I know that the H4 forum isn’t a perfect place for this threadof sandbox ideas, but I couldn’t think of a better forum. These weapon,equipment, and AA ideas started to be formulated when I first heard about H4’sperks, and I know that some forgehubbers enjoy discussing hypothetical sandboxideas that won’t actually happen. These sandbox elements could be considered ontheir own or all in the same game, and so it could be thought of as ahypothetical alternative to H4’s trend of mimicking a different game. Itexpands the elements from Reach (AAs), H3 (equipment), and H2 and CE (weapons)to their limits. I do not expect anyone to read everything, and if you havethoughts on any one of these elements, you only need to have read that element’sdescription for those thoughts to be relevant. If you find any errors inbalance, have an improvement, or think that resulting gameplay wouldn’t be fun,or anything else, share your thoughts and opinions. I have not tried to listthe tactics that could be employed with these elements yet (save for anoccasional general example to give you an idea of what sets the element apartwhen it is not self-explanatory) for the sake of time. This does not mean thatI have not thought of a few for each one. I still am not completely finishedthinking or writing about these though. The numbers used cannot be perfectlybalanced, but I have tried to estimate the best numbers possible based on myexperience with previous elements. This post lacks some spaces between words because it was copied/pasted from a Word document, and for some reason that happens when it is copied. Weapons: There would only be one utility rifle- the BR, identical tothe H3 BR, except with hitscan and no spread. Aiming with the less powerful(than the DMR) scope would be how its accuracy necessarily drops off at range.I compare other weapons to this, so put this first. Shield transfer gun- 2 “plasma pistol-type” modes of fire, drainsuser’s shield and gives 100% of amount drained to target (usually teammate).Semi-automatic: drains ¼ of shield per trigger pull for PP like projectile,Hold trigger: charges laser and depletes user’s shields at the same rate as ittakes for shields to normally recharge (once they have started to- that is,fairly quickly), but when released fires a focus rifle type laser for as longas it was charged, transferring shields at the same rate for mid ranges. This gun canregenerate a target’s shields up to 5/4 of its normal maximum, giving a slightovershield glow, allowing excess shielding from a semi-auto projectile to notbe wasted (don’t fire at glowing teammate), while also allowing for a slight shieldtransfer before any damage is taken. This transfer maxes out at ¼ overshield,which degenerates after the normal shield recharge time. This ¼ OS can be usedstrategically based on factors such as which teammate gets exposed to firefirst/most and what weapons or objectives certain teammates have. Otherwise, thistransfer gun is useful for assisting visible teammates who are fighting enemiesout of sight, or giving a player with a power weapon more potential to use itwhile in combat. If there is aim-assist only for enemies on most weapons, therewill be aim-assist only for allies (green reticle) on this weapon. Battery: 100points, 5 points per ¼ of shield (semi auto shot-5 points, fully charged laser=20points), shots can be missed but ROF is controlled because shots cannot befired when shields are depleted. Projectile/ laser color: white. 3x scope.Spawn battery: 40% Preface to the APR: The vehicle health system should be the H3 system, where the occupant's shields determine survival, and the vehicle also takes damage in stages, which determines how much damage is transferred to the occupant. The BR would still do damage to the occupant and vehicle more or less like the Reach DMR does, but occupants can tell by how much they recover Damage done against even a fresh vehicle would be shifted more heavily towards the occupant relative to Reach's system, however. The banshee would be like H3, BTW. Armor-piercing rifle(APR): No magazine, 1 bullet in gun at a time, 2SK (just over ½ of shieldsper shot, headshot capability) 4SK if only body shots (like H3 brute shot), 1shot +extra powerful melee= kill, the reload time (what would be the timebetween two shots, and thus the effective kill time) is the time it takes tofire 5 BR shots, such that it is not ideal as a utility weapon, and is notnecessarily preferred over BR in all battles. Powerful for teamshotting,especially with 2 APRs (instant kill), as well as popping in and out betweenshots. Deals slight damage (unless it isa no-shields headshot) through a hardlight shield. Penetrates vehiclearmor well and transfers most damage directly to the occupant in the trajectoryof the bullet, even vehicles in good condition- a headshot through a vehicle is possible. The APR can kill anundamaged banshee pilot with just over 4 shots; 3 with a headshot, and aboutthe infantry BR kill time with 2 APRs (2 shots each) + a couple of BR shots.Damage to a vehicle, as well as the type of vehicle, is small factor. Toillustrate the idea, if the damage transfer of most projectiles to the pilot ofa fresh Banshee is about 1/4 of their normal damage to a player, the APR damagetransfer is about 75%, while the effect on the vehicle itself is smaller thanthat of 2 BR shots. A relatively large shower of sparks (compared to the DMRbullet against a wall) will appear on the impact of an APR bullet against avehicle, to distinguish it from other types of fire for the vehicle occupantsand any other player who saw it. Most balanced BTB mapswould not have 2 APRs on one side of the field- any more of them wouldhave to be in a neutral position, so that a team has a chance of taking out theenemy’s APR. Probably for larger BTB maps, but can be placed liberally onnon-vehicle maps as well. Hitscan, 3x scope, the normal amount of ammo would be5 bullets, semi-power weapon, leaves a very visible streak when fired. Reflecting Rifle:This is a focus rifle that reflects off of walls (under the angle of incidencerule), and gets more powerful each time it does, for 2 reflections and 3distinct damage laser beams. No reflections: 1x damage (kill time= 6 full BRbursts) yellow color, 1 reflection: 1.5x orange, 2 reflections 2x red. The easiest way tofire it a target in sight would be to aim straight and then below the target tobounce it off of the ground, but 3x damage is harder to achieve. Gun can beused to hit enemies around corners in hallways by sweeping it to cover a widedistance quickly and without perfect precision just to keep a fleeing/hidingenemy from recharging shields when out of view. Firing the weaponshould slow the look sensitivity down to the aim assist sensitivity that otherweapons have, whether while looking at a target or not, so that it is a biteasier to aim while not looking at the player, yet it is not very easy to sweepyour reflected laser to cover all of the space around a corner instantly. Dualwieldable, no scope, Charge: Each 1x damage kill is 10% Spawn battery: 25% Flamethrower: Iftrigger is pulled and released quickly, it fires a bullet-speed projectile thatlights a small area (not much bigger than a spartan’s area) for 3 seconds,doing about 90% damage on shields if the target is hit or stays on a fireignited by a projectile that a hit a nearby wall for the entire three seconds.If target is hit directly, fire stays burning on target for those threeseconds. A second one would kill. The flames wouldn’t be tall if a player ishit directly. If a player is hit in the face, a fire could block his screen forhalf a second. The gun can fire a projectile once every three seconds. The trigger can beheld to spew flames (no thicker than a spartan) a sword lunge long. Exposure to1 quarter-second of these flames is about the same as the projectile, but compoundingonly to the effect that a player dies within three seconds (as if hit by 2projectiles at once). If a flaming player melees another player, that flame istransmitted. Wielding or carrying theflamethrower will cause the player to show up on motion trackers at all times,even when still or crouch walking, so that the player cannot camp or sneak upon enemies with this powerful close range weapon from spawn. The flamethroweruser’s most common challenge will be to avoid taking damage while the enemy isburning, by either taking cover from afar or outmaneuvering the enemy up close.It is also useful for exchanging kills with close range power weapons, when youwould otherwise just die. Projectile: 5%, flamethrower: 10% per second, Spawnammo: 25% Shield Dynamo:drains your shield to produce a powerful laser. The laser kills by the timethat it takes to start firing a second sniper round, by which time the user’sfull shield will have been drained. It has one 3x scope. After your shield isdepleted its color changes from red to yellow and it does the same amount ofdamage as the BR with no headshot capability and 25% battery usage rate of theshield draining mode. One shield powered kill uses 10% of total battery charge.This has the same amount of aim assist as other weapons when unscoped, Placedon the map probably as often as a sniper. Guided missile: Theuser’s reticle follows the missile, the aimstick controls movement of the missile according to stick layout (would accountfor inverted). If not inverted, tilting the stick up would tilt the missileupwards (but it can make circles if the stick is held in one direction) you getthe idea. The player can still move with the other stick. The missile isdetonated with the release of the trigger. The missile explosion is the size ofReach’s rockets, but very effective against vehicles. A direct hit is a bitmore powerful than a laser; it can almost kill a single driver out of a freshtank (over 95%) and destroy a slightly damaged tank. The normal rocket launcherwould not track aircraft in this case. Interceptor: Thisfires spheres large enough to barely meet each other when dual-wielded, withdiameters almost as wide as a spartan. The spheres can be the team’scolor. Friendly fire that it interceptsadds to the damage that those friendly projectiles deal. The spheres subtractdamage from enemy projectiles (such that projectiles disappear at zero damage) by1/2 shield’s worth of damage per sphere; the spheres stop in midair when theytake damage, resuming movement in about a fifth of a second or the time betweenshots from automatic weapons, including BR bullets. A sphere willdetonate an intercepted grenade. The speed of the spheres is the same as theplasma rifle projectile speed and the ROF is ¾ of the BR, 3 shots for every 4bursts. Players can aim at incoming projectiles to reduce damage taken as analternative to exchanging damage with an enemy by returning fire, possiblywhile moving to cover. Charge: 40 spheres (2.5% per sphere). Spawn charge: 10spheres (25% of total charge) Timer grenade:reticle turns into clockwise depleting circle, holding grenade decreases itstime at twice the rate that it ticks after thrown (depletes two ends of thecircle clock at once, clockwise and counterclockwise), as powerful as TUgrenade launcher (the explosion has the kill radius of the EMP mode but thedamage radius of the grenade mode), bounces like a frag does. Variations of ExistingWeapons: Silenced pistol:completely inaudible and leaves no bullet trail/muzzle flash, a headshot cankill stealthily, perhaps useful in campaign, otherwise like H3 pistol but witha ROF which kills exactly as quickly as the BR. Brute shot: sameROF as H3, 6 grenades per belt, each shot is as powerful against players as TUconcussion rifle, projectiles are as fast as other projectiles (plasma rifle,spiker), 1st mode normal, 2nd mode bounces projectilesperpendicular to walls/ surfaces- projectiles fall slowly, zoom in button toswitch between modes,similar effect on vehicles as in H3, but a bit more damageto vehicles/occupants. ??? Perhaps too useful against hogs, especially when used ingroups??? not ruled out. Plasma rifle: paralyzesvehicles with enough sustained fire, for a shorter time (probably 50%) thanplasma pistol paralyze. Firing at nonstop at a banshee or ghost until PRoverheats with 80% accuracy will paralyze either vehicle. 100% accuracy in thesame case is needed to paralyze a hog/revenant/chopper/falcon, and 1.2 timesthat amount of projectiles is required for tanks. The effect ofdual-wield-simultaneously firing two PRs is equivalent to one full overheat(but within a shorter time). The paralyzing potential “damage” (progress) thatvehicles accrue drops off quickly at a constant rate, rewarding accuratesustained fire and simultaneous team/dual shooting. This means that dual-firingdoes not fire the same amount of projectiles as a single overheat, and that onedelay between shots will ruin the chance of paralyzing a hog, but notnecessarily a banshee, and that two plasma rifles are needed to paralyze atank. The actual time that the paralyze affects a vehicle could possibly varyaccording to the vehicle as well, proportional to the stun times of the plasmapistol, but it would be fine if this wasn’t true. Because the paralyze time isshorter than that of the plasma pistol’s, a grenade thrown immediately aftermight not land by the vehicle’s current position in time; leading ahead wouldbe required, but the EMP would still be useful. 7 new weapons + newgrenade, no redundant forerunner weapons, GL instead of sticky detonator, noconcussion rifle Players can choosecertain spawning weapons in their loadout with AAs, like H4’s but withoutprimary or secondary distinctions, so that non-(semi) power weapons may be usedwithout having several ignored, hard to remember in general and in combat, orelse possibly distracting, weapons on the map. Grenades, semi-power weapons andequipment could be placed together so that there aren’t too many spawn placesto have a chance of contesting. Spawning weapons: BR,silenced pistol, AR, plasma rifle, spiker, limited ammo: flamethrower (25%) reflectingrifle(25%), shield transfer gun (40%), interceptor (25%), Most weapons thatfire slower-than-instant projectiles should have the same projectile velocity,such as the plasma rifle, spiker, plasma pistol, needler, brute shot, shieldtransfer gun, and interceptor, such that leading targets is easier to learn,and that players don’t need to get used to such a difficult change to use eachweapon. Equipment: can bedeployed on top of vehicles such that they stick with the vehicle, and can alsobe deployed while in a vehicle (when facing toward the vehicle) for the sameeffect (facing over the edge of the vehicle throws it off of the vehicle). Thepower drain can only be thrown away from the vehicle. Mancannon: When deployed, propulsion direction matches lookdirection. It falls to the ground just in front of you. When looking as far upas possible it will deploy a vertical gravity lift with no angle (but thedevice looks the same). If deployed facing parallel to the ground, you willskid and slow down quickly, producing a relatively short lunge effect. Theforce is between that of the two larger (medium and large) Reach forgemancannons, but the maximum jump on level ground (45 degrees) small enough toinflict minimal damage. Lasts for 20 sec, affects vehicles just as much asplayers. Extra Motion sensor:throwable. The user can check it bypressing the equipment button. The motion sensor has a flashing outline if theequipment sensor picks up a dot. If other equipment is picked up the radar isdestroyed. The sensor location has a waypoint for the user if the location ison screen. Deployable Turret:non-stop Plasma rifle fire or periodic sentinel-like beam fire, with a weak 50%of Spartan energy shield and the same amount of “health” underlying Radar Jammerwithout dots, but instead a cylinder (seen as a black circle on everyone’smotion tracker) the size of a motion sensor, which blocks all dots for 15seconds. It can be used to cover an escape, as a decoy, or move through itwithout giving enemies certainty of exactly where you are. You can stand on theedge of the jammer zone to get more radar information than enemies, use it toobscure any number of teammates. It can be thrown like a power drain. ??? Waypoint: generates a navigation waypoint at reticletarget for team to see. If the target is an enemy, enemy is notified. If thetarget is not a player, it is white, on an unoccupied. Vehicle or weapon orpiece of equipment, blue, on an ally, green, on an enemy, red. It tracksenemies and allies. Waypoint is diamond through walls and long distances, HCEarrow when close and triangle when off screen. The waypoint lasts 20 sec,target dies, vehicle is destroyed/ disappears/abandoned, weapon disappears/picked up, only two may be deployed per team at a time. Deployable Cover: indestructible,and doesn’t allow players or vehicles through, but lasts 10 seconds and canintersect with walls. It could be square shaped instead of the H3 shape. Ithink it could be balanced on any map, but some may think that there isn’t anMM or canvas map which this is ideal for, in which case at least forge maps orforge minigames could use it. +bubble shield, regenerator,power drain, trip mine= 9 equipment Armor Abilities: Crouch (stealth)sprint- Skulk: Exactly like Reach sprint, except you move at base speed anddon’t show up on a normal motion sensor Recover: depletesboth of teammate’s AAs to recharge (in this case, fill to 100% instantly) asingle nearby teammate’s shields. The other AA meters do not have to be fullycharged for it to work. The AA depletion is not just a tradeoff; it preventstwo players with this AA from replenishing each other’s shields as quickly. Forward motiontracker- extends forward range to 2x, as a chunk of a circle with twice theradius- the chunk is the normal radius wide and it extends out as a rectanglewith one curved side, occupying almost the same amount of space as the normalmotion tracker, but offering no rear sensor coverage while the forward trackeris activated. If a player is on an enemy’s forward tracker, their own dot showsup. If a player is on anyone else’sradar, he shows up on his own radar. Enhanced motiontracker, detects idle/crouch moving (and skulking) enemies, and givesmotion tracker while scoped in, players in range see their own dot on their ownradar even when idle. Crouch-walking (andskulking) players will normally pick up other players on their radar, so theytrigger the other player to show up on their own radar. This can be a clue thatsomeone is crouching (or forward tracking), but not exactly where the enemy is.Also, crouching and skulking should be set so that they do not give away one’sradar dot when going up a steep slope, as they do in Reach. Someone who ismoving slowly could be susceptible to that, but it shouldn’t apply to crouchingand skulking. Recon: Gives theability to zoom up to 10x regardless of weapon. It displays the weapons,grenades, AAs and equipment of a target within a certain distance from yourreticle (between a DMR and shotgun sizedreticle which triggers that information), as well as non-held weapons/grenades/ equipment in the reticle, on the bottom of your screen (the part ofthe screen which is not actually used when you’re zoomed in) for a few seconds,or until you look at another target. Teleport shortdistance through walls/floors, takes 2 seconds of waiting (after pressingbutton) for activation and produces hologram at destination during wait. Thedirection is determined by your look direction, and you enter the waitanimation if you press the button while facing a direction which has non-(soft)kill zoned empty space at the short distance away. Once the destination isclear, the wait cannot be stopped unless the destination is blocked. The otherAA is also depleted to balance this AA. Imitator:Imitates your other AA until you walk over dead bodies and up to teammatesto imitate their AAs just like pickingup a weapon, but the prompt is: “tap to AA usage button to imitate (the name ofthe first AA) and hold for possibly 2 secondsto pick up (the secondAA)” Changes to existingAAs: Active Camo:depletes user’s shields and renders weapons unusable, radar not affected,shields start to recharge once visible (when the AA timer runs out) and weaponsare usable when shields finish recharging. Hardlight shield:when standing you have slow movement, exposed legs, slow look sensitivity,limited vertical look, but when you crouch you become idle, with the normallook sensitivity and the ability to look around without moving your shield,using one single-handed weapon if you have one to shoot in any direction butforward Evade/ Thruster pack:One roll/thrust per charge +Sprint, Jetpack, andpossibly pro vision with minimal changes=12 AAs without Pro vision or Hologram With all of thesechanges, players should be able to carry 2 AAs. It adds a lot of variables, butit still is better than the AA and 2 passive perks of H4. There are eitherclear signals or clues (in the case of radar-affecting AAs, because your owndot will show up when they see you on their radar) when an enemy uses any ofthese AAs. They have to be activated consciously, and maximizing the potentialof both in real time will be more challenging than using a single AA. No matterhow balanced they are, no set of 12 AAs could be explored in gameplay, letalone mastered, if only one was allowed at a time. For the sake ofrelative simplicity, no AA can be switched while it is in effect. When one isdone recharging, the one that isn’t displayed can start recharging. The AAscould be switched with the crouch thumbstick button (for most configurations)if sprint is an AA, and if crouching did not help shooting. Otherwise, it couldbe a D-pad button. ???Reflector: inverted circular (concave) shield thatreflects projectiles in direction that user is looking, from the center of theshield, gives a split second warning as a red shield, the effect takes place asa blue shield for a full second. It takes half damage from a sniper round andreflects half back. It is useless against tank, gauss, laser and railgun shots. Vehicles: TransportHornet/ Falcon (possibly variants) come with 1 or 2 bombs droppable directlybelow, the explosion would be equivalent to the guidable missile. The transporthornet’s passengers should be able to aim in line with the hornet’s reticlepast a certain distance. This was brought up in a forge hub thread: Rhino (whatever animal name) (boat): Thiswould be a like a warthog only drivable in the water, except with a singletorpedo (weaker than a rocket launcher), with a ROF of about 1 per 3 or 4seconds. It has a warthog turret and one passenger seat. Covenant vehicles would be able to hover on water. Soft andhard kill boundaries would still be able to set map limits on water (if theydon’t have invisible wall areas), and non traversable water in the middle ofthe map would often be lower than the rest of the map, so there wouldn’t be anyconfusion with or without water vehicles. Jumper (working name): like mongoose but with verticalthruster and ghost- like (movement) strafing. There is no forward or sideboost, but the max speed is a bit slower than the mongoose (forwardacceleration would be a bit greater), while the movement strafe is that of aghost’s movement strafe. The backwardsmovement is a bit faster than the ghost’s. It would have one passenger seat andthe ability to drop an explosive underneath (whether while in the air or not)which detonates in about 1.5 seconds with a blast as powerful as a plasmagrenade. Both passengers would be exposed as much as mongoose passengers. Thevertical thrust jump height would be between the height of one and two tanks. The mongoose and jumper drivers would be able to shoot withtheir own sidearm in the direction that they’re looking. The warthog’s gunwould stay precise for longer than in Reach (before it blooms), and be a bitstronger. To be considered last Dual wielding: Both weapons can only be shot simultaneously after a2 second period in which no shots were fired before. If one weapon is fired andthe other trigger is pulled more than a half second (maybe 1/3) later, thefirst weapon will stop firing. The second weapon will only start firing afterthe time between shots for the first weapon has elapsed (so that dual pistolscan’t achieve a faster than single ROF alternately). When both weapons arefired simultaneously, they will keep firing for a certain amount of shots,specific to each weapon for balancing purposes (a pistol can only shoot twicesimultaneously because four shots breaks shields with direct fire- the spikershoots enough simultaneously to kill an enemy because of its slowerprojectiles). Triggers can be released to cease firing before the limit isreached, but with the same effect as holding them till they stop firing. After thisends, a period of about 2 seconds must elapse before either weapon can befired. The weapons could make a raised/lowered motion to illustrate that theshooter has lost precise control over them by firing simultaneously. Dual-wieldedweapons will be positioned to the left and right of the normal reticle. Theyare far enough apart that a reticle centered on an enemy’s head will send eachprecise line of projectiles barely past each side, but close enough to allowboth lines to hit the body, with a very, very small amount of room forinaccuracy, as long as the reticle is centered exactly on the body. These linesof fire to not diverge or converge; they are parallel. A guideline for hittingan enemy dead center with the left weapon would be to aim the reticle for theright side of the target’s body. One can shoot one weapon around a cornerwithout exposing most of his body, but the majority of his vision would beblocked.