You know when they finally add performance based xp it’s going to be completely inconsequential. It will be 1 xp per kill / assist, 1 per stronghold cap, and 5 per ctf cap or oddball round, 10 for a win.
A huge amount of time goes into these progression systems and calculations of playtime till completion are always being done. They launched full well knowing how grindy their system was because they wanted you to spend extra money on top of the 10 dollars to progress the pass by buying levels.
Their supposed bandaid fix to the progression system just hammers home that they do in fact want this to be a huge unfun grind contrary to what they’ve been telling us the past year.
Yes, this is one thing I’ve been trying to say. 343 has intentionally designed the BP to take a long time to complete, a bit longer than the average player can complete before the next session releases. Players should not expect any changes to substantially change this.
While I don’t disagree that the BP was too grinding before the band-aid fix (I haven’t played today so I don’t know if it is much better) I feel like one thing lost in the discussion around the BP is that it will never expire. They might have overtuned how long it will take to unlock the full BP because you don’t have a time limit to complete it.
its fair to point out that you cant lose access to working towards the goal. but as it sits the game basically has 0 earnable customization options outside of the battlepass and what’s included is barely a fraction of what any returning player is used to coupled with the understanding that for most of my buddies they’d have to play nothing but halo in all of their game time for 5+ months to earn even that pittance. seeing how unrewarding that is, why not choose to spend thier limited time on a game that actually rewards them.
I honestly don’t like how the basic items/gear are locked behind a paywall. I can only change my color for free? really? Not even to something fancy?
the exp being ‘challenge only’ is dumb. especially if nearly all the bonuses are locked behind a paywall- why bother? I mean, you unlock things like exp boosts, and challenge swaps for free -but if you don’t actually get anything for FREE by ranking up - why bother? It seems backwards on most of these.
Lets see real quick what we get free -
Red Visor “Bryce”
Color - Stone Green
Stance - blossom
chest - util/enav becon
visor “vandal” (golden)
Ai Color - Ancient Code (white)
Ai model - Lumu
Color - Tempest Lilac
Left Shoulder - Ua/agathius
right shoulder - ua/agathius
visor - dynasty (golden triangles)
color - ghost gray
backdrop - killcount
color karaba sirocco
chest - ua/m557 jackplate
color noble portal
Helmet trailblazer
helmet attachment - fci-I/airwolf
backdrop - claw marks
chest - ua/m550d halfplate
Legendary Stance - Special Delivery
Visor Dragoon (crimson dots)
Legendary Helmet Mark VII
Legendary Helmet Attachement UA/Armet
Legendary Wrist UA/Type II -A1 buckler
That’s it. That is 100 Ranks of the free stuff. (obviously a ton of XP boosters and Challenge Swaps during this too, but… why bother with them as a free player?) Literally everything else is paywalled in some way, and while I understand the need to make money and all - I think it’s gone a bit excessive here, at least for ‘season 1’ and ‘brand new game’ vs “it has been out a few months and people have beat the campaign”
I had planned to buy and play the campaign, but I don’t know now, it seems more like a greedy cash grab to get anything desirable out of multiplayer, instead of just - playing and earning it through ranks.
You would think they would have put a few more unlocks in the free progression, at least for season 1. You can bet they have a ton of stuff already done that they will slow roll out over the seasons.