This is my attempt to explain how I would design the weapons for a Halo game.
I begin with the thought:
Landing the final, lethal headshot, with one of the precision weapons, should be sufficiently difficult that most players don’t achieve the optimum kill time in every engagement. This should be caused, not by random factors that the game determines like spread or bloom or flinch, but by the player’s actions.
The player’s strafe and the player’s aim, the actions corresponding to the two thumbsticks on the controller, represent player unpredictability in the game. The manner in which the player chooses to strafe, if he crouches or jumps during that strafe, is the good kind of unpredictability. A player whipping his reticle 180 degrees and targeting an approaching enemy is the good kind of unpredictability. Unlike the Halo 4 Battle Rifle’s random bullet spread, unpredictability that the game determines, that the user cannot control, how a player chooses to strafe and where a player chooses to aim are the good kinds of unpredictability.
Controlled Chaos. There is so much unpredictability but the framework of how that unpredictability works is, well, predictable. You are aware of what your enemy can do and he is aware of what you can do. Herein lies the beauty of Halo. Empowering the player with a fine control over his actions allows him to influence the unpredictability of the game, control the chaos, tip the odds in his favor.
An accurate, consistent, reliable utility weapon allows the only random factor in aiming to be the player. A quick, crisp, responsive strafe allows the only random factor in player movement to be the player. Flinch overriding the player’s ability to control his aim is the bad kind of unpredictability: game induced randomness. The player’s ability to fluidly crouch mid strafe is the good kind of unpredictability: player controlled unpredictability.
“Loadout Weapons (Utility Weapons and the Assault Rifle)”
Potential Kill Times – Fastest to Slowest
-1.0 sec – Magnum – semi auto, 4 shot kill, 8 shot magazine
-1.1 sec – Carbine – semi auto, 7 shot kill, 18 shot magazine
-1.2 sec – Battle Rifle – three round burst, 10 bullet kill, 36 bullet magazine
-1.4 sec – Assault Rifle – full auto, very large clip
The Magnum has a slower rate of fire than the Carbine so a missed Magnum shot punishes the user more than a missed Carbine shot. The Magnum user has to wait longer than the Carbine user to fire again, and resume dealing damage, which makes achieving the final, lethal headshot more difficult. In addition, each Magnum shot fired brings the weapon much closer to an empty magazine compared to the larger magazine of the Carbine.
The burst fire Battle Rifle kills slower than the two semi automatic utility weapons because it makes obtaining the final, lethal headshot much easier by allowing the user to sweep his reticle over an enemy’s head, giving him three times the chance that a bullet will connect compared to the semi autos. The BR requires a longer “time-on-target” to achieve a kill, 22 frames of video vs 7 for the Carbine or 4 for the Magnum, but this disadvantage is offset by the BR’s ability to deal partial damage. If the BR user’s reticle was off target when he pulled the trigger but he quickly swept it on target then he would still receive partial damage from the burst. A BR user is also capable of keeping an enemy out of scope for a greater duration, per trigger pull, than a semi automatic weapon user could. While it is possible to descope a BR user mid burst, the BR is the only utility weapon that is capable of achieving three kills without reloading.
The fully automatic Assault Rifle doesn’t even need a headshot to achieve its optimum kill time, only to paint a target’s, relatively larger, torso with sustained fire. In addition the larger reticle of the AR, compared to the utility weapons, gives a larger area for aim assist to occur in so, for these reasons, it has the slowest kill time of the loadout weapons.
This is when I add “Complimentary Weapons” like the Plasma Pistol and the Mauler. The Plasma Pistol compliments the precision utility weapons, like the Magnum, Carbine and BR, because it expedites the process of getting to that final headshot. Charge the weapon in preparation, fire your enemy-seeking plasma ball, switch weapons as the ball travels, land the lethal headshot as soon as the shields pop. Welcome to the noob combo.
The Mauler compliments your melee. Since it cannot kill in one shot, like the real Shotgun, you have to position yourself so you can land a melee almost simultaneously, but in reality directly after, your Mauler shot. Welcome to the donkey punch.
Now we add our “Sub Power Weapons”: Needler, Brute Shot, Railgun. Needler is the automatic sub power weapon. It has the potential to kill much faster than the standard Assault Rifle, with the added benefit of projectiles that track an enemy if fired during red reticle, but has the down side of projectiles that travel slowly and deal little damage without a supercombine.
Brute Shot is the precision sub power weapon. It kills in three quick shots, which is faster than any of the hitscan utility weapons’ killtimes, but it has medium projectile speed, which reduces its effective range, and a small clip to balance out that, potentially, very fast kill time.
Railgun is the power sub power weapon. It is capable of a one hit kill with a direct impact shot to a player but it has fast projectile speed, which reduces its effective range, and requires a charge up period before firing which punishes users caught off guard.
Now we add our “Incentive Power Weapons”: Rocks and Shotty. These one hit kill weapons are not particularly difficult to use but they don’t need to be. These are weapons that make players move from their power position. A player can choose not to leave his power position but then he is also choosing to gift his enemies these dumb–Yoink–easy-to-use-one-hit-kill-weapons.
Now the “Skill Power Weapons”: Sniper Rifle and Grenade Launcher. Ah the Sniper. The one weapon that has a potentially instant kill time from point blank to extreme long range…if you’re skilled enough. One shot to the head always instakills but it has an extremely small reticle and low aim assist, no aim assist while unscoped, so a player who can use this weapon effectively at all ranges is truly skilled.
Traditionally Frags have been the only item capable of providing true indirect fire to an enemy behind cover. Yes, things like the Rocket Launcher, or a Fusion Coil, can take out an enemy slightly behind cover but that is just the explosive splash damage radius at work; the rocket isn’t bouncing around corners at the user’s request.
Enter: Grenade Launcher. Although it probably has the slowest projectile speed in the game, it is capable of taking out entrenched foes who you do not even have a direct sight line to. While deshielding an enemy is not so difficult, due to the large EMP radius, killing an enemy in one shot is not so easy due to the small explosive damage radius. On top of that, it only has one shot per reload so you had better make that one shot count.