343's "realistic war simulation" attitude is starting to bug me. For MM thats fine but it shouldn't apply to customs.
Except flood have been shown to use weapons since their debut. And thruster packs? Come on now. Besides, if the gravemind is any indication, they're certainly capable of advanced thought (if only because they're all tethered to the gravemind).
Not all forms of flood can use weapons, This is humanoid version that can't use weapons/AA's because there hands are claws. Not defending there decision i think its stupid just saying if there not allowing infected to change weapons to keep it "realistic" they could use the same logic for AA's. Just curious I remember hearing somewhere you could change players into "infected" skin or something in team slayer in forced team colors or something, Can those infected players use other AA's and weapons?
I think all of the criticism regarding gametype customization, Firefight customization and Forge I've seen on the forums is completely valid, but I thought I'd try to explain 343i reasoning behind the choices they've made. 1. War Games now has a canonical reason for Spartan v. Spartan battles. It's obvious that 343i want to tie everything together through story, which is a bold move, one that I appreciate as well, however, this puts them in a sticky situation. If War Games is canonical they can't include anything that seems contrary to military field training as it dilutes the experience. Other modes, like VIP, Juggernaut, Invasion, were either not popular enough or required to many one-off resources to make the cut. (i.e. Invasion maps were really only good for one thing, Invasion [sad that I have to admit this, I love Invasion personally]) 2. But What about Grifball? This is a fair question. I would think Race would be more akin to vehicle training or you could explain that both Grifball and Race are recreational activities that Spartans partake in on off hours. I think when it came down to it the 343i realize that the Grifball community is bigger than the Race community. 3. Lack of customization for default modes like Flood seem to stem from, in my opinion, branding. I get the feeling from the videos and interviews I've seen is that 343i keeps a tight rein on everything, which is probably a directive from Microsoft really. They are very protective of their brand and don't want to dilute it with "casual" gametypes right out the gate. The "competitive" players have become #1 because they're loyalty will, like it or not, make this game respected and strong. The CoD games have threatened Halo's MLG status and 343i want to bring that community back and make them center stage. I can't blame them for that decision, it's about making money so we can have Halo 5, 6, 7, 8 , etc. 4. Spartan Ops replaces Firefight. Spartan Ops, like War Games are now part of the canon, Spartan Ops even more so than War Games. I firmly believe that the Spartan Ops story will lead us into the story for Halo 5, making it the first of it's kind: episodic content that bridges the gap between titles. I highly praise 343i for this inventive mode, even with it's drawbacks, because it's a fresh take on an old idea that will move the story and community ever forward. It's akin to mini-mmo expansions, but instead of waiting years it's months/weeks. Ultimately the loudest voice gets heard. If the percentage of people who want these modes is loud enough, and therefore has enough purchasing power, they will be heard. So continue to be vocal, I know that 343i is listening, I just hope they can hear.
KingGuerilla, your wall of text justifying 343's actions is littered with logical flaws. To point them out, by paragraph: 1. You can't justify your actions with unnecessary criterion. Also, on Invasion; your logic doesn't justify why Invasion was removed from Custom Game options, like Race. Dev BTB maps don't necessarily have to be made with Invasion in mind, just like they weren't with Race. 2. Just because one playlist was more popular than another doesn't mean the less popular needs to be removed. Ex: Team Slayer is more popular than Grifball. 3. Limiting the casual community does NOT help the competitive community. Removing people from the Halo fanbase does not help 343i make money. 4. Your firm belief means nothing. There is no guarantee that such a thing will occur, and even then, see number 1.
1. They don't view the story aspect of Multiplayer as unnecessary, therefore it is criteria for their decisions. While you're correct that the devs do not have to make Invasion or Race maps, I never said they did, they do require resources to code, time to test and balance, run QA on, and a significant audience to play those gametypes. I'm not saying that they don't have the weight worthy of the effort, I think they do, but obviously 343 did not agree, at least not enough to include at launch. 2. Needs to be removed? No. Can it be removed with limited complaint? Maybe. Choices were made, things were cut, if no one makes a stink about it then they fade into the ether. 3. I never said it did. However, you have to weigh the fan base against itself. Is it worth it for them to lose some mini-game forgers but gain a million MLG players? Again, not the decision I would make, but it seems to be the decision they made. 4. Guarantee? No. My whole response was just my postulating on 343i's inner workings/reasoning and my opinion of them. My beliefs mean a lot to me, maybe not to you, but thanks for your response nonetheless.
Well.. back to the flood mode. We cant do anything with the AA,s, not change them at least. You still can disable them, to make an reach infection alike. Classic infection if you will. I hope there is an option to disable the puke green armour, because even such an small thing can bug me pretty hard. But there is alot to tweak, it helps to fix up the gametype some more, to your liking (The thruster pack for flood? No, please god no.) I know i already said this, and am going to be criticized for this.. But i believe 343,s intention was to release halo 4, with the core gametypes. So CTF, BTB, Slayer, KOTH.. Classic gametypes that have always been there. My belief is that there will come more later on, but that are purely speculations. (As for me, im pretty sure)
I'll avoid quoting your entire post in the interest of conciseness. This new War Games / realistic simulation thing is entirely voluntary on 343i's part. I think you may have misunderstood me - I mean that because Halo games before have succeeded without campaign - MM tie ins this close, 343i doesn't HAVE to make tie ins. In fact, pressure goes the opposite way - to keep things classic. Race requires almost no balance. Invasion does, however, without dev Invasion maps, not much from either gametype needed to change. Coding would be practically the same from Reach. It wouldn't take much time to put down some checkpoints in a couple big maps (take Meltdown for example, it's so simple). Not every map has to be tailored to every gametype. For instance, Boardwalk 2 Flag. Or Sword Base Infection. As for the second part, I assume you agree with me, then. I'll address this third part even though it seems that you have conceded the point. You don't have to lose mini-game forgers to gain MLG players. The inclusion of casual gametypes has no effect on competitive popularity, so long as there are interesting and varying competitive gametypes. 343i could have easily done both.. As for your fourth point, I'm not sure what side you're taking. You've included the word "will", which essentially is a guarantee, but you've also not guaranteed. I'll assume the latter though, seeing as the former was probably a grammar issue. It's nice to see you (or anyone) not defending 343i (or attacking them, for that matter) just because of their position, but rather making an independent judgment first and then putting it in context.
So, as per a response to the original question posed, I believe that you can customize at least the armor ability of the flood by setting whatever armor ability you want to your "base player traits", which, for some reason, seems to affect the flood loadouts. This means that you'll also have to change the loadouts for the human players though.
One thing I would like to see changed is the Spartan colors. I already have a color set for my Spartan picked out, but when I play a Flood match, my Spartan looks like a freaking Lime on stilts. I liked the way in Halo Reach where you played an Infection match, your Spartan was whatever color you selected.
Now this info may not be 100%, I'm using nothing but memory here but bare with me. Well I had a play around with the settings... I wasn't aware Base Player Traits included the infected. After setting the Base Players AA to Unlimited Promethean Vision (Though I assume It works with any AA.) I checked the result and my survivors AA symbol didn't appear in the loadout choices. However when the game starts you still got that AA (P- Vision in this case) Now here's the useful bit. I played as Flood also, and unusually I had a choice of 3 identical Loadouts. (with icons an' all) All with P-Vision and the standard flood claw. So I assume by setting the Base Players AA to P-Vision It affected both Flood and Human. I didn't test it any further than that as I got distracted. However I'm curious, perhaps any AA can be implemented to Flood when messing with these settings. Maybe you can mess with Base Player weapons see if you can work on giving them to the flood too... (Though I doubt it, this is more for the ones wanting AA's on Flood). Only downside to this is I believe the only way it will work is by Flood & Humans having the same AA, and no other options. But it's a starting point for you genius's. Figure out what I couldn't. Peace. -TS
I think the best thing to do is turn off all armor abilities for both flood AND humans. It is possible. And it's the closest we can get to survival infection with no gimmicks. Took me about an hour of playing with the settings. Go to game options> traits> base player traits> appearance. You should be able to change the appearance of the Spartans in your gametype.
You can only change base player traits for custom games, not MM games. The appearance setting doesn't change the color of your Spartan.
I'm just putting my faith in the idea that 343 will update the playlist like Bungie did when they took out Alpha Zombies for no reason.