This is about weapons only, armor abilities and armor mods aren’t really included in this suggestion.
In Gears of War 3, you were given the option to choose what you wanted your primary weapon to be (Lancer, Hammerburst, or Retro Lancer) and you also got to choose what your secondary weapon/shotgun would be (Gnasher or Sawed Off). You also had your snub pistol in case your ran out of ammo with your other guns. This system seemed to work well for the game because you could fight at both mid/long range and close range, and I thought it was pretty balanced.
In Gears of War: Judgment they changed things up a bit.
You only got to choose what the one weapon you wanted to use would be. So you could use either the Lancer OR the Gnasher OR the Hammerburst and so on, but you were also given the snub (default/basic) pistol regardless of your choice. There are more pistols in Gears of War, like the boltok or the gorgon, and they remained placed around the map as pick ups. But to start a match you got one primary weapon of your choice and the default pistol.
I honestly think this new system is horrible - for Gears of War.
But I think it might be exactly what Halo needs.
For the next game’s loadouts, I think it would be a good idea if a similar system to Gears of War: Judgment was adopted.
You could choose what you wanted your primary weapon to be (Assault Rifle, Battle Rifle, Carbine, etc) and you could also be forced to respawn with the magnum as your secondary.
One primary weapon of your choice and the default pistol.
The plasma pistol and boltshot (or whatever the forerunner pistol will be if they don’t bring the boltshot back) could still be pickups on the map. This would help the people that complain or find problems with everyone starting with a “borderline shotgun” or those that are afraid to get into vehicles because anyone can easily EMP them.
I think the Firepower armor mod should make a return though. That way if you wanted to have an AR/BR combo or whatever, no problem. We’ll just swap out the magnum for another primary weapon of your choice.