• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Halo |OT13|

Status
Not open for further replies.
P

Plywood

NeoGAF's smiling token!
If they wanted to make the Spartan IV's likeable they should've just taken the team from ODST and brought them over, hell then the rookie IV would be the rookie from ODST.
 
K

Karl2177

Member
Halo 4's numerical progression system unlocks aesthetics like emblems and armors. In order to design your Spartan, you are forced to play the game until you hit a certain rank similar to Reach. Reach offered a different scenario though, where you had multiple choices once you earned enough EXP. This type of progression was moderately flawed because there was a long stretch where everything was purchased and the player had a long ways until the next rank(which still didn't unlock anything). The basic purchase worked though. Taking a look at Halo 4's system, armors are unlocked at very distinct XP levels.

Now about player identity. Players craft what their Spartan looks like. Its intent is to have each player look unique. Players also craft their emblem. When you combine the two, in Halo 3(which had many less options) there were over a billion ways to customize your Spartan. In Reach and 4, this number skyrockets. Now how does player identity mesh into the progression system?

We can take a look at Modern Warfare 2, where players have an emblem and a player card. If you go on today, you'll see that a lot of people never changed from the starting card/emblem combo. You'll also see that players that do change have a high tendency to pick ones that are "funny" or reflect their preferred playstyle. Halo Reach locked certain armors away that were "cool" until the later tedious levels. Halo 4 does the same. Halo 4 takes this a step further though. In Reach you could craft a basic identity with your emblem. Halo 4 locks that away as well. I find it ridiculous that I had to unlock an emblem that I designed for Reach. I find it ridiculous that quite a few emblems were dropped from previous titles.

What did Halo 4 do right in these regards? It allowed the player to unlock armors based on how they play through commendation unlocks. It also failed by not giving those commendation unlocks any sort of identity.

Since progression unlock systems have to be on the money the first time, what am I proposing for future games?

-Have all emblems unlocked from the start. Players need some sense of identity when they start playing.
-Return to a modified Reach unlock system. Every armor piece is assigned a Spartan point value, except for unlocks through commendations/achievements/campaign. Have every armor shown at the start.
-Assign values based on the type of armor, not on how "cool" the dev team thinks it looks. That just results in people wearing the same shoulder pads because they were worth 250 000 credits. Helmets are the most visible, so either make them worth more or make more of them.
-Continue with the commendation unlock system. Give distinct helmet designs for each commendation. Have the Laser one be Gungnir.
-Give unlocks to campaign related stuff, similar to the Mk VI or many of Halo 3's unlocks.
-Tie some armors to legacy player similar to CQB or Military Police in Reach. But DON'T put them behind a pay wall like Halo Waypoint. (And as a bonus, you're allowing dedicated fans to craft their armor identity immediately as well as getting people to play more of the franchise).​

Here's a bonus video from Halo 2 on player identity:
http://youtu.be/YGSuPZVgxLg?t=4m
 
K

Kuroyume

Banned
Jack Scofield said:
Before Call of Duty came into the picture, Halo was always considered the frat-boy game. I find it humorous how its fans are so quick to label other games as "dudebro" (as a derogative) when Halo fans are the original "dudebro" gamers.
Click to expand...

That's not what "dudebro" is referring to.
 
B

BlueScrote

Member
Tawpgun said:
III's were a lot more morally unethical.

II's were genetically superior abducted children trained to be the best of the best. But their lives mattered. When you lost a Spartan II it was a devastating blow.

III's were orphans taken, trained, given inferior armor, and basically sent on suicide mission while they were in their teens. The entire reason they were produced was because it was a lot cheaper than II's and they were a fire and forget force. Noble Team was different than the rest of the III's.

IV's seem like the next level of ODST's. But hell, even ODST's felt more mature than Spartan IVs
Click to expand...

III's were somewhat older children than the II's, survivors from colonies glassed by the covenant. They were given SPI armor which doesn't even begin to compare to MJOLNIR. The later batch had
hormone experiments in an attempt to give them an extra edge in their suicide missions.
.

I agree completely about the IV's. We haven't been told anything about them that would separate them from ODSTs, although we assume they were medically modified and they wear MJOLNIR variants.

The ODST's in the expanded fiction are generally characterized extremely favorably. Basically soldiers who climb into a metal coffin to be delivered behind enemy lines. That's part of the reason why I enjoyed ODST's campaign so much. It had a much more desparate feel than anything you do as Master Chief.
 
C

CyReN

Member
Uncharted Waves said:
What is BK?
Click to expand...

tumblr_m2w0ojF5UM1rthpf5o1_500.gif
 
H

Hey You

Member
Can we create custom challenges on Waypoint for Halo 4?

There is the "Waypoint Challenges" section in game, is that for us or 343?
 
E

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
Plywood said:
If they wanted to make the Spartan IV's likeable they should've just taken the team from ODST and brought them over, hell then the rookie IV would be the rookie from ODST.
Click to expand...
No thanks. ODST had the worst characterization and most unlikeable personalities in the entire franchise. 343's main team should be on it, they did at least a half-decent job with the main campaign's new characters.
 
R

Redford

aka Cabbie
In my experience Halo was indeed the dudebro game - on the xbox and 360. The huge numbers of people that play CoD are their younger brothers.

Also good to see sltPoison back.
 
S

StalkerUKCG

Banned
NZBmatrix has gone.

I feel sad. Now what? do I have to download headers like a peasant?

Edit: Shit off topic top of page post.

Here's some spikers
halo_3_brute_spiker_header.jpg
 
X

xxjuicesxx

Member
Chicken Tenders with Buffalo Sauce is good. Also have good fries when fresh but BK is 50/50 on quality control (Guess this depends on location but the ones by me at least)
 
K

kylej

Banned
I ate at Wendys when I was in a time crunch a few weeks ago. It had vaulted ceilings and hardwood floors and all sorts of fancy shit. The food was damn good too. Better than McD and BK imo. Too bad all that salt makes you feel disgusting.
 
K

kittens

Unconfirmed Member
I have a lot of awesome memories of getting frosties with my gramma and granpa at Wendy's. Never liked their actual food, though.
 
K

kylej

Banned
Tunavi said:
had a Sausage Mcmuffin from mcdonalds yesterday, suprisingly good. Sweet pancakes as the bun.
Click to expand...

I get those after a morning gym session every once in a while. I get them without egg cause McDonald's egg looks like a sauteed placenta. They're good. As long as you don't think about what you're eating.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

For its 20th anniversary, Halo 2's infamous E3 2003 demo that never made it into the final game is coming to Halo: MCC
News Platform
38
3K
Panajev2001a replied
Halo Infinite 2 Was in Development with the Slipspace Engine Before the Switch to Unreal Engine 5
Rumor
15
1K
Bumblebeetuna replied
I'm playing Halo 5 Guardians on my Series X and it's a fantastic game
33
1K
Ceadeus replied
Halo 2 - 20 year anniversary today
2 3
107
4K
DoubleClutch replied
Xbox announces that future Halo games will be developed on Unreal Engine 5
4 5 6 7 8
369
16K
Deleted member 848825 replied
Top Bottom