For some players Big Team Battle is what defines Halo multiplayer, not the 4v4 arena playlists but the best of what is on offer from the weapon and vehicle sandbox on large scale maps.
Unfortunately 343i don’t seem to comprehend this and continue to make questionable choices where this playlist is concerned. While Halo 4 had BTB the maps on offer were poor to say the least, when Halo 5 launched BTB was excluded altogether in favour of the Pay 2 Win playlist Warzone. Now we have Halo Infinite and once again 343i have had their grubby little finger all over it and as it stands it’s a husk of a game that quite honestly has the potential to be truly something special.
So first off the maps, only three to choose from and they are not good maps for all out warfare, they have been designed as large scale arena maps with certain specific routes vehicles can take. When compared to classic maps like Coagulation, Valhalla, Sandtrap, Highlands, Containment, Avalanche, etc the current maps feel constrained and claustrophobic favouring infantry over vehicles instead of combining both.
Secondly, the power weapons don’t feel powerful. The only weapon that feels like a vehicle killer is the skewer, the rocket launcher feels so underpowered not only against vehicles but infantry as well it’s almost pointless. If it’s not the power weapon it once was it should have a lock on ability to counter it’s weak damage output.
Thirdly, vehicles. BTB thrives on the insanity of both infantry and vehicular combat from the off. The idea for bringing in the heavy vehicles near the end of the game is pointless and in quite a few games they don’t get delivered before the game has ended. Having equal vehicle starts is part of the BTB magic, a good player in a heavy vehicle can swing the course of a game.
Lastly, game modes. While CTF and Slayer are staples of BTB the new modes of stockpile and total control are lacking in fun. What ever happened to Assault, Territories and asymmetrical game types?
Overall I personally would prefer a return to the older style of BTB gameplay, it was a lot more fun and chaotic.
Definitely agree that the maps we have so far are too restrained. I’m not against having them in there, but I’d like some maps designed with vehicle freedom in mind too.
I personally really enjoy the chaotic nature of BTB heavies but I don’t see that mode working on the maps we have now. Even if you gave each team a scorpion, wraith, and a few warthogs, there’s just not enough space for them all to maneuver. It would quickly turn into a traffic jam, as opposed to something like Avalanche or Blood Gulch where they can all drive around one another.
This a thousand times. Infinite BtB is fun, but it isn’t Big Team Battle.
Give me those classic CE, 2 and 3 BtB maps, icy fields, desert uplands, rolling hills, and at either end, solid landmark bases with main Gate’s that open, teleporters that… Uh… Teleport, and a plethora of vehicles and the room to use them.
They have definitely made some bad changes to BTB. I agree with most of what you said. However, I think most of the weapons are overpowered against most of the vehicles. Obviously there are exceptions.
The ghost and wasp seem the most balanced vehicles in the game. The Scorpion and wraith are okay but making it so you have to be able to board them multiple times to destroy them doesn’t make sense.
The warthog and rockethog just get destroyed way too fast, even by AR fire, plus they are way to light and bouncy… and they still haven’t fixed collision.
The sniper is way too powerful against vehicles.
Your point about the maps is spot on. They are way too cramped and seem like they are just trying to make a 12v12 arena battle, which is not what BTB should be. Hopefully more open maps, like H3 Avalanche are being made.
I don’t mind the BTB now as a separate mode of BTB but not as a full on replacement of classic BTB. When they first said they we’re going to drop vehicles off by pelicans I thought they meant all the vehicles at the start of the game when they respawn have the animation being dropped off by a pelican, not what we have now.
What they could do after they add more maps that work with it like Sandtrap, Blood Gulch, Spire, etc, is have two separate playlists one named “Classic BTB” which is obviously what we’ve had before, and they could rename the current version to something else like “Requisition BTB” or something like that. The older maps being remade can obviously work for Classic BTB but they could work it that the new version works on them as well, but as a separate mode.
Not gonna lie vehicle drops on Sandtrap actually sounds like it would be really cool idea as long as we have enough vehicles to start with rather than just one warthog and a mongoose on each side. Even just having the vehicles respawn normally with a sped up drop off animation of the pelican I think would be cool/better.
Stockpile is by far the worst mode in this game in my opinion. The seeds all spawning together in a big pile means if one team is close by and the other is spread out its a no contest. They should spawn all over the map and make stealing faster so its an actual strategic move as opposed to a brief annoyance.
Completely agree on everything you say. These maps suck and Tanks should require melee before the grenade (like in H2) instead of multiple boardings.
BTB CTF kinda sucks. WHY? In CTF I really hate the RANDOM CTF Flags position. Who in the hell in 343i thought that was a good idea? That is not the Traditional way to play CTF in Halo!
As soon as we get FORGE that will be one of the first things to do is “REMOVE” the random flag positions in CTF. I will also remove “ALL” the spawn areas and put them in the Traditional way they have been in the past! Looks like I will have alot of work to do when we get Forge so I can make the maps in the Traditional way Halo has always have been played!
My setup
This is just a general way I setup my maps. This is “NOT” writ’n in stone! But it will you guys a general idea I set up my maps on each team. Plenty of weapons and vehicles. Look on top left of picture to see what goes where.
Linky:
https://ibb.co/0YfZ0WM
The reality is that Bungie used to design their games around BTB first, and arena second. Vehicles were a major aspect of their design. This hurt comp play slightly, but Bungie leaned on their community for that. That’s why the MLG modes in the OG trilogy and Reach different so much from the vanilla experience.
343i did the exact opposite for Halo 5 and Infinite and simultaneously removed massive amount of custom game customization. Core game modes just are not in the game, and something like Fiesta, that used to be a toggle in a menu, needs to be deliberately made by the devs and cannot be made by the community.
What 343i fails to understand about Halo is that it was a community driven series before they took over. Competitive play was not a pillar of any of the original Halo games, but the community made them popular and Bungie gave them the tools to make it possible. 343i can’t even put the basics into their games.
I couldn’t agree more, I’ve always felt that 343i have placed too much focus on the pro play of the game that they forgot to add the fun and craziness that the Bungie games were respected for.
I honestly believe that the focus on HCS and ultra competitive play is doing more damage to the multiplayer side of things. Who builds a multiplayer experience around the smallest group of players and only focuses on what they want.
Agree totally with OP. BTB is lacking something, it doesn’t have the feeling that always made me smile, cry, laugh, sweat, rage. There is no mayhem, no chaos. This has a lot to do with maps, the movement, the open space and the game modes. I feel that there should be better loadouts. I don’t even play Infinite BTB which for me is unusual. With each Halo release we should be taking what works and improving on that, for me the whole of Infinite is a big step backwards.
As far as I’m concerned Bungie never built their games with pro play in mind. I mean it barely existed back then. Instead, players took what was in the game and made it competitive themselves.
Also 343 as too much of a focus on spartans and not enough of vehicles. Just look at the maps. All of them only give narrow lanes for hogs. Tanks can’t even turn around. Contrast that with earlier halos (especially CE and 3), many of those maps had wide fields for tank to get some distance from the “spartan only areas”. What this meant was that it was hard to even approach a tank without another vehicle, but Infinite only needs players to walk 3 steps to board a tank.
I don’t understand where 343i went wrong! 