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Halo |OT 21| Battle is the Great Redeemer | LIVE. DIE. RESPAWN.

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Madness

Member
I definitely think a radar jammer power up could work better here. Imagine if whichever team gets it, it jams the motion tracker of everyone on the opposing team or if that's too OP sounding, it works as a proximity jammer, so that the radar for anyone you're close to, is just blank or negated. Make it work for like 30-40 seconds. Coupled with control of a power weapon, it could really change the match if the team is caught off guard that someone with a shotgun or something gets it and can run roughshod near a base or where the enemy team is holed up, but can't see where anyone is coming from.
 
I definitely think a radar jammer power up could work better here. Imagine if whichever team gets it, it jams the motion tracker of everyone on the opposing team or if that's too OP sounding, it works as a proximity jammer, so that the radar for anyone you're close to, is just blank or negated. Make it work for like 30-40 seconds. Coupled with control of a power weapon, it could really change the match if the team is caught off guard that someone with a shotgun or something gets it and can run roughshod near a base or where the enemy team is holed up, but can't see where anyone is coming from.

I think Proximity Jammer would work best just so that the person that gets it would be forced to make plays up close.
 

CliQ

Member
Power ups are meant to give you an advantage. Trying to make them balanced defeats the purpose. You should feel powerful...
 
I think powerups should be sorted into two or three tiers, depending on how long they last. Obviously the primary boosts (speed / damage / over / camo) would be the top-tier powerups at around 40 seconds, but then you could have stuff like Prom Vision only lasting 20, EMP field / unlimited Spartan Abilities (no meter) lasting 10, etc.
I was thinking about an EMP Power-up too. As for unlimited Spartan Abilities, only one that would change is the Thruster which may be interesting to see a 2 sec recharge decrease upon acquiring Speed Boost.
If there's going to be motion trackers then how about a power up that takes you off radar?
My achy breaky heart..
A Radar Jammer Power-up.
#NoMotionTracker
Instead of ProVis, why not have a power up that just gives you the best radar? 150m enemies always visible.
A Power-up that gives you motion tracker could be alright; use it for yourself and/or help your team out by communicating that info. Give it the same visor glow that PV had and the same noise.
 
I was thinking about an EMP Power-up too. As for unlimited Spartan Abilities, only one that would change is the Thruster which may be interesting to see a 2 sec recharge decrease upon acquiring Speed Boost.

My achy breaky heart..
A Radar Jammer Power-up.
#NoMotionTracker

A Power-up that gives you motion tracker could be alright; use it for yourself and/or help your team out by communicating that info. Give it the same visor glow that PV had and the same noise.

As a bonus, EMP functionality this time around (in the Power Drainer sense) could sap shields a little more slowly, but completely disable Spartan Abilities.
 

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tootsi666

Member
Why does it always seem like all Halo Pro Teams lack someone who is calling the shots? Everyone is just shouting info and saying 100% pointless stuff like "Dude!" in TeamSpeak.
 

heckfu

Banned
So before I write anything, I want to work under a couple assumptions:

1) Halo has a vastly smaller player population than Dota 2
2) Dota 2 has a much larger player population

Now that's out of the way, I'd like to post a few thoughts on the 50k dollar prize pool for the first season of the Halo Championship Series (more specifically: 'why isn't it larger', and, 'let's compare this directly to a completely different game like Dota 2')

If you aren't familiar with Dota 2, it's a wildly popular MOBA made by Valve. Every year, in addition to a number of third party tournaments, Valve hosts their own international tournament aptly titled "The International". So Valve posts a lot of money on their own but also do a bit of crowd-funding along the way to increase the prize pool. They do this by offering a compendium to the tournament - an in-game 'book' where you can cast predictions, track stats, etc from The International 4. So that seems pretty lame in theory (unless you're into that. which I am.) but to encourage sales they offer stretch goals not unlike Kickstarter. Take a look at this cool graph I quickly made while driving that shows a direct comparison between the end of the crowd-funding campaign for The International 4 and HCS.

oEe2QCR.jpg


I even messed it up. The total for TI4 was almost 11 million dollars total.

Now to be fair, this is one of a number of 'seasons' that 343 have planned (https://twitter.com/Brav/status/551916675419754496)

But this brings me to one of my main points: why aren't 343 crowd-funding HCS tournaments? The stretch goals introduced by Valve all give players rewards for raising the money: new courier skins, player skins, announcer packs, etc. All things that don't directly impact the gameplay, only cosmetics. I don't have a long list of similar ideas but it would be easy to introduce a Compendium-like structure through the Halo channel, a dedicated app, or whatever. Stretch goals would include things like new weapon skins, replacing Steitzer with Cortana, Locke, the Arbiter, et al, and other things.

The other point I wanted to bring up is that we've seen, more or less, the same players compete since Halo 2. Where are the new competitive teams? I'm sure the new seasons format will likely bring in new faces but it's gotten...not BORING, necessarily, but it just seems to be static in terms of the big personalities. Maybe having large prize pools will encourage new players to switch over to Halo and spice things up.

And as for the incentive for 343 to add the extra work? Here's a post from /r/dota2 regarding the Compendium sales for TI4 through nine days.

As of May 18, 2014 - 3:44PM EST, the current prize pool for TI4 is $5,742,000 (rounded to thousands).
In the span of 9 days, a total of $4,142,000 has been contributed by the Dota 2 community.
Here are some stats in regards to that figure (based on theoretical Compendium sales only):
1,657,000 Compendiums (at most) have been purchased, assuming all proceeds were strictly from compendiums and not Comp. points
Community contributions have almost doubled the complete prize pool for TI3 ($2,874,000), and tripled the community contributions for TI3 ($1,274,000)
Prize pool has grown at an average of $460,000/DAY, $19,000/HOUR, $320/MINUTE, $5/SECOND
Valve has gained $12,426,000 in revenue from Compendium related sales only, this has yet to include any merchandise/ticket proceeds from the actual event!
That's $37,600/valve employee (330~, 2013 figure)
Since Gaben owns more than 50% of Valve, he would effectively get at least $6,213,000
http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/25vwyy/ti4_compendium_by_the_numbers/
edit: the Compendium cost $10 where $2.50 went to the total prize pool. The rest went to Valve.

Anyway, I may be rambling at this point. Thoughts?
 

dwells

Member
Why does it always seem like all Halo Pro Teams lack someone who is calling the shots? Everyone is just shouting info and saying 100% pointless stuff like "Dude!" in TeamSpeak.
I've never played with a team that had a "leader." It's a four person team; everyone should know why they're doing and how to work together. You don't need someone in a designated leader role bossing everyone around. What you do depends on the context of the game.

If I pull off a double kill and the other team already has one down on Sanctuary flag, I'm not gonna relay that to someone and then have them make a call. I'm gonna say "got a double, three down, pull flag rocks." Everyone else does the same - they relay what info they have available, when they need help, what they think the best play at the moment is, etc.

Unless things have really changed in the eight or nine years it's been since I used to play competitively, there's not much "pointless stuff," either. Top-level teams had communication down to a science. There's a dedicate balance of making sure you're communicating enough without using all the bandwidth and polluting the signal to noise ratio. Efficient communication and cooperation made or broke teams.
 
Yea Hail Marys in Breakout are real. Had 3 or 4 last night if you just chuck your nade toward where the battle rifle is.

Dunno why they wouldnt set it to grenades drop you to one shot no shields 1 health instead.

Nerd nades will get way too complex for casuals in that mode.

Reminds me of spawn wiping with nades/launchers in Search&Destroy, that shit was down to a science with some people.
 

antigoon

Member
Great post, heckfu. I agree with all your points. Adding cosmetics outside compendiums would also allow 343 and Microsoft to release map packs for free (because their development would be paid for by microtransactions). This would ensure a unified matchmaking playerbase.

Also, I think the staleness of the pro player base has a ton to do with Halo Reach and Halo 4 being crap competitive titles. Competitive Halo fell off the face of the Earth for a long time. I think that will change with Halo 5. Also, I think there needs to be a natural pipeline to top-tier play, which means settings parity between "regular" matchmaking and tournament play. The game should remain the same at all levels.
remove radar.
 

Tawpgun

Member
I definitely think a radar jammer power up could work better here. Imagine if whichever team gets it, it jams the motion tracker of everyone on the opposing team or if that's too OP sounding, it works as a proximity jammer, so that the radar for anyone you're close to, is just blank or negated. Make it work for like 30-40 seconds. Coupled with control of a power weapon, it could really change the match if the team is caught off guard that someone with a shotgun or something gets it and can run roughshod near a base or where the enemy team is holed up, but can't see where anyone is coming from.

I think you're onto something here. What about TEAM power ups. When activated or picked up your entire team gets some kind of a boost. If we were living in a no radar or cod radar world... It would give you motion tracker radar to everyone. Assuming we have radar it would double the radar distance and maybe let you know where the enemy is facing.

or a wave of prom vision that exposes everyone on enemy team though walls for 3 seconds.

Nothing that gives you a combat advantage, just a battlefield awareness advantage.
 
So before I write anything, I want to work under a couple assumptions:

1) Halo has a vastly smaller player population than Dota 2
2) Dota 2 has a much larger player population

Now that's out of the way, I'd like to post a few thoughts on the 50k dollar prize pool for the first season of the Halo Championship Series (more specifically: 'why isn't it larger', and, 'let's compare this directly to a completely different game like Dota 2')

If you aren't familiar with Dota 2, it's a wildly popular MOBA made by Valve. Every year, in addition to a number of third party tournaments, Valve hosts their own international tournament aptly titled "The International". So Valve posts a lot of money on their own but also do a bit of crowd-funding along the way to increase the prize pool. They do this by offering a compendium to the tournament - an in-game 'book' where you can cast predictions, track stats, etc from The International 4. So that seems pretty lame in theory (unless you're into that. which I am.) but to encourage sales they offer stretch goals not unlike Kickstarter. Take a look at this cool graph I quickly made while driving that shows a direct comparison between the end of the crowd-funding campaign for The International 4 and HCS.

oEe2QCR.jpg


I even messed it up. The total for TI4 was almost 11 million dollars total.

Now to be fair, this is one of a number of 'seasons' that 343 have planned (https://twitter.com/Brav/status/551916675419754496)

But this brings me to one of my main points: why aren't 343 crowd-funding HCS tournaments? The stretch goals introduced by Valve all give players rewards for raising the money: new courier skins, player skins, announcer packs, etc. All things that don't directly impact the gameplay, only cosmetics. I don't have a long list of similar ideas but it would be easy to introduce a Compendium-like structure through the Halo channel, a dedicated app, or whatever. Stretch goals would include things like new weapon skins, replacing Steitzer with Cortana, Locke, the Arbiter, et al, and other things.

The other point I wanted to bring up is that we've seen, more or less, the same players compete since Halo 2. Where are the new competitive teams? I'm sure the new seasons format will likely bring in new faces but it's gotten...not BORING, necessarily, but it just seems to be static in terms of the big personalities. Maybe having large prize pools will encourage new players to switch over to Halo and spice things up.

And as for the incentive for 343 to add the extra work? Here's a post from /r/dota2 regarding the Compendium sales for TI4 through nine days.


http://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/25vwyy/ti4_compendium_by_the_numbers/
edit: the Compendium cost $10 where $2.50 went to the total prize pool. The rest went to Valve.

Anyway, I may be rambling at this point. Thoughts?

It'd be nice if it got to that point, baby steps I guess. 343 likes to keep fans at arm's length for whatever reason it seems.
 
PromVis should never ever show its face in halo ever again. That shit is trash and doesnt belong in the game.

Overshield, camo should be enough. Maybe one more or so but nothing too crazy
 

Impala26

Member
Promotes campy gameplay for one.

I do love me getting a jump on some campers with a good short crouch walk followed up by a thruster coming around a corner...

I think at the very least, if it's here to stay, eliminate the relative height arrow indicators.
 

Sephzilla

Member
Radar would be perfectly fine if they got rid of the height indicators. Especially in Halo 5 where the vertical game seems more important
 
BR starts is actually making this game kinda fun.

AR starts can burn in hell.

Oh and put me on team thruster. That thing is badass and often a game changer in Br encounters.

I've played maybe 20 games and I've never used Spartan Charge, stabilisers or ground pound. Haven't felt like I'd ever need to either.
 
BR starts is actually making this game kinda fun.

AR starts can burn in hell.

Oh and put me on team thruster. That thing is badass and often a game changer in Br encounters.

I've played maybe 20 games and I've never used Spartan Charge, stabilisers or ground pound. Haven't felt like I'd ever need to either.

I pretty much only use Charge with the Sword. I also happen to basically run laps on the map while at it too.
 
BR starts is actually making this game kinda fun.

AR starts can burn in hell.

Oh and put me on team thruster. That thing is badass and often a game changer in Br encounters.

I've played maybe 20 games and I've never used Spartan Charge, stabilisers or ground pound. Haven't felt like I'd ever need to either.

Agreed, BRs makes the game feel so great.
Put in ARs as a secondary if you need to.

Thruster pack is amazing.
 
When i'm low shield and people are nade spamming me charging the ground pound works really well. It keeps you in the air for a few valuable seconds so you don't get hit.
 

Granadier

Is currently on Stage 1: Denial regarding the service game future
EDIT:
  • You don't spawn with it; you have to earn it.
  • You lose it when you die.
  • It would only last for like 15-30 secs and fits in perfectly with other Power-ups; they're OP by nature by giving a player and their team a distinct advantage when earned.

Power ups are meant to give you an advantage. I mean, why can someone go invisible? WHAT, someone has double the shields that I do? ProVis would be something that lasts a bit, and if the user dies, they don't get it anymore until a new one spawns.

Ok, valid points. I think it could use a visual indication when a player has ProVis similar to cloak/overshield.

Take a look at this cool graph I quickly made while driving

I'm worried about you.
 
Oh man, people love their Thrusters. Clear lead, on this site at least. Dislike is less, so focused.
I'm going to post it on Waypoint and maybe send it at some 343i guys for broader coverage.

Spreadin' it.
 

Impala26

Member
Oh man, people love their Thrusters. Clear lead, on this site at least. Dislike is less, so focused.
I'm going to post it on Waypoint and maybe send it at some 343i guys for broader coverage.

Spreadin' it.

Not my most "hated" ability, but I voted Slide on your first poll because I legitimately see no need for it to be in the game. Every other ability can make or set up good plays, while I forget that Slide is even an ability most of the time.

Either make it useful somehow (slide tackle/combine with charge?) or just axe it because I'm finding it near-pointless next to the other abilities.

I actually like the Ground Pound... :-S
 
Not my most "hated" ability, but I voted Slide on your first poll because I legitimately see no need for it to be in the game. Every other ability can make or set up good plays, while I forget that Slide is even an ability most of the time.

Either make it useful somehow (slide tackle/combine with charge?) or just axe it because I'm finding it near-pointless next to the other abilities.

I actually like the Ground Pound... :-S

I guess hate and useless are ending up kinda interchangeable here. Hopefully "eliminate", is sufficiently neutral,
And yeah, I forget Slide is a thing often.
 
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