Halo Wars bucket changes and Leader powers part 2

Great news for all the Reinforcements fans! Robot Entertainment has changed the setup of the Halo Wars buckets so that Tug of War Team 3v3 and Keep Away team 2v2 are no longer available. These have been replaced by the ever popular reinforcements in 1v1 and 3v3 modes along with the existing 2v2. Anyone with Strategic Options DLC can enjoy the most popular game type of the pack, Reinforcements on Halo Wars right now! I’ll see you there later tonight!

In other news Marcin Syzmanski has completed part 2 of his very interesting blog about leader powers in Halo Wars. In this part he discusses the MAC Blast (my favourite), the complexity of the transport power and some closing thoughts about his role at Ensemble Studios and the implementation of leader powers as a whole. Recommended read with two more parts to come!

One major element that we wanted to add to the leader powers was some sort of arcade-style timing. We actually brainstormed some cool minigames, unique to each power, that would allow a skilled player to add a small boost to each power. For example, we prototyped a “golf swing meter” input method for MAC Blast that allowed an expert player to crank out a perfectly timed series of max-quality shots. Unfortunately, the realities of scheduling meant that we had to cut this feature – implementing the full array of minigames, in a polished and fun way, would simply have taken too much time.

http://www.halowars.com/news/devblog/archive/2009/07/21/Leader-Powers-Part-Two.aspx