A system to allow for weapon balancing

Games Other Halo
1

Something that was clear with the br in previous games was that it was a weapon for all ranges, a feature which many hated about it and why it was removed in reach in place of the dmr and the addition of reticule bloom. I personally loved the br, it was an awesome weapon, but i agree it’s ability to function at short range did spoil the balance of the games.

Although this isn’t the case for many other weapons, I have thought up a feature which i think would be awesome to have in any shooter imo as a balancing method. It involves the damage a weapon does based on it’s range from the target.

For example this is kind of already done in halo reach. Rockets and grenades have an explosive radius, the amount of damage you receive is reduced as you near the edge of the explosion.

this will work in a similar way, but for weapon bullets.
say there is the br. It is a mid-long range weapon. With a window of distance that it should be optimal at.
My idea is that the br is maximum power at this optimum range. as you start to move outside of it, whether it be further away than desired, or closer than desired, the power of a bullet when it hits it’s target begins to be reduced. slowly at fist, but at a quicker rate the further it gets away. this means just outside of the window it is ok to use although may take say a shot more than in optimal range, but go too far in and you lose it’s effectiveness (ie it requires double the amount of hits to kill for example).

This could be the case for all weapons. If you put all the ranges of weapons into groups (eg, close combat(beatdown sword), short range(shotgun), short-mid (smg), mid (ar), mid-long (pistol), long (dmr br), very long (snipers)) then it is easy to apply this feature to all suitable weapons. It would mean that there would be crossover points with other weapons where the effectiveness of your weapon becomes less useful, and so that is the point at which the cross over is recommended. Of course you could still continue to use your weapon, especially if you only had a br and ar (no pistol).

This may need tweaking, ie, a weapon should cover a couple of ranges, so there can be suitable crossovers between weapons to groups apart, or the weapon can be a certain amount of range between say 0-100m (if sniper was max 100m). Ie br is best from range 50-75 metres, ar is best from 25-40 etc. Therefore a good crossover point for those to would be in the 45m range.

Tracking this may mean the removal of hitscan from halo 4 (hitscan was in halo 2 and reach, but not halo 3. It means bullets travel at infinite speeds, so you don’t have to aim ahead of your shots etc.) as the bullets would need to be tracked possibly to see how far they have travelled before the hit (don’t think there would be many issues on the networking side of things). Hit scan also added an element of skill in caclulating the distance in which to aim ahead of a player far away moving in a certain direction.

I must take note that weapons like the sniper probably wouldnt be affected by this system, as scoping close up is hard, and no scopes are cool/show skill (maybe non head shots are reduced outside of optimal range though? whilst no scopes are skilled, the snipe beatdown combo can be a bit easy to execute sometimes).

I think this system allows for the effectiveness of these all round weapons to be reduced, but also allows for skill. If you are using an out of range weapon, attacking someone with an in range weapon, it means that the power of your weapon is reduced, meaning you are disadvantaged. Only more skilled players cna come out of a disadvantaged situation on top consistently, and so this allows for skill to be shown in halo 4.

Would love to hear people’s opinions on this, whether it is a stupid system, bloom is a good enough method of doing a similar thing or whether the br being an all round weapon was a good thing.

Please feel free to leave constructive criticism, ideas on how to improve it. I know in some ways this idea doesnt make sense (could you say it is to do with bullet velocity?) but i think if gameplay is improved from it i wouldnt be too fussed if it doesnt make sense.

2

seems way to technical… simple is best. No need to have more than one weapon in my opinion. Fair on all sides because you spawn and play with the same weapon.

3

Thats a horrible idea, lets limit the players and make the game super slow and force them to have one weapon for every situation.

No thanks, weapon balance has always worked as intended its just some people want automatic kills with every weapon I guess without having to outplay the opponent.

4

OP balance like CE is the only way to balance out the game, and keep casuals and competitive players satisfied…

5

> Thats a horrible idea, lets limit the players and make the game super slow and force them to have one weapon for every situation.
>
> No thanks, weapon balance has always worked as intended its just some people want automatic kills with every weapon I guess without having to outplay the opponent.

At what point does this slow down gameplay? All I am suggesting is giving each weapon a given optimal operating window. If it is out of that window, you can still use it, but it will be less effective. I am suggesting that you have 2 weapons of different ranges at a given time. Why would you carry around a shotgun and a sword for example on a normal map? Yes you can’t cover all ranges, but then you pick the weapons you are best at, and you think will be best.

People always complained about the br being overpowered at all ranges, and therefore it led to bungie removing it from matchmaking. this sort of method would reduce it’s impact out of range, but allowed skilled players to still beat people who are using a weapon better suited for that rang.

6

> > Thats a horrible idea, lets limit the players and make the game super slow and force them to have one weapon for every situation.
> >
> > No thanks, weapon balance has always worked as intended its just some people want automatic kills with every weapon I guess without having to outplay the opponent.
>
> At what point does this slow down gameplay? All I am suggesting is giving each weapon a given optimal operating window. If it is out of that window, you can still use it, but it will be less effective. I am suggesting that you have 2 weapons of different ranges at a given time. Why would you carry around a shotgun and a sword for example on a normal map? Yes you can’t cover all ranges, but then you pick the weapons you are best at, and you think will be best.
>
> People always complained about the br being overpowered at all ranges, and therefore it led to bungie removing it from matchmaking. this sort of method would reduce it’s impact out of range, but allowed skilled players to still beat people who are using a weapon better suited for that rang.

Your idea is heavily flawed.

First off the very thing you say is already in effect in Halo, each weapon has a optimal range and is less effective/or not effective at all outside of its optimal range.

Making weapons “weaker” outside of a set range will make it so battles are pre-determined completely and force you to have the optimal weapon for said situation or you will automatically lose.

Thats why we have a utility weapon like a CE pistol/BR/DMR in Halo so playes dont just automatically lose battles they always have a weapon to defend themselves effectively with.

People who complained about the BR being OP dont understand the Halo weapon sandbox and why a high skill-cap utility weapon is an absolute must in order for balance to be achieved.

Imagine this situation, you have a BR that shoots like a pea-shooter now at long range while the sniper just laughs at you taking as much time and missing as many shots as he wants to put you down.

Or you have a AR vs a shotgun at close and the AR shoots like a peashooter due to it not being at its effective range thus the shotgun automatically wins that battle.

Another one, the sniper vs plasma rifle battle now automatically goes to the plasma rifle before the battle even starts.

Halo does not have a weapon wheel where we can choose any weapon we want, this idea would never work. We have to pick them up on the map and we need effective/versatile spawn weapons to defend ourselves with and keep power weapons/ weapon balance in check.

7

> > > Thats a horrible idea, lets limit the players and make the game super slow and force them to have one weapon for every situation.
> > >
> > > No thanks, weapon balance has always worked as intended its just some people want automatic kills with every weapon I guess without having to outplay the opponent.
> >
> > At what point does this slow down gameplay? All I am suggesting is giving each weapon a given optimal operating window. If it is out of that window, you can still use it, but it will be less effective. I am suggesting that you have 2 weapons of different ranges at a given time. Why would you carry around a shotgun and a sword for example on a normal map? Yes you can’t cover all ranges, but then you pick the weapons you are best at, and you think will be best.
> >
> > People always complained about the br being overpowered at all ranges, and therefore it led to bungie removing it from matchmaking. this sort of method would reduce it’s impact out of range, but allowed skilled players to still beat people who are using a weapon better suited for that rang.
>
> Your idea is heavily flawed.
>
> First off the very thing you say is already in effect in Halo, each weapon has a optimal range and is less effective/or not effective at all outside of its optimal range.
>
> Making weapons “weaker” outside of a set range will make it so battles are pre-determined completely and force you to have the optimal weapon for said situation or you will automatically lose.
>
> Thats why we have a utility weapon like a CE pistol/BR/DMR in Halo so playes dont just automatically lose battles they always have a weapon to defend themselves effectively with.
>
> People who complained about the BR being OP dont understand the Halo weapon sandbox and why a high skill-cap utility weapon is an absolute must in order for balance to be achieved.
>
> Imagine this situation, you have a BR that shoots like a pea-shooter now at long range while the sniper just laughs at you taking as much time and missing as many shots as he wants to put you down.
>
> Or you have a AR vs a shotgun at close and the AR shoots like a peashooter due to it not being at its effective range thus the shotgun automatically wins that battle.
>
> Another one, the sniper vs plasma rifle battle now automatically goes to the plasma rifle before the battle even starts.
>
> Halo does not have a weapon wheel where we can choose any weapon we want, this idea would never work. We have to pick them up on the map and we need effective/versatile spawn weapons to defend ourselves with and keep power weapons/ weapon balance in check.

Thanks for your input. I’d like to clarify that the windows would cross over. Also the way the curves work mean that yes an ar would be worse than a shotgun in the shotguns optimum range, but at no point am i saying it would instantly be a peashooter, and not function at all, i am merely saying the bullet damage should be weaker. I am also trying to say that a skilled player should be able to beat someone whilst using a weapon not as effective as theres at range, for example out br’ing someoone who is using an ar whilst at the ar range.

I think your example of a sniper is also flawed, as this is a power weapon, so should function differently. However i do feel that whilst a no scope to the head should always result in a one hit kill, the potential of making a body shot at close range weaker appeals to me, as definately in halo 3 this is something which was a bit easy.

The point i am trying to produce with this idea is for players to make a concious decision of what weapons they have on them, based on the map, gametype or whatever. The point at which they then switch over weapons, or how they handle someone using a more range suitable weapon adds to the challenge of halo.

It would stop for example people with an ar running up to someone to get the beat down all the time, which is a very common occurence, because when you get close it isn’t any less effected, and the beatdown is stronger. The ar is not meant to be a close quarters weapon, so this would mean players have to be sensible as to when they do go in. If they have a shotgun, or in my example plasma rifle or smg (a shorter ranged weapon) then why should they be able to get in close for it. If you were clever, you’d hang back a bit, so you’re weapon is the more effective.