So I like the HELM. I mean I [i]really[/i] like the HELM as a concept not just in lore, but mechanically. The decoder, vault, and postmaster all in near proximity means fewer trips and more convenience, without cutting out the original utility of the original spots. The cryptarch is still on the Tower, and not in the HELM, the vault hasn't moved, and the Drifter not having complete control of the decoder and focuser tech now that the cryptarchs have gotten their hands on the stuff since Drifter used it outside of his little hole in the wall during the Guardian olympics.
But I think we can do better.
Don't get me wrong, I like the HELM the way it is, but we need to extend it. And I could think of a way it can expand to relplace a now vaulted location and utility:
The Tribute Hall.
Do I think that the Tribute Hall should be replicated in the Tower? No. But think about what the Tribute Hall was good for. It had vault storage, which the HELM already has, but it was right next to infinite ammo spawners, and a range of standard enemies to fight or test their guns strength against.
What I think the HELM, heck, the Tower needs, as an extension, is a firing range.
I mean, aside from live combat against the enemies of the light, or other guardians, what do we have to test new loadouts, new tools, without throwing them into the deep end and learning all their quirks the hard way before deciding we don't like them when we didn't give them much of a chance? Or that they weren't suited for the task we put them to, like good for PvP, not so good on the PvE front, or vise versa, or both, or none and it really is a crap gun?
Surely somewhere in the Last City there's a demo test and firing range to determine if City armaments are good enough to be deployed. Why not extrapolate on that?
How would I design it?
You could connect it to the HELM - why not? It's already a combat-viable area with 1st person perspective with all the bells and whistles, if you can do the glitch to fire your guns or activate your neutrals or supers.
As for what would happen if you didn't, the majority of what I'm about to commit to paper goes for either or.
1) A long horizontal space which we will call the RANGE (Readiness Acumen Neutral Grounds Emulator) which is broken up by a live-fire zone, and a safety zone. It is divided into two halves, one is twice or three times as large as the other, with a divider between them that prohibits any projectiles, explosives, or paracausal energies to pass through unless:
1a) You are within the confines of the live-fire zone, but cannot fire outside of it towards the safety zone. Projectiles, supers, and explosives will be neutralised upon contacting the barrier as if it were a solid wall, or if using a roaming super the divider will turn off your super upon passing from the live-fire zone to the safety zone.
1b) You are within a thin strip in front of the divider which we will call the Firing Line, facing towards the live-fire zone. Projectiles, one-shot supers, and explosives will pass through the divider into the live fire zone from the Firing Line. Usage of any roaming supers or movement out of the Firing Line towards the safety zone is disabled, as is turning around with a readied weapon towards the safety zone.
The divider is completely passable by any movement of the player, including supers, with the aforementioned rules above applying. If you've ever actually handled a firearm and gone to a shooting range, it's a lot like that, except you can pass onto the range at any time. Since we do much more dangerous things as guardians with immortal life in Shaxx's Crucible, on Strikes and in Raids, we can be a little calous*.
*But remember to abide by and respect real range rules and restrictions.
2) Quick and easy access to the vault to quickly exchange weapons and gear to test with. This is pretty simple, the Tribute hall was designed like so, why wouldn't a RANGE be? If the RANGE is a section of the HELM, then the vault is a little redundant, but another access point when the RANGE gets crowded wouldn't be a terrible idea. The Tower has two access points (previously three) for the vault, so I'd add it anyway for convenience and sensibility.
3) An ammo vendor/device that allows for quick and easy access to ammo. What's the point of a RANGE if the only way to fire or test more is to go to orbit and come back? The ammos should include the full range, and be at preferably no cost to the user, as that would discourage use. The Tower may not have infinite resources, but we pretty much have it in Crucible. If a limit had to be added for balance or lore reasons:
3a) Put the ammo drops on a timer that can be activated once every (x) amount of time, going up with the standard rarity of the drop of the ammo without ammo finder modifiers. Once the drop is activated, the timer begins, and the drop cannot be activated while the timer is still going. It would behave much like a heavy ammo drop box in the Battlegrounds or during the first mission of Shadowkeep when fighting towards the Keep, but when the timer elapses the drop will be restored, allowing consistent usage with a touch of patience for ammo spammers that used to sit next to the ammo spawners in the Tribute Hall.
4) A selection of simulated enemies to choose from and spawn inside the live-fire zone, allowing you to choose the specific type of enemy.
4a) Similar composition to what was available in the Tribute Hall, but with special or alternative variations added, like Tracer and Exploder Shanks for Shank selections, and Taken equivalents where applicable.
4b) A healthbar rank to distinguish the type - redbar, orangebar, yellowbar - which come as tougher enemies with alternative weapons or abilities based on that opponent when encountered in the wild, or during certain activities. These changes to the healthbar type may change the opponent's size and hitboxes, but within the range of that enemy's standard size.
5) An selection of settings to alter the light level of the environment - and the enemies within it - in order to guage difficulty when playing in certain activities or modifiers. This is distinguished from the "Ad Spawner" settings, as it's a blanket, and must be changed to reflect different difficulties in different activities where light level does not change.
5a) Settings will include the bottom range where all new light begins, and each level is set at a various cap of standardised difficulty in various activities, which may or may not be named as such: Adept, Hero, Legend, Master, and Grandmaster based on the light level range of the season. As the bottom of the range for light level and the top range for light level go up each season, as does the new light level, this should not be hard to implement.
6) A selection of settings to add modifiers to the environment what you would see in various activities, including but not limited to those found in nightfalls and special PvP activities, like Mayhem.
7) Behavioral settings that determine whether the enemies on the live-fire zone are:**
7a) Offline, meaning they don't act or move.
7b) Stunned/dazed, the effect of which turns on their AI but keeps them perpetually disoriented as seen with the Blinding Grenades perk, effects from Tractor Cannon, and all similar applicable afflictions.
7c) Active, they behave like normal AI when moving, but will not fire upon a person unless they pass the divider into the live fire zone (detection and movement is on, but will not fire unless within line of sight past the divider).
7d) Enhanced, in which they are far more active and erratic in both movement and ability use, as seen in higher levels of play, but still behave limitedly when the Guardian(s) is not within the live-fire zone, as seen in addition 7c.
** I am not fully aware of how the AI behavior works or is intergrated into other mechanics, and it's late at night, and I'm tired. If you can applicably tie additon 7 (and all subsets therein) to other addition settings if that is where and when they are applied, and you are more informed on the subject, please do not hesitate to do so. I am an enthusiast, not an engineer, or a dev.
8) For additions 4, 5, 6 and 7 (and all subsets therein) to be condensed into an object or device with seperate tabs to their respective settings, like a console on the wall of the RANGE seprate from the vault. As all of these settings are related, albiet slightly different, think of this device as a thermostat with the ability to also change humidity in addition to ambient temperature.
9) A switch (or switches) seprate from the above umbrella menu, with settings disabling or enabling self-harm or friendly fire when in the live-fire zone, enabling players with friends to test damage values outside of private matches and under additional conditions.
I am not a dev, and I realise giving players access to the toolbox to generate ads is somewhat complicated and unprecidented on this complexity level. But this allows the RANGE to be distinct in utility from the Tribute Hall, if and when Bungie decides to circulate it back into the game.
If the ability to generate ads in the above additions is too much to ask or too investive to include in a reasonable time frame, then add the spawners from the Tribute Hall, pound for pound, scattered all over the live-fire zone to save on development time.
But please, tell me what you think.
o7