Hopefully you have read Part 01 of the Human/Spartan Combat Model (H/SCM), if not please read up. The topic of this next blog will be how gameplay will be affected via this free-form class structure.
Proficiency Based Gameplay:
Ultimately the goal of this mod is to provide players a chance to jump into combat with little to no previous experience of Halo and end up with a character customized to meet their own strengths. Weapons, vehicles, maps and gametypes will all have their own balancing factors. The bonuses that players get from these items only helps to improve their own individual characteristics when using them. What this translates to is that if a player does not use a given weapon/vehicle, expect a player that does to be much better when using it.
Unlike most Role-Playing Games (RPGs) these skills will build up rather quickly. Considering that most matches last 20-30 minutes, you would expect players to gain a proficient level when using a single weapon after a very limited time. This is not to say that higher levels would be easy to attain, but only that shorter periods of time are needed to gain the most basic upgrades.
Example: A player begins the game with a pistol and proceeds to gain a few quick kills. If the requirement for the first pistol proficiency upgrade was 5 kills using that weapon, a player could easily attain it at a rather quick pace. Note that only the killing shot must be from the pistol, so feel free to use any other weapon to weaken your opponent first. After reaching 5 kills the player goes from skill 0 (zero) to skill 1 with the pistol and a bonus, such as an extra clip of ammunition is added to the pistol every time the player picks one up. Keep in mind that these bonuses are quite arbitrary at this point and only the general concept is important.
As a player's proficiency increases with a given item, it would be easier for them to gain that next skill level when using that item. Of course, the curve for attaining the top levels will be much harder than the more basic ones, so the rewards or benefits will be much better as well.
Also note that a skill penalty would be implemented for dying. This penalty would be minor in the long run, but would also encourage players to diversify their skill base more. Such a penalty would likely reduce a player's highest and/or most recently attained level by 1. That way if a player insists upon sniping the entire match, they must also consider that by dying a few quick times without gaining the next level they have gone from level 3 sniping back to a base of zero. If, however, the player diversifies his proficiences and not only snipes, but also jumps in the back of a warthog to support his teammates, he would only lose his most recent skill increase. In this case it would be skill 1 for a gunner (mentioned in Part 01). Yes, it needs tweaking, but the idea is to gently force players into various roles without having fights over who snipes and who drives the ghost every time. Possibly for once the jack-of-all-trades player might soon be the strongest.
As specific player skill levels are defined you could possibly end up with overlays for general items. Skill basics for using ballistic weaponry, for example, at level 1. That way a player could easily use any ballistic weapon (e.g. pistol, assault rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle or needler) to gain the most basic skill level. Specialization of a specific weapon would then continue beyond level 1 until a max skill level is reached. The goal is to make players gain the most from the least amount of effort at low levels, but force them into specific specialties at the higher ones.
Until the skill levels for the various proficiencies are determined this is more of a general concept to understand. Note also that there is no carry-over for skills between games. Stats and rankings at the end of each match would be recorded/displayed, but players all start at level 0 when they begin the next match. This also means that the Spartan players would likely only be the strongest for the first few minutes of each match as their Human counterparts would soon gain various proficiencies to compensate for their lack of a shield.
More information coming soon in Part 03.