My Quick Pitch for a Halo MMO

Playing Halo has always been fun to me.  In fact this is the game that first introduced me to online multiplayer and coop, so of course I will have a lengthy appreciation for the game.   Having read the books, comics, and just about anything story or character wise I could consume about the Halo universe, I started to dream up an everyday life in this world.  Combining those thoughts w/ a homework assignment I have for my game design course, I wrote up this quick pitch on creating a Halo Universe MMO, somewhat like Knights of the old republic, WOW, etc.

Halo Universe MMO

Players can play as any UNSC, Colonial Insurrectionists, Covenant, or Flood in the Halo Universe in an intergalactic MMO that allows players to play in 1^st or 3^rd person using FPS combat tactics but having an RPG element for players interested in activities outside of combat and combat situations.

Players can select any faction from the Halo Universe.  UNSC players can be ODST, marine, space fleet, or Spartans.  Covenant players can play as any species tied to the Covenant collective. Players can also select to play a faction never been experienced in gameplay but only through supplemental stories as Insurrectionists.  Finally, players can play as the flood, starting off as a seedling and infecting another NPC or human player or else can select a pre-infected form as experienced in previous games.

UNSC – Players can be ODST, Spartan, marine or space fleet.  Space fleet players are not weapons trained beyond a pistol are best suited to stay within large battleships and play a support role for combat and travel.  ODST and Spartans have the same combat characteristics.  Each are highly trained in all weaponry and vehicle usage.  Spartans have increased damage, power, speed, and health.  Marines are the most well rounded characters in the game with moderate skills in all areas while offering the most versatility for non-combat related activities.

Covenant – Hierarchs are non-combative but may follow onto the field as they provide attack and defend bonuses for friendly players within proximity.  Elites are equivalent to Spartans.  All mid-tier races are equivalent to marines but each will have a few changes to make them particular and stand out in their own ways.  Brutes play like elites and Spartans, but are larger, stronger, but slower and can only use a limited set of weapons.

Insurrection – This group is portrayed as gritty, dirty and highly unethical tactics for battle and creating terrorism and chaos.  Perks of this group include skills for sneaking and staying unseen or detected.  They are able to infiltrate UNSC installations with ease and are highly skilled in explosives and demolition and sharpshooting.   They are agile and strong in hand to hand combat.  This group often utilizes weapons and vehicles from all races as they have only operate based on combat, black market trade, and scavenging

Flood – Players starting out as a flood spawn pod may control up to 10 flood pods w/ a POV in 3^rd person from above or else may select 1^st POV and view through a single pod.  Pods may crawl and jump attacking living organisms or else may infect dead corpses found.   Once in a flood form, they will acquire the skills of the body infected while adding extra strength and jumping but move slower than the original infected form.  They have a disadvantage in their ability to aim accurately using guns or vehicles but have increased damage protection keeping them in the fight longer.  When large groups of infected flood form together, Gravemind (AI leader) will give orders on screen to direct flood combatants into a more powerful force taking over large areas quickly

Gameplay features

Combat allows for players to collectively find their way to a battlefield.  This can be communicated through personal messages to your player via a universal network of information players can choose independently.  Otherwise, when they choose a faction they will be drafted into the military wing of that group and will receive periodic commands to complete missions and battles.  Players must find their way to rendezvous points in the universe to prepare for large scale battles. If players miss or completely skip these obligations they may find themselves penalized within the universe where they are fined, demoted, or imprisoned for some amount of time.  Players may choose to rebel and break free from a faction thus not having any obligations, but this will lead to a new path of play in the game where they must avoid contact w/ large groups and survive on their own.

For combat zones, large warships may collect and fight in space directly above the planets.  Players may beam down to join fights on the ground.  When a player dies, they may respawn in ground battles for up to 10 lives.  Once those are spent they player may not return to the battle for 10 minutes.  The player can wait for the time to count down or may respawn and continue their adventures outside of the combat zone.  Delaying spawns keeps battles from persisting endlessly.  The intention is that teams who do not value their lives will spend them all allowing the other team to clean out and own the battle or area.  If the battle persists, and players return they may come back and reinforce to shift the battle back in their teams direction.  

All races can use all guns and vehicles.

This game expands on the Halo games previously released offering more than FPS combat.  Players can live out their gameplay imagination through play as any faction experience different points of view through various characters while interacting with a massive online community.  The game will incorporate in game economies, story progression, and world destruction and rebuilding.  The game will follow Halo Canon keeping the story and gameplay in a seamless fashion.

Estimates are that the game needs 2-3 year of development if working from scratch. With the ability to license an established game engine and the appropriate tools, development time can reduced significantly.