Halo Infinite Discussion

[Boyo]

1 hour ago, Hemlax said:

Quickplay

Quickplay is separate from other playlists, with join in progress, team rebalancing, and relaxed punishments for leaving the game early?  This is the social experience?  

[Hard Way]

-Make one ranked list each for 4v4, 2v2, and FFA. Those modes are all worthy of a permanent ranked offering.
-Ranked should always offer 2xp, and 2x whatever in-game currency might get offered.
-Have one rotational ranked list each month. This is where you can rotate in ranked Snipers, SWAT, BTB, Grifball, etc. Give this playlist 2.5xp. None of these playlists are worthy or capable of supporting a full-time ranked list, but they all have dedicated communities that could be mobilized for finite amounts of time (especially with some good in-game and online marketing for it).
-Have seasonal ranked rewards exactly like Gears 5 does it. Give an instant bonus for hitting the next tier in each playlist, and then another bonus for whatever your peak tier was during that season. Tiers could be "Bronze, Silver", etc, or they could be 0-10, 10-20, etc. Idgaf.
-Do not reset ranks every season. If there is value in reducing rank between seasons (which has yet to be explained to me), then reduce rank by the equivalent of 5 levels in a 1-50.

[Boyo]

What do you think about a piece of equipment that can cut and paste objects on the map?  Need a crate to make a jump up?  Make it disappear from over there and reappear over here with two button presses.  

[Hard Way]

50 minutes ago, Boyo said:

What do you think about a piece of equipment that can cut and paste objects on the map?  Need a crate to make a jump up?  Make it disappear from over there and reappear over here with two button presses.  

Cool idea for its own game, but feels not-Halo to me. I think you'd have a hard time getting that to feel like it belongs. Plus, on most maps, deletable objects are few and far between. Especially useful ones. Then you get into all the map breaking potential, and all the glitches that could come from deploying it in a spot it doesn't fit in.  Idk. To me it seems like the game (or game mode) would need to be built from the ground up to support it.

[Hemlax]

3 hours ago, Boyo said:

Quickplay is separate from other playlists, with join in progress, team rebalancing, and relaxed punishments for leaving the game early?  This is the social experience?  

Yeah that's what I had in mind.

[The Tyco]

I thought this might interest some of you.

After dealing with CoD's nonsense for so long, I kept wondering to myself why is it I can't stand SBMM  in my matches in MW2019, but playing SBMM Halo never bothered me for almost 15 years. It's because Halo is actually trying to make matches fair, has a clear cut Ranking system, and doesn't whiplash me into higher or lower brackets every game. CoD on the other hand presents no progression, and will quite literally force you to be a punching bag for other players because you dared to have a good game last time. It's obsurd.

I may have my issues with 343's matchmaking, but thankfully we've avoided trash like this.

[Boyo]

Equipment and Artifacts 

 

There are six pieces of Equipment but the player can only carry one at a time.  The B button activates, deploys, or fires the equipment immediately.  

 

Spotting Scope 

Missile Pod 

Hologram 

Bubble Shield 

Power Drain 

Flamethrower 

 

There are three Forerunner Artifacts that the player acquires over the course of the campaign.  Left on the D pad cycles from his Equipment slot, to each of the three artifacts, then back to equipment.  

Each artifact has three functions that are activated by pressing B followed by Left, Right, or Down on the D pad.  The three artifacts are the Token, Relic, and Bank.  

 

Token 

 

Left - create exit node 

Right - teleport to base 

Down - phase shift 

 

Relic

 

Left - toggle switch 1 

Right - toggle switch 2 

Down - activate scripted map event 

 

Bank 

 

Left - load/unload slot 1 

Right - load/unload slot 2 

Down - load/unload slot 3 

 

In a more open world campaign, the Token allows the player to take on challenges in new ways.  While fighting his way into an enemy stronghold, there are some dug in snipers that cannot be bypassed or killed from his current position.  

He creates an exit node, teleports back to base, flanks the snipers, kills them, teleports back to base, uses the base’s built-in entrance node to get back to the exit node he created, and continues his assault on the stronghold unimpeded by enemy snipers.  

In other situations, the player can create his own checkpoint of sorts.  There are certain walls the player can move through while phase shifted.  So, if a player was doing a long linear challenge, he could pop into a private side room and drop an exit node then teleport out of there, allowing him to regroup and come at it again with different weapons or more players.  

 

The Relic allows the player to interact with the map in new ways.  Open doors, activate lifts, turn the lights off; the player can now toggle certain aspects of the map on or off with this forerunner artifact that interfaces with every system it finds.  

In addition, the user can cause something big to happen by activating a scripted map event.  What this is depends on context but it can fire orbital strikes, open dams, and even change the weather.  

 

The Bank is a three-pronged turkey-baster, allowing you to suck an item up now and spit it back out later.  

B followed by Left, Right, or Down on the D pad causes a proximate targeted item or object to disappear, teleporting it into a Slipspace storage facility.  Once an item has been banked into one of the three available slots, the same button combination that put it there makes it reappear at your current location.  

Holding B while pressing the directional causes the player to consume the item, activating a power up, equipping a weapon instead of dropping it, building a vehicle around the user that places him in the driver’s seat instead of outside it.  

The Bank allows challenges to be more difficult because single players can take on team-oriented challenges by bringing a lot of firepower with them instead of teammates.  

[Riddler]

21 hours ago, The Tyco said:

I thought this might interest some of you.

After dealing with CoD's nonsense for so long, I kept wondering to myself why is it I can't stand SBMM  in my matches in MW2019, but playing SBMM Halo never bothered me for almost 15 years. It's because Halo is actually trying to make matches fair, has a clear cut Ranking system, and doesn't whiplash me into higher or lower brackets every game. CoD on the other hand presents no progression, and will quite literally force you to be a punching bag for other players because you dared to have a good game last time. It's obsurd.

I may have my issues with 343's matchmaking, but thankfully we've avoided trash like this.

This has not been my experience in halo. Ever since halo 2. Games range between 50-30, 50-49, and 30-50. I think the problem most of the cod community has is that the community was raised on pub stomping and only caring about their personal stats. Now, they aren't getting their 5.0KDs so they aren't having as much fun. COD probably has this SBMM because their data shows more people play when they aren't being stomped. 

The yo-yo effect is very real in both halo and cod. Its the most common complaint I see for halo. The SBMM can be improved but its very difficult to actually assess. Team vibing is very important. if the team doesnt fit, you can go 5-15. If you gel, you can go 15-5 vs the team same.

[Aphex Twin]

Always thought it would be cool if ranked mode was 'tournament style'

For ranked 4v4, there would be 10 teams, seeded by individual player stats, single elimination, B03 series. 

Ranked FFA would start with 8 players on a larger map (say Midship), top 4 proceeds on a smaller map (say Wizard), and the top two advance to the finals for a 1v1.

Double elim would be interesting. This would create a more dedicated ranked experience, like CS. 

Quickplay with match composer, rolling lobbies, auto balancing, join in progress, etc... 

No other playlists needed. Less is more. 

[Crimson]

55 minutes ago, Aphex Twin said:

Always thought it would be cool if ranked mode was 'tournament style'

For ranked 4v4, there would be 10 teams, seeded by individual player stats, single elimination, B03 series. 

Ranked FFA would start with 8 players on a larger map (say Midship), top 4 proceeds on a smaller map (say Wizard), and the top two advance to the finals for a 1v1.

Double elim would be interesting. This would create a more dedicated ranked experience, like CS. 

Quickplay with match composer, rolling lobbies, auto balancing, join in progress, etc... 

No other playlists needed. Less is more. 

I would like this tournament design similar to how Guild Wars 2 does automated tournaments (on a cycle every X hours with premades being required). I would avoid ranked like the plague if it basically demand a premade based on the structure of it. (Winning with a team you don't exactly like from matchmaking and then being forced to play with the whole again with no chance of variance is not ideal.)

You can argue that single elimination helps with this, and I agree but not as the primary ranked mode. There could also be a slew of other problems such as match fixing, though with systems in place to moderate either live or post results can help alleviate this.

I think we can all agree that the quick play portion is functional for the larger % as they've proven they are exceptionally selective as to what turns them off from the game. I personally hate join in progress for FPS but as long as to#s can have a better chance of getting into a match from start to finish, it's fine. (Or even just allowing us to toggle it on/off would do a lot more good)

[Shekkles]

On 11/20/2020 at 1:17 PM, _Synapse said:

Even disregarding gameplay, there's 50 features I can think off the top of my head that would be awesome QoL features for a Halo game to have. 

They did add seat swapping in the 'hog. To this day this is the best thing 343 has done to Halo.

[AlphaBenson]

1 hour ago, Shekkles said:

They did add seat swapping in the 'hog. To this day this is the best thing 343 has done to Halo.

You know, I can't help but notice how the player doesn't swap seats in the Warthog in the Infinite gameplay demo. I really hope the feature is still in the series, since sometimes developers will make a nice QoL change for one entry, but then forget it moving forward.

[Shekkles]

1 hour ago, AlphaBenson said:

You know, I can't help but notice how the player doesn't swap seats in the Warthog in the Infinite gameplay demo. I really hope the feature is still in the series, since sometimes developers will make a nice QoL change for one entry, but then forget it moving forward.

It's 343 so not only will it be gone, but they'll have added something stupid like a delay between entering and being able to move.

[_Synapse]

7 hours ago, Shekkles said:

They did add seat swapping in the 'hog. To this day this is the best thing 343 has done to Halo.

They added a visible health bar in a game with recharging health (Halo 5), and I liked that. 
 

They brought back weapon nading in some small capacity. 

 

That's literally it though. 

[potetr]

2 hours ago, _Synapse said:

They added a visible health bar in a game with recharging health (Halo 5), and I liked that. 
 

They brought back weapon nading in some small capacity. 

 

That's literally it though. 

Yeah those are great changes. They have done a lot for clarity overall:

- powerup duration in HUD (thrust cooldown too)

- power weapon spawn indicators (yes they shouldn't dissappear instantly when picked up)

- green outline for overshield

- sniper glint, shotgun flashlight, weapons in general are easy to recognize

 

The Plasma Caster and Hydra are also fairly interesting weapons.

[Sitri]

2 hours ago, _Synapse said:

They added a visible health bar in a game with recharging health (Halo 5), and I liked that. 
 

They brought back weapon nading in some small capacity. 

 

That's literally it though. 

I like being able to crouch and move at the same time.

[Hemlax]

1 hour ago, potetr said:

Yeah those are great changes. They have done a lot for clarity overall:

- powerup duration in HUD (thrust cooldown too)

- power weapon spawn indicators (yes they shouldn't dissappear instantly when picked up)

- green outline for overshield

- sniper glint, shotgun flashlight, weapons in general are easy to recognize

 

The Plasma Caster and Hydra are also fairly interesting weapons.

Would drop the Caster and Hydra for working grenade launcher any day. 

[Reamis25]

11 minutes ago, Hemlax said:

Would drop the Caster and Hydra for working grenade launcher any day. 

Did the Grenada launcher not work in h5? Heck’s it was strong AF in that too

[Hemlax]

3 hours ago, Reamis25 said:

Did the Grenada launcher not work in h5? Heck’s it was strong AF in that too

They tested it for HCS but removed it because projectiles collided with textures I think.

Didn't really got to use it in matchmaking either. Too late too little.

[Reamis25]

15 minutes ago, Hemlax said:

They tested it for HCS but removed it because projectiles collided with textures I think.

Didn't really got to use it in matchmaking either. Too late too little.

Fair enough. Hmm I didn’t know it did that. 

[Obnokshus]

pro pipe is a far more interesting tool than rockets, so lets hope they didn't forget about that one. 

[TheSimms]

2 hours ago, Hemlax said:

They tested it for HCS but removed it because projectiles collided with textures I think.

Didn't really got to use it in matchmaking either. Too late too little.

I remember this, day 1 of testing and it became apparent real fast how many times nades got absorbed by the walls and just disappeared.

[Reamis25]

One thing I hated about h5 was the spkrn rockets. It’s not the look it’s the power. For some reason these rockets were insanely weak compared to the OG h5 rockets and they didn’t even have a reload on them.

[Basu]

9 hours ago, Hemlax said:

They tested it for HCS but removed it because projectiles collided with textures I think.

Didn't really got to use it in matchmaking either. Too late too little.

In true 343 fashion they also made it insanely forgiving. It has a larger 1hk radius that the rockets if I remember correctly. 

[Reamis25]

1 hour ago, Basu said:

In true 343 fashion they also made it insanely forgiving. It has a larger 1hk radius that the rockets if I remember correctly. 

They were stronger than reach but not that huge.