- Yes
- No
TL;DR:
Master Chief, do you mind telling me what you’re doing?
Sir, playing the hit free to play online game War Thunder.
Halo:
Yes, Halo, the famous sci-fi novel and game series set in the future featuring humanity under the United Nations Space Command fighting against the fanatical theocratic Covenant. Halo, despite mainly featuring stories of individual heroism, has a plethora of combat vehicles from all its media. From humanity’s somewhat grounded if not silly vehicles similar to those in the real world, to the Covenant’s advanced energy weapons and hover tech.
Event:
This event will be like the (not) Dune II event, featuring a selected lineup of vehicles for each faction in a themed map. The game mode will be a standard domination. The event should be set during the Human-Covenant War, which is what I’ve based each lineup around. But it is possible to have post-conflict settings, featuring newer UNSC vehicles and the Covenant Remnants or the Banished. Of course other factions exist, such as the Flood which features infected vehicles from other factions, or the Created, which… doesn’t have a lot of lore behind it.
Map:
I propose a classic hilly map, with not particularly dense foliage, inspired by terrain like the Ark from Halo 3. Similar in essence to Arctic or small El Alamein. It would be set near a Forerunner facility in the centre, offering a region of “urban” fighting. The capture points will be dominated by a forerunner tower. It would be placed on a Halo ring, allowing a highly cinematic backdrop and skybox.
Teleporter Pads:
A unique feature of the map will be Forerunner teleporters, located in the centre of the map on each side, allowing players to quickly teleport in order to escape or flank. Though of course teleporting is a gamble as there could always be a player camping the other point.
Vehicles:
I have picked a lineup for both factions of 5 vehicles: 4 ground and 1 air. The main lineup differences: the UNSC gets a heavy tank, the dual cannoned Grizzly, and a helicopter, the Hornet. Meanwhile the Covenant gets a light tank, the Revenant, and an aircraft, the Banshee. You’ll also notice, apart from the obvious railgun/plasma difference, the UNSC gets a missile SPAA, while the Covenant gets a gun SPAA. This is in no way related to the fact that the only Covenant AA vehicle that exists is the AA Wraith, and is actually to compensate for the difference in mobility of the Banshee and Hornet. While mech vehicles are actually fairly common in Halo, I have chosen not to add any.
UNSC:
Scout Vehicle:
M12G1 LAAV “Gausshog”
The scout vehicle for the UNSC, the Warthog is light, fast, and armed with a powerful gauss cannon, firing small dart rounds at extremely high speeds (up to mach 40 in some sources). The Warthog will be a powerful flanker, able to snipe targets from a distance, but its crew will be very vulnerable to MGs or stray shots. While the Warthog can also carry a third passenger, that will be left out for the purposes of this event, like in Halo Wars 2.Specs:
Armament: 1x1 25 mm M68 Gauss Cannon (750 rounds, ~95 rpm, TVD sight)
Mass: 3.5 tons
Max speed: 125 km/h
Crew: 2
Armour: none, but hull made from ballistic compositeMain Battle Tank:
M808B MBT Scorpion
Everyone’s favourite abomination, the M808B Scorpion variant doesn’t have the silly extra machine gunner, and has a coaxial MG instead, making it more alike an IRL tank. It is armed with a 90mm (yes) high velocity cannon, which in the games is actually modelled as a standard APHE shell. It also has access to a canister shot, which could be useful against scout vehicles. It it crewed by a single person, and as such has a fully unmanned turret. The Scorpion will be a powerful hull down sniper.Specs:
Armament:
1x1 90 mm M512 cannon (15 rpm)
1x1 7.62 mm M231 MG
Mass: 60 tons
Max Speed: 96.5 km/h
Crew: 1
Armour: Ceramic-Titanium compositeHeavy Tank:
M850 MBT Grizzly
An homage to the famous Mammoth Tank of RTS fame, the Grizzly is lumbering, heavily armoured, and heavily armed, with twin 120mm cannons. Unlike the Scorpion, the Grizzly requires a seperate gunner housed in the turret. Despite what it’s large form may suggest, the Grizzly has a high rate of fire, as the recoil of a gun directs energy into pushing the round of the other. The Grizzly is a strong generalist vehicle for the UNSC, being able to snipe and brawl, but its slow speed will make it vulnerable to flanking.Specs:
Armament:
2x1 120 mm M310 cannons
1x1 7.62 mm M247T MG
Mass: 65 tons
Max Speed: 69 km/h
Crew: 2
Armour: “Exceptionally thick” composite armourSPAA:
M8 MAAT “Wolverine”
Despite looking like an MLRS artillery and seemingly firing what are RP-3s, the Wolverine is the UNSC’s prime armoured AA vehicle. It is armed with a guided missile launcher, housing 14 high velocity missiles and capable of locking onto enemy air units. It additionally has a grenade launcher for self defence. The Wolverine should be very effective at taking care of enemy aircraft from long range, but is much less versatile than its Covenant counterpart.Specs:
Armament
2x7 70 mm M260 MLRS (Argent V missiles)
1x1 60 mm XM511 HGL
Mass: 11.3 tons
Max Speed: Unknown
Crew: 3
Armour: UnknownCAS:
AV-14 Attack VTOL “Hornet”
A classic VTOL aircraft, the Hornet is a tiltrotor aircraft. Its not especially fast or manoeuverable, but is quite heavily armed, featuring 2 rotary cannons with small degrees of movement, and 2 sets of quintuple guided missile launchers, which are capable of reloading. The Hornet will be able to missile enemies from range like a traditional helicopter, but can also charge in and strafe targets with its autocannons, though this will leave it very vulnerable to anti aircraft fire. Like the Gauss Warthog, the Hornet can also carry 2 troopers, but that will be left out.Specs:
Armament:
2x3 “Rotary cannons”
2x5 M651 AGM launchers
Mass: unknown
Max Speed: unknown
Crew: 1
Armour: NoneCovenant:
Scout Vehicle:
Karo’etba Pattern Scout Bike “Ghost”
The classic Covenant scout vehicle, extremely fast, armoured from the front, and armed with rapid fire plasma cannons, the Ghost can flank enemies and output a large amount of plasma into a target. However, the single crewman is exposed, and despite being shielded, most main guns should make short work of it.Specs:
Armament: 2x1 Class-2 plasma cannons
Mass: 0.56 tons
Max Speed: 132 km/h
Crew: 1
Armour: Frontal Nanolaminate plating, energy shieldsLight Tank:
Rizvum Pattern Swift Tank “Revenant”
Much like a hybrid between the Ghost and Wraith, the Revenant is fast and armed with a medium plasma mortar. It has a higher rate of fire than the Wraith’s plasma mortar, though with less range and less power. While better armoured from the front than the Ghost, the crew is still exposed, and will be very vulnerable from the sides and rear. Like the Warthog and Hornet, the Revenant can carry a passenger, which will not be modeled.Specs:
Armament: 1x1 Class-2 medium plasma mortar
Mass: 2.4 tons
Max Speed: 129 km/h
Crew: 1
Armour: Frontal Nanolaminate plating, possibly energy shieldsMain Battle Tank:
Muz Pattern Mortar Tank “Wraith”
The classic tank of the Covenant, the Wraith houses a massive plasma mortar, capable of obliterating everything in a 20 foot radius while affecting targets up to 50 feet away. Unfortunately, it’s extremely low velocity. The Wraith has powerful shielding and is well armoured, though the position of the operator at the direct front makes it vulnerable if it is penetrated. Unlike the classic Wraith, the Muz Pattern has two automated plasma cannon turrets instead of the manned pintle turret.Specs:
Armament:
1x1 350mm Class-3 heavy plasma mortar
2x1 Class-2 plasma cannons
Mass: 47.2 tons
Max Speed: 82 km/h
Crew: 1
Armour: Nanolaminate plating, energy shieldsSPAA:
Ogab’d Pattern Skyhunter
A variant of the Wraith, the AA Wraith trades the plasma mortar for 6 fuel rod cannons, and is capable of tracking aerial targets. Because it fires fuel rods (which in general is like a mix between a plasma bolt and rocket), it is also quite effective against ground targets. Unlike the Muz Pattern Wraith, the Ogab’d Pattern keeps the pintle mounted plasma gunner. While highly versatile, the fuel rod cannons lack the range of a standard tank gun or Wolverine missile, and as such will have to move quite close to an enemy to do damage, and after firing 6 shots, it will have a short delay to reload its cannons, making it even more vulnerable.Specs:
Armament:
2x3 Class-3 fuel rod cannons
1x1 Class-1 Pek Pattern plasma cannon
Mass: 47.8 tons
Max Speed: 82 km/h
Crew: 2
Armour: Nanolaminate plating, energy shieldsCAS:
Is’belox Pattern Attack Flyer “Banshee”
A VTOL capable aircraft, the Banshee is fast, very manoeuverable, and heavily armed with two plasma cannons and two fuel rod cannons. It can easily outfight a hornet, and if left unchecked can decimate ground vehicles. However, it is quite vulnerable to any damage, and an accurate Gausshog or Wolverine can make short work of it.Specs:
Armament:
2x1 Class-2 Plasma Cannons
2x1 Class-3 Fuel Rod Cannons
Mass: 1.3 tons
Max Speed: 102 km/h (for its vtol-like hovering mode)
Crew: 1
Armour: Nanolaminate plating, energy shields
Vehicle Mechanics:
As you’ve noticed, the Covenant vehicles are quite alien, and as such, feature some special mechanics, which either can be cannibalized through existing mechanics, or have new ones developed:Plasma Weaponry:
The Covenant uses mainly plasma weaponry, from rapid fire plasma cannons to massive plasma mortars. Plasma weaponry is noted to physically melt through armour, as in-game a similar mechanic could be added for this: armour degradation. In theory the similar naval mechanic where whole armour plates “disappear” after suffering enough damage could be added, which is funnily enough close to what happens in the video games. A detailed version of that mechanic would probably be more ideal, for example if a plasma cannon repeatedly shoots a spot, the armour of that spot get thinner as the plasma burns through the metal, and when fully penetrated, the internals under it will be exposed to damage and the plasma shot will act as HE. For larger plasma mortars, they would have much higher penetration, able to fry through the armour of a scorpion in one shot, damaging the internals and able to kill the operator if they are caught in the blast.
A Scorpion with its track armour destroyedShields:
Something completely foreign to War Thunder, Covenant ground vehicles can be equipped with energy shields, able to absorb energy weapons or deflect projectiles. This can be implemented in a similar way to the games, as basically a rechargeable 2nd health bar that absorbs a certain amount of damage (like how modules in WT have hp). A way for it to function would be to make it like APS with 100% accuracy, that only has a certain amoubt of HP. The shield recharging would be like therearming of the first order ammo, except it resets when you take damage. The Ghost and Wraiths are canonically able to equip shielding, but the Revenant has not been shown with it., This will allow Covenant vehicles to tank damage, especially for the exposed Ghost, which are vulnerable to the high velocity shells of UNSC tanks.UNSC vehicles have also been retrofitted with similar energy shielding in lore, but this will not be implemented.
A Banished Ghost demonstrating its shielding capabilitiesHover Tech:
The Covenant vehicles use anti-gravity hover tech, allowing them to simply float over terrain. As such, Covenant vehicles lack turrets (though often guns can still move up or down), as they physically rotate the whole vehicle to aim, similar to the strv 103, though Covenant vehicles should have a much smoother “hull aim” mechanic, as there’s no delay for any tracks to start moving. They should be stable even when crossing rough terrain. Additionally they will be able to move at the same speed in any direction, owing to their boosted gravity propulsion drives. Though, it has been seen in lore that Covenant vehicles perform worse in highly dense environments, for example a jungle where there’s obstacles everywhere.
A Ghost hovering above the ground.Boosting:
A feature of all Covenant vehicles, they are capable of having a short speed boost while moving forward. This can allow vehicles to dodge fire and move into good positions much faster. Probably easiest to simply implement some sort of “speed boost” button for this.
A Ghost using its boosters
Event Rewards?
I’m not going to create a detailed plan like the Among Us suggestion, so here’s some cool stuff from Halo that could be rewards:
Halo Loading Screen:
An example, featuring vehicles duking it out like in classic War Thunder loading screens.
Master Chief Helmet Decoration:
Halo Assault Rifle Decoration
Halo Energy Sword Decoration
Master Chief Profile Picture
Cortana Profile Picture
UNSC Decal
Halo 3 ODST Superindentent Decal:
Halo 3 Rat Decoration:
RatRatRatRatRatRatRatRatRat
Sources:
(btw use this over the Fandom wiki)