Now I’m not trying to be negative, but there’s a glaring problem with big team battle that most people aren’t discussing enough.
Namely, the balance between weapon spawns and vehicles is all over the place. Sometimes it feels like there are too many anti vehicle weapons around, making vehicles useless. Then the next game there are wasps and tanks everywhere, and the strongest weapon on the map that hurts vehicles is a skewer one side can reach faster than the other, and like, a heatwave or sentinel beam if you’re really really lucky. If you’re really lucky, one side gets a hydra and shock rifle and the other gets to respawn indefinitely until they ragequit.
Someone needs to batten down reliable and consistent weapon spawns already, because it’s kind of a crapshoot right now.
And I’m an old hand at this, I’m not scared to figure out how to dismantle a vehicle with two sticks and a rock, I’ve got a myriad of montages since back in OG halo 3 where I just blow stuff up…but the experience is so much better when you can start a match, know what you’re going to go pick up, and then know what you’re going to do with it.
The alternative is to just make vehicles killable with normal weapons which is what they tried to do in some other halos to balance things out. But that’s the WRONG angle to work it, because then why would you want to use the vehicle if an AR can blow you up by itself?
The solution is simple: balanced, well placed weapons and equipment, and less randomness with the drops. Boom, you’ve got a good experience for everyone
I disagree. If you are competitive player, a sweatbag you likely play 4v4 almost exclusively. BTB you play to relax and to just have fun with friends. Its not meant to be a hyper competitive mode (remember all those stop making Halo into an Esports threads? this feels like it) so I don’t think that the balancing is as important for it. Using your same logic Warzone was a disaster but its pretty apparent that loads of people did still enjoy it.
I think the impact of MMR in a social playlist (like BTB) is the most impactful.
You’re not wrong that it’s a social playlist, but giving one side a tank and a wasp and the other side a gun goose Is not fun for anyone but the tank and the wasp
yeah but that’s the exact argument/meme with Fiesta too. I get PP and a Disruptor and they get rockets/Snipers.
Its meant to be an RNGfest with RNGjesus deciding outcomes. Its fun for replayability purposes, but it ruins the competitive merit and integrity of the mode.
I just think comparing classic Halo’s BTB to Infinite’s BTB is a bad take, Infinite’s BTB is closest to Halo 4’s BTB where balance didn’t matter and it was all just crazy mayhem going on.
Edit: my point is that you should just take it easy lol. The wins/losses aren’t too meaningful in BTB, its just meant to be a fun mode you play on occasions and nothing more.
Halo 4 had the best hit detection, the most satisfying weapon sandbox (other than the bolt shot) and the most fun competitive multiplayer since halo 2. The menus alone are better than almost every other halo.
The people that don’t like 4 usually just hate what a high skill ceiling it had. The gap between an average player and a pro was like a canyon.
Bullet Magnetism.
So long as the reticle turned red, your accuracy weapon would see its bullets always hit the Spartan’s head… even though you were aiming off to the side.
Later on, June of 2013 saw weapon tuning that reduced bullet magnetism; though playing SWAT was VERY EASY.
First - Every weapon had a tiny pool of ammunition compared to all previous Halo titles, with Energy Weapons being something you often dumped within twenty seconds as your ammo ran dry.
Second - Most of the new guns were terrible.
Railgun - Spartan Laser but worse
Suppressor - Crappy Forerunner SMG
Pulse Grenades - Worse Area-Denial than the Firebomb Grenades.
Storm Rifle - Downgraded version of the Plasma Repeater
SAW - Assault Rifle but with extended magazines
Boltshot - Weak single-fire but OP charged fire
Halo 4 had a peak of a little over 400k players
Immediately after launch that was cut in half.
A year later, there were only 20k players online on average.
Meanwhile in 2008 Halo 3 maintained a population of around 270k players, and the peak population I can find is 1,080,888 players online.
A skill ceiling so high, my shins are being struck by the ceiling fan.
Halo 4 didn’t take skill. What it did take was a grindset to make yourself have an upper hand at spawn. You leveled up more than another player? You now suddenly have access to a wider variety of weapons, perks, and armor abilities that allow you to spawn with different guns than another player who doesn’t play as often as you.
CoD Loadouts were one of the many mistakes Halo 4 had made that killed the playerbase.
I get that you think all that is accurate but it’s almost all wrong.
Bullet magnetism is present in every halo besides 5 in some capacity. If you’re saying bullet magnetism in infinite is less than 4, you’re missing the videos where people prove that infinite bullet magnetism is almost copy pasted from 3, which had a lot but it was weapon specific.
The new weapons were extremely good. The Rail gun was an explosive sniper weapon that could one hit kill multiple people with a single shot if they were standing close together. The storm rifle was a huge upgrade from the plasma repeater, which is one of the worst guns in the series. The bolt shot’s normal fire had a headshot bonus, making it as good at cleanups and nade shots as the sidekick is now. The SAW was so overpowered compared to the AR they nerfed it, and it was still overpowered.
The competitive playlists did not have personal loadouts. That’s how I know you didn’t really play 4, because everyone who did remembers how much better it was with standard BR starts and focused weapons and AA’s.
The population is irrelevant. The average player is really really bad, and they are usually not interested in a competitive shooter. 4 didn’t have a goofy fun veneer like 3 and Reach did, so the casual players of course returned to those games.
But 3 was hindered by a lot of the weapons being useless and the hit detection being abysmal on top of having slow projectile speeds comparatively. And Reach was unplayable unless you like to torture yourself.
It’s ok not to like it, but saying it was bad because you didn’t understand it is a different topic altogether.