Halo 1.5 ideas & suggestions

[Sidewinder]

With the recent release of Halo: Reach and this thread criticizing a design from the original game, I thought to poll for ideas on how to remake Halo: Combat Evolved with improvements found in later games, e.g., the 3D motion detector and armor abilities from Reach, the ability to dual-wield handguns from 2 and 3, destructable vehicles (I recall reading a magazine article that the reason the CE Scorpion had a ridiculously exposed driver compartment, was because the technology then available to Bungie, forced them to make the vehicles indestructable- note this weakness was somewhat addressed in later games), and the like.

In addition to changes to gameplay and weapon designs, what changes should be made to the plot? A "prequel" mission in which Spartan-117 goes through boot camp, or the Mjolnir battle armor's "test run" depicted in The Fall of Reach novel, to familiarize the player with the controls?

[Stark]

Actual superpowers for MC, with weapon scaling such that the AR is extemely poor against anything with shields, MC is beyond weaker weapons and shrapnel, is faster, stronger, leads with his heroic power, etc.

Loadouts before missions. Custom guns. The weapon balance from Reach. Irons. A decent d-pad based weapon inventory.

[Sarevok]

"destructable vehicles (I recall reading a magazine article that the reason the CE Scorpion had a ridiculously exposed driver compartment, was because the technology then available to Bungie, forced them to make the vehicles indestructable- note this weakness was somewhat addressed in later games), and the like."

What the hell ? Covenant vehicles like the Banshee and Ghost were perfectly destructible in Halo CE. They even showed visible damage as they got hit by weapons. The Scorpions retarded designs and the indestructible Warthog was just laziness not a technology limitation of game programming at the time.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Gears of Halo

Halofield Bad Company 2

The Halo Crysis

Crackdown on Halo

[Sidewinder]

Gears of Halo

Halofield Bad Company 2

The Halo Crysis

Crackdown on Halo

Care to CLARIFY what features from those games, you want added to Halo? The ability to grab a Covenant soldier and use him/her/it as a meat shield, as you could with Locusts in Gears of War 2?

[Chaotic Neutral]

If I had my way, it would be pretty similar to COD, and all of the vehicles would not be completely retarded.

Plus, you would have access to custom weapons built specifically for Spartans, and the armor would have many more abilities.

Just why can't a 1000lb power-armored supersoldier walk around with a .75 fully-automatic, high-explosive, armor piercing grenade launcher? Why would that weapon need sights or scopes when the armor can do that for him? Why couldn't said weapon have a chainsaw bayonet?

Also, plasma weapons would be much, much faster, maybe just trails like bullets. And the Wraith gets cut.

[Lord Relvenous]

Wow thanks, JSF, that was so informative.

I'd like to see a main/heavy/sidearm setup for weapons. That still presents the player with a problem of choosing load-outs during missions (especially with ammo) but allows a player to have all necessary areas covered. It always feels silly to me when I'm carrying a pistol and a shotgun and I somehow can't seem to find room for a fuel rod or something on my back when Spartans having wanked super-strength. If a ODST can walk around comfortably with a Brute Shot and a Fuel Rod gun, a Spartan should be able to add a pistol. Having moments in Reach when I had to have a close combat weapon to deal with Elites in any sort of time and a heavy to handle Hunters really drove that home. What do I kill Grunts and Jackals with?

Iron sights would be nice. I liked that many weapons in Reach had a zoom function. It really worked to make the game better over older Halos, I thought (it seemed like there was more zoom, maybe there wasn't...) However, just being able to increase AR zoom to 1.5 and have a slightly tighter grouping would make it a little less pants.

Taking the armor customization system of Reach and actually making it worth something would be nice. The fluff is already there for the pieces about it's effects, just give it a slight effect in-game. For example, the Multi-threat shoulder pad (which is said to trade some mobility for protection) could increase armor protection by 5% is worn as a pair, while slowing melee speed by 10% (IOW: time between swings increases). Small things like that could make it much more interesting to customize your armor besides "OMG! I gots a black visor! L337!"

Bullet time. Okay maybe not really, but it would be kinda cool. And it could represent the "Spartan time" as Fred dubs it in one of the books.
That would be for campaign only of course, and it would have to be limited, I think.

EDIT:

Just why can't a 1000lb power-armored supersoldier walk around with a .75 fully-automatic, high-explosive, armor piercing grenade launcher? Why would that weapon need sights or scopes when the armor can do that for him? Why couldn't said weapon have a chainsaw bayonet?

That game is getting released in about a year. Be patient. Anyways, Halo isn't 40k, and the chief is not a Space Marine.

[Stark]

You don't need main/heavy/sidearm, you just need nades + two main + sidearm like every other game. Limiting by arbitrary type is lame. Regarding the armour, it'd be kinda nice if different armour had different characteristics, especially regarding ammo and inventory.

[Lord Relvenous]

You don't need main/heavy/sidearm, you just need nades + two main + sidearm like every other game. Limiting by arbitrary type is lame. Regarding the armour, it'd be kinda nice if different armour had different characteristics, especially regarding ammo and inventory.

Fair enough. 2 main would work fine as well. About the armor: I was really disappointed when I read the blurb about the thing pads have increased ammo storage capacity then realizing that it had absolutely no effect. With all the different types of armor they had, there could be a pretty good variety of bonuses to pick. The perks system from CoD has it's problems, but I think it works well enough to structure the armor customization off of it somewhat. Just have the bonuses be more slight and more of them all tied to armor pieces. Even stuff like different visors giving slightly different capabilities would be a big and cool change.

[Stark]

Yeah, they even have really specific stuff like 'this helmet has tactical widgets' and 'this wrist is a tactical thingy' and 'this is a case for a sidearm' and they do nothing.

Move NV to y, use the Gears d-pad inventory, move nade throw to lb and irons on LT. Controls = perfect.

[adam_grif]

Friendly AI that can drive properly. Remove shitty flood levels. Some set-piece battles.

[JointStrikeFighter]

Gears of Halo

Halofield Bad Company 2

The Halo Crysis

Crackdown on Halo

Care to CLARIFY what features from those games, you want added to Halo? The ability to grab a Covenant soldier and use him/her/it as a meat shield, as you could with Locusts in Gears of War 2?

Well you know unless you are a complete fucking retard it is pretty obvious that I was talking about making either a cover shooter in Halo, a squady tacticool in Halo or a Superjump kick the manz game in Halo. All of those are more modern ideas than fucking Quake-Em-Up Reach.

[Lord Relvenous]

Gears of Halo

Halofield Bad Company 2

The Halo Crysis

Crackdown on Halo

Care to CLARIFY what features from those games, you want added to Halo? The ability to grab a Covenant soldier and use him/her/it as a meat shield, as you could with Locusts in Gears of War 2?

Well you know unless you are a complete fucking retard it is pretty obvious that I was talking about making either a cover shooter in Halo, a squady tacticool in Halo or a Superjump kick the manz game in Halo. All of those are more modern ideas than fucking Quake-Em-Up Reach.

Yes, heaven forbid posters actually post more than just titles of games and actually contribute.

Friendly AI that can drive properly. Remove shitty flood levels. Some set-piece battles.

The driving was pretty bad even in Reach, I thought. The Flood I could stand if they tweaked them to be less repetitive. It was all just the same thing. At least in Halo 2 they had some okay sections dealing with the Flood.

[Chaotic Neutral]

Just why can't a 1000lb power-armored supersoldier walk around with a .75 fully-automatic, high-explosive, armor piercing grenade launcher? Why would that weapon need sights or scopes when the armor can do that for him? Why couldn't said weapon have a chainsaw bayonet?

That game is getting released in about a year. Be patient. Anyways, Halo isn't 40k, and the chief is not a Space Marine.

No, I was serious, the enemy has shields, and your spending the money for a supersoldier, are new guns too expensive? They can handle the recoil.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

^ Yeah, I was thinking much the same thing, a good weapon for a Spartan IMO would be something like a Mk 19 with a backback magazine. Like a brute shot, but with more ammo. An APC/IFV would be nice, too.

[Stark]

Good point guys - tyres with grip. When you have a 4x4 with 4-wheel steering and electric drive in each hub, you'd think the vehicle wouldn't slalom all over the play on takeoff or have a giant turning circle due to slip.

[keen320]

I want the armor to give noticeable benefits besides shields. It's supposed to be power armor of some sort, and the Master Chief is supposed to be super-strong, so why does he move like every other shooter character? He's supposed to jump real high too, and why can someone with super strength only carry two weapons? Especially when a pistol counts the same as a rocket launcher.

[Sidewinder]

Considering the Spartans are super soldiers, I wonder if they should replace the otherwise useless assassination animations in Halo: Reach, with a Spartan-wanking button that, if pressed when a precisely timed and onscreen prompt appears, lets Master Chief:

1) Knock incoming rockets and missiles away from him, as he did in The Fall of Reach,

2) If slowed down by a Gatling gun or other turret-mounted weapon, shoot down the incoming rocket or missile,

3) Grab and then break an Elite, Brute, Jackal, or (in multiplayer) Spartan's neck, and immediately use the corpse as a meat shield,

4) Parry a melee attack- including those performed with energy swords and graviton hammers- without injury to himself. If Master Chief has no energy sword or graviton hammer, he sacrifices whatever gun he has in his hand, to block the attack.

When on foot and carrying the Gatling gun, Master Chief should have unlimited ammo for the Gatling gun.

[CaptHawkeye]

It's actually pretty funny that you could already make Halo 1000 times better just by making Master Chief an actual super soldier. Crysis was a shitty game but at least when it said "you are a super soldier" it was because you ACTUALLY WERE.

Rebalanced weapons, rebalanced vehicles, lots of extra minor things like deployable weapons and emplacements or SPARTAN specific gear, customizing, more variety in the Covenant, less emphasis on the Flood, less talking or knowledge about the Forerunner, hell if you want don't even mention them.

The game doesn't have to be open world, but an often forgotten strength of the series was its big, well designed levels. Combat Evolved's levels got really poor half way through and Bungie up and admitted that all of Halo 2's levels were basically corridors.

[aieeegrunt]

I was about to say remake it using the most current version of the Unreal Engine (whatever Gears 3 is being made in) then I noticed the stipulation that we had to reuse features from the three failed attempts to make a sequel to CE (Halo 2, 3, and ODST), and Reach.

OK, so we use the Reach Engine with the following changes.

Armor abilities are gone except Sprint, Jetpack, and a drastically altered Drop Shield. The Drop Shield is now simply a medkit you can hold and use on either yourself, a co op buddy or Marines ala Left 4 Dead. I'm tempted to simply build all three attributes into the Spartan and be done with it, thus steamlining gameplay.

I'd leave the hilariously retarded vehicle physics unchanged because of the entertainment value it provides.

You carry two weapons plus a sidearm, using the D-pad for weapon switch ala Gears. The pistol, the SMG, the plasma pistol and the needler are the sidearms. Frag grenades and plasma grenades, you can carry 4 of each. "Power weapons" like the Rocket Launcher, the Sniper Rifle, the Focus Rifle and the Fuel Rod Cannon occupy both weapon slots. Whore it now, fuckers. The grenade launcher counts as a "normal" weapon. Carrying the DMR, the Pistol, and the Needle Rifle at the same time should piss people off in multiplayer. I'd add in a flame thrower that functions similar to the one in Gears.

Tron Vision is gone, the flashlight is back. Frankly nightvision in a video game is kind of pointless, all it really does is give you the same visibility as if the level was lit, only with a greenish filter and wireframe accents.

The Grunts speak english again. Seriously, who the fuck thought taking that away was a good idea? Is there even a point to having an IWHBYD skull now? Fucking retards.

Redundant duplicate weapons cluttering up the game are gone; delete the plasma repeater, spartan laser, the covvie grenade launcher thing, the other covvie plasma grenade launching thing, the fuel rod cannon is better than any of them anyway. The plasma rifle has the characteristics of the repeater. Redundant duplicate vehicles are also gone; do we really need three different Hogs? They're all inferior to the Chain Hog anyways. The Wraith is a rarely encountered "boss vehicle", you fight more Ghosts and Revenants.

The human grenade launcher now detonates on impact, instead of the stupid bullshit where it has to bounce first.

As far as level design goes I'd cut out a lot of the repetition factor. The earlier levels in the game are fine, it's about mid way through AOTCR you can see the wheels come off. So I'd replace some of the replicated interior room fights in AOTCR with more and larger outdoor stuff similar to Winter Contingency. I'd cut out at least HALF of the Library level; and no repeated spawns. Instead of having 4 waves of Flood coming out a pipe there's one. Period.

The canyon outside the "Pyramid" in AOTCR is greatly enlarged, and you fight a Scarab.

No Brutes. Period.

The Flood now fight more like Elites instead of Mindless Zombie Rush; the combat forms engage in actual gunfighting hoping to either kill you or at the very least distract you enough to be jumped and eaten by those little pod guys. Once you are actually suppressed they use that crazy jumping ability to try and leap right into your position and melee you.

[Sidewinder]

Armor abilities are gone except Sprint, Jetpack, and a drastically altered Drop Shield.

Personally, I think Active Camo, Armor Lockup, Evade, and Hologram are useful. Some could be simplified, however.

Evade: See my previous post on a Spartan-wanking button to let Master Chief knock incoming rockets out of the way, which will leave this ability redundant.

Jet Pack/Sprint: Combine the functions, i.e., to sprint, the player just uses the shield to lift him/herself off the ground (The Fall of Reach states the shield tapers to less than a millimeter thick at the hands and feet, and that Spartans can increase the thickness as necessary, e.g., in vacuum), and then use the jet pack to move horizontally.

Armor Lockup/Drop Shield: Again, combine the functions somewhat, and simplify them. The overcharged shield protects you from incoming fire, explosions, and ramming vehicles. The loophole is a slow-moving object- someone walking towards the locked up Spartan- isn't IDed as a threat, and can walk through the shield to deliver melee attacks.

Hologram: Also jams the motion tracker.

You carry two weapons plus a sidearm, using the D-pad for weapon switch ala Gears. The pistol, the SMG, the plasma pistol and the needler are the sidearms.

My idea is a Spartan (or Elite, in multiplayer ONLY) ALWAYS dual-wield identical sidearms. To reload, he tosses the left handgun into his right hand, uses the left hand to draw two magazines at once (holding them like so) and reload both pistols, and then tosses the left handgun back into the other hand. A similar animation is used to let John-117 throw grenades when dual-wielding.

Tron Vision is gone, the flashlight is back.

I disagree. When you use a flashlight, you're igniting up a beacon that lets EVERYONE know where you are and where you're going. It's probably better to have the visor automatically outline ALL OBJECTS OF INTEREST (enemies, allies, weapons on the ground) in dark environments, saving the player the hassle of pressing buttons and changing vision modes.

Redundant duplicate weapons cluttering up the game are gone; delete the plasma repeater, spartan laser, the covvie grenade launcher thing, the other covvie plasma grenade launching thing, the fuel rod cannon is better than any of them anyway.

This, I wholeheartedly agree with. I also think the shotgun should be an automatic, magazine-fed weapon, like this. Maybe it should have two magazines- one loaded with 8-gauge buckshot, the other with Frag-8 grenades- switching from types of shots by pressing a button.

[Swindle1984]

Considering the Spartans are super soldiers, I wonder if they should replace the otherwise useless assassination animations in Halo: Reach, with a Spartan-wanking button that, if pressed when a precisely timed and onscreen prompt appears, lets Master Chief:

1) Knock incoming rockets and missiles away from him, as he did in The Fall of Reach,

2) If slowed down by a Gatling gun or other turret-mounted weapon, shoot down the incoming rocket or missile,

3) Grab and then break an Elite, Brute, Jackal, or (in multiplayer) Spartan's neck, and immediately use the corpse as a meat shield,

4) Parry a melee attack- including those performed with energy swords and graviton hammers- without injury to himself. If Master Chief has no energy sword or graviton hammer, he sacrifices whatever gun he has in his hand, to block the attack.

When on foot and carrying the Gatling gun, Master Chief should have unlimited ammo for the Gatling gun.

In the original Halo multiplayer, it was possible to shoot down rockets if they were fired at you from a distance. Really freaking difficult, but possible. Just whip out the AR and empty the magazine at the rocket streaking toward you and hope you hit it and detonate it. I don't know if it's possible in the other games, I've never pulled it off in them. Never pulled it off in Halo's campaign either, because the only enemies with rockets are Flood near the end of the game, and they don't usually fire a rocket from far enough off that you can react by spraying bullets at it, they wait until they're practically in your face to fire.

Since we can now rip heavy weapons off their tripods/turrets, we should be able to do the same with the gatling gun on the Warthog after it gets demolished. No reason to lose that firepower just because your shitty jeep is on fire.

[Sidewinder]

Stealing an idea from Metal Gear Solid, Covenant plasma weapons- pistol, rifle, energy sword and graviton hammer- are recharged at generators at their base-of-operations. This means Master Chief can "reload" captured weapons, at these generators- or nerf Covenant ground forces by blowing up the generators, forcing the enemy to conserve ammo or use what UNSC weapons they captured.

My idea is a Spartan (or Elite, in multiplayer ONLY) ALWAYS dual-wield identical sidearms.

Adding to this idea, Master Chief may be unable to simultaneously fire a plasma pistol and Magnum, but two sidearms will count as ONE WEAPON, freeing up the other weapon slots for anything else he needs. As for the shield-breaking and armor-piercing (the reason players dual-wield a plasma pistol and Magnum), I think the increased rate-of-fire will make up for it.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

In the original Halo multiplayer, it was possible to shoot down rockets if they were fired at you from a distance. Really freaking difficult, but possible. Just whip out the AR and empty the magazine at the rocket streaking toward you and hope you hit it and detonate it. I don't know if it's possible in the other games, I've never pulled it off in them. Never pulled it off in Halo's campaign either, because the only enemies with rockets are Flood near the end of the game, and they don't usually fire a rocket from far enough off that you can react by spraying bullets at it, they wait until they're practically in your face to fire.

In Halo 3 you could shoot rockets down with the spartan laser, and deflect them away with the grav hammer, if your aim/timing was good enough. I don't know if you could shoot rockets down with any other weapon, since I never tried.

I actually liked that you could only carry two or three weapons, I felt that added a bit of realism to the game. The issue with carrying more isn't the weight, but the awkwardness of it. You should be able to carry more ammo, though, maybe go back to the Halo 1 ammo counts.

[Stark]

I'm not seeing how carrying a sidearm is 'awkward', and the game is nothing like a simulator anyway so who cares. Halo1 got the balance of constantly changing weapons and blasting like a maniac right, but in the others it's just tiresome. It doesn't help that ammo loads (and accuracy) are so poor most guns don't have a long lifetime.