THE OFFICIAL HALO FEEDBACK THREAD

Community General Discussion
521

> > Dear 343i,
> >
> > Please leave Reach the way it is. It’s fine. Everyone that wants it changed (AA & Bloom nerf) are the vocal minority. A lot of these people (not all) are also under the age of 17 and refuse to adapt. The only viable complaint I have heard is the ranking system for Arena. I like that it resets after time, but the bronze, gold & onyx classes need to go. The vocal minority is right when they say bring back 1-50 ranks, but only do it if they reset every few months. This will cut down on second accounters and de-rankers. It would make Arena fun for the competitive. Plus, what are we to do once the small minority of players reach the global rank of Inheritor (not that I’m even close)? Thanks for your time.
>
> Not to sound mean but are you kidding me? Nothing is wrong with Reach?
>
> What about Living dead betrayals? Why not fix the glitch when a zombie “betrays” a human when infecting them?
>
> What about fixing the Gauss warthog so it doesn’t shoot through forge world objects?
>
> What about not being able to see other teammates in Invasion?
>
> What about Glitching through walls with armor lock?
>
> What about the lack of incentive to win Matchmaking games?
>
> What about Arena being a completely separate planet of matchmaking? Meaning the ranking system of Arena has nothing to do with the rest of the game.
>
> What about the Plasma Launcher “despawning” on only after 8 seconds of dropping it?
>
> What about Bro Slayer HLG spawning?
>
> These are just things that are essential to the game and should be fixed for a better expierence. These aren’t even opinions on the matter and are simply broken bugs in the game. I just want all of these fixed at least.

No, I’m not kidding you and yes these issues are your opinion just as I have stated mine. After all, that is all this whole thread is. It’s filled with opinions on what people think is wrong with Reach. None of the issues you have listed have I experienced, not to say that they aren’t real. I have my view; you have yours.

522

Please have a Forge 3.0, with a terrian editor, able to place scarabs and Elephants. Also the ability to build your own vehicle from scratch. One more thing, A Firefight Forge, and then I’d by Halo 4 four times.

523

Its an amazing game and hopefully you can live up to what we all want with your upcoming Halo instalments, -Good luck marines- /nerdy fanboyism that will one-day get me killed.

524

I think with this new TU some of the core mechanics I would like to see updated are some of the obvious ones like bloom. I’m ok with the purpose and functionality of the bloom mechanic, I do not agree with its strong influence of a random factor that it holds. The TU should drastically tighten up bloom and aim should be much more beneficial to the player than it is now. Or remove it all together if that is not possible. That brings me to the rate of fire formula that what implemented into the game. It is much too slow with map movement and use of map positioning. Player movement is too static (ultimately too slow), as you see with the maps and lack of arenas in Halo Reach. The rate of fire for the magnum and DMR weapons paired with the lack the mobile flexibility, as with reaction time, in which I believe ‘overbalances’ the playing field for all players, to deepen the learning curve and skill gap.

Armor abilities is hard to overlook and another big core mechanic that is often brought up. The little things that can be tweaked for them to fulfill their purpose in gameplay, theoretically as this whole discussion is, I feel can be much better than what is currently in Halo Reach launch version. I would like to see such things as AL be heavily modified along with all of the other armor abilities so that all of them contain a true harmony of balance when versed against each other. I agree with their purpose, just not the developers execution on the positives of gameplay. I like that Armor lock has a blocking ability. The negative effect on gameplay is the long duration of invincibility and probably the EMP burst. Is a cool idea, but that it stagnates the already slow pace of gameplay by default. Sprint is an added mobility boost, but also at some degree has negative effects on the very thing it suggests as sprint. I would like to be able to reload while sprinting, hold a direction to instantly sprint in not just the direction the Spartan is already facing. Evade has this ability and is much more controllable to the player and is why it gives a clear advantage over sprint. Jet pack is probably my favorite armor ability. Mostly because of its usefulness to override much of the level design in gameplay. Its usefulness as an armor ability is then limited again by level design.

Level design is mostly depended upon all of these mechanics and is also probably the reason for most of the game’s simplistic linear design in levels where the ‘Armor ability’ is meant to make up for the lack of gameplay potential on the map itself. Maps like Tempest(12-16 players), Highlands(12-16 players), Powerhouse(8-12 players), and Countdown(4-8 players) do a fantastic job not to rely on armor abilities as much to play good matches. Their design is thorough enough to take that into account. I would say one of the worst maps to rely on armor abilities for positive gameplay experiences would be Swordbase. It’s verticality, long hallways, and bottleneck player space on top of the core game mechanics do not mix well for balanced skillful gameplay.

Fall damage I agree with, long stun I do not, mostly dependant on level design. The idea of it is neat I must say. Is useful in added risk (damage), but not slowing down gameplay(stun).

Gunplay is a fun one to talk about. Halo has the best gunplay of any FPS out there. It depends on how you look at it. In a competitive perspective of quick reaction, skillful, depth, and learning curve. Yah it would be nice to alter many things with many weapons, but as big one to start from would be Rate of Fire. To be straightforward about it the weapons damage is good enough to dive right into speeding up the rate of fire. Halo has always been good about weapon damage the sniper seeing the smallest changes in TUs for Halo. Halo 3’s sniper stayed the same and was the benchmark for the rest of the balance for the other weapons. With that said I saw a video posted not too long ago with a modded DMR which burst fired no bloom. This mod had no change to the damage modifier, but dam did it look like it played -Yoink!- and balanced. That got me thinking that the rate of fire does have a significant role if not one of the most important in gunplay. With the DMR having an adjusted bloom, or no bloom, and a deeper ammo magazine I can see it having rate of fire to that of the ODST magnum (fast as you can pull the trigger) with its single shot capability. That or burst fire would suffice I’d imagine. Same goes for the magnum (rate of fire, minimal bloom/no bloom, deeper ammo magazine) but would like to see its usefulness outshine the rifle in close quarters by a considerable amount. And the rifle outshine the magnum at long ranges by a considerable amount.

Grenade launchers are awesome. Rockets are still rockets, but would like to see the rocket travel time on a gradient boost. instead of the slow velocity. For example, shooting a long range rocket the initial rocket starts off slow like it is now, but gradually speeds up and covers much more distance in shorter amount of time than its constant speed. This would not affect the rockets close quarters anyway, it is a rocket BLAM! Speaking of the sword I’d like to pocket the sword and whip it out slice N switch weapons all in one elegant motion much like halo 2, but unlike halo 2 would probably keep the distance the same as is in Halo 3 and Reach. Taking the armor abilities and amped up movement I’d like to think that the sword can fit in well if that mechanic is looked at.

525

You must keep the Community Cartographers.

526

> THINGS TO CHANGE:
> - For active camo to look the same in your first person view as it does to others. As of now if you looks 50% invisuble, you are actually like 80% invisble to everybody else. Just use active camo, move around a little, and view it in theatre while swithcing from 1st person and 3rd, and you’ll see a huge difference. Making it so it stops flickering in 1st person would be nice too.
>
> - I’d also like to see the secondary emblem “four diamonds” to go back to how it was in 3, in reach it’s just a duplicate of “4 plots”. It’s annoying to see an emblem removed, more so when it’s just replaced with a emblem already present in game.
>
> - Can we please get purple and green, not red and blue? I know we can’t have indivual shades of purple and green, or make it so spartans are always green and elites purple, but just make it so the forced color is changed to those two.
>
> - Change arena. Personally, I think you should just apply arena type ranking to every playlist, and then people can look at their preformance without having to go play a certain playlist or gametype.
>
> - Make use of ALL of Boneyard in non-invasion games, as of now only half of the map is used.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> THINGS NOT TO CHANGE
>
> - Don’t touch bloom. Every halo game has had it, this is the first time it’s directly visible, like how we have had health in every halo game, it’s not not always been shown on the HUD
>
> - Leave grenade damage as is, or even increase it a bit, not quite to beta levels. These are military grade explosives, not fireworks.

In addition, because elites move faster than spartans, crouch walking with active camo causes you to become unloaked a tad

527

Keep community cartographers. The option to aspire for quality forging should exist for those that want it.

528

I posted this in the Halo a year thread but this thread seems relevant too,

I want more varied games set in the Halo universe, I don’t want the Chief in a new FPS every year but varied games in the Halo universe would be good, such as a Mass Effect type game, an RPG type of action game where you level up, also games like Halo Wars are ok, not for me but others that like that type of game,

There is such a rich vein of material that can be used.

529

I would also like to see weather effects like blizzards and thunderstorms and some degree of destruction in future titles.

530

give us new things to do, and new ways to do them. 10 more yrs of scutting athwart, snapping off rounds at each other like dueling crabs on throwback maps would be just the trick to keep new players out of halo.

531

Elephants in Halo 4 please!

532

Haven’t posted in a while, but i have new ideas after playing some new games:

Swimming - So a spartan can withstand heavy fire and re-entry, but dies in water? I know, Bungie said it was too hard to program la-dee-daa etcetera excuses excuses yeah well Crysis did it so any game can. Seriously, its just stupid that Spartans cant swim. You MUST make it so that when a player goes head-below-water, he/she will put away their weapon and their arms come up ready to swim. If you move forward level to the horizon, you will swim forward with your legs and body raised backward. If you turn right or left, your arms push opposite that direction like in real life. When you strafe right or left, its similar to turning only you tilt slightly and your legs are kicking. When backing up, you lean back a bit and you push away from the front. When turning down or up, you look slightly towards that direction and swim like a shrimp with all fours. Take note that there must be a limit to how much you can turn up or down. Spartans may get some free time occasionally, but they dont go doing sommersaults and backflips with their mates in the pool. They go on covert ops which require insertion from the sea.

I am not sure if it would affect gameplay too much to put this in. You could have a limited breathe time. But dont make it minecraft. Spartans dont hold their breath. Air finds a way into their lungs.

Lol jk but seriously, give us a while to swim so that covert ops are possible and we aren’t holding “who can hold their breath the longest” competitions like little 10 year olds.

Now, AA’s and powerups, if they are still in, wouldn’t be usable in water. Simply due to overpoweredness. Cr@p. That isn’t a word. Oh well, my point is that you cant expect something like this to be good:

Head of security: “We got the place locked up. Nobody gets in or out without getting shot.”
Boss: “Good. Your plan is eccellent. Nothing could possibly ever get near the front gates.”
[humming]
Boss: “Wait, what’s that sound?”
[looks right]
Boss: “What the Fu-?”
[out of the water, a spartan with a rocket launcher jetpacks up and kills the boss. He then falls back down and camos once in the water]

No. Don’t do it. Okay, maybe camo but due to the fact it emits heat, you should make the water fizz and shimmer a bit. That discourages people doubling up the same purposes (Water for visual cover, camo for visual cover), but lets it have some effect mostly for people at a distance, as you cant see the colors of the player.

This would be pure gold in a campaign mission where you must insert by sea in a covert op (third time i said it).

"No, jimmy, you are thinking reach. This is a forerunner planet. No water."

Shut up, halo has water, the ark has water, the forerunners made planets with water just like earth.

I have another idea or fifty but it ran away from my brain while typing this. Fricking ideas. Cant keep still.

533

The ability to swim, like in Crysis, would be cool as another means of navigation. Adds another level of depth to level design.

534

sorry i dont know if this has been said but i know other high ranking players have talked about the credit cap and what it dose to game play. i am a firefight player so i have seen my game completion score get bigger with my rank. Well after i have hit my credit limit i feel like i cant play anymore and just have this feeling like i still want more…anyway what i am trying to say is the higher your rank the higher the cap. please it already sucks that it take so much to get there the cap just makes it longer…Also how about 2X xp weekends. That would make people wanna play it more. It worked in halo 3 i`m just saying. any way love <---------me

535

I’m hoping for something that made me love Halo 2 and made me love Halo 3 even more, the BR55HB SR Battle Rifle. The three round burst made me like the BR55 in Halo 2, and then Halo 3 it was like a sense of power and strength. But, if the DMR was improved to be more player-fun, I could be ok with that, too.

Edit: My bro suggested that you, 343, make the MA5K, the assault rifle/ carbine variant of the MA5 series. I think it would be cool, too.

536

> You can’t ask to delete something from the game just because you disliked it… There are thousands of other players who may enjoy this thing. 343 should keep armor abilities, keep the credit system, keep the bloom, keep the different existing gametypes… Just add more possibilities (a secondary level system à la Halo 3, the possibility to remove bloom for competitive gametypes…). Halo 3’s multiplayer was annoying for me after playing it a few months, since I quickly reached my “rank”. Now I can’t stop playing Reach. But now it’s also an inverse situation for the “competitive” players who are missing the Halo 3 system. 343 should definitely combine the 2 systems. If they don’t, the Halo multiplayer experience will still be annoying forever for one category of players.

No, you should be able to start out with sprint, and look for other armor abilites, I think many other Halo fans agree.

537

Alright, I am back with another semi-new idea, but with a more balanced twist. A lot of people really enjoyed the button combos in Halo 2, and although they were not intended by Bungie, they never changed them or removed them from the game because they realized they were so popular. And while I am not here to say that these button combos should return exactly the way that they were, because they were very powerful, but perhaps little boosts from combos wouldn’t be so bad in the long run.

I am suggesting that maybe you should bring back the BXR combo, but it could be less powerful than H2’s yet faster than HR’s and as easy to perform as the H2 version. One way it could be implemented is if melee is a 3 hit kill, make the BXR combo a 2 hit kill.

Other combos could be added, the possibilities are endless, but I don’t think they should be so powerful that new players get destroyed by them like in H2. I had one in mind in particular that I think has potential, it could be a reload combo that makes your first shot out of your weapon do increased amounts of damage against shielded opponents. I was thinking that it could make the fist shot of the main weapon do somewhere around 125% of its normal damage against shielded opponents. Of course, that amount of damage would have to vary on different weapons, for instance, it shouldn’t apply to power weapons like rockets or sniper. You could include it in the game by saying that Master Chief got some sort of upgrade where he can apply a special EMP effect to the fist bullet of his magazine when reloading, and make it so that it is taught to the player at some point. The little utility piece on spartan armor that was added in reach could maybe change the texture for the bullet and you could make it so that special bullet adds a little splash of color depending on which armor piece you have. You could make ones that are different colors of fire, or special effects or colors, maybe even a lightning bullet effect for a large cost.
The combo could go: Reload, Reload, Melee + Reload

I am sure that the brilliant minds at 343 Industries could come up with more button combo ideas that are not too over the top, but add an interesting aspect to the gameplay, like the one I suggested above. I strongly feel, however, that if they are included, it is absolutely essential to teach them to the players in campaign or even in the tutorial mode that I suggested in my last post.

Just keep this idea in mind, and I hope that I didn’t waste your time with such a long post. Thank you for reading and considering my thoughts, and I hope you do everything in your power to continue making Halo the fantastic experience that we have all come to know and love. Everything has been really great so far, so just keep up the good work!!

~~aHamburgerNinja

P.S. ^ I agree.

EDIT: Could I get some feedback on this idea from future posts? I am curious if I am the only person who thinks this is a good idea.

538

Personally for Halo 4, I’d just like Halo 3 with better netcode, vehicle health nerfed a tad, but not Reach levels of nerfed, hitscan, more symmetrical than asymmetrical maps, a few new features to make it feel fresh, and maybe mess around with equipment a bit, but try to keep them from being like AA’s if equipment does return.

Here’s where it changes to talking about extras and things I’d love to see change about them:

Forge should have a diverse amount of parts, with different themes(human, covenant, forerunner, etc), and major items like walls and windows having the most able to be spawned. Things like elevators and doors of varying sizes and shapes attached to buttons via a channel would be cool to see. Simple things like destroyable grav lifts should make a return. All items should be phasable, fixable, and have constant physics if set in normal, if possible. Time of day and weather effects would be cool too see also, you know, assuming forge even makes a return at all.

Theater should support multiple people again if possible, and would be cool to have an ability to upload to youtube, sort of like Black Ops (one of the only things I like about it). Custom games should have more in depth options. Firefight should be more like ODST, where it’s a struggle to survive, rather than spawning with good guns and an AA from the start. This is assuming Forge, Theater, Custom games and Firefight make a comeback in Halo 4.

539

i’d like to formally suggest the button combos, as seen in halo 1 and 2 to be included in halo 4.

these button combos include
-double melee via melee+reload+melee (H2) and / or melee+grenade+melee (CE)
-BXR (H2)
-Quick Reload
-Double Shot, RRX YY RRX (H2)

etc.

1.) if they are implemented it should be on purpose, with instructional videos so no-one is left in the dark.

2.) they factually add skill gap (more skill gap was added with the double shot and BXB esque mechanics than any other mechanic change in the history of halo)

3.) they add depth.

4.) it wouldnt be a problem for lesser skilled people because lesser skilled people should get paired up with other lesser skilled people (their skill level). what this means is, good players wont be double shotting people who cant double shot because they wont get matched up together.

5.) they are risk VS reward where the risk and the reward is entirely in your hands (meaning if you dont want to take the risk you simply dont do them).

6.) they add a MASSIVE amount of reward because they were hard / skill intensive to pull them off.

when players first saw the double shot in halo 2 they thought ‘wow, thats sick!’ some of them would cry about it being cheating, or haxxing, and never even give them a chance to see what they would add to the game. when these players who thought they were cool would try to learn them, they would see how hard (especially double shotting) they were, so they would be able to fully appreciate the skill involved / needed / and the practice required to make them reliable enough to remove the risk. when a player who started off not knowing the mechanics of double shotting eventually learned double shotting, then eventually he put it into practice by killing someone he would feel an AMAZING amount of adrenaline, and an IMMENSE amount of satisfaction and reward for having done something so skill-intensive, seeing his hard work and dedication paying off first hand.

in conclusion, button combinations were the primary reason, in my opinion, why the games halo 1, and halo 2 are widely seen as the best halo games to have ever graced the xbox. the MASSIVE amount of skill gap they added will probably never be seen reproduced in another halo game. its unfortunate, but i really doubt we’ll see their inclusion in any subsequent halo releases.

540

so i was banned and reset on halo:reach on the first offense which i did nothing to deserve it 343 can you please give me my rank back? because i did nothing wrong and i didnt deserve it! again i was banned and reset i could understand a ban but reset?! please help 343