Halo 4 Thoughts Day 4: Personal Ordnance

Games Other Halo
1

Hello everyone. Welcome to day 4 of Halo 4 Thoughts. As a reminder, I’m doing this because I’m working on a wishlist for Halo 5 and want to gather opinions and also to show 343 whether or not we like the direction they’re taking with Halo. Today, I’d like to talk about Personal Ordnance. I didn’t plan on talking about that but it’s a huge problem and it’s probably a thing that the guys who “hated” Halo brought.

In my opinion, Personal Ordnance sucks and is one (if not the) of the worst aspects of Halo 4. It is absolutely stupid that I can get an Incineration Cannon simply by killing a few players. It promotes camping and it along with Random Ordnance prevent map control, a staple of Halo. Players now have no incentive to move since they can simply find a power position and call in Ordnance whenever they want.

How do we fix Personal Ordnance? Simple:

  1. We remove it. It is completely anti-Halo as it is right now and has nothing to do in Halo. Removing it will bring back Power weapons on map and map control.

  2. In my Armor Abilities thread, I suggested removing them from loadouts and placing them on maps, like Equipment. While I’d rather have them on maps, an alternative would be to have AAs in Personal Ordnance, like Team Throwdown does.

  3. Only give loadout weapons in Personal Ordnance. That way, it acts as a way to resupply your weapons without having to kill yourself.

-Map Ordnance
-Armor Abilities/Loadouts/Customization
-Ranking System/Playlist Selection/Official Tournaments
-Campaign
-Spartan Ops vs Firefight
-Forge
-Theater
-Vehicles
-Ranking System
-Playlist Structure
-Sandbox
-Maps
-User Interface
-Personal Ordnance
-Sprint
-Power-Ups
-Micro-transactions and DLC
-Peer to Peer vs Dedicated Servers
-Classic Halo vs Halo 4 (this will most likely be saved for the last topic)
-e-Sports support
-Instant Respawn
-Static vs Dynamic Spawns
-De-Scope vs Flinch
-Killcams
-Join in Progress
-Search Options
-Beta test
-Spectator Mode
-Bot Mode

2

And once again you post a poll that is completely biased toward one position.

God forbid you post a positive position toward Personal Ordnance as an option. You have 3 negative ones and a “State your case”.

I want PO continue to be as it is, but be refined:

#1 AA’s should be in both loadouts and Ordnance (I’ve explained this before).
#2 Loadout weapons should also be in Ordnance
#3 Power Weapons should also being Ordnance

And Personal OD should be Tiered in what you get when.

First Drop: AA’s, Loadout Weapons, Boosts, Grenades
Second Drop: Shotguns, SAW, Needler, Melee Weapons
Third Drop: Rockets and Snipers

Finally, POD’s points level should increase from 70 to 100 and the points requirement increase should be at 40%.

As well as having what actually adds to POD points be changed. Assists should be removed, and kills should be worth less points in Non-Kill based Objective gametypes.

3

agree 100% with you personal ordinance should be destroyed it takes away from the halo experience as it elimates map movement and promotes camping

iv ranted at length previously about this so ill leave it at that

4

No one wants care package slayer. It’s ridiculous.

5

> No one wants care package slayer. It’s ridiculous.

Please don’t generalize your opinions. I’m “one” and I want Personal Ordnance.

And Care packages would imply that we have Killstreaks, which we don’t.
This isn’t Call of Duty, no matter how many delusions people have that it is.

6

What do you call getting rewarded after killing 7 dudes? Because I sure call that a killstreak.

Anyway, you are clearly in minority as a lot more people dislike POs and would rather return to the classic style of gameplay.

7

Replace power weapon with loadouts weapons to provide ammo refills, I’ve ran out of ammo so many times on bigger maps when weapons despawn so quickly.

8

> > No one wants care package slayer. It’s ridiculous.
>
> Please don’t generalize your opinions. I’m “one” and I want Personal Ordnance.
>
> And Care packages would imply that we have Killstreaks, which we don’t.
> <mark>This isn’t Call of Duty</mark>, no matter how many delusions people have that it is.

But it is very similar to COD. In COD you kill 5 players in a row and have a plain or chopper, in Halo you kill 5 players and have a sniper or rockets…Where´s the difference? Can´t tell…

Anyway…i think they should get rid of personal ordnances they ruin the game and the skill gap

9

Accidentally clicked the the Throwdown choice (which isn’t a bad option). I think loadout weapons could have helped out due to the lack of loadouts weapons on the maps to begin with. This would have helped keep players in the game without giving them power weapons and power ups at random, thus lowering the “chance” factor that comes into play with current POD settings in most playlists, and putting more emphasis on power weapons on the map.

Though I am not against getting rid of POD’s all together (Custom games can benefit from them), I just think if it had been implemented differently then it would not have caused some much frustration and hate it has received since the beginning and still to this day.

10

Personal Ordnance SHOULD BE KEPT. It does wonders, b/c back in prev. titles, it was a disaster to find ords on the map, especially when it comes to teammates taking it and they don’t know how to use it and end up wasting bullets. I rather have the ord get dropped, rather than to find them. My only problem is the REPEATED drops.

11

> Personal Ordnance SHOULD BE KEPT. It does wonders, b/c back in prev. titles, it was a disaster to find ords on the map, especially when it comes to teammates taking it and they don’t know how to use it and end up wasting bullets. I rather have the ord get dropped, rather than to find them. My only problem is the REPEATED drops.

Practice: http://www.fpsbuddy.com/

Read.Learn.Get Better.

12

> Personal Ordnance SHOULD BE KEPT. It does wonders, b/c back in prev. titles, it was a disaster to find ords on the map, especially when it comes to teammates taking it and they don’t know how to use it and end up wasting bullets. I rather have the ord get dropped, rather than to find them. My only problem is the REPEATED drops.

It does wonders destroying weapon balance between the teams.

Now I’m not saying the weapons are unbalanced, just that matches where teams are equal in skill will be decided by luck and not skill.

I’m sorry, but the only disaster part of finding a weapon in previous games was on the user’s side, not the game’s side.

13

> > Personal Ordnance SHOULD BE KEPT. It does wonders, b/c back in prev. titles, it was a disaster to find ords on the map, especially when it comes to teammates taking it and they don’t know how to use it and end up wasting bullets. I rather have the ord get dropped, rather than to find them. My only problem is the REPEATED drops.
>
> Weapon Respawn Times | Halo Alpha | Fandom
> Practice: http://www.fpsbuddy.com/
>
> <mark>Read.Learn.Get Better.</mark>

HINT: I already knew that, lol.

14

> > Personal Ordnance SHOULD BE KEPT. It does wonders, b/c back in prev. titles, it was a disaster to find ords on the map, especially when it comes to teammates taking it and they don’t know how to use it and end up wasting bullets. I rather have the ord get dropped, rather than to find them. My only problem is the REPEATED drops.
>
> It does wonders destroying weapon balance between the teams.
>
> Now I’m not saying the weapons are unbalanced, just that matches where teams are equal in skill will be decided by luck and not skill.
>
> I’m sorry, but the only disaster part of finding a weapon in previous games was on the user’s side, not the game’s side.

IMO, not really. The way i see it, for instance, Ragnarok, known to have Snipers on both sides. Let both teams have one so no one can feel that one team has the better ords and are getting sniped one after the other.
Personally, i really don’t pay attention to weapon balance between teams. All i care about on every map is, does it has the ords i want and will it be useful on that particular map.

15

>

…

Let’s take a quick recap at how both personal and map ordnance works, shall we? After that we’ll take a look at how it affects the outcome of the matches themselves.

1: Personal Ordnance is a system where you gather points, fill up a meter and get a “reward” in the form of power ups, grenades or power weapons. You can use this where you want it and you’re quick to pick it up.

2: Map ordnance drops weapons on the map at semi-random locations, which are set with semi-random weapons at set semi random time intervalls.

What does this mean in terms of balance weaponwise between the teams?

It means that both teams are treated differently and that one team will get an advantage they didn’t fight for. If the team is in a bad situation it can mean a “get out of jail free” card, or for a team in a good position it can mean a boosted lead.

A match between two equal teams more or less becomes a coin toss as chances are really really small that they’ll get the same options, choose the same power ups/power weapons, and in turn one team will get the upper hand all through chance and chance alone.

Ragnarok is one of the few maps that have consistent weapon spawns, two, each side get a sniper with a set timer. However that is where it ends.

I don’t know if it happens as I haven’t checked Ragnarok but I have never experienced getting a Binary Rifle close to the base on the cliff side, while I’ve gotten one several times on the beach side near the caves. Sometimes the cliff side can get an inc canon near the river but it’s still further away from the base than the beach’s binary rifle. Even better, chances are that these drops do not occur at all during the match, or one happens while the other doesn’t which leads to even more frustration.

Even if the drop locations were symmetrical on a symmetrical maps, the drops will not be symmetrical, and that is the problem.

As I’ve said, matches are more about luck than skill the closer the teams are in skill.

If you played against yourself, the version of you who get the better drops will be the winner rather than the one who played to his uttermost peak performance.

It is as close to fiesta you can get without actually being fiesta.

16

> >
>
> …
>
> Let’s take a quick recap at how both personal and map ordnance works, shall we? After that we’ll take a look at how it affects the outcome of the matches themselves.
>
> 1: Personal Ordnance is a system where you gather points, fill up a meter and get a “reward” in the form of power ups, grenades or power weapons. You can use this where you want it and you’re quick to pick it up.
>
> 2: Map ordnance drops weapons on the map at semi-random locations, which are set with semi-random weapons at set semi random time intervalls.
>
> What does this mean in terms of balance weaponwise between the teams?
>
> It means that both teams are treated differently and that one team will get an advantage they didn’t fight for. If the team is in a bad situation it can mean a “get out of jail free” card, or for a team in a good position it can mean a boosted lead.
>
> A match between two equal teams more or less becomes a coin toss as chances are really really small that they’ll get the same options, choose the same power ups/power weapons, and in turn one team will get the upper hand all through chance and chance alone.
>
> Ragnarok is one of the few maps that have consistent weapon spawns, two, each side get a sniper with a set timer. However that is where it ends.
>
> I don’t know if it happens as I haven’t checked Ragnarok but I have never experienced getting a Binary Rifle close to the base on the cliff side, while I’ve gotten one several times on the beach side near the caves. Sometimes the cliff side can get an inc canon near the river but it’s still further away from the base than the beach’s binary rifle. Even better, chances are that these drops do not occur at all during the match, or one happens while the other doesn’t which leads to even more frustration.
>
> Even if the drop locations were symmetrical on a symmetrical maps, the drops will not be symmetrical, and that is the problem.
>
> As I’ve said, matches are more about luck than skill the closer the teams are in skill.
>
> If you played against yourself, the version of you who get the better drops will be the winner rather than the one who played to his uttermost peak performance.
>
> It is as close to fiesta you can get without actually being fiesta.

Now i get it, :slight_smile:

17

Wow, an argument that was resolved in a nice manner. Kudos to you two!

> Accidentally clicked the the Throwdown choice (which isn’t a bad option). I think loadout weapons could have helped out due to the lack of loadouts weapons on the maps to begin with. This would have helped keep players in the game without giving them power weapons and power ups at random, thus lowering the “chance” factor that comes into play with current POD settings in most playlists, and putting more emphasis on power weapons on the map.
>
> Though I am not against getting rid of POD’s all together (Custom games can benefit from them), I just think if it had been implemented differently then it would not have caused some much frustration and hate it has received since the beginning and still to this day.

I forgot to mention. In the wishlist I’m working on, loadout weapons are on maps. So having PODs contain loadout weapons would be useless. But in the current state of Halo 4, I think loadout weapons would work much better than power weapons.

Agreed!

18

I thought this one would be more popular as PODs are one of the biggest problems with Halo 4.

19

Fix it. If it can’t be fixed, trash it.

20

> Fix it. If it can’t be fixed, trash it.

If ords were to be fixed, IMO, i think, although players make think otherwise. Personal Ordnance, should be seperated by TIERS.
This is how i would set the personal ords, basically make it even so, no one can complain, that “joey got a sniper on first ord drop and sally got screwed with a needler, etc.” To even out the personal ords, it should go like this:
Tier 1:
Needler
Sticky Detonator
Energy Sword
Shotgun
Sniper Rifle make this an uncommon drop
Overshield
Tier 2:
Railgun
Spartan Laser
Concussion Rifle
Scattershot
Gravity Hammer
Beam Rifle Make this an uncommon drop
Damage Boost
Tier 3: Will be a mix of Tier 1 and Tier 2, with one Tier 3 weapon

Binary Rifles
Rocket Launcher
Fuel Rod Cannon
Incineration Cannon
Speed Boost
HINT: Grenades should not be in Ord drops, b/c most grenades you’ll find on almost every map.
Now the way, these tiers would work are, once you earn your first ord, you’ll recieve 2 random tier 1 drop weapons, with an Overshield as an armor support. Same goes for tier 2, 2 random tier 2 weapons and a Damage Boost armor support, if you are lucky to earn a second ord drop. With Tier 3, you must be damn good to get this drop. Tier 3 will be 3 weapons, Left - Tier 1 weapon, Down - Tier 2 weapon, and Right - Tier 3 weapon, and they will be randomized. If you are lucky to earn a fourth drop, the process will start all over from tier 1, only this time, you’ll get another 2 random weapons and still get an Overshield. I feel this would be better so no players on one team say, that either the blue or red team got drops of snipers and that players team got a “little” sticky detonator, especially on a BTB map. Anyone agree, but I would like to read an explanation on why or why not it won’t work. No worries, this isn’t school, but I’m curious to know.