needs frame data on melees
Frame-by-Frame
Melees are normal (about 3 frames if I'm remembering right) but go back to the Halo 2 system of reduced damage, but taking things like inertia into account. This gives Thruster a slight buff just by extension because you can thrust + melee into people and it's enough to pop shields.
However, by extension, the main three melee weapons (Humbler / Energy Sword / Hardlight Staff) only require one melee to pop shields, AND each hit comes out at twice the speed of a normal melee. Meaning that in the time it takes an enemy to do one melee that would only take out like half of your shields, you can kill them. This is offset by the removal of Sword lunges. Each hit takes 5% battery, meaning there's still a potential 10 kills per weapon, and you can always hold onto the empty holsters to hit people with.
Melee a Trois
The Humbler is basically an electrified riot baton, which is why it requires battery: the first electrified hit drains their shields and slows them down like the Halo CE Plasma Rifle, and the second hit's enough to kill them. You can also EMP vehicles with it if you're trying to get a quick hijack in. To balance the EMP and slowdown, the Humbler has the lowest reach of the three primary melee weapons.
The Energy Sword is kind of like the Halo 2 version's regular melee: it has no lunge anymore, and takes two hits to kill, but the two hits come out at the speed of one melee. It requires three melees to kill someone once the battery's drained, so you'd still win a melee battle, but you're obviously going to get yourself killed trying to hit someone holding a Battle Rifle. The Energy Sword has a mid-level reach out of the melee weapons.
The Hardlight Staff has the highest reach of the three primary melee weapons, being about as big as a Gravity Hammer. It's two handed, and utilizes an interesting alt-mode function: you have to hit the left trigger to whack someone with the base of the staff, and the right trigger to hit them with the main "head" of the stave. Doing this one-two punch will kill someone as quickly as the other weapons and just perform concussive hits. However, holding down the right trigger will cause the light and metal to reconfigure slightly into a Hardlight Javelin. You have an unlimited charge holding time just so that you don't muck up your shot; it has about the range of a Plasma Grenade, but with higher speed and a less pronounced arc. If you manage to successfully gore someone with the Hardlight Javelin, it derezzes them, as well as the weapon, so it's sadly a one-time use to prevent you from going Olympic Halo Champion 2013 on people's asses. The "battery" comes from needing the Hardlight bits of the staff to function, and requires three melees to kill with a drained battery. You cannot perform the Javelin function without battery.
The Gravity Hammer operates on similar principals to the Hardlight Staff, with the difference being that it effectively has three firing modes.
Mode 1: "Power Saver." You can use the left trigger to hit with the base and the right trigger to hit with the axe on the back of the hammer, resulting in a kill that takes about 4.5 frames, or 1.5 times as long as a regular melee.
Mode 2: Classic. Using just the right trigger causes a gravity blast we all know and love.
Mode 3: EMP. Holding down the right trigger will charge the lights in the hammer's head, taking about twice as long as a Plasma Pistol. You don't need to hold down the button after it's fully charged. Hitting the right trigger with a charge will cause a slightly larger gravity field hit, with the added bonus of an EMP, making it a deadly weapon against light vehicles. However, the EMP takes up extra battery.
Parrying
Similar to "Sword Duels" already implemented, ALL Melee weapons can now parry when using the "one-two punch" function that they all have. If you use the main Gravity Hammer swing against someone trying to parry, you'll obviously win. Parrying only works when BOTH players are using the one-two punch function. There are actually matchups now, too.
The thing to note here is that in standard parry matches, the Sword will beat the Hammer, but if you use the standard right-trigger swing with the Hammer, it'll beat the Sword.
You should use the "Promethean Defense Turret" instead of the Beam Turret.
From the Halo 4 art book. The turret was cut from the game.
(sorry about the picture quality)
Cut designs actually feature pretty prominently in my sandbox; where do you think the Gravity Wrench comes from? Thanks for this. I'll probably rework the Defense Turret into a smaller, mounted version for the Ion Cannon.
Okay, so let me get this straight:
You also have a side of fries from Burger King, still in the paper holster with their logo on it.
Burger King fries are god-tier dude.
...
