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| Re: My Thoughts on the Halo Series | |
| Posted By: Psychophan7 <psychophan7@gmail.com> | Date: 9/12/06 5:32 p.m. |
In Response To: My Thoughts on the Halo Series (Gravemind) Wow. Extremely well written, and I'm going to have to argue against you on more than a few points: Grenades.
First part, about the lack of strategic usage, is that frag grenades create a lovely plume of smoke and debris. Although the shrapnel could be better spent going outwards instead of upwards, it makes for a nice way to ward off attackers, such as an active camo player going in through the gaping hole on Zanzibar during CTF. It gives them the knowledge that they have to pull back, rethink their entrance strategy, and otherwise lose their previous element of suprise. The smoke screen effect is also good to cover visability for yourself--in the previous example in the role of the attacker, you could toss a grenade or two in and then run to the right. Grenades in general also make noise, which is a key thing to note while camping, and lets team mates know that danger is nearby. Lastly, the general explosion can be used as a distraction--as a personal example, I was hiding with a camper nearby with a sword, so I randomly threw grenades around to give the idea that I would be attacking from one direction, a different direction, some other direction; I had also used grenades bounced into their general area to keep them in disarray so that they'd be watching the wrong entrance. Melee lunge. Given that the system is played on Xbox Live, and that it is seemingly designed with that in mind, in order to compensate with the lag between players, a lunge would've been implemented to keep things fair. In a low lag game, it seems unfair, and in a high lag game it just seems less unfair. There is a write-up or presentation somewhere that shows how the system works in detail, but it doesn't seem important at this time; The lunge basically exists to compensate for the lag and discrepancies between host and client. Fall damage (Three in a row?). Fall damage wasn't removed, per se. The way fall damage was changed was that instead of using an altometer of sorts, it uses a speedometer. After falling for a given amount of time in Halo 2, you'd reach a speed at which the system declares you dead. The sword lunge's speed would have killed you, and I have actually died from that during Campaign; In multiplayer, I have splattered someone using the sword. However... On the actual note of falling, I have mixed thoughts on it. On one hand, it stops people from taking shortcuts if they fall, which I wouldn't like; On the other hand, people don't jump off the top of buildings and live (Headlong). I could see it returning if the system was changed from Combat Evolved so that there is a longer fall limit, but not excessively long that you could jump off of the very top of the fan on Zanzibar and live (jumping from the interactive bridge should cause damage, but not kill you). Likewise, fall damage should be an option for custom games. Scaling places such as the outside of Headlong would be catastrophic seeing as you can't see the floor. On a similar note of custom options, lower gravity, such as that of the outside of Cairo Station. Health, et al.
Shield is good, health bar could be displayed underneath in red. Although, a radial sweep would be interesting to see, however impractical it might be... The HUD. The various elements are good, including the motion tracker. Crouch walking is intended so that you can hide. If the motion tracker picks that up, then the purpose is gone. Also, it deters campers during a CTF or Assault game, or any others--if the attacking team crouch walks into a base where the defending team is waiting for the moment to strike, that gives the defending team a disadvantage. Crouch walking adds the element of stealth that players look for and feel they should have; If the enemy would actually patrol the base and keep a watchful eye, the game would become far more strategic. Also, with a shorter motion tracker range, campers are again detered. Lastly, I think the motion tracker was removed from zoom because the unwary sniper would be alert to his surrounds while maintaining his sights on a target location. By unscoping and having to look around, snipers aren't all that godly anymore and thus vulnerable to sneak attacks. Having the tracker on zoom mode just means they can defend themselves when they see you there, instead of actually finding out the hard way. Field of view needs to stay the same, too. It makes more sense because you aren't looking out of the visor itself, but rather a projection, so the optics of the suit are limited. Also, technically, no matter what field of view you have, you'd still have to look at the visor itself to see, so all that other empty space would be limited to seeing the inside of the helmet. On an even more technical note, you're playing off of a television (in most cases, there is a report of a someone who built a rig for 180 degrees of view), so you can't really be immersed in the larger FoV. Sniper rifles get a yes. Jumping. Jump height and distance should stay. If you noticed in Combat Evolved, you couldn't jump over a charging Ghost. In Halo 2, you can. Also, with Banshees and vehicular hijacking, you'd never be able to even hijack the Banshee. Aside from that, jumping added different entrance tactics and shortcuts. Lastly, this is kind of a greed section, I think; If you get fall damage, you don't get to touch jumping (higher jumps means having to watch your footing even more). Ladders. Ladders should only exist to add atmosphere. I like the ladder on Headlong because it's one of those neat little details with no practical purpose, just like a ladder. Also, on Battle Creek there were ladders; Beaver Creek has ramps. What say you on the ramps? Grav lifts seem noisy because you get a free ride at high speeds when there are other ways to get where you need to go. Its a trade off of speed and stealth. On the note of stealth, I got the impression that you want an enemy to know where you were at all times anyways. Funny note about grav lifts is that you can change how you move on them by where you land on them. Auto-Aim and Magnetism. See lunge lag. However, it is particularly annoying to be shooting at a distant enemy and a closer enemy to walk by and move your sights. Active Camo and Overshield. Active camo is just bending light around you for camoflage. Camoflage exists so that an enemy won't know you are there at a glance. Active camo works simply so that you don't have to use natural camoflage (FFA mainly). Also, AC has a strategic use: No auto-aim applies. Overshield. If an enemy is attacking you with an overshield, you don't find it good to know that they pose a threat to you? It makes for team efforts, balances the firepower, and prevents someone from hiding in a dark corner with a shotgun. If you don't like people knowing you have an overshield, why not just set your handicap on when you pick it up? Stage Design. The upper Terminal garage has a viable entry point that no one ever uses or covers, all made possible by your (apparent) enemies the short-range motion tracker and long jump distance. All of the "campsites" that you listed have entryways exploitable soley by those two factors. Playlists. SWAT: The gametypes you are accustomed to apparently have no damage resistance on. It is very possible to kill with body shots (being a poor shot I know this all too well). As far as 6v6 goes, it needs to make a return. Small maps in BTB is a good thing, and it allows for people to be able to set up a well paced game (however, due to the nature of Xbox Live, nobody aims to play a nice fluid game anymore =( ). Weapons. I whole-hearted disagree with you. Remember the campers? Also, a single SMG is just as effective against a sniper as a Battle Rifle is. There are different dual combos you can use, as well; Other dual weapons used singlely are effective, also. I get the feeling you don't use enough variety in your gameplay. Lag stuff.
Instead of having the host issues being fixed remotely, the problem can be fixed by adding a few lines of code that stops bridgers from tampering a connection. Simply put, if the bridgers line were to test too low to support the current game, then the game (probably their own copy) finds yet another host. Should they attempt to take host again, the system kicks them (and their original party) from the game and repeats the process. Similarly, should no viable host be found, the game would be hosted remotely. If Microsoft did invest in better multiplayer support for remote hosting, then it would be hilarious should the servers be Linux or Mac. Misc MP (Betrayals) Thats quite enough said. What you address is fine. Weapons. A pistol is a side-arm, it shouldn't be a main weapon. The strip down decentralized that problem. As for the other sections... So what? Adapt. It is a different game, not a different version of the game. There will be differences and there will be a reason for it. I wholly disagree with this entire section, and will only point out a few things. More on grenades: Flying enemies means grenades have to be able to detonate in the air. Although I agree with the chain reaction bit, there is Sputnik. Plasma Pistol: Are you aware that there is a matchmaking gametype aimed solely around the use of the "noob" combo? Sword: Words cannot express my confoundment at your lack of ability to take care of a sword wielder. Rocket: Rockets aren't smart at all. They frequently crash into objects other than the intended vehicle, and should a rocket even get close to vehicle it will miss. There is nothing wrong with the rocket launcher. Brute Shot: Aim higher. Fuel Rod: Frame rate. Vehicles. Spectre was in an old draft of Combat Evolved. Banshee's are dead weights for rockets without the agile movements, and hover would only make things counter intuitive (which seems to be how Combat Evolved works). Scorpion: You didn't complain about the complete inability to board it due to the machine gun? Wraith: The boost on the Wraith is needed for the ability to ram. Remember how in Combat Evolved you would escape the Wraith's firing arc and stand right next to it and just shoot without it running you over? Sure, the new plasma cannons address that, but you seem to like things "old school" style anyways. "First off, damage to a vehicle is wholly cosmetic, and does not affect its performance in any way, shape, or form. Damaging a Warthog's wheels does not affect how it steers, nor does destroying the engine pods or control flaps of a Banshee affect its basic maneuverability or its ability to boost, barrel roll, and loop." Remove a Warthog wheel. It won't drive the same way. Blow the engine apart, and it drives slower. Remove one wing of the Banshee, it flies askew. Blow the front end of a Ghost off, and the firing fudges up. Seriously, most of the stuff I have read up to this point makes no sense what so ever and appears to solely be a "Make Halo 3 Into a Carbon Copy of Combat Evolved" document, albeit longer and more structured. At this point, I can only say you make quite a laughable case. I will however, comment on one last bit: "Whatever classic Multiplayer maps are brought back in Halo 3, they should be left structurally identical to the way they were originally. No drastic changes like Longest had made to it when it was re-released as Elongation. The only differences should be greatly enhanced & detailed graphics." Look at Beaver Creek, Coagulation, Warlock, and Gemini (though its from Marathon). Each of them are different from the originals outside of "greatly enhanced & detailed graphics". Beaver Creek has ramps and rocks and funny little windows. Coagulation has trees, a better cave, different cliffs, and an accessible tower, not to mention the rock garden or the spurts of rocks or the two leveled bases. Warlock has air vents! Gemini has... I never played Infinity, so I'll just say it has a gravity lift. These are all changes different from the original maps they were based off of. Beaver Creek is not Battle Creek, Coagulation is not Blood Gulch, Warlock is not Wizard, Longest is not Elongation... The converse applies to the maps as well. The changes which you see are what define the maps as different maps; You can't say that Longest played better than Elongation did, because Elongation is a different map than Longest--although similar--and thus will result in a different experience. I can say without any authority on any subject that any maps reminiscent of any old maps are not going to be the same, just similar and different and offering different experiences. The same ideology is applied to Halo 2 from Combat Evolved. It's a similar game, but it's a different game at the same time. You can't compare the two for their faults and say what can be improved and what should be rolled back. It's like comparing bread to paper. Sure, both are edible, but they are wholly different from each other. | |
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