2023 Balance Updates - Ranked and Social changes

Games Halo Infinite
1

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/hcs-year-2-maps-modes-and-settings

Tweet confirming general updates apply to all modes
https://twitter.com/Tashi343i/status/1612618305281593345?t=aTmjCqwOba16aJAIy6uxgA&s=19

Update 1: Empyrean and Argyle, Tuesday Jan 10. (RANKED / HCS ONLY)

  • Argyle:
    • CQS48 Bulldog: Replaced with MK50 Sidekick
    • VK78 Commandos: The VK78 Commando in each base will become BR75 Battle Rifles
    • Fusion Coils: Removed
  • Empyrean:
    • Fusion Coils: Removed
    • Scrap Cannon: Removed
  • Detachment:
    • Drop Wall: Total charges reduced from 2 to 1

Update 2: Sandbox tweaks, targeted for mid-February ahead of HCS Major Charlotte.

  • Ammo Rack Update:
    • In the Ranked Arena playlist and HCS, each Weapon Rack will now be set to a “Red Rack” meaning once a weapon is picked up, the Rack won’t spawn another until the weapon is despawned.
  • Frag Grenades:
    • Damage radius will be reduced
  • Drop Weapon mechanic:
    • Speed will be at parity with normal weapon switching.
  • S7 Sniper Hip Fire:
    • Reduction in random error angle when no-scoping.

Update 3: We’re still finalizing all of the changes we’re looking to make here so please don’t consider these to be 100% final until we circle back and confirm in February. The soonest that these could release is Season 3.

  • Footstep audio:
    • We adjusting footstep audio to better suit competitive play. Enemies are now harder to hear at distance and easier to hear when very close, and we improved accuracy of enemy location based on footstep audio when enemies are above, below, or behind you.
  • Mangler:
    • Will vault from competitive. Will undergo a rework in the future before being reintroduced.
  • Sword:
    • Will vault from competitive. Will undergo finer tuning before reintroducing as well as updated placing on maps better suited for the weapon.
  • VK78 Commando:
    • Slight retuning to reduce effectiveness. We felt the Winter Update pushed the needle a little too far, tuning again to find the sweet spot.
  • Spike Grenades:
    • Reducing randomness to alleviate frustration.
  • Disruptor:
    • Overall, we’re looking to reduce effectiveness and/or utility of the weapon in order to find the sweet spot.
  • Pulse Carbine:
    • Will vault from competitive, will explore a rework in the future.
  • Plasma Pistol:
    • Slight retuning to reduce effectiveness in order to find the sweet spot.
  • Ammo Reduction:
    • For competitive, we’re reducing ammo for Heatwave, Stalker Rifle, CQS48 Bulldog, and Shock Rifle.

There will be new additions in Season 3 coming into the game as well as ranked/HCS. These include Shroud Screen equipment as well as the M392 Bandit Rifle. We’re expecting these to have a meaningful impact on the gameplay meta and we can’t wait to see how they all perform in your hands.

Once these updates have been released, our intention is to more quickly respond to player feedback and make smaller tweaks throughout the season that maintain a fine competitive balance rather than waiting longer and having to make much larger tweaks.

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There’s a bit more info in the link about HCS maps and some extra context.

I can’t say too much about the Ranked/HCS changes but some of the others are interesting.

Improved footstep audio should be awesome.

Fixing up the drop weapon speed is great, just so they don’t have to worry about it when balancing weapons for competitive play.

I’ve really been enjoying the Commando as a viable alternative to the BR. Guess it’s causing problems in high level play but I’m not seeing anyone dominating too much with it.

No idea what they’re doing with the Pulse Carbine but it’s one of my least favourite weapons so hopefully the rework makes it more satisfying to use.

The biggest surprise to me was that the Disruptor needs a nerf. I can’t believe that it’s somehow out performing the Sidekick.

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Just take out weapons entirely from competitive and make the game melee-only lol. How to tell the community you have bo odea how to balance your game without telling it.

For the rest of normal people who will deal with the game on a daily basis, other than frags and commando becoming obsolete not much will change it seems.

The only good thing I see on the list is footsteps audio, but then again, chances are they’ll only screw up that one even further, so I’ll keep my judgement on this one until I hear the results.

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Overall the changes sound good and since I’m only playing ranked, I’m happy things are getting fine tuned. Plasma pistole and pulse nerf are imo not necessary, an ammo reduction would do the job IMO.

Sniper changes are very welcome, imo meeting in the middle with the H5 sniper would be awesome. H5 sniper was freaking dominating but it was absolutely lovely to use and very satisfying. Plus, people fought over it.

A big questions remains: why are there 4 rockets on empyrian in HCS. oO

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Did they release some new notes somewhere?

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The link is right at the top of the first post unless I’m misunderstanding something here.

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This is for HCS only correct? Most of these changes don’t seem necessary IMO, including things like player footsteps.

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The first update is HCS/Ranked only. After that they apply to all modes unless stated I believe.

Edit: https://twitter.com/Tashi343i/status/1612618305281593345?t=aTmjCqwOba16aJAIy6uxgA&s=19

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Umm, this is exactly how it is now. So are they saying the footstep audio is going to be even worse now? Or lack of rather. This is the complete opposite of “to better suit competitive play”.

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Idk you can hear people pretty far in this game, never took the time to measure it but its insane how you can basically pin point people through 30% of any given 4v4 map.

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It can be a hit or miss, usually a miss for me and I have pretty damn good audio equipment (PC). Even if I try to increase the db’s within the footstep frequency range. There’s one spot in particular on Recharge. In the middle of the attic on the landing from the pipe steps and the gold stairs. Footstep audio is nonexistent until they reach either or of the top steps. I mentioned this a while ago, others said they also noticed it. Not sure if that’s been patched or not.

It’s all too inconsistent and their definition of “footstep audio to better suit competitive play” makes no sense not to hear enemies at distance.

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I like the changes, although IMO Argyle is a terrible map and I hate it being in ranked. It makes me want to quit out at the start.

I had an issue with audio yesterday… I put my right headphone on my left ear and my left headphone on my right ear. I was so confused for a moment in time.

I looked at your Spartan wearing the Oreo yesterday. I noticed on the screen it said you have played zero ranked matches… hmmm - knowing where the footsteps are is great with no radar.

But positively I’m glad 343 are back at work not like last year when they were tired.

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The biggest worry to me is the removal of multiple CTF maps during/since end of season 1 and addition of two new CTF maps.

I enjoy the pulse carbine as it’s a good weapon to hold a specific position because it shreds.

The audio update is going to be phenomenal and a much better competitive gaming experience I’d say.

I look forward to this upcoming season of HCS and can’t wait to see how it plays out with the roadmap of the season.

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I generally stick to community ranked competitive formats in games and not official ones including this game. They generally offer a more competitive format then official ones ever do. But I am well aware of how effective tracking people via footsteps is, I do it all the time, and have no problems doing it in Halo Infinite. Official ranked gameplay generally feels more like they’re making a middle ground, or bridge between the casual experience and actual competitive experience.

I made a big deal in a topic when we had that Tactical Slayer event and people were having difficulty adjusting to not having a motion tracker at all to use.

I presume now that they’re probably trying to fix it because I do recall people stating surround sound wasn’t working well for them in particular, but I had absolutely not issue with it myself.

I guess it’s a wait and see situation over all though. I will admit you can hear people rather far away with footsteps though, so maybe that’ll be the biggest part of the change.

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I’m glad to finally know how the “Red Rack” works. 343 really needs to put actual info like this in the loading screens…

I love the openness from Tashi and the devs on Twitter. Actually knowing something about the future helps me get excited!

I agree with wanting some more effective chaining on the Disruptor. In my experience, it’s primary usefulness is making it take longer for enemies to recharge shields due to the (minimal) DOT, but it’s not great at AOE like they say it is, and it’s not an effective kill weapon. I pretty much never see anyone use it.

Plasma Pistol going from actually useful to…not useful? It’s been nice to do more with it than a close range charge-punch combo.

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Been pondering what changes they could mean, some thoughts perhaps…

I’m taking a guess is it’s seen as a problem when two people are utilizing them in sync. One person relies on charged shots and the peaking game ( jumping out of cover to shoot, then quickly ducking back again ) while his teammate pops out afterwards for the headshots. The PP person could also technically pop out as well if not damaged with his own battle rifle and what not. Could be a little too easy to gain an upper hand in the numbers game by instantly melting one ( or more ) of their teammates down before really getting into an engagement.

Sometimes it’s just one little thing that can cause a problem with a weapon to exist. TF2 banned all throwable weapons in competitive, even if some of them were completely worthless, because you could throw them through walls and hit people on the other side of an object. Jarate and Milk might have caused problems, but the others ( Pyro’s Gas Passer for example ) no one would have even cared if they did it more likely.

It’s hard to say until someone comes out and explains why it’s such an issue.

Curious about what the issue with the Pulse Carbine and Mangler. I know the Mangler’s TTC is actually really quick if you can land 3 shots. Pulse Carbine seems like it’s in a decent spot where it is, guess we’ll have to see how they change it.

Commando I actually do feel they did buff it a lil’ bit too much though. It feels like it’s trespassing into Battle Rifle Territory now honestly. I think at longer ranges, the Battle Rifle should be more dominate then the Commando.

Spike Grenades changes I’m actually happy to see. They are definitely the worst grenade of the four types.

I’m hoping though that some changes to the weapons aren’t really all that large in what gets change, and are more along small tweaks more then anything because most of the sandbox seems like they’re in a fairly good spot currently though.

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16

This game is already a mess. This is going to make it worse.

Only weapon tweak needed is the sword.

No other weapon on that list needs a tweak, none!

WTF is going on?!

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That’s quite the list they have there. Sort of wishing that sniper change could come little sooner.

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Man I want to make this short. This was/is a similar issue me and a lot of people had with PUBG and the Series S|X. This is a console issues, not PC. I’m an audio and video snob and when I found out Xbox was ditching Toslink, I was upset and against it. I knew of ways around it but nothing at the time supported HDMI 2.1. If you’re on Xbox Series S|X it does not matter what kind of headset you get, they will all sound alike and reproduce the same virtual surround sound (Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos for headphone and dtsX for headphones). Sound quality may differ from headset to headset but the sound stage is exactly the same. There is no mixamp/DAC/headset made for the Xbox Series that is doing any DSP, thanks to audio via USB and their proprietary wireless connection.

I can name everything I tried and have but the most popular one people used, one that I have and never liked is the Astro MixAmp Pro TR. I didn’t used Astros headset with it, they’re pretty cheap. I use Sennheiser GPS 600’s. The mixamp can get loud and somewhat clear depending on your EQing but the audio positioning was off. Example: If there was someone walking behind, let’s say from left to right, you would hear them full on in your left ear then fully behind you then full on in your right ear. There was no audible transition, as if they are either heard behind you or to your immediate left or right. Same applied for the front stage. All this applies using both Dolby Digital via Tosink and Xbox audio via USB.

There’s only one mixamp/DAC for the Xbox (not Series) that properly processes an accurate surround sound simulation, Turtle Beach Elite Pro TAC. I’ve had and have been using this forever. With the Series not having a Toslink output, the TAC wasn’t plug and play anymore. Still could work it you play on a TV with an option to bitstream out via Toslink but monitor players (most didn’t know) would have to get an extractor. Most opted for the Astro MixAmp Pro TR because Astro announced they would send an update to work on the Series via USB but then people complained because they sounded worse. This was due to Xbox’s headset audio format (Sonic, Atmos, dtsX). No more digital signal to DAC’s, the Astra via USB is nothing more than an amplifier for Xbox’s audio.

I talked to TB for a little while about this issue and in the end they said they wouldn’t update the TAC to allow audio via USB for the Xbox, because it defeats what people paid for. You paid for pin point accuracy and you just don’t get that with Xbox’s audio and to be fair, they didn’t have to support it on the Series.

Easy fix was get an audio extractor, which some and myself did. I think I tried about at least 6 different extractor’s trying to find one that at least supported 1440p120 HDR FreeSync. Only one did (at that time) by Monoprice. On the AVS forums, I got ahold of HDfury and asked them if they could make an extractor to fully support HDMI 2.1. So a whole discussion started on their forums and there were a lot of people interested so they started on it. I was in the first wave of per ordered so I got it for $100 less than what it’s selling for now. If anyone is interested, its the HDFury Vroom and it works flawless but it does cost more than a Series X, like I said I’m an audio snob. If Astro worked via USB, then I would have saved my money.

There’s another DAC that is really good, but this takes some workarounds to get it work on Xbox. The Sound BlasterX G6. This is my DAC that I use for PC but with an extractor for the Xbox and the DAC powered by your PC via USB, you can get it to work. You’ll need to use your PC’s Xbox app for party chat, only downside. But with the G6, you can adjust the soundstage to what sounds accurate (surround sound positioning) to you.

This is a clip I recorded from around that time, I had people watch and listen to it on their Xbox and see if they could pinpoint the 2nd enemy that shot to my left, this was the strange part. People with the Astro (via USB or optical) some said they sounded more to my left and some say it sounded more in front of me. I had no idea where it was if he didn’t shoot at me, but I looked exactly where I heard the sound come from. This is how good the TAC pinpoints audio location.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKY9QCN_-JY

(Also, remember that PUBG has no aim assist what so ever. So it’s not like the crosshair slowed down when I looked their way. This was purely audio positioning)

Edit: Sorry it was long

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I am 100% good with every single one of these changes. Even the hit to my beloved Bulldog’s ammo pool.

10/10.

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These are far better for the health of the game and the enjoyment!

I had noticed on occasion that it was like waiting for a bus - you know it’s coming but it takes a life time for it to drive around the corner!