• 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 |OT14| They call it Halo

K

kylej

Banned
I have zero desire to ever get involved in the games industry, but I feel like I can come up with some potentially interesting map designs, game modes, etc while I'm taking a leak, so I'm not sure why the only new thing we got out of 343 - after 3 years of dev time and an enormous budget - was a button pressing simulator that reuses outsourced environments.

Hire juices.
 
MrGreencastle

MrGreencastle

Member
kylej said:
Instead of Spartan Ops, the campaign should have randomly generated terrain/environments for the large encounters. So even if the beginning, end, and linear hallways through a level are mostly the same every time, the large spaces you fight multiple enemies in would be more unique. There should also be a Left 4 Dead style Director system that increases and decreases enemy spawns dynamically to keep you on your toes.

Then you bring back Firefight classic for slower, more relaxed gameplay, but in addition, I'd create a new mode that leverages all the "Infinity" stuff that they keep shoehorning into matchmaking. Basically I envision it as being like Horde mode meets CoD's One In The Chamber or Burnout's Crash mode, but ramped up even more, so that instead of sitting there teabagging the ground waiting for dropships to come in and slowly pour the same enemies out over and over again, you would have this hyper-fast gametype where power weapons are falling from the sky, overshields appear ever 30 seconds, you move at 200% speed, enemies are super aggressive and appear in waves as far as the eye can see, and you're gaining all sorts of XP and whatnot for it. I would want people to experience the same sort of tension they felt in RE4's cabin defense scene, or how you feel when you're in the game that decides whether you get your 50 or not. Make people sweat out each round and work together.

I also think it could be cool to have almost a tower-defense style mechanic, where the XP/money/whatever you get in each Firefight round could be used to build rudimentary structures or buy infantry (bots) to help you out. Make Firefight something more than a distraction.
Click to expand...

This just makes way too much sense. There's a sort of glimpse of this in E8C5 of SpOps,
with setting up a bunch of turrets and anti-air cannons, but it's way linear
. I think tower defense works so well in an FPS like setting - Mann Vs Machine mode in TF2 is a pretty great example of this. Treat each game as it's own mini campaign, with all the loadout unlocks happening on a per-game basis, rather than saved to your character through each game mode (although certain elements could carry over). It's how LoL works. Tower defense doesn't even have to be the only mode, but it's one that makes a lot of sense and doesn't need THAT great AI anyway.

I hope Firefight comes back. I hope SpOps comes back. They're both modes that I've come to enjoy, and if both were given more time to prosper, we'd have something really compelling. Objectives and "new" mechanics are always good, here. Treating them as one or the other is kinda shitty for the fans of both. Thing is, I'd say about 50% of the maps used in SpOps, maybe even more, would be perfect for Firefight. I've already posted my thoughts on what would be good additions for both the modes, so I hope at least some of them get explored in the future.

Firefight in Halo 4: ODST? I think so.
 
C

Computron

Member
Live down?

0lTIBEA.png
 
U

User 73706

Banned
343 pls reveal the Spartan Ops Soundtrack: Songs to Slay By available for digital download in the bulletin this week

Anyone else notice that all of the tracks missing from the soundtrack end up showing up a lot in Spartan Ops, even the ones that were originally in campaign?
 
MrGreencastle

MrGreencastle

Member
Speedy Blue Dude said:
Wait, anyone mind explaining why she did that? I don't play Spartan Ops at all, but I'm interested in the story.
Click to expand...

Admiral Osman, the head honcho of ONI, and ex-Spartan II, orders Halsey's execution in Episode 8 due to her supposed collaboration with Jul 'Mdama, leader of the Storm faction of the Covenant. Halsey had been communicating with Jul in order to find out more about the Librarian construct that Chief was talking with during the campaign, and of which Jul and company were trying to access. Halsey gets taken by Jul's Prometheans, and speaks with the Librarian, who gives her the "Janus Key", a device that catalogs the locations of every single piece of Forerunner technology. Unfortunately, Halsey loses half of the Janus key to Jul, and the other half she throws to Thorne just before being whisked away yet again by Jul and one of his Knights, but not before being shot by Palmer in the arm - Palmer decided to be the one who would execute Halsey, against Lasky's wishes (he sent Majestic to rescue Halsey, against Osman's orders). By the end of the episode, Crimson finds a map that reveals the locations of both halves of the Janus Key.

Zeouterlimits said:
Are the resources there for that? Is there enough time and money to make both to a quality level? Are there enough players for that? (referring to Durango install base)

I'm not sure there will be.
Click to expand...

Then split it into two games. Halo 5 doesn't need both, but there doesn't only need to be the mainline trilogy, either. I'm OK with Firefight or SpOps season 2 coming out in a spinoff/expansion this year, and the other the year after or what not. Again, Halo 4: ODST. Either way, for story/single player nerds, Halo 4 post-release had been quite excellent, hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
 
B

Buntabox

Member
darthbob said:
The easter egg room in Reach counts as canon?

lolno
Click to expand...

Can't check cause I'm at work, but I'm pretty sure you see Carter and Kat's faces by that same artist somewhere in the game. Probably safe to say his face is canon. It's probably what they intended. Splitting hairs though.
 
T

Toa TAK

Banned
Wahrer Machine said:
343 pls reveal the Spartan Ops Soundtrack: Songs to Slay By available for digital download in the bulletin this week

Anyone else notice that all of the tracks missing from the soundtrack end up showing up a lot in Spartan Ops, even the ones that were originally in campaign?
Click to expand...

Yup. I'm hoping for a Halo 4 Sountrack Volume II a la Halo 2.
 
S

Speedy Blue Dude

Banned
MrGreencastle said:
Admiral Osman, the head honcho of ONI, and ex-Spartan II, orders Halsey's execution in Episode 8 due to her supposed collaboration with Jul 'Mdama, leader of the Storm faction of the Covenant. Halsey had been communicating with Jul in order to find out more about the Librarian construct that Chief was talking with during the campaign, and of which Jul and company were trying to access. Halsey gets taken by Jul's Prometheans, and speaks with the Librarian, who gives her the "Janus Key", a device that catalogs the locations of every single piece of Forerunner technology. Unfortunately, Halsey loses half of the Janus key to Jul, and the other half she throws to Thorne just before being whisked away yet again by Jul and one of his Knights, but not before being shot by Palmer in the arm - Palmer decided to be the one who would execute Halsey, against Lasky's wishes (he sent Majestic to rescue Halsey, against Osman's orders). By the end of the episode, Crimson finds a map that reveals the locations of both halves of the Janus Key.
Click to expand...
So is
Hasley dead or just injured?
 
X

xxjuicesxx

Member
kylej said:
I have zero desire to ever get involved in the games industry, but I feel like I can come up with some potentially interesting map designs, game modes, etc while I'm taking a leak, so I'm not sure why the only new thing we got out of 343 - after 3 years of dev time and an enormous budget - was a button pressing simulator that reuses outsourced environments.

Hire juices.
Click to expand...

I feel like we could make a really successful game involving pornstars in yoga pants.
 
Computer

Computer

Member
Spartan ops should be somthing like a phantasy star online run. Get a goup of friends to make a run at diffrent stages with options of diffuculty. There should be one long path way with lot of diffrent areas and diffent creatures to fight in each area. Each player should have a limited number of lifes and there should be a boss battle at the end of each run. To promote players from using up lives no credits should be awarded unless the boss at the end of the run is defeated. Credits should be awared for each enemy the player helps to kill and more credits added for who gets the final shot to kill the enemys. This would due away with AFK players trying to rack up credits. There should be mission difficulties that are almost impossable to beat. This would really promote players to strive for somthing for bragging rights other then a skill rank.
 
H

HiredN00bs

Member
Ragnarok Flames said:
but waypoint on the xbox updates in real time. the Website from what i've seen does not. there shouldn't be a 70 game deficit.
Click to expand...
I use the Halo 4 Stats app on Smartglass on iPad, and from what I've seen, it updates very quickly, like I can refresh it once I hit the post game lobby on the Xbox and it updates the game count. I haven't figured out what is causing the discrepancy between the Xbox app and the website, but it may be something like the Xbox app counts DNFs. I currently have a 71 game discrepancy (Xbox Halo Waypoint says 1103 games played, Smartglass Halo 4 Stats says 1032), but it was 68 a few days ago, and I know I had some DNFs between now and then. I'll join and quit a game really quickly to check. brb
 
R

Ragnarok Flames

Banned
Neo+Gaf=Nerd_Fap said:
Spartan ops should be somthing like a phantasy star online run. Get a goup of friends to make a run at diffrent stages with options of diffuculty. There should be one long path way with lot of diffrent areas and diffent creatures to fight in each area. Each player should have a limited number of lifes and there should be a boss battle at the end of each run. To promote players from using up lives no credits should be awarded unless the boss at the end of the run is defeated. Credits should be awared for each enemy the player helps to kill and more credits added for who gets the final shot to kill the enemys. This would due away with AFK players trying to rack up credits. There should be mission difficulties that are almost impossable to beat. This would really promote players to strive for somthing for bragging rights other then a skill rank.
Click to expand...

FUCK D RAGON
 
W

wwm0nkey

Member
Neo+Gaf=Nerd_Fap said:
Spartan ops should be somthing like a phantasy star online run. Get a goup of friends to make a run at diffrent stages with options of diffuculty. There should be one long path way with lot of diffrent areas and diffent creatures to fight in each area. Each player should have a limited number of lifes and there should be a boss battle at the end of each run. To promote players from using up lives no credits should be awarded unless the boss at the end of the run is defeated. Credits should be awared for each enemy the player helps to kill and more credits added for who gets the final shot to kill the enemys. This would due away with AFK players trying to rack up credits. There should be mission difficulties that are almost impossable to beat. This would really promote players to strive for somthing for bragging rights other then a skill rank.
Click to expand...
So yeah PSO Halo edition then....I am 100% ok with that but add in some loot drops like weapon skins, armor skins and other stuff. Also randomly generated missions like PSO 2 so the map is always different.....Actually I want that right now.

Edit: oooooh and a Spartan hub on the infinity where we can talk to other players before PvP and PvE runs, would make Halo a more social experience too.
 
Computer

Computer

Member
wwm0nkey said:
So yeah PSO Halo edition then....I am 100% ok with that but add in some loot drops like weapon skins, armor skins and other stuff. Also randomly generated missions like PSO 2 so the map is always different.....Actually I want that right now.
Click to expand...

Ya I was going to say they could even have rare drops for beating the mission like rare armor this would be the most amazing thing ever.
 
W

wwm0nkey

Member
Neo+Gaf=Nerd_Fap said:
Ya I was going to say they could even have rare drops for beating the mission like rare armor this would be the most amazing thing ever.
Click to expand...
I am all for Halo's online to become PSO2 but with better PvP support.

Also PvE mode would justify AAs and loadouts as long as they stayed in PvE but have PvP be the barebones everyone is on equal grounds mode.....this actually does sound cool.
(Also have weapon upgrades and stats in PvE)
 
MrGreencastle

MrGreencastle

Member
Neo+Gaf=Nerd_Fap said:
Spartan ops should be somthing like a phantasy star online run. Get a goup of friends to make a run at diffrent stages with options of diffuculty. There should be one long path way with lot of diffrent areas and diffent creatures to fight in each area. Each player should have a limited number of lifes and there should be a boss battle at the end of each run. To promote players from using up lives no credits should be awarded unless the boss at the end of the run is defeated. Credits should be awared for each enemy the player helps to kill and more credits added for who gets the final shot to kill the enemys. This would due away with AFK players trying to rack up credits. There should be mission difficulties that are almost impossable to beat. This would really promote players to strive for somthing for bragging rights other then a skill rank.
Click to expand...

I'm all for evolving the mode into something with more of an arcadey feel, with credits and scores and such. It still blows my mind that the mode shipped without all that.

I think a Spartan Ops with a hubworld similar to ODST would be great. Each week, a new section of the hubworld is unlocked, where new elements and areas can be explored. Some missions will have you going into the depths of the city, some will have you extracting data from a Forerunner excavation site, and some will have you fighting alongside a starship in a Battlefront 2-style space battle, complete with boarding mechanics and the opportunity to blow up Covenant ships from the inside.

Credits are earned from killing enemies, which can then be spent on improving your SpOps character, as well as improving fortifications of the city, and perhaps of the Infinity. Sounds like an FPSRPG, why the hell not... You can purchase things like score multipliers for Firefight (each location is an area of the city that you can "activate" to begin a few rounds of Firefight, buying extra ammo, lives, upgrades, etc).

The city itself cam be explored, with plenty of easter eggs, and wide open areas for vehicle combat, too. You could have faction-like mechanics, too, where Steitzer or another AI would say something like, "Warning, Gamma sector is under Covenant assault" and have to get your ass over there fast to stop them completely taking over that space. Perhaps this time it's under attack by a Scarab, perhaps next time it's a Liche, or a Harvester, or some dropships. Hell, even that could be reason enough to initiate a Firefight round.

Thinking about it, there wouldn't even really be a point releasing this as a mode for a mainline game. It could be it's own evolving subfranchise that's download-only, constantly evolving and constantly adding content in the Minecraft model, plus DLC, etc.
...yeah
 
W

wwm0nkey

Member
ElzarTheBam said:
You bastards are making me reminisce about PSO on the dreamcast. I loved that game, probably my favorite game on the console itself.
Click to expand...
PSO 2 has an english patch and its out this year FOR FREE in the US. It also uses a great F2P model.

Also on a serious note who here would be cool with Halo having a hub world with PSO like systems for PvE but the same MM systems for multi-player?
 
MrGreencastle

MrGreencastle

Member
Kamikaze Ghazi said:
Woah, I just remembered, did they ever bring up Laskey and the Chief's relationship at all during the game?
Click to expand...

One line, "Never thought I'd see you again."

wwm0nkey said:
PSO 2 has an english patch and its out this year FOR FREE in the US. It also uses a great F2P model.

Also on a serious note who here would be cool with Halo having a hub world with PSO like systems for PvE but the same MM systems for multi-player?
Click to expand...

I'm all for it. I've always wanted there to be a sort of "Home" like hubworld for Halo. Hell, for any game. Lobbies are so last gen.
 
F

Fuchsdh

Member
Kamikaze Ghazi said:
Woah, I just remembered, did they ever bring up Laskey and the Chief's relationship at all during the game?
Click to expand...

Sort of. I think that the development timeline of FUD, and the fact that they let the guy running the show sort of do whatever he wanted, meant that there wasn't a whole lot of room to dwell on it properly. I felt like we were missing a beat between them besides the final cutscene.
 
MrGreencastle

MrGreencastle

Member
Havok said:
You don't have to play it to watch the episodes, they're all just there in the menu. You miss out on almost no meaningful story content by skipping the missions.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's mostly true. A few Episodes pick up almost exactly where the previous left off. Since E7 I've been much more interested in the show than the game. So much so that I'll likely purchase a second season just for that content, and the hope that the exploration aspect is added in the future outside of time and budget constraints.

Kamikaze Ghazi said:
What, was that like $2
0
million of a live action series that was supposed to tie into the game just for one line?

WTF?
Click to expand...

Well to be fair, Chief is only really in the show for a couple minutes. The show wasn't really about exploring their relationship, more about exploring Lasky and his origin story. As such, Lasky becomes a major focal character in Halo 4, especially SpOps. He's the captain of the best ship mankind ever built. What else could they really say to each other to reference their crossing paths once when Lasky was like 16, besides the couple conversations they have in the cutscenes?

Zeouterlimits said:
Another question, does Halsey know Cortana is dead?
Click to expand...

Nope. And I don't think they really liked each other all that much anyway. She cares more about John.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

The next Halo Infinite Operation includes a ‘Delta Arena’ with Halo 2 gameplay settings
3
392
S0ULZB0URNE replied
Jez Corden says Halo The Master Chief Collection is also on the way for PS5.
News Rumor 2 3
148
7K
Radical_3d replied
Saber got the contract to develop Halo Anniversary because its CEO offered to do it for free
Opinion Business Game Dev
25
2K
Radical_3d replied
Rumor: Halo Infinite coming to PS5 today (or announced today). MCC coming later.
3 4 5 6 7
343
20K
DirtInUrEye replied
Halo 1 early build leaked online, back when it was a 3rd person game
48
5K
Buggy Loop replied
Top Bottom