In Response To: Forerunner Units (Ragashingo)
Sounds complicated, but definitely more interesting than what is going on now. Anything that required a new tactic or two would probably be a step in the right direction. The guardians don't match up with the direction they've gone with Forerunner tech, but I mentioned them because they were rare but powerful, and had to be fought somewhat differently than other enemies. Though they were generally more interesting because we usually had to fight Flood at the same time. And I liked their ability to pick up vehicles, that made for some strange moments.
When I think Forerunner enemies, I think of a combination of flashiness, efficiency, and probably rigid tactics (if that makes any sense). Sort of the opposite of the Flood's chaotic writhing. Actually, it's hard to imagine the Forerunners as having much to do with traditional ground wars. They seem to do everything on a large scale. Of course, a unit of some sort is necessary or there's no game, but I'm sure it's possible to reflect those characteristics somehow. The sentinels did a good job of capturing that, with accurate but strangely quiet weapons, and they seemed designed by the same people who made the buildings. Of course, Prometheans are a bit of a special case, but still...
: The Guardians? Big floaty guys with shields and missiles? Meh. They shot
: missiles. Missiles aren't very Forerunnery to me. When I think of
: Forerunner enemies I tend to want to mix things up. Make them about their
: superior almost enigmatic technology. Make defeating them more about
: tactics and brains than making them bullet sponges. When I first fought
: Elites back in 2001 there were amazing because they weren't just a mass of
: health to shoot down to nothing. Their shield meant I couldn't stand at
: one of the hallway and peck away at them because they'd hide and come back
: forcing me to start over on them. A Forerunner enemy should be that times
: two.
: Off the top of my head, if I were designing a Forerunner enemy, I'd go for
: some sort of multi-defense approach. On a warrior scale I'd have small
: number of hard light plates floating and repositioning to deflect incoming
: fire. You defeat the plates by either shooting through the hard light
: shields themselves which regenerate after a time, or you destroy the
: smallish generators at the edges to put them out of play permanently. When
: the Forerunner can't see you the panels linger in their last position for
: a few seconds then go into a general defense mode where they cover
: vulnerable parts (like the front of the head) for a second or two then
: semi-randomly reposition. A good player might cloak and line up a headshot
: and get it when the hard light plate moves to defend a different region.
: Sniper shots would penetrate and destroy the shield part of the plates,
: but plasma pistol charge up fire would not take out a plate. Grenades
: would be very effective though and usually destroy the plate generators.
: Once past the hard light plates you'd have a standard Elite style close
: fitting energy shield to defeat. For gameplay purposes it might be only a
: half power shield because it was hard to really get at in the first place.
: The balance between the hard light plates and the regular shields means it
: takes two head shots from a sniper weapon to kill the Forerunner, just
: like the midlevel Elites back in Halo 1. Outwitting the hard light plates,
: by using cloak or hiding and going for things like needler kills, grenade
: sticks, or melee attacks before the plates respond and snap into the
: correct position would be the "correct" way to kill a
: Forerunner. The overall hp would be similar to an Elite but the effort
: required to get past the dual defenses would make it more than simply
: pulling the trigger enough times like with Knights.
: There's probably plenty wrong or hard to balance with the above example, but
: at least it does something different. Knights are just big Elites with a
: different skin. Half of the reason they aren't compelling is they don't do
: anything new. They shoot. They evade (sometimes with their "Screw you
: player! I'm recharging my shields now." teleportation), they throw
: grenades, and they die. I actually like the Halo 4 Watchers the best of
: the new enemies because at least they aren't rehashes of some other enemy.
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