This topic is my attempt to provide a detailed roadmap on what 343 should be focusing on post-launch to create a better experience for its users. I’ve seen many folks mention tons of balance changes and small feature additions, but I think we can all agree the core gameplay present in Halo Infinite right now is fantastic and requires the least attention at the moment. By the way, I’m sorry if my topic seems overly critical or negative, I truly love the game, I just think these are things that need attention to make it even better.
Optimization
At this point in time it is clear the game is very poorly optimized. Optimization should take the biggest priority because this is what decides whether people can actually PLAY the game. For instance, I shouldn’t be struggling to achieve 60fps on an $800 graphics card that came out THIS YEAR. For reference I am using an ASUS 6700xt at 1440p. Most of the time I hover between 55-70 fps and experience frequent dips to 35-40 fps. The in-game graphics settings do little to alleviate this problem. Dropping settings from Ultra to Low barely nets an additional 10 fps on average while still experiencing those dips. The only meaningful performance boost I can find is dropping the resolution BELOW 1080p. Even then, I still experience sub-60 fps dips. This is not an issue isolated to me I am just using myself as an example. Many YouTubers and streamers have complained as well as this apparently being a big enough problem to warrant a response in their Tech Preview results. This is a BIG issue that needs addressing ASAP.
XP Progression & Cosmetic Pricing
As it stands with the 50XP per match (assuming all of your games played are only 10 minutes long) it takes 2,000 matches, or 333 hours to complete the battle pass. This is an unacceptable amount of play time for the average person, especially considering the fanbase of Halo is mostly older people now with jobs and children that used to play in middle/highschool. We don’t have the time to commit to that. Even if you finish the battle pass on the last day of our 5 month period allotted that’s still a minimum of 2 hours a day of play time EVERY SINGLE DAY. Something must be done to reward more XP per match.
As for the pricing on cosmetics, I was watching a YouTube video last night where a guys was saying inflation is out of control right now, people don’t have money. $20 for an armor color scheme is not really in tune with what’s going on in the world right now. And he’s absolutely right. These prices are so steep you’re going to have a very low purchase rate on these things because in my opinion you’re not getting enough value out of these armor coatings. You go over to Apex or Call of Duty and spend $20 at least you get a cool hand-designed skin, not a color swap.
Secondary Progression System
I know this is currently in the works, I just want to reiterate that this is an important feature to ensure the longevity of the population. An ideal system would be Reach-style ranks with a free progression track for unlockable cosmetics. This fixes two problems.
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Players have nothing to grind for except a battle pass, which the majority of people aren’t gonna care about at the end of the day. Its much better to have a visual representation of the hard work and hours you’ve put into the game as a rank on your playercard.
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There is nothing in the game cosmetic wise for free players. It kinda defeats the purpose of the free to play model. No one is gonna spend $20 on a single skin when they can go buy another game for $60 that comes with a lot of skins (aka what older Halo games did). You gotta have something there for these players if you ever want them to START spending money.