Halo 5’s multiplayer, in particular Warzone, is very well done and enjoyable, but there are some glaring oversights that would be easy to address that would vastly improve our experience.
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DON’T SPAWN US OUTSIDE OF OUR BASES
I get that spawn locations attempt to factor in the proximity of enemies, but preventing spawn kills is impossible. If the other team is attacking a base, it is more important than ever to spawn inside the base to defend it. As it is now, your team has little to no time to rally to its defense. Additionally, the exterior spawns are almost always in flat, open ground and all but guarantee a quick BR death. Please just add more spawn points within bases or JUST outside, not in the open. I shouldn’t have to sprint to the base that I just selected as a spawn point. Furthermore, if there’s an AI tank on the beach, let me choose to go attack it. Don’t spawn me a half mile away from the base for an optional objective. -
LET US CHOOSE OUR SPAWN LOCATION FOR VEHICLES
Ever want to get in a hog with a buddy on Battle for Noctus? Too bad! You spawned at South Garage and got railgunned before your buddy could even get in the vehicle. This should never happen. It’s completely ridiculous that this happens. Allow us to spawn in the safety of home base for ANY ground vehicle, but especially two-person vehicles. You shouldn’t be forced to spawn in the most hotly contested part of the map. Make our REQs worth the cost. -
REWORK SPLATTERS AND HIJACKS
It is way, waaaay too easy to hijack vehicles in Halo 5. You should not be able to hijack a Ghost at full boost. The distance required to hijack needs to be reduced. It was never a problem until Halo 5. On the flip side, a Wraith has a momentary pause before initiating its boost that is still lethal, meaning that Wraiths can splatter successfully going 0 mph. This happens regularly. Please fix it. In other cases, splatters are not lethal enough. Sometimes a Ghost at full boost hitting the back of an opponent on foot fails to net a kill. Why? More on the next point. -
INCREASE VEHICLE MASS
What is the deal with the vehicle mass? Halo 5’s vehicles are the extremely tipsy due to having insanely low mass. Vehicles should not get off the ground easily unless they’re going off of a ramp or cliff, collisions with other players and vehicles should be solid, rough terrain should slow you but not tip you over, and vehicles should only do the helpless barrel roll when hit with extreme force. Enough with the Tonka toys. Make heavy vehicles feel heavy. ThIs problem contributes to such instances like the Ghost not landing a splatter properly. -
CHANGE AERIAL VEHICLE SPAWNING
Again, spawn kills are impossible to prevent, but they should be a rarity when you spawn in a vehicle. As it is, you’re likely to have your aerial vehicle damaged (if it’s a Wasp, then on fire or outright destroyed) within a second or two of spawning. They spawn directly above bases, totally exposed. An aerial vehicle’s main asset is its maneuverability, which is totally negated by spawning dead center over a base. If that base is being attacked by an enemy flyer and you want to contest the airspace, they’ll likely be above and behind you when you spawn. Just let us spawn on the fringe of the map instead. It’s not like aerial vehicles count as defenders unless they’re physically inside the base, anyway. -
MAKE THE GAME ABLE TO HANDLE ITS OWN MENUS
How many times has your game frozen while simply navigating its menus, outside of a game? For me, more times than I can count. It is NOT internet connectivity, because party chat continues without a blip. The game simply can’t handle transitioning from its different menus while in a game lobby. This absolutely should not still be a thing.
These six problems, if solved, would make a good multiplayer experience great. These next few are not as critical but would still add a lot of value.
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Improve Multiplayer Balancing
Teams are horribly lopsided much too frequently. Perhaps factor in fireteams to the balancing calculations? Anyone in a fireteam is going to be more coordinated and effective and if a team has multiple fireteams, then in the pregame balancing, there should be an even or close to even number between the two teams. The actual ranks of team members is less of a factor (speaking in regards to Warzone). -
Allow us to Select Load-Out Kits per REQ Level
Warzone is fast-paced, and nobody wants to take the time to go in and change up your load-out weapon variants and armor mods every REQ level, every game. Add a feature to the customization menu to make load-out selections for REQ level 2-8. Like Halo 4, but better. -
Stop Spawning Us as Far Away as Possible From REQs
I’m convinced that the game knows where your weapons are when you die and spawns you at the furthest possible spawn point in a given location to prevent you from being able to reclaim your weapon. Maybe it’s not programmed, but if it is, then fire whatever employee came up with it and disable that programming!
And now these last three are just wishes, but I think that they’d still be worthwhile.
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Make the Sentinel Beam More Common in REQ Packs
There is only one variant of this weapon and there is a commendation attached to it, so it should be received more often (with the certification) than other weapons to compensate. In truth it should probably be an uncommon weapon rather than a rare, given your likelihood of getting a decent number of kills with it. You shouldn’t have to step down to Silver Packs to get a good stockpile of the Sentinel Beam. -
Add a Commendation for the Plasma Pistol
There’s a commendation for every other mainline weapon, why not Plasma Pistol? It’s really not that hard to get kills with them, and there are three variants! -
Refund REQ Energy Spent on REQs When Betrayed
If I spawn a good REQ at the Monument on Battle of Noctus and some idiot team-mate is doing laps around the circle in a Ghost or Warthog and I get splattered, then my item gets immediately nabbed by a teammate, then please refund the energy spent or make the next spawn of that particular REQ free. It’s so disheartening when such things happen and it can really set you back when trying to keep up or stay ahead of the average REQ level of the players in the game. If you’re worried about players abusing such a feature, then perhaps steal the REQ energy from the offending teammate? Auto-refill REQ energy when teamkilled? Something would be nice.
If you would like to see any of these changes, please lend your support. Hopefully we can get one last update before Infinite comes out any everyone moves on.