Just wanted to leave some feedback on the planned challenge only progression at launch and lack of post match XP as I think a system where you can only progress by completing randomized daily/weekly challenges is more restrictive compared to a system where you get XP for all types of content you participate in. (think Destiny or Sea of Thieves)
Challenges should be there to drive engagement/gameplay for people who want to complete the passes or level up faster and to encourage people to venture into modes they normally wouldn’t to help spread out the population and get people to try new things. While I think the challenge system in Infinite is looking promising it could feel punishing to people who want to complete the battle pass at their own pace playing their preferred game types if it isn’t balanced properly. Let’s say someone does not want to replay a campaign mission for one small challenge, or grind 200+enemies in the campaign or even play a game mode like Infection they are going to miss out on Season Pass experience that they can’t make up for elsewhere. For free to play players will there be enough Arena only challenges to finish the battle pass ? I really hope it is balanced enough where f2p players without access to campaign challenges aren’t required to spend extra to finish the pass on top of their 10?$ purchase to access the battle pass before the next seasons releases. Yes, I’m aware battle passes don’t expire but that also can create situations where players just keep falling farther behind creating a different type of FOMO.
Let’s compare this system to Reach’s, Campaign, Multiplayer and Firefight. They all gave experience points in the form of credits that increased your Spartan Rank and you could use to buy customization items regardless of what type of content you partook in(even if the campaign dropped hardly any) and there were challenges for all 3 types of content to boost your progress. In my opinion that’s a much more engaging and player friendly system that doesn’t grind your progress to a stop just because you want to play a certain way. This system certainly had it’s problems but you were always progressing.
If 343 could pull off a more balanced version of Reach’s system I think most of the community could get behind that, a Globalized rank that sticks with you season after season like Halo 5’s 1-152 that offers its own set of rewards and the optional seasonal battle pass that players can level with EXP and challenges together.
Anyway this is just me nitpicking, I’m really excited about the game, almost everything looks great and I can’t wait to hop in December 8th. Keep up the good work!