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.
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.
In game layout.
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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. |
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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. |
Layout with my changes.
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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.
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.
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So 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.
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.
Current vehicle card.
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Vehicle card with my suggested updates.
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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.
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.
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- Danny Q
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