Halo Infinite Discussion

[Arlong]

Oh as for recoil I meant only when scoped like the h5 BR. Perfect TTK on all precision weapons is 1Sk where our utility BR or pistol is .9

[Boyo]

Could niche gametypes like Team Snipers, SWAT, or Infection benefit from unique pick ups designed specifically for a single game mode?

[Arlong]

7 minutes ago, Boyo said:

Could niche gametypes like Team Snipers, SWAT, or Infection benefit from unique pick ups designed specifically for a single game mode?

Depends, what pick ups we talking about? Infection needs specific forge maps to be good in all honesty, so we can just have weapons scattered about. Sniper pick ups could be maybe a bubble shield, swat same thing as snipers. Wouldn’t want an over shield that instead of 2X makes them have a shield. 

[Boyo]

11 minutes ago, Arlong said:

Depends, what pick ups we talking about? Infection needs specific forge maps to be good in all honesty, so we can just have weapons scattered about. Sniper pick ups could be maybe a bubble shield, swat same thing as snipers. Wouldn’t want an over shield that instead of 2X makes them have a shield. 

In regular slayer pick ups can be more powerful.  In something like Team Snipers, I was thinking about a pick up that removed bullet contrails, made the shot quieter, and didn’t allow death cams of your killer.  Nothing too crazy powerful but you would pick it up if it was close.  

Infection maybe an Assault Rifle that fires Incendiary Rounds that deal damage over time to the shieldless zombies, eventually killing them.  It would be pretty badass to have flaming zombies coming at you but not too powerful because they would most likely be coming right for you, on fire or not.

And for SWAT, if it was DMR starts, a pick up that made it zero bloom.

[Arlong]

32 minutes ago, Boyo said:

In regular slayer pick ups can be more powerful.  In something like Team Snipers, I was thinking about a pick up that removed bullet contrails, made the shot quieter, and didn’t allow death cams of your killer.  Nothing too crazy powerful but you would pick it up if it was close.  

Infection maybe an Assault Rifle that fires Incendiary Rounds that deal damage over time to the shieldless zombies, eventually killing them.  It would be pretty badass to have flaming zombies coming at you but not too powerful because they would most likely be coming right for you, on fire or not.

And for SWAT, if it was DMR starts, a pick up that made it zero bloom.

Swat: Are we talking infinite or reach? The h5 DMR is zero bloom, that little reticule bloom is hardly worthy of calling that bloom as it’s accuracy is as perfect as the pistol, and infinite will be the same way. One thing 343 has done right is give us accurate precision weapons.

Team snipers: sounds neat but nothing too serious, only worth grabbing because you’re next to it. 

Infection: zombies don’t get shields anyway so pointless. I’d recommend an ability that takes you off the infected Radar, or unlimited ammo for 30 or 60 seconds. 

[Apoll0]

Late to the party.....   Bullet list of my thoughts reading the replies since wednesday:

1a) There is nothing wrong with 1-50 as the primary visible ranks.   You just need some sort of "50+" implementation tacked to it.  Either add the CSR number, symbols like Halo 2 did with 45-50 (but starting after 50 obvs). Champion/Master/Grandmaster etc. Any combination thereof.

1b) 1-50 is more discerning, specific and less misleading than division ranks are.  You have to do some mental calculations with divisions, especially when comparing players across divisions.  Obviously i'm not saying this shit is that hard. Its not really and the more you play with any rank system the more these things become quicker to recognize, but why even have that problem?  1-50 is simpler and cleaner. Its more classic Halo. It can be integrated into modern systems with no trouble at all because the visible ranks that are selected are completely arbitrary for every single rank system.

2) I like @Boyo's idea of some sort of visible indicator showing how active someone has been recently. It could even be something subtle like have an old-timey sepia tone applied to your rank symbol gradated based on how many games  you have played in the past week/month/season whatever. Thats probably a shitty idea design wise brought on by my recent obsession with westerns lol, but you get the point. Something subtle, but still noticeable and easy to understand.

3) Placement matches are fine but you should only be forced to play the 10 placement matches the first time you play a playlist on your account. Even if there are fundamental changes to that playlist, if its the same list don't force people to start over.

4) I am not opposed to seasons but they need to be actual seasons.  Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Not this 4-6 week nonsense that Halo 5 did for most of its life.  However, the goal of seasons should be more to introduce balance changes and content additions. Not force people to re-roll their ranks. 1-3 games played to get your rank back. That's it.  The goal should be to "re-activate" you not "re-rank" you.  If they want to keep rank acceleration/deceleration active after that initial reactivation, they can do that in the background.

5) Playlist progression is a must.  Just do it Halo 3 style.  No need to change anything.

6) Different playlists should be worth more.  Ideally, there would only be 3 ranked playlists, 4v4, 2v2, and FFA. But we know this is something that will not happen.  There are going to be a bajillion ranked lists again. Taking this as a given, what i would like to see is some sort of value placed on certain lists.  Things like Ranked BTB and and Slayer can have 1-50 ranks with CSR displayed after 50, but that's it. They should not have any kind of symbolic Master or Grandmaster ranks available.  The only playlists that should be able to give you Master and Grandmaster (top 500 and top 200 players respectively) should be the Big 3. And can we just use Master and Grandmaster already, instead of Champion? I always thought champion was stupid.

 

I had other thoughts, but that was  a lot of catching up so they escape me at this point.

[Cursed Lemon]

So Infinite will be on PC, confirmed. 

...Why does the Xbox exist, again? 

[andregr]

4 hours ago, Cursed Lemon said:

So Infinite will be on PC, confirmed. 

...Why does the Xbox exist, again? 

I think MS as a whole is moving toward PC. They already have a lockdown with windows, and are looking to compete in the gaming space with game pass and the Xbox brand. Xbox is now more of a home console for more casual and less tech-savvy people, who can’t bother to use a computer. I hope they just deal with matchmaking by input type, so controller players won’t have to play against kbm players. I also hope there’s a circuit for kbm tournaments, I’d love to see how much the gameplay will differ.

[Shekkles]

6 hours ago, Cursed Lemon said:

So Infinite will be on PC, confirmed. 

...Why does the Xbox exist, again? 

Because for $350 you can play 4K games on your TV and have a media hub?

[Nokt]

53 minutes ago, Shekkles said:

Because for $350 you can play 4K games on your TV and have a media hub?

For awhile there Xbox One S was the cheapest 4K bluray player on the market. 

[Shekkles]

1 hour ago, Nokt said:

For awhile there Xbox One S was the cheapest 4K bluray player on the market. 

My friend bought one for that exact reason. He couldn't believe the prices of 4K bluray players so bought a One S and now he can play MCC with me lol.

[Nokt]

3 hours ago, Shekkles said:

My friend bought one for that exact reason. He couldn't believe the prices of 4K bluray players so bought a One S and now he can play MCC with me lol.

That’s essentially why I have one even though I have the X. Bought it for a 4K player, but I also just throw it in my luggage whenever I go travel somewhere so I can play a game for a bit here and there. 

[darkstar]

Favyn is one of the most important voices in our community, next to Tommy Kost. 

Never fails with the brilliantly articulated commentary. 

[Basu]

Great video. TL;DW: The constant fucking around with core mechanics isn't pushing Halo to evolve, it's actually the opposite. Devs spend thousands of man-hours balancing the new gimmicks instead of actually making meaningful additions to the sandbox, making creative maps and whatever else devs should be doing instead. Map creators have to constantly re-learn how to design maps because another 5 movement mechanics are added with each subsequent title.

At this point I would like to share a theory that I've had on my mind for a while: More movement options does not make for more interesting map design, it's actually quite the opposite. Take a look at games like Titanfall, the advanced-tech CoDs, Halo 5 and Overwatch. IMO there is  not a single standout map in these games and honestly the maps just blend together because you're just doing the same shit over and over and over again. There is no different thought process required to play 95% of the maps and the ones that actually stand out often stand out for the wrong reasons.

Just take a look at this list: https://www.forgehub.com/threads/all-forge-maps-in-halo-5-mm.156610/

Halo 5 has hundreds of maps in MM. BTB alone has 27(!) which is staggering when compared to what H2 (9 maps) and 3 (13 maps) offered. But when you ask people which BTB has more map variety people always answer "H3 of course". You can blame this on the fact it's all forge maps and that the settings and MM are ass compared to back then but honestly I think the fact all these maps require the same thinking steps and all offer the same sort of combat makes up a large portion of this skewed perception. The worst offender is obviously Titanfall because you're so damn mobile in that game that the map just becomes sort of a non-factor. If you asked me how many maps TF and 2 had total I could not list more than 5 maybe 10 maps. Similarly, I recently learned Overwatch has like 25 maps in rotation. Literally I thought there were like 10 and honestly they all play the same and at this point many people say Blizz making new maps is a waste of time and they should get off their asses and make more heroes instead.

[Boyo]

A single base movement speed allows large set pieces to be right next to each other, without the need for overly stretched out “transitional areas”.  Lockout top mid is huge and wide open but in any other game that’s a small room.  Multiple base movement speeds make maps bland because they all share the same characteristics: long transitional areas, wide open spaces.  Give me up close, gun up, strafing in and out of cover, constant action Halo.

[Boyo]

343 should take some advice from George Costanza.

 

 

[Arlong]

1 hour ago, darkstar said:

Favyn is one of the most important voices in our community, next to Tommy Kost. 

Never fails with the brilliantly articulated commentary. 

I love the part at 1:30 when he compares Borderlands adding slide and clamber to halo😂. It really is spot on and I bet even 343 was thinking that.

[Boyo]

Just watched his video.  Favyn is my spirit animal.  

[JordanB]

23 hours ago, Cursed Lemon said:

So Infinite will be on PC, confirmed. 

...Why does the Xbox exist, again? 

Easier for the consumer to buy and use, cheaper, doesn't need a constant refresh to be able to play new games (and in regards to console generations, it's just one purchase not having to upgrade everything that comes with a PC), people are already into the Xbox ecosystem and don't want to be forced to buy a PC to play games (IMO if Xbox was discontinued most Xbox'ers would move to Playstation vs. buying a PC, but I could be wrong). 

[Boyo]

5 minutes ago, JordanB said:

doesn't need a constant refresh to be able to play new games

Is that really still true?  Isn’t the Xbox One X like 5 times more powerful than a standard Xbox One.  Personally, I know I will be more leery of consoles now that I know there is going to be a more powerful version released every six months.

[Basu]

23 minutes ago, Boyo said:

Is that really still true?  Isn’t the Xbox One X like 5 times more powerful than a standard Xbox One.  Personally, I know I will be more leery of consoles now that I know there is going to be a more powerful version released every six months.

This exactly. The standard One is a piece of shit and the One X beats it by a mile. But the One X will be similarly obsolete in 18 months now that Scarlet is on the way. Literally no reason to own this massive brick now that Halo is fully coming to PC.

[andregr]

I think the most important thing that favyn kind of left implied, is that devs can go crazy with mechanics they implement that aren’t base player mechanics. The base player mechanics are the only type mechanics on favyn’s list that are constant throughout every game type or campaign level. With evolutions on the environment, vehicles, or pickups, you can take them away and fall back to the tried and true gameplay if the players deem them bad innovations, but you can’t take away a base player trait. Equipment from Halo 3 was a perfect example of this kind of evolution to Halo.

[Gobias]

There may be a silver lining to not seeing gameplay at E3. This is pure speculation, but think about what AAA developers like to show off in trailers: new mechanics, new weapons, and graphics. We’ve only seen graphical demonstrations, why? Because classic gameplay with stripped down mechanics and a refined sandbox isn’t conducive to a hype trailer. If Infinite is classic, that means they’re banking on features to bring people in. More clan integration, restored theater mode capabilities, revamped spectator mode, modding support, etc. Features also take a lot longer to complete than weapons and spartan abilities, so they don’t want to overpromise too early.

 

The negative part of this is that they could be doubling down on the “games as a service” model, which is all fine until the game launches without features we’ve come to expect.

[Cursed Lemon]

21 hours ago, Shekkles said:

Because for $350 you can play 4K games on your TV and have a media hub?

Okay, so does that mean they're going to run their ENTIRE hardware operation at an even bigger loss than before? 

[Shekkles]

4 hours ago, Cursed Lemon said:

Okay, so does that mean they're going to run their ENTIRE hardware operation at an even bigger loss than before? 

I don't really care. Xbox 360 and now the One systems have always been hardware devices to sell you services. MS make mad stacks from LIVE and Game Pass. It's always been the strategy, they just need to get the hardware in your hands to be able to buy those services.