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Halo |OT 20| It really does feel like Halo

I think having a motion tracker just helps compliment the map itself in a pov.
Being able to adapt without one shows how well the players can flow around the map.
 

RowdyReverb

Member
I generally support the use of motion tracker in Halo games. It's been around since the start and helps players actually find each other rather than run around randomly until somebody spots an enemy. I understand that certain game types like SWAT, Shotty Snipers, or FFA benefit from no radar, but it makes for a nice addition to team slayer/objective matches.
 
That Nightfall preview was nuts. So many questions! What was up with the dude that turned into rat creatures? Wut?! Cannot wait to watch this series.
 
I wouldn't mind Destiny's radar, to be honest.
Destiny's radar is pretty good, you're right. The last time we discussed motion tracker in here, Destiny's was brought up.
For slayer games, yeah motion tracker certainly gimps map movement and it kind of encourages camping a bit in my opinion - which just isn't that fun. For objective game types though, I think it encourages people trying to organize assaults a bit more and prevents people from "lone wolfing" it as easily.
You can organize assaults more effectively, both on offense and defense, without motion tracker -- the only difference with motion tracker is crouching in a 4 minute round where you don't have many opportunies to capture the flag against a competent team. Also, "lone wolfing" isn't viable in any Halo Objective gametype unless it was CTF in CE/H2 where you can bounce the flag around the map.

EDIT:
Huh, I pretty much feel the opposite. No radar allows for better strategies and coordination (the element of surprise, crouchwalking notwithstanding). Since slayer is just slayer, while I also prefer no radar in it I've found it impacts the game less than in objective.
Yeah, I feel the same.
 
Destiny's radar is pretty good, you're right. The last time we discussed motion tracker in here, Destiny's was brought up.

You can organize assaults more effectively, both on offense and defense, without motion tracker -- the only difference with motion tracker is crouching in a 4 minute round where you don't have many opportunies to capture the flag against a competent team. Also, "lone wolfing" isn't viable in any Halo Objective gametype unless it was CTF in CE/H2 where you can bounce the flag around the map.

This post just convinced me that I prefer no motion tracker. Very good points.
 

Tawpgun

Member
Halo The Master Chief Collection OT

It's got Halo CEA, H2A, H3 and 4 campaigns
It's got Halo CE/PC, H2A (6 maps) Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4 multiplayer all in their OG engines.
H5 Beta Access
Live Action series

Pretty good deal lets dong.
 

HTupolev

Member
  • You can see behind you and through walls, despite whatever FoV you want to set it at.
  • It slows gameplay to a snail's pace.
  • Lesser-skilled players may depend on it over more important skills like map/combat awareness and intuition.
  • Good range.
  • It gives the player too much info (elevation, type of vehicle, etc.).
  • Makes crouching/camping more viable when people still complain about Halo's walk speed, so defenders can just sit and look at the radar while the attackers have to crouch-walk or risk being spotted (which gives the defenders more of an upper hand).
  • etc.
There's a huge amount of implementation-dependent stuff in this list. (Even if we restrict our consideration to trackers used in the Halo series.)

Also, without further explanation, it's not obvious why many of these are negatives. It's clear that it has an impact... it's not clear that the impact is strictly negative.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Halo plays way better without motion tracker. At the very least, I wish the default radar would work like COD/Battlefield -- you'll only show up on radar if you're making noise.
 

jem0208

Member
Talking about slayer and radar, does it really slow the game down?


One problem I've found with Halo is that you can spend quite a lot of time wandering around looking for the enemy. Even on smaller maps, the way they are designed usually with multiple tiers means that it's very easy to avoid other people. Radar means that it's easier to find people and therefore easier and faster to get into firefights.


How does radar slow down a slayer game?




I understand how radar can have a detrimental effect on objective games, it's slayer where I'm not really seeing how it slows the game down.




Halo plays way better without motion tracker. At the very least, I wish the default radar would work like COD/Battlefield -- you'll only show up on radar if you're making noise.
Spartans walking around must be pretty noisy ;)
 

Sephzilla

Member
Halo plays way better without motion tracker. At the very least, I wish the default radar would work like COD/Battlefield -- you'll only show up on radar if you're making noise.

I think noise radar would conflict a bit with Halo lore since Spartans are superhumans walking around in a shitload of armor.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
How does radar slow down a slayer game?
It encourages camping. Rather than moving around and peeking around corners to get intel on enemy movements you can just crouch in place and wait for red dots to appear. Think about Countdown in Reach and how much camping there is. That problem is vastly mitigated by removing motion tracker.

I think noise radar would conflict a bit with Halo lore since Spartans are superhumans walking around in a shitload of armor.
I don't care about that, lol.
 
There's a huge amount of implementation-dependent stuff in this list. (Even if we restrict our consideration to trackers used in the Halo series.)

Also, without further explanation, it's not obvious why many of these are negatives. It's clear that it has an impact... it's not clear that the impact is strictly negative.
Of course, everything labeled is subjective. I'm not saying that list is objectively bad for Halo. I understand people love motion tracker and think it works best for those reasons I pointed out, but I strongly believe many of these people don't understand the importance of map/combat awareness and strengthening those skills at a faster rate than games with motion tracker. The reality is that motion tracker slows down gameplay, and when you're playing an Objective gametype like CTF against a good team, how many chances you think you'll have at capturing that flag when you have to crouch-walk to positions from so far away?

Sound-based radar provides you with motion tracking, but when there is action going down while not limiting the movement before there's chaos. Many times, motion tracker leads to poor gameplay decisions because lesser-skilled players have this mentality of "must make that red dot disappear" despite having more important decisions to make (ie: red dot in their base while the enemy has the flag, so the "scrub mentality" will be to kill that red dot, then go after the flag; just one of many examples that leads to poor habits, gimping player progression, etc.).


EDIT:
Lore should never restrict the mp
Not to mention Halo 4 makes Spartans sound like fucking Transformers.
Both of these are very important; Ice's post when discussing gameplay elements and Turtle's post because that's another thing that's being gimped (from a player's understanding of Halo-sense) with motion tracker: sound design.
 

Sephzilla

Member
It encourages camping. Rather than moving around and peeking around corners to get intel on enemy movements you can just crouch in place and wait for red dots to appear. Think about Countdown in Reach and how much camping there is. That problem is vastly mitigated by removing motion tracker.

This is why I'm in favor of no radar for slayer and radar for objective. Camping is kind of a necessary evil for objective games in general since part of objective games is usually to lock down a specific area. Camping in slayer gametypes just kills the pace of the game though.

I don't care about that, lol.

IDK, I think lore is still kind of important to the game. This entirely subjective but the universe of Halo is a nice chunk of why I play.
 

Sephzilla

Member
They should definitely remove elevation from Halo radar though. Halo radar was always a pretty open nod to the motion tracker from Aliens - which also only gave distance, not elevation.
 
Of course, everything labeled is subjective.

I think you mean quantitative, per Stinkles (2014).

These are good points. Dot-disappearin' is a big part of the problem with nade hit markers, too. The interface is giving you information that you often naturally process in a misleading way.
 

Impala26

Member
I wouldn't mind Destiny's radar, to be honest.

For slayer games, yeah motion tracker certainly gimps map movement and it kind of encourages camping a bit in my opinion - which just isn't that fun IMO. For objective game types though, I think it encourages people trying to organize assaults a bit more and prevents people from "lone wolfing" it as easily.

If there's one thing I really think Bungie nailed with Destiny it was the motion tracker.

When you actually break it down, the Halo series motion tracker is more straight up like a classic "RADAR" ala Goldeneye/Perfect Dark in that it pinpoints EXACTLY where players are in comparison to you (even more specific in Reach and H4 showing elevation) with the exception of players who are stationary or barely moving (crouch walking).

In the Destiny, the motion tracker is broken up into eight cardinal "wedges" (plus a center circle and outer ring to each wedge) and gives a gist of where players are in comparison to you, but not specifically. It doesn't show relative elevation variance unless the opponent is in close proximity (the center circle). Additionally, it dissuades camping because if you're standing still but standing up straight you still appear on opponents trackers as if you are moving. Only if you are stationary and CROUCHED do you disappear off the motion tracker, but even then you give off a motion tracker "ping" every 2 to 3 seconds. The effect of this is you can stop moving and crouch in the heat of battle to confuse or get the jump on someone, but you can't continuously camp a spot for minutes on end.

TL;DR--Destiny's motion tracker is pretty damn balanced and arguably better in multiplayer than Halo's "legacy" tracker.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
This is why I'm in favor of no radar for slayer and radar for objective. Camping is kind of a necessary evil for objective games in general since part of objective games is usually to lock down a specific area. Camping in slayer gametypes just kills the pace of the game though.
Sure, but the other big benefit of having the motion tracker disabled is that it encourages communication and team work. People have to use call outs, warn each other of enemy locations, etc. I really enjoy that. It also requires more situational awareness and skill. You have to use your knowledge of the map, of power weapon spawns, of the objective, and your experience with the opponent to predict their movement. I looooove that.
 

antigoon

Member
This radar debate is one of a few reasons why there will probably never be a unified standard and competitive experience in Halo going forward. RIP.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Sure, but the other big benefit of having the motion tracker disabled is that it encourages (forces, really) communication and team work. People have to use call outs, warn each other of enemy locations, etc. I really enjoy that. It also requires more situational awareness and skill. You have to use your knowledge of the map, of power weapon spawns, of the objective, and your experience with the opponent to predict their movement. I looooove that.

I don't disagree with this what so ever. But what about if there is proximity chat? Then you'd kind of need to rely on radar if you're close to a base.

I'm curious how much the opinions on radar are influenced by how people played them during their old CE LAN party days.
 
This radar debate is one of a few reasons why there will probably never be a unified standard and competitive experience in Halo going forward. RIP.

Hopefully it will at least be closer to Halo 1/2 MLG standard, and not Halo Reach where niggas were playing an entirely different game than the majority of the fanbase
 

VinFTW

Member
This radar debate is one of a few reasons why there will probably never be a unified standard and competitive experience in Halo going forward. RIP.

Isn't there no radar regardless in competitive?

Best way, imo.

Radar is fine for casual play but esports/MLG should be no radar.

(oramicompletelywrong)
 

antigoon

Member
Sure, but the other big benefit of having the motion tracker disabled is that it encourages communication and team work. People have to use call outs, warn each other of enemy locations, etc. I really enjoy that. It also requires more situational awareness and skill. You have to use your knowledge of the map, of power weapon spawns, of the objective, and your experience with the opponent to predict their movement. I looooove that.

Agreed so much. It's really rewarding to develop those skills. Radar takes most of that away.

Amazing new avatar, btw.
 

Impala26

Member
I don't disagree with this what so ever. But what about if there is proximity chat? Then you'd kind of need to rely on radar if you're close to a base.

I'm curious how much the opinions on radar are influenced by how people played them during their old CE LAN party days.

4v4 Hang 'em High CTF with pistol starts and NO motion tracker was the GOAT for me and my group of buddies.

EDIT: Oh yeah, touch flag return... ALWAYS, NO EXCEPTION. (wait, was there even an option to not have touch return in CE? I can't even remember)
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
I don't disagree with this what so ever. But what about if there is proximity chat? Then you'd kind of need to rely on radar if you're close to a base.

I'm curious how much the opinions on radar are influenced by how people played them during their old CE LAN party days.
I use non-verbal morse code signals to my team mates by tea bagging the ground. Get only my level, scrub.
lol

Agreed so much. It's really rewarding to develop those skills. Radar takes most of that away.

Amazing new avatar, btw.
Thanks. You too, Granadier.
 

antigoon

Member
Isn't there no radar regardless in competitive?

Best way, imo.

Radar is fine for casual play but esports/MLG should be no radar.

(oramicompletelywrong)

Right, I'm saying 343 ain't ever gonna remove radar. The most we could probably hope for is a gunfire based radar.

It's not the biggest deal in the world compared to some other stuff like changed movespeeds and whatever the hell MLG had to do to Reach, but it's still significant.
 

jem0208

Member
Sure, but the other big benefit of having the motion tracker disabled is that it encourages communication and team work. People have to use call outs, warn each other of enemy locations, etc. I really enjoy that. It also requires more situational awareness and skill. You have to use your knowledge of the map, of power weapon spawns, of the objective, and your experience with the opponent to predict their movement. I looooove that.

Honestly, in social I think this is a bad thing. People just don't communicate on social. Removing tracker isn't going to make them communicate either. It's just going to make social objective games confusing and frustrating. Also sometimes I just want to chill out and dong people trying to capture my flag without worrying about callouts and stuff.

For sure disable it in ranked or the competitive playlists where people are much more likely to communicate, but I think it should be left in for social.
 
Catching up with the videos from today...

Why does IGN's video player load so bloody slowly? And then if I go to a part of the video that's already buffered, it reloads the whole fucking thing again.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
Honestly, in social I think this is a bad thing. People just don't communicate on social. Removing tracker isn't going to make them communicate either. It's just going to make social objective games confusing and frustrating. Also sometimes I just want to chill out and dong people trying to capture my flag without worrying about callouts and stuff.

For sure disable it in ranked or the competitive playlists where people are much more likely to communicate, but I think it should be left in for social.
I agree 100%. :)
 
These are good points. Dot-disappearin' is a big part of the problem with nade hit markers, too. The interface is giving you information that you often naturally process in a misleading way.
Those damn grenade hitmarkers, you're right. Combining those with motion tracker..
This is why I'm in favor of no radar for slayer and radar for objective. Camping is kind of a necessary evil for objective games in general since part of objective games is usually to lock down a specific area. Camping in slayer gametypes just kills the pace of the game though.
You don't need motion tracker to camp effectively. Motion tracker just hurts the person who isn't camping, giving too much power to the camper. As a defender in one-sided CTF, you already have the advantage. Gimping the element of surprise on maps where you can't really be too sneaky in the first place just feels like overkill.
This radar debate is one of a few reasons why there will probably never be a unified standard and competitive experience in Halo going forward. RIP.

Right, I'm saying 343 ain't ever gonna remove radar. The most we could probably hope for is a gunfire based radar.

It's not the biggest deal in the world compared to some other stuff like changed movespeeds and whatever the hell MLG had to do to Reach, but it's still significant.
You actually raise a great point here which further plays into that "Matchmaking experience is far different from competitive experiences." Competitive Halo rightfully* has no motion tracker, whereas 343 will never have a majority of the playlists without radar. People speak of the gameplay differences of 110% speed vs default and the limited sandbox of MLG gametypes, but I think Matchmaking's abundance of the overpowered motion tracker is far more problematic to unifying the gameplay than a 10% speed increase. That 10% speed increase and the less weapons being used don't create poor player habits that may negatively impact the player's overall skill progression, IMO.

*Because competitive Halo works best when you don't gimp the movement, which is why no tournament has motion tracker.
 

jem0208

Member
I use non-verbal morse code signals to my team mates by tea bagging the ground. Get only my level, scrub.
lol

crouch, crouch, crouch, pause, stand, crouch, stand, crouch, pause, crouch, stand, crouch, pause, crouch, crouch, stand, pause, stand, crouch, crouch, crouch.
 
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