Halo 4 Wishlist

[cgmetallica1981]

As we all know, Halo 4 is coming soon. Obviously, people are going to want some changes. That's what this thread is for, putting your ideas out there, and hopefully somehow 343i will hear what the community wants. Post what you think Halo 4 should and shouldn't have, what it should improve on, what it should add, what it should remove.

Most of my suggestions will come from where I thing Halo: Reach went wrong, and therefore I will probably mention a lot of problems I had with it. Also, I will focus on multiplayer because that's where I will end up with most of my time put in (I've been writing this for a while now).

Overall

Spoiler

-Better armor customization. In Reach, there was very few items for wrists, knee gaurds, and other little things, and most of them were ugly anyways. Chest variants were also hideous and only changed the chest, while I was expecting the whole Torso to change as in Halo 3. Also, a lot of the items didn't change much, and a lot of the helmets looked the same. Diversity would be nice.

-Bring back Elite customization from Halo 3, please. I hated only being able to choose between Elites in Reach.

-Different ways to unlock armor. Achievements, challenges, missions, whatever it may be.

-For graphics, please don't but too much bloom in as in Reach.

Campaign

Spoiler

-Free roam like ODST would be amazing.

-I loved being able to play as the Arbiter in Halo 2, if there is a character like that I would
probably enjoy playing as him/her.

Online Multiplayer

Spoiler

-Weaker grenades and Melee. Both can easily be used as primary weapons, and both are way too powerful. Grenades should be used to weaken an enemy, not kill, unless they are low on health. Sometimes I could have full shields and health and I could be killed by one grenade. Also, there are way too many grenades spawned of the maps in Reach. For melee, you could easily take somebody down by slapping them twice quickly, and with no penalty. It should take 3 hits without shooting, and it also should take longer to hit somebody. Instead, you can hit somebody twice very quickly and they would drop.

-No reticle bloom. Reticle bloom does not belong in Halo, and it should have never been added in Reach. It was supposed to force the player to pace out shots for accuracy instead of spam the trigger, but it seems that the pacing out the shots, as said in the in-game tips, does not work and the bullet spread is completely random. A person slamming down the trigger could easily kill somebody pacing out shots, and it could get annoying. Besides, Halo is a science fiction video game, not a military simulator.

-No armor abilities. Sprint is the only ability that I think is logical, but it could still get ridiculous with weapons like the Energy Sword and the Gravity Hammer, and out could be used to easily run away from a long-range fight. Evade is just silly, you could hop away and around anyone to confuse them, it recharges way too quickly, just like Sprint, it's more of a nuisance that it is overpowered. Armor Lock is awful, the ability to be invincible for seconds while having a 360 view of everything around you should never be in a online game. It's especially annoying when somebody walks around with Armor Lock to distract and a butt-buddy to take care of the enemy. Jet Pack is pretty stupid also, it is very easy to loose somebody if they fly above you. Most of the time I can easily kill somebody with a Jet Pack, but occasionally there will be somebody spamming grenades or using rockets which is really cheap. Hologram is just silly, and Cloak is annoying.

-Different playlists for different game modes. When I play Team Slayer, I want to play Team
Slayer, not Elite Slayer, not Team Snipers, just Team Slayer. Sometimes I want to play free-for-all Slayer, but it's impossible to get a game in Rumble Pit with all the nonsense like Crazy King or Oddball. There should be pure Team Slayer playlists, and pure Slayer playlists along with the others.

-Better team balance. I'm on a team with a Sergeant and a Warrant Officer with two players on one screen. I'm up against a Forerunner, Brigadier, General, and a Colonel. First thing that happens is the second controller hops around throwing grenades and shooting randomly. Happens all the time, this should be self-explanatory.

-No 10-minute ban for leaving matches. This is probably the biggest problem I had with Reach, and I know many who would agree with me. Hell, most of the people I know who played Reach stopped because of the frequent ban. Leave 2 or 3 matches within 24-hours, ban. I even remember once I didn't play Reach for 2 days, and when I got back on I got the warning saying if I leave another I get banned. Really? It's like they don't want us to play their game.

-Banning is really, really stupid. For betrayals that were completely on accident, say somebody
runs in front of your vehicle, there usually is an option to boot. For betrayals on purpose. say somebody cries because you beat them to a power weapon, there never is the option to boot. Also, it's pretty stupid when your teammate decides to take down your shields, and then while your shields are down you could be killed by an enemy without it counting as a betrayal. If an enemy damages you before you get team killed, it also does not count as a betrayal. Team killing should be taken out of Halo, again, it's a science fiction video game, not a military simulator. It doesn't need to be realistic with team killing, Call of Duty and Battlefield don't even have that.

-More maps. I would say 9 new maps, 1 Forge based map, 5 Firefight maps, and a few remakes from
previous Halo's would be great. Maybe the firefight maps could also be playable in multiplayer.
Also, no Forge maps please.

-Less power weapons on maps and better map balance. There is way too many power weapons scattered around the maps. Also, the strongest should be in the middle and just as easy to get for both sides. Some maps have weapons closer to one side, such as the Energy Sword on Sword Base or the Rocket Launcher on Boardwalk.

-Last of all, there should be no way to check your Kill/Death Ratio. There would be less people camping and using cheap tactics, and less little kids bitching online. I can't really explain it, but games without stat tracking like that are just a lot more fun all around and are less rage inducing.

Forge/Custom Games

Spoiler

-Campaign and Firefight Forge would be glorious. Being able to place where enemies spawn, custom missions, being able to put it Scarabs, choosing where the Phantoms drop off enemies in Firefight, etc. It would just be amazing.

-Copy-and-paste, snapping pieces together, and drag-and-select features would be great.

-No money or piece caps.

-Overall less frustrating Forge experience

-More diverse Custom Game options. Being able to edit the damage and other things for separate weapons, loadouts and players would be great.

So rant, suggest, provide feedback on ideas, ***** at me for my opinions, you know the deal.

 

[FailWhaleIV]

As a hardcore Halo fan, I refuse to purchase the fourth.

 

[Erttheking]

What do I want for Halo 4? I want it to not devolve back into Halo 3 to appease those blinded by nostalgia, if it does I will consider the franchise dead. I actually liked what they did in Reach in terms of weapons and armor abilities, vehicles, weapons, bloom, melee system, maps game modes, Forge, etc. it gave it a new feel that I del in love with, I would like them to build off of that. Also a couple of ideas, a playlist where you can join or host random custom games, driving a Scarab, the ability to control Brutes in multiplayer or maybe campaign, more space combat. That's all really.

 

[Erttheking]

Also a couple of ideas, a playlist where you can join or host random custom games, driving a Scarab, the ability to control Brutes in multiplayer or maybe campaign, more space combat. That's all really.

This! Except the scarab part. Scarabs are ezpz to take down, and would just be a nuisance more than anything else.

Screw Brutes though, I want to play as those little raptor dudes. Seriously, having those in multiplayer would be hilarious.

Ezpz? Um...what does that mean? And by little raptor dudes I assume you mean jackals right?

 

[RipRoaringWaterfowl]

Also a couple of ideas, a playlist where you can join or host random custom games, driving a Scarab, the ability to control Brutes in multiplayer or maybe campaign, more space combat. That's all really.

This! Except the scarab part. Scarabs are ezpz to take down, and would just be a nuisance more than anything else.

Screw Brutes though, I want to play as those little raptor dudes. Seriously, having those in multiplayer would be hilarious.

That got me thinking... maybe we could play as Grunts?

"He's unstoppable!"

"Open up and say 'AH!'!"

"You killed Flipyap! Or was it Yapflip? I can't remember! I should, since we went to Nipple Academy together..."

"This is for Flipyap!"

" It's the monster!"

 

[FalloutJack]

-A Halo Wishlist-

Erm...slightly confused, actually. Not a halo player, so not entirely sure... Wasn't Halo 3 the big wrap-up-of-the-plot game in the series? Hence why they went ODST and Reach?

 

[oZode]

I hope that they don't just make what are basically covies and flood game play wise.

I hope they have new stuff that are new and not just reskins.

 

[C2Ultima]

I'm not too confident in 343 industries at the moment. It seems that with Halo: CE Anniversary, they upgraded the graphics, added some skulls and data logs, and called it a day. It would have been nice if they could have fixed some things that didn't work so well, like the pathetic AI.

 

[necromanzer52]

Basically everything the op said, as well as a load of petty little details. For instance: ghosts can boost for as long as you like, and turrets don't overheat anymore.

What I really want of course, is a perfect, x-box live capable, remake of the halo 2 multiplayer though.

 

[ZeroMachine]

-A Halo Wishlist-

Erm...slightly confused, actually. Not a halo player, so not entirely sure... Wasn't Halo 3 the big wrap-up-of-the-plot game in the series? Hence why they went ODST and Reach?

It was the end of the Human-Covenant War, but a ton of questions were left unanswered in regards to the extended universe. Halo 4/5/6 is going to delve more into the Forerunners rather than the Flood/Covenant, if the latest books/CEA Terminals are hinting correctly.

Also, ODST and Reach were prequels (ODST a prequel to 3 and Reach a prequel to all of them except Wars) so I don't understand why people use that as an argument against those games. As for someone that uses that as an argument against 4/5/6 (not saying that's you, I feel like you're legitimately asking) just because one story arc ends, doesn't mean another can't start. As long as it's good (fingers crossed) there's no reason not to continue forward in time in a universe as expansive as Halo's.

I'm not too confident in 343 industries at the moment. It seems that with Halo: CE Anniversary, they upgraded the graphics, added some skulls and data logs, and called it a day. It would have been nice if they could have fixed some things that didn't work so well, like the pathetic AI.

They wanted to just re-release Halo: CE with updated graphics and some additional lore. They stated that from the start, and they delivered 100%. I don't see how that should cause lack of faith when they've been working on Halo 4 for much longer. A lot of CEA was also done by a third party, if that helps at all. Also, hated what they did with the Flood. Made them look too... planty. But overall I think it was an amazing idea.

As a hardcore Halo fan, I refuse to purchase the fourth.

As a hardcore Halo fan myself, I don't understand why you wouldn't at least wait and see what it's like first... mind explaining? I'm legitimately curious.

NOW, to tackle the OP:

For your "general" ideas, I agree save for the Bloom thing. I honestly barely noticed any in Reach. Not nearly as much as they had in Halo 3

As for campaign, I neither agree nor disagree, as I liked both of those as parts of the older Halo games, but I could get along well enough without it. But, in regards to the actual game, good news and bad news... Good news, it may be more open ended, as rumor has it the game will be taking place on a Forerunner Shield World, a massive planet-within-a-planet covered in Forerunner... stuff. Bad news (from your perspective) the campaign will be focusing FAR more on John 117 and Cortana and their friendship/characters, so don't expect to play as the Arbiter or someone like him. I may be wrong (kinda hope I am, the Arbiter sections were my favorite from Halo 2) but still, don't get your hopes up.

Spoiler: I will deal with Multiplayer in a spoiler 'cause wall of text

-I don't know if I agree or not with weaker melee, but I DEFINITELY don't agree with weaker grenades. Plasma grenades are perfect strength (and should kill instantly on a stick) and I've only seen frags kill someone at full health if they're right on top of it.

-TOTALLY AGREE. Fuck reticle bloom. You're playing as fucking Spartans. Recoil needs to exist for balance issues, sure, but that reticle bloom was bullshit.

-TOTALLY DISAGREE. Sorry. I honestly get the vibe of "I didn't like it when it was used against me" from this part. Some of it needs to be nerfed for sure, especially armor lock (no 360 view maybe so no instant turning around, maybe?) but outright removed? Nah. though I feel like they'll be doing something different in Halo 4.

-Different playlists? Yes. Pure Team Slayer/Pure Free For All Slayer and then Mixed Bag Team Slayer/Free for All, etc. I rarely see odd modes in the Team Slayer playlist, but just to be sure, yes. Definitely yes.

-Rank in Halo: Reach means nothing but time invested in grinding for credits. Someone could absolutely suck at multiplayer but be great at campaign so they always get weekly/daily challenges in relation to that. BUT, TrueSkill needs a massive overhaul all the same. So, yes, better team balance. But not the way you put it.

-Kind of agree, though in all honesty, I've never run across this issue. Then again, I mostly play Team Slayer/SWAT/Classic/Infection, and those matches rarely last long, so I guess I've just rarely been in a situation where match length annoyed me enough for me to quit.

-I'm assuming by banning you mean booting. And by the way you're talking, I feel like you didn't play a lot of Halo 3/2/1 multiplayer, because... well, to be frank, friendly fire ALWAYS existed. It's part of the game. So for this, I disagree. Don't shoot/blow up your allies, and you won't get booted. Sometimes it's a mistake, yeah, but then just start another match. If it happens enough to be a nuisance, than you've got some anger issues (I kid).

-HOLY FUCK YES. That is all.

-Better balance? Oh hell yes. But less power weapons? Nah. Part of map strategy.

-No input on this, I have. Never played a game that didn't display K/D ratio. Then again, never dealt with anyone using cheap tactics to boost it.

Spoiler: Forge/Custom games

Campaign Forge? Probably not a good idea, and most likely extremely difficult to integrate. Firefight, though? Dear gods, please, yes. And in regards to Firefight all around, the player should be able to choose from ANY enemy in current or previous Halo games. I wanna see Buggers (never understood why they took 'em out after ODST) and Flood in Firefight along side whatever we'll be fighting in Halo 4/5/6 (Forerunners...?)

-Yes, that should have been a given from the start.

-Impossible, if you could place infinite items, the system would eventually crash from overworking. BUT, raise the limit.

-Yes, yes, YES.

WOO, nice to talk about all this stuff. Brought up some things I hadn't considered yet. OP, hope you take time to read it, and take no offense. I tend to be blunt sometimes.

EDIT:

for instance: ghosts can boost for as long as you like, and turrets don't overheat anymore.

Yes, please.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

I just want it not to suck. Please don't suck

 

[LegoDudeGuy]

Eh, I only ever owned CE (the original, on disk, now sitting on my shelf), and have played every single game in the franchise (at friends houses) and read every single piece of literature based on the Halo universe (I was on a BIG Halo high back in 08-09).

I would prefer if they NOT make another Halo trilogy (I see it as milking at this point), but since they are, I would like it to be a mix of Reach and CE (armor upgrades and one-shot pistols? Hell yes!).

Since Bungie was bought out of the rights to the series, let's hope 343 does not run the series into the ground (like a certain series of FPS's I can think of with a weird nickname, CoD....).

 

[cgmetallica1981]

WOO, nice to talk about all this stuff. Brought up some things I hadn't considered yet. OP, hope you take time to read it, and take no offense. I tend to be blunt sometimes.

Thanks for your reply, this was the kind of feedback and discussion I wanted.
-For grenades, I think an indicator would fix the problem. With all the chaos sometimes I can't even hear the bounce of a frag.
-For the armor abilities, it's just personal preference, and like you said, a "I hate it when it's used against me" type of thing.
-For the part about rank, in some ways rank does matter because a Forerunner obviously is going to have much more experience than a Sergeant, unless if the Sergeant is a new account or something. That's what I meant.
-For the part about booting, I've actually played a lot of the other games and I know friendly-fire has been on forever, but it's gotten to the point where it's a problem when kids get angry and kill you after you beat them to a power weapon or when people decide to dive in front of you while shooting a sniper rifle or throwing a plasma grenade. There has to be a better way to judge if a team kill is on purpose or not.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I don't particularly mind either way with the armor abilities but I think they add a little extra fun to the game. I love the melee system so keep that but for the love of Zeus let us forge everything in any map! Forge world at the moment is the only map we can forge on because the only scenery you can spawn on other maps are pallets.

I enjoy most things about the online combat but I hate how it changes host every 5 seconds. Halo handles grenades and melee better then most games so keep that but the main problem with online balancing is the banshee.
Take out either backflips,the banshee bomb or make banshees a whole lot weaker. It is amazingly easy to get an unfriggenbelieveable just spawn killing with the bansee bomb and backflipping back into position. It ruins the game for everyone else and there is no good way to combat it. Believe me I tried doing that once and stopped after finding that farming kills like that is boring as hell. All those inheritors you see? Most either do this or they hacked their rank.

Bring back the bruteshot. That thing is so good for long distance mongoose launching.

 

[Xifel]

Maybe something like this? This was amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEVz0KyQDt8

3rd person. A living world with animals and vegetation. Squadbased tactics. Not useless friendly NPC's. The use of real military stratergies.