A thought has been nagging me ever since the flight; BTB in Infinite is just not as fun or as engaging as past Halos. I know what everybody is going to say “Infinite is fire” or “its 12v12 how could you say its less fun?” but listen, I’ve played Halo 3’s BTB, Reach’s, 4’s and even 5 (I count Warzone in this conversation) and Infinite is in my opinion the worst iteration so far.
For starters, there is no point or meaning behind almost any fight/battle in this game. random ordinances and power weapons that spawn on either side just makes every conflict feel like a side mission instead of something that contributes to the overall mission. In past Halos if you wanted vehicles or weapons or powerups you had to earn them, or even in 4/5 you had to do something for them, whereas in Infinite they just fall from the sky and you get free kills on a silver platter. No contention. No skirmish. No fun.
If you go into Total Control or Stockpile its a whole lot more fun because players actually have to move around the map and every action taken has some (even if marginal) impact, whereas in Slayer/CTF it just feels like a boring slog. Everybody is just camping around waiting for you, so both these modes play like really crappy versions of what we see in 4v4’s.
I think the real solution is that 343i just needs to have a ranked BTB mode, this way they can offer a more ‘classic’ Halo BTB with less random encounters, and on the other end all the noobs in unranked don’t have to worry as much about SBMM because most of the actually good players are in Ranked. It may seem a bit crazy when you think about the ranking system, but I think this can mostly be achieved by having a system that favors wins more than it does in 4v4.
That’s my point htough. If they created a ranked BTB they could make it BR starts. They probably wouldn’t want to do it with regular BTB as it makes vehicles almost worthless (12 people teamshotting your wasp, for example)
I really hope at some point they implement a “Classic BTB” which honestly could be 12v12 (or 8v8) for all I care, but please get rid of the uneven vehicle spawns and ordinance drops for that. I still have fun in this iteration of BTB, but I like Classic better.
I feel like BTB would be more fun if the heavies variant was available. But more than likely thats going to be basically a BTB expansion dlc inclusion.
Ranked BTB is needed for sure. The major aspects of BTB to be competitive in my opinion
precision start - I miss the duels with good players, I want people to shoot back and feel that adversity rather than some zombie holding forward spraying.
Map control - these maps just don’t have the structure. You need a Banshee or something spawning in a neutral area, give reason to fight for it and hold down that part of the map.
No spawn flips - This is so damaging to BTB,. It destroys the map control aspect, you need to fight to keep people from your spawn and stop relying on the game to save you. Having someone spawn behind you and gun you down is just painful.
Objective - needs to be Assault and Flag. The rest just don’t play well in competitive BTB.
Remove the weapon times - A massive part of competitive BTB is also having the edge to timing stuff while playing, it’s a good advantage to have when you are able to get it down.
The 12vs12 to 8vs8, I’m not even sure about this, it would need to be tested, I don’t known if it would play well with too many numbers. I’ve probably missed some here but it’s the foundation.
Please no BR starts in BTB. Everyone would just sit far away and take shots at each other like halo 2. I cant imagine an easier way to ruin this mode. The current setup heavily encourages squad play and team shooting which means players are moving around the map. It is far more dynamic. If you want a BR the spawns are plentiful.