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Re: My Thoughts on the Halo Series | |
Posted By: Gravemind <gravemind80@yahoo.com> | Date: 9/16/06 5:53 p.m. |
In Response To: Re: My Thoughts on the Halo Series (Psychophan7) Slith made several good points in response to this post, but there's a couple of other things I want to point out. : Melee lunge. Given that the system is played on Xbox Live, and that it is
I don't buy this arguement. Halo 2 is the only notable FPS to have a melee lunge. Every other FPS with a Halo-style melee system, -- that is, one where you strike your enemy with the weapon in your hand -- seems to work fine without a lunge. Examples include Call of Duty 2 and Perfect Dark Zero, among others. Halo 2's melee system should be ditched in the next game. Halo 3 could work just fine with Halo 1's superior (IMO) melee system. : Fall damage (Three in a row?). Fall damage wasn't removed, per se. The way
: On the actual note of falling, I have mixed thoughts on it. On one hand, it
As I argued in my letter, people should be expected to watch where they're going. They are not punished in Halo 2 for falls from high places like they were in Halo 1. Most of the time, you won't die from a fall unless you fall a predetermined distance. This only affects Campaign in certain parts, and is not a factor in Multiplayer given that the requisite lethal speed/distance cannot be achieved under normal circumstances in the MP maps. The examples you mention are rare occurences, and to me illustrate the flaws of the current system. The Halo 1 fall damage system is actually quite reasonable in my opinion, and is not only a good thing from a gameplay perspective, but is actually quite realistic. Falls become lethal at about 20 meters, assuming normal, fully-charged shields and full health. A Spartan-II in full Mjolnir armor weighs in at about 450 kg. If someone that massive hit the ground hard from a 20 m drop, the impact would have a tremendous amount of energy -- over twice the impact of the sniper rifle's rounds, assuming said projectile has identical power to the 14.5 x 114 mm cartridge it is copied after. Final verdict: Fall damage should be brought back in Halo 3, with the fall damage system being more or less the same as Halo 1's. And yes, low gravity should have more emphasis in Halo 3. I'd really like to see a map, whether it's in Campaign or Multiplayer (preferably both), that has low-G conditions as a default. Perhaps such a stage could take place on the Moon? : Health, et al.
Health packs vs. regenerating health are both rather unrealistic, so it really comes down to personal preference. I favor the Halo 1-style health bar rather than Halo 2's regeneration system. The former gives a combination of a regenerating shield and non-regenerating health. I already gave my reasons for supporting said system in my letter, so I won't reiterate myself here. : The HUD. The various elements are good, including the motion tracker. Crouch
Good points. Not having a motion tracker while zoomed in with a sniper weapon does provide a trade-off of sorts. : Field of view needs to stay the same, too. It makes more sense because you
FoV was never a major problem for me, though I've heard other people state it was a problem for them. 10 degrees on either side doesn't seem like much, but it seems to matter to a lot of people. : Ladders. Ladders should only exist to add atmosphere. I like the ladder on
: Grav lifts seem noisy because you get a free ride at high speeds when there
My stance on ladders vs. grav-lifts will remain unchanged from how it was in my letter. While both have advatages and disadvantages, I feel that ladders are by far superior to gravlifts as a means of moving across a map. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing a compromise of sorts. Each of the two should be appropriate to their environment. Ladders should be the rule in human-constructed environments, while gravlifts should be the rule in Covenant-themed environments. : Auto-Aim and Magnetism. See lunge lag. However, it is particularly annoying
I already commented on auto-aim and reticule magnetism in an earlier post. The gist of it is that auto-aim is necessary to some degree for online play, but should be no more than what's necessary. It should not exist to any noticeable degree in offline play (Campaign, split screen, system link), however. Magnetism is totally unnecessary however. The player should at the very least have the option to turn off magnetism just as they have the option to disable automatic look centering. : Active Camo and Overshield. Active camo is just bending light around you
The problem is is that AC is hardly effective at all. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've been sniped/have sniped my enemy from across stages like Headlong even though I/my enemy was camouflaged. : Stage Design. The upper Terminal garage has a viable entry point that no
Re: Terminal. I'm assuming the other entry point you refer to is the one where you jump from the train tracks to the top floor of the garage. The thing is that most players who are familiar enough with the stages will have that entry point covered as well, thus making it hard for the attacking team to clear out the camping team. : Playlists. SWAT: The gametypes you are accustomed to apparently have no
Ah. So damage resistance in on max in the SWAT playlist, rather than body shots simply causing no damage? I'll accept that. However, it still makes getting non-headshot kills highly improbable. An opponent can take an entire BR magazine to the torso without dropping. I would rather SWAT have standard damage rules, though, and would like to see it nothing but BR or Carbine starts, with Objectives games either removed or relegated to a separate playlist. As for 6v6, I would like to see it return as well. I thought it was a nice compromise between 4v4 and BTB. And speaking of BTB, I am still of the opinion that BTB Slayer should take place primarily on mid- to large-size levels, with smaller levels being selected only every once in a while. If pacing is a problem, them simply tweak the starting weapons (mid-range weapon starts) or simply drop the kill limit from 100 back down to 50. : Lag stuff.
: Instead of having the host issues being fixed remotely, the problem can be
: If Microsoft did invest in better multiplayer support for remote hosting,
In regards to things like the Terminal train, like I said in my letter, I may have been mistaked about such things. I'm not very knowledgeable about online-specific things like lag. However, many people agree that centralized hosting would be the best solution : Weapons. A pistol is a side-arm, it shouldn't be a main weapon. The strip
It's been said before and I'll say it again, but it seems that a lot of people are bothered more by the fact that the M6D had a pistol for its skin than by anything relating to its accuracy and power. Personally, I'd like to see a semi-automatic human rifle that functions the same as the old M6D. That would satisfy the fans of Halo 1's pistol while putting to rest the arguements that "the pistol's supposed to be a sidearm." : More on grenades: Flying enemies means grenades have to be able to detonate
Having frag grenades detonate in the air is unnecessary against flying enemies. Sticking them with plasma grenades solves that problem if the enemy gets too far off the ground. And yes, Sputnik was awesome, though I'd prefer to just have more effective chain reactions. : Plasma Pistol: Are you aware that there is a matchmaking gametype aimed
Are you aware that this gametype didn't exist before December of 2005 when ActionSack was created? The noob combo should not exist at all. The plasma pistol was a decent standalone weapon in Halo 1, but in Halo 2 its undodgeable homing abilities combined with it's useless standard-fire mode has resulting in the cheap tactics we see in Halo 2. : Sword: Words cannot express my confoundment at your lack of ability to take
I never once said that I was incapable of defeating a sword user. I've done so many times. However, I've been ran through by them far, far more often. Odds are that if you're facing down a sword user at close-range, you won't survive. None of the proposed countermeasures are very effective, and they all assume that the player knows their opponent has the sword to begin with. Get within 30 feet, and you're likely to get skewered before you knew what hit you, thanks to the ability to do "quick draw" techniques (i.e. lunge the exact moment you hit Y to swap to the sword). On stages where close-range combat is the norm, and in close-range combat in general, the sword will dominate every other weapon in almost every circumstance. It is simply way too overpowered. : Rocket: Rockets aren't smart at all. They frequently crash into objects other
Maybe in cluttered environments, but in wide open areas, it is almost guaranteed to hit a vehicle. Have you ever noticed how easy your Marines can hit enemy vehicles on the bridge sequence in New Mombasa? And there is also the problems I cited in regards to damage and blast radius issues. : Brute Shot: Aim higher. It's still random as hell. It could at least be more consistent. Why is it that sometimes it'll only take two direct hits to kill an enemy, but other times four direct hits won't even kill them? : Fuel Rod: Frame rate. Like Slith said, if frame rate is an issue, it should be make less graphics-intensive. It's not like this is some insurmountable problem. And at the very least, I should have the option to put it in my own custom games. : Vehicles. Spectre was in an old draft of Combat Evolved. Banshee's are dead
Slith already got this one spot on. : Scorpion: You didn't complain about the complete inability to board it due to
Same here. Also, I've boarded enemy Scorpions many times in Multiplayer. Maybe not via a direct frontal assault, but hey, it's a 3D game. Come from the sides or rear if he isn't paying attention. : Wraith: The boost on the Wraith is needed for the ability to ram. Remember
Like I said in my letter, perhaps we could have both. Personally, I would prefer the smaller plasma cannons to the boost, and would find it more reasonable to have such weapons that a boost feature on a tank. But if we could have both, like the AI-controlled Covies in Campaign do, then fine by me. If they stick with boost only, that's fine too even though I'd prefer to have the plasma cannons. : "First off, damage to a vehicle is wholly cosmetic, and does not affect
: Remove a Warthog wheel. It won't drive the same way. Blow the engine apart,
I've played this game almost every other day for almost two years, and I've never noticed any change in vehicle performance whenever it gets damaged. None of my friends have noticed anything either. I'll retest this again sometime later under controlled conditions, just to make sure. : Seriously, most of the stuff I have read up to this point makes no sense what
: I will however, comment on one last bit: "Whatever classic Multiplayer
: Look at Beaver Creek, Coagulation, Warlock, and Gemini (though its from
: The same ideology is applied to Halo 2 from Combat Evolved. It's a similar
Well, you start off by saying my letter's "Well written," but then turn around and call it "laughable." I'm not really sure how to take this except as a flame. According to the Encarta Dictionary, "laughable" is defined as follows: adjective
I was hoping that since it was so detailed, that even people that disagreed with me would still find it well-reasoned. Almost everyone did, but I guess you can't get the same reaction from everyone. Oh well. In any case, what's wrong with wanting Halo 3 to be more like Halo 1? In my book, there's nothing wrong with more of the same, whether it's the old weapons, the old melee system, or the return of old maps structurally unchanged from their original versions. It's worked for a lot of other notable game series, where the sequels were nearly carbon-copies of the original, just with different stages, etc. I was fully expecting Halo 2 to be like Halo 1, that despite whatever new gameplay additions there were, the old ones would remain the same. They weren't, but I'd like them to be in Halo 3. "Different" is fine, but I want Halo when I play Halo. If I wanted anything drastically different, if I wanted "bread rather than paper," I'd go play a diffent game series. The core gameplay in Halo 2 might be almost the same as Halo 1's, but the differences are still significant enough to make one take notice, and to find them rather unwelcome. Well, that's all I've got to say about that. |
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