on ODST's that will witness the full theatre of warfare from space battles to land battles.

Campaign
Phase 1
(from here on all work is speculation that does not harm canon but adds to the story) A single SMAC orbites the capital city on Ballast, which I am going to name Herqaut for refrence purposes, 3 Covenent assault carriers and 7-13 Covenent cruisers enter the system, UNSC automaticly engage. (SMAC is down for refit) 1st mision ODST squad is in space dock awaiting assignment (all rookies) to the UNSC Destroyer "Calypto". While ODST's are in space dock Covenent fleet arrives and Kig-Yar Death Squads board the station and attempt to kill the UNSC personell and the civilians aboard, initial UNSC casualties are heavy with many deaths within the rookie ODST company. Players sqaud have to fight out of the departures bay due to being flanked from all directions. They then have too fight there way into UNSC held territories aboard the station saving multiple groups of civilians along the way. Once the Player has arrived into Unsc territorie aboard the station they are then sent on amision to protect the stations AI which was abandoned in the chaos, once the player has arrived at the AI chamber with some marine reinforcements they are tasked with killing a Spec Ops elite which when at a health marker trigers a cutscene of the elite runing down the hall and stabing private first class micheal hodgson and escaping behind a sqaud of grunts. Player then proceeds to chase the leader into a hangar where a Covenent boarding ship is docked, the player kills the SpecOps elite that was leading the attack and reinforced by the rest of there sqaud the player is handed a cleanse and burnmission to clear the rest of the station of Covenent combatants and allow a civilian transport to leave the station. The players ODST sqaud is then assigned to escort the civilian transport into the UNSC no hit zone using the equivelant of Sabres from Halo: reach. Mission ends with one of the Covenent assualt carriers rushing towards Herquat only to be shot down by the SMAC wich has just completed its refit and in response a portion of the Covenent fleet breaks off and assaults another city, cutscene ends with players fighters landing on the UNSC "Calypto"

Thats all I got so far for campaign so make suggestions

Multiplayer
Multiplayer will incluede a credit system like halo reach but with the ability to mix and match armour for both sides i.e. Covnent and ODST armour choices like in halo 3 on halo reach's menu. Switch between Covenent and ODST when on character customization by pressing RB and LB. Covenent team will play as jackals and skirmishers during multiplayer (they will have to set whether they are jackal or skirmisher at the beginning of the Covennent customization menu)
gametypes
Invasion, team slayer, FFA, territories, skirmish (team slayer where one team is Covenent), Covie slayer, Ctf, assault, beach head (territories where one team is Covenent)

thats all I got so far for multiplayer please leave suggestions

weapons

UNSC(in no order)
assault rifle
battle rifle
sniper
shotgun
DMR
SMG
ODST SMG
machine gun turret
rocket launcher
frag grenades
grenade launcher

Covenent weapons
needle rifle
Covenent carbine
plasma carbine (plasma rifle carbine with RoF of halo reach)
beam rifle
needler
plasma pistol
spike carbine (in use by tribals: brute trained skirmisher special forces)
plasma grenades
plasma cannon
energy axe
fuel rod gun

Vehicles

UNSC
warthog- all forms present in halo reach
hawk- guided rocket and duel chain guns (normal chaingun damage)
hawk transport- can hold two pasengers (multiplayer) or four (campaign). armed with a single nose mounted burst cannon
warthog burst- a burst cannon mounted on a warthog
badger rocket- a UNSC counter part to the shade turret, armed with dual-mounted 3 round burst missile pods
badger burst- armed with a burst cannon
mongoose
rodant- mongoose with an attached LMG on rear seat used for hit and run attacks

Covenent
ghost
spectre
banshee
shade turret
AA shade turret- Halo 2 shade tuuret
sprite- small 1 pilot two pasenger (multiplayer) or 4 pasenger (campaign) dropship that appears like a cross between a spectre and a phantom, but closer in size to the spectre. Sprit's are armed with twin-plasma canons.
sprite CR- (CR= concusion rifle) same as sprite but armed with a single nose mounted concusion rifle.

So theres my ideas please make suggestions and feed back as I have spent two hours on this post

  • 12.11.2010 11:55 PM PDT

I think elaborating on Gray Teams disappearance would be a good story.

  • 12.12.2010 12:05 AM PDT

I enjoy halo for it's story and when I am in the mood, its gameplay. Reach was significantly worse then I expected but was still a great game (minus the european hitscan fiasco). I am sitting on a two mile wide fence on the subject of halo 4. Most of the things I like a technical aspects though and not story or game play. Plus I am slightly mad they took my elites from MP.

yeah so do I but could you give me feedback on my post plz

  • 12.12.2010 12:07 AM PDT

The world is not beautiful: And that, in a way, lends it a sort of beauty.

~Kino's Journey

does 343 industries have a forum, if they do you should post this there

  • 12.12.2010 12:35 AM PDT

This sounds interesting.

The Halo universe is ludicrously big, there could be made atleast 50 games based on unique scenarios and stories.
But before this Ballast game, I'd first like to see a game based on Onyx!

  • 12.12.2010 12:38 AM PDT

I enjoy halo for it's story and when I am in the mood, its gameplay. Reach was significantly worse then I expected but was still a great game (minus the european hitscan fiasco). I am sitting on a two mile wide fence on the subject of halo 4. Most of the things I like a technical aspects though and not story or game play. Plus I am slightly mad they took my elites from MP.

@darkjet7 I cant find one if they do

  • 12.12.2010 1:07 AM PDT


Posted by: trojanlord95
@darkjet7 I cant find one if they do

halo.xbox.com/forums

  • 12.12.2010 2:22 AM PDT

"American Consumerism is scary."

OK, I thank the loyalty I have for Bungie and I read a butt-load of Halo-lore, and i must say, i skipped the 1st paragraph, moved on to your weapons, and have this to say; The Battle rifle, and SMG's, would not be able to fit in your game with any common sense, mostly because the 'DMR" was lost in the Fall of Reach, and the "Battle Rifle" never existed in Reach, SMG's would be a no-go either because they weren't presented either, They couldn't bring back something that was made in the future (Halo 2 Shade turret) That's about it for my -blam!-ing about the weapons, the campaign looks overall good, but i think only a firefight mode should be the only thing for multi-player (Besides split-screen)because this (As a small game judging by the 1st mission, but scratch my anti-multi-player idea if there will be 9 or more missions, my suggestion for a second mission is the 1st person perspective of a UNSC Marine in the fight on the ground in the major city "Herquat" The Marine fights his way to a rendezvous point and is taken to the abandoned AI area to provide help for the ODST's, or this could be a half in switch of the 1st level? Well that was my idea, hope i could help.

EDIT: Well any survivors could of went with the Marine, plus i have no life and i was just logging on, seeing if anything was new.

[Edited on 12.12.2010 2:33 AM PST]

  • 12.12.2010 2:27 AM PDT

Bungie doesn't own the rights to Halo any more and can't make any new Halo games.

  • 12.12.2010 4:37 AM PDT

The campaign looks good, and so does the multiplayer. I think that you should try to refine your vehicles though.

The mongoose with a small turret would have to be larger than a warthog, or else it wouldn't really fit on there. It also seems like you're trying to make vehicles that fit between certain niches. Right now only the Phantom and Spirit are dropships, but why make a dropship that can only carry four people and is lightly armed and armored? then it's just like a Falcon, your Hawk, and to a degree, the Hornet.


Just my thoughts though. I do like your idea of the Hawk though. It has turrets but there is also a version where it isa transport with a driver-controlled cannon.

  • 12.12.2010 6:19 AM PDT

About me: I am a vicious wolf of a man.

But really am sweet at heart. =)

Ballast? Never heard of it. Is this some kind of Fan Fiction you are developing? Because I have never heard it mentioned before.

  • 12.12.2010 6:32 AM PDT

On a related note, ******'s mom has really nice boobs, and it doesn't take much booze or encouragement to get her to let the puppies out of the pen...if you know what I mean...

What a energy axe and whats a kig yar

[Edited on 12.12.2010 8:59 AM PST]

  • 12.12.2010 8:59 AM PDT

I enjoy halo for it's story and when I am in the mood, its gameplay. Reach was significantly worse then I expected but was still a great game (minus the european hitscan fiasco). I am sitting on a two mile wide fence on the subject of halo 4. Most of the things I like a technical aspects though and not story or game play. Plus I am slightly mad they took my elites from MP.

@Just Great1 Kig-yar is the speceis name for jackals and an energy axe is concept art for the halo wars arbiter so I decided scale it down for tribals (explained in post) and Kig-yar death squads

@caboose199 the battle rifle is used in contact harvest and the british military uses the SA80 but they use the M4 just because it ain't seen doesn't its there (sorta like germs). and what about if the supplier for the DMR was gone not the actual DMR itself

@gottalovec4 heres link to Ballast

@gruntocalypto the turret on a rodent is a bit widder than an SMG,cant remember where I saw it but it was designed as a special forces alternative to the warthog, warthog=big and loud while rodant=small and quiet

[Edited on 12.12.2010 10:16 AM PST]

  • 12.12.2010 10:02 AM PDT

"American Consumerism is scary."

@caboose199 the battle rifle is used in contact harvest and the british military uses the SA80 but they use the M4 just because it ain't seen doesn't its there (sorta like germs). and what about if the supplier for the DMR was gone not the actual DMR itself

Good point i probably should have re-done some of my original readings of Halo, It is more likely that the DMR suppliers were mainly based on Reach, and in some places on Ballast.

  • 12.12.2010 12:50 PM PDT