Would you like to use Pelicans or Phantoms in Halo 3/ Halo Reach?

mikelp · 07-03-2009

Halo has given us the every vehicle that we could possibly want... except one type. The one type that has been asked for by many- Heavy Air Vehicles. The Pelican and Phantom would be great additions to large maps such as Sandtrap, Avalanche and Sandbox. Would you pay for maps that integrate Heavy Air Vehicles into Halo 3? Or hope to see this in Halo:Reach?

Either: These vehicles could be forged, or much like the Elephants on Sandtrap, may only work with certain maps.

Here is my idea for how these vehicles could work:

Pelican:

`Fits one man in driver seat and one in a gunner seat(located next to driver and has view of the outside with the ability to aim missiles) which controls rockets that are about the strength of either a Scorpion shot or Hornet missiles.

`Turret on the back which requires a gunner- removable with forge.

`4 or 6 seats in the back to remain inside. If not seated, passengers can fall out if the pelican moves at med-top speed.

`size is scaled down to reduce space that the vehicle takes up.

`much like a scorpion, vehicle is resistant to about 2 or 3 rockets and 1 or 2 laser shots. Armor plating can be shot off which weakens vehicle.

`If vehicle is destroyed by exterior damage, all denizens of the pelican are killed by a large explosion.

`Piloting controls are similar to the Hornet, Pelicans move more swiftly and unlike the hornet, holding LT can be used as a brake and will land the vehicle to the ground slowly and the Pelican gains altitude after holding RT.

`In midair, when the driver dies (shot through breakable glass, lasered, hijacked, beat down from hostile or friendly passenger, etc...) The vehicle dives and may explode upon impact.

`Hijacking- If a player can land on the front of the pelican, the player can latch onto the glass and punch through and attack the driver. A player may also jump into the back and walk into the pilot's quarters and kill the pilot. The hijacker may stick the pilot with a grenade or destroy the pilot's quarters with a frag.

Phantom:

`Much like the pelican, one pilot seat and one gunner seat. Control scheme is the same as the pelican, but the vehicle is slightly slower.

`Gunner controls the plasma bursts (purple plasma turret) these bursts have a faster firing rate, but are much weaker than the Pelican missiles.

`Same amount of seats as the Pelican, enters and exits through the sides or down the hole in the middle. The hole drops the players down at a slower rate than falling.

`Two plasma cannons on the side, removable with forge.

`Can withstand about 3 or 4 laser shots and have 2 very sensitive weak points in the front which cause the vehicle to explode after both spots are destroyed (the weak points are in campaign, normally shot to destroy the vehicle) If the vehicle explodes, all denizens are killed.

`If the pilot dies in midair, the vehicle falls and may explode upon impact.

`Hijacking- A player gets on top of the vehicle and rips out a latch (much like a wraith) and punches the driver or throws a grenade.

Anything that I am missing? Tell me and I will think about it could be integrated into the game.
Or tell me if you have any ideas of a Heavy Air Vehicle System.

rifte gifle · 07-03-2009

I'd love to see these in Reach, they would be really good for dropping people off in a hot spot, or picking up flag carriers. Although CTF with phantoms and pelicans would only really work on heavy maps, because as you said, they're harder to kill. When the vehicle is falling from the sky, there should be an option to ditch.

Press RB to ditch.

I can imagine these vehicles would make for a great game of BTS, hopefully they'll be in Reach?

Also, the main turret for the phantom can be destroyed.

Playerhata27 · 07-03-2009

If this were to happen, I'd see it happen in Halo: Reach, not Halo 3 seeing as how they can't update such hardcore game instructions after the game is released. It's like adding new armor, it would be impossible unless another disk is released.

As for Reach, it wouldn't really connect with the story line unless it were a Spartan's evacuation order. Spartan's are obviously the main/heavy infantry. They're not meant for flying around in Pelicans and picking up soldiers. Though say a Spartan had to evacuate a certain area, he could get in a Pelican and fly away seeing Spartan's have all the intelligence in the UNSC.

This could work for Multiplayer, but it would be a major hassle. To make it succesful I'd imagine everything being able to manipulate and interact with. Like if you were to crash into a building, the building would cave in and have the effects of where it was hit, which is way beyond current video game technology. If not, then crashing into buildings and such would just be bittersweet. It would be like the current Bansee explosion hit detection. When you crash into something with the Banshee at full speed, the Banshee will just implode. I imagine it would be the same effect with a Pelican/Phantom, which would be pretty lame in my opinion.

Either way, of Course I'd love to fly around a level with a Pelican. But for Bungie to execute right, they would obviously need to spend alot of time, and money on soemthing relatively unneeded. For it's been something we've been living without for a while.

ASC671 · 07-04-2009

Impact damage doesn't need to be implemented, look at BF2/2142.

The pelican and phantom should be used strictly for air transport, and light air support with a turret at the rear/sides. To balance the pelican's lack of a second turret, make the turret the one in Halo 2 where it is bolted down to the pelican and looks larger, and it has a faster rate of fire. Passengers should shoot out of the transports, but only four passengers can be held in each transport. Objective carriers can only sit near the hatches of the transports, as to stop them from becoming untouchable in the transports. Heavy weapons should be more widely available. Power drains would be very effective on transports. Transports would move more swiftly, but less agile. Damage would depend on where you hit the transport, if it is hit at the front, the pilot gets damaged. If it is hit at the rear, the passengers take damage. Hi-jacking would be simple, you have to board the damn thing. If it is moving at high speed, you would have to wait for it to slow down, wait for it to dive down and use gravity to your advantage, or just grab a seat as far in as you can and shoot the driver. In other words, you hijack a transport as you would an elephant.

mikelp · 07-04-2009

Well for Halo 3, I was thinking maybe on the Mythic Maps II and hope to see that. Its incredibly unlikely, but it would make the last H3 maps to be the best ones.

Halo Reach, I can see why Pelicans wouldnt be something for Spartans to be using. Maybe there was one that was abandoned and still operational that could be used. Im mainly speaking of multiplayer though. Much like Elephants- there are none on campaign, but they are on one map.

I was also thinking that these vehicles could be different from every other vehicle. The Pelicans/ Phantoms could have a health bar which goes from 100% and goes down by 1% for every BR burst or so. about 30% is taken off by rockets and 50% by laser.
Internal damage does a bit less than double the damage- so If you can shoot a rocket into the back, it will do maybe 50% damage with the fact that you kill passengers. And if you can shoot something through the glass to the pilots quarters, it does 3/4 damage.

I like the idea of ditching, but I think that it would be cheap because hijacking would not do much except destroy the vehicle and keep the pilot unharmed. I think that as the pilot dies, the passengers can jump out, but there is no action (press RB to ditch) for it.

The impact wouldnt be a problem because these pelicans have a top speed that it slightly faster than the hornets (they cant zoom across a map instantly) There would probably just be sparks and maybe a small mark.

TechnicalVc · 4 Weeks Ago

I'd use pelicans because i hate the covenent with all my life.

MultiLockOn · 4 Weeks Ago

This is one of the few debates I actually like. I think either way, either of these vehicles would be great to add. If Bungie were to put in the Pelican though, I'm sure they'd throw in the Phantom as well, vice versa. Things like Elephants, Transport Hogs, Pelicans...ummm Frigates! Naww, but I think it'd be neat to add these sort of things in actually.

ubercow229 · 4 Weeks Ago

I would love to c the pelican. I also have one more sugesstion, if the driver of the pelican dies one of the passengers can leave the seat and go pilot the pelican.

T Cal · 4 Weeks Ago

i think it would be cool to be able to drive a pelican/phantom. i would like to see it in halo 3 but it would hard to put them in there. although if they made big maps in halo: reach it would be fun to have them in the maps

CaptnSTFU · 4 Weeks Ago

I see this happening in Reach just because so much is unkown about what the game will be. I think they will bring back the big maps like h2 had if so it would be amazing to have pelicans and phantoms or actually it'd be the other ones the halo 1 drop ships cause phantoms weren't used till h2 and Reach is a prequel to halo 1. Still it'd be cool as shit imagine if coag had the base up the cliff face with pelicans that could be used. Oh wait that did happen (love to h2 modding) hahahaha.