For lack of a better name, that’s what I’m calling them, but it’s not really what it sounds like.
Basically the Arc Trap is a metal disc that your spartan launches (similar to the Threat Sensor) at a surface (it doesn’t stick to Spartans or vehicles). Upon impact the disc expands to make a larger target. Essentially this disc turns a wall, patch of grass, tree, you name it, into a lightning rod that can use to arc onto nearby players. This would empower the shock weapons’ ability to shoot around corners and passively buff both weapon without actually buffing them (neither gun does more damage and 343 could limit how many Arc Traps a pickup grants).
So what birthed this idea? I was messing around in training mode, trying to learn more about the Disruptor. This included getting kills with the Disruptor’s ability to “chain” damage onto targets from dormant weapon/items on the ground. I found that unless I was standing right next to the weapon/pad or a relatively large object like a vehicle, trying to do this seemed almost pointless. Even moreso if I tried it against real people. Worse it seemed like I was never near one of these “arc points” to actually take advantage of the feature. And the one way to “create” an arc point was to drop a weapon, but you need to be rather close to your target to do that.
tl;dr: I want to be able to create areas where I can actively use the shock weapons’ arc ability and not just rely on chance. And yes, I considered “Lightning Rod” as a name, but discs aren’t rods.
great idea. woulld the area also damage people over time? i like equipment ideas that have an effect on everyone in the map including your own teammates. it makes maps more interesting.
I haven’t actually tried it since I don’t use shock weapons that often, but have you tried to see what happens if you throw (drop) your own weapon (not the shock weapon), or what happens with equipment like the Threat Sensor?
No, given the nature of the item. It’s not really a piece of technology. It’s just a slab of metal that sticks to a surface. Think of a painting on a wall. The disruptor can arc lightning off of this painting, but only if something is like 5 feet from it. Doing damage over time is more of the Dynamo Grenade’s job. However, if you land 3 arc (same as direct hits), the disrupt halts shield recharge, so it’s kind of the same thing I guess.
I have, and it’s the reason why I think an item like this could be useful if not outright necessary. If you drop a weapon, you can indeed use it as an arc trap, but for it to work your enemy would have to be very close to you. At which point you might as well just punch them or shoot them directly. I suppose you could drop a weapon, repulse it near where an enemy is hiding then shoot it and hope for arc damage, but that’s just ridiculous.
I haven’t tried it with a Threat Sensor although I suspect the TS will either:
Break – Since it has 1 HP and that’s how you’re suppose to counter it.
Be invincible – It’s a “friendly” threat sensor and you can’t harm allies in Halo Infinite. And by extension, you can’t use allies as lightning rods.
Both of these are just speculation though and I could be completely wrong.
Although my biggest issue with using a threat sensor as an arc trap is that it’s a super small target. The shock rifle may be able to hit it at range, but the Disruptor wouldn’t have a shot. Also I’m not the best marksman.
then its a very limited piece of equipment. arc grenade is different. it does lots of damage in a short amount of time. your idea could do small damage in lots of time. basically your idea should be an area denial ability that lasts about 20 seconds and also has an extra perk to increase damage and chain damage with shock weapons.
That’s the goal. And yes, both teams should be able to share an arc trap. One thing I forgot to mention is that these traps should last a reasonable long time since they’re only useful when a certain weapon is in play on the field as well as I think it would be cool to create a “train” of traps that you could set up and fire at to attack an enemy a far distance from you. But that more of a custom games thing.
It is. It’s not really meant be a weapon, it’s meant to augment a weapon you already have.
That’s pretty much the Disruptor’s bread and butter. To kill slowly. Right now it has the slowest optimal TTK of any gun in the game, but it’s also one of the few that can hit many targets at once. Personally I see the Disruptor as a pressure weapon. You can prevent players from recharging shields or kill them even after they’ve run away.
I’d argue the area denial ability is a player seeing the trap and knowing that they could be killed by an unseen foe. This was a common scar tactic in Titanfall 2 with Scorch’s Incendiary Trap.
I considered extra arc damage as a perk of this, but I wasn’t sure if that would make the shock weapon too OP. Shock weapons already stack damage with each other. So you could technically throw one of these on a wall, toss a dynamo, then fire at the trap to do massive damage. Also the Dynamo could take advantage of the traps as well. It also has the arc ability.
They might be stronger, but I doubt it take more than a few bullets.
The Disruptor affects Drop Walls like any other weapon (destroys a panel) and the emitter of the drop wall is notoriously weak. But the wall suffers from the same problem that dropping weapons suffer from, you can’t throw it very far.
I think they’re saying it’s not good to have very limited equipment on the map.
The other equipment all have uses that don’t require specific weapons to be useful.
Isn’t the purpose of the Disruptor similar to the Plasma Pistol?
Take down shields then switch to another weapon?
Wouldn’t it be rare to see someone with an Arc Trap, a Shock Rifle or Disruptor and Dynamo Grenades?
That’s true, but also consider: What if a teammate had the Arc traps and you had the Disruptor? They could set up a target for you and you could fire at it. Obviously that would require a lot of teamwork and communication, but it’s an option.
Or how about this? If your equipment slot is empty upon picking up a disruptor/Shock Rifle, the game gives you some arc traps to use. If you already, say, a grappleshot, then you just keep that. This means the arc trap is only in play when someone as a shock weapon. And this should be able to be tweaked from map to map since some maps could be unbalance with the presence of the arc trap.
Just thought of another idea. Give both the disruptor and the shock rifle an alt fire that sticks an arc trap on a surface. You can then shoot that. Of course this would completely unbalance the guns which is why I’m not exactly for this.
It is. But the Disruptor does it slowly while the Plasma Pistol can strip shields in an instant. In fact because of the disruptor’s slow fire rate, you’d likely get killed before you can break shields then switch to another gun.
Yes, in most situations it would probably be better switch to a weapon better suited for killing. But if an enemy hides around a corner. Then of the two guns you have, the disruptor is the one that can still hit them IF you have an arc trap.
Yes. But your teammates could have a Disruptor, another has the Dyanmo grenades, and you have the traps. Again, lots of teamwork would be involved.
The point is that it has no value if you, or an ally, don’t have a shock weapon.
That might work, but it might be better to just give the equipment some other use.
That might work if they limit the amount of alt-fire uses.
Maybe make it so that it consumes a shot or two of ammo.
I thought it was fast, but my memory isn’t great.
The odds of having an actual team with those items gathering before they lose the items seems very unlikely, and there aren’t that many Dynamo Grenades and Arc Traps (they’d be limited, right?), so it’d be sort of pointless for a team to go after those items.
Most equipment in this game is one-sided. H3’s was more neutral, but the user still had the advantage of controlling when it was used.
The one-sidedness goes down if the traps last for a long time. You could use one, die, respawn and an enemy now uses the trap against your team. Also dropping one in a stronghold or near the ball carrier can force players away from the objective.
im not saying its not completely unneutral as both teams can have a shock weapon but its less likely. i know halo infinites equipments is one sided and now it needs to add good neutral equipment into the mix to spice the map up for everybody and not just one person at a time.