Halo Can we solve the issue of sprint in Halo?

[DeadlockDrago]

I know I'm not the only one to have thought about this, and I might even be late on the subject, but with a project coming up, I thought it was a good time to ask this community their thoughts on the matter. I don't want hate on someone because of difference of opinion, I want this to be productive. We all love Halo and some of us have been here longer than others; some started with CE, others 3, and maybe 4.

I cannot think of an issue that has fans more divided on this franchise than sprint, a mechanic that's pretty simple on pen and paper, but brings many things to the table. Some of us hate it, and others treat it like it's no big deal; and this all stems not what sprint is, but what it does. We are closing in on the 4th Halo game to have sprint, and it's only getting more prevalent. What can we as a community do about this? Past strategies so far don't seem to steer 343i away from sprint, so what can we do about this issue?

 

[Psychoduck]

To be honest, the debate over sprint in Halo is similar to the debate over global warming. The debate appears to have two sides at a surface level, however it becomes clear under closer inspection that there is really only one side to the argument. There is effectively unanimous agreement from the scientific community (the only group which has authority on the issue) that global warming is real. Similarly, there is effectively unanimous agreement from those within the Halo community who pay close attention to the game's design (again, the only group with any real authority on the topic) that sprint is a problem. The marriage between shooting and moving mechanics has been integral to Halo since day one, and when payers aren't simultaneously moving and shooting, there is a serious amount of depth removed from the game. This also serves to slow the game down. The problem is, to the less attentive player, sprint appears to speed up the pace of the game. Due to trends across the gaming industry, many players now expect instant gratification and ease of escaping bad situations which they got themselves into. Of course, we know that failing to punish players' mistakes actually lowers the skill gap in the game making it less competitive. The sad reality, though, is that the these inattentive players are now the majority.

What can we do about this? It's clear that 343i is going to aim to please this new majority casual audience. The older Halo audience who views the game as a thinking man's shooter is aging and is no longer the primary target audience for the series. Despite us as designers being the only group with any real authority on the issue, our voice will not be heard because it is the minority. Luckily, spartan abilities can be disabled in Halo 5, however. I have already begun putting plans in place with other community leaders to create consistent settings without things like sprint in Halo 5 for the true Halo audience to enjoy. That's the best solution we can hope for at this point.

This post is not exhaustive in detailing the problems sprint brings to the table in Halo, but I think it serves its purpose. I've repeated the same arguments too many times now to want to bother writing them all out again.

 

[Hardline_Pro]

I don't mind sprint. I just don't like the jumping and boosting shit. It makes Halo 5 seem like a button masher.

 

[wizton]

Nerfing sprint to stop the regenerating of shields is one thing... but, in my opinion if sprint has found a home in Halo, more drastic nerfs need to take place.. I'm talking: Sprint genuinely uses your shields to power the extra energy required to move the suit at the quicker rate, so to speak... in other words, if you sprint you even slowly degenerate health...

It sounds pretty over the top and probably is, but in my opinion, the idea of Fight Or Flight could replace the Run n' Gun roots of Halo, if, as quoting Psychoduck, players now expect instant gratification and ease of escaping bad situations which they got themselves into, this could be tuned to now become a big decision that players need to make in an instant: whether they should, Fight Or Flight/Run. This decision depends on reading the attacking players skill, the map layout around them, the weapon the attacker is using and sight lines... which would naturally increase the skill gap due to experienced players clearly having an advantage to those who don't have such a grasp on Halo or that specific map.

The degenerating shield while sprinting would make stupid players who get themselves into these disadvantaged situations more likely to be punished for their wrong doing and so the skill gap widens.

Just a thought I had just then... I kinda developed it as I wrote it.

 

[DeadlockDrago]

Just a thought I had just then... I kinda developed it as I wrote it.

all thoughts are welcome, even if you are defending it

 

[♥ Sky]

Problem is, you've got to keep adding new features to keep bringing in new people to the franchise from other platforms, and sprint is an easy one to add as people are familiar with it and how it works. You may annoy the classic fans, but 343 have already promised toggle sprint for custom games which will hopefully make it's way over to MM too in a classic playlist. The way it works in H5G to me is good, as it stops shield regen meaning that you can run, but you've gotta make sure you're not chased as it's not an instant recharge as soon as you stop sprinting.

Duck, I feel your comparison to global warming is bad. There are good arguments for and against sprinting and I personally feel that it does increase game pacing as it allows quicker movement from spawn to get back into the action, and its use for retreating has been somewhat nerfed with the new cooldowns in place in H5G. The h5G gameplay pacing felt a lot faster than H4 or HR to me, so hopefully 343 can get something right for a change.

 

[Psychoduck]

Problem is, you've got to keep adding new features to keep bringing in new people to the franchise from other platforms, and sprint is an easy one to add as people are familiar with it and how it works. You may annoy the classic fans, but 343 have already promised toggle sprint for custom games which will hopefully make it's way over to MM too in a classic playlist. The way it works in H5G to me is good, as it stops shield regen meaning that you can run, but you've gotta make sure you're not chased as it's not an instant recharge as soon as you stop sprinting.

Duck, I feel your comparison to global warming is bad. There are good arguments for and against sprinting and I personally feel that it does increase game pacing as it allows quicker movement from spawn to get back into the action, and its use for retreating has been somewhat nerfed with the new cooldowns in place in H5G. The h5G gameplay pacing felt a lot faster than H4 or HR to me, so hopefully 343 can get something right for a change.

The comparison is very appropriate, as we shall demonstrate here. The reason I made such a comparison has already been reinforced somewhat by the responses in this thread. There are many thorough and strong arguments from experienced designers against sprint's inclusion in Halo. There are no strong arguments from experienced designers for why it should be in Halo, and the designers are the only ones with any real authority on the matter. The usual "arguments" in sprint's favor are either to the tune of "it's not that bad", "I don't mind it", or "I like it". These arguments demonstrate a lack of understanding on the issue and an incapacity to look at the game's design in a more detailed fashion. Yes, sprint makes the game more accessible to non-Halo players, and that is precisely why it is now in Halo. However, it comes at a very high cost and is incredibly problematic. I was brief in my original post, because I have gotten tired of repeating this argument over the years, particularly when the general response to it is something along the lines of "I don't care about your logic or design knowledge, I like it so it's okay".

First of all, sprint does slow down the pace of the game. The reason why Halo 5 feels fast-paced at a surface level is the wealth of movement options available to players and the fact that kill times were shortened to compensate. You might be able to move faster, and you might be able to die faster. However, the overall pace of the game is slowed because you are only doing one thing at a time. the idea that movement and combat are one in the same is a fundamental design concept which has been the foundation of Halo's gameplay since day one. That players must simultaneously move effectively and shoot effectively raises the skill gap in Halo and is a key part of the game's identity. When you are always able to engage opposing players while on the move, the pace of the game is fast. With the inclusion of sprint (and several other problematic mechanics in Halo 5), this is thrown out. Sprint also slows the pace of the game in other ways.

When the entire game must be modified to account for one mechanic, it's usually a pretty clear indicator that that mechanic is broken. In this case, that mechanic is sprint. To account for the faster movement made possible by sprint, map scaling has grown dramatically (look at the monstrous size difference between Midship and Truth). However, when sprint is not in use, players actually move slower than they have in previous Halo games. This means that, while players can move around the maps in roughly the same amount of time it's always taken, the pace of their engagements is slowed. The end result? We have larger maps than ever before, but the speeds players are moving at while engaging one another are slower than before. This slows gameplay on its own, but this combined with the lack of multitasking (moving at full speed while engaging) done by players seriously slows the pace of the game. The delta between the sprint speed and base movement speed in Halo 5 has been decreased post-beta, but this is merely addressing the symptoms of sprint rather than the underlying problem itself.

We are left with large maps which are often segmented by lazy clutter (see: Empire, Eden) in order to compensate for their size. Preventing shields from recharging helps to nerf sprint, but this is like putting a bandaid on an amputated limb. Again, the entire suite of mechanics present in the game should not need to be modified to accommodate for a single mechanic. Is Halo 5 faster paced than Halo: Reach and Halo 4? Absolutely. Kill times were shortened to account for these new movement mechanics. Is Halo 5 faster paced than Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, or Halo 3? Absolutely not. Not only is the pacing slowed, it's also simplified as players are not engaging in combat while moving at top speed. Yes, the nerf to shields while sprinting helps. Yes, increasing the ramp-up time to reach terminal sprinting velocity would help. Yes, making sprint not infinite and less maneuverable would help. But, none of these nerfs and accommodations solve the root of the problem which is sprint itself. In conclusion, the mechanic removes a foundational element of Halo's design, increases map size, decreases kill times, and allows players to escape from bad situations which they got themselves into. These effects collectively serve to slow the pace of the game and lower the skill gap, and for what? The purpose of sprint is literally only to make Halo feel less like Halo in order to attract players of other games. Does that sound worth it to you?

 

[♥ Sky]

Text wall of doom.

You mention experienced designers, who are these people?

You mention that no experienced designers have said sprint is a good thing, yet 343 have a team of designers working on the game and I guess at least two or three of those people have some form of experience designing the game yet sprint is still included despite it not being needed in the game. It feels like the voices of those that prefer sprint are being drowned out by the constant criticism of the mechanic because they feel that the classic Halo games were the better ones and therefore all Halo games should be similar or the same because that's what they like. You can't make the same game year after year and keep everything the same, look at what's happening to Call of Duty, people are finally getting tired of the same thing each year and the franchise is starting to lose some of it's followers, yet Halo tries to innovate every year with new features and interesting ideas yet most of them are shouted down and disliked by the "veteran" (I can't think of a way of making this sound like they're not being dicks) players because they'd rather prefer the old mechanics they're used to. It's basically innovate or die in the gaming industry now, yet for some reason innovation in the Halo series seems to warrant a lot of negative feedback from some of the older players from the games. Developers and designers can't keep catering to just those people, because that's not how you make or sell games to anyone, and it certainly won't turn as big of a profit than if they added new features in to get new players in. Do you want Halo to stay the same, or do you want them to add new features and innovate?

I'm still on the fence with sprint as a whole as it brings a new dynamic to the game but I also agree with your argument about the way it has affected the game. It brings in the new players, which are what's needed for the franchise to keep making money, but along the way it has alienated a lot of the older players of the series. It feels like they chose the easy way out by adding sprint, but what else can they do to innovate the game, without alienating or annoying all the older fans of the series?

I believe the comparison to the global warming argument is still wrong as there are two defined sides to the argument, one side you've got the older veteran players who'd prefer they keep Halo like Halo was, and the other has those who like to see how the game is changing and trying to accommodate more players. Yes, it reduces the skill gap somewhat but often games with big skill gaps simply end up being not as popular because there are those who cannot cross that skill gap and end up frustrated.

Global Warming happening is a fact, sprint being in Halo games is still up for debate and to be honest, I don't think it's going anywhere any time soon.

 

[Psychoduck]

You mention experienced designers, who are these people?

You mention that no experienced designers have said sprint is a good thing, yet 343 have a team of designers working on the game and I guess at least two or three of those people have some form of experience designing the game yet sprint is still included despite it not being needed in the game. It feels like the voices of those that prefer sprint are being drowned out by the constant criticism of the mechanic because they feel that the classic Halo games were the better ones and therefore all Halo games should be similar or the same because that's what they like. You can't make the same game year after year and keep everything the same, look at what's happening to Call of Duty, people are finally getting tired of the same thing each year and the franchise is starting to lose some of it's followers, yet Halo tries to innovate every year with new features and interesting ideas yet most of them are shouted down and disliked by the "veteran" (I can't think of a way of making this sound like they're not being dicks) players because they'd rather prefer the old mechanics they're used to. It's basically innovate or die in the gaming industry now, yet for some reason innovation in the Halo series seems to warrant a lot of negative feedback from some of the older players from the games. Developers and designers can't keep catering to just those people, because that's not how you make or sell games to anyone, and it certainly won't turn as big of a profit than if they added new features in to get new players in. Do you want Halo to stay the same, or do you want them to add new features and innovate?

I'm still on the fence with sprint as a whole as it brings a new dynamic to the game but I also agree with your argument about the way it has affected the game. It brings in the new players, which are what's needed for the franchise to keep making money, but along the way it has alienated a lot of the older players of the series. It feels like they chose the easy way out by adding sprint, but what else can they do to innovate the game, without alienating or annoying all the older fans of the series?

I believe the comparison to the global warming argument is still wrong as there are two defined sides to the argument, one side you've got the older veteran players who'd prefer they keep Halo like Halo was, and the other has those who like to see how the game is changing and trying to accommodate more players. Yes, it reduces the skill gap somewhat but often games with big skill gaps simply end up being not as popular because there are those who cannot cross that skill gap and end up frustrated.

Global Warming happening is a fact, sprint being in Halo games is still up for debate and to be honest, I don't think it's going anywhere any time soon.

While I appreciate that your rebuttal is more than just "I like sprint, so it should stay", it still disregards most of what was explained in my post. As I stated, sprint is in the game to make it accessible to non-Halo players. It isn't there because some designer at 343 thinks it is actually a good addition to Halo. 343 has proven on multiple occasions now that they fail to understand the design of Halo games and would rather butcher that design to sell more copies to a new casual audience than to stay true to Halo's foundation.

Calling the people who make valid, rational arguments against the inclusion of new mechanics which undermine Halo's foundation the bad guys is also idiotic. We aren't averse to change, we are merely explaining why this change in particular does not work in Halo. There have been wonderful additions to the Halo franchise over the years like the community creation tools added in Halo 3, the wealth of custom game options added in Halo: Reach, and more which have moved the series forwards without sacrificing what the series is built upon. Mechanics like equipment brought more to the game in Halo 3, new game modes like Ricochet and Invasion were great additions as well. We are not change averse, we are merely opposed to this change as it breaks the game. Halo can move forward and innovate without sacrificing what it was built upon.

There are not two sides to this argument as you have continued to demonstrate. It is a fact that sprint slows the pace of the game. It is a fact that sprint lowers the skill gap. It is a fact that other aspects of the game must be modified extensively to even accommodate for sprint. These facts are universally agreed upon by those who analyze Halo's design through a scientific lens. Therefore, the global warming comparison is extremely fitting.

If you want to defend sprint, attempt to explain how it is okay that it breaks one of the fundamental concepts of Halo (the marriage between movement and combat). Explain why its slowing of the pace of the game and lessening of the skill gap is acceptable. Explain what about sprint makes its inclusion worthwhile when the rest of the game has to be negatively affected to compensate for it. And don't attempt to say that 343's designers know what they're doing and pass up on actually analyzing it yourself as a rebuttal. That is called a cop-out. Yes, sprint's inclusion can be justified from a marketing standpoint. It makes the game more accessible, allowing more copies to be sold. However, its inclusion cannot be justified in gameplay terms.

 

[♥ Sky]

I can't think of a way to respond to that without you getting the wrong picture, but I find your response to my posts rather aggressive. I'm only trying to explain the reasoning behind the inclusion of sprint in the game and trying to bring people together to accept that it's in and that it's probably here to stay. There's probably nothing that can be done to get rid of it. We all know that it's a silly addition but what else could they have done?

There also seems to be a fair bit hate for 343 on this site, most of which has some good validation but the complete lack of hope that H5G might be good really annoys me. Even though we're all playing and mainly enjoying 343 developed games.

Also, H5G will be the third game to have sprint in it, not the 4th, MCC doesn't really count.

 

[Psychoduck]

We all know that it's a silly addition but what else could they have done?

This is precisely the argument I have been making. It is a silly addition, and a problematic one. It was made, despite having overwhelmingly negative consequences on gameplay, in order to sell more copies of the game to a broader audience. Is it here to stay Almost assuredly. Is that acceptable? Absolutely not. I make these posts not because I believe they have a strong likelihood of them reversing the decision to include sprint in the game, that would be a losing battle. I make these posts to raise awareness on a topic to which many are ignorant (though even this often appears to be a losing battle).

Is there hate towards 343 on this forum? Sure, but it isn't blind hate. It is disappointment with a studio which has taken something we are passionate about and driven it into the ground. Many of us here were once the primary target market of the Halo games, but now we are being marginalized to make way for a sea of younger, casual gamers. At this point, 343 has two games under its belt. One is travesty; a game which utterly destroyed the foundation Halo was built upon and subsequently all-but-destroyed the community which so many of us have put so much time into. The other, also a travesty, repackaged products we all already owned for a new price and broke them all in the process, quelling what should have been Halo and its community's chance to shine again. As a result, many of us are not hopeful for Halo 5. However, despite being betrayed by the company creating it on multiple occasions in the past, I am hopeful for Halo 5. Even its core gameplay, which I find disappointing for a multitude of reasons (many of which are detailed above) is an improvement over both Halo: Reach and Halo 4 in my eyes. Some lessons have been learned. The important thing is that we will have the option to disable problematic mechanics like sprint and create settings which are true to Halo's foundation. And fort hat, I am hopeful.

 

[♥ Sky]

I love ducks.

It's such a shame sprint will divide the fanbase, thus halving the number of players in each playlist. Maybe it will be something players will have to get used to?

I personally try not to be ignorant about these problems and debate them with people like yourself (who often correct my brainless assumptions and concepts) but maybe it is something that people will jut have to accept and move on. After all, it is just a game designed to make some corporate turdbucket shitloads of money for their 5th holiday home in Nicaragua. It seems that the overlords in control really don't give a shit about the fans, despite their attempts to convince people otherwise.

 

[aligator ac]

I don't really mind sprint. I haven't had any problems with it so far. I still don't think it makes the game more face paced. I've played games on Halo 3 that have been very fast paced. Sprint doesn't pose much of a problem to me. However, it does for forgers trying to make smaller maps.

 

[Skyward Shoe]

I don't really mind sprint. I haven't had any problems with it so far. I still don't think it makes the game more face paced. I've played games on Halo 3 that have been very fast paced. Sprint doesn't pose much of a problem to me. However, it does for forgers trying to make smaller maps.

1. One of the arguments being made is that sprint actually slows down the pace of matches by allowing players to get away from engagements far more often. Halo 3 would play faster on a well designed map because players must engage more often in a fight instead of running away. Sprint presents the illusion of speeding up gameplay, but it actually slows down fights and causes there to be a lot more fights with no winner. Having a lot of engagements ending with one player getting away makes for a slower game in a competitive setting, and most people in that setting don't want that.

2. Whether it poses a problem to you is not the issue in question. Whether you like it or not is not relevant. The issue is that it forces all maps, not just small maps, to be over-scaled, which affects how lines of sight are set up and affects the types of maps that can be made. Classic designs like Sanctuary don't necessarily work the same way if scaled up, as lines of sight change and distances change. Maps don't play the same when scaling changes.

The option to turn sprint on or off in Halo 5 (at least I hope that it counts as a Spartan Ability, as those can be toggled on or off in settings) will help with this, as players can design for no sprint once more, but it still splits the community and makes it so any official tournaments will be likely forced to deal with sprint and other Spartan Abilities.

 

[DeadlockDrago]

So I've been looking at this for a while, and with this whole thing given a go, some questions I would like answered by anyone who can:

1. What can we do to be heard?
2. Can we work around sprint?
3. What can we do to make the player base more aware of the issue?
4. How can we convince the people who love sprint to leave it to the other titles, and keep it out of Halo?
5. Who can back us up?
6. Can 343i be replaced by another company who understands this issue?
7. If we fail, where can we go?

 

[Skyward Shoe]

So I've been looking at this for a while, and with this whole thing given a go, some questions I would like answered by anyone who can:

1. What can we do to be heard?
2. Can we work around sprint?
3. What can we do to make the player base more aware of the issue?
4. How can we convince the people who love sprint to leave it to the other titles, and keep it out of Halo?
5. Who can back us up?
6. Can 343i be replaced by another company who understands this issue?
7. If we fail, where can we go?

1. Probably very little. Even if we were, 343i is pretty dedicated to sprint and a lot of people do like it. I don't think sprint is ever going away for good in a new Halo title.

2. If we have the option to disable it in custom games then yes. If we can play without it in our community then we can design maps with no sprint in mind. I am fairly certain we will have this option. If we do not, there is nothing we can do but deal with it like we did in Halo 4.

3. The fact is that a lot of the player base doesn't care about the issue, and it doesn't even affect a lot of people. Sprint matters if you care about about playing Halo the way it was in Halo 1 through 3, being able to play and design smaller maps, and wanting faster paced, tighter games with less of people getting away all of the time. If you're just looking to screw around and have fun on your own terms than sprint won't break that. For those that might care, I'd say it's important to explain what sprint breaks about traditional Halo and how that is different than Halo 4/5's gameplay.

4. We do not. It will be in all future titles almost assuredly. You cannot convince the masses that a thing they find fun is bad for the game. There's no point in trying. The only newer Halo game we will have without sprint is H2A, which is unlikely to ever be fully fixed but at least it is somewhat playable.

5. Community leaders like Youtubers, content creators, anyone with a voice. The important thing is that we have the option to play without sprint in customs. The message we need to send is not "No More Sprint!" That's unrealistic. What we need to be saying is "More Custom Game Options!" This way we can leave the rest of the community to whatever 343i wants to do and carve out our own slice of the game that plays the way we want it to.

6. Uh, no one else is going to take over for 343i on making Halo. They have full authority on this and we can't do anything about that. Like it or not we have to deal with them when it comes to Halo.

7. Unreal Tournament isn't bad, it's an arena shooter with a lot of verticality. Maybe Duck, Warholic, and I will come up with some cool project someday if you guys are willing to back us.

 

[Psychoduck]

While the points I made earlier in this thread still hold true, I would like to modify my assessment of sprint in Halo. My previous posts were based on observations made in Halo: Reach, Halo 4, and the Halo 5 beta. In all three of those cases, sprint was completely detrimental and led to the issues with map scaling and game pacing which I described above. However, I would argue that sprint does work in Halo 5. This holds true only when maps are properly designed around it, though.

Sprint works in tandem with the other Spartan Abilities in H5 to create movement combos. These combos allow for freer movement than we've seen in Halo in the past. The jumping skill gap from previous titles has been narrowed significantly thanks to clamber. As an example, consider Guillotine. Many jumps which were difficult or even impossible on Headlong are made rather easy on Guillotine thanks to sprint, thrust, and clamber. However, numerous new jumping options are made available through creative chaining of multiple abilities. So, as the traditional jumping skill gap was narrowed, a new creative movement skill gap has been opened up. The result is that we have a game which maintains a high movement skill gap and emphasis on creative movement, just in a different way than in the past. The other result of this is that, on maps which support the Spartan Abilities well, players have more movement options than ever before.

In order to support this freedom of movement and incentive to creatively combine the abilities, maps take on a more vertical nature. This increase in verticallity not only makes for richer, more interesting engagements, it also limits the effectiveness of sprint in a traditional sense. When players must be moving vertically, they are unable to sprint for long distances. This allows for maps which are not horizontally overscaled like those from Halo 4 to function properly. The end result: players rely on sprint primarily to chain with other abilities to perform jumps and not to cover large horizontal distances more quickly. The small delta between base movement speed and sprint speed enhances all of this.

The Halo 5 multiplayer team stuck to a philosophy when designing maps that they should not be scaled up substantially to accomodate sprint. This works in tandem with everything described above to ensure that maps are not overscaled relative to the base movement speed like they were in H4. This is incredibly important given that the base movement speed is the speed at which players are moving while engaging in combat. In Halo 5, sprint is an option for covering ground and not a necessity. The fast kill times and general pace of combat (which is derived from what I discussed above) instill a constant sense of danger which makes lowering one's weapon in order to sprint a tradeoff which is very important to consider.

The takeaway from all of this is that forgers should be conscious of the increased potential for vertical movement which the abilities afford and should design their levels to harness that potential in order to confine sprint to the roles described above. The freedom of movement in the game will require upscaling in some cases, but this can be done while still maintaining a fast-paced game (see: Guillotine). It may fundamentally change how the game plays, but as long as designers account for it properly sprint will play a positive role in Halo 5.

 

[Jack Attaak]

While the points I made earlier in this thread still hold true, I would like to modify my assessment of sprint in Halo. My previous posts were based on observations made in Halo: Reach, Halo 4, and the Halo 5 beta. In all three of those cases, sprint was completely detrimental and led to the issues with map scaling and game pacing which I described above. However, I would argue that sprint does work in Halo 5. This holds true only when maps are properly designed around it, though.

Sprint works in tandem with the other Spartan Abilities in H5 to create movement combos. These combos allow for freer movement than we've seen in Halo in the past. The jumping skill gap from previous titles has been narrowed significantly thanks to clamber. As an example, consider Guillotine. Many jumps which were difficult or even impossible on Headlong are made rather easy on Guillotine thanks to sprint, thrust, and clamber. However, numerous new jumping options are made available through creative chaining of multiple abilities. So, as the traditional jumping skill gap was narrowed, a new creative movement skill gap has been opened up. The result is that we have a game which maintains a high movement skill gap and emphasis on creative movement, just in a different way than in the past. The other result of this is that, on maps which support the Spartan Abilities well, players have more movement options than ever before.

In order to support this freedom of movement and incentive to creatively combine the abilities, maps take on a more vertical nature. This increase in verticallity not only makes for richer, more interesting engagements, it also limits the effectiveness of sprint in a traditional sense. When players must be moving vertically, they are unable to sprint for long distances. This allows for maps which are not horizontally overscaled like those from Halo 4 to function properly. The end result: players rely on sprint primarily to chain with other abilities to perform jumps and not to cover large horizontal distances more quickly. The small delta between base movement speed and sprint speed enhances all of this.

The Halo 5 multiplayer team stuck to a philosophy when designing maps that they should not be scaled up substantially to accomodate sprint. This works in tandem with everything described above to ensure that maps are not overscaled relative to the base movement speed like they were in H4. This is incredibly important given that the base movement speed is the speed at which players are moving while engaging in combat. In Halo 5, sprint is an option for covering ground and not a necessity. The fast kill times and general pace of combat (which is derived from what I discussed above) instill a constant sense of danger which makes lowering one's weapon in order to sprint a tradeoff which is very important to consider.

The takeaway from all of this is that forgers should be conscious of the increased potential for vertical movement which the abilities afford and should design their levels to harness that potential in order to confine sprint to the roles described above. The freedom of movement in the game will require upscaling in some cases, but this can be done while still maintaining a fast-paced game (see: Guillotine). It may fundamentally change how the game plays, but as long as designers account for it properly sprint will play a positive role in Halo 5.

I'd love to see a Forge Design Talk about this and the other Spartan abilities at some point. I'd also like to hear people's thoughts on how the role of vehicles has changed in relation to the new movement mechanics.

Also, I'm happy to see more optimism towards the movement overhaul leading up to the release of Forge and custom games (sure, custom games were there at launch but they're essentially part of Forge at this point). I was worried about a possible trend of mapmakers designing core maps around disabled Spartan abilities, and the fragmentation that might cause (not to mention a reduced possibility of those maps being integrated into matchmaking).

 

[ShockBolt21]

I'm no expert when it comes to gameplay mechanics, but I do feel the need to mention that some of these points mentioned about sprint seem contradictory. It is mentioned several times here that the skill gap is reduced when players are allowed to escape from dangerous situations when they should be punished instead. But there are two sides to every kill, so if an exposed player cannot escape an unfavorable situation, what about the shooter's perspective? Isn't the skill gap reduced by the fact that it's much easier for players to score easy kills against others who are not given sprint or some other means to attempt escape? If a player turns a corner and, without at all expecting it, notices another oblivious player at mid range and guns him down with a battle rifle, did that player deserve the kill any more than the other deserved a chance to escape? Wouldn't this easy kill, and the faster paced combat associated with such undeserved kills, be an example of granting players instant gratification?

The way you see it, players who put themselves in an unfavorable position should not be rewarded with an easy escape, which sounds like a reasonable argument. As I see it though, players who move without deliberation should not be rewarded with easy kills that they did not purposefully position themselves for, which also seems like a legitimate argument, though it cannot coexist with the aforementioned. Therefore, it seems to me that sprint seems to increase the skill gap in Halo by denying players easy kills that they neither deliberately positioned themselves for, nor won through a skillfully fought battle, and therefore do not necessarily deserve.