Well, you read the thread title. When I say mod I mean like a PC mod, but not a total conversion. i.e, you're not completely changing all parts of the gameplay, but you are changing things within the game's coding that does change some fundamental parts of the game. Here is my example of what I'd do given the ability to create a mod. I'd try to both balance and diversify Halo at the same time. I feel that the Sandbox could be improved on slightly, as whilst there are tonnes of weapons, most of them are counterparts of others or are near useless. So my mod would be made of my idea of balance. My Halo 3 Gameplay Balancing Mod These are just rough ideas, but they're cool ideas that have been floating around in my mind for a while. Firstly, I would make the default player speed (which is currently 100%) into 110%, like MLG. i.e. the current 110% becomes the new 100%. I just feel faster movement balances gameplay out a bit more, and ups the pace slightly. Melee damage would be changed, but not completely nerfed. Whilst I like the melee dynamics in Halo 3, I always felt the melee was slightly overpowered, and I always hear people whinging about the AR melee combo. Therefore I would change it from 2 melees to kill to 4 melees to kill. Big change, no? Well, 4 standing melees would result in a kill, whilst 3 running melees would kill. No other conditions. This balances things out more than the 2 unconditional melees will kill; it allows the better players to exploit the extra damage from a full speed running melee, whilst not putting the newer players at a complete disadvantage. Hear me out here. I would change the starting weapon to my modified (see later) Magnum. ARs are constantly complained about as a starting weapon, and having BRs as a starting weapon turns the game into a BR fest, essentially. Magnum only would balance things out. Read on about my new magnum to see why this would be a good gameplay option. I would make Dual wielding much more useful by removing damage penalties. At the moment it takes 5 (I believe) single-wielded magnum shots to kill, but 8 dual wielded. Sense much? I would keep damage the same, but I would accentuate its disadvantages somewhat. You can no longer melee straight from a dual wield (drop gun + instant melee), you must instead tap Y to drop the gun, and wait a second and then melee, if you wish to do so. Accuracy also decreases upon a dual wield, it's only fair. To do this I would either just make the crosshair larger, or increase the spreads when DWing to mimic the effect of the guns bouncing around in your hands. I mentioned earlier the melee system; 4 standing or 3 running melees to kill. To accentuate the advantages of certain types of weapon, I would give Brute weapons a melee damage bonus. 3 standing or 2 running. Maybe. I would also increase the time possible in between melees; too often in H3 I see two guys run into each other, melee at the same time, stop everything, melee again, double beatdown. It's dumb. Here is how I would balance out/modify some of the weapons to my liking: The AR The controversial weapon of Halo 3. Many hate it, many love it. I personally am a fan of the AR, I think it is an underestimated weapon, but underpowered in some aspects. I personally find at short-mid range the 32 bullets just does not appear to be enough to kill an opponent, and they drop to no shields with tiny health as I run out, and get BRed. Therefore, as modmaker I would increase the clip size of the AR to 40. This is enough to take out an enemy at semi-mid range and weaken a second, but not kill. Personally I would also increase the damage per shot, not by much, just by 1HP, and reduce the firing rate ever so slightly; making it a slightly more "skillful" weapon to use, and less spray and pray. Like the Halo 1 AR, I would actually make it so that in sustained automatic fire the spread goes wild, not quite to the same extent but enough so that full auto at semi-mid range does not result in a kill. Firing in bursts keeps shots grouped and helps for a kill. Also, I would allow headshot specific damage for this gun when the shields are down. But it doesn't make too much of a difference. If it takes 5 body shots to an unshielded opponent to kill with the AR, it takes 2 or 3 headshots. It is these small differences that make competitive gameplay so enjoyable, and I think these changes would really improve the AR's standing. The BR Every good player's favourite weapon, the BR is an absolute dominator of the mid-range game. Going to fight at mid range? You're going to end up using a BR, almost undoubtably. The (probably) most useful and adored weapon of Halo 3. In my opinion the BR is almost perfectly balanced as it is (yes, even the spread, though I may tighten it ever so slightly). The Carbine The neglected covenant BR. In actuality, in Halo 3 the Carbine is better than the BR in terms of speed with which it can kill (presuming all bullets hit). A BR can get off 3 shots in the time a carbine can kill. However, most people do not use the Carbine over the BR, despite it being better. This is because it's harder to use, and most people can still kill with a BR better. I personally would change this. I think variety is good, even if it is mainly aesthetic. Therefore, if the Carbine in Halo atm can take 7 shots to kill (I think that's how many), up the power to turn it down to 6, and increase the firing rate, and decrease the spread slightly. I would also change the crosshair; I find the current one really hard to aim with and imprecise! As there's only ever really one or two Carbines on a map, this turns it into essentially a more powerful BR: not necessarily something to squabble massively over like a Sniper on Guardian, but a threat and something that requires careful skill to remove from play. The Spiker I've taken a logical order here...BR...Carbine...Spi-WHAT!? In my humble opinion, the Spiker in Halo atm is an absolutely useless pile of junk. At anything but close range it cannot do a single thing. I am an expert leader, and leading those things is impossible and they have a retarded spread. At CQC I would much rather have an AR than 2 spikers! This should be changed. I would cross the Spiker and the Carbine. Ever played the original FEAR? You must remember a delightful weapon known as the HM Penetrator (or something along those lines). I would make the Spiker a toned down version of that. The Penetrator was a beautiful gun. It was not quite full auto, but it wasn't semi-auto or burst either. If you held the trigger, it'd fire at quite a high rate the Halo 1 pistol, but it was more accurate if you fired it semi-auto. Here's a good vid of it in action, if you're not sure what I'm on about. This creates a more versatile weapon; decent at CQC, good at mid-range, but poor at long range. This fits the final role for my mid-range weapons. You have my BR, excellent at mid, poor at long, poor at CQC. You have my Carbine, excellent at mid, decent at long, poor at CQC. And my Spiker (which I would rename Spike Rifle), excellent at mid, excellent at short and terrible at long. It still has the Brute Bonus damage the other brute weapons have, increasing its CQC usefulness. The brutes have never been one for accuracy, but I would keep it similar to the Penetrator, with headshot damage as well. As a bonus, if your enemy is near a wall upon death they will get nailed to it. (Childish, but undeniably cool). The Spikes will be fairly different to the Halo 3 spikes however. Halo 3 spikes look strage to me, I would make mine much longer and more menacing, and slightly less glowly. The Spike Rifle, however, cannot be dual wielded. This is because it would be overpowered, and I will (explained earlier) up the power of dual wielding. To summarize my changes to mid-range weapons: Short Range Mid-Range Long-Range BR 1/5 4/5 2/5 Carbine 1.5/5 4.5/5 3.5/5 Spike Rifle 4/5 3.5/5 1.5/5 Plasma Rifle This gun is actually not considered nooby despite being full auto, though I consider it to be near useless. Unless dual wielded with a flesh-tearing gun, or being used for assists, on its own it is weak and takes 10 (?) shots to kill an unshielded opponent, but a mere 3 to remove shields. Whilst I do not wish for the Plasma Rifle to be overpowered, I would like for it to be a weapon I actually see used; I never ever see anyone using it, even on its own. To do this, I would decrease the speed of projectile travel ever so slightly, meaning skill is still required to kill with it at mid range, and I would keep the shots necessary to remove shields the same, and turn down number of shots to kill an unshielded opponent to 4 or 5. However, it would have a slower rate of fire, and a spread similar to its current Halo 3 spread. This makes it a useful weapon dual wielded, but also useful single-wielded. I would also bring back its freeze effect, but not substantially. It would slow an opponent down minorly upon shooting them. This makes it a team weapon also, and can be used in a supporting role. Magnum The magnum would be the new starting weapon for my game. Whilst it would not be returned to its CE glory (that would be silly), it would have roughly the same damage as its current H3 incarnation (maybe a tad less), but a firing rate in between tha of H3 and H2's pistol. It would also be made slightly more accurate, with a smaller crosshair and be made near - hitscan (because I personally find leading an invisible shot ridiculous). A 6-shot will be possible, but it takes the same speed as a BR 5-shot. This means when you spawn with it you do have a chance to take out BRs at mid-range, though you need to be fairly skilled in order to do so. It also varies the gameplay up a bit, making the AR more of a rareity (though it'll still be littered around battlefields). Whilst I think the CE Magnum was silly, I do feel the Magnum + AR combo in Halo was slightly iconic, though both guns were nerfed for H3. My new Magnum and new AR give more meaning to this, I think. SMG SMG is nearly perfect; keep it as it is. Perhaps a tiny bit more range, and a meatier firing sound + better origins. I liked the way he held it in H2, in H3 I think he holds it a bit too close to his body. Shotgun Ahh, the shotty. One of my favourite weapons. Nothing beats drawing one mid-BR fight and smashing your opponent in the face with it. Nothing. The problem is, it's a bit overpowered the way it is and encourages camping. Many dislike shotty intensely for this reason, and prefer the Muller for balance purposes in their games. I'd change this by accentuating its advantages + disadvantages, and by changing the Muller massively to suit this. Therefore, I would reduce the shotgun's effectiveness at range slightly, i.e. reduce it's one-hit-kill distance slightly, so the player has to be closer to kill. I would also make the pump mandatory. For example, you blast me with the shotgun in the face and follow up with a melee which kills me rather than the shot, you can't just repeat this. That would mean you don't have to pump the shotgun, which is stupid. You can do this in all Halo games. I would make it so you gotta pump the shotgun before you can fire another shot, and I would increase the time taken to pump it. This means charging into 2 guys may be unwise as the 2nd guy may kill you before you can finish pumping it again. The shorter range also accentuates its ability as literally, an "in your face," weapon. Mauler The Mauler now fills the role of an auto-shotgun. With a slightly faster firing rate than its current H3 form, but less damage, it is now more effective at range. It has a tigher spread, so you can shoot it from further away and it doesn't have the same effect as blowing gas. Btw my idea of its maximum effective range would be from one end of Camo on The Pit to just before where the Camo spawns. Slightly less than that, probably. It also has a smaller crosshair, but still has the Brute damage bonus. However, shot melee does not kill, it simply removes shields. It takes 5 mauler shots at the range I just described to kill, and 3 at point blank. This is made up for by the fact it fires much faster and has a better range. This makes it less of a campy weapon and more proactive. Brute Shot I love the Brute Shot. A very powerful gun, but seldom used. Like most of my weapons in this mod, it should have its advantages + disadvantages accentuated. As such, it has a far greater extent of splash damage. Point Blank + melee, as I see people doing, is now going to take your shields away from the splash. No more using it as a shotgun. Its damage is also upped slightly. I believe it currently takes 3 direct hits to kill. It should be 2. Rarely will you take a direct hit anyway, if you're a decent player, that is. I would also up clip size to 8. This allows you to use it more like the Brutes in campaign. I personally loved ducking behind cover only to have grenade after grenade smash into the wall next to me, exploding violently, hoping to grab me with some splash damage, or hoping I'd run into it, or simply to pin me down. It'd be quite cool, and quite a good element of teamwork, to implement this into multiplayer. I would keep projectile speed the same. This would now make the Brute shot more powerful, however, and I would limit any game to 2 on a map, max. It's vehicular capabilities are still also very useful, nothing like flipping Ghosts with it. Needler I like the needler, I think Bungie got it's H3 form pretty much spot on. However, for the sake of variety and colour, I would almost double the number of shots taken to kill, from 7 to maybe 12, decrease its tracking ability slightly, and make it Dual wieldable. Unleashing massive clouds of pink death is always great, after all. Hopefully this won't be too overpowered either, it would ensure the Needler has its place as the master of hallways. Sniper Rifle Another fan favourite. Let's face it, it's seriously cool and headshots are just so damned satisfying. However, I feel it has a bit too much of a focus on it, so I would nerf its power slightly in just one way. Whilst noscoping is undoubtably an absolute art, I feel it makes the Sniper into a near unstoppable force of headshot-dealing death, in the right hands. I feel it should stick to long and mid-range, really, with noscopes being an absolute last resort. (Please don't crucify me, the MLGers of FH, these are just my own ideas after all.) Therefore, I would remove the point at which the sniper fires (out of scope) slightly off centre and make it move around slightly as you run, and remove the crosshair when out of scope. This would dramatically change the way the sniper functions, perhaps meaning he would need a spotter for backup in case of CQC conflict. This would also make noscopes a tad more skillful, although luck would, admittedly, be involved. It also allows me to make the Beam Rifle more useful, in a way. Beam Rifle The Beam Rifle will have both strengths and weaknesses the Sniper does not. Atm I feel it is nothing but a reskinned sniper, albeit slightly more headshot oriented due to its overheat. I would make it more useful, because I would keep it near-identical to its current form. Unlike the Sniper, it would not have its un-zoomed reticule removed. This makes it more useful for noscopes, making it less of a Sniper than just a long-range rifle. Plasma Pistol Nearly fine as it is. I would reduce the rate at which the battery drains if you hold an overcharge, however. Also, 27 shots to kill is ridiculous. Whilst the PP is meant to be used as a utility, it should still be able to kill damnit. Turn it down to 12 (it was 8 in CE). Energy Sword I think the current energy sword is fine, though I would turn up the draw time slightly and increase lunging distance slightly. It is the lunge distance that gives it a clear advantage over the shotgun. I would also make it glow a lot more, to help people spot campers round corners. Also, make it more obvious when it is holstered, just make the hilt brighter or something. That way if an enemy who I'm in a BR fight with backs round a corner and I have no nades, I may notice the hilt easier as he backs away, so I know not to follow, die, and get teabagged =). Gravity Hammer Well, in my opinion the hammer is so near identical to the sword it's ridiculous. It needs major changes to give it good gameplay properties. I propose several changes. I think it should be a weapon which requires charging, kinda like the Plasma Pistol. Without charging, it takes 2 static or running hits to kill, and you can't swing it that fast. However, before you attack, it is possible, like with the PP, to hold the trigger, and "charge" it. The hammer glows violently and makes a loud noise whilst charging + fully charged (which takes slightly longer than the PP), and does drain battery whilst charging / holding charge. A normal hit uses 3 battery (but like I said, takes 2 hits to kill), and a fully charged hit uses 8, but is a 1 hit kill. There is no lunge for uncharged hits, and there is a lunge slightly less than the sword for a charged hammer. This mimicks the Brutes leaping through the air with their hammers in campaign and smashing them onto your skull, which was always really fun. The charging time, sound + light means camping round a corner with one is less possible, and you gotta charge groups more with it, like a Brute. I think this could be a great gameplay element if it's got right. I would also massively increase the gravity effect of the hammer, to make it an ultimate power weapon. The gravity effect of the current H3 hammer is not much, I would make it knock players + objects fairly far back upon impact, e.g if the hit doesn't kill you you can be knocked from S3 on Guardian into the centre. The gravity effect is the same regardless of charge. Turret Faster firing rate, simple as. 300 bullets detached. Spartan Laser Near perfect, though I would increase the possible shots to 7 so it can be used for anti-infantry, without making the user feel too guilty/wasteful =). All Vehicles All vehicles / turrets would have toggleable first and third person views, and the side seats of all vehicles should allow a full 360 degree rotation. Side seats are crap enough as it is, more people'd use them if they could actually aim, which I think the first person would help with. Flare Does not activate until a second or two after being thrown, and also blocks out HUD. The effect however, does not blind the whole map, like it does currently, it only blinds people which have a direct line of sight to it. Radar Jammer Less random movement of phantom contacts on the radar, as it is still possible to tell the difference between a regular contact and a phantom. Just for laughs, I'd also have allied phantom contacts appear on it. Spike Grenade Well, this needs some changing so it can be used more often. A flatter trajectory, more damage per spike (I think, anyway), and the spikes should bounce a lot more often to make it the killer of hallways, whereas the Plasma nades are better over open space. The spikes should also never be random, always released in a set order. This makes for less random gameplay which helps with the competitive aspect. Trip Mine Increase tripmine power, simple as. Not quite to H3 Beta glory, but if a guy walks over it it should kill him. No doubt. What should do more damage, a frag grenade the size of my testicles, or a trip-mine the size of a flipping manhole cover? (Excuse the crude joke XD). If a driver goes over it, the vehicle should not be totalled, but the driver should die (but not the passengers), as punishment for driving over a blaring loud bright orangey plate of death. Most other elements of gameplay I would keep fairly similar, as they are already fairly balanced as it is. This includes any weapons / vehicles, etc I have omitted. Disclaimer: Remember, this isn't me whinging about all the things wrong with Halo 3. I love Halo 3. It's just an example of how I'd make the game more appealing to myself, and potentially more enjoyable. I'd love to be able to make this mod as I love being creative like this, and I'd like to see what you guys think of both my ideas, and what your own may be. I hope you enjoyed my novel, post your ideas/comments!
Make the elephant flyable like a hornet, (Not like that map varient, no hornet inside), and equip it with more turrets and just have banshees try to kill everyone on it. This would be fun. And I agree with your rant on the spiker, I only use it in dual wield and with friends rushing in screaming at the top of my lungs usually getting 1 kill.
Nice write-up. Personally, I'd revolve it to making all games of slayer/objective start with a 110% damage Battle Rifle no matter what. This allows a beatdown-one-shot, making gameplay extremely competitive.
If I were to make a mod for Halo 3. I would definetly change: CQB In Halo 3, Close Combat has too many weapons dedicated to it. The Shotgun, Mauler, Sword, Melee and Gravity Hammer. Snipers too if you are a master no scoper. To counter act this, The Gravity Hammer would have no Close Combat ability. None. Instead, it would get a much bigger radius and it stops everyone in their tracks, makes them do a little hop and detonates any explosisives in the area. Possibly a lauching in direction for a much smaller range. The idea for this is that it gives the Gravity Hamer a huge support role, especially when teamed up with the Sniper or BR. The Energy Sword will remain the same except it has a swipe ability so that if a Sword is against 3 guys, all clustered, the Sword will kill all of them. Mauler should be made anti-vehicle. One shot to the Engine area should take out the vehicle. The vehicle would then be permenantly disabled. Unless it's a Banshee or Hornet, in which case they blow up and crash to the ground. Shotgun stays the same with only a reduced range. Finally, Melee. I would make this be a three hit kill. 2 hits to take out shield and 1 hit to kill unshielded. Dual Wielding Get rid of the damge penalty of the Dual Wielding. Instead, remove the ability to switch weapons effectivly, throw grenades or punch. These three things together will make Dual Wielders have a hard time adapting to conditions their weapons are not suited in. Assault Rifle 60 clip. Add a melee penalty. 4 melee to kill a person. 3 for shield, 1 for unshielded. Much Shorter range. Battle Rifle + Carbine. Remove the accuracy of the BR to back to pre patch Halo 2. That Br was good. It didn't over shadow Power Weapons, it couldn't be considered a power weapon in the hands of anyone. Increase damage slightly. Carbine will stay more or less the same but since the BR lost a lot of accuracy, the Carbine would dominate in longer range battles but lose in closer range due to the higher damage output of the BR. SMG, Plasma Rifle, Spiker. Add freeze back to the PR. This should carry over to any other Plasma weapons. Spiker. I think this weapon should be made anti-wehicle. Add a little variaty. The weapon should weigh down the cehicle it hits until Ghosts and Banshees crash and human vehicles slow down. Makes for an easy jacking. SMG should probably be removed. It just bears too many similarities to the AR. Anti-Vehicle. Anti-Vehicle is just horrible in this game. Missle Pod should be removed along with the Splaser. Why should vehicles be killed easier then people when they are harder to use? Not to mention a lot of them require more then one person. That's all for now.
i would like the pelican to be a drivable/flyable vehical, it would go great on a map 4x bigger than avelanch!
assassinations: on - off one sided KotH with offence/defence traits. place-able areas in forge that you can set the traits when on them, and change them to a hybrid KotH/Territories/VIP point/ect. These are three possible things that would rock. So many mini-games have been put down because of assassinations, and one sided KotH would be awesome. And the "areas" would be difficult to make, but would be catastrophic. Place-able elephants would be cool too.
I would allow custom gametype creation, where you could have an extra level of variability to gametypes, such as fusing two different goals together, having infection CTF, VIP Assault, etc. That would be cool. Also, more options, such as what Seaboro Kibbles said. This would allow people to make most any minigame they wanted, without having to try to find compromises and ditching ideas because they're impossible, allowing minigames to rule the world!!!?!?!??!
I would like if pelicans would have a special transportation use on multiplayer. You couldn't pilot it but you could get in the back and ride it as a computer pilots it. In forge you would choose the destinations for the pelican, as a landing point. You would go to the back of the pelican and just like campaign "Press (or however you have your button set) to ride in pelican" Once you hop in while it's still landed you press your melee to make it go or press your action button (Default is [RB]) to get out. The Pelicans CAN be destroyed, so getting the flag in the pelican with out team mates on the battle field could result in "Flag Dropped" In forge to make this you press (X) for the item menu and you press [LB]/[RB] And go to the Pelican section and it will provide 2 Pelicans with 4 Destinations which have channel 1 and channel 2 so the pelicans don't randomly fly over to another pelicans destination. Wow, I want this to be real now :l
You've thought about this too much. I would mod sandbox to make it full of skulls, any of which gave you the achievement if you picked it up... Or not! You'd have fun finding the real one then, especially if you could pick up the decoy ones.
i think the plasma rifle needs to go old school, back to single-wieldable, but far more powerful, like the one on H:CE. there are enough dual weildables. Second, the needler needs slightly more rounds per-clip, and some sort of anti-vehicle ability: enough needles near each other, bam, dead ghost. i would def. fix the afformentioned AR melee catastrophe. melee strenth would be downed some, three hits to kill, two for sheilds, one for life. GRENADES!! i would make it so you could change in the gametype weather or not you could pick up nades from downed players. this would help soo much in MLG and other matches on say Guardian and the pit, where there are nearly limitless supplies of nades at the chokepoints, which then turns into horribly insane grenade spamming. AR needs to be a little bit weaker, but then you can place Shredder rounds (powerup type thing) which greatly increases the AR's usefullness. Splazer can stay the same. In mine, spikers would have less ammo, but he projectiles would move faster, thus filling the Plasma Rifle void. FLARE would not affect you IF YOU ARE NOT LOOKING AT IT!!! makes me mad that the person standing near it looking away is blinded while the guy 10 yards away staring at it is un-affected. TRIP mine_ who makes a mine that not only glows, but makes noise????? one of those would be taken away, and it would kill someone who walks over it. finally i would make you duck more when using the plasma cannon, because when you shoot straight ahead, your fat torso gets in the way. oh, and magnum would be removed from everything but customs.
Good question. I think I would just get rid of those invisible barriers in it. On every map. This way, I can manually jump out of maps and explore.
I read your ideas and although I like some of them, (the Spike Rifle sounds awsome) your idea to increase the spartan laser ammo to 7 is ridiculous. In vehicle maps they are overpowered as they are already. What I suggest is having it's power decreased a bit. This would require the person using it to acually hit the driver of the vehicle to kill them. Unless the warthog/people in it are weak it would not kill everybody inside it in one shot. If I could mod Halo I would get rid of the item limit and the budget for unlimited forging.