Hopefully you have read my notes on the Human/Spartan Combat Model (H/SCM) previously blogged(?) in Parts 01 and 02, if not you might get a little bit lost when reading this entry. Regardless, my topic for this blog will be possible gameplay scenarios and their implementation.

Gameplay Scenarios:

The first and most obvious would be Human/Spartan teams engaged against other Human/Spartan teams. Weapon and vehicle sets could be restricted as required. So basically we have a basic yet diversified blend of players all fighting to be the few lucky Spartans, right? Maybe. The trick here is to allow each server to run with its own server restrictions. That way you could restrict access to the Spartan players in any number of ways. The most obvious being first-come, first-serve based upon the total number of players each team can support (server max / 2). Secondary means may include a max number of Spartans per team or even 1 Spartan per every X human counterparts. You might even see a few human-only servers up and running.

Which brings us to the next possible setup: human versus human. Sure it would be nice to have a few Spartan buddies to take hits for you while attacking the enemy base, but if people are going to fight over it, why not forbid the use of Spartans altogether. Besides, if you want all Spartan combat, play Halo and not this mod!

Human versus human combat would be what this mod is designed to exploit. Imagine a team of 10 human soldiers, all with various and diversified skill levels simultaneously switching roles on a continual basis in order to compensate for or assist their fellow teammates. Neat huh? (If it works.) The prime motivator would be powering up your player's proficiencies and gaining as many or very high skill levels as quickly as possible. The secondary motivator would be to actually play as a team. Sounds somewhat backwards, right? So how do you encourage teamplay above and beyond everything else? If there was a simple answer to this then clans would never exist.

Hopefully you have read Part 01 of the Human/Spartan Combat Model (H/SCM), if not please read up. The topic of this next blog will be how gameplay will be affected via this free-form class structure.

Proficiency Based Gameplay:

Ultimately the goal of this mod is to provide players a chance to jump into combat with little to no previous experience of Halo and end up with a character customized to meet their own strengths. Weapons, vehicles, maps and gametypes will all have their own balancing factors. The bonuses that players get from these items only helps to improve their own individual characteristics when using them. What this translates to is that if a player does not use a given weapon/vehicle, expect a player that does to be much better when using it.

Unlike most Role-Playing Games (RPGs) these skills will build up rather quickly. Considering that most matches last 20-30 minutes, you would expect players to gain a proficient level when using a single weapon after a very limited time. This is not to say that higher levels would be easy to attain, but only that shorter periods of time are needed to gain the most basic upgrades.

Example: A player begins the game with a pistol and proceeds to gain a few quick kills. If the requirement for the first pistol proficiency upgrade was 5 kills using that weapon, a player could easily attain it at a rather quick pace. Note that only the killing shot must be from the pistol, so feel free to use any other weapon to weaken your opponent first. After reaching 5 kills the player goes from skill 0 (zero) to skill 1 with the pistol and a bonus, such as an extra clip of ammunition is added to the pistol every time the player picks one up. Keep in mind that these bonuses are quite arbitrary at this point and only the general concept is important.

As a player's proficiency increases with a given item, it would be easier for them to gain that next skill level when using that item. Of course, the curve for attaining the top levels will be much harder than the more basic ones, so the rewards or benefits will be much better as well.

After posting a few of my personal viewpoints in a recent thread, I have finally decided to catalogue my ideas for public opinion. These ideas will be formed from an ongoing series of blogs that will be refined and broken down into simple sequences of information. Refining and extrapolating of individual ideas will occur on a regular basis, but hopefully I can maintain a focussed and informative dialog from my ramblings.

Overview:

The basic idea is to create a realistic combat modification (mod) that places human soldiers fighting alongside Spartan class models. The difference here is that human soldiers lack shields and would likely be more vulnerable to death. Likewise they would also be faster than your normal Spartan. Spartans act exactly like the Master Chief, but are limited to say 1 per every 4 players on the Human/Spartan side (possible server-side setting).

As I would prefer to avoid class-based structuring I think it would be necessary to incorporate a skill based system in the game. This would work by encouraging players to assume roles and then gain improvements based upon their performance within that role.

An example would be a basic class sniper. Imagine a player that picks up a sniper rifle and then proceeds to gain kills with his new rifle. As the player gains kills using his sniper rifle, he also improves his reload time and decreases his body movement while scoped-in.

Instead of limiting the player to the class of sniper, the system works to encourage players to work together and support one another. This is not to say that upon dying you lose your abilities, so a player could and should take multiple roles upon themselves throughtout a battle in order to improve their own skills.

Pilots/drivers could allow their vehicles to take more damage before being destroyed based upon the distance they travel in them. Gunners gain more accuracy from their weapons while hitting targets from a vehicle. The structuring is somewhat free-form in this regard. If medkits could be equipped you could even add a field medic role into the mix, etc. There could even be smaller bonuses for players such as increased speed or stamina (if running is possible) for traveling a given distance on foot.