The Failure of Automatic Weapon Design

Games Other Halo
1

This post is slightly lengthy, but it brings to light an important point about the weapon sandbox of the Halo games.

As Halo 4 approaches, it is seemingly natural to reflect on aspects from previous installments which worked and those that did not. I am here to talk about one of those aspects which, ever since Halo CE, has not worked, and hopefully bring enough light to the issue to make a difference.

So, with that said, let’s talk about automatic weapons.

The only Halo title which features automatic weapons which were useful is Halo Combat Evolved. The MA5B was an extremely versatile, 60 round magazine assault weapon useful in almost any encounter, except maybe against the Flood. At its worst, it served as a means of suppressive fire. The Plasma Rifle, on the Covenant side, was also a fierce automatic weapon; it would cut through shields like tissue paper and would truly leave the scorching effect of plasma fire on its victims.

Unfortunately, this all went downhill in every Halo installment afterwards. Let’s take a look at each Halo game subsequent.

Halo 2
The emphasis on automatic weapons itself was reduced in Halo 2, with the omission of the Assault Rifle. Instead, the Battle Rifle took center stage, and the SMG served as the new primary automatic weapon. Unfortunately, it had a laughably short range, and was only truly effective at said range while dual-wielded. The Plasma Rifle, while still useful against shields, hardly made a versatile primary like the Plasma Rifle in CE.

Halo 3/ODST
The Assault Rifle makes its return. But the beloved MA5B from CE is replaced by a BB-gun known as the MA5C. While given more accuracy and range, the smaller magazine size and nigh-uselessness on higher difficulties made it a quick swap-out for a Battle Rifle. It fared no better in ODST. Furthermore, even the silenced SMG in ODST was pretty ineffective; enemy shields on the heroic difficulty would take clips of ammo before failing, and it also had an ammo deficit. Plasma weapons in both ODST and Halo 3 became nigh-useless, except for a “noob-combo” here and there.

Halo: Reach
The Assault Rifle was back, and this new installment, the MA37, featured excellent sound design, reminiscing to Halo CE’s Assault Rifle. However, when it came to actual use, it was not the versatile MA5B from CE. With bloom added, the range of the Rifle was point-blank, and it did not do sufficient damage to be practically fired in bursts on the higher difficulties in the campaign. It was swapped out with a DMR or even Plasma Pistol. It would take nearly half a clip to kill a Grunt with the MA37 on the heroic difficulty. The Plasma Repeater suffered similar problems; while incredibly deadly at point-blank range, its rapid reticle expansion made it completely useless in battle, unless in the hands of a very skilled gunman.

The trend:

The systematic waning (“nerfing”) of automatic weapons in subsequent Halo games.

In Halo 4, it is already confirmed the Assault Rifle will make a return, and it already sounds very powerful. However, Reach’s Assault Rifle sounded powerful too, but it also disappointed. Here are a couple of guidelines for ensuring the automatic weapons in Halo 4 are weapons worth using in the campaign and multiplayer.

  1. Do not inhibit their range to an extent which renders them useless at anything other than point-blank.

  2. Make them powerful at medium range, and make it nigh-impossible to be beaten by a riflemen at point blank if one has an Assault Rifle, Plasma Rifle (if it is in Halo 4), or a Forerunner automatic weapon.

  3. Ensure that they kill enemies in the campaign in reasonable amounts of rounds. It should not take half a clip to kill a basic infantry unit such as a Grunt.

  4. Revitalize the plasma weaponry so that it may destroy unshielded opponents; on basic scientific principle, this should be the case.

  5. Do not make their reticles expand so as to make the weapons useless (see #1).

If need be, the marksman weapons could be given a slight strength-buffer to ensure they fill their role in the sandbox. But please do not make this another Halo 2 or Halo 3, where it is preferable to beat the enemy to death than to pick up an automatic weapon.

2

Simply beautiful.

I have no words to describe the truth in this post.

3

If you knew how to use the ARs, then you would find that they’re not useless.
In Halo 2, the SMG was mainly used to put emphasis on their new duel-wielding system.
In Halo 3 it was great if you knew how to control it.
In ODST, you’ll find yourself falling back on the AR and SMG if you play through the campaign but instead decide to handicap yourself by not using the Magnum (and put on the Famine skull while you’re at it).
In Reach, they’re deadly at midrange with burst control. You can easily kill someone using half a clip and not wasting a full clip just to strip their shields.

4

I agree. From what I have noticed about the assault rifle, it has as much killing power as the magnum, bit with less range. I can easily see this weapons become ignored again of it takes over half a magazine to kill 1 player and hurt the other.

All the other weapons don’t rely on melee to be effective, so why should this one? It has to move in for the kill, yet leave the user vulnerable when it needs to leave to reload safely.

I do know the E3 build has all the weapons a work in progress, but in its current state, I am more likely to grind the hell out of Spartan Ops before setting foot into Matchmaking to have a loadout to customize the loadouts with the BR.

5

The H3 AR is about as strong as a spray weapon can get without breaking the game`s balance.

Spray weapons are incredibly easy to use and if their power starts to become too strong the game would become incredibly dumbed down.

6

OP speaks the truth.

7

Why don’t they just make it more accurate , take more shots to kill, and give it a headshot bonus?

8

I agree, one of the main issues I have had with Halo’s automatic weapons is their damage output, it is laughably low, especially on the higher difficulties, an assault rifle bullet is just that, a bullet, it should tear through Grunts and Jackals, be less effective Versus the bigger creatures but still be usable and fun.

9

> If you knew how to use the ARs, then you would find that they’re not useless.
> In Halo 2, the SMG was mainly used to put emphasis on their new duel-wielding system.

Ok. “Knowing how to use it” is pretty vague. If you mean firing in bursts, I mentioned how the damage per bullet is not conducive to burst fire, especially when considering the alternative weapon selections.

> In Halo 3 it was great if you knew how to control it.

There was nothing to control; it had no bloom. It only fared okay in the campaign since the campaign in general was so incredibly easy compared to other Halo games. It sounded like a staple-gun.

> In ODST, you’ll find yourself falling back on the AR and SMG if you play through the campaign but instead decide to handicap yourself by not using the Magnum (and put on the Famine skull while you’re at it).

That’s precisely the problem: it’s a fall-back weapon, not a weapon of primary choice at any range other than point-blank.

> In Reach, they’re deadly at midrange with burst control. You can easily kill someone using half a clip and not wasting a full clip just to strip their shields.

Like I said, burst fire is only useful if the damage per hit is significant enough to warrant it. Also, I’m referring to the campaign mostly, but even in MP, the AR is painfully weak in mid-range combat.

10

Yep I agree. Automatic weapons have always been the secondary fall-back weapon to switch to in a pinch or last resort. The H1 PR is possibly the only automatic weapon that was any use in multiplayer, but even then the PP could be fired at the same rate and had overcharge so even then it was easily outclassed by other weapons.

Automatic weapons seem to be only effective in Campaign. People who use MA5s in Halo games are more than often new to Halo or simply bad at playing Halo.

Oh and as for the MA5B… it is possibly my most favourite weapon from any Halo game; it looks great and sounds incredible. However it was a bad weapon, it was only useful in Campaign against Grunts and Flood infection forms and it was utterly useless in multiplayer when it was easily outclassed by every other weapon. After this revelation I never picked up an AR willingly again.

11

> The H3 AR is about as strong as a spray weapon can get without breaking the game`s balance.
>
> Spray weapons are incredibly easy to use and if their power starts to become too strong the game would become incredibly dumbed down.

Like I said, if needed, the marksman weapons can receive a slight buff. In the end, this is all about pulling triggers, unless we’re talking about the Sniper Rifle. Having a weak AR because of fear of “dumbing down” the game makes the campaign less enjoyable.

12

I stopped reading after the first couple of sentences. I’ll have to go back later and try to stomach the rest.

From what I read so far, however, I have to seriously disagree. Automatic weapons were by far the worst in Halo CE, compared to other Halo games. The AR was only moderately useful in Campaign on easy or normal, and the PR was strictly worse than the PP. Both the PR and AR were absolute trash in multiplayer.

The PR was incredibly deadly in Halo 2, and less deadly in Halo 3, due to the difficulty of duel wielding. The AR sucked in Halo 3, (though less so than in Halo CE), but became more useful in Reach.

13

I would say most of the weapons have been fairly comparable throughout the series. The thing with CE is that the effectiveness of the AR/PR(most weapons actually) drops off dramatically when you move from Normal to Heroic. The biggest difference in the series has been with the smaller enemies. The AR actually very comparable when used against Elites in most of the games.

The difference with the SMG/AR in the other games is that their effectiveness against Grunts and Jackals has gone down considerably if you compare CE to Reach.

When shooting an Elite with the MA5B or H2 SMG(very similar in terms of rof and magazine) in campaign the effect is very similar. Compare that to a full auto deluge against grunts and jackals of all ranks and you can tell there is a distinct difference. The CE AR absolutely annihilates groups of grunts/vulnerable jackals.

The SMG is effective but 1.) its DPS is weaker overall than the Ma5B 2.) The ridiculous auto aim present in Halo 2 makes it much harder to sweep from target to target and you end up using alot of your ammo on bodies before you can adjust targets.

As for the plasma weapons they did take a hit in damage but the biggest issue for the PR in particular was the loss of accuracy.

Reach is definitely not a friend to auto weapons though. ON that we can agree. It takes way too much auto firepower to kill grunts and jackals with most auto weapons and they don’t even have the stopping power of previous in carnation. Though the accuracy was there with burst firing the damage was not.

I will concede there was an overall drop from CE to H2/H3 and again to Reach
However the issues at large differ from game to game

14

Well, with Halo 3’s bleed-through, it wasn’t to hard to spray-melee people close up. Other than that, there was really no reason to use it.

I agree with your main point though.

15

As my first Waypoint forum post, I wanted to say that this thread, is the thread that has my only worries about Halo 4. I desperately want to see the return of an Assault rifle that has the functionality of an ASSAULT RIFLE, not a pee shooter.

16

Sounds like a good plan, but we don’t want the assault rifle to make its user invincible. The assault rifle looks (and sounds) beautiful in what footage we have right now, and I believe it will fill its roll quite nicely.

17

ive never had a problem with the ar in halo 3 or reach

18

I really like your thinking my friend. I’ve always been a fan of he AR but always felt it was very lacking in some areas.

19

> This post is slightly lengthy, but it brings to light an important point about the weapon sandbox of the Halo games.
>
> As Halo 4 approaches, it is seemingly natural to reflect on aspects from previous installments which worked and those that did not. I am here to talk about one of those aspects which, ever since Halo CE, has not worked, and hopefully bring enough light to the issue to make a difference.
>
> So, with that said, let’s talk about automatic weapons.
>
> The only Halo title which features automatic weapons which were useful is Halo Combat Evolved. The MA5B was an extremely versatile, 60 round magazine assault weapon useful in almost any encounter, except maybe against the Flood. At its worst, it served as a means of suppressive fire. The Plasma Rifle, on the Covenant side, was also a fierce automatic weapon; it would cut through shields like tissue paper and would truly leave the scorching effect of plasma fire on its victims.
>
> Unfortunately, this all went downhill in every Halo installment afterwards. Let’s take a look at each Halo game subsequent.
>
> Halo 2
> The emphasis on automatic weapons itself was reduced in Halo 2, with the omission of the Assault Rifle. Instead, the Battle Rifle took center stage, and the SMG served as the new primary automatic weapon. Unfortunately, it had a laughably short range, and was only truly effective at said range while dual-wielded. The Plasma Rifle, while still useful against shields, hardly made a versatile primary like the Plasma Rifle in CE.
>
> Halo 3/ODST
> The Assault Rifle makes its return. But the beloved MA5B from CE is replaced by a BB-gun known as the MA5C. While given more accuracy and range, the smaller magazine size and nigh-uselessness on higher difficulties made it a quick swap-out for a Battle Rifle. It fared no better in ODST. Furthermore, even the silenced SMG in ODST was pretty ineffective; enemy shields on the heroic difficulty would take clips of ammo before failing, and it also had an ammo deficit. Plasma weapons in both ODST and Halo 3 became nigh-useless, except for a “noob-combo” here and there.
>
> Halo: Reach
> The Assault Rifle was back, and this new installment, the MA37, featured excellent sound design, reminiscing to Halo CE’s Assault Rifle. However, when it came to actual use, it was not the versatile MA5B from CE. With bloom added, the range of the Rifle was point-blank, and it did not do sufficient damage to be practically fired in bursts on the higher difficulties in the campaign. It was swapped out with a DMR or even Plasma Pistol. It would take nearly half a clip to kill a Grunt with the MA37 on the heroic difficulty. The Plasma Repeater suffered similar problems; while incredibly deadly at point-blank range, its rapid reticle expansion made it completely useless in battle, unless in the hands of a very skilled gunman.
>
> The trend:
>
> The systematic waning (“nerfing”) of automatic weapons in subsequent Halo games.
>
> In Halo 4, it is already confirmed the Assault Rifle will make a return, and it already sounds very powerful. However, Reach’s Assault Rifle sounded powerful too, but it also disappointed. Here are a couple of guidelines for ensuring the automatic weapons in Halo 4 are weapons worth using in the campaign and multiplayer.
>
> 1. Do not inhibit their range to an extent which renders them useless at anything other than point-blank.
>
> 2. Make them powerful at medium range, and make it nigh-impossible to be beaten by a riflemen at point blank if one has an Assault Rifle, Plasma Rifle (if it is in Halo 4), or a Forerunner automatic weapon.
>
> 3. Ensure that they kill enemies in the campaign in reasonable amounts of rounds. It should not take half a clip to kill a basic infantry unit such as a Grunt.
>
> 4. Revitalize the plasma weaponry so that it may destroy unshielded opponents; on basic scientific principle, this should be the case.
>
> 5. Do not make their reticles expand so as to make the weapons useless (see #1).
>
> If need be, the marksman weapons could be given a slight strength-buffer to ensure they fill their role in the sandbox. But please do not make this another Halo 2 or Halo 3, where it is preferable to beat the enemy to death than to pick up an automatic weapon.

sooo, you rather complain about someone else’s work than wait to see what 343i has in store? then you sir are ungrateful and disrespectful

20

A precision utility rifle needs to kill faster than any automatic. Automatics could use some buffing in the form of “plasma stun” and similar effects.