5 replies to this topic

[Greenvalv]

So in the Cockpit last night, Hughes talked about how in the Feb patch items don't get stronger with Mark II & III but rather increase the number of times they can be used per life akin to how the Hologram is presently (one for Mark I, two for Mark II, three for Mark III as I understood it).

I'm concerned about the cooldown between shield drops.  This concern stems from the poor balance in Halo Reach where the cooldown between dropping Bubble Shields started at the time you dropped the shield and not when it dissipated allowing one to sometimes be able to drop a shield right after the previous one pops.  This led to spamming shields on objectives and was one of the reasons for my quiting that game rather early (~3 months compared to 3 years for Halo 3).

I do hope that the cooldown for deploying another shield starts when the previous shield dissipates whether that be from a natural timeout or popped from damage.  Hughes did state that only one shield can exist per player at any given time so that's good.

Also, EMPs... I can see this getting annoying if there's a short cooldown between uses on a Mark III.

As always, we can only wait and see...

Edit (random thought):  As Hobo has voiced concern over the set number of items per life rewarding death to get those items back, how about an overall cooldown between lives for using items_
Example:  Enter battle with EMP Mark III.  I use the first of my EMPs and then die.  I respawn and have 2 left with the first on a cooldown timer for use in this life.  I last long enough in this life to use the other 2.  While those 2 are on cooldown for the next life the first completes its cooldown and is ready to use again for this life's third EMP use. I die and respawn without any EMPs because they are still on cooldown but will be able to use all 3 this life each once they have cooled down fully.
This preserves the count per life but also prevents rewarding death with a full compliment of items every time.

Edited by Greenvalv, January 23 2014 - 08:25 AM.

[ShadowWarg]

I'm going to take a crack at this one. As I don't have anymore information that you do, I'm just going to make a possible assumption. The cool downs for items will most likely be the exact same or close to the current item cool downs as a little bit less.

Reasons_ Mainly because the Item cool down time hasn't really changed since open beta started and have all relatively remained the same even after ascension. Hughes also said they wanted to avoid the scenarios you just described were players are spamming items one after another. So it also still makes more sense to use cool down numbers similar to the ones currently used, that were chosen specifically to do just that, avoid spamming.

If I had to paint a picture, it would be items work similar to now in terms of recharging, but just imagine that after x amount of uses, recharging is stopped.

Again I don't have anymore information that you do, so I'm just making a possible assumption.

Edited by ShadowWarg, January 23 2014 - 08:53 AM.

[Muffintrumpet]

it seems likely that dying will now come with a benefit after such changes land, a benefit that isn't afforded by the current build: you get a fully recharged item set
I only see this being considered as a team tactic in objective based games, where deaths don't mean as much; even so, I can't think of a single item that's worth being a man down for 20-odd seconds

[WarlordZ]

It was said in the podcast that the cooldowns would still be too long to use an item twice in an extended fight.  They want to prevent spamming just as much as you do, so don't worry about it.

I don't see why people are so worried about "rewarding death", it's just a minor attrition mechanic, and not one that affects any of your primary attributes.

Edited by WarlordZ, January 23 2014 - 11:06 AM.

[Sylhiri]

Would need to know how powerful each item is.

[Onyxmizer]

I'd like to try it out for the beta, but I hope this helps with balancing more so than any major game changes. I like having item cooldowns.

Happy medium: make the cool downs much longer_