Backdemon

Great summary of everything! I really hope the flood will return, and Spark was an interesting character in the games since whenever you played the campaign through the first time you never knew whether he was on your side or not. The books on the origins or humanity and the flood twisted the original story of Halo and that kinda annoys me, but theyre cannon now so were stuck with them. Thanks for summarising it up for everyone though!

Lets talk tactics: the way the Flood act. Do we think its up to scratch? Their behavior changes each game; with Halo CE's bullet sponges who leap at you from long distances and play dead to Halo 3's squishy swarming flood that becomes a moving wall of yellowy-green flesh. Any ideas on how to improve/adjust this or even incorperate new concepts? I have already rambled on alot about how the flood should become more of a horror based creature than a melee practise target so i have the idea that in sections of the game where there is limited flood (beginnings of missions, areas where its just being introduced in the campaign etc) that combat forms and infection forms are more hunting you. Example: walking through a swamp like in Halo CE the ai would actively take cover more often (and not shoot at you untill really close if it has weapons) keeping out of sight without great additions to programming in the game. When it gets it could jump on your helmet as has been mentioned before.. anything is possible. How do YOU think the Flood should act in Halo 5?

In Halo CE Flood would play dead by falling over and as you walk past they popped back up. Taught me to double tap in FPS games. Playing dead could make Flame and Promethian weapons that destroy bodies more useful in Flood missions. Great thought!

This sounds like cool concept. So like a large Gravity hammer effect around your character that throws scenery, players, and rockets? If it could push vehicles even a little (not enough to completely deflect a warthog or ghost, but maybe cause them to roll or wobble) it would be what Reach's armour-lock should have been.

That sounds amazing. There is alot of ideas going around that Chief will die to finish the series in Halo 6 (dont quote me on that its just rumors about rumors) and I think and awesome death would be a Lone wolf style mission. You have fought the Flood back to a massive Halo, but they have assimilated an entire fleet of covenant and human ships. The flood is about to open a portal that can link to all the other rings (some failsafe thing lets say) and unleash the fleet on the Milky way. You fight through the campaign as chief untill you get to a point where: Then you switch to your multiplayer spartan who has turned up as relief with a platoon of ODST's and Spartans. The UNSC and Allied covenant (and promethians if they are on your side? who knows?) Fall back and slip out of the galaxy. This suicide squad is sent in to activate the ring. You fight Mega flood, Things that would be boss fights in normal halo games. A mission where you rush to the control room with warthogs, hornets, scorpians, pelicans... you name it. Just a massive battle to the control room across the surface of that part of the ring. Juggernauts and wall to wall combat forms block your way, then massive Gravemind tenticals start smashing apart the convoy. Co-op would be great. Then you meet up with chief and bust into the control room (he can finally do badass takedowns and awesome shots since he will be AI) where the ring is activated and the Lone wolf part kicks in... Add an amazing ending cinematic and you have yourself the final Halo! Thoughts on new flood/flood characteristics: Infection animations - There should be a couple ways your ai buddies/enemies are infected. I think one could be a stealth-ish animation, where the infection form grabs their throat so they only gurgle. It then climbs in as usual and starts controlling them, example: you have marines/elites wandering behind you, one gets jumped from the roof. Gurgle/faint choking and suddenly they are shooting at you and your buddies as flood flesh starts slowly pushing through their armour. A more violent animation is during combat. The infection form tears its way into your friend/enemy who then drops to the ground writhing. Claws and spore pods start to burst out of them as they climb back up and start to charge at you... Any ideas?

The Flag gained a gun because it was one specific game mode in a new game with weapons that would destroy a flag carrier. They also removed the ability to juggle making it nessesary for the bearer to have at least some form of defence. The Flag carriers pistol is buffed to balance out gameplay and so people would want to carry the flag instead of camping to get kills on the one team player. How is that relevant to duel wielding swords? Which I still think would be awesome, but never implimented because of impracticality and general uselessness-ness...

That sounds amazing. I like the idea that the Gravemind would use Chief's one weakness against him. It could be a lost cause, led through the entire game thinking you will see cortana again and find the source of the floods resurgence when its just a trap by the flood. The grave mind could be using fragments of cortana that it somehow stored to fool you. Chief gets super mad... Hey Darker campaign... I see you over there... One thing I dont really see is the UNSC using flood. Its too out of character for them. Covenant (floodworshipers or desperate Storm comes to mind) could do it, but the UNSC are your buddies, and even if parts of the heirachy disown chief they are still in the best interest of Humanity. Maybe the UNSC has to detonate a Ring... More Flood ideas! This is great!

That is a very cool Idea. Always wanted a cinematic with a NOVA in it in a Halo game. Also your idea would be a great way to show how fast the Flood can consume a world once established. I think Flying a Broadsword or even a Longsword to would be amazing. Warthog chase to the hanger/ship/dock where the spacecraft is docked while flood filled vehicles and general flood mess gets in your way. Then when you get to the ship a battle between flood infested vessels and the defending forces is going on in low orbit so you have to fight infected seraphs and banshees whilst dodging debries from burning up ships. Keep 'em goin! These ideas surely should make people reconsider their hatred of the flood...

The Deck of the UNSC Spirit Of Fire or a similar Phoenix class ship like the mission Repairs from Halo Wars.

To completely distort your idea CrimsonViper i could see covenant Flood worshipers, where covenant soldiers have tanks of flood spores attached to their armour and when they die or are trapped they activate the canisters and go into rage mode untill they eventually turn into combat forms. Elites and/or Brutes that feel no pain and dont stop attacking when they are charging at you, grunts that slowly swell up and claws erupt from their arms, covenant versions of the flood you see in the infection game type. Then we could have 3 way battles with covenant on all sides. Flood and Flood worshipers, Promethians and Diadacts Hand, The UNSC and the Seperatists. Having covenant on the floods side could dramatically change how you have to fight them. Also: BaconShelf - Imagine that but not as a boss, more of a hunter. They could appear every now and again in flood infested regions. Legenday = Death The Kilburnator - If 343i achieves the paranoia that xeno's from alien then Halo 5 will be the most amazing sci fi shooter in existance. CrimsonViper - check out the Mona Lisa action comic on Halo Waypoint. If you like experiments with flood that might be something for you. Great Ideas guys - Keep 'em coming.

1) Cortana stays gone - she went out in a great way and would be corny to bring her back - also good for developing Johns character 2) Scarabs! I missed fighting them. 3) More open world maps - Like Halo CE's missions Halo and Silent cartographer where there are multiple routes to finishing the Mission 4) Flood - Ima huge flood fan, 'nuff said... 5) ODST's - Ima huge flood ODST fan - missed them in campaign and their armour in multiplayer 6) Reach style warthogs - The updated ones are nice yes... but they dont feel warthogy to me. High pitched engine and the suspension seems too low, AND they removed the badass diagonal armoured shield for the LAAG replacing it with the square piece of trash.

Duel wielded swords would look badass i admit, but the balancing would ruin it. One hit from a sword kills 99.9% of things, the only advantages I could see would be its unblockable (so over powered since you couldnt bulltrue, halo 4 has enough sword kills after death as it is) and that you have double the battery life. Maybe in campaign for some point and for specific gamemodes... But the sword is pretty much stuck the way it is now. As Caboose and TheReach2134 pointed out; its one hit Kill, therefore duel wield is virtually pointless.

Id like to see a game that links Halo 3 and Halo 4. Could be an ODST based around the special forces aspects of ODSTs, where H3 : ODST was more survival. So possibly assasination and rescue missions like "take out this elite/prophet thats trying to rally the loyalists, Reinforce this group of marines and militia against covenant forces, raid an Innie gathering where they are trading stolen covenant gear, Lock down the glassed ruins of Voi after the Floodgate incident." You can choose your drop site/weapons as you start the mission. Medal of honor airborne, only Halo, and not crap.

Yea I know the Juggernaut Flood. Would be cool as the hunter equivilent of the flood. One big powerful guy surrounded by combat forms and infection forms. He's fricking huge too so it would require new tactics to take down.

Thats a great idea. The thrashers and gliders. big lumps of oozing flesh that charge you down making for some matador style dodging. Id like to see infected animals too. Im not meaning make a huge deal out of it, but the new forms in Halo Wars were infected creatures from that shield world (minus bomber forms, which are another evolution of flood) and added variation to how you combated flood. Speaking of Halo Wars i can imagine missions where there are flood spore clouds like in the game that roam around very slowly infecting dead bodies or blocking your view.

Very cool ideas! I apreciate the feedback! I understand the freaky vs scary part too since sadly underage people play this game (to be fair i did it too), but technically its R16 (or whatever your countries classification system is: ie MA:18+) so 343i could get away with it. Parents need to control their kids, we shouldnt be punished for it. The composer scene in Halo 4 was pretty brutal to be fair. But i get the limitations we are stuck with. Nice thoughts with the losing your gun part, vulnerability is something that should be expressed with an enemy like the flood. I could see a section where there is so much flood you have to keep retreating at your own pace (and not the scripted "retreat now!" kinda things, im against decisions that you dont make yourself unless they are a major plot point) away from a massive attack, burning through ammo. Flood should be cast in the light its ment to be: the mean green murderousextragalacticparasiticspacefungi thats about to turn your best buddy into a raging pus infested cannibal! Any Ideas on how flood should act or what flood forms should there be if the Flood returns?

I see why you might want less multiplayer, and I am more into Halo for the campaign than the online features, but it still needs multiplayer. Its an intergral part of halo and where else do you get to stick blue alien explosives to your friends crotch? I would like to see the classic multiplayer return. Halo CE, 2 & 3 style where you have to find weapons on the map. Surely classic is easyer to produce, and it allows for awesome maps based around weapon locations, secret passages and choke points. But they should really focus on the Campaign first and worry about the multiplayer second. Make 5 - 7 great multiplayer maps, focus on Campaign so its amazing and the DLC that is sure to come can be focused on after the game is finished releiving a little stress. 12 hour Halo campaign could be amazing. The amount of ideas that have been scrapped in previous halo titles due to time constraints is staggaring!

I did like that feature in halo 2, but if they remove it entirely they can bring back detachable rocket turrets like in halo 3. They added homing again to replace those turrets. The halo 4 rocket launcher has some great speed on it compared to previous halo games so if they removed the homing but made it more powerful in some other way i would be happy with that. Either way, I still enjoy rockets in any halo game

The Flood. You either Love or Loath it. Many people loath it due to the library missions in Halo CE/Halo 2 as well as Cortana from Halo 3. I admit Cortana was tedious at times and the Libraries could become frustrating, but thats no reason for pulling one of the most dangerous threats (in theory) from a game where all the awesome ancient tech is based around combating it. The flood in the original trilogy was good, but after reading the books and terminals about it, the fungus zombies didnt seem to portray the unstoppableness-ness that overwhelmed the Forerunners and caused them to commit cosmic suicide. In game i think the flood needs to become scaryer. Slithering in the dark, ambushing you, literally tearing through allies. The spartan flood in the Infection gametype of halo 4 has a giant claw, so lets see it put to use. Another thing is the weakness of flood. In halo 3 you could almost dissolve combat forms with a nasty look. Halo CE had it right. 2 clips of 60 round MA5B ammo and the ******** can still hop up off the floor. Now in many topics Ive seen Deadspace fans gloating how their necromorphs are scaryer. And to be honest I have to admit the flood isnt as scary in game. But in concept the flood should be able to make Chief nervous. Im trying not to express my sadistic side, but i think non scripted marine deaths by infection forms in Halo 3 were amazing. Graphics and gore upated with modern software and you have a greusome yet amazing incentive to protect your AI buddies. If 343i made you respect your marines (rather than using them as meat shields and ammo mules, get them to give you ammo or help you in some way without the scripted cutscene like events so you DO want to keep them alive, even for just sentimental reasons) then when they are tron in half and eaten in front of you, you might exact revenge rather than laugh. I know I beat the crap out of Spark when he killed Johnson. -Imagine this. You are running along through Halo 5 with a couple of AI buddies [that arent in any way significant to the mission], theyve been talking to you, weakening and killing enemies, supplying you with ammo and generally being helpful [yes i am still taling about Halo marines here] when suddenly jimmy-bob AI is grabbed by a Combat form and torn in two, while the other AI is making horrible gurgling noises as an infection form burrows into his rib cage. This would make me go on a rampage. Why not make us care about our AI buddies, then have the flood come rip our bromance apart? Gameplay wise we need variaton with flood. Halo 3 should be seen as a concept point for 343i. Pureforms were a good idea but never seemed to be as big a threat as they were made out to be. Why not have a stronger flood force where most infection forms were tank strenght. Not requiring a rocket launcher to take down [thats just crazy] but making them bullet sponges. Force a player to fall back as a staggering wall of flood marches at you. Infection forms can stay as popcorn, its part of the games now and actually suits them, but noone seems to panic when they are around. If you have AI allies around these little guys should become your worst nightmare. Buddies now oozing with green slime and floodflesh turn and rip into you. Wall to wall popcorn is never a bad idea. new types? Take a leaf from Halo wars and have infected grunts/jackals in game. I know in the lore they are infected to become food and flesh for the hives of the flood, but we should get to see this. Flood growths could also be interesting. Halo 3 gave us the Mature spores that released infection forms but why not the stalks and tenticals of halo wars? the ranged pureforms could become stationary and allow for proper assault flood controlled areas objectives in campaign. Summing it up, scary and overwhelming is what it needs to be. With promethians and covenant requiring tactics and flanking to overcome, this updated flood should be the break from noobcombotakeoutthewatchersthenknights tactics and it should open up your inner Rambo. Tactical decisions would still be needed, but more along the lines of 'do i have enough ammo' or 'which flood should I avoid and which do i shoot at from range.' Another benifit of Flood returning would be the return of sentinel weapons. The sentinels in Halo 2 were awesome, and if you havent already you should look up the concepts for other in game sentinels. I can imagine massive fights between variations of flood and sentinel and promethian that you must navigate. It also means flame weapons can make a return. The bodies dissolving from forerunner weapons in game actually serves a purpose (apart from us thinking 'Ooh.... pretty...) by destroying bodies so flood wont infect them [this could aslo allow for a flood firefight- check out some of the other topics ideas on this, people come up with good stuff]. Story-wise i think the flood should remain as an extragalactic parasite. A biological weapon from the precursors? Thats kinda lame to be honest. I would prefer that when the precursors buggared off to the other galaxies to explore and do precursory things that they came across an entire galaxy that was consumed by flood. Not knowing what the flood was they were overwhelmed and consumed. Now the flood has the ability to travel the distance between galaxies ['cept the precursors sabotaged their engines to save life here in the milky way]. The flood manages to send one small cluster of spores and hive on a ship back to the milky way where the humans found it.... And the cannon story follows from there. This -and i know its a stretch- could be the return of the flood in Halo 5. A precursor vessel filled with highly evolved flood slips into the milky way after jul m'dama activates a forerunner device that could contact the precursors. The Ship offloads and starts a massive infection of covenant space. **** gets real and the Array become an option for the UNSC to wipe out the huge flood incursion. Promethians can get involved somehow. Everybody wins, original trilogy and new age fannon fans. Id Like to see your ideas on my ramblings and any additions/subtrations you would make to the halofanboy opinions i vomited in the essay above.

I dont think ONI will appear as enemies as majority of ONI is working with the spartans and the UNSC. But i can see their research and espionage sections screwing up and making everything worse. Like experimenting with flood (the mona lisa motion comic is a good example of splinter groups in ONI with flood) or activating Forerunner technology (the people who got zapped by the composer when the UNSC first found it were ONI scientists) OR if an ONI group really screws up they might try using a Halo Installation to attack the covenant. To be honest I wouldnt want to be fighting UNSC troops. Screws up the Image of Chief as the hero. Innies on the other hand...

The outer deck of the Spirit of Fire like in the missions of Halo wars campaign. There would be airlocks to run into and maintainence tunnels as well as space for vehicles (especially air vehicles) and interactive pieces like the Gate on High ground in Halo 3

WARNING: ESSAY AHEAD Got an Idea going of the DayZ idea. No food or water or blood required cause that doesnt feel like Halo, and everyone vs everyone cause that wouldnt make sence really (if you want all on all - 1 v 1 v 1 - then play slayer in normal multiplayer ) but maybe team vs team. You have Innies or covies (depending on setting and how teams would work etc, not sure about balancing, cause elites would have shields, but they are typical enemies so it would most likely be them) vs ODSTs. Each side gets dropped into this huge freeroam map from space with a small amount of room for maneuvering (ODSTs have SOEIVs, Covenant have the reach Elite single occupant Drop pods) With a primary with 2x spare magazines of ammo (eg assault rifle would have 32 in the gun and 64 in the ammo counter) and a side arm with 1x mag. Random events like in DayZ occur. In the Skybox (out of the map) wou can see aircraft fighting like in a real war, and every now and again something shot down crashes into the map. Pelicans/Phantoms/Spirits/sentinel transport equivilent drop health packs, generic primarys, one power weapon and ammo. Longswords/Seraphs/super sentinels (yes, Halo wars!) drop side arm ammo (from dead pilots) and strew ordinance drops haphazardly behind them (along the line they crash) containing any power weapons or primarys of their faction. Drop pods/sentinel nodes (a pod like item which slowly constructs normal Halo CE/Halo 3 sentinels) have a primary and one power weapon of that faction, along with AI character who is friend or foe depending on your faction (sentinels and flood always hostile). Big craft, like the Albatross (crashed thing in sandtrap and map which name i forget from Halo 2) or Lich drop vehicles, primarys and ammo. The Map: layed out in theme depending on the world. Weapons can be found throughout the map like in ODSTs firefight, with more powerful ones being in hard to get places. Teams spawn on opposite sides and the drop pods allow for slight adjustment. Random events are infrequent, but can be seen coming (the crashing object for example). There are domain style bases which have slowly respawning ammo and health (and some basic vehices) which you have to hold for x amount of time to be claimed as a respawn location and unlock the turrets. They would be themed, so some would be UNSC and some Covenant, and others Forerunner (like the forerunner forts in Halo Wars skirmish). I could see there being only 3 or 4 maps due to the scale of the idea, but along with a campaign its not completely impossible. There would be easy to walk/drive along terrain (roads/paths like in normal multiplayer maps) and then there would be the typicall hilly bits and caves and structures you find in Halo. Alot of the game would be exploring, flanking and just trying to survive. You could be nomadic and chase the weapons, or you could be sneaky and claim a cluster of Domain style bases to hole up in with basic ammo. The back button on the controller would open a map with you and your teams locations on it, and the scoreboard down the righthand side. Firefight features: At the start of the match there is basic roaming Storm covenant (the covenant one team plays as would be the speratists or other elite faction). Waves do not wait for all enemies to be killed before arriving, the enemies just stack, making murdering everything nessisary. Waves are not announced like in firefight with a voice over, but noticeable sounds and activity can be observed (flights of dropships coming in low etc) andthese enemies are either deployed at significant points (structures, bases, important landmarks on the map) OR if you piss off the dropship by trying to destroy it, the injured one will circle around and drop off soldiers to try flank you (I always wanted the ability to take out enemy dropships before they deployed troops but they were always invincible). After what would be one set in normal firefight (15 waves), a (scripted) alert goes out over the radio of each team and in the sky a ship can be seen falling out of orbit and burning up. Following thish ship is tonnes of debries that land across the map (altering it slightly, this all being scripted so its feasible for a Halo game). Then in your view a flood infested CCS Cruiser Sits above the map taking up most of the sky. This is when flood pods and infected transports crash and now the flood is the new enemy, changing the game flow and reanimating all the corpses you have created (i imagine the lighting could be darker and any music more ominous with the view distance lessened). Flood are durable like in Halo CE where melee takes 3 - 4 hits and they ravage you in close combat. Flood and Storm special forces fight you for the next couple rounds. Again the game ups the ante by sentinel Factories flying in under the ship and tonnes of sentinels (be it normal, promethian or mixed like their ment to be) are deployed around the map. Forerunner weapons are now possible to be claimed frequently (some could have been scavenged from forerunner structures on the map, like any weapon can be found in a base/building on the map) and the game continues until Both teams have lost all their lives. So you are actively hunting the other team, whilst claiming domain style bases as spawns/weapon respawn locations and hiding from the waves of enemies. At the finish there is an objective marker (the furtherest point away from the winning team, as everything always is of course) which is their evac. The team that lost respawns with one life each and has to kill the enemy before their entire team evacs off the map to victory. If the loosing team kills them all its a draw, and slightly less shameful. If you manage to read this all a congradulate you. You have the willpower of a spartan to put up to my ramblings and grammatical errors. I pretty much summed up everything i liked from other peoples ideas and my own. Any ideas that you would add/subtract/modify?

I agree with PhoenixAZ1899. The loss of Cortana is a big thing for John. Its the only mission he has ever failed. He has been lost in space for 3 years, all his friends are dead or missing, and the UNSC has essentially replaced him. He is Obsolete hardware in their minds and the one thing that was most likely keeping him sane just sacrificed herself to save him. I can see cortana returning, but in all honesty she doesnt have to. Memories of her could effect how chief acts. He is always so monotone and steady in the face of death because he believed he was always to die as military hardware. Before her demise, Cortana changed chiefs mind. I would not like to see cortana as an organic living being because that kinf of ruins the idea of her. The machine that has emotions paired with the solder who doesnt. She had her one moment to actually touch chief when she was the hardlight hologram, and that was when she died. That was probably the best way i could think she could go. Her memory can motovate chief onwards, dont bring her back for no reason...

I think it could be done. I believe it should be done. Elephants blew me away when halo 3 first came out. Millions of possibilites of mobile bases for game modes. If not sandtrap, then i would settle with a halo 4 equivilent.

I would be happy with the return of the hornet. Maybe even a new UNSC light aircraft. I cant see them bringing in anything big like a Halo Wars Vulture (though that would be epic!) due to balancing issues and map sizes. I could see a new VTOL aircraft in a future halo though. What else are we to use in the fight of a thousand of scarabs everyone has been begging for?