To start off, if you don’t know what “headshot multipliers” are, Headshot Multipliers are when extra damage is inflicted when aimed at the head.
Halo’s mainstream sandbox (meaning weapons that you commonly start with) is categorized into Automatic and Precision with the Automatics almost always being strictly CQC. However, although there’s a huge distinction between range, the Automatics lack another thing: incentive to aim for the head.
With a Precision weapon, once you’ve brought down someone’s shields, it takes only a single bullet to the head to finish them off. Automatics, on the other hand, require you to empty an additionally magazine at the target which, in unshielded encounters, causes the person with the Precision weapon to almost always win.
If we add Headshot Multipliers into the equation for Automatic weapons, not only would the gap between toe-to-toe battles between Precision weapons and Automatic weapons without shields be narrowed, but also, Automatic weapons would become more skill-oriented, making their use far more than just spamming the trigger.
So now, I ask you, should Halo 5 give us Headshot Multipliers?
I would like that.
Lately, Automatics lose to Precisions unless you strafe most of the time.
This would add a bigger skill gap and gives them a bigger chance to be used often.
> This could work, but it couldn’t be a one shot unshielded headshot kill.
Yeah, it definitely wouldn’t be a 1sk for headshots. Instead, while aiming at the head, there’d be a 33.3% damage boost (may require adjustment) or something like that.
It could work.
But I guess that whatever plasma variant they use, wouldn’t have it since plasma weapons now don’t have it? Or should they add headshot multiplier to plasma weapons too? Like two or three shots.
3 AR head shots vs about 9 body shots to kill an unshielded opponent would work great I think. Bullets should have very distinctive characteristics compared to the likes of plasma. Plasma weapons can have fast shied strip times and plasma stun, and bullets can have a head shot multiplier, be it a 3x multiplier or a crit. Amongst other traits like reload vs overheat, glow vs smoke trails, splash vs ricochets etc.
It will increase the depth and skill gap of the weapon. It will make it a viable clean up weapon making it so you don’t necessarily always have to keep your utility weapon with you at all times.
It’s just an all round improvement.
Might have to shift the AR towards a Recoil pattern compared to a spread pattern. so you know where each bullet is hitting. But even that I consider an improvement.
We know it can work. Seems to work well in Destiny.
I’ve been a proponent of this idea for a long time already. Headshot multipliers would give automatics some much needed range, which would allow them to be skill based weapons, capable of challenging precision weapons at the lower end of mid-range. Mind you, giving automatics headshot multipliers would have to mean that the initial area of spread was smaller, but after sustained fire, the spread would be more drastic than it normally is.
The potential danger is that automatics could become too powerful at close range, but I don’t think it’s at all easy to make that mistake. So, I’d be ready to take the risk of headshot multipliers, if the proper measures of making them more difficult to use were taken.
This isn’t anything new. The plasma rifle in CE did extra damage to the head on unshielded opponents. I’d like to see plasma weapon stun come back too.
> if an automatic starting weapon was
>
> - accurate (no random factors like spread or bloom)
> - mid-range (like BR)
> - projectile
> - and had a headshot multiplier which meant if you were very accurate you would out-perform a BR
>
> then i would be inclined to use an automatic MUCH more, as it would then be USEFUL and SKILLFUL.
>
> also preferably a slower fire rate slightly faster than a gears of war 3 hammerburst
> if an automatic starting weapon was
>
> - accurate (no random factors like spread or bloom)
> - mid-range (like BR)
> - projectile
> - and had a headshot multiplier which meant if you were very accurate you would out-perform a BR
That’s why this is headshot multiplier (intead of just making automatic weapon headshot-capable).
I’m 100% yes. It’s ridiculous when precision rifles are able to kill faster in cqc (melee > headshot), than weapons who are made for cqc.
Oh, definitely. Even if they spread it to other weapons like Shotguns I’d love it more. Just adds more skill to using a weapon.
I already burst-fire my AR and I end up killing people at BR range.
But with plasma weaponry I agree that it should be less about outright damage and more about bonus effects like the stun and shield strip, maybe even have corrosion where the plasma melts a person’s armor and makes it so that their health doesn’t regenerate after being attacked.
Forerunner or Promethean weapons should probably have some kind of effect as well, maybe a kind of pressure counter where each successive hit to the target deals more damage (due to them slowly being burnt away) or dealing less damage to shields and much more damage to health, since the weaponry is made to deal with the organic Flood threat.
If done well I would have no issue with headshot multiplier being implemented across the board.
However I would say the multiplier should shrink based on how much spread a particular weapon has. So precision weapons get the usual OHK headshot, but something with a high spread like a CE AR or an SMG would have only a small bonus.
What we really need are useful headshot multipliers on shielded opponents. Right now, there’s no reason to even try and hit the head until shields are down, which leads to a miniscule skill gap for precision weapons, hence their dominance - why bother with an AR and learning to burst fire successfully when any idiot with a DMR can easily get the fastest possible kill?
If, for example, the BR was a 3sk if the first 9 bullets hit the head - but a 6sk if you took the shields down via bodyshots - we’d have a much more competitive game. In the same way, burst-firing the AR and landing headshots should lead to a significantly faster kill than doing the same to the body. Headshotting successfully should always lead to a faster killtime vs a bodyshotting opponent, regardless of which rifles you happen to be holding (sniper excluded as it’s a power weapon).
Unless its and reticule size is reduced, it will be very difficult to perform the necessary headshot. You will also need to do some sort of consistent recoil pattern mechanic, such as the ones done in Counter Strike, to discourage “spray and pray”.
As it stands with the current version, making the Automatics require a headshot to kill efficiently would result in a nerf due to a very large reticule and bloom at the moment you would need to kill the opponent. You would have to stop shooting, try to get close to make the target’s head fill the reticule, or pray you get the headshot needed to make the kill.
What if the Assault Rifle was a slower firing rifle with the headshot bonus and a tight spread? Perhaps to keep it from being the next DMR-type power weapon it could be a non hit-scan weapon (at long ranges you aim i front of your target). This could help differentiate it from the SMG which could be a less accurate, high fire rate weapon with a low damage per bullet and dual wield capability. These two weapons would serve different play styles and be much more unique.