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> Let’s break this down.
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> As anti-sprinters always say, maps are scaled for sprint. Time taken to move from cover A to cover B in Halo 3 is time taken to sprint from cover A to cover B in Halo 5. So sprint doesn’t help in terms of general movement.
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> Here’s the thing. First maps are elongated for sprint, but then maps allow for escapes too easily. Seems to me like most of the time, the person was in a poor position to pick up that kill in the first place, or they are chasing when they shouldn’t. Both scenarios have played out across all the games, and the elongation you speak of combined wit abilities like thruster and ground pound should allow you to pick off a weak player, sprinting down an elongated piece of the map, without sacrificing position. But only if you were in the optimal combat position to begin with.
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> All of this leads to map elongation. Which is just scaled sprint maps. The elongation itself isn’t bad, it’s a physical map property. Most of the issues I find people arguing about is how the elongation creates so many dead zones. I went back and looked at some of the Halo 3/Halo 4 heatmaps. Seems to me they line up fairly well with Halo 5 heatmaps. When anti-sprinters argue about dead zones, they make it seem like Halo 3 had fights happening in all locations and Halo 5 has it focused to 2-3 spots. But generally, the heatmaps show that Halo has always had an outside/middle dominated heatmap, sort of a circle with a dot in the middle. The space between that was mainly used for traversal, which still seems to be true. So what exactly is it about the Halo 5 dead zones that make them so different to Halo 3 dead zones?
That’s a misconception. Moving from cover A to B in Halo 3 is different because cover itself is designed differently between sprint and non-sprint based games, Halo especially. Again, look at Midship/Heretic to Truth. The latter’s scaled for sprint but it changes more than just the time at which you do something, it changes the very paths you walk on and the geometry surrounding them. And it’s more than just elongation. It’s segmentation which is what makes map movement away from combat easier. Look at Rig, Plaza, Empire, Eden, Solace, Landfall, or any of those H4/H5 era maps. They’re very segmented and corner based, making it easy to break off line of sight with an opponent, and quickly at that. The elongation tied with segmentation makes it very hard to chase a user, no matter the position, nor your abilities, because they can keep that same pace ahead of you, no matter what. You can be in a superior position and still lose your opponent that you chase because of this, and that’s bad.
If you want the best example at how sprint helps general movement, just don’t sprint in a game, see how well you can perform. Given sprint is literally your fastest movement speed, and the maps are designed around that, you can see how you actually NEED to sprint to be able to competently play and navigate maps.
With that, you realize that heatmaps don’t show map movement as a whole, but the base encounters (kills, deaths) and with what weapons/where. When I refer to deadzones, I refer to areas of the map where movement rarely, if ever happens, such as Truth’s bottom mid, areas of Riptide’s bottom mid and indoor bottom areas, Empire and Eden’s bottom mid below turbine, and Plaza’s bottom mid. Movement will rarely occur here unless it’s forced by some objective, be it an OS spawn or a stronghold. In earlier Halos, you didn’t need to be forced through areas to move through them in the first place. Has nothing to do with fights, but just movement.
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> Putting your gun down to sprint is just another tactical option to me, something Halo is full of. Deciding to use a vehicle, equipment in Halo 3, even choosing when to scope with a sniper or not were all decisions that could help or hinder you. Sprint is the same. Yes, I’m not moving around maps faster relative to other Halo games. But I’m moving faster than BMS. I’m getting to a power weapon faster, rushing to help a teammate, etc. In other game modes, like SWAT, i’m never sprinting, gun always ready to fire. It’s about choices.
It’s an illusion of choice, because look at those actions. They’re all basic actions you did it prior Halo games without having to put your weapon down. Using equipment in Halo 3 leads to a delay in your weapon use, but it’s exactly like a grenade’s delay. It’s nothing significant, unless you’re midway through a fight. And a Sniper’s only “hindrance” was the FoV being nerfed ten fold, while you had radar removed, provided you were playing with it on. It didn’t stop you from fighting, but it nullified things that helped your awareness and sight to other things on combat. Using a vehicle took your combat capability with your weapon, but either gave you weapons (Ghost, Wraith), or a means to fight (Warthog splatters), while being able to have another Spartan in tow in the turret/backseat. Combat never really stops if you’re in a vehicle. Sprint is not the same as those, where its use provides nothing but stopped combat.
You realize that you can offer choices in many different ways than just forcing a user to put their weapon down to move at an optimal pace? Earlier Halos recognized this with how the maps were designed around moving with your gun up. As I said earlier, sprint’s nothing more than an illusion of choice which punishes you for doing what was once normal.
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> The final thing I want to talk about is optimal combat speed. A lot of reasons people argue against simply not sprinting is because they feel they aren’t moving around the map at the rate they were meant to. Yet, people mention pegging joysticks as alternate movement speeds, ignore the vertical aspect of Halo 5’s gameplay, and the fact that map positioning is in constant flux after first spawn. Moving around the map at optimal combat speed is just a pretty sound byte to buff the anti-sprint arguments, but ultimately it means very little.
Because you aren’t moving at the rate you’re meant to without it. It’s nothing to do with “feeling”. The maps are designed around sprint, and with it, the momentum it provides, not your base movement speed without it. And you know why map positioning is in constant flux in H5, and generally means very little? Because of sprint and these other abilities, and the amount of unknowns they provide, which breaks pacing, any sense of map knowledge and prediction, and a lack of any true areas to “hold”, because the maps tend to be flat and open to compensate, but also have multiple new areas of which to enter and exit with.
To the point, have you seen CE’s verticality? That game had maps taller than any of Halo 5’s, the latter of which are super compressed vertically, and it didn’t need sprint. You don’t need sprint for vertical gameplay. If anything, if you want proper vertical gameplay, you want sprint out as CE and its sequels showed. Finally, how can you say moving around at an optimal speed (Uninterrupted, is my point) is “just a pretty sound byte” and means little? With how you’re forced to sprint and move in Halo 5 and with how much control’s yanked from you, the argument of moving as fast as you can in an uninterrupted manner is very strong. Moving at optimal speed with your gun up is more than just a sound byte. It’s what makes for good movement, map design, and player flow.
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