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Halo 5: FireFight - Thoughts and Impressions

7/9/2016

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​   Halo 5 has released a big update! A new mode called Firefight! Firefight pits a squad of eight players against five waves of enemies of increasing difficulty. Overall, I love this mode. However, I do feel like there are some issues that hold me back from truly loving this game mode. Here are my thoughts and impressions!
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Note: This isn't an "angry rant". I enjoy this game, but I feel like a few improvements would make this game mode excellent. Blindly yelling "This sucks" is never helpful. That is why as a game designer I offer my input on what I would do to improve the overall experience for all players.

​Good - Gold Rewards

   In the past I've said that the fact that Halo 5 doesn't hand out REQ packs freely was something that bothered me. I know they want players to buy them with real money, but nothing makes me want to play more then feeling like I am being rewarded for my time. ​ 
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​  The Firefight update rewards players a free pack just for logging into the game, one free pack a day. Firefight also showers a victorious team with Gold REQ Packs. That's right, GOLD, the best packs in the game. I was so happy, the first few games I played were just awesome, my team and I rolled through a couple rounds and I was earning gold/silver pack after gold pack.

   A game of Firefight can average around 20-25 mins, earning a gold pack or two feels like the right way to reward a player for dedicating the time. It also encourages them to play another round, it keeps them coming back day after day. 

Mixed - Not Enough Ammo

   Basically, you are always low on ammo. When you start the game you have half of the maximum amount of ammo you are allowed to carry. For example, you will have 12 in the magazine of your Magnum, and 24 in reserve. What is the issue? Well you are constantly dealing with boss enemies that require a lot of ammo, and they always bring hordes of enemies to defend them. 

  So you might say "Well use your REQ cards!", well that can help, but I still feel under equipped. Most boss enemies seem to shrug off rockets. Even an enemy Banshee can withstand multiple rockets before going down. You might use an entire rocket launcher REQ card to take down a single banshee.
​Suggested Fix: I would suggest that we increase the amount of ammo players can carry in reserve. For example, instead of a battle rifle carrying 108 bullets max, we give the player 324, three times the amount the player carries now.
  
I would suggest that we add more ammo terminals, they don't need to be fully fledged REQ stations, but ammo drops and resupply capsules around the map that would provide the player with ammo for their loadout weapons and grenades. I would also slightly increase the amount of ammo the REQ cards come with (just for this mode).  

Bad - Stop the Clock!

   This is a bit of a pet peeve, but I hate when the clock starts counting down and the boss hasn't even arrived yet. I hate that the armory is being overrun by Prometheans, and we're across the map.

 This might sound like a pet peeve, but why in a game where we have limited time would you start the clock when the boss we are supposed to defeat hasn't even arrived yet? This is especially bad in the early rounds when you are expected to defend the objective, but the Armory/Power Core is across the map! By the time you get there, it is full of enemies.

Suggested Fix: ​ I propose that we do not start a defense objective until one of the eight players has arrives to the destination.Don't start counting down the round until the boss is on the map. 

​Bad - No Time Bonus?

​   I understand why it isn't in the game, but it seems a bit strange.  So, when you complete a round quickly, you don't get any bonus time added to the next round. If you defeat one Mythic boss, you don't get any bonus time added to the clock. This is especially frustrating when by round 2 the respawn timer is increased, only punishing the player for a death.

 This is incredibly frustrating. On a few occasion we have to take out three Mythic level bosses only to fail with the last boss having a sliver of health. Thing is, two mythic bosses is bad enough, but three?! And sometimes that is after having to defeat four legendary bosses before that!
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​Suggested Fix: Giving the players a few seconds on the clock for successfully defeating a boss is something I would like to see added to the game. Rewarding the player with small time bonuses for performing feats of skill would also be a great idea. For example getting numerous headshots, carrying a combo or killing multiple enemies with a single grenade etc.

   We can work the time bonus into the game in a couple of ways. For example, any bonus time earned will be added to the fifth and final round. If players complete a round quickly, add 20 seconds to the clock at the final round. If no one dies in a round, add 30 seconds. There are a lot of ways to handle this. The final round can start at 5 mins and all the bonus time can get the round to be 6 mins or longer depending on how well the team plays. This would also allow players that aren't as skilled (or lacking REQ packs) to still contribute to the team.  

Mixed - Slot Machine 

​   I've had numerous games where the first or second round was a Defend the Armory or take out Banshee Raiders. Depending on where the defense point is, this can be a huge pain. It is extremely difficult to defend the armory or eliminate targets when you have access to none of your powerful weapons (REQ cards) etc. 

 The overall flow of the objectives feels random. I've had missions with numerous challenging objectives leading to an unwinnable finale. You might think I am just nitpicking, but I am not. There is such as thing as pacing. Mass Effect 3's multiplayer did a good job of breaking up the flow of objectives and combat. They never made the player complete three defense missions in a row. 

 On the flip side, I've also had a few games that were complete cake walks in comparison. Easy objectives in a row with a single final boss that is easily defeated.
​Suggested Fix: ​ We establish a pace and flow for each map. We let the player know what objectives to expect each round on certain maps. For example on the map March on Stormbreak the first round will always be an "Eliminate X amount of Y enemy" mission. With round 2 being "Eliminate a boss enemy" and the third round guaranteed to be a defense mission. It is important for the players to know ahead of time so they can prepare themselves and organize before the mission starts.

  This should also allow the game to know what objectives to give the players. If they player has already done one type of mission it should assign another type instead, to keep the flow feeling right. 

Mixed - Prometheans

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Promethean Soldier.
​I never liked Prometheans as an enemy. They are bullet sponges that teleport. Even the standard Promethean Soldier can soak up an entire magazine from a Battle Rifle before going down.

​   This is only amplified when the game just sends hordes of Knights/Soldiers after you all while you don't have any ammo because the game doesn't spawn you fully equipped.  
​Suggested Fix:  If the game insists on just dumping prometheans on the players, they can scale their health so they don't feel like bullet sponges. The covenant enemies seem to scale accordingly. They only become really difficult in round 4 and 5. They are manageable in the early rounds. Prometheans always feel like a chore.

​Mixed - Maps

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Urban - Great Firefight Map.
​​   Some of the maps work better for Firefight then others.Some maps are too big and other maps feel perfect for this mode. A map such as Raid on Apex 7 can be a nightmare, whereas a map such as Urban is just perfect.  

Nit pick - Firefight W/L

   It annoys me that Firefight is tied to my Warzone's win/loss ratio. After playing Firefight, I saw a large decrease in my W/L ratio, and it bugged me. This isn't a huge issue, I just don't understand why it wouldn't have it's own separate category.  

​Good - When it all comes together

​   When you're playing with a focused squad or a group of friends. When the game sets challenging but fair objectives, Firefight is amazing. 

​   Those are my thoughts on what I believe would help improve Halo 5's Firefight mode. Currently one of my favorite modes in Halo. I would love to see some of my suggestions implemented. I also believe Firefight can have a strong thriving community with continual updates. New objectives and enemies, I would love to see Brutes added to Firefight!

If you agree/disagree, feel free to leave a comment or message me on twitter. What changes would you like to see made to Firefight? Thanks for reading!  

   Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,Twine, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100
​

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How To Make Warzone More Accessible

1/29/2016

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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. 

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

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. 
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The map from Gears of War 3.
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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. 

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.   
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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. 

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? 

  Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

 - Danny Q
@Dannylv100​​
​
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Redesigning Requisition Cards -  UI Design (Halo 5)

11/27/2015

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NOTE: I do not work at 343. I do not claim to work for this game studio, this blog post is just me talking about my thoughts on design and UI.

  After hours and hours of hard fought matches on the Warzone and in the Arena, I finally got my highly sought after DMR card. Now, if you are not a fan of Halo, the DMR or Designated Marksman Rifle is an excellent semi automatic rifle that hammers down covenant and online opponents like no other.
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​  I hopped into Warzone mode ready to unleash the fury that is a virtual bullet, only to discover that the DMR is a level 8 Requisition. If you are not familiar with Halo 5's Warzone mode, that meant I would have to put in a lot of work per game to even get to use that card, or that it wouldn't become available until late in the game, you know like in the final 4-5 mins before warzone is over. ​

​   This isn't a post to complain or whine, it is to talk about something I didn't realize until I got this coveted unlock. I am here to talk about the UI and layout of the Requisition cards. I have a few suggestions that might spruce things up a bit, and make the cards more informative.

  To the left, you will see what the DMR card looks like. Overall, there is no indication that it is intended for the Warzone mode, but even more blatant is the fact that you can't even tell what level the card is. You don't know until you are in the game. 
​  I also want to mention the layout of the weapon requisition screen in warzone. I have a few suggestions that I think, in my opinion, might just make this system a bit more intuitive. 

Weapon Select (Req Station) UI

​ When you start up a game of Warzone you will find yourself at the requisitions window. From here you can select which weapons, vehicles, armor mods etc you would like to spawn with. All weapon, vehicle and power up cards are one time use, and go away if you are eliminated in battle, or when the game ends.

   The issue I have with this, is when you go to one of these tabs, all the weapons are lumped together. They do become highlighted once the required requisition level is achieved, but in my opinion, it would be better if we had the weapons catergorized in rows based off of their level.  
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Current Layout in Halo 5.
​ To the left, you will see what the weapons tab currently looks like. All the weapons are on screen with the currently available weapons be highlighted.

 The issues that I have here is that we do not know what level any of these weapons are. We can assume that all of these weapons are level 3 or less.
​  In the layout I came up with, we have weapons organized in a row. Level two and three are currently highlighted because as we can see in the top left, we have access to level 3 items.

​   You can also clearly see that the level 4 items are inaccessible as the Level 4 box is empty. With this setup you can see immediately what weapons are available to you and what their cost is. 
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My Version of the layout.

Requisition Card Layout

​Weapon Cards

​  Majority of weapon cards you unlock in these booster packs are "power weapons", weapons that can not be equipped as your default loadout. Weapons such as the rocket launcher can be equipped once you achieve the appropriate level and if you are willing to spend a rocket launcher card. You can not spawn with the rocket launcher if you do not have any cards to spend.

​    Weapons such as the Assault Rifle, Magnum, Battle Rifle, SMG and DMR are loadout weapons. The player just need to unlock the card to make them available as part of their loadout, however some of these cards still need to be unlocked by reaching he appropriate level. The default SMG is a level 4, after that level is achieved the player can spawn into the game with the SMG equipped at no loss of cards or points.  
   Here we have a variant of the standard SMG. This variant has a suppressor attachment and unlike the default SMG is a level 5 weapon. The only issue is, you wouldn't know this until you hop into a game.

   The changes I made add a clear level in the top left corner. I also added some text at the bottom, informing the player that it is a variant loadout weapon and at the bottom of the card I made sure to make it very clear that this card is intended for the warzone game mode.
   Now, I know some might say that adding the "Warzone" text at the bottom of the card might be pointless, but while playing in the arena, I occasionally overheard people opening up booster packs and some of these people have said things such as "What do I do with this weapon/vehicle?" and "What are half of these cards for?".

    It made me realize that some players that predominately play Arena have possibly never played Warzone as they had no idea what some of these cards were intended for. And I am honestly not surprised, as players that only player in the Arena, only a few cards would be used by them (Assassination animations, Armor/Helmets, Weapon Skins, Req Points, XP/RP boosters). I was still honestly surprised, Warzone was a mode that I had been anticipating for quite some time.  

​Vehicle Cards

   Just like the weapon card, vehicle cards suffer from the same issues. To the left you see the card as it currently is in game. The only information give to you is that is is an uncommon card and it is called "Wraith". The card currently in the game doesn't do much in terms of conveying information to the player and that is where the current design falters in my opinion.
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Left: Current Weapon Card. Right: Card with my changes.
   With my update we once again see that this card requires the player to reach level 5, it is a single use card and it is for the Warzone game mode. 

Requisitions

​  To summarize my thoughts, I would just like these cards to convey more information (level, use, type, game mode). I also believe the benefit of letting players know what game mode these cards are intended for might get more players to try Warzone, which is one of my favorite game types in recent memory.

   To hear more about my thoughts on Halo 5, check out Divercast Ep. 20 (coming soon) and be sure to follow me on twitter, as I plan on streaming the creation of a custom map once Forge mode is made available. Thanks so much for your support and I hope you enjoyed this article.

 Do you have questions, comments or concerns? Email us at deepdigitaldesign@gmail.com
Follow us on Tumblr, IndieDB, Twitter, Mixcloud,Soundcloud,clowdy, instagram and Youtube

- Danny Q
@Dannylv100
​

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