In the descriptions of the armor, they claim to have effects, but they are purely cosmetic. I think there should be some effect based on your armor. This chestplate increases inviso duration, these shoulders decrease jetpack liftoff time, etc. I think it would be another cool way of increasing variation, and helping players specialize in their unique strengths. The more customization in a game, the more interesting and fluid, I say.

Agreed. I think armor having different effects, thus enabling specialization, would be great. As long as gaining credits is a constant throughout the game. That way if you were to specialize in a certain type of armor only to find out you no longer like that particular class you could always spend the credits to change it. Also, for a neat effect would be that using a certain "set" of armor would grant a certain ability. For instance equiping all of the Military Police armor upgrades would allow a faster re-spawn rate.

i dont really think it would work because then people would choose armor based on the effects they want instead of what they want to look like. id prefer to pick the armor i think looks the coolest instead of what gets me the best advantage

No.
Armors will never have effects.

It would take the developers a long time to implement a system like that. Additionally, it would have to be tweaked repeatedly in order to maintain balance. It should be pointed out that this is still a halo game, and the armor abilities is enough of a change imo.

I wonder if there will be armor for gloves and boots.

I think what would really be cool is if different helmets changed your hud and visor setting up just a little bit in-game, and/or other armor could have cool unique assassinations or running/sprinting styles affiliated with them.

That would be cool, but I think it would be cooler if there were armor for gloves and boots, like in the books.

Yes it should have slight effects and it would not be that complicated to put in. They just need to assign code injections to various pieces of armor. It is senseless not to have minor effects. If you just pick it because it looks cool, and not because it's strategic, you are prolly a little too superficial bud.

Well the gloves could activate some sort of energy riot shield for even more protection, and the boots could better decrease the gravity of liquid environments.