Technical Preview - Feedback

Games Halo Infinite
1

(Part 1/6)

I would like to start by saying I had been working on my feedback to be added to Halowaypoint. Being that I never received a Survey I started to assume that my only method was Halowaypoint but by the time I came to this, Halowaypoint’s feedback was then closed.
Feedback about the Feedback - I would like to suggest a timeline outlined so players know, when they need to submit glitch tickets by and also when to submit feedback by and how. Many players were expecting a ‘Survey’ then they realized they had to submit on Halowaypoint but that ended up closing before many could finish.
Below is what I had written for my feedback. I am well aware that there are those who will probably disagree with some of my suggestion, but I am writing my personal perspective and opinion for 343i. My main goal was to suggest ideas in the hopes of being part of making this Halo Infinite game great. I try not to criticize but to come up with solutions. I would ask anyone reading this to come up with a better solution if they don’t agree with mine. I am also sending this link by email to the 343i leaders who were involved with the feedback in hopes they will still see this (Please be aware I did submit my feedback on ‘Guns’ and ‘Weapon Drills’ before the feedback was locked):
I just want to start out by saying thank you for doing this ‘Technical Preview’. The idea of not only stress testing this game but with the knowledge that when you did a ‘tech preview’ with MCC you received feedback as the basis of the many changes to fine tune the game into the ‘mastery’ it is supposed to be and now you are doing the same with Infinite. I appreciate and respect that you are taking the time to really listen to the players. So thank you!
The Good:

  • I love the speed of the gameplay and feel of the environments. Though I do hope for some maps that feel like they came out of the campaign environment (Bazaar is the closest thing so far though the flow of the level on Bazaar needs re-working) - Many of the guns feel good and sound amazing. BR feels and sounds good overall, The AR feels like Halo 1 which I like and seems to actually get kills unlike almost every other Halo though seems like I have to end my AR with a punch to quicken the kill otherwise I end up dead myself so maybe it needs more bullets or slight more strength, Commando feels great and has a good skill gap(I understand the recoil can be a bit much however), Sidekick is amazing in how fast it is and does seem to have a good skill gap. - Music is great! - Movement with sliding is cool. Though I can agree with several recommendations on making it occur more quickly - Sprint is an interesting one. Someone measured it and its only 9% over the walking speed. Personally somewhere between 13-15% increase over walking speed is what I prefer. However I understand that many people don’t like anything that is automatic and not skill oriented which I understand. - The ability to map any buttons is cool. - The AI can be useful and funny at times. - Bots with the right programming can be awesome - Enjoy the Academy. A lot to like, though I have many ideas and suggestions to make this even better. - Looking forward to a lot more of the player skins/armor/customizations looking good. - I love the ragdoll flying affect when you kill a player with a punch!
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(Part 2/6)

Need Improvements:
Guns

Overall Gun Balancing – In my assessment and opinion, gun balancing is the idea that every match has a field range of guns each with variable skill sets and each with benefits vs risk ratio. To start a match, one must have weapons strong enough to take out opponents and with higher skill levels by themselves can be complete threats. As you master the map and maneuverability, power weapons become targeted, in order to advance ahead of opponents. More powerful the weapon greater the skill gap is needed so as to balance, the power to skill of player, ratio. All weapons should have inherent strengths, weaknesses, benefits, and risks. Thus, the obvious weapons like, a sniper and/or skewer should have a large skill gap but this also should apply to weapons like Shotguns and Needlers as these weapons are used often with devastating results to opponents but in the past have had too small of skill gaps. I believe they must require more skill in order to have such level of effectiveness.
So with these concepts in mind, I propose that starting weapons be a balance of ranges. One weapon for close to mid-range and the other for mid to long-range. These weapons should not be the strongest weapons but most commonly used if no power weapon is available or obtained. They should have reasonably scaled skill gaps so as the player gets better their ability to use their starting weapons become greater in proportion and so does the effectiveness of the weapon based on how they use the weapon as they increase their skill. So, I propose the following start combos: BR and AR, BR and Sidekick, Commando and AR, or Commando and Sidekick.
Plasma - doesn’t feel right, it seems like it doesn’t work like other halo games as the plasma charge doesn’t follow as affectively as it should. And if you follow up with a regular shot to the head it seems to do nothing with the same plasma shot. (Maybe this is just me)
Skewer – The zoom seems way too blurry and shouldn’t be red around the perimeter. Should be a bigger skill gap but should be more like a sniper scope but maybe with a smaller reticle and window screen. Skewer should make enemies fly and should pin to whatever the trajectory of that skewer shot would end at. Just the sheer physics of this situation of something so powerful should be launching these players like the ragdoll affect from a punch that ends in a kill.
Sidekick – though I love this weapon and the skill gap, there seems to be something missing about this gun. The balance is off. Getting shots in from long range seems unnecessarily difficult while the bots seem to be masters. Mid or close range seems fine. Bloom seems off. The clip should have 14 clips so that you can get 2 kills with this gun without reloading.
On a different note, a hand-gun in real combat wouldn’t have long range anyway. And in order to take down a shield the bullets would have to be extra strong so I tend to think a Magnum level gun with a slower shot but stronger bullets that can kill at the TTK rate as a BR seems fairer and more logical. So, if it were a magnum or more like one it should technically only be good at close to mid-range.
Needler – I get that this gun has a skill gap but my problem with the needler has always been the same, there is no way to get away from someone who is good at this or to kill them first apart from maybe a sticky grenade, double teaming, etc… Just feels like its way too much of an advantage and the Needler doesn’t take anywhere near as much skill as say a Sniper, BR, etc… Needs a greater skill gap honestly or less affective needles so they have to follow up with a sidekick shot or something.
Bulldog – This is interesting. As with all guns I like the idea of a skill gap, but the Halo Infinite as is, there might be some balance and skill gap issues with this weapon. With the radar not picking up walking, someone could just walk up behind you and Bulldog you to death. This seems like relatively no skill. I do however like that it is a 2 shot instead of the 1 shot, being that 1 shotting people with a shotgun requires almost no skill, you just had to hide and allow the other player to appear in close quarters to you to surprise attack. So honestly if the radar changes this will be an ok balance (though the second shot should definitively be a head shot) if not this weapon should probably be a 3 shot.
SPNKR Rocket Launcher - I love this weapon but the radius is way too big. I could literally kill 4 players with 1 rocket which seems way over-powered for 1 rocket. I think the radius should be able to take out 2 players and no more (unless 3 were literally bunched together but this would be exceptionally rare). Though I am glad that you actually can take out players. You see, the Halo 5 rocket, I felt did so little, and so unless you point blank hit them with the rocket or you shot the floor under neath them they wouldn’t die. For a rocket that seems illogical especially considering grenades and grenade launchers are more effective which makes no sense from a physics stand-point.
Ravager – This weapon seemed to be effective at times and not at other. Not sure what is going on with this weapon. Also, I’m leaning towards, Punching an enemy with this weapon should be a 1 hit kill being that it has a knife attached.
Sniper – Overall I personally liked this. I do think getting this gun closer to the Halo 3 settings/set-up would make more people happy.
BR – The sound is basically perfect. The skill gap is pretty on point. Just adjusting overall to Halo 3 specs will make this the best it can be
AR - feels like Halo 1 which I like and seems to actually get kills unlike almost every other Halo though seems like I have to end my AR with a punch to quicken the kill otherwise I end up dead myself so maybe it needs more bullets or slight more strength. I am thinking this should be an effective close range weapon only and less effective mid-range and much lower affect long range, especially if it is going to be a start-up weapon. Otherwise, I think having a BR and Sidekick start up makes the most sense for ranked play as these have 2 different ranges as weapons.
Commando - feels great and has a good skill gap(I understand the recoil can be a bit much however)

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(Part 3/6)
Weapon Drills

Now, as for the weapon drills themselves. I like many things about this. I think adding some additional things will make this that much better.
Additional Stars/levels – As this Academy only had up to 3 stars I believe with some players getting snipe up to 63K there is room for levels above 3 stars. As you go up the stars the bots should do some more advanced manuevering as well, like jumping, crouching, sliding, etc…
Non star/ranked drills – There should be some basic drills for the newest of the new or a tick markable option to do the following: No timer (though showing how much time could have its use but no time limit is what I mean), unlimited ammo, and no reloading. The purpose of this is to take away all the stress of a timer, how many kills, etc. so a total newb can learn to shoot
Grenade drills – Some people need to learn how to nade, especially with the bots being crazy experts (lol). So having a nading drill would be a great addition.
All Player Scoreboard/Ranked – There should be an all-player scoreboard that is posted through the game that you can access. This will show the top players around the world and when you go through a drill you get ranked 1-(whatever # you end up on) and whatever is potentially below you.

Arena Drills – There should be a drill that can be done on any of the maps. Bots being set at their levels: Recruit, Marine, ODST, and Spartan. But bots should be unable to inflict any damage. I suggest they still play like they do inflict damage but no actual damage occurs. This would allow players a more realistic drill based on how an actual match would transpire. The match could still be ranked and scored based on hit damage and how many kills vs how much time left on the clock.

4

(Part 4/6)

Bots:

Purpose of Bots – If I had to guess the current bot purpose from 343i standpoint is mostly for academy drills and warming players up before matches. What your true goal or long-term goal is, I am not certain. However, I have a belief that the bots could be potentially revolutionary if done correctly. Bots have been around for quite some time technically every campaign FPS has had bots but multiplayer bots started around 20 years ago. The technology relatively new then (though had some games that did great), now many games can be named having had bots and being successful. There are early games like Perfect Dark that was a success, now days there is Doom, Gears of war, etc…All these have accomplished great things with bots.
Halo, I believe has a unique opportunity to take bots to a whole new level. Yes, bots as they are in Infinite, are buggy, and even with finishing touches will not be able to truly play like humans. However, I believe 343i has the technology and ability to take these bots and the very idea of bots to the next level.
Bots should be variable, leveled, ranked. They should be able to be varied in their ability down to being able to rank the bots just like humans. Bronze 1-6, Silver 1-6, all the way to Champion 1 (heck maybe higher). I know, for the average player this sounds difficult maybe even impossible but that simply isn’t true. I know some programmers who can verify that this is possible. Bots can be programmed to have varied level of shot accuracy, nade accuracy, movement ability etc… This was at least visible between the current bot ranks and would need to be fine-tuned but this could be done.
So, the purpose of the bots would not only be for ‘training’ and ‘warming’ up but also for advancing player skill level even the best of players could use sharpening of their skills. Of course, ranking up would still need to be in the ranked playlist against human players but playing against the bot a rank above you will get you up to the next rank more effectively.
Why this purpose – You see ever since Super Mario Bros (I know there were a ton of games before Mario but for the purpose of my point I want to stick to Mario) leveling up is literally the nature of the game. You start on level 1 until you beat level 1 and go to level 2. Why shouldn’t game ranking be this effective? The best way to do this would be to have Bots that are literally player equivalent of every rank. Why Would this work? Because as of now there is no perfect situation where you are playing against the exact rank above you consistently. So, playing against bots could literally be like playing against the very next level in Campaign and thus players would level up from one level to the next.

Bot Customization - Seeing how much you were able to accomplish with the bots (minus the bugs and weird, sometimes dumb/inaffective behavior) I believe they could be programmed with quite a few customizations.
Bots with Custom Skill Levels: Setting the bots aggression or increase the bots accuracy against me in an octagon to work on my accuracy, or have the bot be better at nade throwing, etc…The idea that you can customize the bots skills, traits, and attitude would be amazing. A bot that is a master of movement, or positioning, strafing, etc…An attitude of calm confidence, or aggressive close play, or a strategist. I would like to see a difficulty that the bots can get up to that even champions/pro ranked players would be challenged. This would push the envelope of game play, sharpening the pros game. This level of customization will help every player from every level sharpen their skills and make ranking up more accomplishable. I still think ranking up should be against other humans because humans are less predictable and therefore more challenging.
Bots could have personalities like: nade master, sharp shooter, brawler, etc…Even Toxic bot. If bots get upgraded to Pro level. You could even have bots modeled after Pro players. Can you imagine: Frosty bot, Shottzy bot, Renegade bot, etc…
Bot glitches - I am sure you are well aware of the many glitches of bots. I don’t want to list every glitch as I am sure you have insane lists of just that. However, I would like to mention a few things that the bots do that need changing. If I rush the bots with an AR for example and then punch them at the end, the bots shoot away from me and do not punch back or do any serious evasive maneuvers.
More variables - Bots need more random starting strategies. From what I have seen they do the exact same starting strategy each time (together) which means they can be beat too easily. They need to spread out in different areas of the same direction or split in 2 directions, one set going to power weapons and the other set going to a power up. I noticed they never seem to go for power weapons. Not once have I seen a bot run to the gravity hammer or sniper.
Too Similar - Bots ODST and Spartans are too similar. ODST seem better at the sidekick and nading vs Spartans seem less skilled at the sidekick and nading but more aggressive. The Spartans should retain the great shooting and nading skills.
Aesthetic customization - Bot customization: Bots should have more variety in their colors, armament, etc… and essentially more ‘unlocked’ armor based on their level just like players do. Recruits should look like recruits, Marine’s should look like marines from the game, etc…
Bots equivalencies - Currently (if I had to guess): Marine = High silver to Low gold, ODST = High Gold, Spartan = High Gold
What Bot equivalencies should be: Recruit = Bronze to Silver, Marine Gold to Platinum, ODST = Diamond to Onyx, Spartan = High Onyx to Champion.
Each level should have an increase on average of the traits of real players. Each level getting better at Nading, more accurate shooting, evasive maneuvers, strafing, positioning, advanced movement, increase in ability to use power weapons, more strategic, etc…you guys obviously know these things.

5

(Part 5/6)

Maneuverability:
Sliding - I like what I see in the varieties of speed slides that people like ‘The Shyway’ have discovered. Anything that is skill based with maneuverability is the right way to go. I would like to see the function of the speed slide be a little more reactive upon starting the slide, it seems to have a late start. I also would like to see it be a very smooth transition.
Booster/Thruster Pack – Though we haven’t seen this and there are some speculations that this will be an item that one can wear with temporary use, I think it should have the same uses as Halo 5. Thrust to the side, Spartan charge, and ground pound but much like the grapple be a temporary use. With something like 3 uses (Example: 1 boost to get away, 1 spartan charge, 1 stabilize)
I think that one way to make this even more valuable is to have either 2 Booster/Thruster packs on a map or have these timed for maneuverability. The idea being if someone is top notch on their maneuvers they could literally take out opponents, used advanced movement, and arrive at another Booster/ Thruster pack that as on the opposite side of the map. So even though it is using the Booster/Thruster pack it requires skill all the way through.
Jumps – the spring jump needs to come back. This is definitely a skill-based jump and I am confident that most players would like to see this back. I would ask that if it does return it is just 1 or 2 frames closer to being do-able. You see, this skill was so difficult that even the pros only used the ‘select menu glitch’ because the spring jump was so inconsistent. Also please bring back trick jumps from Halo 3. Skill-based jumps are part of the core of Halo and absolutely should stay.
Sprint – This is an interesting one. Someone measured it and its only 9% over the walking speed. Personally, somewhere between 13-15% increase over walking speed is what I prefer. However, I understand that many people don’t like anything that is automatic and not skill oriented which I understand. So I am currently ok with this staying, as is, as long as skill-based maneuverability is increased in slides, jumps, etc… to compensate

6

(Part 6/6)

Player Outline system

As you already know, most people have issues with the outlines system as it isn’t fully clear as to who is friend and who is foe. I have several ideas that might work:

Raise the opacity/width/brightness of color - as players get closer the opacity/width/brightness would raise allowing distinction to become very clear. The reason why it wouldn’t be to bright farther away is because we don’t want a beam of light letting players know where other players are and therefore being targeted when normally they might have been able to move around without being overly noticed.
Add a player tag - with name at the top of the player you are playing on but no tag for the opposing team. This would be the Halo equivalent of street basketball with shirts vs no shirts.
Allow players to toggle an option for full color of enemy players. Full color would mean that the opposing team would be viewed in 1 full color like (red, blue, yellow,etc…) but you and your teammates could be seen by you and your teammates as the custom colors you have chosen. And this would be true for your opponents too, they would see you in whatever chosen full color and yet they could see themselves and their teammates in their chosen custom colors.

Shields

Overshield is hardly effective – the overshield feels far less effective than I am used to. Seems like maybe 2-3 shots before it dies out.

Regular Shields - don’t show up clearly. As you know, many people are having this issue where they are taking down an opposing player it isn’t clear when their shields have dropped so that you can shoot the head for the final shot. Perhaps a full phase in and out affect or a flashing of the opposite color of whatever the outline is could help make it clear

Radar - The Radar is ok, but I think the idea that players are going undetected at walking speed should be corrected. No movement and crouch movement I believe should go undetected otherwise any other movement should show up.

Tech Preview Roll out - I don’t want to criticize. I only am making an idea suggestion that another way to roll out the Tech preview might be to have the downloading of the game on 1 day and the actual gameplay the next.

7

Additional:

Gravity Hammer - felt good in its weight but too slow.

Death cam - death cam rotation is missing. Should be able to see what is going on. Or allow the option to watch a clip of how you died.