Many people have said that one of the biggest downfalls of Reach was the overall lack of a ranking system and that extra level of competition that drove more people to continue playing. I completely agree with that.
However, the other HUGE problem that I think Reach had that other Halos didn’t was good maps. If you look at the map selection from most of the previous games, there were a pretty good amount of good-decent maps. With Reach, there are just a couple of good ones. Another problem is that many of the good maps, are remakes. Reach lacked good maps and the maps (I think) play one of the biggest in game factors of the game’s enjoyment.
The main reason that most of the maps in Reach failed to reach that “good” status was because I think Bungie let the constant presence of AAs dictate map design too much. I will admit, it is perfectly understandable and pretty unavoidable to not factor something like AAs into the map design when they are constantly present with every player in the game. However, I think that that caused the maps to be bad for gameplay overall.
I have a few requests basically for map design in H4.
-Have a mix of small, medium and large sized maps. It seemed like the maps in Reach were much larger overall.
-Don’t depend on Forge World. If you take away the forge world maps that shipped with the game that Bungie made and the community made ones that they added later, there really aren’t anywhere near as many maps as in previous games. While Forge World is really cool, I think Bungie relied too much on it to create good maps.
-Original maps. Sure remakes are great, but I would prefer if those were mostly saved for map packs. I think that the starting maps should be 98% original. Maybe have one pretty exact remake, but that’s it. Reach shipped with at least 4 remakes that I can think of off the top of my head (Ivory Tower, Coagulation, Ascension, and Sanctuary).
-Finally, NO MORE FREAKING ZERO GRAVITY OR SHIELD DOORS! I am sorry, but those elements are an instant negative on a map’s rating I think. There have been maps that were pretty decently designed but really hindered by these things. Epitaph in H3 was alight once shield doors were removed, Anchor 9 wasn’t too bad without the low gravity/shield door area, MLG’s version of Zealot plays TONS better with the zero gravity area eliminated. Overall, I just hope that those elements never make a return to Halo and whoever thought of them should have been fired 
Anyway, thanks to anyone that read the whole thing. Let me know what else you guys would like to see done with maps for H4