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#Halo

12/11/2012 12:42:01 PM
18

The Logical Reason Behind Sprint/Jetpack

Beginning with Halo: Reach and continued in Halo 4, was the addition of Armor Abilities (AAs). AAs were implemented as a way to add something "new" and "fresh" to the game. And they did. But was it only for the sole purpose of giving the game a breath of fresh air? Or was it for a different purpose entirely? A lot of people say that Halo was fine the way it was. I enjoyed it. "If it ain't broken, don't fix it" was and still is a commonly heard phrase on these forums and in-game. Many people want AAs removed from Reach and Halo 4 altogether, but that wouldn't make those games play any better. Why you ask? Simple, the maps in Reach and Halo 4 were designed around AAs. So even if you take the AAs out, it won't "improve" game-play, it will only slow it down and make the game dull. "So why did Halo 1-3 play well without AAs?" you might ask. Simply because those games were not designed for AAs. "What do you mean 'designed around AAs'? Why would you have to design the maps around the AAs? What do they change so much that you would have to design the maps differently?" Well now things get interesting. Not all of the AAs change game-play to the point where the maps have to be designed differently than in the past, mainly jetpack and sprint. Why? Because the jetpack allows you to fly over any wall without a ceiling, get on top of any building short enough to fly to etc. Jetpack: Without jetpack, map design is much more simple and very unique and fun designs come from it. Jetpack is nothing more than a complication for a map designer because it breaks most of the simple elements of map design. You can't just place a wall to keep players out of areas you don't want them to venture. You have to place a ceiling as well. But what if you didn't want a ceiling in that particular location? You could just use a kill barrier, but then what's the point in having a jet pack. See how much it changes? Keep reading, it gets better. Take a map like Lockout, (most of you are probably to young to remember that map) with it's many open catwalks, four different levels and strategic vantage points only easily flank-able by trick jumps and clever distractions. Lockout is an extremely well designed map with it's well balanced sight-lines and power weapon locations. But it is completely chaotic with jetpack because you don't have to follow the paths that make the map's design. You might as well not even have paths if you don't have to use them. Jetpack allows players to disregard the threat of falling to your death in a gap that separates areas of the map. So you might as well build your map on the ground. With jetpack, walls have to either be really tall, or have a ceiling if you don't want people to fly over them. Every building's roof has to either be taller than the map boundary, or have a kill barrier on the top to keep players from getting up there. So not only do you have to make all of your buildings taller, you have to make sure your bases are closed off so players have to use the "door" and not just fly in through the roof. You have to design your map around the jetpack. You can't have any walkways exposed to the sky if you only want people to come through by the ends. You always have to put a roof on your bases. You can't just have a hole in the floor for players to drop through one-way because jetpack allows you to fly up through it, so it might as well be a ramp... or you could use a shield-door... but that just complicates things. Sprint: Sprint is different. "How so?" Well, sprint allows you to run faster than normal. "So why would you need to change the way you design your maps?" Sprint was added originally to try and "speed up game-play" and in ways it did. It's helpful in BTB when you happen to be the lucky guy stuck without a vehicle, you can get where you need to go faster than walking at least. But on small maps it's a different story. Sure you can get around the map faster, and it does increase the flow of soldiers to the front lines. In theory, sprint just sounds like a way to speed up the pace of the game, but if you can get to the fight faster, you can leave it just as fast. When you are taking fire, what is the first thing you do? Well if you are not the most skilled player (like me) you try to find the closest thing to hide behind and then find a way to either get away, or return fire. The really good players would probably just no-scope the guy, or growl at him and send him crying for his mommy (yes, it's happened). Now, you will probably want to find cover as fast as you can to avoid taking any more damage than possible. Sprint helps you find cover quickly and helps you to become a harder target. Sounds good right? But, the drawback is if you are the guy behind the rifle. Your target isn't out in the open long enough for you to drain his shields and kill him. "So what changes are necessary to map design in order for the shooter to be able to kill a player before he can reach cover?" Well that's simple, spread out the cover more. So now it takes just as long to sprint from cover to cover as it did to walk. Kind of cancels each other out eh? And, on top of that, your maps have to be made bigger in order to compensate for the increased distance between cover. So, now that the maps are bigger, your standard issue AR or BR isn't very effective. So you need a weapon with a bit more range... DMR. Wait... We just went in a circle! So, they add sprint, and have to make the maps bigger, and as a result of that had to make a new weapon to compensate for the bigger maps? Wouldn't it have been a lot simpler to use better map designs in order to get players around the map faster? You would think. Now we get to the real point of this thread. It's taken a long time to get here, but I had to make sure I make myself clear. What we have seen thus far is additions to the game that change game-play and map design. Now, weather those additions have a negative or positive effect is yet to be determined. We have seen that with the addition of the jetpack, you have to design your maps so people can't get up into places they shouldn't go. And that if your map is at all open, a player can simply go anywhere he wants. And I just got done talking about sprint. I think that the root of the reasoning behind AAs, was the fact that Bungie/343 were running out of creative Map designs, and thought the only way to make the game "fresh" was through the addition of new features, which change the way maps are played on. Continued in next post... [Edited on 12.11.2012 7:04 AM PST]

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  • You're ignoring one main point which is that there are very good maps for Halo Reach (maybe not for 4 so far) which allow for AA use. Reach maps were not good because it is more difficult to make maps while taking AAs into consideration. That doesn't mean it's not possible to make good maps. Look at the community maps and the dlc maps for Reach. Once people had been playing the game for a long time they worked out how to design very good maps; go into team slayer on Reach now and play the community maps.

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  • ]ok I still like my jetpack.

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  • I think AA's were handled in reach under bungie far better then in Halo 4. They are a great way to simply introduce new mechanics into a game, the same way a new weapon would. In Halo 4 using an AA feels like I am creating a disadvantage for myself most of the time rather then using an ability strategically like I would in default settings Reach.

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  • Funny because I think they should make Jetpack and Sprint default abilities and get rid of everything else and the customization. More mobility means more strategy. You just need to create maps that are open ended and maneuverable.

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Spartan1995324 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] CapttainNEM0 I don't venture into "canonical" discussions or debates. I don't know enough about it to merit such a discussion. [/quote]That's the whole point of this forum. This should have gone in the Flood.[/quote] OK. Sorry about that. >_<

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] CapttainNEM0 I don't venture into "canonical" discussions or debates. I don't know enough about it to merit such a discussion. [/quote]The fail is strong with this one.

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] CapttainNEM0 I don't venture into "canonical" discussions or debates. I don't know enough about it to merit such a discussion. [/quote]That's the whole point of this forum. This should have gone in the Flood.

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  • Hey OP, if you need two post spaces for your topic, then the polite thing to do is to provide a simple summary at the beginning or end so we know if we'd be wasting our time reading the whole dang thing. I read everything anyways though. It's nothing I haven't already heard. Also, this is the wrong forum. [Edited on 12.11.2012 8:27 AM PST]

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Wikked Navajoe [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Jump Into Hell I came in here expecting a canonical explanation for the AAs lol[/quote] OT: If people like the AAs, they can use them. If people don't like them, they don't have to.[/quote] Willingly put yourself at a disadvantage? Not a chance. I'm very competitive, and in order to play against others and win, I need the same tools.

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Jump Into Hell I came in here expecting a canonical explanation for the AAs lol[/quote] OT: If people like the AAs, they can use them. If people don't like them, they don't have to.

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] GrandmasterNinja do you even lift? All of your post up there were opinions, I just shared mine.[/quote] The way AAs effect map design is a fact. What you posted had very little to do with what I was originally talking about. The AAs effect gameplay just as much in Halo 4 as they did in Reach. Just because you don't find them as effective, doesn't mean other people don't. [Edited on 12.11.2012 7:02 AM PST]

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] CapttainNEM0 [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] GrandmasterNinja Uh...fine tale brother, do tell once more. But in all seriousness, I'd say Reach made AAs what they're meant to be. Now the AAs are just tacky and dumb in Halo 4. In reach the AAs gave you a TREMENDOUS benefit over somebody without the AA, now...not so much. All you need is a DMR or BR and you can kill ANYBODY in the same manner and not even bother with the AA you have. It is pointless now. [/quote]Did you even read it?[/quote] do you even lift? All of your post up there were opinions, I just shared mine.

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] GrandmasterNinja Uh...fine tale brother, do tell once more. But in all seriousness, I'd say Reach made AAs what they're meant to be. Now the AAs are just tacky and dumb in Halo 4. In reach the AAs gave you a TREMENDOUS benefit over somebody without the AA, now...not so much. All you need is a DMR or BR and you can kill ANYBODY in the same manner and not even bother with the AA you have. It is pointless now. [/quote]Did you even read it?

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  • I don't venture into "canonical" discussions or debates. I don't know enough about it to merit such a discussion.

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  • [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Jump Into Hell I came in here expecting a canonical explanation for the AAs lol[/quote] Same here.

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  • I came in here expecting a canonical explanation for the AAs lol

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  • Uh...fine tale brother, do tell once more. But in all seriousness, I'd say Reach made AAs what they're meant to be. Now the AAs are just tacky and dumb in Halo 4. In reach the AAs gave you a TREMENDOUS benefit over somebody without the AA, now...not so much. All you need is a DMR or BR and you can kill ANYBODY in the same manner and not even bother with the AA you have. It is pointless now.

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  • If you make your maps interesting and fun to begin with, you don't need AAs at all! AAs can make a boring map like Boardwalk (from Reach) somewhat enjoyable. But take the AAs out, and that map is very boring and slow. Take a map like Guardian (from Halo 3), plays well and quite fast with the right amount of players. Small, but it has plenty of long sight-lines to make BR and sniper combat effective and comfortable. The map also has plenty of close-quarters areas to incorporate the shotgun, SMG, AR, and gravity hammer. This map offers a wide range of areas that are designed for different types of combat, yet the map is compact, and you are never looking for something to kill for very long, even in a 1 Vs 1 situation. Guardian has a little bit of everything, and is a good example of a well designed map. So we finally get down to it. The only logical reasoning behind AAs is that they can make a semi good map "fun" (I use that term loosely) to play on and offer something new at the same time. So now they don't have to put as much effort into map design because AAs can make make it interesting regardless of the map design quality. Now we can see why Reach's and Halo 4's maps aren't the best designs we have seen. Map design is like government. The rules by which we live, or in map design, play. Without AAs, the rules are very simple, and if you try to break them, you usually die by falling off the map. You can do what ever you wish, play however you like as long as you stay inside the rules. AAs allow players to break the laws of map design, so in an attempt to keep players from breaking the laws to the point of the entire system collapsing, they make more laws. It's like giving a child a gun and then making everyone in your house wear bulletproof vests! It's flawed logic! So, to make matters even worse, they have to change the way maps are designed altogether. They have to dumb down the maps so there are less "laws" for AAs to possibly break. Just for kicks, compare Halo 2's maps to the maps in Reach. In Reach, most of your maps are large, and mostly open, with little variation in elevation. In Halo 2, most of your maps are somewhat compact, yet there is considerable walking distance between different sides of the map due to much variation in elevation. And everyone just loved Reach's maps (if I could get any more sarcasm in there, I would have). So, sure, AAs can be fun, and they are in many great custom games. And I'll agree that without AAs, Reach and Halo 4 would be very boring on the default maps, but I think the real way to make a game fresh, is through new and creative maps designs, not through "ways to break the law". It's like being invincible, sure it's cool for a little while, but it gets really boring. One thing that has really stood out to me lately is how 343 has been addressing "issues". They just slap a band-aid on the symptom and ignore the root of the problems. To many people quitting? "Ooh, let's put a quit ban on e'm!" No, make the game more fun and interesting and people won't have a good reason to quit (OK, that was Bungie). Not enough people playing Wargames? "Let's put double XP codes on poison bottles that are only good for the first month so people will play like crazy so it looks like everybody loves the game so we get all kinds of awards! And we can completely ignore the feedback on the forums because if so many people play the game, how could anyone be unhappy with it?" Wow, really? All they care about is money (It's Microsoft, what did you expect?), and if they can get everyone to say, "oh, this game might be the one that fixes all the problems!" they will go out and buy it. Same with the map packs. Sure, they fixed a few problems with Halo 4, but why would they fix all of them if they have a bunch more games to make? If they spread out their "problem fixing" over all their games, people will buy every... single... one. All I want is to play Halo. I don't care if it's new or old. I just want it done right. Thank you for reading my posts. ~Eshcka

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