02-24-2016, 03:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-26-2016, 04:43 PM by Cael_Aislinn.)
Concept: A UNSC warship has discovered a massive Forerunner installation on a distant world, but as they approach the installation activates and a massive beam weapon malfunctions and destroys the ship. Luckily, many of the crew and marines managed to evacuate onto the surface of the planet and must now attempt to survive. This is a open world 3 faction gamemode similar to battlezone.
UNSC team: The marines are split up and crash landed on the surface of an alien world. They must regroup and survive the weather by finding shelter, weapons, gear and supplies (it could be freezing cold snow or burning hot desert). They can salvage supplies from crashed pelicans and lifepods, or go to specific pre-arranged supply drops sent in before the ship was destroyed. Eventually they find vehicles and make their way to one of the Forerunner buildings on the surface which gives them access to the massive underground facility.
Forerunner sentinels (2-6 players plus NPCs): One player is a monitor who controls the facility. The rest are AI which are able to jump around between sentinels and other defensive drones. They control factories which produce more sentinels and guard various terminals which control parts of the installation. One terminal controls the massive defensive beam weapon which, if accessed by the marines, can be disabled or fired on an approaching ship. Another terminal controls a radio jammer which can be disabled or used to jam other frequencies. The sentinels are not specifically hostile to the UNSC, depending on their objectives. There is also a control room which can switch all the sentinels and other automatic defences to be friendly/hostile to specific factions (win condition). The monitor starts with control of the beam weapon, but it takes some time to recharge and must be defended by whichever team wants to use it (it can also be destroyed by heavy weaponry or explosives). There is also a long range communications room which can summon a UNSC prowler into orbit which will send prowlers to specific points to evacuate them. If the monitor's mobile core is destroyed it is killed permanently, but the other AI can switch around when drone hosts are destroyed to stay in the game.
Antagonists (mainly NPCs but ghosts can join): The antagonist team is randomly chosen from 1 of 3 factions.
The first is a Covenant reclamation fleet which arrives and starts landing troops. Their objective is to "capture" the monitor, kill the humans and find activate the control room (requiring a human prisoner to do it for them). Player controlled Elites can lead small squads of troops. They have various landing sites on the surface and are hostile to the sentinels. The NPCs are fairly slow to progress and employ a systematic and predictable search pattern. The Forerunner team can choose to help or hinder the UNSC, but are permanently hostile to the Covenant loyalists. Player controlled Elites can choose to rebel from the Covenant (along with any NPC squads they lead) and become heretics which are friendly to the Forerunner AIs.
The main objective of the Covenant Heretics is to eliminate or convert all the loyalist Covenant (aka SS13 rev mode) and they are expected to follow the directions of the Forerunner AI, but attempting to activate the control room will turn the Forerunner AI hostile to them (and is a side objective). They are free to sabotage the UNSC to prevent them from achieving their objectives.
The second faction is the Flood, which can be released either by accident by the Marines or intentionally by a rampant Monitor (who assists the Flood). The Monitor goes rampant if the Marines interfere with the facility too much (press too many buttons, attack sentinels etc), or if he is still stable when the Flood is released the Flood can capture it and force it to help them. Sentinel players can choose to aid either the Monitor or the marines. If they rebel against the Monitor, they lose some access to Forerunner systems (but not all). To win, the UNSC/Forerunners must find and destroy the Gravemind. The Flood must consume all humans and infest the control room (take and hold for a specific amount of time).
The third faction are led by a Promethean awakened from void-stasis accidentally by exploring marines. He activates a force of Promethean Knights as his devoted soliders. I haven't played Halo 4 or 5 so I'm not so familiar with the mechanics and objectives of this faction, but I'd imagine they want to "convert" all the humans and take control of the Forerunner AI on the installation (having gained independence over the millenia somehow).
Win/end round conditions: Due to the complex and variable nature of the gamemode, there are a few different ways to end the round depending on the factions and how things progress. All factions aim to take control of the control room and activate it to their side, but have to do it in different ways and have slightly different effects. Factions can also change relations to each other depending on player actions. In rare circumstances, multiple antagonist factions can spawn into a round for bonus fun.
UNSC objectives: If the Forerunner AI are hostile, they are expected to become neutral and possibly friendly when the UNSC activate the control room. If there is a Covenant fleet in orbit they must be destroyed before evacuation can be called. The Covenant fleet can be destroyed by the beam weapon (requires time to charge up and can be destroyed, but is instant once it activates) or a sentinel fleet can be dispatched to destroy them from the control room (begins instantly, but takes time).
If the monitor is rampant, the other AI are expected to help the humans destroy it however their assistance will be limited (destroying the monitor requires an explosive trap or rare UNSC/Covenant heavy weaponry). If there are any hostile factions left, they need to defeat their leader/HQ then summon a prowler to evacuate. If they mange to evacuate the round ends early and all remaining objectives for all factions are failed, but if there are no hostile mobs left when they activate the control room they also win.
Covenant Loyalist objectives: Activate the control room with a captured human (requires leaving a human alive) AND THEN to kill all the humans. If all humans die without activating the control room, they still achieve a minor victory. Capturing the Monitor is a side objective (requires special EMP weaponry) but player controlled Elites can choose to become loyal to the Monitor thus turning into Heretics. Some roleplay expected to become Heretics, and heretic Elites can pretend to be loyalist although specific actions will turn the loyalist NPCs hostile to them. Any NPC squads commanded by the player Elites will become heretics along with them.
Covenant Heretic objectives: The Monitor is invulnerable to most Covenant weaponry, but can still be captured by the Loyalists so preventing this is your main objective. Your secondary objective is to destroy the Covenant fleet, kill the Covenant and kill the humans/sneakily override the AI by activating the control room, but you're also expected to be (at least superficially) loyal to the Forerunner AI. The AI may interfere with your attempts to kill the humans so you will need to be stealthy. It's likely you'll be heavily outnumbered and hostile to most factions though, so stealth is recommended anyway.
Flood objectives: Main objective is to get on board a ship and escape the system (instant round end). They can either take control of a Covenant grav lift (starts a victory count down as they infest the ship and prepare to fly it out of the system) or summon a UNSC prowler, get on board a pelican then get to the prowler which starts the same round end countdown to escape the system. Once the timer starts all other players will be notified, and they can make a last ditch attempt to destroy the ship via the beam weapon or a sentinel fleet.
Promethean objectives: Turn humans into more Prometheans. Destroy Covenant/any ships in orbit (Covenant or human). Activate control room to gain control of the other Forerunner AI.
Final notes: This round is fairly complex and relies on a lot of different mechanics and factions. It will probably be one of the last gamemodes to be looked at due to the amount of work involved.
UNSC team: The marines are split up and crash landed on the surface of an alien world. They must regroup and survive the weather by finding shelter, weapons, gear and supplies (it could be freezing cold snow or burning hot desert). They can salvage supplies from crashed pelicans and lifepods, or go to specific pre-arranged supply drops sent in before the ship was destroyed. Eventually they find vehicles and make their way to one of the Forerunner buildings on the surface which gives them access to the massive underground facility.
Forerunner sentinels (2-6 players plus NPCs): One player is a monitor who controls the facility. The rest are AI which are able to jump around between sentinels and other defensive drones. They control factories which produce more sentinels and guard various terminals which control parts of the installation. One terminal controls the massive defensive beam weapon which, if accessed by the marines, can be disabled or fired on an approaching ship. Another terminal controls a radio jammer which can be disabled or used to jam other frequencies. The sentinels are not specifically hostile to the UNSC, depending on their objectives. There is also a control room which can switch all the sentinels and other automatic defences to be friendly/hostile to specific factions (win condition). The monitor starts with control of the beam weapon, but it takes some time to recharge and must be defended by whichever team wants to use it (it can also be destroyed by heavy weaponry or explosives). There is also a long range communications room which can summon a UNSC prowler into orbit which will send prowlers to specific points to evacuate them. If the monitor's mobile core is destroyed it is killed permanently, but the other AI can switch around when drone hosts are destroyed to stay in the game.
Antagonists (mainly NPCs but ghosts can join): The antagonist team is randomly chosen from 1 of 3 factions.
The first is a Covenant reclamation fleet which arrives and starts landing troops. Their objective is to "capture" the monitor, kill the humans and find activate the control room (requiring a human prisoner to do it for them). Player controlled Elites can lead small squads of troops. They have various landing sites on the surface and are hostile to the sentinels. The NPCs are fairly slow to progress and employ a systematic and predictable search pattern. The Forerunner team can choose to help or hinder the UNSC, but are permanently hostile to the Covenant loyalists. Player controlled Elites can choose to rebel from the Covenant (along with any NPC squads they lead) and become heretics which are friendly to the Forerunner AIs.
The main objective of the Covenant Heretics is to eliminate or convert all the loyalist Covenant (aka SS13 rev mode) and they are expected to follow the directions of the Forerunner AI, but attempting to activate the control room will turn the Forerunner AI hostile to them (and is a side objective). They are free to sabotage the UNSC to prevent them from achieving their objectives.
The second faction is the Flood, which can be released either by accident by the Marines or intentionally by a rampant Monitor (who assists the Flood). The Monitor goes rampant if the Marines interfere with the facility too much (press too many buttons, attack sentinels etc), or if he is still stable when the Flood is released the Flood can capture it and force it to help them. Sentinel players can choose to aid either the Monitor or the marines. If they rebel against the Monitor, they lose some access to Forerunner systems (but not all). To win, the UNSC/Forerunners must find and destroy the Gravemind. The Flood must consume all humans and infest the control room (take and hold for a specific amount of time).
The third faction are led by a Promethean awakened from void-stasis accidentally by exploring marines. He activates a force of Promethean Knights as his devoted soliders. I haven't played Halo 4 or 5 so I'm not so familiar with the mechanics and objectives of this faction, but I'd imagine they want to "convert" all the humans and take control of the Forerunner AI on the installation (having gained independence over the millenia somehow).
Win/end round conditions: Due to the complex and variable nature of the gamemode, there are a few different ways to end the round depending on the factions and how things progress. All factions aim to take control of the control room and activate it to their side, but have to do it in different ways and have slightly different effects. Factions can also change relations to each other depending on player actions. In rare circumstances, multiple antagonist factions can spawn into a round for bonus fun.
UNSC objectives: If the Forerunner AI are hostile, they are expected to become neutral and possibly friendly when the UNSC activate the control room. If there is a Covenant fleet in orbit they must be destroyed before evacuation can be called. The Covenant fleet can be destroyed by the beam weapon (requires time to charge up and can be destroyed, but is instant once it activates) or a sentinel fleet can be dispatched to destroy them from the control room (begins instantly, but takes time).
If the monitor is rampant, the other AI are expected to help the humans destroy it however their assistance will be limited (destroying the monitor requires an explosive trap or rare UNSC/Covenant heavy weaponry). If there are any hostile factions left, they need to defeat their leader/HQ then summon a prowler to evacuate. If they mange to evacuate the round ends early and all remaining objectives for all factions are failed, but if there are no hostile mobs left when they activate the control room they also win.
Covenant Loyalist objectives: Activate the control room with a captured human (requires leaving a human alive) AND THEN to kill all the humans. If all humans die without activating the control room, they still achieve a minor victory. Capturing the Monitor is a side objective (requires special EMP weaponry) but player controlled Elites can choose to become loyal to the Monitor thus turning into Heretics. Some roleplay expected to become Heretics, and heretic Elites can pretend to be loyalist although specific actions will turn the loyalist NPCs hostile to them. Any NPC squads commanded by the player Elites will become heretics along with them.
Covenant Heretic objectives: The Monitor is invulnerable to most Covenant weaponry, but can still be captured by the Loyalists so preventing this is your main objective. Your secondary objective is to destroy the Covenant fleet, kill the Covenant and kill the humans/sneakily override the AI by activating the control room, but you're also expected to be (at least superficially) loyal to the Forerunner AI. The AI may interfere with your attempts to kill the humans so you will need to be stealthy. It's likely you'll be heavily outnumbered and hostile to most factions though, so stealth is recommended anyway.
Flood objectives: Main objective is to get on board a ship and escape the system (instant round end). They can either take control of a Covenant grav lift (starts a victory count down as they infest the ship and prepare to fly it out of the system) or summon a UNSC prowler, get on board a pelican then get to the prowler which starts the same round end countdown to escape the system. Once the timer starts all other players will be notified, and they can make a last ditch attempt to destroy the ship via the beam weapon or a sentinel fleet.
Promethean objectives: Turn humans into more Prometheans. Destroy Covenant/any ships in orbit (Covenant or human). Activate control room to gain control of the other Forerunner AI.
Final notes: This round is fairly complex and relies on a lot of different mechanics and factions. It will probably be one of the last gamemodes to be looked at due to the amount of work involved.
