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Re: Feature creep
Posted By: Narcogen <narcogen@rampancy.net>	Date: 10/25/07 9:30 a.m.
In Response To: Feature creep (Rockslider) : Good point about feature creep; you make me wish I'd said something about : that in my article. : In regard to the multiplicity of grenade types, I've several times found : myself cycling through them to try to get to the right one - sometimes in : the heat of battle - and it really does bring a feeling of selecting from : a menu rather than the simple old "it's one or the other" choice : of H1 that you barely had to think about. Gets particularly annoying if I : overshoot the selection then have to go around again! I'd happily forego : the novelty of the two new grenade types in favour of retaining that : simpler dynamic - which pleased everyone perfectly well in H1 after all. I agree. I wrote about that I think around the time of the beta; the point being that H1 and H2 have entirely predictable behavior at all times, and you rarely have to look at the indicator. You need only choose your initial grenade type. After that, you throw what you have-- which is either nothing, or the other type if you have it. With Halo 3, once you've chosen the initial type, you MUST look at the display to know what you'll throw next. It could be nothing, or any of the other 3 types, depending on what you are actually carrying. I think that's bad, but apparently Bungie thought the coolness of extra grenade types was worth it. The only better compromise I might have suggested would be to limit each level to two grenade types and make the types appropriate to each level; say, either frag and plasma or frag and spiker or frag and flame, depending on the enemies in the level. Perhaps they evaluated that and found it too limiting. : I could also happily do without the equipment - or at least see less of it : and fewer types. One negative aspect is the foolish way Brutes use the : bubble shield (often wandering outside it almost right away) or the : regenerator. Those particular items (and the deployable cover too : probably) bring the limitations of Brute AI into unpleasantly sharp focus. : Even if Brutes do deploy a bubble or some green gas, what's the effect? : Little more than pausing the action for a bit while you wait for the : effect to vanish. They are definitely better at the more offensive equipment types, although pure luck has caused a few fortiutious bubble shield or regenerator drops in games I've played. The most obvious uses of equipment I've seen are when the chieftains use invulnerability, or when they assault vehicles with power drainers. : Equipment also gives the game more of an old-skool feel I think, in the sense : that these things are like 'power-ups'. Of course, H1 had a few gizmos of : its own (overshield, camo, magical medkit), but at least not so many. And : because you couldn't save them for later, usage was a lot simpler. I always wanted to, though. I'm glad that you can at least decide when and where to deploy equipment. In fact, I'd have liked them to bring back the idea of health and health packs if you could choose when to use one instead of just picking it up immediately. Nothing is more annoying in Halo 1 than running over a health pack when you have 95% health. You just KNOW you're going to wish you had that later. Plus, if you could carry it with you, you wouldn't have to backtrack to get it. On the other hand, if every level had, say, one healthpack pickup you could carry with you... isn't that the same as just doubling your health? Well you might say! But if it was a piece of equipment, there's the tradeoff-- you can carry extra health, but at the expense of some other toy you might want. It's a pity that some of the equipment seems to work against you, but can't be used against the enemy. I've yet to determine that the flare or the radar jammer have any effect on NPCs whatsoever. I wish they did. Less : flexible too I grant you, but we didn't really complain about that did we? : Actually, the number of gizmos scattered around has sometimes made it : quite a task for me to pick up a weapon I want, because the HUD keeps : giving me options for picking up equipment. "No I do NOT want that : useless flare! Give me that Brute shot dammit!" I bet everyone has : experienced that at some point. Yes. That's only gotten worse since Halo 1, when I was annoyed that reloading weapons near vehicles was a pain because the game would misinterpret your intentions with both functions mapped to a single button. : Dual wielding - that was the original 'feature creep' I guess, and really : threw a huge spanner into the works. I'm sure someone more in the know : than myself could write a whole essay on the consequences of introducing : dual wielding. Quite possibly someone already has! I think Bungie has already admitted that dual wielding changed the game for the worse in unanticipated ways, especially in multiplayer. It need not have had any effect on the campaign, since you can always choose not to do it. : And finally, all these extra features mean you have quite a lot more to think : about and operate via your controller, and that potentially makes the : battle experience a bit less fluid. So yeah... feature creep; me no like. Halo 1 was an exceedingly simple game, which was part of its charm. On the other hand, there are already many complaints that Halo 3 is nothing more than an expansion pack and doesn't do anything new-- this despite online coop, saved films, forge, equipment... the list goes on. The bottom line is I think Halo 1's simplicity formed a solid foundation on which to build something; not a minimalist statement that all any super soldier needs are two guns and two grenade types. It's still a run and gun game and not a tactical shooter. And if you want to ignore most of the new features, you usually can. I rarely use equipment, but I'm hoping to expand that in the future because I think they are fun. It'll just take conscious effort. But with very few exceptions I can't think of anyplace in the game where you NEED to use equipment. If you want to keep playing the game without equipment and using only two grenade types... well, you're certainly welcome :)

More Anger, Sadness and Envy

Message Index

My views on Halo 3	Rockslider	10/23/07 9:37 a.m.
Good read! *NM*	gunluva	10/23/07 10:32 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Cody Miller	10/23/07 10:44 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Rockslider	10/23/07 12:59 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3 *sp*	chargeorge	10/23/07 10:47 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3 *sp*	Rockslider	10/23/07 2:10 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3 *sp*	chargeorge	10/23/07 5:05 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Ducain	10/23/07 10:51 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	gunluva	10/23/07 10:54 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	XLNC	10/23/07 11:31 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Buttskunk	10/23/07 10:57 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Buttskunk	10/23/07 11:03 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Cody Miller	10/23/07 11:28 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Buttskunk	10/23/07 11:37 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Rox	10/23/07 12:15 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Rockslider	10/23/07 2:17 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Halodiction	10/23/07 2:41 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	SquirrelOnFire	10/23/07 3:44 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Rockslider	10/23/07 2:15 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Leviathan	10/23/07 2:30 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	XLNC	10/23/07 4:21 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Leviathan	10/23/07 5:21 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	wolfman	10/23/07 6:22 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	XLNC	10/24/07 6:22 a.m.
Halo 2 going cheap	Red_Breast	10/23/07 4:12 p.m.
Re: Halo 2 going cheap	Rockslider	10/23/07 4:54 p.m.
Halo 2 is already cheap	chargeorge	10/23/07 6:53 p.m.
I was waiting to see what you thought...	Mister Froggy	10/23/07 5:49 p.m.
Re: I was waiting to see what you thought...	Rockslider	10/24/07 12:11 p.m.
Agreed *NM*	Fires7orm	10/23/07 7:22 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	P_40E	10/24/07 1:41 a.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Rockslider	10/24/07 12:14 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	scarab	10/24/07 2:52 p.m.
Re: My views on Halo 3	Narcogen	10/25/07 9:11 a.m.
What about the Brute shot then?	Rockslider	10/24/07 12:17 p.m.
Re: What about the Brute shot then?	Captain Spark	10/24/07 2:08 p.m.
Re: What about the Brute shot then?	scarab	10/24/07 3:05 p.m.
Feature creep	Rockslider	10/25/07 7:44 a.m.
Re: Feature creep	Narcogen	10/25/07 9:30 a.m.
Against the enemy...	Louis Wu	10/25/07 10:42 a.m.
Re: Against the enemy...	Narcogen	10/25/07 9:10 p.m.
Re: Feature creep	wolfman	10/26/07 11:04 a.m.
Re: Feature creep	scarab	10/26/07 11:27 a.m.
Re: Feature creep	wolfman	10/26/07 12:01 p.m.
Re: Feature creep	Rockslider	10/27/07 12:13 p.m.
Re: Feature creep	wolfman	10/29/07 12:07 p.m.
Re: What about the Brute shot then?	SinisterSamurai	10/24/07 3:13 p.m.
Re: What about the Brute shot then?	Narcogen	10/25/07 9:15 a.m.
Halo 1, then 3....then....umm...errr...	DavidLG1971	10/24/07 2:41 p.m.
Dumbass boss battle? *sp*	Rockslider	10/25/07 7:46 a.m.
Re: Dumbass boss battle? *sp*	Narcogen	10/25/07 9:36 a.m.
Re: Dumbass boss battle? *sp*	Captain Spark	10/25/07 11:08 a.m.
Re: Dumbass boss battle? *sp*	The Cancers	10/25/07 1:35 p.m.
Re: Dumbass boss battle? *sp*	scarab	10/25/07 4:43 p.m.
Re: Dumbass boss battle? *sp*	Captain Spark	10/25/07 5:13 p.m.
Re: Dumbass boss battle? *sp*	scarab	10/26/07 1:21 a.m.
Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Rockslider	10/25/07 12:29 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	The Cancers	10/25/07 12:34 p.m.
Solution.	Phoenix_9286	10/25/07 12:52 p.m.
Re: Solution.	Rockslider	10/25/07 5:33 p.m.
Re: Solution.	The Cancers	10/25/07 5:42 p.m.
Jackal down, we have Jackal down...	Rockslider	10/26/07 12:30 p.m.
Re: Jackal down, we have Jackal down...	Louis Wu	10/26/07 12:42 p.m.
Re: Jackal down, we have Jackal down...	Phoenix_9286	10/26/07 12:44 p.m.
Re: Jackal down, we have Jackal down...	wolfman	10/26/07 1:16 p.m.
No *NM*	MasterChief2829	10/25/07 12:36 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	wolfman	10/25/07 12:40 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Rockslider	10/25/07 5:35 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	wolfman	10/26/07 10:46 a.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	angrymob	10/25/07 12:41 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	angrymob	10/25/07 12:43 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	wolfman	10/25/07 12:44 p.m.
damned grunt ghosts!	The Cancers	10/25/07 12:51 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Cthulhu117	10/25/07 4:15 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	angrymob	10/25/07 4:32 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	The Cancers	10/25/07 4:34 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Phoenix_9286	10/25/07 4:48 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	angrymob	10/26/07 6:59 a.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	scarab	10/26/07 11:33 a.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Phoenix_9286	10/26/07 12:47 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	scarab	10/27/07 11:32 a.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Phoenix_9286	10/27/07 1:22 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	scarab	10/28/07 6:15 a.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Phoenix_9286	10/28/07 12:47 p.m.
Maulers aren't really cake mix	Kamandren	10/27/07 2:52 a.m.
Re: Maulers aren't really cake mix	Kamandren	10/27/07 2:55 a.m.
Grunts' methane biology	scarab	10/25/07 5:08 p.m.
Are we done fault-finding yet? *NM*	Anton P. Nym (aka Steve)	10/25/07 12:49 p.m.
Steve's a dreamer, isn't he? *NM*	wolfman	10/25/07 12:58 p.m.
Wow, just...wow.	Phlux	10/25/07 1:35 p.m.
Re: Wow, just...wow.	BirDMaN	10/25/07 2:06 p.m.
Re: Wow, just...wow.	Phoenix_9286	10/25/07 2:53 p.m.
Re: Wow, just...wow.	Ross Mills	10/25/07 2:49 p.m.
Re: Wow, just...wow.	Phoenix_9286	10/25/07 2:59 p.m.
Bingo. *NM*	Louis Wu	10/25/07 3:09 p.m.
Agreed *NM*	gunluva	10/25/07 3:10 p.m.
Seconded. Er.. Thirded. *NM*	Dustysquareback	10/25/07 3:18 p.m.
Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not Halo	Ross Mills	10/25/07 3:45 p.m.
Re: Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not H	Dojorkan	10/25/07 3:52 p.m.
Re: Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not H	Ross Mills	10/26/07 9:51 p.m.
Re: Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not H	Endbringer	10/26/07 11:32 p.m.
Re: Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not H	Ross Mills	10/27/07 6:06 a.m.
Re: Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not H	Endbringer	10/27/07 1:00 p.m.
Re: Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not H	Rockslider	10/27/07 12:05 p.m.
Re: Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not H	Endbringer	10/27/07 12:47 p.m.
Re: Realistic is not fun. Hell, realistic is not H	Louis Wu	10/25/07 4:04 p.m.
I actually enjoyed them!	scarab	10/25/07 5:13 p.m.
Wahhhh. Halo3 isnt a exact replica of Halo1 in HD. *NM*	Dojorkan	10/25/07 4:08 p.m.
Amen to that.	Cthulhu117	10/25/07 4:28 p.m.
Crikey... touched a nerve	Rockslider	10/25/07 5:38 p.m.
Re: Crikey... touched a nerve	Phlux	10/25/07 7:05 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Cody Miller	10/25/07 2:19 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Ragashingo	10/25/07 3:03 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Rockslider	10/25/07 5:43 p.m.
Here is a BR trick to hit the snipers.	Captain Spark	10/25/07 4:24 p.m.
Re: Here is a BR trick to hit the snipers.	The Cancers	10/25/07 4:43 p.m.
works everywhere	Miguel Chavez	10/25/07 10:00 p.m.
Re: works everywhere	Captain Spark	10/25/07 11:06 p.m.
Re: works everywhere	Rockslider	10/26/07 2:48 p.m.
Re: works everywhere	Captain Spark	10/26/07 3:53 p.m.
Re: Here is a BR trick to hit the snipers.	Warbow	10/26/07 8:18 a.m.
Re: Here is a BR trick to hit the snipers.	Captain Spark	10/26/07 10:07 a.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Narcogen	10/25/07 8:54 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	scarab	10/26/07 1:56 a.m.
Not noticing stuff	Rockslider	10/26/07 2:59 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Rockslider	10/26/07 2:54 p.m.
Third method	Rockslider	10/26/07 7:18 p.m.
Re: Third method	mr2noshoes	10/26/07 11:05 p.m.
Re: Third method	Phoenix_9286	10/27/07 12:45 a.m.
Re: Third method	Rockslider	10/27/07 11:57 a.m.
Re: Third method	Rox	10/27/07 3:26 p.m.
Re: Third method	mr2noshoes	10/27/07 9:22 p.m.
Re: Third method	Rockslider	10/28/07 8:27 a.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Sir J3lunt	10/26/07 1:11 p.m.
Re: Sierra 117 ruined by snipers	Rockslider	10/26/07 5:26 p.m.
Hmp. Bunch a crybabies. *NM*	Dustysquareback	10/25/07 1:37 p.m.