Problem with REQ Packs

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

A lot of the Halo community hates REQ packs, and I honestly can’t blame them. Its basically pay to win on the warzone side of things, and pay to look cool on the arena side of things. While you can buy it with REQ points, one gold pack (10000 REQ points) is still the equivalent of paying $3 USD. I’m not going to dwell much into the purchase side of things though. One of the main problems with REQ packs is RNG.

RNG is why I personally hate REQ packs (don’t know if other people hate this fact too) because of this reason.

Example: I’ve spent a whole 2 hours of my day grinding Heroic WZ Firefight, and I now have (Lets go for 10,473 REQ points?) and now I will open this gold pack and get that Fotus Helmet I’ve been waiting to get forever! I opened it and I got. . .Scanner? No. . .No. . .NOOOOOOOOOOO! (Exact representation of what happened to me)

So yeah, that’s RNG in a nutshell. You’ve spent awhile trying to get that one customization thing, only to be disappointed by the ugliest item you’ve ever seen, or a certification, and so on. This is one of the biggest problems ever.

Now despite how much you may hate this, you have to look at this from 343i side. RNG means more grinding to get what you want, which means your playing the game a lot (what 343i wants you to do).

Now I can think of some way that can satisfy both 343 and the Halo community (a recommendation for Halo 6 or 7 if they make a Halo 7) Remove REQ packs, but keep REQ points. That way its possible to save up REQ points to get a specific armor/helmet. This will make the community happier, and keep people playing. 343i could make like this:

Ex: Fotus armor: 1000000 REQ points to get

It could work like this, to get REQ points, you need to play (helps 343i) but its not an annoying RNG thing where you get the worst thing out of that pack you have been grinding to get forever.

Let me know what you think of this idea.

2

While I’m a big fan of WZ myself (and I can see why many people aren’t) I definitely have to agree that the REQ system is way too WZ-focused, or at least along the lines of P2W. It’s pretty obvious seeing as you get more than double the points from a WZ match compared to something in Arena, and most of the REQs are weapons or vehicles exclusive to the mode. They really need to allow Arena matches to give out rewards of the same value as WZ does.

The biggest problem that I personally have is the oversaturation of REQs. I don’t mind a fair-sized selection of REQs to choose from, especially in WZ, but the 300 or so cosmetics (a lot of which either look awful or are just “variants” of another REQ) is a pretty blatant strategy to extend the time it takes to unlock everything, and as you said, the RNG makes it all boil down to luck when you open a pack.

As for your suggestion, I’m definitely on board with using points to directly purchase something, but I’m not so sure this will work with one-time WZ REQs. It might be better to keep the packs, but allow for buying certain cosmetics (or unlocking them through achievements, commendations, etc.) with points as well, the same way Reach does.

3

I think the req system was a terrible addition to the game. I have nothing against cosmetic packs, but not weapons and vehicles. I would prefer to unlock items through progression. I have stopped buying games with rng loot systems.

4

> 2592250499819446;3:
> I think the req system was a terrible addition to the game. I have nothing against cosmetic packs, but not weapons and vehicles. I would prefer to unlock items through progression. I have stopped buying games with rng loot systems.

Unlocking power weapons by progression is a godawful idea. Tryhards will curbstomp anyone below SR 100. Noobs wouldn’t stand a chance.

5

While you’ve got a point about PvP warzone being a bit p2w (I have not played it FYI)

Those are all unlocks you can get normally over time. I know a couple guys who own EVERYTHING they didn’t have to pay for. I’ve still got a ways to go with silver packs before I will touch gold packs. I stick to FF and never once felt at a disadvantage. I actually sell all my one time use reqs except rp boosts on top of that.

6

Cosmetics/Loadouts are good to be bought with req points. Cards obtained by “luck”

7

Here’s what I don’t understand. If a phaeton and a woodland Mantis are both legendary, why do I always get woodland mantises in gold packs and not phaetons? Makes no sense if they’re the same rarity.

8

Something I need to mention is that by purchase with REQ points is for Loadout/Customization items, not to buy power weapons. If you were to get power weapons, that would most likely be something REQ packs would be used for.

9

> 2535445432341588;7:
> Here’s what I don’t understand. If a phaeton and a woodland Mantis are both legendary, why do I always get woodland mantises in gold packs and not phaetons? Makes no sense if they’re the same rarity.

I have wondered the same thing! Makes no sence

10

It is what it is!

11

There is definitely room for improvement in the REQ system. RNG sucks, but having all the items in one big pool keeps it from being too pay 2 win because non-cosmetic stuff has a much lower chance of dropping than cosmetic (just looking at numbers of each not % chances). Obviously the ideal solution would be remove REQ packs like you suggested, but I don’t think it will happen. It has helped fund the HWC E-Sports and all the free DLC, plus some other stuff I probably don’t know about. If they remove the REQ system, odds are we’ll be seeing a season pass. Honestly I’d rather have the REQ system the way it is than a season pass because I don’t mind the REQ system that much. I’ve managed to unlock pretty much all the stuff I want at level 125 or 126 without paying any real money other than the $60 to buy the base game.

My solution: Keep the REQ system the way it for people who don’t care what they get. However, add the option to buy a REQ of your choice with REQ points. The problem is figuring out a good price for individual items so that it’s not impossibly long to buy a single thing but long enough to be a rewarding grind. It also needs to be tweaked so that unlocking all the lower level stuff without packs would be about the same time as unlocking them through packs so you can’t use that as a fast way to get higher level items from packs. Using my average REQ point collection rate of 10,000 per hour, I’ve come up with some prices. These may seem steep but remember you could pay the same amount for REQ packs and get a bunch of stuff you may not want or or save and get the one thing you do want.
Loadout and Weapon/Vehicle Certifications (with the usual 3 single-use): Common - 10,000 points, Uncommon - 25000, Rare - 50000, Ultra-Rare - 75000, Legendary/Mythic - 100,000
5 single-use cards: Common - 1000, Uncommon - 2500, Rare - 5000, Ultra-Rare - 7500, Legendary/Mythic - 10000
Cosmetic: Same as weapon and vehicle certs. Add a helmet and corresponding armor bundle for 175% of the cost for one cosmetic item.

12

I don’t see how it’s Pay to Win at all, yes you can get a few single use cards, but that doesn’t make you a better player instantly, you still have to acquire the req level and you can’t really use one after the after.

However i 1000000% agree that more should have been unlocked via progression, commendations and challenges, especially amour sets. I also hate how they’ve moved the “best value” bundles to the start of the packs.

I hope the system is massively overhauled for 6.

13

> 2533274944752684;4:
> Unlocking power weapons by progression is a godawful idea. Tryhards will curbstomp anyone below SR 100. Noobs wouldn’t stand a chance.

Unlocking power weapons at all (or anything else that affects gameplay), whether from progression or RNG, is a godawful idea compared to the idea of power weapons being pickups on the map in order to preserve equal starts and make it so players with bigger req collections “curbstomping” new players doesn’t even have to be an issue.

Of course that’s just my opinion, and the people who like that godawful game mode should still be free to play it, but I start to have a problem when that game mode brings in microtransaction money for 343 and therefore incentivizes them to neglect BTB and other modes in favor of it. But you’ve probably heard me rant about that before.

> 2535425643606121;6:
> Cosmetics/Loadouts are good to be bought with req points. Cards obtained by “luck”

> 2535434983195984;8:
> Something I need to mention is that by purchase with REQ points is for Loadout/Customization items, not to buy power weapons. If you were to get power weapons, that would most likely be something REQ packs would be used for.

I just want to point out that loadouts may or may not be a customization item but they should never, ever, be a thing that gets unlocked. That’s needlessly unfair to new players and Warzone probably lost a lot of its population in the beginning just because people were getting frustrated having to use a pistol to fight battle rifles. If a Halo game is going to have loadouts, every last one of them and all of their scopes and attachments should be available to every player in the beginning. There is absolutely no good reason to make them unlockable.

> 2535411561717249;11:
> My solution: Keep the REQ system the way it for people who don’t care what they get. However, add the option to buy a REQ of your choice with REQ points.

While I disagree with your assertion that Halo 5’s content updates were “free DLC” that 343 couldn’t have given us without revenue from the req system, I think this would be a much better system than the current RNG way of unlocking cosmetics. Being able to purchase cosmetics directly with real money, rather than just a chance to gamble for them, is the least intrusive way to implement microtransactions that I can think of.

14

Simple solution is to have armor unlocked through progression, and once you unlock a certain armor, it’s variations and skins will be added to the req pool. Keep weapons, vehicles, emblems, visors, and everything except armor in req packs.

In a way the rarity of items still applies in the current system and it is recommended to use all your bronze, then silver, then gold to unlock everything. It’s not horrible but it can prevent you from getting certain armors for a little bit.

15

Im glad it doesnt affect arena at all

16

> 2533274944752684;4:
> > 2592250499819446;3:
> > I think the req system was a terrible addition to the game. I have nothing against cosmetic packs, but not weapons and vehicles. I would prefer to unlock items through progression. I have stopped buying games with rng loot systems.
>
> Unlocking power weapons by progression is a godawful idea. Tryhards will curbstomp anyone below SR 100. Noobs wouldn’t stand a chance.

Power weapons could be on maps, it works for other games including older Halo games. There should never be the option to buy weapons in reqs imo.

17

It’s safe to say that no one likes the current REQ system. It’s bloated with variants, and the certifications are meaningless. Yes they’re supposed to increase the odds of obtaining a certain vehicle or weapon, but there’s no noticeable difference in pull rates. Also why include loadouts? That’s something that should be available to everyone in WZ. Obviously it’s to force newer players to purchase packs to be competitive in WZ.

18

It’s pay to skip the grind really not so much pay to win.

19

The armor and cosmetic unlockables aren’t horrible although not ideal but it is pretty lame that you can basically buy the most powerful power weapons in the game to use them in WZ. I wouldn’t say it is full blown pay to play because it is very easy to destroy a noob even when they have a top tier weapon but it does certainly tip the scales especially when you put a top weapon in the hands of an average player against another average player without said weapon and more so when an above average to pro player is using it.