This has been a nitpick of mine since Halo 4, but why oh why does every single pickup need to be marked and announced now? 343 absolutely HATES the idea of people figuring out weapon and equipment spawns on their own, but I’d prefer to figure them all out myself. It feels good when you have map knowledge that extends beyond just the geometry of the map, and it gives you an edge over players that aren’t paying attention. But this trend of catering to the newbies is too much of an over-correction if you ask me. If you want to use the UI and spartan chatter to announce the primary power weapon on the map, so be it. But why cant there be a compromise where lower tier pickups like camo/overshield and equipment only get announced in Bot Slayer? Isn’t that the point of Academy? Give people an easy way to practice and learn the spawns by themselves, but then take the training wheels off in actual PvP Arena gameplay. If this is the way it has to be then fine, I’m obviously gonna play the game anyway, but you’re effectively throwing the satisfaction of exploring maps and memorizing equipment spawns right out of the car window.
Well as you mentioned in your post, 343 has stated that they wanted a way to make the game more welcoming to all players and I strongly believe this is something Halo desperately needs. I am very thankful to not see lootboxes and other pay-to-win features that many games contain these days. I personally don’t see the big issue regarding identifying weapon spawns in the map and for all we know this could just be a “Bot Slayer” game type feature. This could be taken out of regular slayer which shouldn’t matter to anyone if they are worried about advantages being taken away from them as this game mode involves bots. Regardless, new players will still need to get a handle on TTK, movement, gun play, and other techniques. Last but not least, if they do end up keeping this heavy weaponry announcement in regular PvP, it is an equal thing after all. You could think about it this way, new players may not typically go for the heavy weapon spawns as they don’t know where or what they are. I’m sure other players could bait these unsuspecting Spartans utilising the feature change.
Honestly, I think its just a good way to make sure combat is guided throughout the match. Announcing heavy spawns funnels players in various directions and gives each ample information to decide how they will counter the other. This is something I would like disabled (audio wise) from comp, but for social modes, eh who cares. Its social
I’m personally not a fan, as it seems to lead to a streamlining of maps, where a lot of end up being 3 lanes, with the major power weapons in the middle of each lane. At least that’s what I noticed from the tech demo. So add that on to the weapons being announced to my gripes.
Enough of this nonsensical argument. If you have to rely on esoteric weapon spawn knowledge to get an edge on the average player then you’re obviously not that good at the game. Making weapon spawn information more explicit levels the playing field and ensures that the games are decided by who’s best at combat more than who’s best at timing power weapon spawns
I think it’s a great improvement for casual play. It’s only power weapons and power ups and it’s only every 2 minutes.
what I however don’t like is the over communication combined with when you grab it, within 10 seconds you’ll hear:
S7 sniper rifle inbound
S7 sniper rifle available
S7 sniper rifle acquired + sometimes cheesy AI bumpersticker comment
> 2535422212492174;6:
> I think it’s a great improvement for casual play. It’s only power weapons and power ups and it’s only every 2 minutes.
> what I however don’t like is the over communication combined with when you grab it, within 10 seconds you’ll hear:
> 1. S7 sniper rifle inbound
> 2. S7 sniper rifle available
> 3. S7 sniper rifle acquired + sometimes cheesy AI bumpersticker comment
>
> In my opinion the inbound notification is enough.
I like it, sort of makes me feel like I do in fact have a Smart AI inside my head like a Spartan would.
> 2535445608274502;7:
> > 2535422212492174;6:
> > I think it’s a great improvement for casual play. It’s only power weapons and power ups and it’s only every 2 minutes.
> > what I however don’t like is the over communication combined with when you grab it, within 10 seconds you’ll hear:
> > 1. S7 sniper rifle inbound
> > 2. S7 sniper rifle available
> > 3. S7 sniper rifle acquired + sometimes cheesy AI bumpersticker comment
> >
> > In my opinion the inbound notification is enough.
>
> I like it, sort of makes me feel like I do in fact have a Smart AI inside my head like a Spartan would.
I understand that but I don’t find it smart to state the obvious. An incoming power weapon okay, if the time between incoming and spawning would be longer I guess the spawn notification would be useful as well. However the notifications for picking something seem rather silly.
Imagine this situation in a McDonald’s where the conversation would be like this; the big Mac is on the menu, your Big Mac is ready. You are now in possession of your Big Mac. Example aside not very intelligent and useful information to confirm that I have something in my hands
> 2535470395434446;5:
> Enough of this nonsensical argument. If you have to rely on esoteric weapon spawn knowledge to get an edge on the average player then you’re obviously not that good at the game. Making weapon spawn information more explicit levels the playing field and ensures that the games are decided by who’s best at combat more than who’s best at timing power weapon spawns
But Halo wasn’t solely about gunskill. It’s also about movement and map knowledge. Least it used to be. The only good argument I’ve seen someone make is it facilitates map movement but I feel the map should do that itself and not need weapon callouts. Other Halos did this fine. I also feel the callouts remove a major facet of replayability for the player. I didn’t play H2/CE much MP wise so learning the maps and spawns on MCC was a fun experience that took time. I understand the want to streamline the game for new players but I feel taking out that extra bit of depth just evens the playing field too much and doesn’t diversify where your “skills” should be enough which kinda makes the game a little boring. You play a map once and now know where everything is on the first go. There’s no “discovery.” I also feel it makes the game too competitive. With the announcer and bots and spartan chatter the game really pushes this “sporty” kind of feel. And even within gameplay the fact that power weapons then become so highly contested just makes the game seem so sweaty. I much prefer casual in MCC where people don’t as often go for power weapons. I generally just prefer the much more casual nature of MCC. It’s so much more fun and less sweaty than H5 ever was. Yes I can pubstomp and I’m not saying this because I want to pubstomp. I’m saying this because playing MCC is such a fun casual experience. The craziest -Yoink- can happen but it only usually happens in CE-Reach. It just feels so much more laid back because the game isn’t pressuring people to try so hard. And at the end of the day Halo is an arena shooter and one of the pillars of arena shooters is taking control of weapon spawns and timing them. And even in H3 comp “dirtying” them
> 2535422212492174;8:
> > 2535445608274502;7:
> > > 2535422212492174;6:
> > > I think it’s a great improvement for casual play. It’s only power weapons and power ups and it’s only every 2 minutes.
> > > what I however don’t like is the over communication combined with when you grab it, within 10 seconds you’ll hear:
> > > 1. S7 sniper rifle inbound
> > > 2. S7 sniper rifle available
> > > 3. S7 sniper rifle acquired + sometimes cheesy AI bumpersticker comment
> > >
> > > In my opinion the inbound notification is enough.
> >
> > I like it, sort of makes me feel like I do in fact have a Smart AI inside my head like a Spartan would.
>
> I understand that but I don’t find it smart to state the obvious. An incoming power weapon okay, if the time between incoming and spawning would be longer I guess the spawn notification would be useful as well. However the notifications for picking something seem rather silly.
>
> Imagine this situation in a McDonald’s where the conversation would be like this; the big Mac is on the menu, your Big Mac is ready. You are now in possession of your Big Mac. Example aside not very intelligent and useful information to confirm that I have something in my hands
Oh yeah I completely get what you’re saying and I agree, I’m just happy to have these AI talking while we play, then again I play competitively a lot so having a way to disable it I guess would help. Not sure if default announcer would call out power items on map. Don’t know if it’s a valuable trade off.
I like it to be honest. It makes the multiplayer feel more like a single player experience. I can understand why you wouldn’t like it and a toggle for it would solve the issue.
