- Wumpa Warrior
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- Noble Heroic Member
--Credit goes to Speedmachine202 for creating this post, I just revived it--
Introduction
Let me start by saying that Halo: Reach is a fantastic game with excellent graphics, game modes, maps, etc; However, the game itself has drifted towards being very slayer dominant. What I mean by this is that no matter what the gametype, most players will have a primary focus on getting kills and a secondary or even tertiary focus on getting the objective. Point being the core focus of objective gametypes has been lost between halo 3 and halo: reach and in this topic I plan to outline the flaws and propose a proper solution.
Problems
Most of my objective games, and most of everyone's objective games, turn into blood baths with no attempts at scoring the objective. Why go control the hill or capture the flag when you can just get in a tank and destroy everyone? The reason a player goes for kills more often than the objective is because the player is rewarded for every kill he gets and not for ANY objective he scores.
Every time you get a snipe, headshot, beatdown, assist, spree or multikill, a number pops up in the bottom corner saying something like, "+8cR". When you get many kills in these categories a giant box pops up on your screen which congratulates you on a job well done and rewards of lots of credits.
What happens when you score an objective? Nothing. The score increases by one, but you have gained no cR, and your rank has not increased. In fact, you probably died a lot in order to complete that objective. No cR for objective scoring, no ranking up by playing for objectives. And no victory bonus either so if you win an objective game, you get nothing for it.
So it seems that the only logical path for a smart player is to simply go for kills since that is what will rank you up and make you unlock new armor and lightning bolts on your head and gold visors and such, while going for objectives gets you death with no reward.
Solutions
But why in Halo 2/3 was this not a problem? People went for objectives all the time in those games! Its because the only way you could rank up in 2 and 3 was by winning. Trueskill goes up by winning, and experience goes up by winning. When you win objective games you are rewarded with a better rank in 2/3. 2 and 3 had incentive to win objective games while Reach has absolutely no incentive to win except for the satisfaction of winning.
So how can we reward people who go for objectives (as well as give people incentive to go for objectives)? It's simple:
1. Victory Bonus: If a person is awarded something like 800 cR for a victory, then the person will actually try to win the game because that is a nice boost for your rank.
2. Objective Daily and Weekly Challenges: Right now, challeges basically involve 3 things: kills, assists, and campaign mission completion. Nothing relating to objectives. If we have more objective challenges with large cR rewards, people will go for objectives. Such as:
a. Hoarding Problem: Capture 8 stockpile flags today in multi-player matchmaking (1200 cR).
b. Get Off My Cloud!: Rack up 200 points in KOTH gametypes today in multiplayer matchmaking (1000 cR).
c. Lawsuit: Detonate 3 bombs today in Assault gametypes in multi-player matchmaking (1500 cR)
-If you believe that challenges don't affect gameplay just pay attention to whenever there is a jetpack mp challenge, because most people use jetpacks during those games.
3. Objective Commendations: These of course are very similar to the challenges but they are long term such that even if there isn't a challenge, people will still go for objectives because they are consistently rewarded for it. Examples include:
a. Poor Yorick: Get Points in Oddball or Headhunter
b. Conquistador: Capture Territories in Territories
c. Star Spangled Banner: Capture Flags in CTF or Stockpile
If all of these are established, I guarantee that there will be a tremendous rise in objective play.
The only problem I can foresee is betrayals. It is true that within the first few weeks of establishment betrayals for objectives will rise, but eventually it will even out. People will stop betraying each other for objectives if there is strict betrayal boot enforcement, and eventually objective games will become a lot more competitive as people try to get to flags and capture them before their other teammates do.
--Credit goes to Speedmachine202 for creating this post, I just revived it--
[Edited on 01.19.2012 3:44 PM PST]