In light of the recently announced FFA tournament hosted by 343i, I feel a topic discussing ideal free for all match settings in Halo 4 was warranted. Below I share mine.
Matched with the correct gametype settings and maps, FFA can be a very tactical and skill oriented game. As an example, I’ll first use a counter example. 8 man FFA on Simplex, specifically the kind in Rumble Pit, Infinity or Pro. It’s a near mindless flurry of gunfire and grenades where no one can truly show all facets of a good player as far as Slayer goes. 33.3% of the time you or your enemy will be massacred by a crossfire of four rifles and or grenades which heavily inhibits one’s ability to showcase skill in a straight up gun duel. Another 33.3% of the time you’re taking cover waiting for shield recharge when the guy you just killed/got an assist off of spawns conveniently nearby and lobs a grenade into your visor. The last 33.3% of the time an enemy just spawns with you in their line of sight and you’re not looking at them. Thus, you die. (and then where does that extra .1% go? i dont even know, man)
There’s just little to no room for actual tactics and showcasing of all the slayer skills with matches such as 8 man FFA Simplex. Assuming CSR is working, no one breaks ahead of the pack, no one gets a respectable spread, there’s no thinking involved. Spawn, grenades, try to killsteal and maybe get it, then raped by crossfire. And the reason why this happens is not because CSR is working, it’s because of how the gametype and map work. In an ideal match, CSR should inhibit a player’s ability to massacre the lobby only because of similar skilled players, but in order for a player to even do so, to perform a feat of skill and rise above equal CSR opponents, the map and gametype has to allow for such a thing to even happen. Tactics, thoughtful play, skilled weapon usage, fair spawns, a healthy mix of 2+ contestant engagements and 1v1 gun duels are integral to this. It has to enable and encourage the player to do their best, not be a -Yoink- and spawn enemies 10 feet behind their back. Most Rumble Pit matches don’t work like this at all. Almost all of them limit a player’s ability because the map and gametype pairing is, simply put, -Yoink-.
In my opinion, the ideal FFA (at least assuming loadouts, Infinity or not, but ideally Slayer Pro with radar) would be six players on medium sized maps such as Haven, Monolith, Solace Slice, Landfall, Skyline, Wreckage (perhaps with some modification), Abandon, and Harvest. All these maps would have a center point of attention as ordnance, like an Overshield, or boomstick, or rockets on a fast paced respawn with minor ordnance placed sparsely about like Needlers. On bigger types of maps, a Sniper would be put at another chokepoint, far away from any good sniping spots. All these maps would also utilize the 250 respawn point system. For those unfamiliar, you just place spawns down literally everywhere (with them facing a logical direction) and the game’s spawning logic puts a respawning player in the most logical place. Safe from harm, not having someone in their line of sight off spawn, away from where they died, all that good stuff.
One might wonder, “Why big maps like Harvest?”. The kind of free for all found in Halo 4, due to several factors, places heavy emphasis on short-mid range battles and just doesn’t place any emphasis on any other range and niche of combat. This only limits a player, it does not enable choice of playstyle and discourages dynamic-tivity between engagements. You wouldn’t win a match on Harvest only using a LightRifle, likewise you wouldn’t win only using an Assault Rifle. The player who is overall best in all the niches would win, as compared to the usual 1, sometimes 2 niches found in your run of the mill Rumble Pit match. Not to mention there won’t be any -Yoink- like players spawning behind you, a 9/10 chance of a skillful gun duel being raped by 4 other rifles, shield recharge delay letting an insta-spawner lob a grenade in your face. All that.
Lastly, there’s always been two things that separate FFA from 4v4 Slayer. The most obvious is, well, FFA isn’t 4v4. The other and always overlooked difference is how scoring works. You probably think, “Get a kill, get a point, what of it?”. And that’s right, you get a kill and you get a point. Or, you die and your killer gets a point. The big difference between FFA and 4v4 is WHO gets the point. Who gets the point in 4v4? The other team, it’s irrelevant who, they got a point and you just helped them edge closer to victory. Who gets the point in FFA? Anyone and any ‘team’. There are effectively as many teams as players in FFA, and exactly whom gets the point for killing you is critical and a completely different dynamic from 4v4.
To put it short, although the scoring doesn’t simplify it, 4v4 is completely based off of spread. How much you die is as important as how much you kill. A player who goes 25-15 is not as valuable as a player who goes 13-0. In FFA, this isn’t the case, as evidenced by winning players who can even go negative. A player at the top of the scoreboard can die more times to the bottom players than the second guy dies at all, ergo the top guy is less positive than the second but still wins. Why, if it’s Slayer, and 4v4 places equal amounts of emphasis on killing and dying, does FFA Slayer not do the same?
Slayer is Slayer. At the core of it, a player’s skill is broke down in to two parts. Killing and not dying. The later part of the skill has been undermined as long as FFA has been in Halo, which is since the very first Halo. Why should there be less skill involved in FFA? For me, there shouldn’t be less skill at all. FFA should be as popular and as valid as 4v4. The same questions apply to the current FFA. Why should maps limit player ability and encourage mindless play? Why should so many players be crammed into a small playspace? Why should the scoring not encourage as best as play as possible?
As a side note to this, some people may think spread based scoring would encourage camping. I’d say that’s false. Maps and settings encourage camping. Give a player a radar, a Boltshot, random ordnance drops, personal ordnance, and main building on Complex, stickies, camo, and stealth? -Yoink- yeah, you’ll get some supreme grade-A well cooked camping right there with a healthy slathering of A1 sauce. Give a player a reduced radar, set loadouts, consistent and smartly placed ordnance on a fast timer with only minor AAs for POD? Even Complex can almost be fixed. Almost. Not quite, because burn in hell, Complex. Not to mention a truly good player wouldn’t need to camp anyway. If he’s truly good, he won’t die a lot, therefore maintain good spread, therefore win. Any campers will have a hard enough time with the settings to camp, but they’ll also be at a loss against truly good players who don’t die in combat.
Finally, because it didn’t fit elsewhere, 25m radar, killcams off.
Those are my passionate thoughts about FFA, as I’m a true lone wolf in my playstyle. What about you guys? What’s your ideal FFA match?