Okay, so the fact that we can spawn both soft killzones (the "RETURN TO THE BATTLEFIELD" barriers) and hard killzones (instant death barriers) got me thinking. The fact that you could have 10 seconds--and only 10 seconds--to stay somewhere could be used for purposes other than out-of-map boundaries. Now, there are loads of possibilities for this, but there's one that particularly comes to mind: keeping people moving around the map. Let's say, as an example, we can spawn Soft Kill Ceilings on Lockout (or Blackout, take your pick). The Shotgun spawn, for those not out 4-shotting everyone with relative ease, can become a camping spot very easily. How do we solve this? Place a soft kill boundary in the Shotgun tunnel. Now, now, I know what you're thinking--"Wait, wait, that idea's completely retarded. I mean, sure, now you can't camp in there, but you can't exactly grab the shotgun and run out in time, either! What if I dropped my Sniper instead of my Sword, and now I have to switch them all back? That's five seconds to get out of a hallway that's like 20 feet long!" The answer is simple: you either make it cover only half of the hallway, or you use two soft kill-ceilings. As far as we know, all soft kill-ceilings use separate timers, though that's not confirmed. However, Bungie has confirmed that times "stick"--as in, you leave with 6 seconds on the timer, next time you come back in (unless you die at some point between) the countdown starts at 6 seconds. This is probably a static feature (no "Battlefield Return Timer Restart: DISABLED" option, chances are). If this were a close-combat map, or at least one where your average life isn't all that long, this probably isn't that big of a deal. If you try and reduce camping in your own bases on Hemmorhage, this is probably a bad idea. However, let's say we've got something such as Chiron TL-34. It's small, has plenty of power weapons, the elevations vary, you can't be expected to live that long, and you're supposed to be constantly moving. Chiron's style, however, turned it into a camping magnet. Let's say you're remaking Chiron. You don't want camping like that to be as prominent. Now, I'm not saying to plaster all the walls with countdown timers (unless you want to). However, if you were to add little boxes such as at the Overshield spawn or the Shotgun spawn or where your new-and-improved Grenade Launcher spawn is going to be, it could very easily keep you on the go. A few soft kill ceilings here and there could vastly improve gameplay that's intended to be frequent. They need to be used in moderation, and only to make certain map flows and tendencies to be more prominent. Remember: to return to the battlefield, you may never even need to leave. I just thought I'd share some of my ideas.
I know what you mean, but from what i've gathered from the Reach Vidocs and such, is that the soft kilzone barriers dont work like they do in Halo 3, on say Sandtrap. there, everytime you exit the boundary, you start off with however many warning seconds to leave before being blow to bits. However, in reach i believe that each player has a total of 10 seconds out of the barrier. for example, lets say your spartan left the barrier for 4 seconds, and then reentered the map. if he later exited the boundary again, he would only have 6 seconds to reenter the map. this also means that when the player uses up all of his seconds, the soft killzone then acts much like a hard killzone, in that it kills the player immediately. therefore, i believe that once a character has played in the soft killzone for 10 seconds, he would no longer be able to play in that part of the map. This would greatly impede your efforts with your proposed ideas. this principle could, however be used differently, such as a was to keep players from camping in mini games and the like. Again, this is all speculation on my part. so please don't blame me if i am infact mistaken. Also, i am not trying to slash or flame your thread, so i apologize if i am misunderstood.
Nah I'm pretty sure everytime you re-enter it's starts the counter at 10 seconds, so this idea could possibly work
i dont think its a very good idea, for competitive maps at least. there are times when you need to be in a place longer than 10 seconds, but this doesnt mean you are camping. a better solution: design your map so camping is impossible based on geometry and items. make multiple ways in and out of enclosed areas. although your idea could be interesting for some casual maps or mini games.
Nope, Bungie said that you have 10 total seconds in a Soft Kill Volume. SirCoolGuy is right. And Zee-V90, I still think that the Soft Kill Volumes can work fairly well in map flow, and I like your idea for placing power weapons is SKV's, but they should be used sparingly, or too many SKV's will kill a player in one life which is no fun.
Its a good idea but not really necessary for forging purpose, When we start creating maps we have to design maps that really limit the camping spots just have a look at some of the featured competitive maps on forgehub, theres hardly or no camping spots. You can still use this idea though.
Don't quote me, but I believe that there is a short period of time where the soft kill zone doesnt recharge. I.E. - If you go into the SKZ for two seconds, back into the map for three seconds, and then back out into the SKZ for an additional three seconds, you'd have five seconds remaining before you're killed. But then, if you were to enter the SKZ for two seconds, go back into the map for a minute or so, and find your way back out there you'd have a total of ten seconds again. The exact timing at this point in time is unknown, but I believe it may work in this way... I seem to recall leaving Powerhouse's boundary a few times consecutively and the time outside adding up, killing me. But then, however, at a different point in a completely separate game exiting the area twice with a large interval in between without it adding the times. That being said, I'm pretty sure a death of any kind, (killed, suicide, death by guardians a.k.a. SKZ, or otherwise) restarts you back at ten seconds. Again, these are just my beliefs on what would best benefit gameplay, I may be wrong. NO QUOTE.
Note: I know that the countdown "stacks". I mentioned that in my post. I never even considered it resetting after a period of time though, Noxiw. Maybe that's what the respawn time on it is for?
Wait when and where was this confirmed? I'm pretty sure the 10seconds resets in Powerhouse in the BETA. (when you flew over towards that bridge with jet pack)
and So again, these are not confirmed. Presumably these would be the traits of the soft kill zones to better gameplay.
I'm still not entirely sure how Safe Zones and Death Zones work. If I have no "Zones" on my map then players can go anywhere, right? They could go all the way up to the permanent Death Barriers. Then I could have my own Death Zone, which acts like an invisible kill ball. What happens if I only put a Safe Zone on? Does that make the entire map a Death Zone except for within the Safe Zone? Or do you have to actually put a huge Death Zone on the map and then a slightly smaller Safe Zone inside that around my play space?
I'm not sure there are actual Safe Zones outside of infection, which are more KotH-style Hills if anything. The way they used "safe zone" in the Q&As made it seem kind of confusing, but I think you just have to use kill ceilings to create safe zones by "walling up" an area with them.
If you have no zones players can go anywhere. And if you add "Hard" kill volume and a player steps outside it's boundary it is an instant kill. If you are talking about "Safe Havens" those are only for Infection. If you are talking about "Soft" Kill Volumes they are the same idea as the "Soft" Kill Volume but instead of an instant kill it gives you a 10 second timer to go back in bounds. Hope that helps.
This is not a good idea. If you have to go so far as to limit people from stepping in certain parts of your map that could be exploited with certain power weapons, then that's just bad map design in itself. Doing something like this would be just completely lazy and is considered a shortcut instead of actually doing what you should be doing, like tearing down the exploitable parts and rebuilding them so they don't play like that anymore. Also, placing a weapon like a Shotgun in a place where it would be most useful is horrible weapon placement (and I know, Bungie is very guilty of this.) You need to place weapons in spots where they won't be useful in so you have an incentive to travel across a map to a certain area where it will be effective.
Are you sure? I know Safe Havens Has KotH style areas which affect player traits but I also know we shown one by Bungie at Comic Con on Hemorrhage. I assumed it covered the whole of half a map because it could also be used as a Respawn Area, ie that was Blue Team's Safe Zone. I've also seen the same floating green object on several other maps, like the one floating above Ascensions disc. I'm sure it's not an Infection only thing because all gametype objective items are either visible as objects or have a glowy arrow pointing to them (instead of Halo 3's drawing pin idea). I haven't got access to my PC right now but I think I remember Safe Zones as being green shields (and death zones are red skulls and cross bones)
Safe Havens and Soft Kill Volumes are two different things. New Halo Reach Gametype: “Safe Havens” Grunts "R" Us ^There is a link that will explain what Safe Havens are. The thing you saw in Blood Gulch was a Soft Kill Volume. It wasn't being used for a safe zone for the blue team it was so no one goes up onto the canyon walls. And you are right green shields are Soft Kill Volumes and the Red Skull & Crossbones are Hard Kill Volumes.