Playing on the series x the game kept crashing while I was trying to load into a match and sometimes it would ban me after crashing on its own. I would say it crashed at least 6 times during the whole weekend. Trying to queue into matches was very buggy as it just didn’t work sometimes. But I feel like the weapons balancing and combat in infotech feels very natural and smooth. The only complaint is that grenade spam was a huge issue. Everytime I got into a fight I had at least 4 grenades coming right at me which is very tough to combat seeing as they’re practically halo CE mini nukes in infinite. Fragmentation was an excellent BTB map and I think the weapons and vehicles play really well on the map. However, the warthog is awful to drive, one small adjustment and it flips over which makes getting in and driving a pain. Overall though I was very happy with the flight and while I listed only problems here there were many other things that were awesome in the game.
BTB –
Lot to like about this but definitely some things that could improve this experience.
-The vehicles should spawn more often.
-Stronger vehicles should spawn maybe towards the middle of the game.
-Vehicles are definitely weaker and should hold up for longer.
-The Loot caves should have a little more Loot.
-Would love to have both Training and bot arena with game types like BTB. This would allow you to really learn how to get better at BTB. For me being a newer player learning BTB is a bit of a struggle
-This map is a perfect example of the AR being a little too much from long range. I was getting shot literally across the map up to breaking my shields from AR’s.
-Instant replays would be great.
-Jeff Steitzer’s voice needs to be in Big Team Battle.
-I’d like an option to turn off the AI voices.
Feedback:
- Vehicles should spawn closer to a team’s base not right in the middle of the chaos - Fireteam members should have outlines not just indicators.
I had a blast playing BTB all weekend long, I was very pleased with the direction the mode is going. With that said, I have some feedback regarding different aspects of BTB. Here we go!
Game Modes
- Slayer matches felt overall rather quick as compared to CTF. Given the additional number of Spartans on the battlefield the total score could be bumped up too. Perhaps to the 125-150 range. In previous halo titles, given 8 players per team, the ratio would have been 12.5 kills required per Spartan to reach 100. If scaled linearly that would equivalent to 150 given 12 players per team. Additionally, with such quick games, the overall experience around vehicle gameplay also suffered as the better vehicles started to drop via the Pelican just as the match was mostly over.
- CTF felt great. While I was skeptical at first about the flag spawning at different locations, it did grow on me as I played more. Different locations meant the players were forced to relocate and more of the map was utilized overall. However, I hope this is not set-in-stone for all BTB maps as some variety with classic single-flag stands would also be welcomed.
- Total Control games were either hit or miss. A difference in skill level was immediately clear in this mode as some games resulted in an exciting match of tug-and-war fighting back and forth, while others felt like the whole one team just let go with the match ending in minutes.
Vehicles
The biggest issue to address in BTB is the lack of vehicle gameplay. The first issue was that players rarely spawned with a sightline to the Warthog (Out-of-sight out of mind). Most of the spawns I encountered were focused on a BR/Commando/Pulse Carbine weapon spawn and pointed into the middle of the map where there was little to no chance of encountering a vehicle.
Secondly there was also not a lot of variety of vehicles to begin with. Given the history of the BTB playlist, 1 Warthog and 3 Mongoose per base felt very underwhelming. One of the Mongoose could have been upgraded to another vehicle such as the Ghost and/or a Rocket Hog, and a 5th vehicle such as a Tank or Air Vehicle could have been placed near/on the base. The Pelican drop is a neat idea, but there is nothing more disappointing then seeing a Warthog being dropped off or even a Ghost knowing it could have been something more kick--Yoink!- instead.
Lastly, while the vehicles sounded amazing, they did not feel great. Given the low health and number of any-vehicle weapons, equipment and grenades; the lifetime of the vehicles felt short. Sometimes lasting only a few feet from where the vehicle was dropped off.
Weapons & Equipment
There are already many great posts that go over some of the problems with the AR range, so I will focus on some of my other observations.
- I really like all the new equipment and look forward to seeing what else will be added. With that said, the drop shield did not feel great in BTB. The time it takes to deplete the health on one of the panels is much too short. It would be neat if the rate at which the health depleted on one of the panels were different depending on which side the player is on. Meaning that if you are placing the shield, you can easily knock out one of the panels while an attacking player would require to deal 3-4x the damage to deplete it. This would allow for more strategic options to the defender on whether they want to create that vulnerability to counterfire or use it as a solid shield.
- It could just have been me but there seemed very little presence of the plasma grenade. I mostly encountered the dynamo grenade (which is great!) and the spike grenades. Especially in the loot caves.
- The Pulse Carbine felt underwhelming in comparison to all other weapons. It felt like a disadvantage in all scenarios (close, normal, and long range). It could use significantly more player magnetism to be viable against a BR or Commando.Map - Fragmentation
The map felt fresh while keeping an aesthetics both classic and new. It is nice to see so many trees and vegetation in a Halo BTB map. The layout was interesting and while I liked the loot cave, again I hope this is not a set-in-stone requirement for all BTB maps. What I found interesting was that the map never felt too chaotic, despite having 24 players on it. The layout did a good job diving the map into pockets for more manageable fights which didn’t feel overwhelming while also giving that occasional larger clash. However, it would be interesting to experience how a more open map would pale in comparison with this many people in BTB.
Some minor issues include the team base colour not working properly at times. As someone who has set friendlies to green and enemies to red, I was confused by a base with white banners. Additionally, on an Xbox One X the performance mode (60 fps) should almost be the default for BTB (or even the game) to get the best experience.
Overall, I was very happy with BTB and look forward to what is to come.
- Flag should be a one-punch kill – there is currently no advantage to being the carrier (can still sprint and throw grenades but no way to truly defend by shotting or counter with perfectly-timed melee) - Fragmentation BTB loot cave doors open too slow, have to wait on it – sprint or walk up to the door and the door doesn’t start opening until the spartan is physically touching the door - Threat sensor only has 3 pulses before it auto-destroys itself. This was balanced after a previous flight, but can this be extended to 5 for BTB since the maps are larger and enemies are more spread out? - No way to track how much time you have left on invisibility. Can see overshield health going down and equipment uses left and recharge time. Feels like its set for about 20-30 seconds, but with a timer, players may feel more comfortable pushing an objective or counter-fighting, and playing less “self-preservation”. - Vehicle health (specifically Warthog and Banshee) felt too weak in BTB, similar to the Wasp in H5. - Really missed the extermination. It is one of those medals that feels so good to finally achieve. - Fusion coils don’t respawn on Fragmentation. Is this a bug or is this designed that way? - Pre-game intros and outros for BTB: would be cool to see all 12 spartans, even if not all 12 names are shown (show fireteam spartans for sure, but still have all 12 spartans be seen: 3 rows deep of 4 spartans or 2 rows of 6 spartans). - Will we have multiple playlists and what will they look like? Slayer, Objectives, Bot (different difficulties, etc.)? - Total Control game: at the end of the 15 minutes, team was down 2-1 but still went to overtime. Why is that a thing? - Was it designed that the threat sensor and drop wall get destroyed when a new one is placed by a player?
Things that i think could be improved in btb:
-Vehicle health: It feels like most vehicles, except for the ghost and scorpion because i was unable to drive one, have pretty low health. There´s too many ways to counter vehicles now so maybe they could use a little healt buff. Wasp and mostly banshees are pretty easy targets, even if playing passively they won´t last long. I didn´t have a problem with warthogs health but instead with dynamo grenades and shock rifle, the emp effects last a bit too long, maybe add some kind of resistance and an extra shot for the shock rifle?
-Grapple: Grapple should cut after it extends a certain distance when attached to vehicles. I´m not againts hijacking vehicles with it but it´s way too hard to do something about that when driving, even if you try to get away grapple will get you
-Heavy vehicles drops: Tanks, banshees, wasps and other vehicles should appear more often and sooner. I only saw the scorpion drop about 4 times during the flight
Need to improve the graphic of the pine trees, the grass can also be improved, the grass on the other arena social map is very nice, but gameplay and proportions are fine.Put moves in the trees, because they can use it to defame the game.
I’m Brazilian, if there is any writing error, it’s the translator’s fault.
Weapon/Equipment Feedback:
- Imo, the Heatwave could use a few slight buffs. Right now, while its increased range and overpenetration is nice, there are times where it feels slightly too weak for what it is, and although the ricochet effect is nice, the amount of times where it’s been useful for me are few and far between - the ricochets currently feel more like a dice-roll that might help me or could be cool, rather than a functional mechanic that I can effectively use a play around. To elaborate on the ricochet effect, while I really like the idea and appreciate the influence of the Halo 5 Scattershot (a weapon I really like), as it stands the now the ricochet effect doesn’t really add that much to the weapon - I’m pretty sure a majority of my kills with the weapon have not been bankshots. I think this could be resolved by giving the ricochets a homing or tracking effect, akin to the Halo 5 Scattershot, though I think it could even be made a bit stronger - perhaps as strong as the Didact’s Signet Scattershot variant from Halo 5. I don’t think anyone will be able to use the Heatwave in its current form to hit shots like the one we saw in the multiplayer reveal, especially considering how fast the strafe speed is and how much mobility-based equipment there is. Without tracking, to me, the ricochet effect just feels more like a gimmick or bonus feature than an actual function of the weapon that can be reliably utilized to outplay enemies. I also feel that it’s per-shot damage is a little too low in the vertical fire mode (and maybe a little in the horizontal too but I mostly used vertical). For the 2-shot vertical kill, both shots need to land partially on the head - two full shots to the body won’t do it so far as I can tell. Given that you have to lead shots with it further out, the high strafe speed and abundance of mobility-enhancing equipment, and that you already need to land a majority (or all) of the rounds per shot for it to be effective, the weapon can feel a bit weak outside of very close ranges (and even sometimes within very close ranges) where it’s more difficult to lead and land all of those pellets in both shots. I think this could be improved by making the Heatwave 2-shot enemies in the vertical mode regardless of where they’re hit on the body (still requiring all of the pellets in a shot to land on-target though), so that the weapon can reliably 2-shot when aiming at center mass - which is where you’d typically aim for a shotgun anyway. Over the weekend, there were some cases where I thought to myself “an AR, Needler, or other close-mid range weapon would’ve worked better here, and been easier to use, especially the AR on M&K”. - I think the Dropwall could do with a few buffs as well - mainly in terms of deploy time, shield strength, and overall durability. As is, the Dropwall feels a bit too slow to deploy - I’ve definitely died before it hit the ground a few times (and it’s also been shot before it hits the ground a few times too lol). I know that it’s meant to be proactive and not reactive, but the fact is that it will be used reactively sometimes, and even when being placed in advance, it’s panels break so easily that the amount of time it’s usable is often only a few seconds or less, especially if more people are firing on you. Not only that, but grenades and shots to the emitter at the bottom make it even more easily breakable. I understand and appreciate that this equipment isn’t another bubble shield, and that’s quite fine, but as it stands now I think it could use a bit faster deploy time, but mainly, more durability in the panels and a greater resistance to being destroyed (maybe increase the health of the emitter at the bottom?). I also think it would be cool if we could take existing drop walls and put them in our inventories for later use provided they aren’t too damaged already - making them reusable. A lot of times I might put one down proactively and then end up not using it, or I might stumble upon a perfectly intact deployed one that’s sitting in the middle of nowhere or facing the wrong direction, etc., and I think it’d be a small but beneficial addition to be able to collapse existing walls and redeploy them elsewhere. - After messing around with the Plasma Pistol a bit in both flights, I think its tracking could use a bit of a buff. I understand that 343i is probably trying not to make the weapon quite as much of a power combo weapon as it used to be (especially in Halo 5), but in Infinite it just feels like the weapon’s overcharged bolt misses too many times for it to be viable compared to other options. I feel like it should be balanced so that a distant and aware enemy player could dodge the bolt coming at them, where as an unaware player should get hit by it every time - this isn’t how it feels currently. The slightest side step or movement on the part of an enemy and the bolt misses, and so I think it should have some better tracking at longer ranges especially. Up-close I think it feels pretty good, if you aim well enough and know the weapon, you can probably hit most of the shots, although I think it could still potentially do with a smaller buff to tracking up-close, with mid-longer ranges being the main areas that need improvement. - This is a small gripe that may not be addressable, but certain weapons like the SPNKr have ready animations that can sometimes take a bit too long, making it so that I die sometimes because the animation takes too long to finish, preventing me from firing a life-saving or game-winning shot. Now, if there is an animation cancel that I’m unaware of that avoids this, please let me know, and to be clear, I’m not advocating for a speeding up or changing of the SNPKr’s ready animation, because it’s awesome as it is! Rather, if it doesn’t already exist, some way to cancel the animation for those times when you need to fire immediately after picking up a new gun would make a good addition imo. - This is a small critique, but, as amazing as the Skewer is, it would be even cooler if it pinned players’ bodies to walls/floors/ surfaces based on what’s around them when they’re hit by it, i.e. if I shoot an enemy who’s right in front of a wall, they would go flying into the wall and get pinned to it by the skewer round. I don’t know how easy this would be to implement, but it would be one hell of an extra detail to add to an already incredible weapon. - A suppressed variant of the MK 50 Sidekick, akin to the Automag of Halo 3: ODST, or the Tactical Magnum of Halo 5, would be awesome!
Had one game of total control on xbox where the control point was not capturing no matter how many of my team were on the point.
The game had this weird glitch. Since we didn’t have the right graphics card all of the light on the screen was just white pixels. You could see some parts of the screen, the HUD was perfectly visible and the gameplay was flawless, the only issue was the lighting. 343 can you please made sure Halo Infinite can run on lower powered devices.
Also I know you created armour coatings for money reasons, but I think a way for players to make their own armour coatings would be very good. Maybe you can add purchasable blank armour coatings, that can be coloured in by the player and then added to their Spartan. I think that could work.
As feedback I want to say that I appreciate the removal of the spartan laser, but I think making the shock rifle hit-scan negates most of the good of this removal. Previously it took skill to EMP a vehicle as charged plasma shots moved very slowly. Now with the hit-scan shock rifle, two taps and you can EMP a vehicle from across the map easily. Getting EMP’d in the middle of a fight is almost as much of a death sentence as finding yourself in a splaser’s sights, and the fact that EMPing a vehicle is now just as easy as splasering a vehicle ever was makes vehicle combat still suffer. I’d like to see some kind of balancing be done to make it harder so I won’t be EMPd every vehicle run, whether it be switching the shock rifle to a projectile type weapon or anything else really. The Dynamo grenades are fine for EMPing as they take good nading skills and awareness to make use of for that purpose.
It’s also way too easy to grapplejack vehicles, but atleast that’s kinda cool still so it’s not as infuriating when it happens. Still would be nice though to see it be less common to get grapplejacked on launch, whether it be due to slower grapples to allow drivers to try cutting off the grapple-line with obstacles or fewer grapple charges per spawn. Just so it’s actually a special thing when you can pull it off and not a routine way you lose half your vehicles
I loved the flight and most issues I took note of are already being addressed like the BXB bug and crashing. Vehicle gameplay being broken by shock rifle snipers and too-frequent grapplejacks are two issues I haven’t seen much discussion on though
Hey 343
I gonna put my feedback here but is a issue with social arena too.
Why Spartans have this outline red colour like Halo 3 ODST VISR? Always when i try to run or escape from a dangerous situation i was like a red glow running personally i don’t like it because i want to recharge shields or hide to the enemy but with the red border it’s to obvious i even remember killing a random guy doing the same thing he hide in a tree but the red shields recharging reveal hismself the shields with team colores is very good and i love it but why have this color aura always? Ir be cool you can see that red outlines when u scan they enemies with the “danger radar” or maybe when u use the new mechanic and alert ur teammates.
I really loved BTB
I just wanna suggest that the heavy vehicles can be drive since the begginig, because that could improve the experiece.
Plense, you don’t have to nerf any weapon, ther are perfect.
You can maje that abilieties like graple shot could last more. In example 10 shots for graple shot, repulser and treat detector and 6 shots for the wall.
I think that the wall needs to be activated faster like the bubble shild of H3.
Managed to play several hours and it went smoothly. Just wish there was more time to play! One of my favorite all times modes across all Halo games is infected. If it is a mode in Infinite I hope it’s similar to Halo Reach’s infected. I didn’t mind the Halo 5 version but I like the classic feel.
> 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. - 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.
Definitely hoping Jeff Steitzer is heard more in BTB.
I’ve had a great time playing the game, and had no issues during this flight and was able to get on every time on an Xbox One first generation console. BTB from previous experiences in Halo 5 wasnt a go to mode for me at the time it seemed more clustered with all the vehicles and if one team got both power vehicles then it was a wrap. Now having the power vehicles get dropped in is a better game play. It Just takes to long for the next drop. But Halo Infinite BTB is way better an would be playing it again when it drops
I just want to start off by saying that I’ve been loving Halo Infinite overall so far and I can’t wait for launch. There’ve been so many moments that have been simply exhilarating (especially in BTB), and there are so many things that I love about the game, but there are also things big and small that I think could be improved upon. My feedback for BTB is given below:
Gamemode Feedback - BTB:
- Total control is a great new mode imo, but I think that it, as well as some of the other BTB modes, could be so much better if they lasted longer. I’d like to see longer matches in BTB for a few different reasons.
- As it stands now with how vehicles are dropped into BTB, I rarely get to see/fight/use even the Wasp or Banshee for very long, let alone even seeing the Scorpion, and that’s a real shame, because it somewhat takes away from what BTB is at its core - a place for different vehicles and players with heavy ordinance to clash. There’s several different ways to address just that issue, but extending game times is one of the easiest I think, because it doesn’t require reworking the timing for the vehicles, and it adds so much to the individual matches themselves even without the vehicles. Simply put, more time = more vehicles that get rotated in = more classic BTB feels/moments. - Longer duration matches allow for better tug-of-war, slug-out, back-and-forth, intense, damn good Halo. I cannot stress enough how much potential I think Infinite’s BTB , especially CTF and Total Control, has to be a Battlefield/Star Wars Battlefront-like tug-of-war between the teams while still being Halo BTB at its core. As it stands now, certain matches that could’ve been very close end when they’re just starting to get good, killing the fun and chances for comebacks right when they’re primed to be made. As an example, my friend and I were down 2 - 0 in Total Control, but on the final set of zones, our team was making a good push to control them all, and were on the verge of getting all three, when the game ended because it went to time, and just like that, our chances of another 10 or 15 minutes of great, intense, well-fought Big Team Halo goodness were ripped away, and man was it tough to hear Spartan Agryna’s line telling us the game was over. I think it’s fine to have some BTB variants be limited to 15 minutes, but please, don’t be afraid to up the time to 20 or 25+ minutes for certain modes (or up the score cap in CTF to 4 or 5 for example). 343i, you’ve created a great BTB, possibly the best one yet, and definitely the one that, to me, really has the potential to bring the Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront-style Conquest/Supremacy-mode feeling to Halo - and that’s awesome, you just need to be willing to let it happen. What should decide a good Halo match is the skill and capabilities of a team right down to the last kill, capture, or point, not a clock reaching zero. - As I mentioned above, I think Heavies should return in Infinite, potentially as the mode which has all the vehicles spawn in immediately at bases like in previous Halo BTBs. But in any case, I just really want the chaos of heavies back, if not with vehicles spawning in bases, then perhaps by decreasing the time in between Pelican drops or by increasing the frequency and power of the Pelican drops during a match. - I’m not sure if this already happens in BTB, but maybe vehicles should be dropped in based on which team is doing worse to balance things out? With how many anti-vehicle options there are, I think giving a losing team a Razorback, Wasp, Rockethog, or maybe a Scorpion could be an interesting way to try to even things out. Not sure if it would actually work in-practice, just an idea I had. - It seems like weapons are despawning rather fast in BTB. For example, I’ll die, run back within < 30 seconds and some weapons are already gone, and in some cases I’ll see lower-tier weapons despawn while I’m still in the respawn screen looking at my corpse. I realize that this may be necessary for technical reasons, but if possible, it would be nice if things could last a little longer before despawning. - This is a truly minor nitpick, but the Pelicans that are dropping of the vehicles shouldn’t have their landing gear deployed. We don’t see Pelicans with their landing gear out when they hover off the ground to drop off troops and supplies in the campaigns, and since they’re not touching down in BTB either, I don’t think they should have the landing gear, it just doesn’t look/feel right to me though. Again though, a minor critique, it’s still awesome seeing Pelicans drop stuff off. - If Pelicans can drop vehicles off, why not have Pelicans drop players off into the battlefield at the start of matches like in Halo 5? This was one of my favorite things about Halo 5, and I think Infinite’s BTB could do with a bit different of an intro to help emphasize that you’re not in Arena anymore. - Save for when a vehicle is destroyed by the Heatwave, vehicles should have their wreckage stay around for longer, and it should be a bit more ‘damaged’ and ‘destroyed’. It just seemed like some of the wreckage despawned rather quickly, and other times the wreckage didn’t look all that wrecked, mainly in the case of warthogs. - I personally wasn’t at all a fan of not showing up on the radar when walking. It felt like I couldn’t see or track enemies as well, like I was a bit blind not being able to rely on my radar, like I had to check corners while walking through a wide open swathe of a forested valley when I shouldn’t, and I definitely noticed my teammates suffering from this difficulty seeing/tacking enemies at times as well lol. BTB is meant to be a social experience, an intense chaotic one, but a social experience nonetheless, and I don’t think competitive settings like this belong in BTB. There were so many times when enemies would just be lurking on the ridges around the bases with sniper rifles or they’d be walking around within/atop our base and no one would know. They weren’t having to crouch and didn’t have any difficulty lurking around because they could just walk around freely, fire, and disappear. Both from a balance standpoint and mode standpoint, I don’t think that these radar changes work or belong in BTB.
I have to say this BTB is like crack! But I have found some bugs and things to improve.
Bugs:
-
After respawning sometimes the grass on fragmentation would “pop-in” (xbox one x) - After swapping from training mode to BTB my gernade and equipment indicators on the ui would display as having infinite uses - I would constantly rubber band and get dropping during matchmaking (I have decent Internet)Opinions on things to improve
-
I feel the SPNKr and the Skewer are flipped when it comes to vehicle denial, the skewer seems OP and the SPNKr just feels like I slapped The vehicle with a napkin. I think the Skewer should do less damage and have more of an impact on the vehicle physics. And the SPNKr should do more damage. - PLEASE have the fusion coils respawn. Even if it takes a long time, I had so much time tossing them at enemys!
Playing on PC 3070 not one issue while playing, the only real thing that bothered me was the sound it made when someone captured the flag or lost the flag it sounded like an unmounting USB device
Amazing job guys, this is the right path for Halo!
I do feel that the Warthog sound is off though, noticed it in BTB.
Dynamically, the engine gearing doesn’t match the speed and variable-gear style movement of the vehicle. Sort of places it in a weightless arcade-like category.
The engine sound is generic and doesn’t suit the profile of the hog (save for the startup) - the ‘legacy’ variable transmission and high-pitched 12L hydrogen-injected ICE engine sounded unique, suited the driving characteristics and was more satisfying to hear/drive too.
It’s like when F1 cars went from the V12 to the V6 engine; a bit underwhelming
Just my two cents. I’m otherwise loving it all!