Narcogen's take on HALO weapon spawn systems
Submitted by rapture on Sun, 05/27/2007 - 8:41am.
Go give it a read: http://rampancy.net/blog/narcogen/22052007/replayability_and_brute_force
He seems to think the HALO 1 weapon spawn system isn't as good as later versions.
Excellent article, and pretty thought provoking. I've always thought baseball is boring for one of the points he mentions about a timed weapon spawn system: there is always a "proper" counter-move to any given play. The only randomness is with the batter and whether a fielder will make a mistake. There is no creativity, originality, or original thought in fielding the ball in 90% of live ball scenarios, which occur about once per every 8 minutes. Baseball players are certainly talented, but so are world-class spelling bee champions, and I'm not watching either on TV.
So far I like the random weapon spawns. I don't know how it will contribute or detract from long-term playability.
Besides endurance sports, you could say there is "proper" counter-move to any given play for any sport. Baseball isn't alone here. The whole point of practice, is to practice those set-plays.
Getting back on track about timing though. It seemed Narcogen, in the end, was against timing because he didn't think it was fun. I seriously doubt though he's ever used a timer or really given it a try. Also, he felt it could handicap another team. Who didn't understand timing or just didn't want to do it. Now the simple solution for this is just the matchmaking system or just making it a customizable option.
What he failed to notice though, was once both teams are timing. It now it adds a huge level of complexity to the game. The game without timing just becomes about move and counter-moves for strategic points on a map. Now when you add timing, it not just about the strategic map points any more. It is ALSO about strategic weapon spawns. You no longer can effectively camp the high ground or the rocket spawn. Timing changes the equation every few minutes. You're camping high ground, may have been the best place on the map 30 seconds ago. But when the rocket spawned, it is no longer. And if everyone knows when the rocket spawns, you can't camp that either.
H1's game play is much complex, flows better, and much harder to brute force then H2 because of this.
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