Silver Titanius

Actually, no the B.R. is not redundant. The DMR requires 5 shots MINIMUM to score a kill on a fully shielded player. The Battle Rifle is capable of killing with 4 trigger pulls, provided that 10 of the 12 rounds hit and the 11th or 12th round (fired on the 4th trigger pull) hit the target's head. The Battle Rifle is a mid to mid-long range weapon, which is where a rough majority of Halo 4 engagements take place. Two players working together with the B.R. make it highly lethal. One player need only expose himself long enough to get two shots off at a target, and have the second come out and place two more for an easy kill. Some of my friends refer to the B.R. as the noob weapon. The B.R. is, again, a mid to mid-long range weapon, whereas the DMR is a long-range weapon. It's less powerful than the Light Rifle (the only other headshot weapon capable of killing a target with only 4 trigger pulls) but compensates by firing slightly more quickly. "In general I don't mind the concept of customizable loadouts, but they cause a huge Problem. In order to maintain weapon balancing loadout weapons became very similar in use and function." To be fair, Halo technically comes nowhere close to having anything like some of the weapon redundancy you can find in the Call of Duty or Battlefield games. The trick is knowing where a weapon is best suited, i.e. range, situation, etc. "The Assault Rifle the Storm Rifle and the Surpressor were basically the same weapon just with a few changes. They all took about the same time to kill and had no Special use." Actually no, and I can say this because as someone who's tool of destruction is almost always his fist in most standard games (minus SWAT, vehicle use, etc.), I took the time to experiment with the weapons and learn their strong and weak suits, where they work best at, which is important since I tend to engage enemies in CQC. To answer this point, the Assault Rifle and Storm Rifle are probably the closest to each other in terms of functionality of any two weapons in the game. But there are still advantages of each. The assault rifle is more effective at the optimal mid-range of engagement than the Storm Rifle, but at mid-close range the storm rifle is slightly more lethal (though as a side note, you can get a melee kill with either weapon if you hit the target six times). The suppressor has the shortest range of them. It's not a mid-range weapon but a close-range weapon. The Assault Rifle and Storm Rifle are no match at close range against a suppressor. "Same goes for Battle Rifle, Designated Marksman Rifle, Covernant Carbine and Light Rifle." Again, the trick is knowing where the weapons work best, how they're balanced, etc. The Battle Rifle is a mid-range weapon. The Covenant Carbine is more of a mid-long range weapon, whereas the DMR and Light Rifle are long range weapons. The B.R. will win in a basic mid-range engagement, but the Covenant Carbine is still useful, since it's ability to fire rounds quickly ensures its useful at a wider variety of ranges. The Light Rifle is the only other weapon capable of a 4-shot headshot kill in Halo 4 besides the B.R. It's power is compensated for by the fact that this power is only while the weapon is zoomed-in. Even though it has a 3-round burst function while zoomed out like the B.R., it is far weaker than a B.R. zoomed out, yet more powerful than an individual round from a DMR while zoomed in. This makes the Light Rifle impractical at short to mid-range engagement. At long range, it's power is compensated for by a more clearly visible 'trail' and a slower rate of fire than the DMR. "Moreover the Halo 4 Plasma Pistol has not enough Ammo and is compared to other Halos to weak. The Boltshot on the other Hand is basically a oneshot weapon you can spawn with." It's true that the plasma pistol, in Halo 4, only seems to fill the role of being a cheap weapon for lowly Ungoy and a loadout solution to try to address enemy vehicles. In my opinion, a boost to the speed at which the round travels would be a huge plus, as well as a buff to the homing ability to make it more useful (even though the homing ability itself still makes no sense technically, but who cares, right?). The Boltshot would need to be buffed a little if the Brute Mauler ever made a return, as the Mauler was an easy-to-use shotgun-like pistol, whereas the Boltshot's charge-up means it requires careful timing (not a problem for people who always operate close to the enemy like me, but more so for others). The simplicity of the Mauler would mean the Boltshot would need to be buffed for slightly greater one-shot -kill-range when charged up, lest it become obsolete. And the Boltshot still had a standard headshot round that is useful on occasion. "One more concern I have is that Dual Wielding can't work out with loadouts (in a competetive gaming Environment)." Actually, it can. Weapons like the standard SMG (I'd be happy if the ODST SMG also made a comeback though it couldn't be dual-wielded), are capable of being dual-wielded whereas weapons like the Assault Rifle cannot. This creates a unique incentive for some players to want to spawn with dual-wield-capable weapons in the hopes that they can acquire a second dual-wield-capable weapon. An overarching purpose for dual-wielding is to compensate for the individual weapon's shortcomings, i.e. the SMG is obviously no match for the Assault Rifle or Battle Rifle at mid-range, and certainly wouldn't beat a suppressor at close range. Some players will want dual-wield weapons, others will prefer standard primary weapons. Player choice is preserved, even expanded, without sacrificing gameplay. "Now if there were no loadouts in all competetive playlists (and if there were no ordonance drops) we could have a broad range of different weapons that were all worth to fight over on the maps. (just like it was the case in older Halos)" I still see that even now. I see people making a point to gun for spots where ordnance drops will occur or where a good weapon will spawn. Not all good weapons are available by ordnance drop. Ordnance drops don't make standard respawning weapons set on the map inferior, since placed weapons can have their capacity and spawn-time controlled...plus it doesn't put a waypoint over the weapon, which is helpful in some cases. "let me give you an example: You start a match with a BR which is very similar to the halo 3 BR. It kills with 4 Bursts but it's hard to hit every bullet(unlike in Halo4) especially at Long range. You want to take out enemies at long range so you hunt for a DMR which is much better than the BR. This was in Halo 4 not possible because both weapons were loadout weapons which meant that they both have to be equal. If there are no loudouts you can make some weapons stronger and others weaker. And you can add very special weapons." The issue in discussions about the B.R. vs the DMR is that people ignore the fact that these are two different weapons designed for two different ranges. Using a B.R. against a DMR at range isn't a smart move. Using a DMR against a B.R. at mid-range isn't a smart move. Broader weapon specialization (lots of weapons filling different ranges and roles) makes combat overall more diverse and dynamic, rather than risk stagnating it with redundancy, which Halo games have always tried to avoid. In another thread, I even mentioned past Halo weapons that can be brought in a new Halo game and I explained why they wouldn't cause redundancy. This really comes down to understanding the different roles and qualities, as well as shortcomings, that different weapons have. It's not necessarily a matter about stronger or weaker weapons. After all, you can have the SMG and Assault Rifle in a game. The Assault Rifle is stronger than the SMG and has better range, but the SMG isn't counted out because it compensates with a higher rate of fire making it more lethal at close range. It comes down to knowing the weapon's strengths and weaknesses, rather than quantifying it with a power number, so to speak. This is true even of the heavy weapons. The Fuel Rod Cannon is the weakest of the three regarding individual round strength, but it carries a larger number of rounds, making it most effective against infantry, yet slightly useful against vehicles. The Rocket Launcher is the more-balanced weapon, capable of effectively wiping out infantry and really hurting heavy vehicles at the cost of total round capacity and only two shots before needing a reload. The Incineration Cannon is the most powerful of the three, the one weapon with the ability to kill anything in the game with a single well-placed shot (and its cool to see infantry evaporate). But this power comes at the cost of one shot per cooldown (the weapon's reload) and only carries up to 5 blasts. I hope this commentary helps some. How about a health monitor of some sort (like in Mass Effect 2) where we can know how close our Spartan is to death but still have the same regenerating health and shields like normal. This would be useful in multiplayer, but more so in Spartan Ops and Campaign. Just because Gen. I Mark VI and Gen. II variants come with the on-board medical gear, it seems odd that Spartans don't still have access to some sort of health monitor beyond their shields...

What makes this "The Official" thread..? I don't mind sharing some thoughts and ideas I posed in another thread, but I'm curious about the thread title...

what exactly do you mean by "within the realm of possibility"? And which wishes do you deem idiotic, and why? Feel free to list some of your own hopes, ideas, thoughts, etc. Thats what this thread seems to be for...

Halo 5 wishlist, thoughts, ideas... * = My top wishes. WEAPONS *dual wielding* - a return to dual wielding would be greatly welcome in Halo (haven't seen that in C.o.D or Battlefield for sure). I doubt I'm not the only player who finds it odd that Sarah Palmer is the only Spartan in Halo 4 capable of dual wielding. Halo 2 SMG - the high rate of fire we've come to expect from the Forerunner suppressor, albeit with slightly tighter bullet spread and dual-wield capability. An individual smg at very close range wouldn't beat a suppressor, but would still be a capable close-range weapon. The dual-wield functionality would lend greatly to it's capability. As far as loadout practicality goes, it creates a unique incentive: players will want to spawn with the smg in hopes that other players will drop an smg, allowing them to dual wield... *Halo 3: ODST SMG (my number 1 weapon wish) - Unlike the smg of Halo 2, Halo 3: ODST's smg was, for the most part, a superior weapon. It had the rate of fire of the standard smg, as well as the benefit of a silencer and vastly tighter bullet spread allowing effective engagement at longer range. Regarding gameplay, the silencer would enable one to fire the weapon, ideally, without appearing on the motion tracker, and would make it more difficult for a player to be identified by the sound of their weapon. Unlike the Halo 2 smg, this model could not be dual wielded, and so it doesn't necessarily replace the smg in terms of usefulness. The weapon is a fairly effective mid-range weapon, but as it is an smg still, it is certainly no replacement for the Battle Rifle or the Assault Rifle. Due to the limited damage each round deals, which is ever balanced out by the weapon's rate of fire, a user of this weapon would still be defeated in a direct mid-range engagement against the A.R. and B.R. These factors allow the weapon to be relevant, effective, but not over-powered. Plasma Rifle - While the Storm Rife is considered the successor to the plasma rifle (understandable due to a more stable and high rate of fire and damage), the Plasma Rifle is still a fairly popular, and well-missed, weapon. It's possibly the most iconic Covenant weapon, competing with the energy sword. The Plasma rifle has a tighter plasma spread than the storm rifle. It's energy efficiency could also be altered to be improved at 343's discretion. Most notably, unlike the Storm Rifle, the Plasma Rifle has dual-wield capability. While a single hit from a Plasma Rifle is not as lethal as that of a Storm Rifle, the presence of an adversary dual-wielding Plasma Rifles is still very intimidating...and for good reason. Plasma Repeater - In combat, Halo: Reach's Plasma Repeater was never, in my experience, a particularly terrifying weapon, despite the impressive rate of fire. Still, it's a fairly enjoyable weapon to use and one that some players miss. A return of this weapon would not warrant many complaints, I'm sure. A slightly tighter plasma spread (and possibly longer firing time before overheat) would help improve weapon functionality, since individual shots did seemingly insignificant damage. The U.N.S.C. has its SMG weapon. The Forerunners have their Suppressor. The Plasma Repeater is the Covenant answer to these weapons (the Energy Sword and Gravity Hammer answer the Scattershot and Shotgun). Promethian Blade? - A few players I have spoken with have mused about the advent of a Promethian melee weapon, notably the blade that Promethian Knights use. This train of thought is still one that warrants discussion, but the concept is there. Halo: Reach Grenade Launcher - One of the most-missed weapons in Halo 4 from Halo: Reach, from players I've spoken with as well as my personal opinion, is the Grenade Launcher. Despite being a single-shot weapon, a skilled and experienced player needs little to no more than that. The bounce factor is there in force, and despite lacking the number of rounds carried by the Brute Shot, the EMP effect certainly made it a very viable weapon, not only against infantry, but also in disabling vehicles as well; just as useful, and arguably more useful, than the charged Plasma Pistol. Halo 2/3 Brute Shot - Despite having a slightly smaller boom, less bounce distance, and no EMP effect when compared to Halo: Reach's Grenade Launcher, the Brute Shot makes up for these shortcomings with ammo capacity and ease of direct damage. Where the Grenade Launcher's charge has been known to bounce off players before exploding, reducing the damage done, the Brute Shot's grenades detonate on contact. The presence of multiple shots before reload, a slight bounce effect to the grenades, and an able rate of fire ensures that the Brute Shot is a well-balanced response to the more power-shot-focused Grenade Launcher. Flamethrower (with buffing) - I've never met anyone who didn't think a flamethrower is a cool weapon. An improved flamethrower weapn would be greatly welcome. The Flamethrower of Halo 3, while amusing to use, wasn't as effective as one would like, especially on the higher difficulties, where the weapon's lack of stopping power, need for time to deal it's damage, encumberance to player speed, and limited range ensured the weapon was more a liability than an asset. A return of the flamethrower with improved range and flame speed would be more welcome (and honestly, more realistic). Some considerable thought would be wanted regarding a Flamethrower variant that a standard player could use like a normal weapon (as opposed to being like a mounted turret). Damage per second may not need to be buffed as the weapon would still hold value regarding are denial (due to residual flames), and in the right situations, a good anti-camp weapon. Thoughts to consider... Incendiary Grenade - Lovable for much the same reason as the flame thrower: killing with literal firepower. The weapon of Halo 3: ODST guaranteed death if a direct hit was achieved, in much the same was a plasma grenade, but still had a useful area denial effect that could rival the Pulse Grenade, plus the fire intimidation factor (though the Pulse Grenade still gets points for completely vaporizing your player). The Pulse Grenade would not be completely invalidated by such a weapon, as far as area or path-denial goes, since a player can leap over an incindiary's flame but not over the ionization field of the Pulse Grenade. Halo 3: ODST Missile Pod - On the right maps, the missile pod can be a very useful, and very fun, weapon, particularly for it's anti-vehicle role, while still retaining great usefulness against infantry as well, though at the cost of a fairly small number of rounds while dismounted. Halo 3 Mauler - Possibly the only competitor to the Forerunner Boltshot could be the Brute's Mauler. To those who don't know, or don't remember, it's essentially a shotgun-pistol fusion, much in the same way the Boltshot is, but has less power and range than a shotgun. It requires no charge-up the way the Boltshot does. The weapon could also be dual-wielded. In response, it's very possible the Boltshot may need a small buff to it's standard fire damage to compensate, or a small buff to the instant-kill-range of it's charged shot. This guarantees the relevance of the Boltshot, despite the smaller ammo capacity compared to the Mauler. Halo: Reach Needle Rifle - The Needle Rifle can remain relevant even with the Covenant Carbine. Individual rounds can do more damage, compensating for a lower rate of fire when compared to the Carbine. The tricky are of discussion would be the supercombine explosion. With Halo 4, 343 was kind enough to restore the Needler to it's former glory, allowing a super-combine explosion with 6 hits, regardless of if the target was shielded or not. However, if the same principle were applied to the Needle Rifle and it's 3-round super-combine explosion, the Needle Rifle becomes exceedingly overpowered (take THAT Battle Rifle and DMR). Discussion would be needed to determine the super-combine requirement, be it 6 hits or even retaining the original 3 hits on unsheilded target (almost worthless since it's a headshot weapon). Halo: Reach has already proven itself that the Needle Rifle is not completely superior to the U.N.S.C. DMR. VEHICLES *Scorpion Variation* - Either by sheer overlook or as a mocking blow, all Scorpions since Halo 3: ODST that have lost their coaxial machine gun, which the driver could use in addition to the main cannon, still show said machine gun on the main cannon (look at the cannon to the left). Halo has a history of limiting weapon variance, possibly as a means of preventing sheer redundancy like what can be seen in the Call of Duty and Battlefield games. So it may be too much to have two varieties of Scorpion (with allowing the driver's coaxial gun, one with the mounted mg a second player can use). Halo Wars Grizzly Battle Tank - Take a Scorpion, make 10-20% larger, then give it's main cannon 2 barrels instead of one, and you get the Grizzly Main Battle Tank. A beast of vehicular warfare that never wants for firepower nor armor. Of course measures would have to be taken to guarantee the viability of the Scorpion still. Such measures may be buffs to speed (it IS a smaller tank, with lighter armor, one barrel instead of two, and would carry less ammo compared to a Grizzly), accuracy at range, etc even making a Scorpion to Grizzly ratio limit. Halo Wars Vampire - The Covenant's primary anti-aircraft unit is an aircraft itself. The Vampire is notable for it's ability to drain the energy from enemy units to heal itself (a feature that may need to be altered or removed to be viable in a normal Halo game), and while lacking a fuel rod and plasma weapons like the Banshee, could unleash fury with it's huge Needler cannon. These cannons never created a vehicle-killing super-combine explosion, but they did reasonable damage, which would tear a careless air-vehicle apart. Halo Wars Wolverine - The U.N.S.C. answer to air threats, the ground-based Wolverine houses missile pods on it's back. It's a powerful anti-air unit, but suffers greatly when faced with any ground threats. It'll beat just about any air unit, but its no match for a scorpion... Halo Wars Locust - The Covenant's 4-legged Locust vehicle (I call it a baby Scarab) was primarily used as a long-range anti-building vehicle. It fired a small, continuous beam and could sustain this fire without stop for a long period of time. Such a vehicle would be useful against individual infantry, and even vehicles if accurate fire is sustained long enough. Wraith (with new user interface) - The Covenant's Wraith is possibly their most iconic vehicle, and it's also the trickiest to use. I purpose a new interface to cope with the Wraith's natural difficulty of firing accurate rounds down-range. The Wraith's one distinct advantage over a scorpion is it's indirect fire ability, but this is complicated by the fact that a player must themselves look upward (potentially losing sight of the surrounding battlespace) and then guess where the burst will land. A better interface would be one where there is significantly less change in the altitude an operator is faceing when adjusting for distance, and instead creating an on-screen target indicator showing where the blast will land. Such an interface makes the Wraith a more practical vehicle and would allow users to finally be able to effectively take full advantage of it's indirect fire capability. It's blasts already travel fairly slow. Getting them on target shouldn't have to be as tricky for players. As a side note, it would be nice to use the coaxial plasma cannons the wraith's of Halo 2 possessed, though these were unusable by the player. Halo Wars Gremlin - The Gremlin is a unique unit. It's sole offensive capability lies in it's Spartan Laser-like weapon, though it is incapable of targeting air units. It's secondary ability, however, involves the vehicle unleashing a massive EMP burst, disabling any and all vehicles in the area. Used effectively, and in a cooperative manner, this can be devastating for an enemy vehicle force, who would be rendered completely vulnerable to other vehicles for a period of time. The EMP burst has a considerable cooldown time though, so it's not an ability that can be spammed. Additionally, the EMP could be made to also effect player's shielding, and maybe even allied vehicles that are too close (such a factor would make warthogs the ideal support vehicle to a Gremlin). How the EMP works would be left to 343's discretion in the end, as always, but the Gremlin would certainly add a new strategic dynamic to Halo's gameplay. Halo Wars Rhino - It looks like a Scorpion, drives like a Scorpion, but when you pull that trigger, out comes a burst of plasma. Reverse-engineered from Covenant tech., the Rhino could possibly be a competitor with the Wraith. How the two would be balanced to work in-game without one making the other irrelevent would warrant discussion, though the most obvious advantage of the wraith is it's superior maneuverability and speed... Halo Wars/3 Hornet - The hornet is a great all-around arial combat vehicle. Not as intense as the Sabre or Broadsword fighters, not heavy like the UNSC's Longsword and Shortsword bombers, but effective for most combat situations. Halo: Reach Falcon - While the Hornet gave it's user the forward-mounted mg and missiles, the Falcon is more team-based, with one player focused entirely on flying (giving them the advantage of not endangering themselves by requiring focus on a target), and allowing two gunners. Notably, these guns could be machine guns OR grenade launchers (though only the mg's were allowed in multiplayer and the standard forward-mounted machine gun was removed in the Reach multiplayer, though allowed in the Campaign). A Falcon variant with the forward mounted machine gun would be a welcome addition to Halo's multiplayer, as the lack therof made the Falcon worthless without a second cooperative player. The capability to have 3 guns (pilot mg as well as the left and right-side guns) would allow the Falcon to compensate for the lack of rockets possesed by the Hornet. Additionally, the Falcon can be allowed extra seats beyond the two gunner spots, allowing it to be an effective transport. This would, by itself, open up a variety of map-type opportunities in Forge, as a Banshe is impracticle as a means of transport over impassible terrain i.e. Forge Island (Halo 4). FORGE Larger maps to work with would be great. While standard games work well with the small to mid-size maps common to Halo, vehicular warfare could expand to great heighths with larger maps, as well as allowing great map-making opportunities for Forge. Large maps, combined with the currently existing vehicles plus the recommendations made above would ensure vehicular warfare could compete easily with, and even best, anything we've seen in Battlefield. Enable the player to use the zoom function in forge as they could in Reach. The loss of this, while not too dibilitating, makes some forging more difficult. Similarly, forcing distance between the editor and the object grasped makes moving objects in some spaces difficult and sometimes impractical altogether. Toggle on/off the lighting generator. While the ability for altered lighting to be generated in forged maps in Halo 4 is fantastic, it encumbers forgers. As their maps grown in size and complexity, the length of time they must wait to switch from editor mode to player mode, which tends to happen often, increases. The ability to toggle this feature on and off as needed would make forging work faster. Sometimes when I go into player mode, I don't want to see the altered lighting, I just need to quickly test something, like a cannon jump, and don't want to wait 3-6 seconds to conduct a 3-4 second test. It's not a problem at times, but when you have to do it often on larger and more complex maps, it becomes a real nuisance. Increase the number of objects of each type that can be spawned. A simple formula: more objects to work with, bigger, better, more complex and interesting maps. Increasing the number of lights and auto turrets (under Dominion) would also be nice. The creation of trait zones was a stroke of brilliance, and I wouldn't change them. In addition to trait zones, however, custom powerups (which work like traitzones but applies only to the player(s) who picked it up) would be a great tool to give players new game and map-types. Increase or eliminate the budget. While I personally can understand some reasons why the budget may be a necessity, an expansion, at the least, would be a great help. In fact, if the weapon and vehicle suggestions above were put into the game, a budget expansion would certainly be a necessity (vehicles are expensive, and more vehicles are more expensive). With all that said, kudos to 343 for such features as the lighting generator, the highlighting of objects that are targeted, trait zones, and the duplicate object feature. GAME TYPES IDEAS I'm not big on lecturing regarding game type ideas (Ricochet is a unique Oddball idea and I love Dominion). Some suggestions I'd like to make are: Juggernaut. Bring back Juggernaut. It's gameplay is different enough from Regicide to be relevant. Additionally, I'd like to request that the error of Halo: Reach's Juggernaut is NOT repeated (where settings don't work, such as making the juggernaught have a certain weapon set yet the game ALWAYS forces him to have a gravity hammer). Waypoints. Greater control over waypoints would be nice. In such games as Flood, Regicide, etc. it would be great if waypoints could actually be turned off, i.e. the marker over the King in Regicide or over the Last Man Standing in Flood. Regicide: enable a random player, both in free for all and in teams, to start as the King. *Elimination of name tag over player's head when facing towards them. As a player who loves stealth, assassinating, etc., I can tell you that it's very annoying, to say the least, when you're perfectly hidden (completely black armor and visor in a dark corner for example), and someone finds out where you are simply because they just happened to look in your direction and a big red name tag pops up over your head. I know the same occurs in Battlefield (and I wouldn't be surprised if it was also true of Call of Duty). If anything, at the least, PLEASE make this an optional setting. PLAYER CUSTOMIZATION IDEAS Black Armor color. With the exception of game mods, this hasn't been seen since Halo: Combat Evolved. The ability to give a different Primary/Secondary color to individual armor sections would be nice. Players are generally smart enough to not choose combinations that look goofy. Those who do so are doing it on purpose and why deny them the pleasure? There's worse things they could do than give a different color to every body part... I have more ideas in my head, but I'll stop here for now, and give people a chance to go over what I've put up thus far. It's getting late here. So goodnight everyone, and thanks to anyone who took the time to read all of this.