How To Make Warzone More Accessible

More Accessibility ​

   Warzone is one of my favorite modes in Halo 5. It is the kind of game mode I always wanted. Taking on a large team of enemies and Ai combatants. When it all comes together, it is just awesome!

  Unfortunately, I haven't had much luck converting my friends to Warzone enthusiasts. Warzone can be a very frustrating and crushingly difficult mode for newcomers. The size of the map, the high player count, the Ai bosses that can kill you in an instant. The sheer chaos of the entire experience can be extremely overwhelming to a new player.

   As a veteran of over two hundred Warzone matches and after analyzing common complaints from my friends, I have come up with a few game design solutions that in my opinion would improve this game mode. 

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Improved Killcam

​  Warzone is a huge game mode featuring a gigantic map and twenty four players and Ai enemies that attack either team. One issue I encountered with this set up is, well this mode can become chaotic very quickly. Players will oftentimes find themselves caught in the crossfire on a regular basis.

​    I know, some of you out there might be saying "But Danny, it is supposed to emulate the chaos of war!" True. The issue here is that this combination of giant maps and high player count can lead to a quick and confusing death. A death with little or no information to how or why you died. 
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   Oftentimes, I find myself dying and having no clue where the shots came from.  When I die, the camera might point in the general direction of where my attacker was but Often times it might just float around in no particular direction.

An example of the unhelpful Halo 5 kill cam. Notice how it points straight to the ground.

The Battlefield 4 kill cam gives the player useful information.

​   How do we mitigate this issue? We add a kill cam. And to be very specific, we add one that functions identical to the one from the Battlefield series (pictured above).  

Pros of adding a Kill Cam similar to Battlefield 4

​- Will show you where the shots came from and how much health/shield the enemy had remaining.
- What kind of weapon/vehicle, booster the enemy was using. 
- Will highlight a players position. If any player is using an exploit, they will be exposed.
- Help lower a player's frustration level and allow them to avoid making the same mistake twice. 

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Add A Map 

   When playing with some of my friends, I had a hard time explaining the map layout to them, especially in the middle of the game. At the bottom left of the HUD is text that tells you where on the map you are located. This can help players identify their current location, but with no map to reference it is kind of pointless to a new player. 

​In Gears of War 3, before every multiplayer game the player are shown a top down view of the map. On the map, all of the landmarks are clearly labeled. 

  Whenever the player dies, they have the option to look at the map. During the match the player can easily access it and depending on the game mode it will even display objectives, weapon locations and etc. 

The map from Gears of War 3.

Give the player the option to look at the map during this intro before the game begins.

​Warzone begins with a short video that introduces us to the map. This intro video is unskippable, so why not allow the player to hit a button and view a map that will tell inform them of bases and key landmarks?

   However this shouldn't be the only time the map is accessible. During gameplay and in between spawns, players should be able to press a button that will quickly display the map with everything clearly visible. 

​  The ideal Warzone map would display all of the main bases, the location of enemy bosses once they have spawned into the map, the health and status of each team's respective core and who controls each base. 

​   The map could also possibly display where your allies are on the map as well as enemies, well this would have to be tested out as displaying the position of enemies on the map might be a game breaker.Perhaps the map will temporarily display enemies that have been spotted by your allies or enemies that are currently engaging a boss. 

Semi Related - Possible  Announcer Bug

​   This is an issue I noticed while playing. Sometimes when I am killed and spawn back into the map I will miss the in game announcer declaring that an enemy boss has appeared on the map. With the map, the player would  would simply check the map during gameplay and the player would know when and where an enemy boss has spawned on the map. 

  I would also like to say that this is a bug that I have personally encountered on a numerous occasions, and it is most likely a obscure glitch. As mentioned before, adding a map with the whereabouts of enemy bosses would mitigate this issue entirely. 

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Adjust Victory Point Distribution

 One of the most crucial things in warzone is earning Victory Points (VP) by eliminating enemy bosses. Each boss is worth a hefty sum of points. Eliminating these bosses can help the player's team get a strong lead or close the gap.

​   One of the issues I have with the bosses in Warzone is how points are distributed. On several occasions my team and I have lost the game because the other team stole the kill.   

From Left to Right: Legendary Boss (150 VP), Normal Boss (50 VP) and Enemy Player (1 VP).

​   To clarify, the way the points are distributed is not dependent on how much damage was done by either team, but simply by whomever lands the final hit.

   Nothing is more frustrating then making a huge comeback only to have the other team pull ahead with a massive lead after they land the final hit on one of the final boss that you and your team were in the process of eliminating.

​   I have experienced on a few occasions the enemy team stealing the boss points just get a huge lead in points, which at this point means we lost and there is no more coming back.

​   This is especially frustrating when the final boss has already spawned and been taken out. The only way to win at this point is to capture all three bases and destroy the enemy core. The chances of this happening is extremely low. I have never been on a team that has at this point captured all three bases and destroyed the enemy core to win. 

Damage Perentage System

​   My suggestion to fix this issue is to change how points are distributed. This is what I suggest, if the Blue team lands majority damage, they would earn majority points. If a boss is worth 150 VP, and Blue team deals 75% of damage they would receive 112 points, where as the Red Team dealt only 25% of damage would only receive 38 points.

​   If 100% of points is 150, then half of that is 75. If both teams did equal damage to the boss, they should receive equal points. As the system currently stands, it leaves a bit of room for chance. In my opinion we should reward teams and players that use team work to coordinate an assault on a boss, not reward players that sit back and take potshots. 

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Back to Battle

​   These are my suggestion on how to make Warzone more accessible to new players and to the players that stick solely to the arena section of Halo 5's multiplayer.

   Warzone is one of my favorite game modes and I do feel that these suggestions would improve Warzone overall and make it more accessible to more players. If you are someone who is currently playing Halo 5 and has not tried Warzone, you should definitely give it a chance. I mean, what else are you going to do with all those Req cards? 

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 - Danny Q
@Dannylv100​​
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