Weapon Spawns are out of whack in Halo 4 atm. This is a well known fact / common opinion.
Many people have commented that the weapon spawn timers are too short, but believe it or not the timers actually aren’t the problem. The real problem lies in how the weapons spawn.
The Problem:
343 uses weapon drops via Initial Ordnance. These weapon drops respawn on set timers and have a waypoint attached to them. Currently on Adrift there are 2 UNSC Snipers @ 116s, and 2 Needlers @ 60s. These weapons will respawn every time their respective respawn timers reach zero no matter what. It doesn’t matter if there are 3 snipers already in play, when the timer runs out another one will spawn. This is a huge issue especially with Infinity settings as way too many power weapons become available.
If you were to change the Sniper Ordnances to respawn every 10s and open a 6v6 game, it would be no problem to get 12 snipers in play after only 2 minutes of game time.
The Solution:
The way to fix this problem is to use actual weapon placements (by this I mean the actual weapons available in Forge). The main advantage to this is you can control the maximum amount of any given weapon available in game. If you lower the respawn time to 10s and change the maximum to 2, there will only ever be 2 of that weapon available.
If anyone doesn’t believe me you can test it out for yourself. I have uploaded the version of Adrift currently in MM to my fileshare (Adrift - Post TU), as well as a modified version with weapon placements (Adrift - Post TU Improved).
Edit 1: Another advantage with weapon placements is that the ammo can be easily controlled by selecting the number of spare clips available. /Edit 1
Testing
The easiest way to test this is to get 2 players split screen and have each player pick up a sniper at the same time. Then have one player throw their sniper off the map and wait to see how many snipers respawn.
If you try testing this yourself, you will notice I set up the Needler and the Sniper spawns differently. I was trying to determine if there is a way to control which weapon placement will be resupplied. I have yet to find consistent results. Sometimes if blue sniper is thrown off the map, the red sniper will respawn instead of the blue (even if the red is still in play). The same is true for the Needler. If anyone finds settings that produce consistent results please let me know.
Thanks for your time,
CAVEMANcr
I have added 2 poll questions. The first question
Do you believe weapon spawns are an issue in Halo 4?
a) Yes
b) Only with Infinity settings
c) No
corresponds to the top poll and the second question
Is CAVEMANcr’s solution a good idea?
a) Yes. Implement this immediately.
b) It’s not perfect but its better than the current system.
c) No.
d. Other (Please Explain)
corresponds to the bottom poll.
I have seen lots of complaints here on waypoint concerning the availability of power weapons. If we want 343 to change things we have to make our voices heard. I believe the best way to do this is to offer possible solutions to these problems rather than just telling them there is a problem. Please leave your input in a well thought out post so that 343 can decide whether or not changes need to be made to the weapon spawns.
Thanks again,
CAVEMANcr
It’s a nitpick, admittedly, but in addition to what’s suggested above (which I love, by the way), I wish they would get rid of the waypoint alerting everybody and their mother that a new weapon is available. If you can’t monitor spawn times and status of current weapons in the game, you shouldn’t be given a heads up. Players should be rewarded for being more aware than their opponents of the game status.
Set timers to 180s or 3 mins.
This give players time to use the weapon before another wants to spawn and i do agree ordnance needs to be removed because its just another handicap let players learn how to control a map over hey the rocket launcher is up and you only know this because the game said so. people need to learn weapon spawning.
> I wish they would get rid of the waypoint alerting everybody and their mother that a new weapon is available.
I actually like the addition of the waypoint as it allows new players to learn the maps and weapon spawns faster. It also allows 343 to alter the weapon spawns (as they did on June 3rd) without catestrophically degrading gameplay while everyone adjusts.
Knowledgeble players can effectively time weapon spawns with or without waypoints.
That is not to say that these waypoints come without downfalls. As soon as a weapon is picked up the waypoint disappears. IMO there should be a 5 second delay to encourage communication and to ensure player positions are not given away by mechanics outside of their control. This is especially important in gametypes with no motion tracker.
I think the real problem isn’t the volume of weapons at a time(CE got along just fine with having weapons constantly respawning on a static timer), but the fact that Ordinance drops simply give far too much ammo. 12 bullets for a Sniper is a lot any way you look at it, and I’d rather not go back to Halo 3-style weapon spawns where items only spawned every 2-3 minutes.
Perhaps 343 could limit the amount of duplicate weapons appear while decreasing the overall spawn times.
> I think the real problem…CE… but the fact that Ordinance drops simply give far too much ammo. 12 bullets for a Sniper is a lot any way you look at it
This is another advantage to using the actual weapon objects in forge, which I forgot to mention. OP updated.
> Perhaps 343 could limit the amount of duplicate weapons appear while decreasing the overall spawn times.
If 343 did this and decreased the amount of ammo in power weapons it could add a lot of value to power positions.
I don’t see why they can’t just decrease the spawn time on the power weapons and vehicles. They were fine before the update!!!
> I don’t see why they can’t just decrease the spawn time on the power weapons and vehicles. They were fine before the update!!!
^this
> I don’t see why they can’t just decrease the spawn time on the power weapons and vehicles. They were fine before the update!!!
Do you mean increase the respawn time, thus decreasing the frequency of spawns?
Edit: Here are a few related threads I tracked down:
Weapon Spawn Times
New Vehicle and Weapon Spawns Are BS
Power Weapon Availability is Ruining Games