Fair warning: This post will talk mostly about the Battle Rifle, Assault Rifle, and DMR. Just know that talking about these three also includes their Forerunner/Covenant counterparts. Talking about three weapons is easier than eight, but all eight are to be considered when talking about the three.
Halo has always been a three range game. Long range combat, mid range combat, and close range combat. Halo has always been a three weapon game as well. You had power weapons, utility, and useless. Halo 3 was the biggest in this “three weapons” gameplay. You had power weapons like Rockets, Sniper, and Shotgun. You had utility weapons like the Battle Rifle and Covenant Carbine. (Sometimes the Assault Rifle, but it was mostly useless in 3) Then you had useless weapons, which was everything else. This lead to what some people referred to as a “One gun game” where the only thing that mattered was having a Battle Rifle, especially on AR starts. After Halo 3 Bungie and 343i sought to eliminate this one gun game, as they should. 343i got the closest with some really good balancing in current Halo 4 matchmaking.
I say this because Halo 4 introduced all range utility weapons. The AR was the utility weapon of close range combat, and boy was it good at it. The DMR was the utility weapon of long range combat, as it should be. However the BR was close to a jack of all trades weapon due to unfair matching and poor map design. Maps biased mid range combat, giving the BR a given advantage at start. So how can we fix this? How about we start with range balancing.
Each utility weapon still needs a niche range. DMR has long, BR has mid, and AR has close. However only excelling at these ranges turns a utility weapon into a power weapon. Thus utility weapons need a rating system of sort. Good, Okay, Bad. For example.
Assault Rifle
Close:Good
Mid:Okay
Long:Bad
DMR
Close:Bad
Mid:Okay
Long:Good
Battle Rifle
Close:Okay
Mid:Good
Long:Okay
Now, using our incredibly professional weapon ranking system we can balance ranged utility combat. A skilled DMR user can kill an equally skilled Battle Rifle player at long range, and a better DMR player can kill a lesser skilled BR player at Mid Range. However at close range the equally skilled and lesser skilled player will win with a BR. Essentially for a weapon to win at its “Okay” range the player must be of higher skill than his opponent. At “Bad” range the stars must align just right for you to win.
So now that range is balanced, we can determine which weapon to start with. If you are given AR starts, spawn players have no chance. They’re confined to close range quarters of the map, causing static gameplay with no movement. Their only chance is to pick up a power weapon or BR/DMR. This leads to the infamous “one-gun gameplay” everyone hates. Same thing happens with DMR starts.
What about BR starts? BR starts gives spawning players a fighting chance against AR and DMR players. This promotes the better player coming out on top. With proper map design it promotes movement among players. They either find a DMR/AR to fight in Long and Close, or move to areas of mid range combat to get kills. This leads us to our next segment.
For a truly good mutliplayer, weapon balance is only part of the equation. Proper weapon balance can’t work if Map Design doesn’t allow it to work. Let’s use The Pit as an example. The map has two ideal Long Range Lines of Sight. One between the two Sniper Bases, and one between the two spawns across Rocket Hall. There’s an added potential Long Range area from Sniper Base to Rocket Hall. Ideal Lines of Sight are designed areas where it had a specific range in mind. Potential Lines of Sight are areas where the design of the map has lead to a certain range being promoted. Close range has many Ideal Lines of Sight. The Pit has lots of corridors where close range excels over other ranges.
However The Pit excludes one range, and that’s Mid Range. There are no Ideal Mid Range Lines of Sight because there’s buildings blocking most of those Lines of Sight. However there are plenty of Potential areas like the multiple “Pits” between buildings. This prevents someone from dominating from spawn with a mid range spawn weapon unless they move around, exposing themselves to Long Range and Close Range combat areas. Close range/Long Range players still have to move in order to gain their advantage because they don’t spawn with said weapons. They must obtain them.
My next post will detail how the start of the game will play out with this balancing of ranges, weapons, and map design.