Yes, this is me again churning out another thread in-between updating the State-of-The-Game thread. I apologize for my tardiness, but seeing as many view SWAT as a social/crap playlist where your skill is entirely dependent on whether or not you get host, I wanted to engage members of the community to come up with ideas to make the gametype better.
Perhaps it’s because Reach is the first Halo game in which I’ve really gotten involved in Multiplayer Matchmaking, but I feel very strongly that the SWAT philosophy consists of fast kill times (and respawn times), as well as an emphasis on headshots, with no grenades, motion tracker, or Armor Abilities other than Sprint.
However, I feel like there’s also a couple flaws with the playlist, and the state of the gametype is uncertain with the new TU testing rolling in:
-Fast kill times are nice, but the one-headshot killtimes emphasizes more twitch-reaction playing rather than more strategic gameplay, which is what I feel the playlist was aiming for originally. Would it really slow the SWAT down that much if we made the DMR a 2-shot or even 3-shot weapon? Considering that the DMR is a lot more precise than the BR, and it has hitscan, it’s not asking for much to ensure that strafing and other strategies make the playlist more competitive, instead of being extraordinarily host-dependent as it is now.
-There’s also the issue of the flawed Health regen. Although I get the point that no health packs and the lack of regenerating health is supposed to make SWAT more “hardcore,” this type of system leaves better players at a disadvantage. Over time, if you’re playing against a team that has piss-poor aiming, your health eventually gets whittled down to one or two red bars, which means even a point-blank body shot will kill you (and since SWAT is supposed to be “aim for the head or die,” this also runs contrary to the gametype philosophy). This system rewards players for dying more quickly so they have full health when they come back, which isn’t very logical. If you could fully regenerate all your Health after a while, it would be a much-welcomed addition.
-The Sprinting noise issue. This problem has been discussed before concerning other playlists, but there hasn’t been much clamoring to change the issue (like a petition, for instance). Since you can hear your teammate’s Sprinting, it gets very frustrating when you’re constantly turning around thinking that an enemy might be attempting to pull off an assassination, only to see the surprised helmet of your teammate, before you decide to turn around again and instantly get killed by an actual enemy. My suggestion is for teammate sprinting to be entirely muted so you can’t hear it, allowing more observant players to reap the benefits of paying more attention to the audio cues around them, while keeping them from falling into the trap of getting themselves distracted by their own teammates.
-Removal of Bloom after the Title Update. This is a more contentious issue, but I feel that since Bloom never really succeeded in its purpose to implement a skill gap between “pacers” and “spammers,” that it should be removed in order to allow players with better aim to actually dominate. Before everyone starts to cry foul that this would make SWAT even more easy-to-play, notice that my first request was for the DMR kill times to be lengthened (3-shot would probably be optimal). 3 headshots with no Bloom would keep a balance between the playlist being too host-dependent and easy, and rewarding players with actual good aim.