On most of the maps it seems like Swat plays very slowly and more often than not it seems like there isn’t much going on unlike Reach an any given time. I can spend 2 minutes just trying to find somebody on complex and solace, and sometimes even on adrift depending on how people are moving around the map.
My thought is that we add a player on each side and make it 5v5, an extra player on each team can easily speed up the game’s pace
In complex just get to a good hidden sniping spot and you should see a lot of people. I agree with you though, 1 more player would be nice
I could agree to that.
Hardly any action happens in the interior or adrift anymore. Most just camp the outside platforms and shoot people out of the air when they vault over.
It’s all in the routes you choose to take relative to your opponents. I have matches that have gone up to 400 total points and still haven’t seen a live enemy. Other times I can’t help but move around a corner and shoot another.
As I’ve played the maps more, I’ve learned the popular routes and have had the first scenario happen less and less. All maps have a location off of spawn that everyone can meet quickly and engage. These maps also have ways to delay the battle instead of hasten it.
Get 2 teams that avoid each other and do so in the opposite direction, you have a slow encounters. Get 2 teams that gravitate towards the popular locations, it’s quick.
As for the battles as when they happen. It’s SWAT, red on the head is dead.
Halo 4 maps make SWAT more luck-based than ever. They’re designed not to have any strong points and to keep players moving. The problem with this is you can’t ever feel safe and you are always exposed. Moving around the map in SWAT will teach you this very quickly.
The result is that players in SWAT do the exact opposite of what the maps are designed for and try to hunker down. They learn that moving makes them easily spotted and vulnerable. No one wants to be target practice, so they try to limit their exposure.
It works this way in SWAT and not in normal gametypes because there is no forgiveness for being spotted before you spot your enemy in SWAT. You’re dead. As quickly as shields get wiped out in Halo 4, you still have a shield normally so if you get hit from an unseen enemy you can duck for cover. You can’t duck for cover in SWAT because if someone sees you then you’re dead, period.
Basically moving around the map in SWAT in Halo 4 is a horrible idea, so players try to do it as little as possible. Areas like the center in Adrift are just kill zones, no player with half his wits about him will want to be in there in SWAT.
Players still move to find targets, but only when they have to, because Halo 4 maps are designed to bring everyone together anyway. I think it’s horrible map design for a shooter, and you’re welcome to disagree, but its impact on gameplay is indisputable.
agreed
also noticed that i trade alot more than i did in reach
What heresy are you speaking? SWAT is CRAZY fast-paced. I swear to god I got a triple kill in two seconds on one Haven match I played, and that was a with a DMR (keep in mind I’m only a SR19). I am sincerely sorry you folks feel this way, but I’ll keep enjoying my adrenaline rushing, blood pounding SWAT games.
> What heresy are you speaking? SWAT is CRAZY fast-paced. I swear to god I got a triple kill in two seconds on one Haven match I played, and that was a with a DMR (keep in mind I’m only a SR19). I am sincerely sorry you folks feel this way, but I’ll keep enjoying my adrenaline rushing, blood pounding SWAT games.
Haha no.
Walking around Complex and Adrift all game trying to find enemies isn’t fast paced.
Key word here is ‘Haven’
…good point 
I didn’t think about Complex.
I don’t agree with this, sure finding people can be harder, but thats all about learning the spawns. I think SWAT is much faster paced in H4 compared to Reach. Reach’s slower pace (for SWAT) turned me off from it.
I wish all of the non-ranked type of playlists were at least 5v5 like H3 unranked.
Even complex would be OK (but not great) with 5v5
SWAT has always created it’s own map inside of existing ones. For Halo 3 and Reach, the middle of the maps we not used often.
I don’t understand people camping in Adrift. I see it happen, and those people don’t win the game (at least vs me and my team they don’t) The key to SWAT is movement and communication with your team. I used to hate Complex until we came up with call outs. Now Complex is one of my fav SWAT maps.
Haven and Adrift - Camping will get you nowhere. The circular walk is a deathtrap and the center is a cluster… Camping is a disadvantage here.
Abandon - Due to the way it is so asymmetrical there is really nowhere that’s great to camp… I mean I’ve never seen someone successfully camp on Abandon in SWAT. Maybe down by the bottom left tree shooting into the tower, but, that position is SO exposed it never lasts long.
Complex - Here is the issue. And, it wil lalways be an issue as long as we pretend that Complex is a 4v4 map. It’s not. Even when it’s a 1-hit kill game type like SWAT. It is too big for 4v4. Not only that, but it turns in to just plain stupid spawn-shooting. Not spawn-camping mind you. I mean red and blue spawning across from each other and just popping heads from one end of the map to the other.
> Haven and Adrift - Camping will get you nowhere. The circular walk is a deathtrap and the center is a cluster… Camping is a disadvantage here.
What kind of total nutjob would camp in the center or in the circular walk? WTF kind of idiots are you playing against and please tell me how to get matched against them. What exactly are you defining as “camping” because to me it has never meant “going to the most exposed and indefensible portions of the map” for ANY reason.
I camp successfully in both Haven AND Adrift. In Haven you pick a ramp and expose only your head, in Adrift you pick a corner and switch between between angles. I’m glad the “campers” you face are such complete morons though, because you have to be intensely stupid to step into the center in Adrift or spend a lot of time on it in Haven.
In fact the concept of “corners” just generally works for camping in SWAT.
> Abandon - Due to the way it is so asymmetrical there is really nowhere that’s great to camp… I mean I’ve never seen someone successfully camp on Abandon in SWAT. Maybe down by the bottom left tree shooting into the tower, but, that position is SO exposed it never lasts long.
They camp in the corners of the map because the map flows in the middle and sides. I’ve only played Abandon once or twice in SWAT though, it’s a horrible SWAT map and it appears most players agree with me. Half the map is an open death trap and the other is a tangled mess.
> Complex - Here is the issue. And, it wil lalways be an issue as long as we pretend that Complex is a 4v4 map. It’s not. Even when it’s a 1-hit kill game type like SWAT. It is too big for 4v4. Not only that, but it turns in to just plain stupid spawn-shooting. Not spawn-camping mind you. I mean red and blue spawning across from each other and just popping heads from one end of the map to the other.
No disagreements here, Complex sucks for SWAT.
> What heresy are you speaking? SWAT is CRAZY fast-paced. I swear to god I got a triple kill in two seconds on one Haven match I played, and that was a with a DMR (keep in mind I’m only a SR19). I am sincerely sorry you folks feel this way, but I’ll keep enjoying my adrenaline rushing, blood pounding SWAT games.
I think we have all achieved atleast an overkill, on Haven. it’s the most exposed map to play. But playing on Adrift can feel like running in circles sometimes(or should i say squares).
And Complex, I don’t mind playing because its easy to dominate with a DMR. So many people like to go on top of Room 7 thinking they will get kills, when they are exposed terribly. It’s annoying though that players will spawn within 20 feet of you, or you yourself will spawn within 10 of where you just died.
I think Reach killed SWAT as well. If you played alot of Reach, then you got used to the DMR, and rusty with the BR from halo 3. So now, anyone can be a badass on Adrift or Haven with a Br since it doesn’t take much skill with 3 shots to a given radius. Many of times I can aim for a players mid chest and still get the kill.