I feel there are some very key elements to a competitive game that 343i deliberately excluded (or included) from Halo 4 and I can’t figure out a reason other than they felt dominated in previous games as players.
1) No pre-game & post-game chatter. Banter is a very fun and integral part to gaming and sports of any kind for that matter. It serves as a means to get a team fired up and have a little extra motivation. I’ve noticed you can’t speak with your opponents pre-game for any list and at least in the new double team you can’t speak with them after the game either. Not even to say “good game” or “you effin suck” … nothing.
2) No visible skill ranks. I believe the reason 343i gave is to minimize cheating. This is a valid reason if it were September 2007 and they were deciding whether or not Halo 3 should have ranks. Cheating was rampant in Halo 2. But this is Halo 4, and the cheating in Halo 3 was so harmless it shouldn’t have even been a second thought whether or not this game should have visibly ranked playlists along with social playlists. No, their new website ranking system doesn’t make-up for this. Halo 2 days were the best because I could see my rank in game AND I was constantly checking the website to see potentially how many games I needed to go for a rank up/down etc. by viewing the EXP bar.
3) One shot kill guns from distance. Adding guns like the sticky detonator, rail gun, binary rifle and incineration cannon might seem like great fun at first but really it just makes the game that much more frustrating. Before I had to worry about sniper, rockets and the occasional laser, now I’ve got to watch out for ~2½ times the amount of distance one hit kill weapons. Not only that, but it’s completely random when people will have them and it’s near impossible to avoid them because by the time I realize their gun is lighting up rail gun blue (for example), I’m dead. At least with binary rifle it is blindingly obvious what they have, maybe a similar system could be implemented for the others such as with rail gun always having a blue glow?
4) Ordnance drops containing aforementioned power weapons. Ordnance drops should be toned down to contain 3 things max, potentially only two IMO. Normal loadout weapons, grenades and powerups (speed boost, overshield, etc.). Realistically these things should all be map pickups but because this game uses a different system it would be a good way to implement that system fairly (and why the eff do powerups look like slim jims now? Why did we go backwards on the appearance of these?). I’m really tired of completely running out of ammo and there is literally nothing for me anywhere on the level and I can’t drop anything in to help. Additionally I can try to “scavenge from the battelfield” but guns disappear at an alarmingly fast rate from dead bodies. If I die with a sniper, it should not disappear before I instantly respawn and sprint to my body (AND I KNOW NOBODY HAS PICKED IT UP!)
Anyway, just some thoughts from a competitive person trying to find his way through a very muddy version of Halo. If you think I should add/remove things from this short list, let me know.
That’s because most people are in party chat. There is pre-game and post-game chatter. Whenever I do decide to be in game chat I smack talk people on the other team a lot. Depends on the playlist though. Competitive playlists don’t let you talk to the other team, something that was in place in Ranked playlists in Halo 3. But these aren’t ranked playlists. You can only do this stuff in stuff like Flood.
Hopefully skill ranks will be added, rumors are that they are adding them.
Most of these one shot weapons have very little ammo and can easily be countered using common sense. FYI you can use these weapons too yknow.
If ordnance drops weren’t so God-awully random then they would be ok.
> 1. That’s because most people are in party chat. There is pre-game and post-game chatter. Whenever I do decide to be in game chat I smack talk people on the other team a lot. Depends on the playlist though. Competitive playlists don’t let you talk to the other team, something that was in place in Ranked playlists in Halo 3. But these aren’t ranked playlists. You can only do this stuff in stuff like Flood.
You can’t speak with opponents pre-game even if they’re not in chat, only if they stay in the party and you’re playing more games does it allow this to happen. I was also making a point that in doubles they don’t even allow a post game lobby to exist. This leads me to believe all the ranks playlists will be the same.
> 2. Hopefully skill ranks will be added, rumors are that they are adding them.
They are adding website visible only ranks, not visible in any way in game. They already have and have always used invisible ranks.
> 3. Most of these one shot weapons have very little ammo and can easily be countered using common sense. FYI you can use these weapons too yknow.
If you use the Ammo perk, you pick up these power weapons with the additional ammo. And no, I don’t magically get these weapons at the same time my opponents do so they’re not easily counterable as you make it seem.
> 4. If ordnance drops weren’t so God-awully random then they would be ok.
I guess? I don’t really know what you’re accomplishing with this last statement.
> > 4. If ordnance drops weren’t so God-awully random then they would be ok.
>
> I guess? I don’t really know what you’re accomplishing with this last statement.
> 3) One shot kill guns from distance. Adding guns like the sticky detonator, rail gun, binary rifle and incineration cannon might seem like great fun at first but really it just makes the game that much more frustrating.
I disagree. The only power weapons that feel overpowered to me are:
-Needler
-Sticky Detonator
-SAW
It’s like they were made to counter each other than to add to the gameplay…
And quite frankly, I find it boring killing Hunters with the sticky detonator. There was a campaign achievement for that but it’s just way too easy. It’s made even worse by how it’s like the Needle Rifle. Enemies stuck with it don’t do any of that running around screaming behavior nor do they try to get it off or anything. They just stand there, doomed, and dive and dive and dive. It’s lame!
The grenade launcher was much more interesting though it could have used a little buff.
Anyways, the other power weapons feel fine to me. It’s not so easy using the Railgun from a distance (even when zooming in) and it’s not effective against vehicles. And the IC is just wallops of fun. The IC is only frustrating when the enemy wielding it knows where you are all the time (Knight Commanders in Spartan Ops, Promethean Vision).
I kind of wonder this too. People are all up in arms about the Boltshot and DMR, but I’m like have you seen the radius on that sticky? It’s kinda of cray. And by kind of I mean really.
> > -Sticky Detonator
>
> I kind of wonder this too. People are all up in arms about the Boltshot and DMR, but I’m like have you seen the radius on that sticky? It’s kinda of cray. And by kind of I mean really.
It has massive trick jumping potential but the overpowered damage and large blast radius limits it’s use to killing.
Which is why sometimes I’m glad the concussion rifle didn’t get a buff.
> > > 4. If ordnance drops weren’t so God-awully random then they would be ok.
> >
> > I guess? I don’t really know what you’re accomplishing with this last statement.
>
> I think he means something like this.
No, the better team or player still comes out on top 7 to 9.5 times out of 10 over the course of a match.
I agree we need some more classic arena style playlists/maps that removes some of the extreme randomness. This should be a two way street though the hardcore competitive playlists should also introduce a bit more of the sandbox than they traditionally have too.
This way we have Infinity and Classic but both evolve and change with the times somewhat. One has some randomness and the other limits it. Pretty simply really.