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[Satchel]

Ignore the CoD kids. They don't like to work for kills.

I hate CoD.

SWAT is not CoD. SWAT is on another level above CoD and "traditional" Halo. IT actually combines the best of both worlds if I'm being honest.

 

[Rodney McKay]

Not saying MC didn't have his moments. Kratos had his moments. I don't need a character with a rich relatable history at all, even. My problem with master Chief is that he's accumulated too much baggage by being around since the beginning, being the last survivor waay too many times, that waaay obtuse

Spoiler

you are the special chosen one who is given forerunner powers Because Special

plotline that they are going to -have- to continue with at this point, it's all too much to keep a coherent story around.

It just feels like at this point there's so much obession with Master Chief in the storyline that it distracts from anything that they might be able to put into it. They could replace him with another silent protagonist and it would fix that. I'd prefer if he became Microsoft's Crash(only had 3 runs and is still iconic) rather than microsoft's mario.

Again, I think that a lot of the shittier baggage just comes from Halo 4 and I REALLY hope they learned their lesson and don't include a lot of that junk in Halo 5. I had completely forgotten about the

Spoiler

chosen one

crap as it barely had anything to do with the main story other than

Spoiler

making you immune to the alien super weapon at the end... I think.

. Even in Halo 4 I felt like Cortana was a lot bigger obsession with the storytellers than MC.

Spoiler

Which might be fixed by her death in 4, but I have a suspicion that Halo 5 is going to focus on bringing her back somehow (Search for Spock style).

The stuff with Guilty Spark in Halo 1 was mainly a case of mistaken identity really, he thought you were a reclaimer because you had a suit on and humans are distantly related to Forerunners (I think).

If 343 Studios keeps going with the extended universe stuff in Halo 5 (without any in-game context outside of hidden terminals) I don't think the series will be coherent with or without Master Chief. But my wishlist for Halo 5 would definitely be to reboot the whole story, make a new enemy, and no covenant. Just like I wanted Halo 4 to be.

 

[aHebrewMenagerie]

I hate CoD.

SWAT is not CoD. SWAT is on another level above CoD and "traditional" Halo. IT actually combines the best of both worlds if I'm being honest.

SWAT is fine as a stand alone gametype, but it also negates the point that makes Halo so different from the other titles. It takes constant aim and skill in order to have the quickest kill times. In swat and COD, you just point it in the general direction and bullet magnetism will do the rest.

 

[BuggeryBugz]

I think it started with Reach.

Loadouts / Classes / Weapon Drops / Perks.

Halo was better when everyone started with the same gun on an even playing field and the power weapons were on the map and teams fought for control of those weapons / positions.

Also the lack of a skill based ranking system in favor of levels / points that mean nothing and unlock perks and upgrades.

Yeah fair point, I think you hit the nail on the head with the bolded comment.

 

[TimeEffect]

You will have, at best, 8 maps, and the rest you will buy.

 

[Archpath1]

HALO 5: COMBAT EVOLVED
a return to the past.

 

[Poker Face]

something as good as this:

 

[JdFoX187]

Fast movement, weaker aim assist, with a deep and interesting metagame revolving around control and knowledge of the map and strong situational awareness rewards. Balance for the hardcore, not to introduce new players - a good high-level game will bring players of all levels, a game sloped for onboarding newcomers will drive away the players at the top as they reach the mechanical barriers. It results in a game that is either mindless and boring, or wildly imbalanced. Get players invested by rewarding team wins, encourage a competitive community to rise up around well-balanced, thought-out maps and gametypes. Let players choose their rifle if they want as long as those rifles are balanced accordingly (I'm thinking more BR vs. Carbine, not BR vs. DMR just so you get the idea), but plasma grenades, armor abilities, and semi-power weapons like the Plasma Pistol and Boltshot should never be customizable and available to the player on every spawn via a loadout system. Your core competitive game shouldn't operate on the same principles as Regicide did. On that note, disable Join In Progress across the board and treat each premature quit as a harsh black mark against the offending player. This dramatically increases the importance of each individual match. You want each game to be a full experience, not a series of throwaway moments in between lobbies. Players get invested in the outcome of a match by playing the game when the match starts all the way to the end. Take a page from DOTA's book.

Return the investment system to cosmetic-only. It worked for Reach, it works for DOTA, it's the right move. Completely rethink your challenge and commendation systems, because they were prettttty terrible last time around. Follow the rules of good online rewards:

-Be consistent with your expectations and rewards.
-Be reasonable with your challenge parameters.
-Don’t encourage your players to be assholes.
-Avoid repetition of specific challenges.
-Make the rewards worth working for.

Make the maps free (even if there's a few months delay), don't split the community again. Find another revenue source if you want, just don't be gross about it.

Reconsider every single gametype decision made with Halo 4 - they are the single biggest reason I lost interest in playing. Look to Halo 2 and Reach for inspiration on your core objective gametype settings. Return proximity contesting to CTF and Assault (also, don't cut Assault this time only to bring back a half-baked version that contains none of its nuance a year down the line - Assault needs to be a hybrid of the arming and planting mechanics of 2 and Reach, leave 3's awful variant to rot). Return the ability for stealth runs to objective carriers by ditching the waypoint. If a player is spotted, it should be due to their action or the action of the opponent, not because the game just decided it's time for everybody to know where that player is now. Oddball throwing killed that gametype in the competitive scene. It was an interesting idea that didn't work out very well, so figure out where the middle ground is. Dominion is an extraordinarily poor replacement for Three Plots, and isn't even as interesting as the last 6v6 mode Invasion was. Dump it. People want those classic, tense objectives. Don't try to please people who don't like objective modes in the first place by ignoring the people that use those gametypes as their bread and butter.

Be risky with the campaign. That's where you can do some weird stuff and say that you're trying something new, because it's frankly easier to execute on things like loadouts and on-the-fly abilities in a PVE environment - the AI is never going to call bullshit when someone armor locks. Do your open world thing or whatever, as long as the enemies are fun to fight and the encounters are well-designed, you'll probably be okay. Even if it doesn't work out in the long run, there should be a solid, core multiplayer component to fall back on that adheres to the tried and true pillars of Halo design that were simply absent with Halo 4.

More than anything, work on your playlist management. Nobody wanted the Big Team list to be Slayer-only. Nobody wanted paywalled Extraction for months, or a repeat of that with Ricochet. Nobody wanted King and Oddball to be completely unavailable to play for the majority of the game's life because of some asinine "one gametype per playlist" policy that has since been broken over and over again, a policy that resulted in huge numbers of secondary, "impulse buy" gametypes dropping off the face of the earth almost immediately because guess what? Oddball can't sustain a population by itself. Grab bag playlists work when they're managed properly, and yes, that isn't easy, but it's not impossible. When there are core problems, fix them before working on Action Sack. It gives the impression that you just don't give a shit when Fiesta gets into the game before huge playlist issues are addressed. Your sustain team needs a serious increase in their available resources. They need to be agile and respond to issues at an incredible pace, and that takes manpower. We need updates for broken things pushed in a matter of days, not weeks. Gaps in the gametype roster or gametype/map combinations that don't work need to be addressed quickly - you've already lost me a month down the line. That's just the nature of running an online game.

Figure out what vehicles work in what situations and if they don't, why not? Stop putting the Scorpion into matchmaking. Stop putting the Banshee into matchmaking with its fuel rod intact. The Mantis encourages extremely passive play, ditch it. The same policy goes for weapons. The Forerunner weapons were pretty much universally reviled, rethink every single one (and axe most of them). The Spartan Laser has been a consistently awful piece of design, bring back the Plasma Launcher to fill that role.

Make maps that fit your gametype pool, and decide early on what your player counts are going to be. Maps built for 6v6 are not satisfying in either the 4v4 and 8v8 pools, stop using them as a one-size-fits-all solution. "Functional symmetry" is bullshit, stop saying that to deflect poor map/gametype pairings like Daybreak CTF. Here's what's better: plain ol' symmetric maps for symmetric gametypes. You want to make asymmetric maps, great! Put asymmetric gametypes on them instead of shoving a square peg into a round hole, because that hole ends up being where fun goes to die.

Make a return to elegant player feedback systems. Reach's damage-dependent shield brightening in combination with the shield pop sound effect was a piece of brilliant A/V design, and so were the loud, distinct grunts from player characters that had been hit by a grenade. By comparison, hit markers for both shots and for grenade hits are blunt instruments shouting in your face. That information can be conveyed better. As a whole, the UI needs serious work. There are a ton of oversights like objective instructions overriding player gamertags, meaning you never actually get to know who is carrying the ball because it just shouts ESCORT in your face. It's a serious usability problem.

(I missed out on this thread the first time.)

I'm almost certain this was always a design decision, not a technical tradeoff. More players mean fewer hero moments for each player. You want to achieve a middle ground between maximizing each player's impact on the match and achieving that feeling of scale. The fact that discrete units of success in Battlefield are usually on a squad level, not individual players, shows this. As you introduce more and more players, the less you can do as an individual player to affect the outcome of the game.

Assault in these two games was very different, and it was markedly worse in 3.

Beautiful.

 

[Striker]

Please tell us you weren't joking Frankie...don't play with our hearts dammit! T_T

They said a bunch of things, and:

*gets CTF Abandon, KotH on Ragnarok, Oddball Complex*

Multiplayer
---------------
2) Remove weapon loadouts.
2a) Remove armor abilities, make thruster pack standard.
2b) Bring back equipment.
3) Try to shoot for the concept of the original Halo where its two teams enter, the better team wins. (Remove as much randomness as possible and remove the guessing game)

What pieces of equipment were you suggesting? Most of the ones in Halo 3 were either cheap or slowed the game down. You should shoot for wanting powerups like Camo and Overshield, and possibly newer ones if they create balanced ones, and something that makes sense for gameplay. A powerup that scrambles enemy radar for 30 seconds, for instance, would be okay. Don't go overboard with placing such items on a map. For example, Sandtrap in Halo 3 had three bubble shields and two power drains in a one small area of the map. Ridiculous.

 

[Metalingus5150]

I think Halo 4 did a really good job with this. It couldn't have been anymore obvious how much of a threat the

Spoiler

composer was in the hands of a legendary enemy like the Didact. He had the knowledge, the wisdom and the power that even the best of the Covenant never did, and so a weapon of that nature was especially dangerous in his possession.

The Covenant as a whole were never totally aware of the risks presented by the firing of the Halo arrays. So, they were largely going based on an idea of a great journey that was never real to begin with. In the case of the Didact, he wasn't just looking to go blindly into some great journey that would end in suicide. He had a very clear target in mind, with the means of carrying it out on a scale that even the Covenant's best efforts might have proven futile against. And, really, a threat to all of humanity, specifically the very birthplace of humanity, is technically -- as far as humanity is concerned -- a threat to the entire galaxy, particularly more so when you take into account how far the Librarian is willing to go to preserve and advance humanity even over her own race.

I just felt that the story in Halo 4 seemed more like a side story than a full story. I get what you're saying but in the trilogy you had the flood, halo arrays, the covenant and the war going on so there was this grand story that was happening, 4 to me seemed to focus on a small event that will hopefully lead to something big in halo 5. 4 did a good job in shifting Master Chief as our avatar in previous games to his own character with more of a personality. I enjoyed the story of 4 but it wasn't up to par with the other halo games in my opinion and hopefully 5 will be on par or hopefully surpass other halo games before it.

 

[jem0208]

20 at launch will never happen
These are end game totals

Halo 2 - 23
Halo 3 - 26
Reach - 19
Halo 4 - 25

When you see that, you would think, oh, good job 343, actually improving on a clear deficiency...

But the way MP maps are handled does need to be reworked DRASTICALLY

The players are getting screwed by not playing DLC maps, with the exception of the first 2 weeks, DLC is as scarce as can be.

Maps either need to be free, or they need to seriously alter the pricing model.

Spoiler

this isnt even the tip of the icerberg of my wishlist

Here's a situation where I would genuinely like microtransactions.

Make all the DLC maps free, but have a load of awesome skins and armour pieces you can buy instead. Please do this.


I know it's never going to happen but please. I don't care about armour, however I find myself never buying DLC maps because I know for a fact that I won't play them after a week.

 

[excowboy]

For the campaign, make the exposition of story interesting and nuanced. The two forms of exposition in Halo 4 - turning to the camera and carefully explaining, or, just not explaining things at all - aren't exposition, they're just terrible writing.

I just rewatched Forward Unto Dawn this evening and the opening scene is better than ALL the writing in H4 and SpOps... so we know they can do it!

 

[dragonelite]

Here's a situation where I would genuinely like microtransactions.

Make all the DLC maps free, but have a load of awesome skins and armour pieces you can buy instead. Please do this.


I know it's never going to happen but please. I don't care about armour, however I find myself never buying DLC maps because I know for a fact that I won't play them after a week.

Would like that or some big cash amount you have to grind for with multiplayer.
Kinda like the Mass effect 3 model the longer people keep playing the game the higher your potential revenue can be.

 

[Hubble]

The biggest things are everything from Halo 3 that made the game a phenomenon especially on MLG. Tthe 1-50 leveling system and the MLG mode with no radar, and BRs only. Take out the DMR.

And please, don't rape on the DLC and maps. Halo is atrocious in this.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

I just want to actually believe the spaces I'm in. I want to see the levels and locations, and not just be amazed, but truly be convinced enough that I'm actually there and of the purpose it served. They don't even always have to look like they serve any specific purpose. They can just look great and be large for the sake of it at times, but way too many times on the 360 the super large levels in Halo -- it's really hard to put it into words -- just really didn't hit the mark for me.

This is a big part of the reason why I like Halo 4 so much. The locations and areas in that game, regardless of the actual real estate in which you could freely traverse, were all convincing and real enough in a way that Halo hasn't really succeeded beginning to end since the first game, and this fact helped to make the game a lot more personally enjoyable for me. Even the second game did a much better job of this also. There's nothing worse than the feeling of wasted space that both has not much purpose and doesn't really "feel" or play as big as it actually looks, and I somehow got that feeling more than I expected to from Halo 3 and Halo Reach. To Reach's credit, however, it at least handled this loads better than I felt Halo 3 did in many places. Halo 3 was a great game, and I don't want to give the impression that it wasn't, but a lot of aspects to me felt really off and below the series standard. Which is ironic, because it probably also has some of the best traces of what a next gen Halo can be like at its best assuming it all comes together just right. The problem is just that it didn't always come across nearly as convincing as you would expect given what was taking place on screen. Its epic moments felt too forced, and really cookie cutter at times. I really do believe Halo Reach, Halo 4, Halo 1 and Halo 2 are all much better than Halo 3. It's just that there's elements in Halo 3 that you really want to try to extract and bring to those superior Halo games, and that's what I hope they achieve with Halo on the Xbox One.

For example, I'm a very big fan of the whole encounter that came before the members of noble team actually met Dr. Halsey in person in Halo Reach, where they had to help defend the entrance to the laboratory. I truly believed that entire location and the purpose it served. It was quite convincing in its depiction, it felt really good and fun, and so it's one of the more standout moments for me in that particular game. I feel Halo 4 did a fantastic job of making you really feel apart of the locations that you were in, no matter what the size was. It felt great looking around and appreciating what was there, but it felt even better to engage in combat in such locations. I always had a beef with some Halo architecture, and felt it never seemed properly proportional or "big" enough with respect to the player. This wasn't an issue in Halo CE, and I don't think it was an issue for Halo 2 either. Those games, I felt, were well made within themselves, and weren't being something they were not. It became an issue once Halo hit the Xbox 360, and I don't think Halo as a campaign experience truly found itself on the 360 until Halo 4. Yea, there were no scarab fights, but it felt like the best damn Halo game I'd ever played, and I really believe it is.

I just felt that the story in Halo 4 seemed more like a side story than a full story. I get what you're saying but in the trilogy you had the flood, halo arrays, the covenant and the war going on so there was this grand story that was happening, 4 to me seemed to focus on a small event that will hopefully lead to something big in halo 5. 4 did a good job in shifting Master Chief as our avatar in previous games to his own character with more of a personality. I enjoyed the story of 4 but it wasn't up to par with the other halo games in my opinion and hopefully 5 will be on par or hopefully surpass other halo games before it.

I think that's fair. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a side story, but even viewing it as a side story, it was a very crucial and important side story or transition, if you will, to something that's guaranteed to be bigger in a follow up. Definitely the calm before the storm, but that fits right in with what was going on in the story. This location was cut off from, well, just about everything else. There was a threat on a level exceeding even the Covenant itself that was just recently awakened, and they have to be prevented at all costs from leaving the planet, and the rest of humanity has to be warned. So, it was meant to take place largely out of the site of the rest of humanity, because that's how the Chief and Cortana ended up after Halo 3, so I completely understand why they chose to handle it the way they did. But after the events of Halo 4 (and technically also Spartan Ops), it's safe to say that shit is probably going to hit the fan. It was a transition entry into the Halo franchise, but a very, very important and well made one, I feel. There was no way a single game was ever going to feel like it's covering all the events that transpired over the course of 3 whole games, but that's why Halo 4 is pretty much marks the start of a new chapter in the Halo universe. Halo CE similarly felt like a calm before the storm style entry, and I think the scene with the Chief and Cortana in the broadsword at the end of that game conveyed that message pretty clearly. At the end of Halo 4, you get a sense of something more terrible on the way also, but perhaps in a more sinister fashion than was the case in previous Halos. There was nothing triumphant about that outcome, and the Chief has the emotional scars to prove it. That's what I liked so much about Halo 4 also. The Chief for the first time came away looking quite defeated and helpless even in victory. You don't know what's going to happen in future games, but I've never been more excited to see where the franchise goes at the end of any Halo title more than I am right now after halo 4.

 

[kittens]

Would like that or some big cash amount you have to grind for with multiplayer.
Kinda like the Mass effect 3 model the longer people keep playing the game the higher your potential revenue can be.

What do you mean? I'm not following you.

And please, don't rape on the DLC and maps. Halo is atrocious in this.

Rape is a lot more serious than getting a bad deal on DLC.

 

[Zezboob]

Take the CoD from it

Leave it to CoD

'nuff said.

 

[Blueblur1]

Also, better skyboxes and sound design (I miss the detail found in Reach such as different sound effects for different ammo pick up). Please.

 

[Not Actually Aisha Tyler]

Better multiplayer map design. Halo 4's maps left a lot to be desired.

 

[SenjutsuSage]

Also, better skyboxes and sound design (I miss the detail found in Reach such as different sound effects for different ammo pick up). Please.

I can maybe see with the skyboxes, but Halo 4 had the best sound design of the franchise imo. Weapons and various sounds have never been better. My weapons finally felt like they had some real pop and power in them.

Also, give it up to 343i for finally giving us some superior hit detection. I know that has nothing to do with sound, but, seriously, that was long overdue. It felt so good to have that confirmation that I was tagging the enemies even at distance. I thank Cortana for that firmware upgrade.

 

[Syphon Filter]

I can maybe see with the skyboxes, but Halo 4 had the best sound design of the franchise imo. Weapons and various sounds have never been better. My weapons finally felt like they had some real pop and power in them.

Also, give it up to 343i for finally giving us some superior hit detection. I know that has nothing to do with sound, but, seriously, that was long overdue. It felt so good to have that confirmation that I was tagging the enemies even at distance. I thank Cortana for that firmware upgrade.

Sound design was awful in Halo 4. Weapons sounded typical and generic where Bungie weapons had distinct unique sounds to them.

 

[Blueblur1]

I can maybe see with the skyboxes, but Halo 4 had the best sound design of the franchise imo. Weapons and various sounds have never been better. My weapons finally felt like they had some real pop and power in them.

I disagree 100%. The sounds are worse than ever. Nothing sounds like a Halo weapon, the Forerunner weapons are worse, the weapons at a distance sound effects are awful (nowhere near as detailed and useful as an information tool as in Halo 3), unique ammo and grenades pick-up was replaced by 1 universal metallic snapping sound, player grunts were limited to less voice samples and don't always playback, a respawning sound effect sometimes plays back and sometimes doesn't, the Hammer sounds awful, etc. I could go on and on.

 

[rokkerkory]

Give us Halo 2 remake and don't mess with the MP... just make it look super pretty and give us more maps / guns.

 

[Cow]

remove: sprint, AAs, flinch, custom loadouts, ordnance, all long range weapons except sniper and spartan laser (so DMR and light rifle), instant respawn and Join in Progress.

add/bring back: weapons on map, descoping, in game team WIN/LOSS ranking system, small arena style maps, fast and light (minimal momentum) base movement, equipment if you have to.

Something like this.

 

[Nutter]

Give us Halo 2 remake and don't mess with the MP... just make it look super pretty and give us more maps / guns.

 

[KOHIPEET]

Better multiplayer map design. Halo 4's maps left a lot to be desired.

Especially in size and vehicle support. While playing Halo 4's mp I had the feeling that maps are too small and there's only a minimum amount of vehicles. Maps became crowded and your skill technically vanished because you always got shot from behind.

I still remember playing Halo 2 on the original xbox. Team deathmatches on coagulation literally made me shed tears of joy and a large part of that were the funny/ridiculous (and often buggy, but I always thought they can be fun) situations we created while playing.

Oh lord. I miss the good old times. (Pre-COD times)

 

[dragonelite]

What do you mean? I'm not following you.


Rape is a lot more serious than getting a bad deal on DLC.

Something similar to the killzone model where competitive maps are free.

It also puts pressure on 343 to make multiplayer maps fun and competitive again, the longer and the more people that are playing the bigger the change they might spend that $1~3 on micro transaction. On stuff like credit boost to unlock armor pieces faster(no exp leveling or true skill boosts for micro transaction) or individual armor sets.

You pay $60 for the initial game single player and multiplayer. And the multiplayer micro transaction whales pay for the development of future dlc map packs. So the competitive side wont get splintered over map packs. Single player dlc can be priced accordingly to what it offers.

The best would be no micro transaction and still free maps

 

[Varg]

I want the gameplay and gunplay of halo 2/3 to return.

I enjoyed the perks being equipment pickups like halo 3 rather then the call of duty ripoffs that we have now.

I miss the weapon spawn controlling like in halo 2/3. You needed to work as a team to secure the rocket launcher or sword spawn points

 

[JaggedSac]

Better ranking system. Visible skill based ranking.

I enjoy carrot on a stick stuff, just make it not affect gameplay. Make character models more prominent on lobby screens and show all at once.

Reduce weapon count.

Bring back equipment and remove abilities or whatever they were called.

Improve the story, 4 was very convoluted.

Make the prometheans more enjoyable to fight. The crawlers aren't nearly as enjoyable to pop as grunts and the knights are not as fun to fight as the elites.

Better maps, better maps, better maps. Bring back a bunch of old ones.

Tie in the game theater mode with the upload studio, allowing you to upload videos directly to the service from the theater.

Remove weapon drops.

Increase max player count on big team battle and increase map sizes.

BRING BACK THE CHOPPER.

 

[NobleGundam]

If Halo is still keeping the episodic content to console delivery, please don't lock it behind an XBLG pay wall.

Not everyone has the luxury to a stable playable internet or always can afford Gold membership. It's true.

Also, make SpOps 2 split screen playable.

When people were asking whether or not SpOps was playable offline MS/343 stated it was possible. But in reality that never happened.

 

[BajiRav]

Please put some thought into MP maps and not just how much you can charge for 3 maps. I hate pretty much every map pack on Halo4 so far except the Champions bundle which I refuse to buy. I would love to play on the Pitfall again but I am not going to support the messed up MP anymore.

I can maybe see with the skyboxes, but Halo 4 had the best sound design of the franchise imo. Weapons and various sounds have never been better. My weapons finally felt like they had some real pop and power in them.

Also, give it up to 343i for finally giving us some superior hit detection. I know that has nothing to do with sound, but, seriously, that was long overdue. It felt so good to have that confirmation that I was tagging the enemies even at distance. I thank Cortana for that firmware upgrade.

Halo 4 has the worst sounding weapons and vehicles of the series.

My warthog sounds like a 100c moped running out of gas
My rifles sounds like tiny fireworks compared to the deep sound they had in Halo3/Reach.