I will remind you HAlo was originally meant to be a RTS.
This post is by “WHAT KID” in the xbox.com forums.
It fits in perefectly with FRankies Extensive UI comments text comments etc.
As you may recall, before I posted a tiny bit of insider info on Halo 3 and was
caught by the mods for doing so. Fortunately for me, I’m fairly anonymous on
here anyways. I don’t care whether or not you believe me and I unfortunately
can’t tell you any specifics about who I am without risking my job but there is
a memo/mission statement circulating between Bungie’s various development teams
in order to get input from fellow Bungie employees on the various features
planned for Halo 3. I’m one of the lucky people who got a chance to read
through the memo. And outlined below are as many of the details as I could
remember from it. Nothing here is confirmed, just several of the things being
considered by Bungie for Halo 3. And don’t even expect to hear any solid
details on Halo 3’s features till the game is well into development. Though
almost all of this is still in the planning stages, I just thought that it
might be nice to get the word out and get some input from the hardcore Halo
fans.
Changes to Online Play…
Xbox Live games will have many more options and players can choose to play with
31, 15, or 7 other players in the game type and the map of their choice. In
Halo 3, players will also be able pick such rudimentary options as whether
music tracks on their HDD will play in the background, whether they want
infinite grenades and whether all starting primary and secondary weapons as
well as the heavy and light vehicles are randomly determined each respawn.
Everything in the game from the trees to the giant skyscrapers will be fully
destructible in the multiplayer maps as well. Another feature mentioned was an
online co-op and counter-op mode with up to 16 players. These 16 player co-op
and counter-op modes will only be available for a select few massive open ended
single player missions. There will be a ton of additional gameplay modes as
well, including one where you spend the whole time on the back of a warthog,
one where your job will be to accompany and protect certain individuals. In
co-op 15 players play along side you as fellow marines while the counter-op
team will assume the roles of elites and other units all over the massive map
with the job of preventing your team from completing the mission in the
allotted time. When one of the co-op or counter-op players die, they simply
assume the role of one of the computer controlled allied or opposing characters
should one be available.
Changes to Level Design…
In addition to dual wielding and stealing vehicles (and steal weapons as well
using a new disarm attack), Master Chief will be able to swim very quickly and
will able to sprint this time and will also be able to quickly duck and roll
out of the way in order to avoid charging vehicles and hunters.
Various weather and particle effects including snow, rain, lightning, dust
storms (presumably for a desert level), fog (presumably for a rainforest level)
as well as many ambient life forms found on Earth, including fish, sharks,
alligators, birds, rabbits, stampeding rhinos (in jungles), and civilians in
complete panic and disarray (in urban settings) will be included.
The levels will be truly massive in scope, completely destructible (down to
every last wall of every building), fully interactive (you can climb to the top
of and fight in the rooftops or through the windows of virtually every
building) and allow for full free roaming. All of Earth’s armies are immersed
in a war to determine the fate of Earth itself, and the levels, the tone, and
the scale of the gameplay will truly reflect this.
The flood are making an reappearance possibly on Earth!!! (only they’ll now be
faster, scarier and more hideous than ever before). And their numbers will be
so massive at certain areas that the only way to survive is to sneak past them
while destroying critical light sources to be able to hide in the shadows.
The game will center on repelling the covenant invasion of Earth. The levels
will be much bigger as will the number of enemies and the number of allies by
your side. This will be a full blown massive war between the covenant, humans
and flood with tons upon tons of units from each faction engaged in combat at
any given time all over the massive levels. The outdoor levels also allow
players to free roam and choose which battles they wish to engage in thus
giving players the sense that they truly are fighting an epic war for Earth’s
survival. To facilitate this, the game will be less scripted, the AI will be
ramped up quite a bit more (to a degree that bots will require no additional
programming time), the multiplayer games will support atleast 32 players at
once, and there will be multiple playable characters with unique strengths and
weaknesses.
The playable characters being considered include Hunters (bigger targets,
slower except when charging someone without a weapon, but they have more life,
are much faster and have more varied melee attacks) and the flying Drones found
in the first level of Halo 2 (weaker but faster and possessing the ability to
fly limited distances). But there is talk that all the characters in Halo will
be playable characters.
The bots and AI allies and opponents will be so advanced that not only will
they be able to drive realistically, every thing about their actions makes you
feel as though you are facing a real human opponent. A feature being considered
that’s tied to this includes voice control of nearby marines and bots. If
implement, it’s possible that by utilizing the headphones used on live, nearby
bots and marines will be able to recognize and obey simple commands such as
defend this area (whatever area the crosshair is pointed to), retreat and take
cover, follow me, drive this vehicle to enemy flag, provide cover fire, wait
here, attack in line formation etc.
A map/mission maker is also strongly being considered.
New Weapons…
Bungie is considering just having one type of grenade on the map. But these
standard grenades can be made into the sticky plasma grenades, EMP grenades,
proximity grenades, or bouncing grenades based on which button the player holds
down as they press the trigger to launch the grenade into the air. If no button
is pressed, they are launched as standard grenades
EMP grenades - a much larger blast radius that are ideally suited for
temporarily disabling all nearby vehicles including planes and helicopters
Proximity grenades – explode whenever someone approaches them
Bouncing Grenades – Bounce all over the map for 10 seconds until they hit a
player or vehicle.
Also under consideration…
A gravity gun
A flame thrower
A new controller exclusively for Halo 3!! It’s a light gun shaped like Master
Chief’s rifle complete with a scope through which to look through and zoom in,
but with two triggers and two shafts, one to be gripped with each hand. The two
triggers allow for independent control of dual weapons, or a weapon and
grenades. And each shaft houses the two analog sticks and all the buttons that
would found on the controller to allow you to do anything you could do while
playing the game using a standard controller. If you’ve ever played Silent
Scope or any of those games, that’s likely how the controller will be set up.
But they’ll be a analog sticks that you can use to control Master Chiefs
movements. And obviously… THE GAME WILL BE PERFECTLY PLAYABLE THROUGH THE
STANDARD CONTROLLER.
New Vehicles
A helicopter that basically serves as the human answer to the banshee
A large transport boat for the humans with a cannon and the ability to carry up
to three people (expect there to be some extraordinary battles over water)
All of the covenant vehicles (the spectre, wraith, ghost (basically the
equivalent of a jet ski) etc.)
can now hover over water as well
The Pelican, Covenent Shadow, Phantom, and Scarab can all now be driven by
human players. In fact, occupying and driving the Scarab to the enemy base so
that you can destroy it while the opposing team tries to board and regain control
of the Scarab (in order to do the same) will be one of the key multiplayer
modes available online.
A fast ATV/Motorcycle type vehicle that serves as the human answer to the Ghost
is being reconsidered. Only now, it may be in the form of a small fast hover
craft that can be driven over bodies of water as well.
The plan seems to be use much of the 360’s processing and graphical power to
create much bigger, much more populated, fully destructible levels with a great
many enemies, realistic AI, and many simultaneous battles. Halo 3 will not be a
scripted action FPS. It will be a dynamic world with combat going on
simultaneously at all parts of the world at all times. The player will be able
to roam to any part of the level at any time and still find plenty of battles
to engage in. The exact same level will pack a very different experience each
time you play it depending on the route and strategies you use to get to your
objective. In addition, all actions and events will be stored to the HDD so
that players will be able to review their gameplay from multiple angles at any
desired speed after the level ends and players will even be able to store their
favorite clips of gameplay to the HDD. You know how during Live matches, you
get to view the gameplay of a fellow teammate from a more aerial perspective.
That seems to be similar to what Bungie is going for only you can zoom in on
the footage from multiple angles. And while this alone is enough to make the
gameplay revolutionary for an FPS, it actually seems to be a part of a
revolutionary new gameplay mode that Bungie is trying to implement.
So why am I putting so much emphasis on the zoomed out camera mode and the
massive level sizes? Why is Bungie dedicating so much time to programming in an
AI smart enough to literally take over for a human player for short periods of
time? Why are there going to be so many characters engaged in combat all over
the level at any one time? Why did Bungie spend such a large part of Halo 2
introducing a new covenant ally that is also a playable character? Because
Bungie’s current plan is to take the Halo universe back to it’s original roots
in some of massive outdoor maps in the single player campaign. And by it’s
original roots, I’m referring to how Halo originally started as an RTS. This
caught me by surprise when I first read it as well. Fear not, a top priority
seems to be (and I say so because it was emphasized multiple times on the memo)
is that this will be integrated into the gameplay seamlessly so that players
can easily switch back and forth from the aerial RTS perspective whenever they
desire. Halo is still fully designed to be an FPS first and foremost and you
will be able to play through the entire game without once having to try the RTS
aspect of the game if you so desire. Every level starts from the FPS
perspective and ends with the FPS perspective. Sure in some of the massive
outdoor single player levels, you will be able to zoom out to a more aerial
perspective for some RTS functionality at any time, but this is by no means a
critical component of the game, just a fun diversion of sorts.
So how will this feature be implemented? From what I can gather, everything
about this mode, including whether or not it will even be included, is still
very much up in the air. Several Bungie employees are unsure how fans will
react to this addition, no matter how well it’s implemented or how unobtrusive
it will be to the FPS mode. So if you’re indeed interested in seeing this
feature be implemented, I strongly recommend that you contact Bungie with your
opinion. But here’s how the mode is being approached for now. Cortona will be
rescued early on and will take charge of coordinating Earth’s forces against
the invading hordes. She will be observing the entire battlefield from an aerial
perspective. And in certain levels, you can opt to switch to her perspective by
pressing a button (likely the black button) giving the AI control of Master
Chief or the Arbiter or whichever character you were commanding. The AI plays
far more conservatively with these characters than a normal human player so
they won’t die on their own losing you the mission. But since they are not
nearly as aggressive as human players, assuming their character will be
essential to complete missions. As Cortana, you will assume Cortana’s various
duties but can at anytime opt to switch back to your character, or possibly any
allied character found on the battle field that you select.
So what exactly will you be able to do as Cortana and how will you be able to
execute these commands with so few buttons? According to the memo, this seems
to be the current plan. Cortana’s primary job will be coordinate troop
movements. All allied forces will be divided into various squads that Cortana
can cycle through with the press of a button. You use one joy stick to move the
pointer around the map and the other to change the camera angle and zoom in and
out. While the various squads will use their AI to direct their general actions
and will often follow Master Chief or the Arbiter’s lead, Cortana will be able
to order the selected squads to go to any point selected by the pointer and
will be able to command them with basic voice commands such as defend this
area, assault or attack this area etc. Cortana will also be able to select individual
units on the map using the pointer and give them commands such as (using the
pointer as an indicator) drive this vehicle, man this turret, take this sniper
rifle, leave your squad and go to this high point and snipe this area, be the
gunner of this vehicle and she can then use the pointer to select the entire
vehicle and order it to attack a certain point etc.
Good squad coordination to take advantage of choke points, good sniping spots,
defend critical buildings, provide supporting fire to another squad in trouble,
sneak into and destroy critical enemy structures, destroy critical vehicles
will all make the level much easier for Master Chief and/or the Arbiter. In
addition, there will be various drop ships all over the battlefield that pick
up newly built vehicles or newly trained troop squads and drop them off in
needed regions on the battlefield. While this process is completely automated,
Cortana can use a button to cycle through and take control of active drop ships
to ensure that the drop ships take the safest, fastest route possible and drop
off supplies to the squads that you intend to use for future assaults etc.
Bungie is also considering implementing an influence bar for Cortana.
While new squads of troops may be trained at the barracks on the battle field
and dropped off for deployment, Cortana can also use up her influence (with the
press of a white button) to request additional troops, weapons, or vehicles be
dropped off to the area indicated by the pointer via drop ships from bases that
are some distance away from the battle field and thus out of the level’s view.
Her influence bar will increase as allied forces destroy enemy vehicles, units
and buildings. And this bar is depleted slightly everytime Cortana requests
additional units or vehicles. Cortana will not be able to construct new
buildings or rapidly repair entire buildings as is possible in most other RTS
as it’s not realistic having a building pop up in the middle of a battle. But
there will likely be various buildings already on the map that Cortana will
have to defend and utilize. And Cortana will be able to cycle through the
various buildings on the level with the press of a button.
For example, there may be various powerstations on the battlefield that you as
Cortana will have to defend. Should one of them be damaged or destroyed,
Cortana will choose which of the support buildings will be powered down
(indicated by all the lights inside the building going off). These support
building will likely include turrets surrounding key choke points, various
factories that can produce a couple of vehicles of Cortana’s choice throughout
the course of a battle, repair facilities that can fix damaged vehicles.
Cortana will be coordinating both human forces and allied covenant forces led by
the arbiter and will thus have access to human drop ships on some levels and
covenant drop ships and units and vehicles in other levels. All of these tasks
are automated and most of these actions occur without you having to order them.
Squads attack nearby enemies on their own. Drop ships drop off supplies on
their own etc.
When playing as Master Chief or the Arbiter,
players won’t even really notice all this stuff going on in the background.
Occasionally, Cortana tells you where to go. Occasionally, drop ships drop off
additional marine squads, weapons, and vehicles for you to use. This aspect of
the game will feel identical to how Halo 1 and 2 feel. They maybe able to
request additional supplies or troops dropped off by cortana. And it’s likely
they will be able to request air strikes from support ships onto specific
locations. But these won’t significantly alter the gameplay. The only key
differences will be more open ended level design, gameplay, fully destructable
environments, and more enemies on screen for those particular levels where the
Cortana mode is available. Other levels such as indoor levels will feature
objective based gameplay with various check points as before. But as Cortana
you can take charge and coordinate how these all background tasks occur.
According to my friend, Bungie really wants to find a way to incorporate this
new mode into online play (perhaps having one player on each team play
Cortana’s role for the team defending various buildings and commanding all the
drop ships while all the units on screen are played by real people). But this
is a task that’s far easier said than done.
There were some other stuff but this is all that I can remember at this time.
If I get another look at the memo or remember anything else, I’ll add an
update.
Some feedback I received from Halo players that I’ve told about this and my
responses to them…
“In Single player, it maybe awesome but playing as hunter or drone in
Multiplayer is going to fail , the cool thing in Multiplayer is that Spartans
are all equal, no one is more powerful than the other ones, I don’t want this
to be unbalanced.”
First, I’m not sure if you will be able to play as these characters in
multiplayer too or be able to take on their role in some of the large outdoors single
player levels by switching to Cortona and then clicking on any allied character
on the map and pressing the black button. Even if your character is choosable
in multiplayer custom games. I’m sure that in ranked games, everyone playing
will have to play as either MC or the Arbiter to keep it fair. But in custom
games, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea to let a human army with 16 players many
using different characters, take on a diverse covenent army.
“I love the RTS aspects of it that may offer a nice change of pace, but
only if it means that when I want to play it the game as an FPS, I can play
through the game in it’s entirety as a FPS.”
Like I said, this seemed to be a top priority at Bungie as well. If they do go
ahead and implement the RTS components, they will make certain that everyone
that wants to can play through the whole game as MC or the Arbiter without ever
once having to play as Cortana atleast from what I got off the memo. And in the
indoor levels, playing as Cortana probably isn’t even an option. Those players
who don’t want to play from the new perspective likely won’t have to. That’s a
lesson that Bungie learned from the feedback they got on making people as the
Arbiter. The memo mentioned a lot of people loved it, but some hated it. So
this time, they’re going to make sure those that hate it can simply opt to
ignore it without it changing their gameplay at all while keeping those that
like the idea satisfied. And the memo mentions that Bungie’s research suggests
even those that didn’t want to play the RTS elements still really liked the
notion of being able to request additional troops, or call down air strikes
which such a mode would make possible. You will probably be able to request air
strikes and such as MC as well.
So there is no reason to ever switch to Cortona, unless you geninuely want to.
And I believe that the plan is, that even when you’re Cortana, things will be
automated as if you were MC. Dropships will automatically drop off supplies and
possibly pick up damaged vehicles for repair. You just have the ability to
redirect the squads or dropships to go on a different path, in order to make
the game easier. Bungie seems to want to keep this simple and entirely
optional. Even for those that don’t opt to play the RTS component, this will
provide a means for them to play as any character in the map, rather than just
MC.
AND I DONT KNOW IF THIS IS TRUE OR NOT
Laatst bewerkt: 6 feb 2006
