> I believe that all here should look at all their vids but for now since this side of the waypoint seems to be filled with ideas on how to balance weapons and abilities in Halo i think everyone will need to take a look at this vid.
The video basically says “purposefully add foo strategies (aka crutches) to the game so new players don’t get owned by better players, and so better players don’t get bored because there’s no challenge”.
I’m going to discuss where this has fallen short in the past and why, if not bad, is at least not entirely necessary.
- Sandbox design. We have an entire portion of the sandbox dedicated to foo strategies, it’s called the automatic weapons. They are easier to use but less powerful / much less versatile than the precision weapons.
Remove access to the AR from your average player, and they get steamrolled. Why? They never invested the time to learn how to use the precision weapons, simply because they didn’t have to.
I’m fine with having a crutch weapon in the game. But the fact that every automatic weapon is a crutch is very poor sandbox design. Have the SMG be a crutch, then make the Assault Rifle weapons actually have some depth.
- Competitive play. Crutches are bad for competitive play, simply because people would default to them frequently to win a match. It would lower the overall skill gap of the game.
Why doesn’t MLG use Assault Rifle starts? Simply because the AR has a low skill gap between its floor and ceiling. How does one differentiate a pro from a noob when the AR is equally easy to use to each? And why bother investing time into getting better if you are going to be limited to an easy to use weapon the vast majority of the time until you pick something better up?
Ok, so let’s assume MLG has BR starts with an AR as the secondary. People will just default to whipping out their AR in close range and spraying their enemy. Close range battles would be determined by who shot first, and not actual skill input. Remember spray + melee in Halo 3? It’s all anyone ever did in close range.
Going away from MLG for a moment, I’ll give a personal anecdote. I never use the Sniper Rifle in Halo 4. Due to the increased aim assist of loadout weapons, the skill to reward ratio is way off. It is much easier for me to use a BR than try to snipe BR users, while being just about as effective. The BR is my ‘foo strategy’ in this scenario.
The whole concept of competitive play is to have skillful, balanced play. Crutches obviously go right against this. I’m fine with the game having crutches, but don’t whine or shout “I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY I THEY POINTLESSLY REMOVE WEAPONS” when the competitive playlist decides to ban them.
- New players getting owned. The video assumes everyone is a casual who gives up when they lose. The video also assumes there is no other way to prevent pros from stomping on noobs. These are both false.
The latter is actually prevented with ranks. With a proper ranking system, a social playlist is much more likely to be unfair to the new player than a ranked one is.
- Experienced players becoming bored. Again, ranks ensure that experienced players are only matched up with other experienced players. No need for crutches if this is the case.