Inviting to play and test re-tuned Overgrowth

Games Halo 5: Guardians
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Hello! I am editing and re-tuning the weapon spawns and spawn times on Overgrowth to see if I can make the map competitive, balanced, and most of all fun to play on.

If there is anyone interested in playing with me later tonight between 9 and 11 pm CT, please come! I will be in a custom game lobby that will be open to join on the Customs Browser. It’ll be standard 8v8 Slayer settings with unlimited time and unlimited kills. Look for the name “Overgrowth IIC” to join.

For now, I don’t want to enforce a time and kill limit as I’m more so focused on analyzing how the the flow of combat has changed with my tweaks.

I have tweaked Overgrowth into something I think is much more balanced and fun to play on in a social or competitive setting, as the vanilla version stands to be quite frustrating and/or boring in my opinion and as well for many others. I do believe this is a reason as to why it is no longer featured in the rotation for the Slayer and Quick Play playlists in the Ranked and Social matchmaking modes respectively, and if it still is, I haven’t played on it in 3 years in those playlists. Only in Fiesta and ODST slayer.

As for why I think it’s unbalanced and not fun, the sight lines on Overgrowth are very restrictive and very few in number. As such, mid to long range weapons don’t work very well. The Magnum will still play well on this map of course, but on vanilla, weapons such as the Carbine and Light Rifle either weren’t fun to use or to get shot at. The LR is very difficult to use on Overgrowth as a result of the terrible sight lines, and the Carbine would shred players in the confined spaces to where it wasn’t fun to be killed by it.

Secondly, while the Railgun is fun to use, especially when combined with active camo, that combo is redundant, as Fathom allows for the same style of play but on a map that is designed better for it. Furthermore, weapons such as the Boltshot and BR get thrown to the wayside as they aren’t very capable of dealing with the grenade spam, Carbine, Magnum, and AR use on this map. The Boltshot is limited in it’s strong tracking ability due to the tight spaces on this map, and can’t put out enough damage to be useful in CQC. The BR in Halo 5 is awful in Arena playlists in general so it speaks for itself.

So, what have I changed?:

-Replaced the Railgun with the SAW and gave it a 4 minute re-spawn time with 1 additional magazine. The SAW performs superbly on this map and is really fun to use as well. The high respawn time and low backup ammo balances how much it’s in play.
-To further balance the SAW on Overgrowth, I have placed a Scattershot over in Needler spawn, with a 30 second respawn time and 1 additional magazine. The many walls and surfaces on this map allows the Scattershot to be a fun and effective counter weapon to use against those with Camo and/or the SAW.
-The Needler has been moved down to Bottom across from the SAW where the Suppressor spawned originally.
-The Carbine, LR, and Boltshot have been removed. There are now two BR’s with the Laser Targeting attachment, one of which has replaced the Carbine on Blue Spawn. There are now two Suppressors, both of which replaced the LR and Boltshot spawns, and have 2 additional magazines.
-Finally, to counter the Scattershot and allow for Team plays, I have placed a Fuel Rod Cannon in Top Mid with only 1 magazine (no additional ammo) and a 60 second respawn time.

I’m still play testing these ideas, but I need your help to do so. Considering 343i has popularized the practice of flighting and gathering community feedback, I thought I’d do the same. I am not a fan of how the rotation in the Slayer playlist is biased towards Forge maps and only 3 vanilla maps (Coliseum, Truth, Eden) most of the time. I enjoy those maps, but seldom do I ever get to play on many of the other vanilla maps in H5. As such, this is my attempt to make Overgrowth fun and competitive to play on in the hopes that it can be added into the rotation for the Slayer, Quick play, and Arena playlists.

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do you have a friend code

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I have edited the map after playing 15 or so minutes of it with other players. It was a 3v3 match and the flow played nicely, but the SAW was too overpowered and overused. Additionally, the Scattershot and Camo Combo was extremely deadly, and while the Scattershot and Fuel Rod balanced out the SAW, it ended up becoming a game about only using those power weapons, so the meta of Halo 5 and using the Magnum as the utility weapon was significantly reduced. As such, I am swapping out the SAW and the Scattershot with one another.

  • The SAW will now be where the Needler once was in vanilla Overgrowth. It will have no additional magazines, and still have a 4 minute respawn time. With the reduced ammo, the same 4 minute respawn time, and it no longer being a central attraction as it is no longer on the weapon pad, the hope is that it will not dominate the game as much as it did before.
  • The Scattershot is now in the middle of the map as the central power weapon. It garners the most attraction, and now that it is on a longer respawn time of 3 minutes, the hope is that the Scattershot Camo combo will not dominate as much as well this time around. To justify the Scattershot being the primary power weapon on the map, I have raised the additional magazine count to 2. However, I fear this may make it too powerful, but we shall see.
  • Together with these alterations, I hope that the meta of Halo 5 will not be disrupted as these weapons will not be in play on the field as long as they were before.

I am still hosting these games tonight, and have extended my time to play and test out these settings to Midnight CT, so feel free to join anytime!

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> 2535429545534243;2:
> do you have a friend code

I can add you as a friend and invite you if you’d like!

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Thank you to all that decided to join tonight and help me play test the tweaks I have made!

After playing the map with the last edits I made, I have decided to remove the Fuel Rod Cannon altogether and replace it with the Plasma Pistol. During play testing, we would run into many instances when the Fuel Rod Cannon would be too powerful against the Scattershot, which is being treated as the Primary Power weapon on the map to have control over. Many times there would be a player with the Scattershot who would run into someone with the Fuel Rod Cannon in Top Middle or along the main sight line along the side of Overgrowth and be countered by a Fuel Rod too easily. This was so because the Scattershot requires an up close range to be very effective, and while it can be used mid range with skillful use of utilizing its bouncing and homing projectiles, the Fuel Rod Cannon would just be used to patiently target the enemy with the Scattershot and kill them in one shot.

Additionally, the Fuel Rod Cannon being on the map meant that there were three very powerful and very effective power weapons competing with one another. This meant that players would generally only be using these weapons as opposed to their starting weapons, therefore disrupting the meta of Halo 5’s gunplay, which is something I do not intend to remove.

With the Fuel Rod Cannon being gone, the Scattershot can now fill its role as the primary power weapon on the map, while still being able to be countered effectively with the likes of the SAW and the Needler. These two weapons, while effective against the Scattershot on this map, still allow plenty of room for error on their user’s end and should the player with the Scattershot be able to effectively move and utilize it’s sandbox properties skillfully, they can still out play an opponent wielding either of those two weapons.

As for why the Plasma Pistol has been favored over the Fuel Rod Cannon, the Plasma Pistol performs exceptionally well when used in skillful hands against the standard meta of Halo 5 on Overgrowth. Because there are so few sightlines and exposure on this map, where most battles end up occurring in the hallways and close quarter areas, bringing down shields quickly and efficiently is paramount in taking players down so as prohibit them from escaping alive so easily. The Noob combo in Halo 5 is quite powerful, but on Overgrowth, the map’s own design prohibits it from being too powerful because a player can utilize the amount of cover they have to counter the homing overcharged shot. As a result, using the Plasma Pistol still requires skill to use, and it can be very useful when fighting an opponent with the Scattershot or using it in conjunction with their grenades as Overgrowth is a map that heavily encourages grenade use.

Lastly, I have reduced the amount of backup ammunition of the Scattershot to 1 magazine, and reduced the respawn time on the SAW to 3 minutes.

I am confident that Overgrowth is quickly becoming a fun, balanced, and competitive map with these tweaks. I want to thank everyone again who joined tonight, especially since I did this on the weekend of the Halo Infinite flights! I will be doing this again next week after the Infinite flights are over so as to allow more people the opportunity to play test this new Overgrowth. Thank you again, and I hope to see y’all again soon!