Halo Wars Renegade Craft Combat
Halo Combat is a pseudo RTS gametype in the Reach engine. As a result of how this gametype works, it can only be made out of Forge World or Tempest. It is named Halo Combat because every other Halo ____ combination has been taken.
Objective of the gametype
Players on opposing teams must collect Building Beacons (aka flags) that spawn throughout the game. Ideally these Building Beacons are in a fairly neutral location, so capturing them is akin to playing Neutral Flag CTF. Bringing back the Building Beacon to a Build location and successfully completing the capture will have that building (and it's benefits) spawned.
Okay Fyre. What? Why do you think this is possible?
I actually think this is possible to do in Reach, depending on the memory limitations and usage that spawning objects requires. It is based off known factors:
Scenery spawning
As the Chess gametype proves, Megalo can spawn various types of objects including Forge World scripted objects. Since we can procedurally generate a chess board by simply placing a BOARD_CENTER anywhere on a map, we can procedurally generate buildings with the same method. We'll use these method to spawn the buildings acquired by the team.
Objective spawning
We are not limited to just flags, or just bombs, or just oddballs in any gametype. We can have flags and bombs and oddballs and hills all co-existing inside the same gametype.
Different labels can have different interactions
It is possible to spawn objects via script with a label automatically attached. This way we can spawn specific objects that interact a certain way when placed or colliding with other objects.
How it works
Here is my stellar artist's rendition of the canyon section of Forge World.
Each team has 4 build sites (or less or more, depending on how the map is forged). 4 will be the "default".
All 4 of these sites are shaped like rectangles and are very obviously hills to the players. There can be pre-existing bases, but these are not required.
In the middle in a random location (the grey circles) are the Building Beacon spawn locations.
When a beacon, which looks suspiciously like a flag or a Core is about to spawn, everyone in the game's HUD gets a notification:
The types of Buildings / Beacons available
There are 4 possible buildings to build:
Barracks
When built, this building adds a buff to all infantry on your team in the form of a slightly larger radar radius and slightly faster shield regen, and spawns a Rocket Launcher inside. An upgraded Tech Level adds a Spartan Laser.
Motor Pool
When built, this building spawns a Warthog and a Ghost by default. Increased tech level spawns a Wraith in addition.
Lab
When built, this building increases your team's tech level. You are granted a secondary set of Loadouts and other buildings recieve a buff in their output. It does not spawn any weapons or vehicles.
Air Platform
When built, this building spawns a Banshee. Increased tech level spawns a Falcon.
(there was another building here but I thought I'd withhold it for now for simplicity sake)
How to build a building
You capture the beacon and bring it back to the hill you want to build it at. Let's say the build site has a Build Time of 20. Bringing the beacon to the hill snaps it to the center and the countdown begins. If the enemy picks up the core, the countdown stops.
Once the countdown completes, the building is spawned (procedurally!) into place and it's effects are put into play.
Destroying a building
Each team has a bomb in their default base. This bomb can be used to destroy any opposing buildings by arming the bomb inside each building's "weak point", which works like an Assault phase in Invasion. The bomb's initial spawn can be delayed or not.
Destroying the building just despawns the building parts.
How to Win
The gametype mainly plays out as a Slayer game with Objective elements. By default it is 500 points to win, with the following:
1 point for a kill
100 points for building a building
50 points for destroying a building
Other ways to pull off the gametype
1) If it costs too much memory to procedurally spawn 4 distinct buildings, instead allow people to construct the actual buildings themselves and label each piece appropriately. The downside to this is buildings always spawn in the same location and you cannot easily move where the buildings are after the initial buildout. On the other hand, you could make "foundations" for each building.
2) Instead of fixed building type beacons, collect flags Stockpile-style and drop them in the build locations. The flags are treated like a resource and the amount of them in a build site determines if the building is spawned in.
Would any of you play a gametype like this? Need me to go into any details?
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