The Assault Rifle has been the joke of the series since it’s conception. It has been overshadowed in every game in the series, when it should be the close range gap between the Shotgun and BR. I feel a lot of changes could be made to the weapon to make it a viable tool, as opposed to the laughable toy rifle in the previous games.
I will be using Reach for all of my examples, since we lack adequate information of Halo 4’s multiplayer and damage tables as of yet. More players are familiar with Reach’s mechanics.
Firstly, the weapon absolutely needs a headshot damage bonus, in order for it to actually contend with other weapons. This change would allow the weapon to stay a useful contender in close range, rewarding “paced” shots at longer ranges. The Plasma Rifle in Halo CE is a great example for this. I’ve conducted tests over LAN in Halo PC, and the Plasma Rifle kills in two less shots if aimed at the head. Using Reach as an example, the Assault Rifle kills in 18 shots. Verses a DMR in point blank, the AR would never win, leaving the DMR user with 3 bars of health. The extra buff to the AR while aiming for the head, if using the CE PR 2-shot buff for headshots, would lower the amount of shots needed from 18 to 16 shots to kill. This would allow a skilled AR user to take down a DMR at close range. Of course, this would have to be done under Zero Bloom settings, since it has a much smaller reticule than a fully-bloomed DMR, therefore it is harder to aim up close. At medium range, the weapons would be more or less evenly matched, with the DMR being a bit better. This brings me to my next point:
Reduce the aim assist and bullet magnetism on the damn thing! Ever since Halo CE, you barely had to aim the weapon, and shots would land. The bullet magnetism allows for the reticule to not even be over a target, and stay red. Whenever the reticule is red, bullets will hit, no matter what. This is ridiculous and makes the weapon way too easy to use if it were to get any extra damage. If bullet magnetism were lowered drastically so that the reticule only turned red when the small T of an unbloomed reticule was over a target, aim would be rewarded over mindless spray. Aim being rewarded over mindless spray creates skill gap.
The aim assist on the weapon is too great, as well. I do not mean the reticule dragging when an opponent walks by. When being shot while holding the Assault Rifle, your reticule actually magnetizes to your shooter, and causes you to aim at them against your will. This feature really needs to be removed.
My third point has a few ideas that may conflict with some in previous points(Where I bring up bloom). I think the Assault Rifle needs no bloom, and very tight spread in order to be viable. Even when fired fully-automatically, the weapon should stay shooting straight. While 343 is bringing back recoil, I feel this would suit the weapon perfectly. After a short burst of 3 shots, the barrel would begin to rise. The rise on the barrel would become almost uncontrollable if firing an entire magazine, but be totally controllable in bursts. This limits the weapon to close and medium range, without allowing it to function out of its element.
My final point, since I am running out of ideas, would be to have the Assault Rifle share the same power of its Reach counterpart, with a higher rate of fire. The higher rate of fire with less power will also limit the weapon to shorter ranges with recoil implemented. In order for the weapon to be viable at medium range, it would require a slightly higher amount of shots before the barrel begins to climb. A larger magazine of 35-40 rounds would remedy the higher amount of bullets needed to kill.
Alternatively, the weapon could have a slightly lower rate of fire, keep the 32-round magazine, and deal out more damage. Ideally, 16 rounds sprayed into the body would work well for this, and reducing the amount of shots to 14 if focused on the head when shields pop.
Thank you for your time reading this fairly long post. tl;dr: 343, hire me for lead sandbox designer.
