Halo titles since Combat Evolved have lacked one very crucial thing: an arsenal that allows for varied gameplay, but not at the risk of having to use sub-par weapons. Redundant and useless weapons have plagued the game ever since the introduction of Dual Wielding, which caused many of the weapons(most notably the Pistol and Plasma Rifle) to become far less useful, as for them not to become too powerful when holding two.
In this guide, I hope to share my own views and ideas on how to craft a classically-balanced arsenal of weapons. I may touch upon certain abilities, but due to our limited knowledge of their implementation in Halo 4, I will have to use Reach to form my opinions. I will not address vehicles due to my somewhat limited knowledge on their mechanics and function. My first posts on the subject can be found here and here. I will not cover many power weapons, if at all, because they, along with the majority of the utility weapons are already balanced. The sandbox should be designed around the all-purpose weapons first and foremost.
The first weapon I will cover is another personal favorite that I would like to see return, even with the lack of dual wielding in Halo 4, the SMG-
The SMG was a weapon easily overlooked when single-weilded. With dual wielding absent from Halo 4, the weapon could easily take over the close-range niche if the new close-mid range Assault Rifle were to be implemented.
Two SMGs existed in the series: the unsupressed, dual-weilded weapon and the supressed, single-wield variant. The Supressed variant was treated more like a carbine in regards of having a tighter spread, allowing for longer distance to be covered by it. To aid with the weapon’s new range capabilities, the weapon was given a 2x scope magnification. This Supressed SMG had a slightly lower magazine capacity of 45 rounds.
The Unsupressed variant had a much larger spread, limiting its range drastically. It had a reletively deep magazine with 60 shots: the highest amount in the series. When dual-weilded the weapon was able to effectively fire off hundreds of shots in only a few seconds.
In both cases, the weapons had very high rates of fire, and very exreme recoil that forced the barrel upward after prolonged fire.
As for my implementation; I would keep the older, unsupressed variant. My first change would be the base spread on the weapon. With bloom, I would like to see the weapon start off with a very tight cone where bullets can land. While the weapon would be able to ping Snipers and DMR users out of their scope, it would be ultimately ineffective at range. The bloom would expand very rapidly in a very small amount of shots, but reset almost as quick. The maximum amount of bloom would be comparable to the spread of the Halo 3 SMG, to limit the range and keep it in its niche. Alongside the punishing-but-fair bloom would be the recoil from Halo 3’s variant. While the initial few shots did not cause the barrel to move, extended fire would cause it to climb very rapidly.
The magazine would be the smaller 45-round variant of the Supressed SMG, to further discourage spraying and to differentiate from the LMG(which will be detailed later in this post). The weapon would take a high amount of shots to kill to balance the very high rate of fire. Like every other weapon, I would want it to be able to get at least two kills per reload. Due to the small rounds fired, and the rate at which they can be shot, this weapon would not get a headshot bonus.
This SMG would probably fill the role the Mauler filled in Halo 3: it was a quick kill up close, but not as quick as the Shotgun or Sword. The Mauler would return as the SMG’s counterpart, with each weapon keeping check of the other, much like the rivalry in the Sword and Shotgun. While the Mauler could kill faster than the SMG in point blank, the SMG could begin firing sooner at a longer range.
As with all small-arms weapons (The Mauler, Magnum, Plasma Pistol), weapon switch times would be much lower. This would allow the weapons to actually be used in a last-resort situation if need be. This would only be for switching the weapons in, and not drawing a new weapon, to remove the ease of the “noob combo.”
The next weapons I will cover are the utility weapons I feel should be tweaked for use in competitive play. Firstly, the Carbine; Halo 2 had this weapon down almost perfectly. The weapon had a high rate of fire, and absolutely no spread. This is the model I would use, of course with modifications. My first change would be to modify the damage, creating a 6-shot weapon, following the idea that all utility weapons could get at least 3 kills per reload if no shots are missed. This extremely fast kill time when coupled with the already-high rate of fire could be balanced with massive recoil, and a projectile over hitscan. Bullet magnetism would not affect the weapon as much as others, the shot will fire down the center of the reticule almost every time. This limits the weapon at long range(recoil) as well as close range(need for accuracy), making a formidible medium-range contendor, a niche that has never been filled by a non-utility.
Second is the Magnum. This weapon is a shadow of its former Halo CE self. In CE, it was a 3-shot projectile weapon with a less-accurate automatic mode, and a very large 12-round magazine. Bungie tried to make the weapon viable in Reach, but that failed. The large bloom, high spread, slow kill time, and bloom ruined it. Under v1 ZB settings, the Magnum was made a 4-shot kill, and was not affected by bloom. Unfortunately, the weapon still suffered by very large spread and a shallow magazine. While a 3-shot kill would overshadow the BR too much, and 5-shot would make the weapon become too weak compared to the Battle Rifle, I feel that four shots with the fire rate of the Halo CE Pistol would be fine. This, coupled with hitscan would make for a viable sidearm in close range. The scope would be removed to balance the draw time compared to the BR, and keep the weapon as a situational “last resort” or follow-up weapon.
While these weapons have lost their place as utility weapons so to say, they have taken new roles filling in as niche weapons, as multiple utility weapons is quite simply redundant.
That is as much as I can write at the moment, and I already feel my thoughts being jumbled. I will continue to post more as I get ideas.