- Matchmaking should be based more on Kill/Death ratio than what it currently seems to be. Teammates were completely mismatched in every single game with a couple expert players carrying those of us who were nothing but cannon fodder for the opponents. - Collision between players should be turned on. - Explosion physics needs to be turned on, especially with the Gravity Hammer. - Instant replays of how I got killed would be extremely helpful feedback. I can’t tell you how many times I died with no idea how it happened. - Jeff Steitzer’s voice needs to be in Big Team Battle. Every game feels way more epic when I hear that “DOUBLE KILL!, TRIPLE KILL!..” - I’d like an option to turn off the AI voices. - When selecting body type, we should have the ability to rotate the character to compare.
BTB plays great so far. The weapons racks are a great idea, but it would still be nice to have weapons just sitting around not on a rack. Not starting with a BR was a good call, because I had no trouble at all finding one. When you honk the horn of the warthog and it tags it, is not really useful because if you already hear the warthog then you’re already close enough to it. That’s all from me.
Things I enjoyed:
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I like the random spawning location - The overall chaos is really enjoyable - Ordnance drops are cool that adds to the immersion - Fragmentation is a great map, albeit the scorpion is basically useless. - Weapon sandbox is great. Most of the weapons are balanced - Grapplehook is amazing, I love swinging around the map - Total Control is great - Throwing fusion coils is awesome - Weapon caches are a fun addition.Things that might need improvement
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There were some texture pop-ins on spawn but very minimal - Banshee is a little heavy. I would like it to be more maneuverable and agile - Pelican drops could be more varied, it usually dropped vehicles in the same spot for each team - The AR does seem a bit too powerful at long range. Sometimes I get absolutely lasered outside the range - More equipment that is neutral and doesn’t just benefit one team like the drop wall. For example, the bubble shield in Halo 3 would benefit you, but if you died, the enemy team could use it for themselves. - I would love to see BTB maps on training mode so we can learn the map and weapon locations before hopping onto a game. - One of the zones in Total Control wasn’t allowing us to capture it. Our whole entire team was standing in the zone, but it wasn’t capturing (we ended up losing the game lol). This happened once btw - I think Capture the Flag match time should be extended by maybe about 5 mins because I would rarely see a team get to 3 captures in the allotted time. - Splatter was a bit inconsistent, especially with the ghost. Sometimes I would ram a guy at full speed and not even knock his shield down. And sometimes, I go at half speed and kill instantly. - I feel like the vehicles are too sensitive to the environment, especially the Warthog. What I mean is that if I as so slightly hit a rock while driving the Warthog at full speed, I almost get flipped over. - This is just a personal preference, but I would prefer if there were blood decals on the walls after killing someone just to give a Halo vibe. - There were some lag spikes - I would like to see weapons scattered in various locations on the map that are on the ground like in the original Halo’s. But this is just a personal preference and at best a nitpick on my part - Jeff Steitzer’s voice was barely heard throughout each gameOverall, I loved playing BTB. I had a blast with the game and so did my friends. This preview actually got some of my friends that have never played Halo before into the game (obviously a great sign:)). Can’t wait for the full game to release!!!
Jeff Steitzer should voice when you get medals in BTB just like in social.
Sometimes it’s hard to tell a Ghost is destroyed since the damage isn’t as great as in past halo games. Please make Ghosts blow up more significantly.
Radar sensitivity needs to be longer - about 25 meters? It doesn’t feel very useful as it is.
• The outlines would be nice to be able to turn completely off for my enemies or at least have a setting like an opacity slider. That outlines really kill the immersion for me personally I would love to just turn them off at least for the enemies
• The sidekick is to spammy with a really fast real low time it just seems like I’m encouraged in spraying bullets with no rhythm
• we only had one big team battle map but I really hope others are a little bit more open where the vehicles have more freedom to drive around none linear tracks that’s what it feels like
• would love an option to turn down the audio of all these Binks bowings and alerts and sounds like when a hill gets captured or is being captured or when the hell is being taken over not everything needs a sound attached to it
• The ability to have no AI. or at least to have the amount of AI talking reduced they talk too much lol
• my personal player outline glows onto the environment next to me like when I’m crouching next to a rock my color is projected onto that rock which does not make sense to me it seems like this is a visual aid to us doesn’t seem to make sense that this is an actual color that goes into the environment
• more to come
I agree with INFINUT, the outlines kill the immersion. The outlines also add to an information overload problem. It would be great to have an option to turn it off and instead show the teams simply as red VS blue.
> 2712882632684829;762:
> - Matchmaking should be based more on Kill/Death ratio than what it currently seems to be. Teammates were completely mismatched in every single game with a couple expert players carrying those of us who were nothing but cannon fodder for the opponents.
K/D ratios mean nothing without the context of opponent skill.
As for the poor matchmaking results at times, I hope it’s not because they’ve elected to use a skill assessor that’s less accurate than TS2 or a non-computer learning matchmaker. I suspect that they are using TS2 and TrueMatch, so the likely issue was population availability throughout the full skill spectrum and platform related performance differences. It was a Tech Preview after all.
Time to kill felt too fast. Didn’t feel like halo because of this.
walk speed was too fast.
I miss the spartan abilities from halo 5.
Things that had animations in the past and dont know feel jarring (ex: getting descoped instantly unscopes you).
The lack of vehicle diversity felt bad. I miss the falcon, mantis, and halo 5 vehicle variants.
The some of the new banished guns felt like they tried to be a power weapon but came up short. (not the skewer, skewer felt fine).
I miss the DMR, I love semi auto rifles and now there is only the sniffer riffle.
I wish i could tell where the weapon ordinance drops were.
The hacking to get equipment caves was good.
fusion coil throwing was good.
> 2533274854817726;610:
> - when you respawn, sometimes is difficult to reach the center of the action: maybe add some ways to move faster (more grappling hooks, more “cannons”?)
> - expand the radar (from 18 m to 25 m), atleast for BTB
> - the best power vehicles (hornet, banshee, tank) are delivered too late in the match
> - BTB slayer is often too short: 125 or 150 is a better goal to win
> - the announcer don’t speak: i want to hear that triple kill!
I add:
- life vehicles probably is too short: there are more enemies and more counter-weapons than before!
- when a teammate is dead, his name should change color;
- put the ability to change the color of my party
BTB is a fun but needs obvious polishing, and in all honesty I am unsure how you will navigate through the complexity of it but so far its decent.
Vehicles in BTB while powerful are too easily invalidated by the equipment all over the map. They can be hijacked on foot, grapple, sent flying with a skewer, instantly disabled for a long period of time with the dynamo grenades, shock rifle, or an endless barrage of Spartans tossing grenades, and also picking up the mountain stacked piles of left over grenades that are… everywhere. If there will be more methods to disable vehicles in the future then I feel like vehicle gameplay will be a free of charge kill. Combat has truly evolved when a Spartan no longer fears a death machine vehicle in single foot combat. It implies basic marines or grunts can just take anything out if we are going to see them use equipment, so vehicles no longer have that " fear element " to them other than looking at the tank which just looks downright CHONK and scary. I had a team on BTB ignore our vehicles, and ignore their own vehicles entirely and completely clean the match up of randoms instantly by simply taking both loot doors on slayer on repeat. The game lasted 2 minutes? Less? I can’t remember but it was nonsense quick, as a result it goes to show how easily vehicles or even the rest of the sandbox are invalidated on that map if the sandbox is utilized by players that understand the rules of halo. They reduced vehicles to being useless when faced with players that know how to think logically and productively when it comes to well rounded and polished gameplay. Eventually, no one will touch a single vehicle in the future if this keeps up, and I do not know how you will address it, its just a food for thought catered to this specific map. When ordinance dropped ie random rockets out of the sky, in all honesty it was sheer luck I even found it as I did not know how the item fell, or where it fell, or if they fall in the same spots. If there were visible notifications, I did not see them. If there were audible notifications, I possibly heard it, but I did not know where until I looked in the " same " spots. Ordinance and items falling from the sky is cool, I just can’t figure the timing out, or where. I only grab them when I see them surprisingly untouched even in a chaotic battlefield.
The weapon choices are fun, the equipment is fun and the sandbox and variety offered does feel like everyone is picking up everything. But at the same time the lack of other weapons does make the combat a bit stale and repetitive. BTB is supposed to feel like a " party mode " of nonsense war and chaos, and the second that party mode feeling is gone the novelty wears off. The assault rifle while I LOVE, feels too powerful as there are no other close quarters weapons to mix up the variety. The inclusion of an SMG, dual wielding SMGs, plasma rifles, other close range weapons offered in the previous halo series is completely missing and as a result a one stop shop AR has replaced all of them. I’m not sure if you will address that problem, its just food for thought as the game felt fun but boring that no one was switching it up like the chaos in halo 3. I used to melt shields with a plasma rifle while my friend would go BRRRRRR BRRRR BRRR, however the AR now replaces the plasma rifle or that need for gameplay or teamwork as a result feels more similar to cod as opposed to thinking like a halo player. The good halo player would carefully consider the weapons or tools being carried, and they will also consider their teammates playstyle or their current weapons in hand, but now we just have to point and shoot as these repetitive weapons that simplify the halo experience now invite cod players to just jump right in. I feel like the classic halo gameplay is there, but the OG halo experience of weapon variety is actually not there, just an illusion of it. The only weapons that catch people off gaurd are clearly obvious, or heavy power weapons, h1-3 had many weapons that would catch anyone off gaurd.
The equipment lacks variety. Halo 3 had the bubble shield that helped everyone and can be very easily used against you. If you throw down a bubble shield in H3, someone could walk in with a shotgun and cap you, someone could walk in with a sniper and collect your head, or you could have the shotgun or sniper and trick someone by making a safe and inviting bubble which actually turns into a bubble of death the moment you walk in and lose your head, or the person pops out of the bubble and snipes your head in a split second. Someone could walk in with a sword or gravity hammer and people will have to decide to perfectly suicide themselves with the sticky, or time it perfectly to cleanly kill the person walking in the bubble shield, or run away and give them the safety of the bubble shield to be used against you and your team. Popping in and out of the bubble shield was a standard of h3 gameplay and good halo players did it subconsciously. I can list an endless mixup of bubble shield shenanigans that was fun and intense. I did bring them into infinite in my gameplay and I used the shotgun to throw off the enemy in conjunction. I would throw down the shield in upclose combat which looks suicidal in live combat. However it baits the enemy to walk up to my shotgun and accept the endless pumping while the shield took the extra shots that would of originally finished me off, or they don’t expect it and get pumped either way. The psychological horror with the new throwdown shield is still there, but reserved for a higher level of quick thinking that no one is going to do but OG players, most people will just shoot through it and stand there or maybe try to punch someone in the moment. H3 had a landmine, shield sapper emp , the health throwdown that may be used against you. I understand adding too many things will break the sandbox and as we learned from halo 4, less is more and simplicity is what made Halo 1-3 fun. This is just food for thought to include additional equipment or weapons.
Slayer can easily be decided instantly at the start in a BTB, and squad balancing will be difficult. Gears of war had bots fill in the spots of quitters, so take it into consideration when it comes to an objective mode. But there was always an enjoyment of winning a 2v4 or 3v6 so adding bots will forever take away that experience from the player.
Overall it was a good experience, but if its a fun game mode please consider adding elites because I want to have fun and the lack of elites really bums me and alot of people out. If it was competitive sure stick to spartans for hitbox reasons, but a social mode? If you add effects into the game or spartan armor, it will distract from the gameplay anyways. Put elites in for social as I want to hear the halo 1-3 reach elite voice acting in live combat, not some cheesy disney spartan. The infinite spartans look the part, do not vocally display they are killing machines that pull the trigger when told. Voice acting for the spartans is too cheesy. Look at masterchief from H1-3, when he spoke it was powerful and his dominance was of a supreme nature. If I hear alot of spartans making callouts, id prefer them to be as mature and quality as chief in the classic halo. Instead of " taking damage " * cheese explodes * id rather hear something of effort and war like related in the right tone of voice, being painfully shot.
Really fun. Everything felt pretty good. Had some issues with sensitivity and my aim assist but nothing too serious. My personal big issue is the seemingly useless motion tracker. Some enemies are invisible to it and the range is far to short.
I absolutely loved BTB’s map & gameplay. Idk about anyone else but this game gives me such original Halo trilogy vibes & I absolutely love it. The mechanics feel crisp, the graphics are amazing & the gameplay is just down right fun. I really enjoyed the environment as well. It just feels so good to have that OG halo feel. Outstanding job 343. 10/10! I CANNOT Wait to get my hands on the campaign.
Some vehicle-specific feedback
General:
-Pro
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Pretty much every vehicle is aesthetically pleasing - Solid sound design - Nice sandbox selection so far, but hopefully there’ll be more. - Damage output is in a pretty good spot. - Grappling actually seems pretty well balanced with vehicles (at least my limited first impressions) - Incorporated into maps well, though hopefully there’ll be some more vehicle heavy ones-Con
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Vehicles seem a little too vulnerable to small arms fire. A buff to durability against the AR, BR, pistol, etc. might be appropriate. - Red outline before explosions look very out of place. - Destroyed vehicles could look a little more damaged. - Vehicles are a little too light. - Repulsor is a little too effective; it’s a lot of fun but a small piece of wrist equipment shouldn’t send vehicles flying that far while other items like grenades, and especially the gravity hammer, have little to no effect. - The increased self-leveling behavior doesn’t really make sense on UNSC vehicles, and is kind of disjointing in game (though in fairness it probably wouldn’t be hard to get used to) - UNSC: the Scorpion is apparently look to turn now, like the other vehicles. It should be turn-able with the same stick as movement. I know you can toggle this on for all vehicles in settings now, but the tank had a specific functional reason for it; you shouldn’t have to activate it for all vehicles to move the tank that way. - Plasma pistol needs to be able to EMP vehicles.Warthog:
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Good choice with the honking notification - Blowing tires off is a fresh addition - Glad you can still switch seats - Turret reticule should be larger - Should look a little more charred/dented after destructionGhost:
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Banished aesthetic is a good look - Moves a little too fast backwards and sideways (shouldn’t be as fast as forward) - Shouldn’t be able to push flag. - Split in two when destroyed like before.Mongoose: Fine except for general comments and bulky backseat (make it look weirdly oversized)
Didn’t manage to get my hands on the heavy vehicles or air vehicles so no comment.
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> I left weapon balancing issues and more in my post on the Arena section, but I did want to comment on BTB specifically for two reasons.
>
> **Falcons drop Banshees/Ghosts?**I truly don’t understand why Pelicans drop Banished vehicles in BTB. I really hope we can have Banished transports drop them, as that would make much more in-universe sense, especially since they’re making all multiplayer Spartans cannon having some continuity there would be fun.
>
> **Please bring back the Falcon!!!**I really really really think the Falcon has a large role to play in 12 v 12 PVP. Back in Reach it was awkward because it could house 3 people, and when shot down that was almost half a team out for a couple seconds which can change the tide of the game quite drastically. However, I think this is where the Falcon can shine! Having a powerful aerial vehicle that can transport two gunners would be so fun, and balanced within the sandbox. Weapons like the Skewer and Shock Rifle can take it down which makes it a risky play, but if taken down it is only a quarter of the total team which makes it not a huge risk. It sets it fairly in the “Late game fun” setting.
> I mean heck have it spawn in after the Scorpion and maybe be a transport Falcon that can move objectives to really escalate stuff, having Scorpions try to shoot it down or something? And grapple jacking a Falcon while an objective holder was being transported would be nuts! Not to mention the potential it has in custom games.
> The Falcon is a vehicle that is near and dear to my heart, having - along with the Warthog - my favorite Halo vehicle design. I think that it has a wonderful space to fill in Infinite BTB, and I know a lot of us Reach kids would be chuffed with its inclusion!
>
> Please let me know what you think about this, would you want to see the Falcon return in Infinite?
I totally agree with you on the fact that the Falcon should make a return (the Reach version) especially if you had two people and no one was keeping an eye in the sky you’d be a force to reckon with! Not only does it provide pretty decent movement around the map but the Falcon in Reach I thought was the best due to the fact it really brought three players to work together (like the warthog with two mainly, driver and gunner, sometimes three if the passenger had a heavy weapon) and try to stay alive. The new mode total control, specifically on Fragmentation would be a perfect testing ground to try it out! With the mode having such open objectives (besides a couple within spire hallways) it would really sway a game if the falcon people are either successful or not. The Halo 2 AE, and Halo 3 versions were cool (due to the fact the driver is also the gunner) but the passengers were too exposed and vulnerable to really help out the driver. I hope 343 takes your suggestion in the next flight!
I absolutely love BTB, but flag not needing to be at base for capture was really odd.
Context:
I’ve dedicated the vast majority of my past 12+ gaming years to playing Halo Big Team Battle.
I was credited in the 2019 Halo 5 BTB Refresh update article as a top contributor (bottom of article).
I played every single 4-hour play session available to playtest 12v12 BTB from Oct 1-3 on my stream (accept the final one).
I play on Xbox Series X with a wired Series 2 Elite controller.
All my opinions are reflections of not just myself but the Big Team Battle group I formed and play with Formal Focus. These are their opinions as much as mine.
Here are my top requested changes/thoughts for Halo Infinite BTB:
- I cannot aim in this game. I’ve played Halo for 13 years and I’ve never had as much trouble aiming on a controller as I have in this game. I spent hours outside of the multiplayer play-times going over all my in-game settings thoroughly. I could not land on any settings that improved my aim. I experienced the most problems while aiming with the sniper rifle, commando and sidekick pistol which were each impossibly hard to aim in specific situations. The following three key factors make the aiming in this game incredibly difficult:
- The strafing speed/responsiveness is too high. To clarify: Your speed while moving in one direction is great, it’s the ability to instantly change directions while strafing that felt way too responsive and out-of-place. It made it incredibly difficult to land shots, much less hit shots on an enemy player. - The aim assist/reticle magnetism on most weapons was too low (the sniper, commando and pistol were by far the worst in this area). While aiming at opponents my targeting reticle would constantly get “unstuck” and “slip off” an opponent while doing something as simple as jumping (something you should normally be able to do in a Halo gunfight). - The bullet-magnitism on many guns was close to non-existant (again: the sniper, commando and pistol were by far the worst). I cannot stress how many times I sniped an enemy player for what appeared to be a “headshot,” but it simply didn’t register or just hit their body instead. There is no “wiggle room” when it comes to landing headshots and for controller player like myself that “wiggle room” where the game registers headshots in a more lenient “circle” around a player’s head is where we often effectively operate. The fact that a weapon like the sniper feels like it has zero bullet magnetism (as proven by multiple videos) is sincerely frustrating to me as a controller player.Strange Side-Note: The Battle Rifle in Halo Infinite had great aim assist/reticle magnetism and perfectly coded bullet-magnetism. It was extremely well-balanced (TTK is higher for the BR than the commando, pistol and assault rifle) and it felt exactly as it should in a Halo game. The Battle Rifle was 100% the “best feeling” gun in the game and I do not say that out of a sense of nostalgia for the weapon. It was difficult to use in all the right places and vastly rewarding if you managed to land a “perfect” 4-shot kill. It felt so good in Big Team Battle that I found myself waiting at weapon terminals/pads just to pick one up when it spawned. This brings me to my next request.
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Please make the Battle Rifle a starting weapon in Halo Infinite Big Team Battle. In every Halo game that has had a Battle Rifle, BTB has started you with a Battle Rifle. It is critical to give players a starting weapon in BTB that allows them to help teammates at range off their respawn or allows them to fight out of a particularly difficult spawn trap set by a good enemy team controlling high power positions on the map. Even with the large number of weapon pads on the map Fragmentation I found myself in CTF and Total Control “burning” precious time wondering around looking for an available BR/commando weapon pad before I could go help my teammates. It felt awkward and I had an increasing sense of dread every time I did this that I was wasting time that I could be using to help my teammates capture a zone or cap/defend a flag. I like scavenging the map for weapons as much as the next guy, but having to do it every time off my respawn became tedious and time-consuming to a degree that gravely hindered my enjoyment of the experience. Many would say that giving everyone a BR would “limit” vehicle gameplay. This brings me to my next point.
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Give vehicles more health and make it more visually obvious when one is about to explode/auto detonate. Vehicles do not have enough health in this game and blow up/auto destruct suddenly for seemingly no reason far too often. I agree that the Skewer should be a powerful anti-vehicle weapon, but I’m still unsure it should kill/auto detonate most vehicles in one hit. The hog also does not “weigh” enough as is easily shown by a ghost being able to physically push it around in-game with almost no effort.
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Reduce the range of the Dynamo grenade’s EMP effect on vehicles. The dynamo is a very well-coded grenade across the board accept for one thing: It’s “range” of being able to EMP vehicles is insane and the resulting EMP effect lasts ever so slightly longer than it should. To clarify: No issues with damage done by the grenade or the “chain” effect the nade has. Just really think the grenade stunts an otherwise very strong take on vehicle usage in Halo Infinite. By nerfing these grenades slightly there are two other things to balance out to make the sandbox a tad more even across the board:
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Allow the charged shot of the Plasma Pistol to EMP vehicles, but only for a very short time. This one should be obvious: The plasma pistol should be able to EMP vehicles, but only for a very short time (shorter than the Shock Rifle even which brings me to my next point).
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The Shock Rifle has an inconsistent EMP effect on vehicles. When shooting any vehicle with a shock rifle twice it has an EMP effect…but the EMP effect is not lengthened if you continue to shoot the vehicle after the initial two shots. In other words: The third and forth shot have no “additional” effect and do not add to the EMP time. Fix this so the EMP effect IS effected by successive shots of the Shock Rifle past the first two shots.
Other Random requests:
- Please allow us to change our Heads Up Display (HUD) so that grenades are in the top-left corner of the screen and ammo is not just shown as a number, but clearly laid out with each bullet/charge clearly visible in the top-right of the screen like in previous Halo games. - Add a “hold to clamber” option to the game for players used to using this option in Halo 5. - Allow us to change enemy player color while keeping the aiming reticle and radar dots both the color red for enemy players.Thank you for allowing me to play in these flights and thank you for this opportunity to provide feedback. I look forward to playing the game on December 8 (hopefully with BR starts in BTB).
Sincerely,
Genesis Rider
I do believe that there should be BR starts in BTB in Halo: Infinite. I didn’t particularly enjoy feeling almost forced to look for (and often not find) a BR/Commando weapon equivalent in order to participate in medium range engagements. Most everything else felt really good and I am confident that you will only improve upon the experience post-launch. (Please fix the red reticle bug on PC! The BR felt really weird to use at times because of it!)
Without a doubt, it is much easier to start with the sidekick because the br and the vk7 abound, not like in arena that it is frustrating to have to run to find a replacement for the sidekick btw think in that
Long time Halo BTB player here - have logged 20,000+ games going back to Halo 3. My feedback is as follows:
Positives:
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The art / graphics look amazing. Fragmentation could not have looked more “Halo” to me. Love it.Areas of Improvement:
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The aiming felt VERY off (playing on controller). I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I felt like I could hardly keep my reticle on the enemy. Probably a combination of strafe speed being too fast, not enough aim assist, and low bullet magnetism. Every gun felt kind of bad to use, except the BR, which leads to my next point… - Need BR starts in BTB. Spawning with an AR and Sidekick on huge BTB maps feels absolutely awful. Every BTB playlist in previous Halo games had long-ranged weapon starts. Why are we changing that now? Especially with maps that are meaningfully larger. - Too many grenades in BTB. - Not enough heavy vehicle gameplay. With 12 players on each side, I think it’s reasonable that at least 1-2 heavy vehicles should be available immediately to start the game like in previous Halo BTB games. Having a Scorpion or Banshee spawn with 2 minutes left in the game felt bad. The lack of vehicles made it feel like Team Arena with 12 players instead of BTB - Warthog is way too squishy and it’s way too easy to kill the gunner.Overall I had fun and am looking forward to playing the game in December.
Really good game. Good map, weapons are dope, The game runs good but in the warthong a keep crashing with things the wasnt there.