The Plasma Rifle has long been my favorite weapon in Halo, and the Storm Rifle really never fit the itch for me. I do think the Pulse Carbine is a cool idea (if a bit overpowered last time I used it; 2 bursts to the head jebus!), and since the Halo CE the plasma rifle has had trouble mechanically differentiating itself from the plasma pistol (and then later the spiker) after it removed the stun mechanic (probably for good reason).
Basically, here’s how I would make a Infinite Plasma Rifle, with the general idea of “The plasma pistol helps with kills, the plasma rifle helps with assists”:
Fire rate similar to Halo: Reach
400 shots. Can fire 3.7 seconds continuously before overheating. Uses the classic overheat mechanic, and it’s venting time is a mix between Halo CE and Halo Reach.
Bolts travel a long way, but is only effective at short to sorta-medium range. Lacks the tracking of the pulse carbine, making accurate fire based on your leading skills.
Relatively accurate, with less starting accuracy but overall less bloom.
Very high damage to shields, jackal shields and vehicle shields. Moderate damage against flesh.
Bolts pierce flesh (no extra damage), up to 2 times, dealing half damage to targets behind the main target.
Bolts pierce and deal extra damage to destructible wooden objects.
Damage decloaks enemies faster than other weapons (doesn’t affect their active camo duration).
Damage against shields messes with enemy motion tracker tech stuff, making them appear on the radar no matter while under the rifle’s fire and for a very short time after.
Decently fast draw time, melee time, and time between melees.
I originally had the idea of it dealing increased damage to vehicles, although it felt better if kept as a “spartan v. spartan” weapon than “spartan v. vehicle”. I threw around the idea of the stun mechanic, maybe balancing it around only stunning while the shields are up, but ultimately getting stun-locked is not fun (stun locking enemies in the campaign is a different story.)
Any and all feedback and discussion is greatly appreciated. Remember to be civil!
> The Plasma Rifle has long been my favorite weapon in Halo, and the Storm Rifle really never fit the itch for me. I do think the Pulse Carbine is a cool idea (if a bit overpowered last time I used it; 2 bursts to the head jebus!), and since the Halo CE the plasma rifle has had trouble mechanically differentiating itself from the plasma pistol (and then later the spiker) after it removed the stun mechanic (probably for good reason).
>
> Basically, here’s how I would make a Infinite Plasma Rifle, with the general idea of “The plasma pistol helps with kills, the plasma rifle helps with assists”:
>
> - Fire rate similar to Halo: Reach
> - 400 shots. Can fire 3.7 seconds continuously before overheating. Uses the classic overheat mechanic, and it’s venting time is a mix between Halo CE and Halo Reach.
> - Bolts travel a long way, but is only effective at short to sorta-medium range. Lacks the tracking of the pulse carbine, making accurate fire based on your leading skills.
> - Relatively accurate, with less starting accuracy but overall less bloom.
> - Very high damage to shields, jackal shields and vehicle shields. Moderate damage against flesh.
> - Bolts pierce flesh (no extra damage), up to 2 times, dealing half damage to targets behind the main target.
> - Bolts pierce and deal extra damage to destructible wooden objects.
> - Damage decloaks enemies faster than other weapons (doesn’t affect their active camo duration).
> - Damage against shields messes with enemy motion tracker tech stuff, making them appear on the radar no matter while under the rifle’s fire and for a very short time after.
> - Decently fast draw time, melee time, and time between melees.
>
> I originally had the idea of it dealing increased damage to vehicles, although it felt better if kept as a “spartan v. spartan” weapon than “spartan v. vehicle”. I threw around the idea of the stun mechanic, maybe balancing it around only stunning while the shields are up, but ultimately getting stun-locked is not fun (stun locking enemies in the campaign is a different story.)
>
> Any and all feedback and discussion is greatly appreciated. Remember to be civil!
Ok so factoid, my waypoint didn’t update and I was signed out when making this post. Not worried, still got my point across.
EDIT: Scratch that, thing decided to work. Please delate this reply.
> 2533274805075298;4:
> The lack of a classic Plasma Rifle has been rather strange, hasn’t it? But even moreso, The Spiker. What exactly is the main weapon of the Banished?
Due to the scavenger/raider like nature of The Banished, I don’t think they really have a main weapon. Because they’re Brute dominated I’d say that one of the Brute weapons would probably be the main. We haven’t seen all the weapons just yet, but I’d say the Mangler would be my choice. But you could also argue that the Pulse Carbine would be the base main weapon across the board.
Honestly, just buff semi-auto on the Plasma Pistol to fall in line with what we would expect from a Plasma Rifle.
The Plasma Rifle and uncharged Plasma Pistol have always been functionally nearly indistinguishable and the result has always been that one is just stronger than the other. In CE the PP had a higher DPS and better accuracy, while the PR only had a headshot multiplier.
In Halo 2 and 3 the PP semi-auto fire was nerfed to complete uselessness just so the Plasma Rifle could have a purpose (with the PP’s sole purpose being noob combos in 2, and vehicle EMPs in 3).
In Reach they finally moved the PR out of the equation by purposely designing it to be a weak option for Elites in campaign, and mostly absent from MP. The PP was buffed to a 10 shot kill, which is stronger than the PR had ever been. And it was very strong, underrated even.
4 continued this, the PP semi-auto was fairly powerful in the absence of the PR.
Now in Infinite, the PR is still gone, but the PP has been nerfed again. It’s semi-auto is weak as heck and could use a buff. All adding a PR would do is give 343 a reason to keep the PP weak and useless.
As for the Pulse Carbine… Ugh… Please replace the tracking with slightly faster projectiles so that the weapon’s consistency is in the hands of the shooter and not just whether or not the enemy player is standing perfectly still.
straight up just buff the plasma rifle’s damage for both health and shields. halo has has always been really bad at implementing useful projectile weapons.
> 2533274810177460;6:
> Honestly, just buff semi-auto on the Plasma Pistol to fall in line with what we would expect from a Plasma Rifle.
This is a good idea. The plasma pistol lost it’s EMP effects on vehicles and the noob combo has been getting nerfed since it dominated Halo 2. This change would make it fit the sandbox much better.
> 2533274822313234;5:
> > 2533274805075298;4:
> > The lack of a classic Plasma Rifle has been rather strange, hasn’t it? But even moreso, The Spiker. What exactly is the main weapon of the Banished?
>
> Due to the scavenger/raider like nature of The Banished, I don’t think they really have a main weapon. Because they’re Brute dominated I’d say that one of the Brute weapons would probably be the main. We haven’t seen all the weapons just yet, but I’d say the Mangler would be my choice. But you could also argue that the Pulse Carbine would be the base main weapon across the board.
I’d agree if the Spiker wasn’t so prominent in Halo Wars 2.
> 2533274810177460;6:
> Honestly, just buff semi-auto on the Plasma Pistol to fall in line with what we would expect from a Plasma Rifle.
>
> The Plasma Rifle and uncharged Plasma Pistol have always been functionally nearly indistinguishable and the result has always been that one is just stronger than the other. In CE the PP had a higher DPS and better accuracy, while the PR only had a headshot multiplier.
>
> In Halo 2 and 3 the PP semi-auto fire was nerfed to complete uselessness just so the Plasma Rifle could have a purpose (with the PP’s sole purpose being noob combos in 2, and vehicle EMPs in 3).
>
> In Reach they finally moved the PR out of the equation by purposely designing it to be a weak option for Elites in campaign, and mostly absent from MP. The PP was buffed to a 10 shot kill, which is stronger than the PR had ever been. And it was very strong, underrated even.
>
> 4 continued this, the PP semi-auto was fairly powerful in the absence of the PR.
>
> Now in Infinite, the PR is still gone, but the PP has been nerfed again. It’s semi-auto is weak as heck and could use a buff. All adding a PR would do is give 343 a reason to keep the PP weak and useless.
>
> As for the Pulse Carbine… Ugh… Please replace the tracking with slightly faster projectiles so that the weapon’s consistency is in the hands of the shooter and not just whether or not the enemy player is standing perfectly still.
The Pulse Carbine should have been an updated Needle Rifle. It’s a gun with tracking rounds, yet 343 made it plasma based…
I concerned that you said it was your favorite weapon. That thing is hot garbage in my opinion but i do miss it because its iconic. If they do add it then i agree with everything u said.
> 2533274822313234;5:
> > 2533274805075298;4:
> > The lack of a classic Plasma Rifle has been rather strange, hasn’t it? But even moreso, The Spiker. What exactly is the main weapon of the Banished?
>
> Due to the scavenger/raider like nature of The Banished, I don’t think they really have a main weapon. Because they’re Brute dominated I’d say that one of the Brute weapons would probably be the main. We haven’t seen all the weapons just yet, but I’d say the Mangler would be my choice. But you could also argue that the Pulse Carbine would be the base main weapon across the board.
In the 2020 demo you can see Brutes carrying Bulldogs, and in one of the Inside Infinite posts Joe Staten mentioned Grunts using Rockets. It sounds like we’ll be seeing the Banished (or at least Brutes and Grunts) using human weapons to round out their arsenal, which would make sense considering Brutes are far more open to using human weapons than Elites are (see the Halo 2 levels Uprising and The Great Journey).
I would like to see the Plasma Rifle make a return and it just be balanced as an SMG with whatever 343 is doing with plasma. Is it just stripping shields faster? I would like to see a short circuit effect like slow down added. Lorewise though the Plasma Rifle being an SMG makes the most sense do to Camo Elites using it in close quarters. I think I remember seeing a lot of those in CE. This would be nice to see instead of the UNSC SMG returning first.