I think they could have done some base trait changes like:
- Faster strafe acceleration
- Dexterity standard
- Mobility standard
- Perhaps a throwback to BXR (controversial I know) but in the manual and designed on purpose. Perhaps 3 different simple buttons combos that are akin to rock, paper & scissors. This would help fight double melee + sprint but still allow single melee on low bleed through shields to be effective.
To me whenever I use strafe when I’m a shot down and win a DMR/BR 1v1, use dexterity for fast weapon switching or mobility for unlimited sprint I feel more Spartan-book like. Sure you can never be the exact Spartan in books but they can introduce the gameplay speed and efficiency of Spartans more.
343i you wanted to make bigger maps, you wanted to get players back into the action faster and make them feel like a Spartan/tank? Update the base traits as I listed and all of a sudden your game plays fast, solo players can tackle multiple enemies, can unlimited sprint to get across your huge -Yoink- maps and can tackle double melee as well as bring some mechanics to melee encounters which have always been a sore point for online latency gameplay or iterative changes.
Regarding the customisation you could simply then layer AA’s, tactical & support around varying levels or speeds of these new base traits. This would be for some playlists and disabled for more classic playlists. To me that would have given the series that faster more visceral feel while enabling the latest FPS features and also updating the core mechanics for the classic and infinity playlists simultaneously.