Mediator92

Reach was a military planet, and as such, provided access to prototype armor abilities. While John does not wear Spartan III armor, that does not rule out the possibility of upgrades, especially on a Forerunner planet with active machinery and the strong possibility of human presence and adaptations of existing tech utilizing Forerunner inspiration. He has a thruster pack, as do all Spartans, which allows for better maneuverability in weak/zero gravity environments, but it is useless in normal situations. Bubble shields trump drop shields, they last longer and don't require a loadout. Since Sprint is something that any high school athlete can do, 26th century supersoldiers should at least be able to jog. Armor Lock turns you into Gandolf, but not always in a good way. Realistically, since you are overloading your shield generator, your shield should be gone and need to recharge upon exit. Invisibility is possible, but would be better implemented as a pick up to use at your discretion, but without a built-in radar jammer or poor stability. Hologram is only used as a joke, and few people fall for it. If the Hologram simply mimicked your movements, it could be useful, but as is, it's pointless. If we want to keep the dynamic flexibility of Reach but not make it a cheesy skill-deficient introduction to a new trilogy, things need to change. This game will take place years after the Fall of Reach, and no doubt the UNSC has improved it's earlier formulas. If it is to play like Halo but still be new, equipment is required. Jet-pack needs to become a universal thruster pack for weak/zero g. Bubble shields become pick-ups, as well as invisibility (except for the higher ranked Elites and the Spartan III's since their SPI armor comes with it). Sprint/Dodge should just be incorporated into the natural movement. Unless Hologram gets some kind of attention, it will be a neglected pick-up, if even that. Armor lock is iffy. It's endless entertainment for preventing splatters and it has the Spartan-esque BA look and feel, but it's akin to pushing your armor to the limits as a one-time risk. When Spartans rained from the sky in the Fall of Reach, they manually tweaked their normal armor settings. John's armor locked up on his return to Earth, automatically or manually, I don't know, and it saved his life. When Cortana pushed John's nuclear backpack generator to the limit just to teleport on the first Halo, she said that they should only try this once, and John had to get an armor upgrade at the beginning of Halo 2. Rerouting and pushing your armors power to it's limits can have amazing results, but as a 2 ton cybernetic supersoldier with every other skill at your disposal, how often do you really need to do it?

I can't be the only one who would find that to be too gory for a game of Halo's caliber. I agree with the idea of a special assassination, but not one that removes the helmet to kill so terribly. Maybe something where armor damage is something that a player acquires after regaining their shield after taking damage without it? So if you take a ton of damage and lose your shield for the first time after spawning, your armour shows the magnitude of damage taken without a shield, but nothing affects your abilities. If you survive a second shield-loss and subsequent body damage, static ripples across your shield, armor, and visor, but again, no impairment. Surviving a third assault gives your armour a charred, torn, malfunctioning appearance with pieces actually missing and a few thin, iffy cracks in your visor? If you can survive a 4th bodily attack, then your visor actually gets some serious cracks. To remedy the complaints of obstructing vision, simply grab a med-pack or something equivalent. Instant armor buffer. This way, you'll be able to tell who's actually going out to fight, who's good at surviving battles, and who hides and snipes and camps. It would also be great for machinimas, it would give the 'actors' real substance, give drama and impact to the situation, and other visual entertainment. Oh, and insta-kill headshots from the front would result in open cracks in the body's visor.

I honestly don't know. There's kind of a reason only the Covenant had such a beast-mobile and the UNSC didn't. The Covenant have had ages to develop such a monstrosity as the Scarab, and they've always been offense-oriented, which means the UNSC has always had to go on the defensive. That's the thing, Covenant and UNSC weapons/vehicles/equipment/etc can be similar in some ways, but there's always a fundamental difference between the similar objects, something that makes them better than the other in certain situations. Remember, humans are adaptive, innovative, creative. The Covenant simply absorb the existing tech of the species they conquer, they simply stay the same, nothing new. If the UNSC is to create something reminiscent of the Scarab, something similar to a human transport base vehicular manslaughter monster thing, then it should be a kind of monster upgrade to the existing Elephant! I know people had mixed feelings about it, but the concept is a step in the right direction. The Scarab was a monster in and of itself, requiring maybe a dozen to make it work well for gameplay (although Johnson worked it fine by himself). The Elephant had a driver and a single exposed gunner. Given some human ingenuity and elbow grease, it could be so much more! Keeping the concept, a mobile base, just scale it up to give it the value of a Scarab! Give it Grizzly armor, 4-ish turrets, a small flight deck for a Falcon and a Hornet or something, a vehicle bay big enough to hold a Scorpion and a Warthog and a Mongoose, and a radio to call in ODST's from orbit! This way, it's not a copy of the Scarab. Its firepower and longevity and usefulness will be equivalent, but it will be as defensive and BA as the Scarab is offensive and BA, you know? I know this isn't perfect, but leave the copying to the Covenant.

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