I will first outline the arguments made by 343 and parts of the community in favor of Random Weapone Spawns. I will then continue to elaborate on why this idea is bad and should not be implemented in Competitive environments (though preferably NO environments).
Arguments I have seen FOR Random Weapon Spawns:
- Helps the new people adjust without getting spawn-camped due to more experienced players knowing the locations and times of Weapon Spawns
- Helps the people who are too “casual” to try to understand the system in which weapons respawn (i.e. They play Halo enough to know each weapon, but they do not care enough to try to find out the exact times of each respawn)
- Promotes map movement in that teams must move towards a beacon indicating a weapon, rather than camping at certain points
- Promotes more intense combat due to teams fighting over that location upon arriving
Arguments AGAINST Random Weapon Spawns:
- Why should more experienced players be punished? It is not their fault that they are either competent enough to understand the system or care enough about the game to learn it
- Why should we cater to the new or less-experienced (“casual”) gamers? I am not advocating that we should only cater towards Competitive players, rather, I believe systems should remain neutral. As of right now, this system is not neutral because it gives up an advantage that one type of player has over the other.
- Random Weapon Spawning, though I do not know entirely how it works, has the potential to be similar to Drop Pods in Halo: Reach Firefight. These kill players and vehicles upon impact, and should not influence a multiplayer environment, especially if randomised.
- Random Weapon Spawns will not necessarily promote movement. If a weapon spawns very close to one team, then they will not have to move far to retrieve it. They will get to it first, and the other team will be at a “disadvantage.”
I am curious as to what others think. Right now, this system sounds incredibly flawed and will take away one of the core Halo concepts: keeping track of weapons and timing. This has been essential in every Halo game to date, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be.