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[Ajemsuhgao]

I don't understand the outrage about the specializations. They're unlockable support/tactical abilities. Complaining about that now doesn't make any sense. You can't be fine with the ones already shown(ammo upgrade, AA efficiency, etc.) and then suddenly be mad that they..what, added more?

 

[raindoc]

"vehicle health recharge"... that's new too, right?

 

[Garrett 2U]

I don't understand the outrage about the specializations. They're unlockable support/tactical abilities. Complaining about that now doesn't make any sense. You can't be fine with the ones already shown(ammo upgrade, AA efficiency, etc.) and then suddenly be mad that they..what, added more?

It is just another poorly revealed feature of Halo 4.
Eventually all will be k.

Nostalgia is fine. Pretending it was perfect and the pinnacle of the series is another.

The pinnacle of the series was a Halo 2 map.

 

[Slaker117]

I don't understand the outrage about the specializations. They're unlockable support/tactical abilities. Complaining about that now doesn't make any sense. You can't be fine with the ones already shown(ammo upgrade, AA efficiency, etc.) and then suddenly be mad that they..what, added more?

Pretty sure most who don't like specializations are people who don't like support/tactical packages either. It's just coming out stronger now because it's in the spotlight after the IGN article. Having to grind through the leveling system in order to unlock the specializations is also a point against them, specifically.

Nostalgia is fine. Pretending it was perfect and the pinnacle of the series is another.

Seriously. I mean, I love Halo 2. At the time it was amazing, and it is a significant game worth honoring. But it was also kind of completely broken.

 

[Myyke]

As someone who finds "core" Halo to be pretty stale nowadays, I have to say I'm probably more excited about these specialisations than anything else right now on the multiplayer side of things. I'm really glad to see 343 are keeping Halo moving in the direction that Bungie pointed it with Reach - "classic" Halo has had its time in the sun IMO.

All that was running through my mind last night when we were playing those horrible MLG matches was how different I hoped Halo 4 was going to be.

 

[The Xtortionist]

Seriously. I mean, I love Halo 2. At the time it was amazing, and it is a significant game worth honoring. But it was also kind of completely broken.

dem smg starts

 

[TheOddOne]

I don't understand the outrage about the specializations. They're unlockable support/tactical abilities. Complaining about that now doesn't make any sense. You can't be fine with the ones already shown(ammo upgrade, AA efficiency, etc.) and then suddenly be mad that they..what, added more?

I feel that some of the outrage is unjustified, specifically some of more hyperbolic type responses. There are more valid complaints then there are hyperbole responses though, justified concerns about what this means for player progression, fragmentation and the overall sandbox.

Some of the info, on paper, still sounds pretty confusing to be honest. Then again, we don’t know how this applies in context of the actual game – implementation is key. Looking at how much Reach changed the formula and much of the evolution of Halo 4 is based on that blueprint, it’s not shock that people will react skeptical.

 

[Blue Ninja]

I don't get it.

 

[Woorloog]

Oh no... Tell me someone has gathered all info into a new post/thread or something, i can't remember how many pages there were in this thread when i went to sleep... Definetly not 345 pages.

 

[TheOddOne]

Oh no... Tell me someone has gathered all info into a new post/thread or something, i can't remember how many pages there were in this thread when i went to sleep... Definetly not 345 pages.

What the what.

 

[The Librarian]

You'll never get that through to people haha. Lots of people are going to use the wrong word/spell it wrong.

That comment was me making more fun of IGN than anything. Steely, I'm not going to pass up an opportunity like that!

 

[bobs...onGaf]

Predictability of outcome is really important when playing a game, as is knowing my opponent's capabilities. When I do X, Y happens. It enables us to make decisions about what to do in a given situation.

With Reach, bloom and armor abilities to various degrees messed with this. That was bad.

Halo 4 appears to be making things worse.

Sometimes when I sneak up on someone sniping, they won't be able to see me coming. Sometimes, they'll be able to see me because of a perk they have active.

Sometimes me pinging them will impair their ability to fire back. Sometimes not because their reticule recoil is suppressed.

Sometimes tagging a rampaging Warthog with an EMP from the plasma pistol will stop it. Some times it will keep going.

Sometimes I'll chew up a Warthog and call out it's low health to my team, who can kill it. Sometimes it's health will come back faster.

Sometimes I'll strip someone's shields at the same time they do mine, and we'll fall back and recharge at the same rate. Sometimes theirs will be faster. Sometimes I'll be faster.

Sometimes I'll hear that guy sprinting up on me with a sword. Sometimes his sound will be suppressed.

And so on. None of these things sound good to me. None of them sound like they will improve the game at all.

I agree with Dax's post on early access to the specializations. Giving gamers who have played longer an advantage over those who have not is poor design. Giving players who spend more money early access to perks is bad marketing.

More and more Halo 4 is turning into something I've been afraid it would turn into, as part of what I loved about Halo's multiplayer game is sapped from it. I hope I'm wrong. I hope the tweaks are all so small as to not matter. But reading the IGN article just made me kinda sad. I wish this wasn't being done to Halo.

This post nails my problems with it and no matter how small the impact, I don't see a positive, I don't see what possible good any of these specializations do. It might be hyperbolic but if they do no good to the gameplay why have them?

 

[Woorloog]

What the what.

Oh, so little?
Thanks.

 

[ZalinKrow]

Gazzawa just dropped off my Halogaf t-shirt, this pleases me.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I've got more to say, some of it dismissive of fears, but in the meantime I'll just leave this here...

Now I want to paint a nightmare scenario. This is scaremongering, of course, but... Halo 4 potentially has one hundred jokers in its pack. One hundred little Armor Locks hidden away in some frightful combination of weapon and armor and loadout and circumstances and whatever else. One hundred little moments of unconquerable frustration -- none of them nearly as extreme or blatantly 'bullshit' as Armor Lock, obviously, but still irritating in aggregate -- when someone does something you couldn't predict unless you treat every encounter as open and unknowable. Unless you go into every fight with your shoulders shrugged, expecting anything. Meanwhile, you don't know how many rounds are in his gun, how many grenades he can throw, how long it takes his shields to recharge, how he's even going to move. Often you won't know what rabbit he can pull out of the hat next, because it didn't come from the field of play; it came from the start menu. You'll do your best, but quite often you will lose your life, your streak, your game when the die your opponent rolls comes up with seven pips.

Unpredictable opponents are fun; unpredictable systems are not. There's a reason chess is regarded as the purest game of skill: all the pieces are showing. In Halo, you should be able, ideally, to approach a situation with your eyes open and your wits about you and your thumbs twitching, and be confident you'll be beaten only by a better player, and not trumped by some shark repellent spray from their unknowable utility belt. Figuratively speaking.

I want so desperately to be wrong.

 

[G17]

A bit OT but Dean Dodrill has put a lot of effort into this XBLA game so I thought I'd share here. Dust: An Elysian Tail has finally been released. It's all been developed by one person! (Dean Dodrill)

GAF thread:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=486331

Purchase Link:
marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Dust-An-Elysian-Tail/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410a67

 

[Slightly Live]

A bit OT but Dean Dodrill has put a lot of effort into this XBLA game so I thought I'd share here. Dust: An Elysian Tail has finally been released. It's all been developed by one person! (Dean Dodrill)

Are you Dean Dodrill, creator of Dust: An Elysian Tale - a game by Dean Dodrill?

 

[ElzarTheBam]

As someone who finds "core" Halo to be pretty stale nowadays, I have to say I'm probably more excited about these specialisations than anything else right now on the multiplayer side of things. I'm really glad to see 343 are keeping Halo moving in the direction that Bungie pointed it with Reach - "classic" Halo has had its time in the sun IMO.

All that was running through my mind last night when we were playing those horrible MLG matches was how different I hoped Halo 4 was going to be.

See the one that gives you a faster assasination? I'll have to be quicker on the yoinks then.

Gazzawa just dropped off my Halogaf t-shirt, this pleases me.

Awesome, did you reward him with your 3DS?

 

[Ken]

Are you Dean Dodrill, creator of Dust: An Elysian Tale - a game by Dean Dodrill?

Dean's account is Noogy I think.

How's that Varus coming along, BTW. Lololol.

 

[broony]

All I can say is thank fuck Campaign and Spartan Ops is all I'm really interested in. I totally see the points of the MP guys freaking out over this.

I played a lot of Halo 1 local and xbox connect, then a fair bit of halo 2 on live before my interest in competitive multiplayer waivered. I agree that what made Halo MP great was the even playing field, COD is still fun for what it offers, but mixing the two is obviously not what people want.

 

[Myyke]

See the one that gives you a faster assasination? I'll have to be quicker on the yoinks then.

Faster assasinations + sound dampened sprinting!

 

[kittens]

Faster assasinations + sound dampened sprinting!

http://i.imgur.com/ihTNw.gif[IMG][/QUOTE]
You clap. I cry.

Classic settings can't be announced soon enough.

Edit : In case it hasn't been discussed here, Ellis posted on Twitter saying that you don't have to wear a specific armor set to use that specialization's armor mod.

 

[Ken]

Decided to take a break from Persona and played a game of Reach.

I liked it better when people had to navigate maps by foot rather than use the map as an obstacle course in junior's first flight simulator.

 

[ZalinKrow]

Awesome, did you reward him with your 3DS?

No, no I did not.

Faster assasinations + sound dampened sprinting!

I worry about playing against you if you're using that... I'll just have to use the Stalker class so I know where you are! (The Stalker specialisation is probably the only one I'm worried about at this point, I hope it doesn't last very long)

 

[ElzarTheBam]

No, no I did not.

You disapoint me greatly.

 

[Woorloog]

Okay, lemme get this straight:
-We get two types of perks, Tactical Packages and Support Upgrades.
-Specializations are extra "level" that reward cosmetic customization options and one perk to one category.
-The game also has a bunch of other perks unlocked by normal leveling.

 

[ZalinKrow]

You disapoint me greatly.

Oh you, Laddergoat. You so random!

I really like the armour though, especially the new visor colours :] We've been shown a looot of armour at this stage though. I wonder how much there'll be altogether.

Also, waiting for that Dust game to show up on my marketplace so I can get iiiit.

 

[Myyke]

Oh you, Laddergoat. You so random!

I really like the armour though, especially the new visor colours :] We've been shown a looot of armour at this stage though. I wonder how much there'll be altogether.

Also, waiting for that Dust game to show up on my marketplace so I can get iiiit.

I'm looking forward to seeing Halo 4 versions of past helmets. I really like the look of the leg armour on the Engineer and Rogue unlockable sets, I prefer the angular style to the more streamlined look.

I remember being blown away by the amount of customisation we were getting in Reach to start with, but feeling like I didn't have a whole lot to choose from once I unlocked everything lol. I hope 343 have the ability to add additional armour and customisation options through DLC in the future to keep things fresh!

 

[Sikamikanico]

Okay...I have slept on it, and y'know, I'm okay with all the mod/perk/specialization malarkey.

Personally, I don't think they are going to alter the game all that much. I see people talking about how Halo 2 (pinnacle of the series my arse) was amazing because you could predict what an enemy was going to do etc. And yes, you could, but to a very small degree. You don't know if they have rockets, or shotgun or sword...usually until it's too late. Except now in Halo 4, they might have something and they think they have a clear cut advantage, but I may have a mod in my setup that may allow me to work a miracle and beat them in the encounter. Some of you may think that's a bad thing, I find that pretty interesting from a gameplay perspective. No more annoying than how I usually get beaten or beat someone. Just more varied, more nuanced.

For example, I love driving vehicles and supporting my team in BTB. So, the idea of a mod that allows me to regain vehicle health quicker is attractive. And one of my pals loves to gun, so he'd pick the mod that allows quicker turrent cooldown etc.

So we're cruising the battlefield destroying the enemy team. Now, we'd normally have to avoid the usual - stickies, rockets, EMP bursts....except this time, one of the enemy team might say to themselves, "I just got owned by that Hog, best use my anti-vehicle loadout" so they boot it up, and they might have a mod that extra damage to vehicles, or a tripmine or some other crazy thing. It feels like it's all about more emergent gameplay, tuning your spartan on the fly to counter different scenarios.

I know Halo is (or at least, was) an arena shooter, and I loved it back in the day. But as much as I may enjoy "classic" in Halo 4, I want to embrace the new and the different, because I'd rather play a game with lots of players, a game where wait-times are minimal, opponents are varied, gameplay is varied. I don't want Halo 4 to be the fragmented "try-to-please-every-tiny-subset-of-the-fanbase" that Reach ended up being, because that game became a chore to play. Have I got bloom this time? Or a little bit of bloom? Or none at all? Is there bleedthrough? Reach became a mess, and remains a mess.

Halo 4, for better or worse, is a very different game. The ability for it to be a stripped down arena shooter will still be there, but I plan to dive headfirst in all the new hotness and see how it plays out.

Hope that made some sense anyway.

 

[TheOddOne]

Now that we have heard about specializations, I really want to know what rank system they have and how it will be balanced.

 

[ZalinKrow]

I'm looking forward to seeing Halo 4 versions of past helmets. I really like the look of the leg armour on the Engineer and Rogue unlockable sets, I prefer the angular style to the more streamlined look.

I remember being blown away by the amount of customisation we were getting in Reach to start with, but feeling like I didn't have a whole lot to choose from once I unlocked everything lol. I hope 343 have the ability to add additional armour and customisation options through DLC in the future to keep things fresh!

Yeah I definitely agree, especially with the bolded part That's why I'm hoping there's still plenty we haven't seen, cause once I've seen them all and get used to them I'll probably start feeling the same (I'm greedy) lol.

And that was a good post Sikamikanico Made sense to me anyway heh

 

[ElzarTheBam]

Snip

A great post, as was Ghal's.

It is nice seeing a reasonable argument coming from both sides.

 

[TS x Massacre]

So far, I seem to be in the minority that doesn't really think I'll be too affected by specializations that they'll ruin anything, I'm still remaining positive, but...

Where is ranking system and what is it? Please have one. I know it may not seem like a big deal to the devs and seem just like bragging rights, but for some reason getting a higher skill rank is just fun to me. It's mainly why I enjoy Starcraft 2's system, and play it nightly now.

I hate to resort back to this discussion, but it just becomes a bigger deal to me everytime something new is announced.

 

[The Librarian]

Predictability of outcome is really important when playing a game, as is knowing my opponent's capabilities. When I do X, Y happens. It enables us to make decisions about what to do in a given situation.

With Reach, bloom and armor abilities to various degrees messed with this. That was bad.

Halo 4 appears to be making things worse.

Sometimes when I sneak up on someone sniping, they won't be able to see me coming. Sometimes, they'll be able to see me because of a perk they have active.

Sometimes me pinging them will impair their ability to fire back. Sometimes not because their reticule recoil is suppressed.

Sometimes tagging a rampaging Warthog with an EMP from the plasma pistol will stop it. Some times it will keep going.

Sometimes I'll chew up a Warthog and call out it's low health to my team, who can kill it. Sometimes it's health will come back faster.

Sometimes I'll strip someone's shields at the same time they do mine, and we'll fall back and recharge at the same rate. Sometimes theirs will be faster. Sometimes I'll be faster.

Sometimes I'll hear that guy sprinting up on me with a sword. Sometimes his sound will be suppressed.

And so on. None of these things sound good to me. None of them sound like they will improve the game at all.

...

More and more Halo 4 is turning into something I've been afraid it would turn into, as part of what I loved about Halo's multiplayer game is sapped from it. I hope I'm wrong. I hope the tweaks are all so small as to not matter. But reading the IGN article just made me kinda sad. I wish this wasn't being done to Halo.

At this risk of posting this too early (7:00 EDT), and not getting as many responses as I'd like, I'm going to do it anyway.

And this is open to ALL fans who think Halo 3 has the best multiplayer, and don't like what they're seeing in Halo 4 with specializations and AAs.

I want to play devil's advocate for a moment. This post makes the case against the concept of not knowing all the cards in a player's hand until you meet him or her in a fight. Firefights aren't only decided by player skill and what happens over the course of the match, but what players select in a menu, too. If a player is playing a Halo game in the mold of Halo 1 or 2 – and, to an extent, Halo 3, and we'll get to that in a moment – every player knows and can see all the pieces on the board before the match starts. There's a predictability to it, and it was very much like a game of chess, as Shake implied.

However, this was not true at all times within Halo 3. During the events of the match players would pick up equipment, like a bubble shield or a regenerator, and not deploy them until they were at a disadvantage in a firefight. You didn't know a player had a bubble shield until you dropped his or her shields and that person deployed it to try to alter the outcome of a battle. This is very similar to fighting someone and not knowing they have jetpack, or camo, Promethean vision, and the like until you engage them on a map.

So, my questions is this: What specifically is the most troublesome? Is it the concept you don't like, or is it the degree to which it is applied? Or is it the implementation of the concept? Were the other factors in the game good enough to cause you to overlook the concept?

 

[Slightly Live]

At this risk of posting this too early (7:00 EDT), and not getting as many responses as I'd like, I'm going to do it anyway.

And this is open to ALL fans who think Halo 3 has the best multiplayer, and don't like what they're seeing in Halo 4 with specializations and AAs.

I want to play devil's advocate for a moment. This post makes the case against the concept of not knowing all the cards in a player's hand until you meet him or her in a fight. Firefights aren't only decided by player skill and what happens over the course of the match, but what players select in a menu, too. If a player is playing a Halo game in the mold of Halo 1 or 2 – and, to an extent, Halo 3, and we'll get to that in a moment – every player knows and can see all the pieces on the board before the match starts. There's a predictability to it, and it was very much like a game of chess, as Shake implied.

However, this was not true at all times within Halo 3. During the events of the match players would pick up equipment, like a bubble shield or a regenerator, and not deploy them until they were at a disadvantage in a firefight. You didn't know a player had a bubble shield until you dropped his or her shields and that person deployed it to try to alter the outcome of a battle. This is very similar to fighting someone and not knowing they have jetpack, or camo, Promethean vision, and the like until you engage them on a map.

So, my questions is this: What specifically is the most troublesome? Is it the concept you don't like, or is it the degree to which it is applied? Or is it the implementation of the concept? Were the other factors in the game good enough to cause you to overlook the concept?

You are are ignoring the basic fact that all equipment in Halo 3 had to be picked up from the map itself. If your team wanted bubble, you had to fight for it. If the other team had it, your team was careless or lost control of it.

Equipment was just like any other weapon in that regard. More like power weapons really. If they are on a map, they need to be fought over and controlled.

So trying to imply Halo 3's equipment and any of the systems in Reach and Halo 4 are anywhere similar is just silly.

I have no idea if some dude is going to have see through walls and extra silent footsteeps or a million other possible combo's. I can't fight him or his team for control of the jetpack or his extra ammo rounds.

In Halo 1-3 every player starts off which the same abilities and the same access to weapons, which extra powerups and vehicles and weapons being wholly map dependant. Everyone is the same, all is equal and fair.

In Reach, players can have have one of many loadouts. Someone players are the same, others are not. None is equal.

In Halo 4, players can have hundreds of possible loadout combinations. No two players will be the same. No chance is hell of equality.

Halo 4, more than Reach, takes the philosophy that every player is equal and winning is determined entirely by skill and tosses it out of the window in favour of gameplay influencing customisation.

 

[Amazing Mic]

Every single perk described seems very subtle- hardly some game-breaking design. If a decent player loses to a lesser player more than 1 out of 10 solely due to these perks, I'll be shocked.

The amount of venom and lack of perspective is getting ridiculous.

 

[FyreWulff]

So, my questions is this: What specifically is the most troublesome? Is it the concept you don't like, or is it the degree to which it is applied? Or is it the implementation of the concept? Were the other factors in the game good enough to cause you to overlook the concept?

Right now, my main annoyance is the blatant money grab aspect of the specializations (which is another post for me entirely) not even being unlockable via player action unless you pay 100$. The "it was content made specifically for the LE" excuse stops working here; this is components of the sandbox that affect everyone, not just your cosmetic appearance.

The original language just seemed like an EARLY unlock, as in it gave you a couple for free or something while everyone else had to put in time to unlock, but it was still available if you put the time in.

As it turns out, 100$ gets you these abilities that people have no path to acquiring until 343 decides they can:

- the ability to change the ordnance drop
- the ability to not be knocked out of scope when shot at
- the ability to get a waypoint over the last person that killed you and anyone that shot you
- the ability to walk faster with a turret
- the ability to have your vehicles ignore or mostly ignore being EMPed

That just straight up does not sit well with me. At all.

 

[Sikamikanico]

So, my questions is this: What specifically is the most troublesome? Is it the concept you don't like, or is it the degree to which it is applied? Or is it the implementation of the concept? Were the other factors in the game good enough to cause you to overlook the concept?

A player having jetpack, or power drainer, or a bigger better gun, or a shield regenerator never annoyed me too much - it's part of the game. Armour lock however, stopped combat. That's different. There was no "shit-now-they-have-the-advantage" moment, they just stopped, I stopped, and armour lock either ran out or a teammate came and bailed them out. That annoyed me.

But getting power drained or bubbleshielded etc, I never really saw as a problem.

In Halo 4 all of the currently revealed mods suggest simiilar styles. Little buffs, small variations to mix things up and cater to different playstyles. Nothing announced so far scares me. I just want to play the game.

I like the concept and as long as there is no "one-mod-to-rule-them-all" (like stopping power from COD) then I am fine with it.

As Slightly said, what he's worried about is that the concept of everyone starting on an equal footing and fighting FOR these buffs/items has gone out of the window, and the magic of traditional Halo game has been lost.

And yes, in that regard, it's totally different. But that equal footing only exists at the start of a game. After that, it's all changed.

As a somewhat competent Halo player, I have had games (I'm sure we all have) where no matter what I do, the other team always seems to have rockets, or sword, or they just hold up with all the power weapons and either camp or destroy me on spawn. Some of you would probably argue that all that means is I've have been outclassed, outplayed, and generally deserve to lose.

But as a game, it becomes a frustrating experience to constantly get destroyed by the guy camping with sword, or the guy with jetpack and rockets. At least now, I have the opportunity to switch up how to tackle that situation, as yes, they may have a bigger gun or a different mod - but I may have a counter to the situation that allows me to change how the battle unfolds. I think, personally, this stands to be an improvement to the way it could play out.

Camping with sword? With PV, I might be able to see you and approach the fight in a very different way.

Again, hope that makes sense - I'm posting from work, and have to be somewhat subtle and pretend to actually be working. It's gun b k GAF. It's gun b k.

 

[Woorloog]

As it turns out, 100$ gets you these abilities that people have no path to acquiring until 343 decides they can:

I got the impression you can start unlocking specializations once you've finished the main leveling progression, sort of Prestige mode.
But that's just the impression, don't actually know how i got it...

 

[Myyke]

Okay...I have slept on it, and y'know, I'm okay with all the mod/perk/specialization malarkey.

Personally, I don't think they are going to alter the game all that much. I see people talking about how Halo 2 (pinnacle of the series my arse) was amazing because you could predict what an enemy was going to do etc. And yes, you could, but to a very small degree. You don't know if they have rockets, or shotgun or sword...usually until it's too late. Except now in Halo 4, they might have something and they think they have a clear cut advantage, but I may have a mod in my setup that may allow me to work a miracle and beat them in the encounter. Some of you may think that's a bad thing, I find that pretty interesting from a gameplay perspective. No more annoying than how I usually get beaten or beat someone. Just more varied, more nuanced.

For example, I love driving vehicles and supporting my team in BTB. So, the idea of a mod that allows me to regain vehicle health quicker is attractive. And one of my pals loves to gun, so he'd pick the mod that allows quicker turrent cooldown etc.

So we're cruising the battlefield destroying the enemy team. Now, we'd normally have to avoid the usual - stickies, rockets, EMP bursts....except this time, one of the enemy team might say to themselves, "I just got owned by that Hog, best use my anti-vehicle loadout" so they boot it up, and they might have a mod that extra damage to vehicles, or a tripmine or some other crazy thing. It feels like it's all about more emergent gameplay, tuning your spartan on the fly to counter different scenarios.

I know Halo is (or at least, was) an arena shooter, and I loved it back in the day. But as much as I may enjoy "classic" in Halo 4, I want to embrace the new and the different, because I'd rather play a game with lots of players, a game where wait-times are minimal, opponents are varied, gameplay is varied. I don't want Halo 4 to be the fragmented "try-to-please-every-tiny-subset-of-the-fanbase" that Reach ended up being, because that game became a chore to play. Have I got bloom this time? Or a little bit of bloom? Or none at all? Is there bleedthrough? Reach became a mess, and remains a mess.

Halo 4, for better or worse, is a very different game. The ability for it to be a stripped down arena shooter will still be there, but I plan to dive headfirst in all the new hotness and see how it plays out.

Hope that made some sense anyway.

To be honest, I thought after reading about the specialisations that competitive players would embrace them. From the way I see it, it just further defines a layer of team strategy that has always been there - different players have different skill sets, strengths and weaknesses so generally play different roles within a team. Specialisations gives you a chance to either further enhance individual strengths or moderate individual weaknesses and helps to further define key roles for players within a team.

 

[Caja 117]

Every single perk described seems very subtle- hardly some game-breaking design. If a decent player loses to a lesser player more than 1 out of 10 solely due to these perks, I'll be shocked.

The amount of venom and lack of perspective is getting ridiculous.

You only see it from the 1 v 1 perspective, which is wrong, the impact these "add-ons" could have on the game is that in most cases it could prolong the encounters, slowing down Kill times (in most cases you will end up getting killed by someone else), this is one of the main problems with Halo reach, the slow kill times.

To be honest, I thought after reading about the specialisations that competitive players would embrace them. From the way I see it, it just further defines a layer of team strategy that has always been there - different players have different skill sets, strengths and weaknesses so generally play different roles within a team. Specialisations gives you a chance to either further enhance individual strengths or moderate individual weaknesses and helps to further define key roles for players within a team.

It could be, but the same was said about Halo reach armor abilities. When MLG decides to start working on their Halo 4 version, they will go trough it and analyze how could impact the game, anything that promotes camping and longer encounters will not be used by them. not to mention that the hardcore competitive Halo player is a purist by definition, so even if MLG adopts any of the specialization, many people will be vocal about it.

 

[FyreWulff]

I got the impression you can start unlocking specializations once you've finished the main leveling progression, sort of Prestige mode.
But that's just the impression, don't actually know how i got it...

You can only choose between Pioneer or Wetworks until 343 has decided the LE purchasers have had their fun.

 

[Sikamikanico]

You can only choose between Pioneer or Wetworks until 343 has decided the LE purchasers have had their fun.

Is it really that big of a deal that LE purchasers (who choose to spend extra money) get early access to 8 specializations from a plethora of specializations, and that those 8 will eventually be available to everyone? It's a total non-issue in my opinion.

They only take up a "mod" slot anyway, and there are plenty of other modifications available it seems.

 

[StalkerUKCG]

Has everyone stopped overreacting and throwing bitch fits yet?

 

[Sikamikanico]

Has everyone stopped overreacting and throwing bitch fits yet?

Certainly seems calmer with more reasoned discussions, yes.

 

[Fuchsdh]

My thoughts thus far is that I'm slightly irked there's not any visual way to know what specialization they're using (beyond observing the effects of them using them.)

I think the other possible issue is that there's not so much a downside to using them--they're bonuses, and using one is always better than not using one. That suggests some balance issues that could crop up, but if it's an "imperfect balance" a la StarCraft 2 I'm not worried.

There seems like a lot of places where team spamming a specialization could be really frustrating, but considering how little teams coordinate I doubt that'd be an issue in most games. Not sure what that means for more "pro"-oriented players.

 

[aj1467]

We can use the tactical and support mods in Spartan Ops right?

 

[Woorloog]

We can use the tactical and support mods in Spartan Ops right?

Yes... Specializations unlock one mod for one of those categories. There ain't 3 perks in this games like in COD but 2+1 AA.

 

[Mister Negative]

Ninja shares his opinions on Halo 4.

This was hard to take seriously once he got to the part about the ranking system, considering that the guy has made a two part video about how Halo 4 "NEEDS" to have a 1-50 ranking system.

 

[aj1467]

Yes... Specializations unlock one for one of those categories. There ain't 3 perks in this games like in COD but 2+1 AA.

Sweet. Just making sure.

Rogue, Pathfinder and Operator are gonna come in handy for SpOps then. Should bring some extra variety to the encounters, on multiple playthroughs.