While I disagree with various things, I appreciate 343 taking feedback and sharing their thoughts. That being said, here are my thoughts:
AIMING:
We also know that when the game is not fully optimized, which is the case in our tech preview builds, aiming does not “feel” as good as it would at launch.
I sure hope this is true because the aiming on console controller was outright terrible. Halo used to be the gold standard and MCC still feels great, and now Infinite is a big step backward.
There was a strong focus on raising the skill ceiling without removing the fun, natural aiming feel that you expect from a Halo game.
As a result of this closer look, we’ve made minor changes to the “cone angle” of aim assist on select weapons for launch.
I’m glad they are doing something, but this concerns me. The default controller settings were terrible and I know many people were upset about how slow you could turn even on max settings. They definitely removed the fun. I understand wanting to raise the skill ceiling, but I’d argue they are making Halo Infinite too inaccessible where a new, unskilled player will not enjoy the game at all. At a minimum, 343 needs to make the default settings as close to Halo MCC as possible, even if aiming is tuned to be a bit more difficult. Aiming needs to FEEL like Halo always has - this is a spiritual reboot. It seems to me that something more fundamental needs to change because getting your reticle into the aim assist cone of a moving target is very difficult and unnatural.
MOTION TRACKER / RADAR:
We did see people say that they still felt like they were being caught off guard due to the radius size of the Combat Sensor, with the majority of these reports coming from Big Team Battle. For Arena’s social settings, we didn’t see enough feedback to want to make a fundamental change here ahead of launch but we will continue to monitor it when we launch. For Big Team Battle, we agree and plan on getting this updated from 18m to 22m shortly after launch.
It was just as big an issue in social arena as it was BTB. In fact, given how much more often opponents are within 25m in arena, I think the issue is even worse in arena. I think it should be 22m in arena and 25m in BTB. Lastly, not until after launch? Really??
PLAYER COLLISION:
Player collision, which is split in the community, is one that we believe is better to keep as is for the time being. We recognize that there are fun moments that can come from having it enabled, but we see far more benefits to the core gameplay loop for the majority of our players when teammates aren’t bumping one another. Running into a teammate at the start of a match, during normal gameplay, while trying to back down because you’re weak, when running the flag and trying to get around a corner, and more - these are common pain points that we’ve eliminated with this one decision.
I have never heard anybody complain about any of these “issues”. I find not having player collision is really weird, but at the end of the day I don’t see this as a big deal in my enjoyment of the game.
BATTLE PASSES AND PROGRESSION:
Feedback: Many players want to earn per-match XP outside of Challenges
Feedback: Concerns around timed Double XP Boost efficiency
Feedback: Desire for a “career” ranking system in addition to the Battle Pass
I get that everyone wants live service games that constantly have new things to go work towards, as well as the desire for devs to use it as a way to monetize the game, but I’m not a fan of most battle passes with a lot of progression management. I know I’m the minority, but I’ll share my opinion anyway. I just don’t have the time or desire to manage battle passes and want to earn XP/currency for all accomplishments anytime I’m playing. I want simplicity to be able to see what I can unlock (and how to earn it) in the armory spartan customization UI where I can directly preview, unlock, and equip things. I really don’t want a separate battle pass UI or store UI - just make it seamless and label where/how things became available to me in the armory.
While I’m probably the minority, 343 would have this kind of MP progression in my ideal world:
- Career stats with an XP-based rank
- Seasonal competitive skill-based rank
- A simple system where you earn both XP and “armory credits” (currency) for everything you do: kills, assists, captures, defends, MP wins, challenge completions, etc. Armory credits can even be super simple, like you get 1 for every N XP points earned. Credits get spent to unlock things in the armory and XP just accumulates for your career stats and rank.
- For battle passes, have them unlock more items to earn as well as new, unique challenges to earn some of them (rather than being entirely currency based). This keeps things simple where I’m not managing battle passes, where XP goes, and challenges. Rather, I’m just deciding if I want the battle pass or not, then simply customizing my spartan as I choose from that one UI, unlocking items via currency or challenges that are available from the battle pass I got.
WEAPONS:
The Mk50 really is meant to be a sidearm, not a primary utility weapon like many expect coming off the heels of Halo 5, and we believe it is fulfilling its role with its current tunings.
Ugh. The Sidekick really needs to be fun to use. I feel like the difficulty aiming it combined with such a limited range makes a huge portion of players just outright avoid it altogether. I’m fine with ensuring it has limited range, but please at least make it satisfying to use at closer range.
the VK78 actually started to do a little too well […] In the case of the VK78, we reduced the damage on it so now it requires one more bullet to secure a kill.
Again, ugh. The Commando was WAY too hard to aim. For me, it was better than an AR at longer range when I didn’t have a BR, but I would otherwise never choose to use this weapon. BTB felt kind of crappy a lot of the technical test because I couldn’t find an available BR and the Commando was NEVER, in any situation, as good as a BR. That’s broken IMO. There should be at least a sweet spot where it’s better than the BR and it should be more obviously better than the AR at mid range.
The conversations around the Plasma Pistol were good to read over the course of the flight. It went from near outrage at the removal of its ability to EMP vehicles, to mild dislike, and then shifted to constructive criticism about its role in the Arena and Big Team Battle gameplay loop. We expected a bit of shock when that change came into play, but we were happy to see the conversation shift towards feedback - because we agreed with a lot of it. We also noticed it wasn’t performing well in its intended role against Spartans. Thanks to your feedback, we’ll be looking at some targeted changes to address its shortcomings against Spartans. We can’t guarantee these changes will make launch, but they are in-progress and will make their way to the game soon.
Bring back the EMP on the plasma pistol. The plasma pistol was utterly worthless to pick-up in the technical test. None of the maps have an abundance of plasma pistols anyway (esp. BTB), and even with stronger tracking, it’s not very useful against spartans unless you’re in close range. EMP was the 1 reason this weapon actually has a place in the sandbox IMO. Sure, in a smaller map you could use it in a combo with a precision weapon, but often a person that has good aim with a precision weapon will be just as effective.
Bring back the Halo CE look of the needler projectiles. The bigger, brighter needles with larger explosions look way cooler than what is in Halo Infinite.
