First of all, I just want to say that I absolutely love the gameplay in Halo 4. Easily my favorite so far. I’m happy with everyone being able to sprint, and I am happy with the loadouts. I am glad that many of the AAs that I hated from Reach got nerfed (jetpack, invisibility, and armor lock). I love that many of the weapons got beefed up like the AR and SR. I love that when I get shot, I don’t scope out. I could never use my scope in a long range fight, because each bullet pops you out and disorients you, so I just stayed scoped out, but the worst was when you got scope-locked. I love that bloom is either absent or mega-nerfed. I love the maps. Virtually everything that has been changed gameplay-wise has been an improvement in my eyes.
But, I have some things that I would suggest that I think would hugely improve the overall experience, and they involve the matchmaking system - not gameplay.
First is the playlist selection. My personal opinion is that the playlists should be largely comprised of staples with a few rotational playlists. Staples would include Team Slayer, Team Objective, FFA (Slayer primarily and Obj), BTB (Slayer and Obj), Doubles (my absolute favorite), SWAT, Snipers, and maybe a couple of other established favorites such as Grifball and Infection/Flood. I am all for the offbeat, interesting, and new playlists like Regicide and Dominion, but I do not think that these should be in place of the staples. Why fix what isn’t broken? Put in all the staples, combine some of the less played lists (like all of the Obj), and then add in or rotate the extras.
Also for the record please, please give us Doubles. Again, this is a staple and should have been in from the start. I only have one other friend who is consistently on Halo 4. Everyone else has been sucked up into CoD. Our favorite gametype is Doubles, far and away. Since nobody plays with mics (if they do, they are already in a party), it is basically impossible to coordinate with the team. So, as it is, it is impossible for us to play as a team. Nothing is more frustrating than losing matches that you (combined with your one other friend) went +15 or +20 because your other teammates are solo players who are just ramming into the other team and dying. I want to be able to play with a friend in a competitive, team-worky kind of way.
Second is the way you are handling rotational playlists. I am all for frequent, weekly updates as opposed to monthly updates, but having a gametype around for only a week is way too short. I think a good system would be to introduce a new playlist each week as you are doing, but have them stay around for two weeks instead of one (unless they are really popular or unpopular). That way, you would have 2 playlists in rotation instead of just one, and people would have more time to enjoy a rare playlist. I was flabbergasted when Snipers was pulled after only one week even though (by my observation) it was consistently the 4th most played list (behind Team Slayer, BT Slayer, and SWAT). Also, how is SWAT even still considered a rotational list? It is consistently third most played, and it always has at least 3 times the number of players as the next lowest list. I think it has established itself as a permanent list.
Also, it seems as though we are not being listened to. Who asked for FFA Throwback? Nobody. That is why it is currently the lowest played list. While Team Regicide sounds like it could actually be pretty fun, it was not on the top 5 of playlists to add. As far as I have seen, most requests are for Doubles, FFA Slayer, Big Team Objective, and Grifball, and I have seen several posts asking for 1F CTF. So why not start with those?
Third is the lack of a ranking system. As it is, for the most part, I could hardly care less about winning than I do right now. It used to be (in H2, H3, and even Reach’s Arena) that when a match came down to 49-49, your adrenaline was pumping. You wanted to win. Now, if it comes to 59-59, and I end up losing/winning, I hardly care. It used to get me out of my seat, whatever the outcome was. Halo 4 really needs something to give you incentive to win. Another 400 XP? Who cares? I’ll get 5 times that just by playing the next game. I don’t understand the reason for not wanting to include a ranking system in-game. Why only on Waypoint? I would really like to see the 1-50 system make a return in-game - at least for some playlists like it was in H3 (some ranked, some unranked).
Finally, I would like to see a return of the clan system as I have heard mention of. It was a lot of fun in H2, and it would be nice to feel a part of something. Again, ranking would be hugely important, here.