Halo Infinite Weapon Balance Ideas

Games Halo Infinite
1

Might be a bit rambly and I accidentally deleted my original thoughts halfway through. Thanks iPad! I love it. I’ll fix it and make it less whatchamacallit later.

CE weapon sandbox was the best sandbox. Each weapon had a role. Sniper rifle vs Covenant, useless vs Flood. Shotgun vs Flood, useless against Covenant because you’d die before you got in range. Unique effects, Plasma Rifle stun. Yadda yadda.

Take ideas from Destiny (gasp!) for Infinite sandbox.

  • Assault Rifle—Slow ROF and decrease recoil while zoomed/smart scoped with increased damage and accuracy. Headshot multiplier only applies while zoomed. It should be able to beat the starting precision weapon in MP at close range, compete at medium range, and be beaten at long range. - Magnum—Halo 5 magnum, less range, Halo 3 sound. - BR—Original Halo 5 BR, more range than magnum. Hopefully replaced by the DMR. - DMR—Same range as sniper rifle, 5-shot-kill. If it replaces the BR, lessen the range and make it a 4-shot-kill. - Automatic plasma weapon—Merge the CE plasma rifle and Reach Plasma Repeater. Manually vent heat, high heat threshold, lower ROF and less accuracy with more heat, stun effect, more effective against shields and Prometheans. - Plasma Pistol—Very ineffective at killing. It should be used by players only for the EMP and by A.I. for suppression. Higher ranked Jackals/Grunts can use the EMP on the player. - Beam Rifle—Replace with the Focus Rifle. Give the Focus Rifle a hefty headshot multiplier and damage increase towards vehicles. - If Brutes return—All Brute weapons increase the shield regeneration delay, signifying a sort of “bleed” effect. Either that or give them damage over time. Less effective towards Prometheans. - Suppressor—Only used in short bursts by AI. Low damage per shot projectile weapon, with high velocity projectiles. Fires 1-4 shots at a time. Starts at 1 shot, then 2, then 3, then 4, then reset back to 1. No headshot multiplier. Think a more predictable Cerberus+1 from Destiny 2. - Boltshot—Halo 4 variant. Charge up shot can either be a shotgun or long-range hitscan bolt. Uses the entire magazine, does less damage the less rounds are left in the magazine. - Light Rifle—Replace with the Sentinel Beam. Add a headshot multiplier to the Sentinel Beam. - Binary Rifle—One round in the magazine, one hit kill to Spartans in MP. Increase the targeting beam. - Incineration Cannon—Halo 5 version with less arc. Each shot leaves a pool of unstable antimatter at the impact point, damaging those caught within. When used on vehicles, the antimatter sticks to the vehicle and damages it until it expires. Regular shots leave small pools, charged shots leave large ones. Think the fire bomb from Halo 3.
    I wanted to make all the weapons fun to fight against but also fun to use. What are your thoughts?
2

Weapon balance is ALWAYS a challenge.

I remember people saying that the magnum from Halo 2 was a complete and total downgrade from CE. But personally, it made sense at the time because it was way too OP in CE, especially in MP… Balance can work if its done well with proper research testing and feedback, both with the Pro Team and the actual audience (Classic or Modern players)…

Heres what I think about this topic:

  • Assault rifle - Halo Reach original 32 bullet magazine and recital bloom. - SMG - The only thing it needs is to not have such a barbaric recoiling effect that forces your aim to move up when firing full auto, while the more quick blooming recital made sense. - Magnum - Halo Reach style but either as it was or maybe a little weaker (not as weak as Halo 2) with a few more bullets per clip. Still can headshot kill with quick drawing like Halo 5. - Sniper Rifle - Halo 5 with the scoped light effect, but maybe can only take out maybe 1/4 of your health along with your shields, 3/4th or 4/5 of your health while unshielded, still have the instant kill with a headshot. - Rocket Launcher - Not sure, but have a Halo 2 style manual lock-on mechanism for vehicles, maybe slow the rockets speed a smidge with lock on. - Battle Rifle - Halo 5 Beta like fire rate and burst speed with Halo 4 like zoom, shots-to-kill less than the DMR. - DMR - Halo reach like magazine size, zoom, and shots-to-kill more the BR by at least one, away from the head. IDK. - Shotgun - Halo Reach class damage, shell count, reload, etc. Halo 4 and 5 were a little OP than necessary… - Frag Grenade - A little less damage; still wipe out shields but cause very mild health damage, while in the right spot without shields like right on top of it can kill while it’ll just hurt a lot like 4/5 of your health, along with the ability to hold onto it after pulling the pin to throw it before it explodes, COD like: Yeah. Realistic: Yeah… Logic missing? - Flamethrower - A mix of Halo CE and 3 in terms of damage dealt and maybe how you hold on to it with other weapons. - Chainguns - Only difference, upped fire-rate. Damage might be nerfed a bit to accommodate increased fire-rate. - Hydra - Not sure about that one, but the lock on could use more rebalancing somewhere… - Sticky Detonator - Needs a speed boost when fired, a fair amount. - Plasma Pistol, Rifle and Repeater - faster plasma pellet speeds, not identical to UNSC bullets but faster than previous. - Energy Sword - Faster draw for more efficient kills when cornered or something, slightly a little slower than the Ravening Sliver variant when drawn. - Fuel Rod Cannons - Need a manual lock-on ability like the H2 rockets. - Boltshot - Halo 4 like firing and charge up to mini shotgun blast, needs Halo 5 like scoping that can headshot kill with UNSC bullet speed. - Suppressor - Halo 4 like firing with a little damage boost and faster bullet speed as fast as UNSC. - LightRifle - Halo 5 like but maybe increase the fire-rate and decrease the damage slightly, no fire rate difference when scoped or not.Everything else, not really too sure about… But balance and fairness is important…

My opinion…

3

Here are some of my ideas. Just because I mention certain weapons doesn’t mean I want them to look or sound the exact same way they did in the games they were featured in.

  • Magnum - Halo 4 with the same rate of fire as the Halo 5 magnum. - BR - Same as Halo 5 after the first nerf. - DMR - Same as Reach with no bloom. - LR - Same as Halo 5 with same rate of fire scoped and hip fire. - AR - Similar to Reach with the Halo 5 headshot bonus. - SMG - Just like Halo 3. - Boltshot - Completely redone. It would shoot like Halo 4 but you wouldn’t be able to charge a shot by holding the trigger. It should behave more like the Halo 5 gunfighter magnum. - Suppressor - Like Halo 5 with a longer TTK. - Plasma Rifle - Halo 2. - Plasma Pistol - Halo 5 but less “tracky”. - Shotgun - Halo 4. - Hydra - Won’t curve around walls and if it does make it a three shot kill. - Energy Sword - Halo 5 without the zoom lunge. - Gravity Hammer - Halo 5. - Sniper Rifle - Halo 2. - Rocket Launcher - Halo 3. - Fuel Rod Cannon - Halo 2. - Spartan Laser - Halo Reach with a slightly faster charge time. - Chaingun - Halo Reach.
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> 2533275001522797;3:
> Here are some of my ideas. Just because I mention certain weapons doesn’t mean I want them to look or sound the exact same way they did in the games they were featured in.
> - Magnum - Halo 4 with the same rate of fire as the Halo 5 magnum. - BR - Same as Halo 5 after the first nerf. - DMR - Same as Reach with no bloom. - LR - Same as Halo 5 with same rate of fire scoped and hip fire. - AR - Similar to Reach with the Halo 5 headshot bonus. - SMG - Just like Halo 3. - Boltshot - Completely redone. It would shoot like Halo 4 but you wouldn’t be able to charge a shot by holding the trigger. It should behave more like the Halo 5 gunfighter magnum. - Suppressor - Like Halo 5 with a longer TTK. - Plasma Rifle - Halo 2. - Plasma Pistol - Halo 5 but less “tracky”. - Shotgun - Halo 4. - Hydra - Won’t curve around walls and if it does make it a three shot kill. - Energy Sword - Halo 5 without the zoom lunge. - Gravity Hammer - Halo 5. - Sniper Rifle - Halo 2. - Rocket Launcher - Halo 3. - Fuel Rod Cannon - Halo 2. - Spartan Laser - Halo Reach with a slightly faster charge time. - Chaingun - Halo Reach.

You also have to take the campaign into account. Fighting enemies with a main weapon that tracks isn’t very fun, which is why I removed the tracking abilities of many of the Promethean weapons. They still have to be fun to use and viable, though. Which is why I kept the Boltshot charge feature and gave the Suppressor multiple barrels.

You also have to make each weapon have its own place instead of “I kill people faster.” More utility features like the Boltshot charge or the Focus Rifle anti-vehicle effect.

The Plasma Pistol, in particular, shouldn’t be able to kill people quickly. In past Halo games, it’s always been an annoyance weapon when used by campaign A.I. that really only had a purpose of preventing your shields from recharging and draining them a little. Halo 5 made it too lethal.

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> > 2533275001522797;3:
> >
>
> You also have to take the campaign into account. Fighting enemies with a main weapon that tracks isn’t very fun, which is why I removed the tracking abilities of many of the Promethean weapons. They still have to be fun to use and viable, though. Which is why I kept the Boltshot charge feature and gave the Suppressor multiple barrels.
>
> You also have to make each weapon have its own place instead of “I kill people faster.” More utility features like the Boltshot charge or the Focus Rifle anti-vehicle effect.
>
> The Plasma Pistol, in particular, shouldn’t be able to kill people quickly. In past Halo games, it’s always been an annoyance weapon when used by campaign A.I. that really only had a purpose of preventing your shields from recharging and draining them a little. Halo 5 made it too lethal.

My bad, I was under the impression that these were our own ideas.

6

I do agree that the sandbox should be defined by more than just time to kill and range, but I don’t agree at all with making some weapons like the plasma pistol useless as actual weapons. While I don’t think every weapon need to be hyper lethal, I do believe that every weapon needs to be lethal enough on its own to deserve respect from the player it is being used against.

In a game where most weapons are picked off the map and you can only hold two weapons at a time regardless of size and shape, each weapon needs to be able to stand on its own when used correctly.

That being said my personal hopes for the sandbox would be as follows:
*Assume all weapons are projectile unless stated otherwise, the only hitscan weapons should be actual lasers or gauss/railgun type weapons.
*Assume lower magnetism and aim assist
*Melee attacks have unique ranges, attack speeds, and bonus damage depending on whether they have are a heavy weapon or have a bayonet(ala brute weapons).
Generally speaking melee attacks get slower and clunkier as weapons get either more powerful and/or have longer range.
*Hardlight weapons are now battery based and all of them now disintegrate targets.

  • Magnum: The one true utility weapon. At least 3 perfect kills per mag, 2X Scope, short TTK, high skill gap, melee attack has short range and is relatively slow ala CE. - Assault Rifle: The other spawn weapon that is paired with the Magnum. 32rd mag, 2X scope, fast melee attack with good reach, quick camo. Think ODST SMG. Basically the less powerful, but more noob friendly version of the Magnum. - BR/DMR: True long range niche with 4 or 5X scope, unwieldy at close range. Sacrifices TTK for longer range, think SPV3 DMR. Whether it ultimately takes the shape of a BR or DMR I doesn’t really matter too me. - SMG: The one true bullet hose, fast melee attack, deep magazine, quick camo, essentially the CE AR. - Sniper Rifle: More or less fine as it has always been. Would prefer a higher rate of fire with a higher skillgap ala CE - Shotgun: CE range, higher rate of fire, 6-8rd tube, requires two shots to kill a full health Spartan, quick camo. Alternatively keep the OHK, widen the spread so that you have to be much closer to get a OHK, but retains the longer range to keep it from being effective only at point blank - Rocket Launcher: Dumb-fire only, no ability to lock on to vehicles. - Grenade Launcher: Simply a better option compared to the Sticky det, railgun, or hydra, it has more depth compared to any other mid-tier UNSC explosive - Laser: Much more rare in multiplayer, 7 shot capacity in campaign, 4 in multiplayer. Finding a laser should be a real treat ala the Smart Pistol section of Titanfall 2. - Turret: Halo 5 variant is fine, all support weapons have faster movement and can now melee without dropping the weapon. Marines can now carry turrets in place the the SAW - Blue Plasma Weapon: Bring back the CE plasma rifle with plasma stun, headshots multiplier, quick camo, with no spread. Whether it looks like a storm rifle, plasma repeater, or plasma rifle, I don’t much care. - Plasma Pistol: I prefer a Reach style model with higher damage and a low rate of fire, better tracking than the Reach version. - Needler: Mostly unchanged, but supercombines have a delay like CE and do less damage so it takes multiple supercombines to to take down stronger enemies. Sets of nearby explosves. - Needle Rifle: Replaces Carbine. Option 1 is to make it a more balanced version of Blood of Suban. Option 2 is to make it a balanced Covenant version of the Dying Light LR. - Plasma Caster: More or less fine, charged shots should use more ammo. - Focus Rifle: Replaces the Beam Rifle. Agree with the headshot multiplier, disagree about vehicle damage, hitscan/high velocity scoped weapons should not be doing significant damage to vehicles - Sword: Halo 3 style infinite clashing. Pressing the fire button uses standard lunge attack(the only melee weapon with lunge), pressing the melee button does a side slash that hits all targets in front of it, no lunge. - Fuel Rod. Unscoped fires like CE Fuel Rod, lower damage, arcing projectile. Scoped fire allows you to lock on to air vehicles and fire Halo 2/3 style fuel rods. - Plasma Turret: Imagine a portable CE shade turret without the Bloom. - Light Rifle: Hybrid of Halo 4 and 5. Unscoped fires 3rd bursts, 5 shots to kill, Scoped fires slower single shots with 3 shots to kill. Fastest killtime requires mixing in scoped and unscoped shots for a fast 4 shot kill. The glass cannon of precision weapons. - Suppressor: When unscoped it fires like its Halo 4 counterpart. When you press the zoom button it activates a laser sight that guides projectiles to their target like a wire guided missile. Can be “descoped” causing projectiles to lose tracking. - Boltshot: More or less the Halo 4 version, overcharge now lobs a grenade type projectile. If you hold the charge too long it explodes in your face ala the Marathon Zeus Pistol - Scattershot: Explosive Auto shotty, effectively the concussion rifle in shotgun form. - Incinerator cannon: slightly less powerful per shot, but is now “wire-guided” if you hold down the trigger. Something like this. - Binary Rifle: More or less the same, visually it now fires like the Twin Jewels. There is a slight delay between pressing the trigger and firing. - Splinter turret: fine as it. - Splinter grenade: Can now roll around and needs to come to a complete stop before it explodes ala CE Frags. - Sentinel Beam: Now it is charge based. The longer you hold down the trigger the longer the duration of the beam. Can push around players and light vehicles.Should the Brutes return I put some thought about how to change up their sandbox here
7

The solution is so simple that it hurts.

SAND DOWN THE SANDBOX!

Halo:CE had the best, most simple, most legendary(every weapon is iconic), most memorable, most fair, most balanced, most cool, most true to nature weapon sandbox of ALL time! Not just for Halo games. I mean, the bar is pretty low if you compare it to COD but COD doesn’t even try because they have their own gig. But ever since the magnum was replaced and stripped to make room for the BR, I have been in pain to see them make the EXACT SAME MISTAKE OVER AND OVER AGAIN! They want more weapons but they don’t want to eradicate the weapons that are iconic so they just add more that do the exact same thing. We must do what CE did and make every weapon unique in their own respective roles, while keeping them from being OP or UP(under-powered).

So I don’t want to see any SAW’s, I don’t want to see any BR’s(why was the Magnum not good enough?), I don’t want to see any STORM RIFLES(why was the Plasma Rifle not good enough?), and I REALLY REALLY REALLY don’t want to see any REQ’s.

As far as the DMR, I’m not actually sure, but I am pretty conflicted if it has no right in the sandbox because it is too similar to the SR, or if it is JUST unique enough to stay.

Get the drift?

Stay cool, CE rules.

8

> 2535438636443468;7:
> The solution is so simple that it hurts.
>
> SAND DOWN THE SANDBOX!
>
> Halo:CE had the best, most simple, most legendary(every weapon is iconic), most memorable, most fair, most balanced, most cool, most true to nature weapon sandbox of ALL time! Not just for Halo games. I mean, the bar is pretty low if you compare it to COD but COD doesn’t even try because they have their own gig. But ever since the magnum was replaced and stripped to make room for the BR, I have been in pain to see them make the EXACT SAME MISTAKE OVER AND OVER AGAIN! They want more weapons but they don’t want to eradicate the weapons that are iconic so they just add more that do the exact same thing. We must do what CE did and make every weapon unique in their own respective roles, while keeping them from being OP or UP(under-powered).
>
> So I don’t want to see any SAW’s, I don’t want to see any BR’s(why was the Magnum not good enough?), I don’t want to see any STORM RIFLES(why was the Plasma Rifle not good enough?), and I REALLY REALLY REALLY don’t want to see any REQ’s.
>
> As far as the DMR, I’m not actually sure, but I am pretty conflicted if it has no right in the sandbox because it is too similar to the SR, or if it is JUST unique enough to stay.
>
> Get the drift?
>
> Stay cool, CE rules.

The multiplayer in CE was some of the most unbalanced nonsense in the history of FPS games due to the magnum. Plasma pistol spawns were changed to magnums because once one person got it they would dominate the whole lobby, Maybe in campaign, there was a decent spread of weapons, but weapons shouldn’t be entirely useless against some enemies while being broken against others. the Shotgun and magnum were the only two weapons that were viable against the flood, and you practically needed plasma weapons to kill elites. You do realize that they added the BR because the assault rifle was borderline useless in CE, right?

Look, you might like CE but that doesn’t mean that they should remove the weapons that have been added over the years. If Infinite has less weapon variety than most other Halo games then that will be a huge disappointment to more people than it will make happy.

9

> 2535413327805278;8:
> > 2535438636443468;7:
> > The solution is so simple that it hurts.
> >
> > SAND DOWN THE SANDBOX!
> >
> > Halo:CE had the best, most simple, most legendary(every weapon is iconic), most memorable, most fair, most balanced, most cool, most true to nature weapon sandbox of ALL time! Not just for Halo games. I mean, the bar is pretty low if you compare it to COD but COD doesn’t even try because they have their own gig. But ever since the magnum was replaced and stripped to make room for the BR, I have been in pain to see them make the EXACT SAME MISTAKE OVER AND OVER AGAIN! They want more weapons but they don’t want to eradicate the weapons that are iconic so they just add more that do the exact same thing. We must do what CE did and make every weapon unique in their own respective roles, while keeping them from being OP or UP(under-powered).
> >
> > So I don’t want to see any SAW’s, I don’t want to see any BR’s(why was the Magnum not good enough?), I don’t want to see any STORM RIFLES(why was the Plasma Rifle not good enough?), and I REALLY REALLY REALLY don’t want to see any REQ’s.
> >
> > As far as the DMR, I’m not actually sure, but I am pretty conflicted if it has no right in the sandbox because it is too similar to the SR, or if it is JUST unique enough to stay.
> >
> > Get the drift?
> >
> > Stay cool, CE rules.
>
> The multiplayer in CE was some of the most unbalanced nonsense in the history of FPS games due to the magnum. Plasma pistol spawns were changed to magnums because once one person got it they would dominate the whole lobby, Maybe in campaign, there was a decent spread of weapons, but weapons shouldn’t be entirely useless against some enemies while being broken against others. the Shotgun and magnum were the only two weapons that were viable against the flood, and you practically needed plasma weapons to kill elites. You do realize that they added the BR because the assault rifle was borderline useless in CE, right?
>
> Look, you might like CE but that doesn’t mean that they should remove the weapons that have been added over the years. If Infinite has less weapon variety than most other Halo games then that will be a huge disappointment to more people than it will make happy.

I think he means he wants a sandbox where every weapons has it own unique utility or purpose. As for the “no BRs” stance… yeah nah, gonna just ignore that one.

10

> 2535438037416518;9:
> > 2535413327805278;8:
> > > 2535438636443468;7:
> > > The solution is so simple that it hurts.
> > >
> > > SAND DOWN THE SANDBOX!
> > >
> > > Halo:CE had the best, most simple, most legendary(every weapon is iconic), most memorable, most fair, most balanced, most cool, most true to nature weapon sandbox of ALL time! Not just for Halo games. I mean, the bar is pretty low if you compare it to COD but COD doesn’t even try because they have their own gig. But ever since the magnum was replaced and stripped to make room for the BR, I have been in pain to see them make the EXACT SAME MISTAKE OVER AND OVER AGAIN! They want more weapons but they don’t want to eradicate the weapons that are iconic so they just add more that do the exact same thing. We must do what CE did and make every weapon unique in their own respective roles, while keeping them from being OP or UP(under-powered).
> > >
> > > So I don’t want to see any SAW’s, I don’t want to see any BR’s(why was the Magnum not good enough?), I don’t want to see any STORM RIFLES(why was the Plasma Rifle not good enough?), and I REALLY REALLY REALLY don’t want to see any REQ’s.
> > >
> > > As far as the DMR, I’m not actually sure, but I am pretty conflicted if it has no right in the sandbox because it is too similar to the SR, or if it is JUST unique enough to stay.
> > >
> > > Get the drift?
> > >
> > > Stay cool, CE rules.
> >
> > The multiplayer in CE was some of the most unbalanced nonsense in the history of FPS games due to the magnum. Plasma pistol spawns were changed to magnums because once one person got it they would dominate the whole lobby, Maybe in campaign, there was a decent spread of weapons, but weapons shouldn’t be entirely useless against some enemies while being broken against others. the Shotgun and magnum were the only two weapons that were viable against the flood, and you practically needed plasma weapons to kill elites. You do realize that they added the BR because the assault rifle was borderline useless in CE, right?
> >
> > Look, you might like CE but that doesn’t mean that they should remove the weapons that have been added over the years. If Infinite has less weapon variety than most other Halo games then that will be a huge disappointment to more people than it will make happy.
>
> I think he means he wants a sandbox where every weapons has it own unique utility or purpose. As for the “no BRs” stance… yeah nah, gonna just ignore that one.

You nailed what I mean’t about CE, but I do not have a “no BR’s stance”. To see what I mean’t we must again return to Halo CE and Halo 2. All can agree that the BR is an all-rounder that is mean’t to handle any situation well, correct? All can agree that the CE Magnum is ALSO an all-rounder that is mean’t to handle any situation well, correct? This is no coincidence. In CE, the Magnum did not make much sense. Here you have this KINDA beefy looking pistol, that happens to be a nightmares worst nightmare. Like this is the type of pistol that all Bed Monster targeted kids need. An alien destroying Hand Cannon that would make Sauron himself hide under his covers. Obviously, this weapon could not be carried by a normal human, but here we are having seen AI’s carry this Machine of Death ONE HANDED in the game and keep their shoulder attached to their torso. Since Halo 2 was going to focus more on AI’s actually helping, they needed to make a weapon that could handle any situation that could be carried by a normal human. And thus, the BR was born. A rifle was the obvious choice, so a rifle it was. But since they wanted to not have two GALAXY DESTROYING SUPER WEAPONS(I’m not talking about halo’s) they decided to strip the Magnum completely, practically forcing you to use the BR instead. I was not a fan. There was something so COOL about slaying these alien monsters ten times faster than the marine noobs while holding a gun three times smaller. However, I thought the BR was cool and accepted it (grudgingly) into the sandbox. I would wholeheartedly accept the BR into Infinite, on ONE condition. One of the two weapons MUST change. Either the BR should change into a more specialized weapon. Or the Magnum should. Since the Magnum is due for a change anyway, I think the latter is the best option. So I think the BR would be great, IF, the Magnum is overhauled into a different unique role.

On the subject of the BR replacing the AR, I think you are right and wrong. It is true that the AR was removed to give the BR more of a spotlight in Halo 2. But it was not because they threatened each other in the sandbox because they have different roles. The BR, as we discussed, is a weapon mean’t to handle any situation. The AR, however, has a different role. In my view, the AR in CE has always been a support weapon. While not able to kill as quickly or cleanly as the BR, the AR could give a constant stream of led, fire, and freedom. This has two options. Either you can get rid of their shields with a plasma weapon and then rip/tear/annihilate their actual body with the AR. Or you can wear down their shields, giving a nearby teammate the chance to CE Magnumify their face once their shields are weak. I have found that the latter is the easiest in team battles. So I am completely fine with the new AR being similar to the CE weapon.

On a final note, the AR is INCREDIBLE at SHREDDING flood infection forms, and flood spawners in my experience.
The beauty of CE’s sandbox is that no weapon can handle an army on it’s own. This makes them much more entertaining on their own. You must use your full two weapon capacity to beat any challenge.

Thanks for the discussion startup, I love talking about it! :slight_smile: