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Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)
Posted By: SonGoharotto <SonGoharotto@gmail.com>	Date: 1/14/13 4:29 p.m.
In Response To: Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1) (RC Master) : Putting the Swap Weapon and pick up weapon on the same button seems like a : good idea. The Action button is kinda overloaded while everything else is : very one dimensional. I can't count how many times I've stopped to look at the ground, trying to pick up one thing and not something else. Or worse, having to move a weapon drop out of the way of an objective interact. Separating different pick-ups and whatnot seemed like a no-brainer. : That kinda gave me an idea though: If having three grenade types means you : have to start cylcing through them to get the one you want - recalling the : infinite pockets of old - then why not treat grenades in a similar way to : weapons? : That is, you can carry a maximum of two types, and swap between them at will. : But there are more types on the field that you must swap out one of your : existing types for. Two grenades each of three types is the most that I could reasonably see being clipped on someone's kit. Four is more suitable, but I like the idea of a Forerunner grenade too much to pass up, and eight (a la H:CE and H3) is just excessive. And if you've go three types, then forcing the player to chose only two seems like an unnecessary complication, when there more important things competing for their consideration. : There were quite a few dark areas in Halo 4 where I did miss a flashlight or : VISR. ODST's was far, far too useful, and I think the one in Reach was : still slightly too useful in the dark as well. It got to the point where : sometimes I couldn't picture areas without it turned on. I think ODST was purposely designed around VISR, to the point that some areas are unplayable if you have it off. The green tint of Reach's night vision bugged me enough that I stopped using it altogether. : Promethean Vision should have probably had a bit more of that. It seems like Promethean Vision would be very powerful, but I rarely use it and I can't say I've noticed an appreciable impact in gametypes where it is available. : YES!! Thought you might like that. A little window dressing doesn't hurt, but if someone doesn't want it, there is absolutely no reason to make them put up with it. The Armored Core series has had a largely customizable HUD since the PS1 era. : That's because most games only put it in the centre because they never : thought too hard about it. Bungie and a handful of other developers have : put it in different heights over the years. : If it were me, I would think the logical place to put it would be around 1/3 : down from the top - above the conventional centre. Reason being is thats : where the centre of vision in a practical sense seems to be. Take a look : at where people's heads are in the frame during TV - it's not the centre : of the screen or below it, it's above it. And it makes sense to prioritise : being able to see the ground beneath your feet more than the sky above you : - from a biological perspective. No data, just my thoughts. : After having thought about, I've recently come to the conclusion that Bungie : chose the low placement they did so that they would have a clear band : around 1/3, for unobstructed view of the horizon as you're moving around. : However, I don't like that you then have to bring your aim up from that : comfortable 'looking around' position to actually aim at something. I figured it was so you could still have an idea of things ahead or above you. : Lol. Then you should leave considerations of it out until you decided what it : is, and that it's necessary to the experience. Wow. Since I started this little exercise, I'm already feeling 100% more sympathetic towards 343i. : Making it useless for finding objectives significantly above or below your : current elevation. The compass icon could be dynamic, showing a large arrow on top point up, or on bottom pointing down, to indicate relative elevation. The range at which the marker pops could also stand to be increased, say, to align with motion tracker range (25m). I really dislike having waypoints constantly swimming in my vision when I'm trying to shoot something. Frankly, the things shooting back at me are a more immediate concern than the exact position of some button that needs pushing. : Personally, if you're justifying cramping all the weapon and grenade : indicators together in the top left as more intuitive and convinient, then : shouldn't the map-orientated stuff go in the bottom left: along with the : motion tracker? I purposely didn't shake up the general layout too much, but that's an interesting idea. Do you mean like having it wrap around the motion tracker on the XY-axes? : Incorrect sir. Halo 3's Shield Bar drained from the right to left. You must : be thinking of Halo 3: ODST. Yeah, I've already been called on that. Constantly swapping between them for comparison, they get mixed up in my head. : I felt it draining from both sides, when it was positioned in the middle of : the screen, felt appropriate. If you move it to one of the sides of the : screen, then yes it's better to have it drain from the side closest to the : centre of the screen. : Won't this get hugely cluttered in 8v8 or big party Infection? Assuming the size and style can be tuned just right, eight lines for Team BIOS doesn't seem like too much to me. (I know some people have their heart set on 16v16 in Halo; sorry.) As for Infection, I would rather treat it more like FFA where you wouldn't get BIOS anyway. All else fails, it can be toggled off. We don't have anything like that now, so it's not like you'd really be losing anything. : Of course, if Halo had a squad system like Battlefield, then this wouldn't be : a problem, and would be a good idea. Maybe even a dynamic one - showing : you the status of your 3 nearest teammates. A dynamic system sounds interesting. Any games do that now? : Or actually don't have anything at all for default status - keep it simple. : Then if you see a symbol popping into existence next to someone's name - : you know something is up. Sounds good to me. : That's only really useful when it's a waypoint isn't it? To guide you to : their body and any weapons/ammo they might have had. That'd be fine too. The BIOS indicator could point in you a teammate's general direction and if you look that way, their exactly position/status pops on your HUD as a waypoint. Something I overlooked in my initial write-up. : Differentiate it more when it's a constant HUD widget: grey out their : call-sign and put a red line through it. I like that. : Release Halo 4 uses Blue-Rays and Red-Sharks. Why'd you use Blue-Hawks and : Red-Snakes? I suspect you were looking at pre-release HUD images. LOL it's me not being very specific. I meant I ripped the shape of the scoring meters only. The rays and sharks, though, yuck. I put the old hawks and cobras there instead, because I felt like it. : I believe the reason is that while that style gives you good height mapping : (and probably too good for Halo) it makes it more difficult to estimate XY : distance. I mentioned Armored Core once before, but again, this is something that series has been doing to excellent effect for a long time. The system we have now in Halo is occasionally less than clear to me, forcing me to stare at the motion tracker and discern whether the little blip has changed its shape in some minor way. By contrast, the balloon-style icons are much easier to discern in one's peripheral vision. You may not have noticed that my version has only a subtle Y-axis tilt. The one shown in Reach's pre-alpha HUD was too extreme, but the concept is sound in application. : Close-proximity grenades have a little icon of the Frag Grenade floating : around with a little arrow pointing you to it's direction. It's too good : though, you start playing through your HUD rather than that what you're : seeing the in world. Played some H4 today, which refreshed my memory. I think the damage/grenade indicators are a little too obtrusive and don't align well the information they're trying to relay in the 3-dimensional space your SPARTAN occupies. I'm at a loss for what can be done with this without being able to playtest a different indicator styles. This HUD debate is starting to become a distraction...

Halo Service Record

Message Index

Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	SonGoharotto	1/11/13 12:32 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	Chewbaccawakka	1/11/13 2:25 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	SonGoharotto	1/11/13 12:08 p.m.
Goddamn, this sucked me in. Good Write Up! *NM*	zoojoo	1/11/13 5:19 p.m.
1 thing though	zoojoo	1/11/13 9:06 p.m.
Re: 1 thing though	uberfoop	1/11/13 9:18 p.m.
Re: 1 thing though	zoojoo	1/12/13 9:29 a.m.
Re: 1 thing though	SonGoharotto	1/12/13 11:00 a.m.
Re: 1 thing though	RC Master	1/12/13 11:48 a.m.
Re: 1 thing though	SonGoharotto	1/12/13 12:36 p.m.
Wow, good stuff.	NsU Soldier	1/11/13 6:27 p.m.
Re: Wow, good stuff.	SonGoharotto	1/11/13 7:47 p.m.
Re: Wow, good stuff.	Chewbaccawakka	1/11/13 7:54 p.m.
Re: Wow, good stuff.	SonGoharotto	1/11/13 8:06 p.m.
An additional thought	SonGoharotto	1/12/13 12:53 a.m.
Re: An additional thought	Chewbaccawakka	1/12/13 1:18 a.m.
It sucks.	GrimBrother One	1/11/13 7:02 p.m.
I was just grabbing random names *NM*	SonGoharotto	1/11/13 7:48 p.m.
Oh suuuuuuure. ;-) *NM*	GrimBrother One	1/11/13 7:56 p.m.
Hey...	Louis Wu	1/12/13 9:10 a.m.
In all fairness...	SonGoharotto	1/12/13 11:01 a.m.
lol	Louis Wu	1/12/13 11:29 a.m.
You're just mad I took your flag. *NM*	General Vagueness	1/12/13 8:47 p.m.
I am intrigued. *NM*	Leisandir	1/11/13 7:38 p.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	Nighend	1/11/13 9:04 p.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	SonGoharotto	1/12/13 12:46 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	scarab	1/12/13 7:32 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	SonGoharotto	1/12/13 11:10 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	General Vagueness	1/12/13 10:01 p.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	scarab	1/13/13 10:07 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	scarab	1/12/13 8:21 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	SonGoharotto	1/12/13 11:15 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	Chewbaccawakka	1/13/13 3:10 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	General Vagueness	1/13/13 9:38 a.m.
Pulse grenade: Polishing a turd.	scarab	1/14/13 4:47 a.m.
Re: Pulse grenade: Polishing a turd.	NsU Soldier	1/14/13 5:16 a.m.
You need to freeze it first. *NM*	Quirel	1/14/13 2:30 p.m.
Cleaner HUD	scarab	1/12/13 8:38 a.m.
True	SonGoharotto	1/12/13 11:22 a.m.
Some thoughts.	Quirel	1/13/13 6:51 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	SonGoharotto	1/13/13 7:35 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	Quirel	1/13/13 10:54 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	SonGoharotto	1/13/13 11:11 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	Quirel	1/13/13 11:32 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	General Vagueness	1/13/13 11:37 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	SonGoharotto	1/14/13 12:42 a.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	General Vagueness	1/14/13 8:36 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	SonGoharotto	1/14/13 10:40 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	General Vagueness	1/16/13 8:53 a.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	SonGoharotto	1/16/13 11:10 a.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	General Vagueness	1/17/13 12:55 a.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	SonGoharotto	1/17/13 12:41 p.m.
Re: Some thoughts.	General Vagueness	1/18/13 12:04 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	RC Master	1/14/13 3:09 p.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	SonGoharotto	1/14/13 4:29 p.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	uberfoop	1/14/13 11:58 p.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	RC Master	1/15/13 10:52 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	SonGoharotto	1/15/13 3:14 p.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	General Vagueness	1/16/13 9:09 a.m.
inventory management sux	scarab	1/16/13 9:34 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	scarab	1/15/13 11:05 a.m.
Re: Halo: Revolution - A Mock Game Doc (Part 1)	SonGoharotto	1/15/13 11:45 a.m.