Damage Types Discussion

Games Halo Infinite
#1

One of the things that has really caught my interest, in what I have seen of Halo Infinite so far, is an apparent new approach and focus 343 is applying to Halo’s weapon sandbox. In the latest Inside Infinite blog update a juicy little insight was revealed into part of this process. In the post they spoke of damage types. And defining clear, distinct differences in the traits and utility of these different damage types. I’m quite encouraged by this news… But I do have some opinions and reservations. So let’s delve in… Shall we?

I know of 2 damage types that have been confirmed so far in Halo infinite, Kinetic and Plasma. There of course will be more. It is interesting to speculate what the others will be… Maybe Blamite, maybe a standard explosive one for things like rockets and grenades, Radioactive/ Fulerod, Electric… like the electric grenade in the gameplay trailer, incendiary, spike… who knows… and they will all have their different traits and uses. This is good stuff.

In Halo CE plasma behaved differently to standard ballistics. Plasma did extra damage when verses shields, which meant it was useful when facing shielded enemies such as Elites or Sentinels. Plasma projectiles also moved slower than bullets, The projectiles were chunkier (correct me if I’m wrong), and Plasma weapons didn’t require reloading; instead they utilised an overheating mechanic. The Halo CE Plasma Rifle also had a unique trait that was lost in later games, Plasma Stun. Basically, for those not familiar, being hit by a plasma rifle bolt would inflict a movement and look sensitivity penalty to players, and to AI: they would flinch when unshielded. Meaning it was possible to stun lock them; giving the plasma Rifle another unique utility. It was a tool, not just a damage dealer… A tool of destruction, so to speak. This style of sandbox design I wish was something that carried over more into later games.

In Halo we have had our fair share of uninspired Alien weapons. Weapons that merely adopt an Covenant/ Brutish/ Forerunner aesthetic as an overlay atop a gun that could easily just be UNSC or are very similar in function to weapons that already exist. The First major culprit of this in a Halo game that comes to mind of this is the Covenant Carbine. Other big offenders include the majority of Brute weapons and the entire Promethean arsenal in Halo 4… but I’ll focus on the Carbine. In the lore the carbine fires a radioactive projectile, made from an extremely toxic compound, mined from a radioactive moon within the Sangheili star system. The same compound used in Fuelrod Cannon ammunition. The round is accelerated to speeds up to mac 5. Upon impact the round imparts a significant kinetic force, inflicts radiation burns and the toxic compound can enter a victims blood stream resulting in radiation poisoning… In game it fires green bullets… That’s it. All this lore is just flavour text and visuals. There is nothing mechanically that would separate it from, for example, a hypothetical UNSC semi automatic marksman carbine.

Imagine if instead all radioactive damage type projectiles shared a unique property: Radiation. A damaging effect, that remains after the projectile has impacted. For a fuelrod cannon it could radiate the earth that it hits, creating a damaging area of denial, that lasts for a short time. For the Carbine, an unshielded hit could burn. Temporarily delaying shields from recharging. I am intrigued what 343 will do with this. I wonder if Plasma grenade explosions now do more damage to shields. Do all kinetic projectiles now ricochet and do bonus head-shot damage… hmm. 343 also mentioned that, the now interact-able, plasma batteries and fusion coils will have different traits. Which could be evidenced by a plasma battery, thrown by the player, disabling a shade turrets shields, in the gameplay reveal.

With all that being said, I don’t think a focus on damage types alone will yield the most diverse and interesting Sandbox possible. After all I think the Energy Sword being the covenant CQB equivalent to the UNSC’s Shotgun much more interesting than having a plasma Shotgun… As cool as a Plasma Shot may sound. There is a danger of the sandbox becoming formulaic, there being a bit too much overlap and redundancies in weapon functions, just mismatching weapon types and damage types. It’s no replacement for creativity. But I think it could play a part in creating a pretty awesome sandbox.

What do you guys think? Do you think Plasma stun will Return? What traits do you think these damage types will have?

#2

I agree, your point about it potentially stifling creativity rather than encouraging it is valid. I do hope they get it right, and it doesn’t end up making the sandbox just feel like “same gun with a different sound effect”.

For what I’d like to see… I think I’d like to see these damage types being incorporated into the combat “puzzle”, where you have to think of how to use different tools at your disposal to take down the enemies.

I would also like to see it incorporated into the environment, with fire having an effect on foliage perhaps and other things like that.

An interesting concept could be damage types reacting together to form new effects. What if a plasma attack can combine with a firebomb to increase damage or create a blinding flash?

In short, I want it to be deep and interesting, and crucially it has to be well integrated into the core gameplay, and not simply feel bolted on.

#3

Wow, that was a great post, BanoffeeBot! I was thinking about making a topic about this very issue, but I didn’t have anything as in-depth as your comments were.

Here’s some speculation on how the different damage types could work in order to feel unique. To make it clear, shields obviously refer to energy shields, armor refers to Spartan, Banished and Promethean armor as well as vehicles and flesh refers to unprotected skin (doesn’t affect other Spartans in PvP, only enemies in the campaign).

Kinetic: moderate damage to shields, armor and flesh. That would be the baseline damage type, with no major strengths and no major weaknesses.
Plasma: high damage to shields, low damage to armor, moderate damage to flesh. In PvP, where all players have shields+armor plasma is completely balanced with kinetic, stripping shields faster, but chipping health slower. In PvE, both plasma and kinetic are equally effective against flesh.
Hardlight: low damage to shields but part of it chips health away, moderate damage to armor, high damage to flesh. In the original trilogy, hardlight was supereffective against the Flood, this is why I’d design it to be the best kind of damage for unprotected foes. In order to make hardlight feel unique and dangerous in its own way, I’d make it do low damage to shields, but for every shot that the shield absorves, you take a little damage directly to your health pool, so that by the time your shields are completelly down you’ve already lost some health and the next shots will hurt even more.

Take note that we can’t have Plasma as high/low and Hardlight as low/high against shields and armor respectively, otherwise Kinetic weapons would be disfavored on the meta, it would be smart to combine a Banished weapon with a Promethean one to do high/high damage.

#4

I hope they do things like…

Shock rounds - Emits electrical shock after impact, delaying shield recharge by and extra 0.5s compared to kinetic rounds.

Napalm rounds - Bullets burn after impact, delaying health bar recharge by an extra 0.5s compared to kinetic rounds.

High frequency tech rounds - Bullets emit a high frequency transmission after impact, interfering with armor audio and radar systems for 0.5s after impact

Edit: To be clear, I wouldn’t want this in 4v4 arena. Unless particular weapons/ traits are in that tier of weapons that are map pickups, but not power weapons. This would be Warzone/ firefight only (maybe limited in BtB)

#5

I believe that the January update mentioned that Fusion Coils will have their own damage type as well. And then I see aliens getting electrocuted, and I hear word of different equipment like a “physics-based equipment” that can “send your enemies flying”, and I hear that all weapons will have their own roles in gameplay. Then I think of damage types beyond kinetic, plasma, and hardlight… like flames, and radiation, electrocution, and who knows what… plus weapon modifications and the mysterious new vehicles added to the sandbox…

I’m a simple man. The more ways I can kill a brute, beyond headshots and melee, the more I play.

#6

> 2614366390849210;4:
> I hope they do things like…
>
> Shock rounds - Emits electrical shock after impact, delaying shield recharge by and extra 0.5s compared to kinetic rounds.
>
> Napalm rounds - Bullets burn after impact, delaying health bar recharge by an extra 0.5s compared to kinetic rounds.
>
> High frequency tech rounds - Bullets emit a high frequency transmission after impact, interfering with armor audio and radar systems for 0.5s after impact
>
> Edit: To be clear, I wouldn’t want this in 4v4 arena. Unless particular weapons/ traits are in that tier of weapons that are map pickups, but not power weapons. This would be Warzone/ firefight only (maybe limited in BtB)

Wait, so you are advocating for different ammo types that could be used for the same weapon?

#7

> 2533274866989456;6:
> > 2614366390849210;4:
> > I hope they do things like…
> >
> > Shock rounds - Emits electrical shock after impact, delaying shield recharge by and extra 0.5s compared to kinetic rounds.
> >
> > Napalm rounds - Bullets burn after impact, delaying health bar recharge by an extra 0.5s compared to kinetic rounds.
> >
> > High frequency tech rounds - Bullets emit a high frequency transmission after impact, interfering with armor audio and radar systems for 0.5s after impact
> >
> > Edit: To be clear, I wouldn’t want this in 4v4 arena. Unless particular weapons/ traits are in that tier of weapons that are map pickups, but not power weapons. This would be Warzone/ firefight only (maybe limited in BtB)
>
> Wait, so you are advocating for different ammo types that could be used for the same weapon?

Yep. And you could apply the concept to plasma/ hardlight projectiles too. Lingering plasma, hardlight that fractures into multiple projectiles, etc.

I don’t want there to be like 30 ammo types, because there would be a ton of redundancy. But if you could have a small variety of effects for each weapon family that all do different things, it could add a huge layer of strategy into PvE modes, and possibly BtB 2.0 if it would be appropriate with that meta.

And the default/ baseline ammo type would basically be what we’ve always known (plasma does bonus damage to shields, hardlight has a tracking component, bullets do heavy damage to health).

#8

> 2614366390849210;7:
> > 2533274866989456;6:
> > > 2614366390849210;4:
> > >
> >
> > Wait, so you are advocating for different ammo types that could be used for the same weapon?
>
> Yep. And you could apply the concept to plasma/ hardlight projectiles too. Lingering plasma, hardlight that fractures into multiple projectiles, etc.
>
> I don’t want there to be like 30 ammo types, because there would be a ton of redundancy. But if you could have a small variety of effects for each weapon family that all do different things, it could add a huge layer of strategy into PvE modes, and possibly BtB 2.0 if it would be appropriate with that meta.
>
> And the default/ baseline ammo type would basically be what we’ve always known (plasma does bonus damage to shields, hardlight has a tracking component, bullets do heavy damage to health).

Interesting. It could definitely add a lot, but I would be worried that it would overcomplicate the game. I completely agree that if something like this were to come about, the competitive arena is not the place for it.

#9

> 2533274905076150;2:
> I agree, your point about it potentially stifling creativity rather than encouraging it is valid. I do hope they get it right, and it doesn’t end up making the sandbox just feel like “same gun with a different sound effect”.
>
> For what I’d like to see… I think I’d like to see these damage types being incorporated into the combat “puzzle”, where you have to think of how to use different tools at your disposal to take down the enemies.
>
> I would also like to see it incorporated into the environment, with fire having an effect on foliage perhaps and other things like that.
>
> An interesting concept could be damage types reacting together to form new effects. What if a plasma attack can combine with a firebomb to increase damage or create a blinding flash?
>
> In short, I want it to be deep and interesting, and crucially it has to be well integrated into the core gameplay, and not simply feel bolted on.

If Halo Infinite had flammable foliage, I think I would have a nerdgasm. Having damage type elements interact with each other is an interesting idea. I think a game that does element interaction really well is Spellbreak. Somethings like that, I think, could work quite well in Halo. Maybe a little dialed back. Imagine hitting a flame with a gravity hammer to create a fire wave. Or Curving a bullet around a void grenade and hitting a target. Even Shooting a rocket mid flight so it detonates in the air is technically an interaction between kinetic and explosive, I think little things like this can make the difference between a game being good, and a game being great.

> 2533274938827434;3:
> Wow, that was a great post, BanoffeeBot! I was thinking about making a topic about this very issue, but I didn’t have anything as in-depth as your comments were.
>
> Here’s some speculation on how the different damage types could work in order to feel unique. To make it clear, shields obviously refer to energy shields, armor refers to Spartan, Banished and Promethean armor as well as vehicles and flesh refers to unprotected skin (doesn’t affect other Spartans in PvP, only enemies in the campaign).
>
> Kinetic: moderate damage to shields, armor and flesh. That would be the baseline damage type, with no major strengths and no major weaknesses.
> Plasma: high damage to shields, low damage to armor, moderate damage to flesh. In PvP, where all players have shields+armor plasma is completely balanced with kinetic, stripping shields faster, but chipping health slower. In PvE, both plasma and kinetic are equally effective against flesh.
> Hardlight: low damage to shields but part of it chips health away, moderate damage to armor, high damage to flesh. In the original trilogy, hardlight was supereffective against the Flood, this is why I’d design it to be the best kind of damage for unprotected foes. In order to make hardlight feel unique and dangerous in its own way, I’d make it do low damage to shields, but for every shot that the shield absorves, you take a little damage directly to your health pool, so that by the time your shields are completelly down you’ve already lost some health and the next shots will hurt even more.
>
> Take note that we can’t have Plasma as high/low and Hardlight as low/high against shields and armor respectively, otherwise Kinetic weapons would be disfavored on the meta, it would be smart to combine a Banished weapon with a Promethean one to do high/high damage.

I think dividing damage resistance into shields, armour and health and having certain damage types being more or less effective against each is definitely an interesting option. Maybe under the hud a Spartans health bar could be 50/50 Health/ Armour, meaning weapons that do bonus damage to armour will receive a 50% damage bonus versus a Spartans Health. Just it wont be as big of a bonus as versus a 100% Armoured Target, like a vehicle for example.

But in addition to just damage modifiers I am hoping for additional layers of utility. Like weapons that are effective versus vehicles, simply because they are good at flipping vehicles. Or a weapon that is good against camouflaged enemies because one hit will cause the camouflaged target to flare, allowing auto aim to work. Or maybe weapons that are particularly good at damaging destructible environment pieces. Stuff that gets you thinking: ‘what is the right tool for the job?’.

#10

Something I haven’t really seen talked about much is that there have technically been 4 different damage types in Halo.

  • Kinetic - Plasma - Explosive - Precision/HeadshotWhen you sit down and think about it, precision weapons have their own unique damage model. Against shields they almost always function like kinetic rounds but are one-hit-kills on unshielded heads. Even something like the Beam Rifle only loosely adheres to plasma’s damage type. It’s mostly a reskinned sniper but with an overheating mechanic in place of reloading. I’m not saying that’s a good or a bad thing, but I’m surprised people haven’t talked about it given how precision weapons are by far the most dominant weapons in Halo’s sandbox and near single-handedly shape the meta of each game.

I don’t know if 343 plan on changing that model or expanding on it, but it does make me wonder what kind of interactions different damage types could have when impacting specific parts of the body, shielded or unshielded. Would certain damage types maybe have headshot multipliers? Could certain types slow players down when they make contact with their feet? Again, not sure if this is something 343 would find meaningful to add to weapons or equipment, but I think it’s worth discussing.

#11

> 2533274867274934;10:
> Something I haven’t really seen talked about much is that there have technically been 4 different damage types in Halo.
> - Kinetic - Plasma - Explosive - Precision/HeadshotWhen you sit down and think about it, precision weapons have their own unique damage model. Against shields they almost always function like kinetic rounds but are one-hit-kills on unshielded heads. Even something like the Beam Rifle only loosely adheres to plasma’s damage type. It’s mostly a reskinned sniper but with an overheating mechanic in place of reloading. I’m not saying that’s a good or a bad thing, but I’m surprised people haven’t talked about it given how precision weapons are by far the most dominant weapons in Halo’s sandbox and near single-handedly shape the meta of each game.
>
> I don’t know if 343 plan on changing that model or expanding on it, but it does make me wonder what kind of interactions different damage types could have when impacting specific parts of the body, shielded or unshielded. Would certain damage types maybe have headshot multipliers? Could certain types slow players down when they make contact with their feet? Again, not sure if this is something 343 would find meaningful to add to weapons or equipment, but I think it’s worth discussing.

That is an excellent point. Will Small arms fire be treated differently to precision bullets in Halo Infinite? I think the answer is NO. Take a look at this. Watching in slow motion I counted 14 AR body shots to take down the first grunt and only 2 shots to take down the second. The second shot being a headshot. Which implies to me all kinetic weapons will be headshot capable. I didn’t notice this the first time watching. That said, I also noticed grunts with helmets could survive an AR headshot but not a pistol headshot… so maybe a headshot multiplier, not instant kill, versus armoured targets? Kinetic weapons seem to also be good at faltering/ stunning unshielded enemies and stripping Armour pieces. I suspect that may play into the combat puzzle. I would guess the AR in Infinite would be categorised as: Assault Rifle - Kinetic - Automatic, and a pecision weapon such as the BR as: Tactical Rifle - Kinetic - Burst.

In the Spirit of damage types, I think a Beam Rifle weapon wouldn’t behave as it did in previous Halos, if included. Shoot a jackal’s shield with a Beam Rifle in Previous Halos and it would harmlessly ricochet off, just like a UNSC Sniper Bullet. Shoot it with a Beam Rifle with the Plasma damage type: it should deplete the shield and not ricochet.

#12

I will say this. AC5 and VD added in ammo types. It made the multiplayer very one sided. Limited which weapons where good and which mech parts.
Anywho this will get taken down cuz I cant talk about other games. BUT I’ll saw this 343i should look at why AC5 and VD brought that series to a standstill. I believe part of that is because the ammo types were a huge change for the series. I don’t want to see the player base for halo drop because of something similar.
I don’t think ammo types should be a huge part of multiplayer. Custom games sure, go for it. But multiplayer needs to fair

#13

I feel that if there is troop transport vehicles, they shouldnt get one shotted by anti vehicular weapons. that would kill the purpose of them entirely. im not saying nerf splaser and rocket launchers, but make TT vehicles have more health

#14

You’re wrong. The Covenant Carbine actually has a much higher rate of fire than the UNSC BR or DMR.

As for the Promethean weapons in Halo 4, while they all have an equivalent in the other factions’ arsenals, to say they operate exactly the same is unfair. The Scattershot, for instance, fires rebounding projectiles that will bounce off a surface. The Light Rifle actually does more damage zoomed in, and the Suppressor is a short range assault rifle - people complain about that weapon’s damage being inconsistent in Halo 4, saying sometimes it does massive damage, others barely any at all. People don’t realize it’s a short-range weapon, it does far more damage up close than the UNSC AR but far less after a certain distance.

Another aspect of the Promethean weapons in Halo 4 that goes over a lot of people’s heads is that they’re all optimized for fighting the Flood.The Promethean grenades for instance, create an energy sphere that does damage over time and lasts for several seconds. Not particularly useful against an intelligent enemy - just step outside of the energy field as soon as it appears. What it is useful for is temporarily blocking doorways and boxing people in - quite useful when being charged at by mindless running zombies in tight corridors.
The Scattershot’s rebounding ammo would be very effective when fighting a horde of Flood charging at you in a tight space - any rounds that miss will ricochet into other Flood near your target. Imagine having the Scattershot in the mission 343 Guilty Spark or The Library in Halo: CE?
This is also why enemies killed with Promethean weapons disintegrate - ensuring no biological matter can escape.
Now, you could argue it’s somewhat of a bone-head move to debut a set of weapons specially designed for Flood combat in a game that the Flood don’t appear in, but it makes perfect sense when story-wise, since the Prometheans were built for the purpose of fighting the Flood. If the Flood ever do return to the series (and given the history of Zeta Halo, they very well might be) I want to see this expanded upon, with Promethean weapons being the best weapons to fight the Flood.

I do agree overall, though, that I would like to see the Halo weapons’ features from the novels appear properly in-game, and I do approve of the concept of damage types.

One of my biggest problems with the Halo franchise is that there’s no consistency between any of the titles: in Halo: CE the Magnum does massive damage to Hunters if you get them in the back, but in every other game it does low damage to Hunters. In Halo 2, plasma weapons were almost useless against the Flood - in Halo 3 they’re the most effective weapons against the Flood. The Shotgun changes its ammo capacity and reload speed from game to game. In some games you can charge the Plasma Pistol indefinitely, in others you use up ammo doing so. The amount of grenades you can carry is constantly changing. In some games the Rocket Launcher can lock-on to targets, in others it can’t. The list goes on and on.

People like to give 343i grief for changing too many core principles of Halo and not understanding the franchise, but the truth is Halo has always felt, to me, like each game had a totally different team of people deciding these details, and none of them paid much attention to them in the game preceding theirs. You don’t really see this in many other franchises. In Gears of War most of the weapons operate exactly the same from title to title. With the exception of the Hammerburst, they never went and overhauled the entire mechanics of a weapon for no reason. The only times a franchise usually does that is when the first game’s mechanics simply weren’t very good and they needed a drastic overhaul to make it a better experience (Mass Effect springs to mind). But with Halo… There’s never really anything wrong with Halo’s game mechanics. It’s like they just keep changing them for no reason at all.

That’s why I’m not that fussed about Halo Infinite having big changes to the game mechanics: Halo’s game mechanics have never been that consistent in the first place.

#15

> 2535409171473129;13:
> I feel that if there is troop transport vehicles, they shouldnt get one shotted by anti vehicular weapons. that would kill the purpose of them entirely. im not saying nerf splaser and rocket launchers, but make TT vehicles have more health

Agreed on that point. I don’t think there is any need for such ‘hard’ vehicle counters if the overall sandbox counter-play design is well done. I’d rather a few lightning weapons have emp effects or concussion damage type weapons that are good at flipping vehicles than have instant kill anti-vehicle weapons.

#16

> 2535406577143228;14:
> You’re wrong. The Covenant Carbine actually has a much higher rate of fire than the UNSC BR or DMR.
>
> As for the Promethean weapons in Halo 4, while they all have an equivalent in the other factions’ arsenals, to say they operate exactly the same is unfair. The Scattershot, for instance, fires rebounding projectiles that will bounce off a surface. The Light Rifle actually does more damage zoomed in, and the Suppressor is a short range assault rifle - people complain about that weapon’s damage being inconsistent in Halo 4, saying sometimes it does massive damage, others barely any at all. People don’t realize it’s a short-range weapon, it does far more damage up close than the UNSC AR but far less after a certain distance.
>
> Another aspect of the Promethean weapons in Halo 4 that goes over a lot of people’s heads is that they’re all optimized for fighting the Flood.The Promethean grenades for instance, create an energy sphere that does damage over time and lasts for several seconds. Not particularly useful against an intelligent enemy - just step outside of the energy field as soon as it appears. What it is useful for is temporarily blocking doorways and boxing people in - quite useful when being charged at by mindless running zombies in tight corridors.
> The Scattershot’s rebounding ammo would be very effective when fighting a horde of Flood charging at you in a tight space - any rounds that miss will ricochet into other Flood near your target. Imagine having the Scattershot in the mission 343 Guilty Spark or The Library in Halo: CE?
> This is also why enemies killed with Promethean weapons disintegrate - ensuring no biological matter can escape.
> Now, you could argue it’s somewhat of a bone-head move to debut a set of weapons specially designed for Flood combat in a game that the Flood don’t appear in, but it makes perfect sense when story-wise, since the Prometheans were built for the purpose of fighting the Flood. If the Flood ever do return to the series (and given the history of Zeta Halo, they very well might be) I want to see this expanded upon, with Promethean weapons being the best weapons to fight the Flood.
>
> I do agree overall, though, that I would like to see the Halo weapons’ features from the novels appear properly in-game, and I do approve of the concept of damage types.
>
> One of my biggest problems with the Halo franchise is that there’s no consistency between any of the titles: in Halo: CE the Magnum does massive damage to Hunters if you get them in the back, but in every other game it does low damage to Hunters. In Halo 2, plasma weapons were almost useless against the Flood - in Halo 3 they’re the most effective weapons against the Flood. The Shotgun changes its ammo capacity and reload speed from game to game. In some games you can charge the Plasma Pistol indefinitely, in others you use up ammo doing so. The amount of grenades you can carry is constantly changing. In some games the Rocket Launcher can lock-on to targets, in others it can’t. The list goes on and on.
>
> People like to give 343i grief for changing too many core principles of Halo and not understanding the franchise, but the truth is Halo has always felt, to me, like each game had a totally different team of people deciding these details, and none of them paid much attention to them in the game preceding theirs. You don’t really see this in many other franchises. In Gears of War most of the weapons operate exactly the same from title to title. With the exception of the Hammerburst, they never went and overhauled the entire mechanics of a weapon for no reason. The only times a franchise usually does that is when the first game’s mechanics simply weren’t very good and they needed a drastic overhaul to make it a better experience (Mass Effect springs to mind). But with Halo… There’s never really anything wrong with Halo’s game mechanics. It’s like they just keep changing them for no reason at all.
>
> That’s why I’m not that fussed about Halo Infinite having big changes to the game mechanics: Halo’s game mechanics have never been that consistent in the first place.

I would be wrong if I claimed the carbine behaved exactly the same as the BR or DMR, but I did not.

Instead I use a hypothetical gun that only exists in a parallel halo universe somewhere: The Carbine. Not the Covenant Carbine but a UNSC weapon. The carbine being a real world military weapon designation after all. It could have all the same stats of the covenant carbine, rate of fire, ammo capacity, damage, reload speed etc, only would have a UNSC aesthetic. It wouldn’t seem out of place in a UNSC armoury. I use this hypothetical to illustrate a point. I would rather alien weapons feel and behave a bit differently than their human counterparts… feel unique… feel alien.

I used the carbine as an example actually to avoid ragging on Halo 4 and it’s Promethean weapons. Since I’ve think it has received more than it’s fair share of critiques. I will concede Scattershot ricochet and the light rifle duel firing modes is something. Not much but something. From what I have heard in the initial conceptual stages of Halo 4’s development 343 did experiment with some more ‘out there’ weapon ideas. Such as a Stasis Rifle and actually a grapple weapon. But apparently in play testing they weren’t well received. They weren’t intuitive, or user friendly, or what ever the reasons. The Promethean weapons that resulted from what ever the behind the scenes process was, I would say were too ‘safe’. Hyper conservative. There is a balance to be struck between unique and unitive to be sure. I think the Halo CE plasma rifle is an excellent example of doing it right. Not so much the Promethean weapons.

Promethean weapons are designed to fight the flood… so I am told. There isn’t really much in game to support that claim. It’s really only flavour text. Some of the weapons have a disintegration death animation. Disintegration would be useful against the flood… but that is just a visual. I thought the pulse grenade was a cool concept. Oh to my disappointment when I found out they were not actually that good at area of denial. You can just run straight though the field barely taking any damage. Only the pulse at the start and end are a threat.

Now let’s revisit the concepts of Promethean weapons, applying a hard light damage type. So the Scattershot ricochets… ok so Hard light ricochets… let’s apply that to other Promethean weapons. It’s effective again the flood… ok so hard Light does extra damage to flesh. An anti biological damage type. Making it super effective again unshielded, unarmoured targets. The Flood could be immune to headshot damage, making hard light the damage type of choice to take down an unshieded flood. Not Kinetic. It could also be the damage of choice to shoot exposed lekgolo worms of Hunters. Then to continue make it do medium damage to shields but be weak against armour. Often ricocheting off armour. Making it ineffective when turned against a Promethean or Sentinel. Then to spice things up Hard light could have a stopping power effect. Useful for slowing down those pesky flood hordes. The Pulse grenade could even have a stasis field effect. Bringing back that lost concept. Now those are some weapons I would want to use against the flood!