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Halo |OT13|

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Dax01 posted a quote from the Lead Game Designer and he said that they went for the more linear level design instead of the more bigger level design as seen in Halo 3 and Reach. Can’t find Dax’s post, but it explains pretty much why we got the linear campaign for Halo 4.
I don't even mind the sizes of the areas in Halo 4, its the encounter design and AI that they need to work on most, campaign wise. Linear-wide areas are OK if I they are truly replayable and offer a multitude of ways to tackle them, and a multitude of enemy reactions.
 

enzo_gt

tagged by Blackace
It is just sad that they didn't embrace the semi open-world like level design that Halo was/is known for.
I've never understood this. this was always illusory, and Halo 4 isn't really that much less open than many of the other games. The only difference is the greater emphasis on mid-sized areas instead of massive ones.

I think we'll see bigger ones considering where the story is going, but like I've said before the huge area battles in Halo have always been overrated, aside from AOTCR and the two Scarab battle in Halo 3.
 

Dirtbag

Member
That's not what I said at all. 343 wanted a graphics overhaul (and so did I honestly), and it looks like they had to strike a balance in terms of scale and IQ. I think its a decent balance, that can only improve when moving to new hardware.
They had to strike a balance between scale / ai / and IQ. And what makes you think they wouldnt just do that all again? What if this was the best AI they were capable of producing so they went for the looks instead. We've got no proof that they are capable of producing an encounter of their own that can rival those of Bungie Halo. Visual flash is great but I found the campaign extremely flat as a result of their choices. The highlight for me was really just the setting. I found the enemy encounters lackluster.
 

Computron

Member
These speed runners are becoming one with the couch:

qwJRP.png
 
They had to strike a balance between scale / ai / and IQ. And what makes you think they wouldnt just do that all again?
Only because I think the tech you have to work with drives you down certain decision paths. I think the quest for IQ led to them finding out what the engine could handle well and not so well, and they tweaked the design to fit what the engine could handle well.

With new hardware they'll have more breathing room to work with before hitting a wall.

Listen, I think creative design will trump hardware any day, all that I ask is that the graphics feel optimized for how the player will experience the game. So I don't look too fondly upon Halo 3 with its sub-HD resolution and jaggies - that wasn't a decent trade-off for me, and neither was the weird ass motion blur in Reach.

I think its a safe guess that Halo 5 will target 30fps, and if the hardware on the next gen systems is anything like what has been talked about lately, the game will look fucking amazing, without having to gimp AI and scale.
 

Overdoziz

Banned
I think ForgeHub doesn't have the Halo 4 map section open because of the way you have to create topics in that section. Guess they can't be bothered changing that system to accommodate for there not being any online filesharing. They didn't do anything during the time when Reach files were not available online either.
 

TheOddOne

Member
I don't even mind the sizes of the areas in Halo 4, its the encounter design and AI that they need to work on most, campaign wise. Linear-wide areas are OK if I they are truly replayable and offer a multitude of ways to tackle them, and a multitude of enemy reactions.
I feel you can strike the right balance between more wider open areas and closed linear paths. In larger open areas you also do more unpredictable things, but with more closed sections, even though the combat and the AI help, the sections feel too controlled and take away some control from the player.
 
Anyone got a cliff notes? Thread is 64 pages long so I gave up trying to find out what happened till I had longer to skim through.

Guy finds girl through OK Cupid and is flying down to her town to meet her

Guy falls in love with girl without ever meeting her (they had Skype chats though!)

Like deeply in love, the type of love you see in guys who never been in love before, I'm surprised he didn't bring flowers

Talking all lovely dubly about her. Implying marriage a lot.

He post pics of him driving to the airport, the airport, and being on the plane for verification

Says he met her and will post pics

Never does (OP never post again) We don't know what happened. We suspect bad things because he never returns. Embarrassed probably because he was over confident throughout the whole thread while everyone was warning him (politely)

Detective GAF then finds embarrassing OP video, his facebook and the girl he's madly in love with FB

Thread gets shut down because of the facebook posts

Fin.

It would be a fucking crime to summarize that thread. You need to just read it ALL. I'm not joking. Read all of it.

Ruh roh
Awkward. It is worth the read though
 
I feel you can strike the right balance between more wider open areas and closed linear paths. In larger open areas you also do more unpredictable things, but with more closed sections, even though the combat and the AI help, the sections feel too controlled and take away some control from the player.
Very true. Sometimes Halo combat shines in close quarters, but close quarters and linear aren't necessarily the same thing. I look at the first Brute Pack encounter in Halo 3, and my love for most of the battles in Halo 4's Composer, so a mix of enclosed and open is just fine by me. Whatever brings the most life to the encounter.
 

Ryaaan14

Banned
What thread?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=507838

Guy finds girl through OK Cupid and is flying down to her town to meet her

Guy falls in love with girl without ever meeting her (they had Skype chats though!)

Like deeply in love, the type of love you see in guys who never been in love before, I'm surprised he didn't bring flowers

Talking all lovely dubly about her

He post pics of him driving to the airport, the airport, and being on the plane for verification

Says he met her and will post pics

Never does (OP never post again) We don't know what happened

Detective GAF then finds embarrassing OP video, his facebook and the girl he's madly in love with FB

Thread gets shut down because of the facebook posts

Fin.



Awkward. It is worth the read though

That's not even very accurate.

Guys, read the thread.

Halo.
 

Rev3rb

Member
Only because I think the tech you have to work with drives you down certain decision paths. I think the quest for IQ led to them finding out what the engine could handle well and not so well, and they tweaked the design to fit what the engine could handle well.

With new hardware they'll have more breathing room to work with before hitting a wall.

"Damn this new hardware gives us so much more to work with...

UPDATE ALLL THE GRAPHIKZZ!"
 

Tashi

343i Lead Esports Producer
Anyone got a cliff notes? Thread is 64 pages long so I gave up trying to find out what happened till I had longer to skim through.

OP says he's in love and is flying to his lover

People get hyped

OP says no condom, don't need it.

GAF says lolwut

GAF detectives hunt for OP's lover, they're successful

Photoshops begin

OP continues to chat while on airplane

Hype continues on GAF

OP says he landed and will post pics

GAF sits on the edge of its seat

GAF waits

GAF waits

GAF waits

GAF gets restless

GAF calls out OP

OP doesn't post for hours

Devo finds OP's nerdy youtube channel

gifs and photoshops continue

GAF detectives find OP's facebook...his profile pics are not private

Photoshops continue.

OP still doesn't post

Shit gets too crazy, Bish locks thread and bans OP

Bish starts a thread warning GAF to not post dumb shit.

Sunhi posts legendary video he made. Probably his best work.

And the day is saved...
 
"Damn this new hardware gives us so much more to work with...

UPDATE ALLL THE GRAPHIKZZ!"
Believe me, I'm right there with you. And yeah, devs will just push and push and brute force things until they hit those same walls and we get problems again. But HD resolutions and decent AA should at least become a standard across the board.

But I think the hardware does matter when you're talking about a flagship exclusive at the end of a console's life, and managing to make it look that damn good. They optimized it to hell and back and I'm sure that required concessions they don't have to make with the next game. But that optimization also means they won't need to rely upon brute force solutions either. We'll see though.

Open areas also expose weak enemy AI. Keeping things linear can also keep the AI from getting hung up
Yup. Knights are really docile and only seem to defend their little zone. Only crawlers really go on the offense, and Elites.
 

kylej

Banned
Cosmo commenting a Runnerguy run. There's a Zelda nerd somewhere who just shit his pants.

Not sure if RG covered it while I was out, but 100% OOT requires the piece of heart from Dampe which is one of the worst RNGs in all of speedrunning. Basically you have a small (5 or 10%) chance of getting a piece of heart from Dampe when he digs the ground, but usually you get a rupee. So, you can be on WR pace at 3 hours into the run, and through total luck you can end up spending 20 minutes hoping Dampe will dig out the piece you need. Both recent WRs got Dampe first try.

100% OOT is cool because there's still a lot of room for better times unlike most games. Runnerguy had WR as of about 10 days ago but ZFG just got it back.
 

TheOddOne

Member
I've never understood this. this was always illusory, and Halo 4 isn't really that much less open than many of the other games. The only difference is the greater emphasis on mid-sized areas instead of massive ones.

I think we'll see bigger ones considering where the story is going, but like I've said before the huge area battles in Halo have always been overrated, aside from AOTCR and the two Scarab battle in Halo 3.
While it is very true that Halo 4 empathizes the mid-sized combat areas, but it still has taken a huge step backwards in scale compared to previous Halo’s. With Halo 4 you are constantly going from room to room, while other Halo’s did it they never let the scale of level hinder it. While maybe the levels as a whole in 4 are big, they sort of make it irrelevant and small by it not feeling like it’s cohesive and pacing not helping it.

A much beloved Halo 3 level is The Covenant, most praise it for its openness and sandbox quality. The thing about it is though that it is a really linear level, they thing that gives it it’s grandness is that the player can go where they want whenever. It basically breaks down sections of rooms and lets the player just walk and go wherever they want. They player doesn’t feel like he is being led, no sense of urgency, and if they want the player to move along some subtle tips/cues are given on what to do next. In a way it respects the player to figure things out on their own. Most of the respected levels in the Halo games do this, from The Silent Cartographer to Winter Contingency. It is an illusion, but it very satisfying illusion.

Like I said above, sections or rooms are just broken down and the sense of scale comes from that. This however doesn’t mean that it has to impact combat and AI. The Covenant level perfectly shows this too, for example go up the hill to fight Covenant in a small crater like section and then go inside to have more close quarter combat. Later you get to fly, land and get into sections where you fight Brutes in more closed environments. Seems perfectly fine, you get a lot of variation and get to play with tons of sandbox elements. Perfect. This rarely happens in 4, and one of the reasons it feels like the campaign is so linear. That is how I see it anyway.
 

Madness

Member
Reading the comments on IGN about Frankie's bulletin speech yesterday really makes you wonder what the collective Halo fans from all over think about the game and not just HaloGAF.

This comment in particular, especially since it has so many up-votes: "Halo 4 is easily the best console game I've played all year and probably in my top 5 Multiplayer games of all time. It's nearly flawless and the amount of polish, innovation, and heart that 343i put into the game doesn't seem to be getting recognized."

I still play Halo 4 regularly everyday, as I did Reach, and the others before them, but I wouldn't describe it as anything close to flawless.
 

Pop

Member
Reading the comments on IGN about Frankie's bulletin speech yesterday really makes you wonder what the collective Halo fans from all over think about the game and not just HaloGAF.

This comment in particular, especially since it has so many up-votes: "Halo 4 is easily the best console game I've played all year and probably in my top 5 Multiplayer games of all time. It's nearly flawless and the amount of polish, innovation, and heart that 343i put into the game doesn't seem to be getting recognized."

I still play Halo 4 regularly everyday, as I did Reach, and the others before them, but I wouldn't describe it as anything close to flawless.

Opinions.
 
In terms of scale, what I want to re-experience is those wide open canyons in Halo:CE that are huge on their own, but take on a whole new level of awesome when you grab a Banshee and fly up and up and find whole new structures and doorways and covenant anti-Air and ground troops waiting for you.

Or looking down from one of the many skybridges in Halo:CE and recognizing that all the way down there was an area you cleared a while back.

Its THAT kind of thing I hope to see in Halo 5, and something that I expect new hardware to provide. Not only large open playspaces, which can be hit or miss, but large overlapping and connective areas too, just to express Foreunner monolithic scale in other ways.
 
Thanks for the cliff notes of that thread guys. Tashis read up was especially good lol.

I am really sad that GAF was so restless and didn't let the thread survive, I still want to know if he hooked up with her.

Will have to find the new thread - didnt the OP get banned though. :(
 

Toa TAK

Banned
I think the Didact looked great... without his face. He just seemed so wrong and out of place. He should've kept the helmet on and leave it at that. I (and tons of other Halo fans) had a different imagining of what the Forerunners and the Didact looked like, and then seeing this fish-vampire hybird was off-putting.
 
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