This is my second post, but this is very similar format to the Total Miner: Forge forums and I am pretty familiar with the setup. This is very thorough and includes every detail because if 343 reads this, then they will know what we are thinking. I won't be surprised that they don't ever read this though. I may state everything like it WILL happen but it won't, I am simply stating ideas and am trying not to sound demanding. If Halo 4 is already too far into programming that none of this can be put in, perhaps Halo 5 can have some of these ideas.
DO NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE LENGTH OF THIS, IT IS NOT YOUR JOB TO COMPLAIN ABOUT IT
This will be very long, and will require special organising to understand it all. I will organise this by
>>Topic and >Detail. You don't have to read it all, but I recommend you do! Sit down, get comfy, and read away!
Now, let's get started!
>>What new features would you like added?
>New Spartan Armor. There was a decently large amount of variety in Halo: Reach in armor types. The thing is is that there are far too many people using the same helmets and visor colors. What if they had a full spectrum of colors? What if they had a hundred new armor types? I am sure there will be alot of types that are rarely seen but then again it would be wonderful if they added more armor types.
>New characters. This is by far the one that means the most to me, so that means it will be VERY long! I think about it every single day. What if you could play as a UNSC marine? What if you could play as a hunter? A brute? There would have to be a new game mode added to allow this. The rules will have to change for all characters. Choose your character like you would a class. (let's say UNSC: Spartan spawn time=8 seconds, ODST spawn time=6 seconds, Marine spawn time=2 seconds, and Spartans being killed will give more points than a marine being killed)There will be special abilities for each type: Spartans are the classic shielded supersoldiers the world knows, while ODST shock troopers can choose a location by the specified area they can spawn in. When they choose a location, they can instantly spawn there. This would mean very technical programming and I personally would think they are not a good idea to have on the game. ODST troopers have half of the shields a Spartan has. A marine has no shields but slightly increased health. Maybe let them swim, since they are the lightest of all. You know that song "Billionaire" by Bruno Mars? I thought of this: "I wanna be a UNSC marine, soo fricken bad". Very off topic, yes, and my favorite idea. For customizability, it could be changed just like Spartan armor, but with different types and looks is all. I don't know what to say about the ODST troopers but with marines I have observed in Halo: Reach, there isn't that much that makes them different from Spartans exept for a visible face, or with blacklava over it. I did notice that they sometimes don't have helmets, so that could be an option. I made my spartan look alot like a marine one day and it was convincing to a friend.
For the Covenant, things really change. All Covenant soldiers have the same look, exept for ranks. Let's say this:
Grunt=instant spawn, Jackal/Skirmisher=5 seconds, Elite=8 seconds, Brute=15 seconds, Hunter=25 seconds. Grunts can wield basically any Covenant weapon and have remarkably low health. They can only wield Covenant weapons and can pilot all Covenant vehicles exept for banshees. The Skirmishers/Jackals have a similar setup, no shields, but can only fire light weapons/sniper weapons. They are very fast and dangerous. Their melee is weak. It would be a good choice to be a sniper instead of a frontline soldier, but then again Jackals can wield energy shields. It wouldn't last against a sniper rifle or rocket though. Elites are exactly like the ones in Reach. They have different rank looks. They have full ability of everyting. Brutes can pilot most Covenant vehicles but not all, including the banshee. They can wield all covenant weapons. They have alot more health, can not be assasinated, and have no shields. The disclaimer is that there is an increased spawn timer. The Hunter is by far the weirdest of all types. They don't use any vehicles, and they don't use weapons. They only have one weapon, which is the assault beam. The beam has a cooldown time after use, as well as a warm up time, and unlimited ammunition. They are pretty slow and have a ton of health. Only a few players (probably 2 is a good idea) get to use the hunters.They don't have to reload or switch weapons ever. That means they can do different things like smash behind them at an attacking enemy with Y or put up their shield with L2. Their melee is devastating to all enemies and sends their foes flying away from them. They could charge the enemy with L1. It would be pretty fun wiping out the enemy doing that. The HUD would have to change for the Hunter. I don't want to go much into detail about the HUD because this is far too long for details.
>Change display weapons. It would be pretty cool to show your gun style to show what weapon you wield in the "display case" when players view your armor. What if you look at my guy, a marine with a huge rocket launcher, or holding a shotgun. I would find it pretty easy to program that into the game in my opinion.
>>What new weapons, armor abilities, game modes, etc. would you like added?
>Dual Wielding. I was dissapointed by the fact that I couldn't dual wield magnums, even though it is unprofessional looking. It may mean the come back of the SMG. (even though Reach was before they were invented, as well as the battle rifle and many other things)
>Ammo crate/Plasma storage. Wouldn't it be nice to get ammunition without having to wait for another weapon of that type to spawn? Ammo crates could provide ammunition for the UNSC, and the plasma storage stashes plasma for plasma-using weapons. Ammo crates do not provide shots for rockets and grenades, and plasma stores don't provide ammo toward fuel rod cannons and neetle weapons. Maybe there could be another thing that gives special ammunition.
>MAC cannon laser strike. In Reach, the wonderful air strike weapon was one of my favorite weapons. Unfortunately, it isn't on forge mode. What would be totally awesome and overkill is to have a MAC cannon laser strike. It would be very nice for large scale wars. Drop total hell on your enemy with it. It would require a special position on Halo 4, like shooting down a Corvette.
>More melee weapons. What if there were more melee weapons like knives, energy knifes (for the covenant) or even swords? Energy swords make you lunge and kill with one swing. The knife version shouldn't make you lunge, but if you are close enough, still pack a deadly punch. I wouldn't know how to fit this into the wielded things, but for the sword, you could swing it like you would an energy sword.
>Boats. I was confused when I discovered there were no boats in Reach. It is in the future, shouldn't there be boats? They were the first technology humans traveled on to get across long distances. I thought the ghost and wraith could float on water, but they don't, and yes, I drove each vehicle into water.
>Human Turrets. What I didn't understand along with the boat problem was that there was a covenant turret but no human turret! Can't they add a vulcan machine turret or some sort of gatling weapon? I love UNSC and everything they use. I would overuse the turret if I had it.
>Pelicans. It was pretty cool to see pelicans come and drop off vehicles for you in Reach campaign. What I would like even more is if you could fly a pelican, and have players/NPC's sit in the back as you fly in and drop them at the enemy area. Hover mode, fly mode, maybe press Y to change between modes. Press B to pick up a vehicle to drop off for the soldiers to use, and B again to drop the vehicle. This would be the absolutely perfect thing for large scale battles (like that game MAG for Playstation 3) where a ton of players wage war on eachother in 300 player battles. I wouldn't be surprised if 343 can't get a game engine to run that many players under the same game, but I am not saying they are inadequate, it's just that it would take far too long to develop. I would say to leave it for the future.
>Remotely controlled vehicles. Why not drive a small vehicle with a gun attached to it into a warzone? Why not put a machine gun on a tiny helicopter drone? Just throwing that out there for you to think about.
>Armored vehicles. Could there be a vehicle that is slightly more powerful than a Warthog with a turret attached to it? I was thinking something that sheltered the driver and gunner (and passengers, if they want an APC-similar vehicle) from getting killed or hijacked so easily. One man can very easily wreck a tank. Really? How about one man wrecking an armored Warthog, with a full shell and an armored machine gun, or gauss cannon. Something like the modern hummer we see in the Middle East. That way, our marines/Spartans don't get wrecked so fast.
>Corvettes. Another mass-scale war vehicle. Rain the wrath of the Covenant on the helpless victims down below, while having a whole Covenant army just waiting to be launched (on a dropship) down to battle. Perhaps the NPC's can fill the void of the 276 missing players. If you think about it, Halo 4 could be the next gen hybrid of real time strategy and first person shooter! Let's say you don't have to pilot the Corvette. Let's say you can get on a drop ship and wait for the NPC in charge to drop them. You could control when to use the beam! You could use a cannon to shoot at your tiny enemies below! You could even patrol the Corvette, watching out for a raid party that busts in trying to bring it down! (yes, taken from Reach's campaign) It's true that Corvettes go outside of the atmosphere but these things could stay at one high altitude and just move around, raining drop ships and the Beam O' Destruction on the enemy, and if a raid party brings it down, then the Corvette coming down can waste a whole ton of NPC's and/or players! I would run under the Corvette and get blown up just for the fun of it.
>A multiplayer battle mode that has alot of NPC allies to help you out. (as mentioned multiple times above) With many elements stated above, NPC's could play a huge role in how things work! You are sitting in the back of a Pelican, and there are many other marines in the Pelican sitting with you. You are pursued by an NPC controlled banshee, and they shoot at you, hitting a couple marines. A man with a rocket launcher brings it down. Suddenly, the Pelican is hit by a Wraith and *Oh noes!* it starts falling, and while its falling, many NPC's and players bail out of the destroyed Pelican, as it smashes the ground and explodes, killing many. Now you and many NPC's are hiking toward the drop location. There are many grunts and elites, and jackals (also controlled by NPC's) in the base you are supposed to be attacking and they are shooting at you. Some marines in a Warthog and a Scorpion drive by, shooting down enemies. Whats this? A Corvette! *Oh noes again!* A drop ship drops off a couple of player controlled hunters and brutes! Numbers are dwindling, and there are only a few marines and Spartans left. The Corvette hovers over them and *Oh noes x2!* blasts them to next week! You have been killed by "halo lover12345" (not a real name)
>Drop your weapon. Put your hands up! If you drop your weapon, another player can take it in return for their weapon for a good weapon trade, or if you are the role playing type, surrender to the enemy! Don't ask me what button to press, maybe double tap all of the front triggers.
>A firefight mode with NPC's to help out. By now you must be getting tired of hearing Non-Player Character but this game mode is like firefight, where you must hold off the enemy as they grow larger in numbers and you have less and less allied marines/Spartans to help because of casualties. (maybe ODST, depending on the situation) Once all of your NPC allies die, and you are overwhelmed by Covenant, and die, game over! Simple as that. You can only be a Spartan in this game mode.
>Team work points. For being a team player, as in giving your weapon to a player and that player gets a kill, you get a small bonus for being a good player. Maybe you get assist points or savior points. A system similar to Call of Duty: Black Ops. (copyright laws are understood)
>How about a mode that dosen't include NPC's? (for once) A forge ball has a grid, and can not let go of it. It can rotate and move it. The forge ball's goal is to track down and kill the players who are hiding from the forge ball. It's like hide and seek. The forge ball moves slightly slower than a cruising Warthog. That way, if the forge ball is chasing down a runner, the runner has a chance to get away. The forge ball can corner the runner on the sea shore and whack them out of here! *home run!* Me and my friend do this all the time on Reach's forge mode.
Finally, the last subject!
>>What new Forge/NPC options and abilities would you like added?
>Terrain editability. Morph and change the terrain. Have tools on the edge of easy-to-use to shape a natural level.
>Add and program NPC's. Add an NPC, and program it on the spot. In basic options, you can do stuff like set a route for it to walk/run on, and what weapon it has. In advanced options, you can change their awareness, accuracy, etc. and you can give it a job to do like control a vehicle and fly it to and from a location, have it be gunner for a vehicle, and if the vehicle is destroyed, they go down with it. They could jump out of a vehicle that is about to explode, and then run over to the nearest player. If there are no players alive, it will go to the nearest NPC. It should have its own section under the forge ball menu. Stuff like "edit terrain, vehicles, NPC's, construction, etc." In the menu it says UNSC or Covenant, or natural and depending on the section you choose, it lets you place an NPC like any object, exept you can only rotate the character. The game host can have a special section in the start menu that allows them to "enable NPC's" to test them. Doing this starts a new match and allows players to forge ball around. The NPC's should ignore forge balls but shoot the player when they are in person mode. Add NPC spawns for them to respawn on and where you place them to start is the initial spawn.
This is MY BIGGEST WANT for Halo 4.
>Ammunition Crates/Plasma Storages. A new addition to the objects section of forge. They both have 3 types: Regular, that provides standard ammo, special, that provides special ammo (including grenades), and universal, which provides ammo for everything. (including Covenant/UNSC ammo)
>Disable forge ball and team changing for other players. Hosts should be able to manipulate what players can do. If you are testing a level and need players to get in a battle on it, disable forge ball first and when enough players show up, disable team changing. That way, the host can watch over them in forge ball mode, sort of like beta testing. Then again, another good way to mess with them! Put a grid under the level and after they start fighting, blast them out of here! *Home run!*
>Make the advanced options in forge more understandable. Maybe include a manual? Let's hammer this into your head: Some people can't understand it. Make the options more simple, or just give us a handy manual to read.
>Change the climate/time of day. Make it night time with a chance of rain. Make it sunny with a chance of snow. Make it noon with overcast skies. Simple enough, right?
>Change the background of the forge level. If there were a new type of level called "flat" where you change the terrain into what you want, you should manipulate the background as well. They would have to be preset, unless you are a master tech designer. Make the background ocean. Make the background mountains. Make the background a huge ocean of hills. Make the background a city under the chaos of war.
>Add foliage. Add some trees here, bushes there. Oh! How about a fallen tree! Just a bunch of tree and bush type designs is what I was thinking here.
>Add water! Make a pond in the middle of the level. Maybe just edit the water level and make a little crater with the terrain editor to make the pond. Make an ocean surround a little island.
>Add animals. Just like NPC's, add animals (probably mostly birds) but also them huge things encountered on Reach to spice up the experience of a level. Just like the NPC's earlier, program them exactly as mentioned. Make them attack only one faction perhaps. No, not birds bombing Covenant. I'm talking about the beast things. Be logical, you're almost done!
>Much more budget space. I don't agree with the slim budget we had in Reach. Increase it to 15000? 20000? I wouldn't push it to the point where the game lags out. NPC's shouldn't cost much, and there should be at least 25 to 50 addable!
>Infinite budget. Not my brightest idea, but it would be the glory of forge. It's like having an all you can eat buffet, exept it's not a buffet! LAG IS A HUGE ISSUE! I REPEAT, HUGE ISSUE. Seriously, crashing your Xbox is the last thing we want to happen! It's like eating too much at the buffet and you get sick! The Red Ring of Death might pop up alot on forge mode without a budget.
>Weapon holders. For the Covenant, it would be totally fine having the ones they had in Halo 3, but for the UNSC, they could have wall mounts that are like magnets to UNSC weapons. Have a "phantom" of a gun attached to it when you hold the UNSC mount so you can position it right. Make the weapon easy to place! On Halo 3, it was a pain putting a weapon on a holder only to have it used up by your friend instantly!
YOU READ IT ALL IM HAPPY YOU DID!
Make sure to give me your own opinion about all of these. It is many peoples ideas about the game, not just mine. I dislike many of these ideas myself. It is for you, the community, to read it and give it a good reputation.
I spent 8 hours starting now on this whole presentation for you. Make sure to spread the word about this, because i'm not letting 8 hours of work go un-noticed.
Here is a nice list of wonderful ideas generated from a great thinker, BraverKING514.
He organised things differently than I did, but it's simple enough:
Full Effect Invasion:
This is a list of the ideas I believe would make the game so awesome that COD will be blown off its throne. Please ask your own ideas, even if you think it's too crazy too work in the game. Halo was made through ideas thought to be the same. Too crazy to work. But they did...
1. Have maps that span both space and land. If I am needed to attack a cruiser to save my objective, I can grab a pelican and some buddys and I can overload its engines, or if my job is to defend it until it can glass the objective, that can happen. Add drop pods as well.
2. Two sided winning. If there is a ship attacking let the defenders attack it and take it out and reverse the fight. Give the attackers one last chance to turn battle around.This would cause an unparalleled realism to the combat, as if it was really happening.
3. AI integreated gamplay. This would let you have such a huge map without lag and it would add a better effect to it. I would love fighting with hunters and ODST online. This would hopefully be the thing that lets you put in phantoms, pelicans, scarbs and everything else. (what did I tell you? others think like I do!)
4.Realistic objectives. Add in things that would happen in the Halo universe. Forerunner objectives, such as shield barriers like the ones in Halo 3's mission "The Covenant". Ships like Forward Unto Dawn, of realistic size and interactions. Let the Covenant use glassing beams and the UNSC use MAC cannons to destroy objectives. If I have to press a button to activate something in campagin, shouldn't I do it online? I press RB and my character moves his/her hand and presses it. Thats all I can think of in this category. Please add on.
5.Custom Maps for this gametype need to be from the ground up, like in custom edition. Have things such as a cruiser in the spawning index. Let it be some be scenery, to make it look like a fleet, and others be realistic and have full access, as if it was really there. (this would mean to have just the image of the object for background details and no physical properties, and vice versa) Let players be able to make anything that was seen in the campaigns. If I want to recreate the mission "The Ark" pebble for pebble and have the same interactions (the
Dawn coming from space for example) I could, but with online play.Make the building and moving doors be a part of the spawn index. I recommend using different section to store everything in, so I can find the option to spawn it in the "Forerunner buildings" section. Please no budget, it's too hard to add details with limited budget. Players have always said that the maps made in custom edition were the best in existance.
6.Lighting, weather and nature. If I want a level that is in the night, I can do it. Also let the weather effect combat. (wind that effects sniping, but the SCOUT armor varient can tell you where to shoot.) If the SPARTAN program was real the armor woud tell the soilder EVERYTHING about his enviroment. Plus, random indiginous animals would add more realism to the battlefield. If possible add in waves, storms and other ambient effects.
7. Highly interactive maps. If I wan to place a bomb behind me in the ship to take out a few enemies, I can ram it into the wall. If I want to jam a door until it is destroyed I can shoot the control panel. If I wat to make a barrrier I can. PS, make most parts of a map destroyable, that way a bomb going off will behave realistically and if its in the wall next to space, stuff (including players and AI) will get sucked into space. Put in emergency doors that close,so not everything gets destroyed. Also have hidden air ducts so you can sneak to the objective.
343 MUST NOT FALL INTO THE TRAP BUNGIE DID! Halo took the idea of a video and redefined it. It made everyone who played remember it. Halo was the top dog, the one to beat. Bungie made the mistake of not continually changing the idea of a video game, exept in the storyline, and so they abandonded what made Halo so great.
1. Put all of the campagin things into the online on huge maps. Pelicans, Phantoms, Scarabs, AA Wraiths, ect.
2. Put in armor that needs only achievements (make a few hard like Hayabusa in Halo 3). Also have some that need credit and achievements or credit and rank.
3. Have each armor piece effect you. EOD protects against explosions, but slows you down. CQB protects against shotguns and improves energy sword deflects. Make the knife an attachment that improves hand to hand (and assassinations). Also, many people want custom armor. (I don't know how that would work, but it would be sweet and I'm sure that 343 can do it.)
4. Forgable Firefight maps. Taking custom games to a whole new level.
5. Flood AI gametype. Somthing to make COD shove "Zombies" up its... You get the point. Also make it possible to win, hard but beatable.
6. Ground up forging. You can choose the terrain bulidings/ships (people want online space battles, connected to the ground if possible) The style should be custom as well. (Covenant, Human, Flood, Forerunner and whatever else you guys have in store.) This includes firefight. It would be amazing to have a grunt filled Rupe Goldburg machine. (and I [bwdwtw] have no clue what he is asking here)
7. AI integrated online play. For example, take Invasion, add AI's to both sides (hunters, grunts, brutes, marines, ODST's, everything) and let them be able to pick up objectives (bombs, data cores, ect.) and fullfill them like a player would.
8.First person options for vehicles. (I've always wondered what splattered grunt juice looks like on your dashboard)
9. Weapon inprovements. (supressors, sights that allow for headshots on guns such as the AR, and other things that you can think of.)
10. Custom Campaign. Let custom maps have theatrics and campain style objectives so the cam be linked so players can make their own story.
11. Larger maps will need larger teams. My friends have sugested 24-32 players. Even more if you decide to link air and land battles, or adding a ton of AI.
12. In field weapon and vehicle customization/improvements. Also ground up vehicles in forge would be a good idea.
13. 1st person presentaion. Halo's story is the best I've ever seen. If you keep the actions the Cheif does in first person, this little touch will add a lot of epic and awesome effects to it. To bring back Halo you must blow Battlefield 3 out of the water! Remember, they have only Earth. We have an ENTIRE galaxy AND the Forerunners! With a different graphics engine and better presentaion of cinematics with alot of this stuff you would have spawned a game that truly gives justice to the Halo franchise and will leave an impression on the hearts of millions.
14. Have destroyable bulidings and ships. That way, if I want to make an assault map that has its target in a buliding, and so when the bomb goes off it collapses on itself, it can collapse and wreck things it lands on. (Make this an OPTION, that way you can have both!)
15. Improve the music!!! Halo 3 and Halo 3 ODST's music sent chills down my spine. Reach's not so much, many other others agree. (true that) (343 needs Martin O'Donald and Michael Salvitorie to make the music again! I think they're the best pair since Cheif and Cortana.) (I personally do think that the music is better than all of CoD's, so let's not be mean to the conductors!)
