Hello, wanted to put in my own word on how I feel about a few things, as a purely PC and MKB player (these days at least, I did play H3/Reach on 360 years ago.) I don’t have much to say on the more hot button issues like monetization, but I guess I’d like some more control over armor colors…
For Aim Assist:
After seeing some of the statistics and my own experience, I recognize that there are inherent benefits to using both control input methods in game, but I don’t think they are viable “together” in any competitive environment, be it ranked or unranked. Aim Assist is here to stay, that much is apparent, and I don’t really want that to be taken from Controller users as well because I understand it’s utility, but as we’re seeing the statistical discrepancies between input types, with controller users pushing 10% higher accuracy and generally better experiences at close range, I think rather than tuning the assist to keep them together, it would be better to separate them in all game modes by default, because I don’t want to be required to get sweaty in a limited ranked playlist to be treated fairly in any PVP-enabled game mode.
I think a better solution is to split gamemodes into 3 input modes: controller only, MKB only, and mixed. If you queue with a lobby of mixed players, it forces you into mixed play. If you queue with all of the same, you automatically get placed into input specific queue. This might fracture the playerbase a little bit, but I think it’s a better solution than making MKB users constantly feel disadvantaged in a lot of engagements (and to be fair, controller users are going to be having the same complaints once sword specific and SWAT game modes come in…, as winning becomes way more reliant on turning speeds/target acquisition.)
As for the UI feedback:
Almost anything involving emblems and color palettes for them is incredibly frustrating.
I think a better system would be something like nested options, where you have the basic emblem first, after selection, you enter a color setting for that emblem, and thirdmost, you can checkbox which things that emblem is applied to, such as vehicles, armor, or just nameplate. The third setting may need to be separate, but at least keeping it in the same menu area would be helpful. As it stands, the favorites menu is basically worthless because it doesn’t retain the specific emblem and color setup you chose, so you can’t easily swap between things as a favorites menu should logically be a solution for.
For custom games:
I’m actually a long time custom games player, and have probably spent a grand majority of my time in Halo games just having fun with friends in nutty game modes.
Naturally, it didn’t take long for me to notice that it looks like equipment was overlooked for custom settings, lending to some limited creativity options. There is no ability to set starting equipment, its number of uses, or “recharge times”, to name a few settings I’d like to see. I know if we get these, I will be immediately making a Spiderman game mode with infinite grapples and energy swords. I genuinely hope Forge and Customs get the love they deserve… with the potential for imaginative party game modes combined with the F2P system in place, 343 has the potential to completely revive that era of Halo that we had in 3 of constant custom game lobbies with friends. I know the game needs to make money, but I’d be much more willing to look into cosmetics when the game is offering me something more than pure competitive environments to show off those cosmetics in and keep me opening up the game every day to have fun with friends.
That’s all, thanks for considering if anyone reads this!