Though a currency system in game would kind of play out like -Yoink-, I wouldn’t mind if weapons and vehicles would appear after you hit a certain point count.
For example: In Reach lets say you hit 10,000 points. A Rocket Launcher would spawn with a waypoint over it. Then once you hit 20,000 points maybe a garage door opens and you gain access to a Warthog. Or maybe even have new parts of the map open up when you hit a certain number of points.
I think that way you can get some dynamic weaponry in game, other than those “random” weapon drops that always drop 3 of 4 weapons (Spartan Laser, Rocket Launcher, Target Locater, Sniper Rifle).
I wouldn’t mind keeping the weapon drops that give heavy weapons, but instead of them dropping down at the end of a set (round?) have them drop at random times. It would give people incentive to move around the map instead of camping. Right now you can just wait for the drop, grab the weapons, and then go to your camping spot.
Also, one thing ODST did right was having everyone start with the same weapons and make them go after the weapons on the map. In Reach if you want a Shotgun, just spawn with one. In ODST you actually had to look for them.
Another nice thing in ODST was that you can hold off anywhere you want. For example, on Lost Platoon if you wanted to hold out on a group of rocks, you could, if you grabbed the correct weaponry. The main structure was only there as the suggested to hold off, but you didn’t have to. In Reach normally the spawn area was the only place used to hold out. It take away the uniqueness. On Glacier, there’s a little outpost with a turret on the left side of the map. People can gladly go and try to make a defense there, but then it strikes them. Why should they if all the weapons and ammo crates are so nicely placed in the spawn area?
The only thing that I didn’t like about ODST firefight was the fact that on basically every map there was a Wraith bombarding you from across the map. It just gets plain annoying after a while.
Also, the other thing that I don’t like about Reach firefight is that the enemy spawns and types of enemies were too predictable. Like in ODST, Phantoms always dropped off troops in the same 3 or 4 locations. Why not bump that number up to like 6 or even more locations? It adds more variety. Sometimes enemies would be dropped far away, but then sometimes enemies could be dropped literally right on top of you. That way you couldn’t have one player camp each of the drop zones. Also, the types of enemies that spawn are too predictable. Wave 2: Always Jackals. Wave 3: Brutes. Wave 4: Skirmishers. Wave 5: Generals/Chieftains/Hunters. Please make the enemies random to some extent. I understand why the first wave is always a weak enemy, so people have a chance to set up their hold out point, but after that I’d like the spawns to be semi-random. So sometimes you may get Jackals, and sometimes you may get Elites with grunts. It helps keep the game fast paced and exciting.
That’s basically my 3000 cents’ worth.