I made this thread in hopes of an intelligent discussion about balancing Reach. Please don’t let things devolve into a flame war. Anyway, post your list of the “Ultimate” Reach Balance Patch changes. If you were in charge of balancing the game, what would you do to make it perfect? Here’s what I’d do.
Weapons:
I’d change the way bloom functions. Instead of the current circle bloom, I’d use ring-bloom. Currently, a bullet will land anywhere in the circle reticule. This still gives spammed shots a large chance to land on target. Instead, I’d have a bullet only land on the outer ring of that circle. This gives spammed shots a MUCH smaller chance of hitting. Here’s a picture to help demonstrate.
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/856/shootingtarget.gif/
Grenades:
Reduce blast radius so they’re dodgable. Historically, Halo grenades have been tactical weapons. They’re used to force movement or action - not chuck them straight at someone to hurt them. Because of the increased blast radius, throwing 2 grenades for an easy kill is now a completely viable tactic. You just can’t dodge them many times, even when you see them coming. Look at the numbers. Every player I’ve looked at has shown >50% increase in their death-by-grenade percentage from Halo 3 to Halo Reach. That’s pretty significant.
Melee:
Re-implement Halo 3 mele/bleed-through. Bleed through means that if someone’s shields are low enough, your melee will kill them instead of just popping shields. Where not having this turns into a balance issue is when you’re fighting multiple opponents (or opponents in quick succession). If you melee someone, the next opponent will pretty much always kill you.
- You had to spray each other to drains shields all the way down. Nullifying most of the advantages of catching someone off guard - they have plenty of time to react. No more quick-kills from catching someone flat-footed.
- Their melee now always connects, even when you kill them, unlike H3. That means you’ll never have shields. The next opponent will pretty much always kill you. 1-1. In H3, you’d still have any shields they didn’t drain with their gun. When the next opponent comes, you’re fighting with lower shields, but you can still win. 2-0. This type of engagement happens all the time, and will often have greater repercussions. It’s game-changing. It decides which team gets rockets and another 4 kills. It lets them grab your flag. If nothing else, it often happens multiple times a game and is the difference between going 7-6 and 9-4.
Vehicles:
Light vehicles are massively underwhelming compared to previous games. Where the warthog was a major part of any game before, it’s rarely touched in Reach. Play a game on Hemorrhage and it’s obvious. The hog goes mostly untouched on the biggest, most open map in the game. That should throw up some red flags. Heck, people used to wait for the things to respawn and even betray each other over them. So what’s changed?
Reach introduced vehicle health into the game, as well as reduced most vehicles’ overall firepower. On top of this, Reach has more anti-vehicle weaponry and gadgets than any Halo game. Add to that the fact splattering is no longer feasible and you’re looking pretty dreary for all vehicles except the most hardy (tanks, maybe the banshee).
To fix this, a number of issues need to be addressed. First, the anti-vehicle capabilities of a few weapons need to be toned down. Notably the sniper. The sniper doesn’t need to be able to disable a hog by shooting it. The ability to one-shot the driver or gunner is plenty (not to mention that it actually takes a little effort). Halve the damage sniper rounds do to vehicles. DMR’s effectiveness against vehicles also needs to be slightly toned-down, so a single guy hiding in a cave can’t destroy a banshee or ghost all by himself.
Lastly, splattering needs to come back into the equation. As it stands, you stand a good chance of dying every time you go to splatter someone. Why? Armor Lock. You can’t tell if they have it until they use in 2 feet in front of you. Instant, unavoidable death. If you’re lucky enough to survive, you’re EMPed and basically dead anyway. To remedy this, Armor-Lock should have a charge-up phase for the EMP and against splattering. Unless AL has been activated for 2/3 seconds, a vehicle will go straight through and crush the guy. No EMP will happen. This brings splattering back into the game and light vehicles back into the equation.
Armor Abilities:
I’d start off by implementing the Armor-lock changes already proposed in the upcoming TU as well as those in the vehicle section. Melee-stun against AL-ers should happen until after a full second, and the emp blast shouldn’t take effect until 2/3 seconds have passed.
Camo could be changed with the TU changes. I don’t really see an reason to lean one way or the other, personally. Never had a problem with it.
Jetpack should be changed so that it automatically jumps when you press the button with your feet on the ground, instead of making you press A then bumper for max thrust. Give the jetpack more thrust and don’t cap the max height, but drop the fuel capacity. This makes it more viable as a combat tool, and also promotes intelligent usage instead of just holding the button and floating all the way across the map. It becomes a more vertical-oriented tool instead of a lateral one.
Make Holograms always appear as red-dots on radar instead of sometimes appearing grey. Player name should also appear above them, and the cursor should turn red, but there should be no auto-aim. This would make the ability have the potential to actually fool someone. I almost never see people look at them as-is.
So that’s what I’d do. What would you change if you were in charge of Reach’s balance? What’ your “ultimate” patch?