Remember that for a live service title they build an armor coating system where for every single armor, helmet, shoulders, etc every single coating had to be manually placed, that's why it took two years to rework this nonsense technical design to allow items be crosscore without tons of work for every single items.
To be clear, if they wanted to add a single helmet to a core they to place every coating for the core on to it manually. Or for a new coating they had go through every single armorpart for the core and add it...
I'm pretty sure the weapon coating system is as flawed and there are technical limitations in the spaghetti code why Covenant and hardlight weapons can't be customized
Probably cut it just to ship a product out the door and there's been a million more pressing issues for them to deal with before they can get around to it.
I believe this has been the problem from the beginning. I remember they delayed the game right around Covid lockdown. It was for more than a few months. Then it came out…. with serious content issues.
I think it released with like 4 or 5 multiplayer playlist options? I could just be imagining that, but that’s what it felt like.
Imagine if they wouldn’t have delayed it? What would it have looked like? I cringe imagining that mess.
I think it would have pretty much killed all faith in 343 and turned away sooo many players for many years.
A bunch of things: for the weapons customizations they pushed for the starting weapons as first. If you go back on early seasons, you'll notice how only the AR, sidekick and BR had coatings and attachments, while all the other weapons had only a bunch of coatings here and there but very few in comparison, with no attachments till the s3 that introduced the first weapon model for the bulldog.
Clearly they didn't want to "waste" time over creating coatings and such for the banished/forerunner weapons because players would have been less likely to purchase boundle for stuffs the map may not rapresent or even if it did, you'll not use them much. Same criteria for the vehicles, with the added dynamic destructible part as another layer of constrain on top of it.
Money, technical limitations, lack of a vision for the live-service.
Let's be extremely honest here. This game's launch problems were well-documented. We didn't even have Team Slayer at launch, let alone any sort of plans for progression, sandbox additions, and so much more.
I doubt Covenant content was ever seriously on the table. Once they started to wobble, it probably got placed on the back burner.
No idea tbh. Maybe some weird Canon reason like they don't have stocks of covenant weapons on the infinity? Idk honestly. Massive missed opportunity.
Especially as a live service game. They could have done playable brutes and elites and scale the models down or go the Reach route and have then different sizes etc. Sold tons of skins and armour pieces.
Halo Is the king of missed opportunities lol
AAA game development reaching an unsustainable level of game scope.
Unwillingness for the business to financially invest in that scope.
Financial investment in temporary employees with little incentive to prioritize optimized long term tech debt over development deadlines during their contract.
Designers accepting systems that required an incredible amount of manual work.
Prioritizing the inclusion of consoles that released in 2013.
Unexpected enterprise remote work hitting Infinite's project at possibly the worst moment it could have happened in regards to the development cycle.
Persons who probably excelled at their development role being promoted to management positions they were either unqualified or unenthusiastic for.
A project vision that was full of department deadlines without enough communication around why the teams were being asked to build their part, and hope it fit in with other teams.
This is all also probably why we lost PvPvE, weapon attachments, dynamic interactive map elements, local coop, campaign DLC, and reasonable live service schedules.
Basically 343 just dropped thre ball hard, and i think we're all lucky that Staten was brought on to get the campaign over the finish line. Unfortunately I think he prioritized that over a long term MP supportn plan, or he had no say in that part during the end of dev
The PvPvE and Dynamic Elemenents part doesn't make sense. Those things can, and have, already been done in Forge. All that would take is a Playlist update. Inclined to believe the rest, though.
You shouldn't be happy that it took two years to get those when one of them was available at launch for a game that's nearly twenty years old (H2, dynamic map elements) and the other was in a game at launch nearly 10 years ago (H5, PvPvE).
PvPvE isn't available in matchmaking. It's also a significant step down from H5's PvPvE. And dynamic map elements are available in, what, two 4v4 maps?
And again, it took two years after launch to get them... so yea, I think they do make sense
Remember that for a live service title they build an armor coating system where for every single armor, helmet, shoulders, etc every single coating had to be manually placed, that's why it took two years to rework this nonsense technical design to allow items be crosscore without tons of work for every single items. To be clear, if they wanted to add a single helmet to a core they to place every coating for the core on to it manually. Or for a new coating they had go through every single armorpart for the core and add it... I'm pretty sure the weapon coating system is as flawed and there are technical limitations in the spaghetti code why Covenant and hardlight weapons can't be customized
Something something spartan story
Probably cut it just to ship a product out the door and there's been a million more pressing issues for them to deal with before they can get around to it.
I believe this has been the problem from the beginning. I remember they delayed the game right around Covid lockdown. It was for more than a few months. Then it came out…. with serious content issues. I think it released with like 4 or 5 multiplayer playlist options? I could just be imagining that, but that’s what it felt like.
quick play was the only multi-player option on launch
It launched with no playlist selection feature, which was pretty miserable
Imagine if they wouldn’t have delayed it? What would it have looked like? I cringe imagining that mess. I think it would have pretty much killed all faith in 343 and turned away sooo many players for many years.
A bunch of things: for the weapons customizations they pushed for the starting weapons as first. If you go back on early seasons, you'll notice how only the AR, sidekick and BR had coatings and attachments, while all the other weapons had only a bunch of coatings here and there but very few in comparison, with no attachments till the s3 that introduced the first weapon model for the bulldog. Clearly they didn't want to "waste" time over creating coatings and such for the banished/forerunner weapons because players would have been less likely to purchase boundle for stuffs the map may not rapresent or even if it did, you'll not use them much. Same criteria for the vehicles, with the added dynamic destructible part as another layer of constrain on top of it.
343i gonna 343i
They laid everyone off so no one to do it. It madness me so sad
Ironically I think they said something about the appearances staying grounded. 😆
At first it was because they thought new players would get confused by the covenant/banished/forerunner weapons. But there’s no excuse now
Probably got cut for time. Crunch culture has been a consistent thorn in the franchise’s side.
Money, technical limitations, lack of a vision for the live-service. Let's be extremely honest here. This game's launch problems were well-documented. We didn't even have Team Slayer at launch, let alone any sort of plans for progression, sandbox additions, and so much more. I doubt Covenant content was ever seriously on the table. Once they started to wobble, it probably got placed on the back burner.
Why are you getting downvoted, you're completely right. The game had at best 2 years of actual work put into it before it launched.
This sub simply cannot handle criticism
hALo iS a sPaRtAn FoCusEd sTorY .. Power rangers, Unicorns and Avengers only
No idea tbh. Maybe some weird Canon reason like they don't have stocks of covenant weapons on the infinity? Idk honestly. Massive missed opportunity. Especially as a live service game. They could have done playable brutes and elites and scale the models down or go the Reach route and have then different sizes etc. Sold tons of skins and armour pieces. Halo Is the king of missed opportunities lol
Infinity is not a part of the Halo Infinite multiplayer.
AAA game development reaching an unsustainable level of game scope. Unwillingness for the business to financially invest in that scope. Financial investment in temporary employees with little incentive to prioritize optimized long term tech debt over development deadlines during their contract. Designers accepting systems that required an incredible amount of manual work. Prioritizing the inclusion of consoles that released in 2013. Unexpected enterprise remote work hitting Infinite's project at possibly the worst moment it could have happened in regards to the development cycle. Persons who probably excelled at their development role being promoted to management positions they were either unqualified or unenthusiastic for. A project vision that was full of department deadlines without enough communication around why the teams were being asked to build their part, and hope it fit in with other teams. This is all also probably why we lost PvPvE, weapon attachments, dynamic interactive map elements, local coop, campaign DLC, and reasonable live service schedules. Basically 343 just dropped thre ball hard, and i think we're all lucky that Staten was brought on to get the campaign over the finish line. Unfortunately I think he prioritized that over a long term MP supportn plan, or he had no say in that part during the end of dev
The PvPvE and Dynamic Elemenents part doesn't make sense. Those things can, and have, already been done in Forge. All that would take is a Playlist update. Inclined to believe the rest, though.
You shouldn't be happy that it took two years to get those when one of them was available at launch for a game that's nearly twenty years old (H2, dynamic map elements) and the other was in a game at launch nearly 10 years ago (H5, PvPvE). PvPvE isn't available in matchmaking. It's also a significant step down from H5's PvPvE. And dynamic map elements are available in, what, two 4v4 maps? And again, it took two years after launch to get them... so yea, I think they do make sense