- CapttainNEM0
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- Noble Member
- gamertag: Eshcka
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If you make your maps interesting and fun to begin with, you don't need AAs at all! AAs can make a boring map like Boardwalk (from Reach) somewhat enjoyable. But take the AAs out, and that map is very boring and slow. Take a map like Guardian (from Halo 3), plays well and quite fast with the right amount of players. Small, but it has plenty of long sight-lines to make BR and sniper combat effective and comfortable. The map also has plenty of close-quarters areas to incorporate the shotgun, SMG, AR, and gravity hammer. This map offers a wide range of areas that are designed for different types of combat, yet the map is compact, and you are never looking for something to kill for very long, even in a 1 Vs 1 situation. Guardian has a little bit of everything, and is a good example of a well designed map.
So we finally get down to it.
The only logical reasoning behind AAs is that they can make a semi good map "fun" (I use that term loosely) to play on and offer something new at the same time. So now they don't have to put as much effort into map design because AAs can make make it interesting regardless of the map design quality. Now we can see why Reach's and Halo 4's maps aren't the best designs we have seen.
Map design is like government. The rules by which we live, or in map design, play. Without AAs, the rules are very simple, and if you try to break them, you usually die by falling off the map. You can do what ever you wish, play however you like as long as you stay inside the rules. AAs allow players to break the laws of map design, so in an attempt to keep players from breaking the laws to the point of the entire system collapsing, they make more laws. It's like giving a child a gun and then making everyone in your house wear bulletproof vests! It's flawed logic!
So, to make matters even worse, they have to change the way maps are designed altogether. They have to dumb down the maps so there are less "laws" for AAs to possibly break. Just for kicks, compare Halo 2's maps to the maps in Reach. In Reach, most of your maps are large, and mostly open, with little variation in elevation. In Halo 2, most of your maps are somewhat compact, yet there is considerable walking distance between different sides of the map due to much variation in elevation.
And everyone just loved Reach's maps (if I could get any more sarcasm in there, I would have).
So, sure, AAs can be fun, and they are in many great custom games. And I'll agree that without AAs, Reach and Halo 4 would be very boring on the default maps, but I think the real way to make a game fresh, is through new and creative maps designs, not through "ways to break the law". It's like being invincible, sure it's cool for a little while, but it gets really boring.
One thing that has really stood out to me lately is how 343 has been addressing "issues". They just slap a band-aid on the symptom and ignore the root of the problems. To many people quitting? "Ooh, let's put a quit ban on e'm!" No, make the game more fun and interesting and people won't have a good reason to quit (OK, that was Bungie). Not enough people playing Wargames? "Let's put double XP codes on poison bottles that are only good for the first month so people will play like crazy so it looks like everybody loves the game so we get all kinds of awards! And we can completely ignore the feedback on the forums because if so many people play the game, how could anyone be unhappy with it?" Wow, really? All they care about is money (It's Microsoft, what did you expect?), and if they can get everyone to say, "oh, this game might be the one that fixes all the problems!" they will go out and buy it. Same with the map packs.
Sure, they fixed a few problems with Halo 4, but why would they fix all of them if they have a bunch more games to make? If they spread out their "problem fixing" over all their games, people will buy every... single... one.
All I want is to play Halo. I don't care if it's new or old. I just want it done right.
Thank you for reading my posts.
~Eshcka