This is my first post, but I am an avid MM player, and I read these forums regularly. I notice a lot of people have a lot of problems with this game. This post addresses two problems that seem most despised and oft decried: the boltshot and active camo. However, unlike many of the posts, I’m not merely going to piss and moan about them, I am going to suggest a few changes that might improve balance and gameplay. I’ve too much to say for a tl;dr, so don’t expect one. First, a little introduction to the problem:
I freely admit, I have one class with both of these nuisances equipped, though the four remaining classes which I use far more often, have neither. Early in my H4 career, I used AC+BS a lot, because I recognize they are probably the most dominant AA and secondary available. Hence, I agree that they need some changes. Essentially, both AC and BS are (especially in combination): crutches for lesser-skilled players, game-breakingly OP in the hands of good players, and generally really annoying and detrimental to the quality of gameplay. They both encourage camping to a degree that has ruined the fluid, mobile, teamwork and map-control based play that defined the Halo experience for many. However, I think its clear that both BS and AC are here to stay, no matter how much some of the community whines about it.
Therefore, any change, realistically, needs to keep some utility for each, while still making them more balanced and beneficial to the quality of play. By this I mean that a tweak CANNOT make the AC user visible, or change the charge feature of the BS so dramatically as to prevent anyone from ever wanting to use it. Here are my ideas on how to do that:
AC – there are two main complaints I notice about AC: (1) it encourages stationary, camping-based play; and (2) it’s not fair/balanced/sportsmanlike to have a fully visible player fight a completely invisible player. On my estimation, this second problem is going to be nearly impossible to fix without scrapping the utility of AC altogether. If it doesn’t make you invisible, no one is going to use it. The first problem, on the other hand, can be addressed by seeking to change player BEHAVIOR while using the ability. To change behavior you can either use the carrot (reward) or the stick (punishment) (aside: this is an analogy to donkeys and how you get them to move).
As to the stick, I would make the AC user’s radar jam with red dots (a la Halo Reach), to an extent that it is essentially UNREADABLE while the user has AC activated. I would have the AC user still appear on enemy radar with blue dots, but ALSO keep the blue dots swirling around the user’s position even when he is invisible, crouched and stationary. This will disincentivize the AC user from using it, as their radar will be useless for getting the jump on someone coming around a corner, and the enemy will ALWAYS know when someone is invisible in their vicinity, so as to prevent one from walking into a boltshot completely unaware that the AC camper is even there.
For the carrot, I would change it so an AC user jams his own AND his enemy’s radar with red dots when activated – essentially reimplementing the Reach version with some minor changes. My reasoning is this: in Reach, in my experience, the real value of AC was more in its radar jamming feature than its cloaking feature. If you activate it while running, and then crouch-walk while deactivated, you can completely hide your movement/position from enemies within radar range. For example, when I would use it, I wouldn’t rely on the cloaking at all, but instead, wait until I locate the enemy on my radar, then activate the AA right before I engage, thereby preventing the enemy from seeing the origin or direction of my assault. This works great if running with a team mate or using CQB weapons because while a good player might locate my red dot in the jammed mess of a radar, its highly improbable they can track both me and a teammate in the mess of red dots,and, for CQB, you can get close while they’re still struggling to read their radar. Once you learn to do it right, you can stay mobile while NEVER appearing on the enemy radar-unjammed.
I already anticipate naysayers, who will undoubtedly point out that if the AC is already OP then giving it another advantage (i.e. radar jamming) would be disastrous. My response is to make the cloaking effect diminish substantially if the user is moving AT ALL, such that when the user is moving at full speed his invisibility is negligible. Also, when the user is stationary with AC activated, make the red dots on the enemy radar swirl around the user’s position very obviously, so that he can be found more easily on radar even though he’ll still be somewhat difficult to see on screen. Giving the user the option to use AC more offensively/aggressively, by jamming the enemy radar, is preferable to encouraging him to use it only defensively/passively, and would promote a more mobile, team-friendly style of play.
Now, neither of these “fixes” addresses DMRs/snipers cross-mapping while invisible, because in either case, a user who is out of radar range and stationary will still be highly camouflaged. But as already stated, if you remove the cloak you remove all utility of AC, so I can’t envision a solution to that problem that doesn’t ruin AC entirely. However, jamming the user’s radar when activated will increase the potential for an enemy to sneak up and assassinate the camping user, though that’s obviously difficult to do on a BTB map. As between the two ideas, I think the carrot is better, because the stick does nothing to encourage campers to try another tactic, but instead, only punishes them somewhat while they are camped. So, while the stick might see a slight decline of AC usage, there wouldn’t be much of a decline in AC CAMPING.
Boltshot – The most-often proposed solutions to this gun seem to be: use full clip in a single charge, decrease ammo capacity overall, decrease range, decrease power to remove shields only (instead of 1sk), or just scrap altogether. But, continuing with my theme of balance without ruination, taking away the overcharge aspect really does remove the entire utility of the BS, and 343i will not do that. Thus, there’s nothing to be done to discourage “camping” with the BS, because it is designed exclusively for CQB (aside: not all BS users are campers per se; you can still move/play aggressively and just pull out the BS for CQB engagements).
Still, there is a change that would encourage players to switch to PP or mag: make BS more difficult to use. If its harder to kill with BS than mag (a pretty powerful mid-close range weapon), more people will switch to mag. To make the BS more difficult to use I would make it so that once the user begins to charge, the gun will ABSOLUTELY fire. I use a tactic with the BS, where I double-tap ‘Y’ to prevent discharging the charged shot. Remove this ability. Also, make the delay after a charged shot longer, such that if the user misses their first charge, they will probably die unless they change weapons or single-fire. Also, not sure the extent of aim assist/auto-aim on the BS, but I have to imagine the reticle tracks a player, w/o user input, to some extent. Lessen this so its harder to aim.
What say ye?