Balancing and suggesting content for Halo 5

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Hello guys, I wrote this post, because I want to give my opinion about the balances and changes that Halo 5 needs to maintain everyone happy. All my feedback is based on my experience in the Halo 5 beta and reading the most popular topics in the Halo Waypoint forums and other gaming communities. My feedback consists in talking about game mechanics, ranking system, playlists, etc.

Mobility Game mechanics
In my opinion I love what 343i is trying to accomplish in Halo 5 regarding movement options because they give some fresh air to the series, but this new game mechanics for Halo could have some good or bad impact in the game. Let’s talk about each movement mechanics one by one.

• Sprint: the most controversial game mechanic that has been introduced to Halo. Some players said that it has no place in Halo, but others said that they want sprint in the game and I understand both sides of the coin. In my opinion sprint can cause some problems to the core gameplay if it isn’t well balance. The problems have been listed in these forums while ago, so I’m not going to talk about them. 343i balanced sprint in the beta pretty well, but if this mechanic is going to be in Halo, 343i should add more elements to prevent damage to the gameplay. So these elements should be added or changed :

  1. Keep the feature of stop regenerating shields while running, is a very good counter balance to sprint.
  2. Sprint should not be unlimited, it must have bar in the HUD showing you how long can you run in the same way as Halo Reach does.
  3. The time to reach terminal velocity should be increased at 2, 2.5 or 3 seconds. I know that if you are being hit by projectiles while trying to reach the terminal velocity you cannot sprint. So increasing this time gap, should balance sprint a little better, avoiding the whole “cat and mouse” game.
  4. If the player is running and is hit continuously by a bullet, the sprint speed should decrease by a half or less than a half, like in Gears Of War 3 when your sprint speed decreases while being hit by an automatic weapon, I think it is called stopping power.
  5. Given the option to deactivate sprint in custom games and certain playlists (going to speak about this later).

• Base movement speed: the base movement speed in Halo 5 beta was slow if you compare it with other Halo games. This causes that strafing became less effective and is easier to land headshots. Increasing the base movement speed at 110% will benefit the overall game feeling, making strafing much more effective and increasing the skill gap.

• Thrusters: I like thrusters, they give some offensive and defensive ways to outperform an opponent and they exist since Halo Reach (evade) and Halo 4 XD. In my opinion thrusters need some little balance, they should have a 5 or 6 seconds cool down and the distance covered by them should be a little bit smaller. Also if we could have the ability to shoot while using the thruster pack could improve the way how they could be more used in an offensive way.

• Slide: currently I don’t have problems with it.

• Ground pound: I like ground pound, currently is difficult to do effectively, so I don’t have problems with it, but it should be remapped in the “UP” button located in the D-PAD, because it interferes with the crouch jumps and Gandhi hopping.

• Clamber: with clamber, the map flow increases a lot making some jumps easier and it is the “spiritual successor” of crouch jump. In my opinion clamber has to be more difficult to connect, making that the player should press the clamber button in the exact time while reaching another structure and not giving too much time tolerance to do it.

2

Shooting and aiming mechanics

I like some changes that 343i made in this part of the game, like the use of stabilizers and the balance of certain weapons like the light rifle, hydra, rocket launcher , DMR, and magnum, but in general weapons need slower kill times due to the tactical play that Halo always has, also smart scope need some tweaking.

• Smart scope: in my opinion, I preferred the old zoom system, because smart scope( the ADS look) takes this Halo feeling that most shooters don’t have these days, but I have to agree that it looks cool and don´t affect accuracy ( in most guns) and player movement. I think that 343i should give us the option to use the old zoom system and keep out smart scope of automatic weapons, or tweak the smart scope part if it going to be in the automatic weapons .Also I noticed that if you held the left trigger to use smart scope in the default control scheme, it gives you some unfair advantage over people who use more “classic” control schemes. The problem is that it instantaneously reescope you back with the default scheme, while if you are using “the classic schemes” you have to push the right stick manually to reescope you again. The solution is eliminate the default scheme and put recon as default (for me is the most comfortable scheme), and this problem will be eliminated.

• Auto aim, bullet magnetism and hit boxes

Auto aim is a much controverted feature in the console shooters, but it is very necessary to implement, because there is a necessity to compensate the lack of precision that gamepads have, but its implementation need to be well done. Fortunately the Auto Aim in Halo 5 is pretty low (comparable with CE levels) and currently you have to aim well to get a kill, but the bullet magnetism in the beta was quite excessive. The bullet magnetism is a feature that is present in most console shooters and in this game compensates the low auto aim levels, but the problem is that its high levels in Halo 5 create that random bullets which was placed outside the target, would be registered and count as a kill, if the target didn’t have shields. Tweaking both features will increase the skill gap and my proposals to solve this problem are:

  1. Up a little the auto aim or place it near the Halo 3 levels and decrease a lot the bullet magnetism (almost zero). The hit boxes should be much smaller, especially the head.
  2. Up the auto aim at Halo 2 levels and eliminate the bullet magnetism in the game. The hit boxes should be smaller, especially the head.
    Making the hit boxes smaller, will force the player to improve his/her accuracy, increasing the overall skill gap.

• Weapons balance

  1. The assault rifle is now a viable weapon in its current niche, and like this because the game don’t depends of one gun, but I think that smart scope shouldn’t give the accuracy boost that it provides for this gun. The spread of the assault rifle should stay the same while using or not using smart scope, also its kill time should stay the same as the Halo 4 AR and it shouldn’t has headshot capabilities.
  2. The SMG is a good CQC gun, I like its balance, but the same with AR, it shouldn’t give the accuracy boost while using smart scope, so the spread of the SMG should stay the same while using or not using smart scope, and also its kill time should be reduced a little.
  3. The BR is ok in its current form, but again its kill time should be slower. I think that the perfect kill time for the BR should be the Halo 2 or Halo 4 BR kill time.
  4. The DMR is good also, but its kill time should be near the Halo 4 DMR.
  5. Light rifle, I really liked the LR in the beta, don’t change anything about it, only change a little it’s kill time, making it a little bit slower to fairly compete with the other precision guns.
  6. Sword and Prophets bane, I don’t like that these weapons have zoom function because it felt unnatural, pressing the right stick to increase the lunge distance while sprinting .In my opinion both weapons shouldn’t have zoom and the lunge distance for both weapons should be like the Halo 4 sword (for the normal sword obviously) and the Halo 2 sword lunge distance for the Prophets bane.
  7. The rocket launcher and hydra kill capabilities are perfect to me, both are power weapons, but I preferred the old rocket launcher design which is a very iconic weapon in Halo because the new one looks generic in my opinion.
3

Ranking system

The ranking system in the beta had good ideas, but it needs some major tweaking to work well and retain the population. In my opinion there should be 2 types of ranking system, the one which counts CSR and is tied with the progressive ranks and the one which only counts the progressive ranks . If the ranking system of the beta is going to stay it needs to:

  1. Put emphasis in the individual KDA. The KDA will be very important, to get ranked in the next rank or get DE ranked, so reaching higher KDAs in each match, will influence the amount of points that you are going to obtain in the end of the match . To explain this more, you need to win a match to obtain points for you CSR bar level, but if you lose, you will lose points depending your KDA. Higher KDA, more points you are going to receive by winning matches and less lost points by losing matches. Lower KDA, less points you are going to receive by winning matches and much lost points by losing matches. For example:
    Winning matches
    -Ending with a KDA between 0- 0.5, you are going to obtain 3 points.
    -Ending with a KDA between 0.6-1, you are going to obtain 6 points.
    -Ending with a KDA between 1.1-1.5, you are going to obtain 9 points.
    -Ending with a KDA between 1.6 - 2, you are going to obtain 12 points.
    -Ending with a KDA between 2.1- 2.5, you are going to obtain 15 points.
    -Ending with a KDA between 2.6-3.0 , you are going to obtain 20 points.
    -Ending with a higher KDA of 3.1 you will obtain 25 points.

Losing matches
-Ending with a KDA between 0- 0.5, you are going to lose 20 points.
-Ending with a KDA between 0.6-1, you are going to lose 12 points .
-Ending with a KDA between 1.1-1.5, you are going to lose 9 points.
-Ending with a KDA between 1.6 - 2, you are going to lose 6 points.
-Ending with a KDA between 2.1- 2.5, you are going to lose 5 points.
-Ending with a KDA between 2.6-3.0 , you are going to lose 3 points.
-Ending with a higher KDA of 3.1 you will lose 2 points.

Progressive
The progressive part, will count KDA as well, but only for the winning part, if you lose , you don’t get penalized like CSR does. The progressive rank is the part that we need to obtain new armors, visors, etc. It should be like the Halo 3 progressive rank system which is based in the military ranks. The military ranks are far more interesting than the boring SR number rank.

4

Multiplayer playlists

Halo is game known by its variety of playlists, so giving the community what they want to play in matchmaking is the key to maintain the population numbers. Unfortunately Halo needs segregation to maintain everyone happy and that’s why games like Halo 3 and CoD were successful to retain their population by dividing the playlists in social and ranked. These are my proposals:
• Ranked

  1. Team classic:
    A) 4vs4
    b) BR, AR and frag grenade starts
    c) Small to medium size maps (could include forge maps)
    d) No sprint and no Spartan abilities: movement speed should be increased at 125%; the map could be modified just a little by using some forge pieces to accommodate the lack of sprint.
    e) Increase a little the jump distance to accommodate the lack of clamber and permit crouch jump.
    f) Radar is enabled.
    g) Includes slayer and objective game types like CTF, Assault, Oddball, etc.
    h) CSR and progressive rank are enabled.
    I) Disable location and weapon timers.
    j) 3 seconds spawn for slayer and 8 seconds for objective game types.

  2. Team slayer: 4vs4, BR, magnum and frag nade starts, small- medium maps, radar enabled, sprint, Spartan abilities, 3 seconds spawn, CSR and progressive rank are enabled, disable weapon timers.

  3. Lone wolfs: small maps, BR, magnum and frag nade starts,7 players, radar enabled, sprint, Spartan abilities , 3 second spawn, disable weapon timers ,CSR and progressive rank are enabled.

  4. Breakout: SMG, magnums and 1 frag nade starts, no spawning after being killed, 5 rounds, no radar, CSR and progressive rank are enabled.

  5. Team snipers: 4vs4, Sniper and frag grenade starts; no radar, sprint and Spartan abilities, small-medium size maps, CSR and progressive rank are enabled.

  6. Team hardcore: 4vs4, no call outs, no radar, BR and frag nade starts, small maps, disable location and weapon timers, sprint and Spartan abilities, 3 seconds spawn, CSR and progressive rank are enabled, includes: slayer, CTF and assault.

  7. Team objective: 5vs5, BR, magnum and frag nade starts, radar enabled, disable weapon timers, includes: CTF, headhunter, assault, territories and oddball, small to medium size maps, CSR and progressive rank are enabled.

• Social

  1. Social slayer: 5vs5, AR, magnum and frag nade starts, Spartan abilities, radar enabled, 3 seconds spawn, progressive rank enabled.
  2. Rumble pit: AR, magnum and frag nade starts, Spartan abilities, radar enabled, 3 seconds spawn, includes: juggernaut, head hunter and slayer game types, progressive rank enabled, 7 players.
  3. Living dead: 4vs4, radar enabled, custom player traits for zombies and humans, includes hivemind, infection, alpha zombies, etc., progressive rank enabled.
  4. Big team battle: 8vs8 or 12vs12, BR, AR and frag nade starts, radar enabled, DMR and LR as map pickups, includes: slayer, CTF, assault and territories, 3 second spawn, progressive rank enabled.
  5. Grift ball
  6. Multi team: 5 teams of 2, AR, magnum and frag nade starts, radar enabled, small-medium sized maps, sprint and Spartan abilities are enabled, includes: slayer, odd ball, rocket race and head hunter.
5

Miscellaneous
Things like the kill cams or the incapacity to go back to main menu while searching for players were pretty annoying for a lot of people. You should give us the option to deactivate kill cams in social playlists and keep them out of ranked playlists, because they can damage the gameplay by revealing the player location. The incapacity to go back to main menu should be fixed and the player must return to main menu if he wants.

This was all my feedback, so feel free to give opinions about it. Sorry if I committed some grammar and orthography mistakes, the English is not my native language, I tried my best to wrote this.

6

I agree with about 95% of what you said. But I want SWAT as a default playlist at launch in addition to your list. Don’t care if it’s ranked or social but ranked is probably better.

The 5% I disagree with is the ranking system. I don’t like the idea of personal performance counting toward ranking in team playlists. I believe in TEAM slayer, not MVP slayer. No one who deserves to hit max rank isn’t going to get it either way. Finding teammates is easy.

7

> 2533274913936758;6:
> I agree with about 95% of what you said. But I want SWAT as a default playlist at launch in addition to your list. Don’t care if it’s ranked or social but ranked is probably better.
>
> The 5% I disagree with is the ranking system. I don’t like the idea of personal performance counting toward ranking in team playlists. I believe in TEAM slayer, not MVP slayer. No one who deserves to hit max rank isn’t going to get it either way. Finding teammates is easy.

Yeah I forgot to put swat, thanks for remind me :), I think it should be in ranked.

8

Just remove sprint, scale down the maps and for BTB put mongooses in certain areas and man cannons and teleporters so people dont complain about how far they have to walk/run to the action.