Halo 4 and FC Wars

[GhostHammer]

Just to give you guys an idea of how the Beta war will work if you missed the Reach one.

We take the basics of everything once the game is out, and re-make current stuff. So there will be the same gametypes just Halo 4 format, same loadouts, etc. Once that is done, we add in things that are new, for example, new gametypes, new loadouts, possibly some forge play, customization play, etc. Then we have our war.

Once finished, then we take the data we've gained, and that on our multiplayer experience in Matchmaking, and work out all of the issues in the Beta War.

If you think the Beta war is going to be fair, smooth, and work really well, you're living in sunshine land, please come back. Whenever we switch games, there is always a BUMPY START with the Beta war, hence why we do them. It's our way of saying "HEY LOOK THE FUCK OUT! RAPIDS AHEAD!"

Once that's done though, we fine tune everything, and the first war begins and 99% of the time goes very well with the exception of some unforseen issue that you could only discover by playing out a proper war over a couple months time. When that happens, it's taken care of right away.

Forum suggestions are great and can be debated/discussed right now. As for Halo 4, until we've all played the game and see how it all works it's all speculation, and there isn't much of the suggestions we'll remember. So if you do have ones, be sure to save them, and modify them possibly at Halo 4.

BE SURE TO POST THEM AGAIN! Chances are we may forget this thread and we want to make sure your suggestions are heard! This is especially important for a new game.

[Mythonian]

Maps and Trait Zones:

To provide a little more map direction and feeling of barricades meaning something without making it an impregnable wall of steel, I started to think of Halo Wars. How when you put a unit in a barricade, they became more resilient and able to survive better. I think we can finally apply this to Halo 4, in making barricades you can shoot, and be shot over effectively. What I suggest is putting trait zones behind barriers and increase the damage resistance they have there by a certain percent (able to take 150% damage?). Things like this would help provide that barricades were something more used and less of perhaps just for aesthetics.

That probably would not work out well.

1. It's already hard enough to assault a base to get the flag or something, especially on larger maps... This would just make it harder.
2. People have already often complained about us using custom or modified maps, since they don't know the details of the maps. These things will just make people rage when they are confused why it took 7 shots to kill someone instead of 5.
3. Only the best players will really use these. 80% of players won't use them, as should be obvious. The few that do will have an absurd advantage over everyone else. And the really, really good players will become nearly invincible since now they are able to take a sniper bullet to the face and survive due to their increased damage resistance.
4. If the enemy gets onto your side, they can camp in that spot and gain absolute map control over your base, spawn killing you and effectively having permanent overshields... This would break Hill 30 or any neutral objective game.

Providing Breaks:

Look, I can't begin to speak on how balance will play in Halo 4, but off of the last few wars and how one sided they have been at times, I think I should throw out an option here. If either R.E.D.D. or B.L.U.E. gets sweeped two weeks in a row, I suggest we take a one week break and during this break just do a custom challenge between REDD and BLUE that week. For example, have that break week be a Grifball day, or a Rocket Race day between REDD and BLUE. Just something to help keep the community together, and give people a breather if they are getting owned repeatedly. Or hell, just do a practice on the maps planned, and just do it with fun weaponry, like infinite concussion rifles for everyone. Just make sure we don't get so caught up in competition that we lose sight of this place as a community.

1. We don't plan on letting it be extremely imbalanced again.
2. Even when wars are balanced, sweeps happen semi-commonly. Two weeks in a row isn't unheard of either.
3. This would extend wars unnecessarily.

As always, if an army needs a break to regroup and get ready for the rest of the war, we will give it to them. The FMs have always been able to request a break and we have never denied a request for a break.

Rank Bars

Okay, whoever made these latest rank tags, don't get me wrong, I am fine with them... But I remember very clearly that when Halo 4 came back we were going to be going back to specialized rank tags to determine the privates from the sergeants, and so on. It is something greatly agreed upon and we talked about it forever.

As I said in my post in the Website Upgrade thread, time is short and lots of work needs to be done.

At the moment, it's not nearly a high enough priority compared to other things, and also isn't really feasible until we get a lot, lot more high-res H4 screenshots.

since we are FORERUNNER CONFLICT, and our lore to this point as has been over obtaining and maintaining forerunner weaponry, it should be seen as a valuable, or less frequent weapon. This last part is a bit of a strained arguement, I know, but the overall display I make is what I stand by most strongly.

Is it a stretch to say they've already been studying the Forerunner tech for years and are now at the point of implementing it into the military?

Anyway, refer to what GhostHammer said.

Also maintaining all of everyone's ranks in our bars would be a daunting task.

True. That was the original reason we switched, since both FMs were so, so far behind in updating them, and really it wasn't worth the trouble. It was a lot of work with little to gain, since the website permissions didn't change based on individual ranks.

With Generals now having Admin, it's viable to return, but the preparation and set up time is still significant.

Like I said later bud, if we can have our own loadouts that we make personally I'm ALL FOR IT. I simply didn't think we would allow it. If we can have that, then HELL YES.

I think you should try to understand the original reason why we did what we did in Reach.

We limited armor ability starts because some of them were rather overpowered. Everyone could pick Armor Lock and then nobody had fun. Or on specific maps everyone would pick Jetpack and screw up the flow of the map. Or the Sniper would start with Camo and totally abuse it. etc., etc.

So we resolved that by having them be picked up from the map.

If in Halo 4 we have a need to balance things by removing specific armor abilities or other items, we will do so. If we have no need to do it, we do not plan on it. We aren't going to mess with the gaming experience unless it's needed.

We do plan on experimenting with stuff in the Beta War (as has been said before), but we are only going to experiment with stuff we thing will actually improve things, which probably won't be very many.

[MedeDust]

I have a few ideas to throw out here, so my apologies for this rather lengthy post.

Forerunner Weaponry+Lore

I know this is a very unnecessary thing to say, but I feel like since we are implementing forerunner weaponry into FC wars now, there needs to be an explanation for their sudden appearance, and use wide spread. I also feel like the "Oh, we just found them" aspect is a very cheap way to solve the question.

In this respect, I feel like as we are calling this first Halo 4 war a "Beta War", we should actually call it a "Simulation War". It would help provide an answer for any changes that might occur gametype wise, as well as explain why forerunner weaponry is being seen spread through all the armies. It's as much to train the troops, as well as experiment with the designs of forerunner weaponry and see if their weaponry may be viable for real world use.

Taken care of.

Loadouts

I'm repeating a few people here, but it might actually be wise to make custom loadouts for various "professions". It would provide each person with a more clear cut goal of what their actions should be. I'm NOT saying "Make a sniper class" or anything insane like that. I'm saying not even saying give them armor abilities for their job. What I do suggest is why not provide certain support and tactical packages to various fields.

For example, your scouts may like getting the tactical package "Mobility" (providing infinite sprint), your heavier hitters might like a loadout with "Firepower" allowing for use of two primary weapons in their loadout, or "Ammo Pack" allowing for additional ammo. Your leaders or pointmen might like "Sensor" (improved radar and sensitivity), and your sharpshooters might like "Stability" (steadies weapon when being struck).

Frankly I think that we all ought to maybe just start with Sprint, and pick up armor abilities across the map. (even though I REALLY want to get thruster pack). But with just these loadouts providing a little assistance to the roles they are supposed to play, and thus make the whole unit hopefully able to be more cohesive.

As for weaponry, I would think we ought to keep the primary for each class with a choice of DMR/BR/AR along with a secondary of a Magnum (and give the magnum to each class this time, every solider keeps a sidearm). Grenades may vary, but provide possibly more neighboring weaponry inside each teams base. What I mean by this is that also include weaponry such as the Carbine, Light Rifle, Storm Rifle, Suppressor, and other guns of the same nature in the base. It keeps to the aspect that each army have access to covenant and forerunner weaponry while maintaining we mainly are composed of UNSC weaponry. You can also do the same for plasma pistol and boltshot, but I would be a bit more hesitant on throwing those in the base as well.

I think all of this wouldn't hurt how the map plays, nor would it make any one person feel they the loadouts were unbalanced, it would simply help direct each loadout to a different goal.

Maps and Trait Zones:

To provide a little more map direction and feeling of barricades meaning something without making it an impregnable wall of steel, I started to think of Halo Wars. How when you put a unit in a barricade, they became more resilient and able to survive better. I think we can finally apply this to Halo 4, in making barricades you can shoot, and be shot over effectively. What I suggest is putting trait zones behind barriers and increase the damage resistance they have there by a certain percent (able to take 150% damage?). Things like this would help provide that barricades were something more used and less of perhaps just for aesthetics.

Another thing that might be worth trying is giving high points of the map a traitzone that improves their radar range, or sensitivity.

Give certain things on the map a feeling like what they are provide more than just a the "We are here, you are there" but give the people defending them, and that are there a bit of a perk for possessing and maintaining their place there. It would give a new element of map control, and not simply make it a battle sometimes over who has the power weapons. It would add complexity to the battles, making power weapons a way to press for the territories, and the territories a way to maintain control with common weapons a bit more easy.

I'll have to look into the above later sounds like great ideas and thats what the Beta war is for.
Providing Breaks:

Look, I can't begin to speak on how balance will play in Halo 4, but off of the last few wars and how one sided they have been at times, I think I should throw out an option here. If either R.E.D.D. or B.L.U.E. gets sweeped two weeks in a row, I suggest we take a one week break and during this break just do a custom challenge between REDD and BLUE that week. For example, have that break week be a Grifball day, or a Rocket Race day between REDD and BLUE. Just something to help keep the community together, and give people a breather if they are getting owned repeatedly. Or hell, just do a practice on the maps planned, and just do it with fun weaponry, like infinite concussion rifles for everyone. Just make sure we don't get so caught up in competition that we lose sight of this place as a community.
This most likely will be used anyways.

Rank Bars

Okay, whoever made these latest rank tags, don't get me wrong, I am fine with them... But I remember very clearly that when Halo 4 came back we were going to be going back to specialized rank tags to determine the privates from the sergeants, and so on. It is something greatly agreed upon and we talked about it forever.

I don't know if these rank tags are temporary, but if they are to stay, then I REALLY want to press for each rank getting a separate tag, and I would like it if they are a bit darker. It's hard for me to read what each rank is sometimes. It's easy for some, but some rank tags are impossible to read them. Blackhawk's for example is one that I can only see he is a general, but I couldn't read what type of general he was. :/

Don't get me wrong, they are well made, and I like the design, but I really want to press for more specific rank tags, and a bit darker ones too.

I made them, and actually already finished editing, however the point you brought up, bring it up with Metkil and Mythonian because they were the ones that denied it.