These mechanics could work in Halo if done right. Feel free to agree or disagree and explain why you do, but be mature about it, it’s only my opinion. I’ll explain my point. No flaming please.
Sprint
(Disable it on Small and Medium maps, but enable it on Larger maps. This would actually make Sprint useful and it wouldn’t be getting abused. Keep it the way it’s like in Halo 4 where you’re slowed down when you’re shot. )
Loadouts
(Make them Preset only, not Custom. By that I mean, for Small maps the Preset Loadouts should be: Assault Rifle, Magnum, and 2 Frag Grenades; Storm Rifle, Magnum, and 2 Frag Grenades; Suppressor, Magnum, and 2 Frag Grenades. For Medium maps the Preset Loadouts should be: Battle Rifle, Magnum, and 2 Frag Grenades; Carbine, Magnum, and 2 Frag Grenades. For Larger maps the Preset Loadouts should be: DMR, Magnum, and 2 Frag Grenades; Light Rifle, Magnum, and 2 Frag Grenades. Plus put the ammo for them, around the maps.)
Sprint: I don’t play enough big team to know how it works. I definitely support removing it from 4v4 though.
Loadouts: I don’t like the specifics of your plan (making plasma pistol and other niche weapons available), but I think limited loadouts could be a good compromise if done right.
Hit Marker: I had forgotten those even exist. Is this really considered much of an issue?
> Hit Marker: I had forgotten those even exist. Is this really considered much of an issue?
Yes, and I will tell you why. Grenades.
Hitmarkers from grenades will often reveal whether or not a player is in a location. An effective strategy is to prenade halls and choke points just to see if a player is there. Like the lift hall on adrift. Players love to hide there so throwing a grenade can quickly reveal if someone is having a crouch party.
> > Hit Marker: I had forgotten those even exist. Is this really considered much of an issue?
>
> Yes, and I will tell you why. Grenades.
> Hitmarkers from grenades will often reveal whether or not a player is in a location. An effective strategy is to prenade halls and choke points just to see if a player is there. Like the lift hall on adrift. Players love to hide there so throwing a grenade can quickly reveal if someone is having a crouch party.
That had never occurred to me. Grenades are annoyingly tough enough to come by that I probably won’t use that strat, but it makes sense.
The hallway pillars on haven are another place that would be frustrating.
> Would be helpful if you talked a little about what you see as problematic about sprint and custom load-outs.
>
> And, as mentioned, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the other thing in this game. Are you saying that they only appear in customs?
Hit-markers are everywhere in the game. once you notice them you will know to look for them. They are especially helpful in notifying you when a railgun did actually hit but their host said it didn’t.
I have many issues with sprint. My main issue, is that is primarily used as a defensive ability for players who are losing battles. This is because a player who wishes to pursue a sprinter cannot fire his gun. This creates a cat and mouse situation that is not only frustrating, but can rob you of kills. I can’t say that this is more or less competitive as the player who runs away does lose map control. But I find it so annoying when you’re winning an engagement and a player just runs away.
Another issue I have with sprint is it’s effect on map design. Everyone is quick to bash the maps in Reach and H4, but very few players place the blame where it belongs. I believe sprint caused the death of small arena maps. I think the developers knew that arena maps would not play good with sprint. So we ended up with giant maps with long lines of sight to compensate for sprint.
Arena maps don’t play good with sprint. I can’t get over how much worse pit slayer and flag plays in H4 with sprint. Of course I know many people here would simply reply “nah ah the pit plays good with sprint”. That’s fine if you think that, but you’re wrong.
I like one aspect of custom loadouts. I do think you should be able to pick your starting weapon. Just not grenades, AA’s, or perks. It’s silly that a player that likes the carbine should have to search around the map in order to use a weapon that is balanced with the BR.
I generally don’t have a problem with them to be honest, but I can understand why some people due, I would turn them off for grenades as it reveals people positions but keep them on for weapons as people like to know whether the person they have shot is weak or not.
Custom Loadouts- I like the ability to chose what I spawn with, however, I feel they need to be limited and only be in social playlists.
Sprint- No-sprint, if it returns (which I hope it does) needs to be universal, including BTB, we don’t need sprint when you have Mongooses and Ghosts, the problems with sprint are just as prominent in 4 v 4 as they are in 8 v 8.
> * Sprint
> (Disable it on Small and Medium maps, but enable it on Larger maps. This would actually make Sprint useful and it wouldn’t be getting abused.
It’s a good idea, but it wouldn’t work too well if you have two different gameplay styles. Because of the way it affects movement, it would be better to have it always there or never there.
I liked that in Reach, you sacrificed Sprint by picking up another AA. It was a pretty nice give-and-take balance.
> * Loadouts
> (Make them Preset only, not Custom.
Reach’s preset loadouts work much better than Halo 4’s customizable loadouts. Someone else had suggested that you should be able to customize only your primary weapon, not your grenades, secondary, etc. I would like to combine these two ideas, so that there are maybe two or three preset loadouts, each with a different starting primary, but they each have the same starting secondary, grenades, and AA.
In my opinion, there is no reason why players need to be able to start with plasma pistols, plasma grenades, Active Camo, Jet Packs, or a Light Rifle. These types of items should be on-map pickups in order to limit the number of players using them at the same time and limit the number of times a particular tactic (sitting on a building sniping with a LR; camping with AC; spamming charged PP bolts and plasma grenades at vehicles) can be done.
> > I’ve never noticed any hit markers in Halo 4. Is there a screenshot or something I can look at that highlights this?
>
> See the four lines around the reticle?
>
> Those are the hit-markers.
>
> I generally don’t have a problem with them to be honest, but I can understand why some people due, I would turn them off for grenades as it reveals people positions but keep them on for weapons as people like to know whether the person they have shot is weak or not.
>
> Custom Loadouts- I like the ability to chose what I spawn with, however, I feel they need to be limited and only be in social playlists.
>
> Sprint- No-sprint, if it returns (which I hope it does) needs to be universal, including BTB, we don’t need sprint when you have Mongooses and Ghosts, the problems with sprint are just as prominent in 4 v 4 as they are in 8 v 8.
I understand where you’re coming from, but:
With Hit-Markers; the reason why they would work best with grenades is because it would be a way to counter corner-campers. You don’t really need them for guns if you’re shooting someone in plain-sight, because their shields will flash when they’re getting hit.
With Loadouts; they can work if they’re Preset only and done right. If 343 makes them like this, they could work both Casually and Competitively:
(Small maps: Automatic Rifles, Handguns, and 2 Grenades)
(Medium maps: Marksman Rifles, Handguns, and 2 Grenades)
(Larger maps: Long-Range Marksman Rifles, Handguns, and 2 Grenades)
With Sprint; the reason why it’s abused is because it’s used on Small and Medium maps, which aren’t big enough for it. You do make a good point about Mongooses and Ghosts getting you around Larger maps quicker, however if you’re playing on a Large map such as Sandtrap, getting around the map that way is going to be a pain in the behind, especially if the other team is hiding somewhere on the other side of the map with a Sniper Rifle, Spartan Laser, and Missile Pod. You’re just going to get killed and spawn on the other side of the map everytime. With Sprint, you can find a good cover spot quick enough to pick them of before they can see you. I don’t think that it causes any problems with BTB maps, other than the Large maps having too much cover, hiding spots, and not being big enough, other than that Sprint could work on larger maps for faster navigation only.
> > Hit Marker: I had forgotten those even exist. Is this really considered much of an issue?
>
> Yes, and I will tell you why. Grenades.
> Hitmarkers from grenades will often reveal whether or not a player is in a location. An effective strategy is to prenade halls and choke points just to see if a player is there. Like the lift hall on adrift. Players love to hide there so throwing a grenade can quickly reveal if someone is having a crouch party.
Not really. Having them on grenades is better than not having them on grenades. I would rather know if I’m actually hitting some Noob Camper around the corner with one of my grenades than to not know if I’m hitting them or not. The point is that it comes in handy, just like the 2-Shot-Melee Kill.
> > Would be helpful if you talked a little about what you see as problematic about sprint and custom load-outs.
> >
> > And, as mentioned, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the other thing in this game. Are you saying that they only appear in customs?
>
> Hit-markers are everywhere in the game. once you notice them you will know to look for them. They are especially helpful in notifying you when a railgun did actually hit but their host said it didn’t.
>
> I have many issues with sprint. My main issue, is that is primarily used as a defensive ability for players who are losing battles. This is because a player who wishes to pursue a sprinter cannot fire his gun. This creates a cat and mouse situation that is not only frustrating, but can rob you of kills. I can’t say that this is more or less competitive as the player who runs away does lose map control. But I find it so annoying when you’re winning an engagement and a player just runs away.
>
> Another issue I have with sprint is it’s effect on map design. Everyone is quick to bash the maps in Reach and H4, but very few players place the blame where it belongs. I believe sprint caused the death of small arena maps. I think the developers knew that arena maps would not play good with sprint. So we ended up with giant maps with long lines of sight to compensate for sprint.
>
> Arena maps don’t play good with sprint. I can’t get over how much worse pit slayer and flag plays in H4 with sprint. Of course I know many people here would simply reply “nah ah the pit plays good with sprint”. That’s fine if you think that, but you’re wrong.
>
> I like one aspect of custom loadouts. I do think you should be able to pick your starting weapon. Just not grenades, AA’s, or perks. It’s silly that a player that likes the carbine should have to search around the map in order to use a weapon that is balanced with the BR.
Much appreciated detail.
I’m of two minds on the sprint question though. I see your point about it giving players yet another potential get-out-of-jail-free card, but I can also see a different side of it: I think giving sprint to players sometimes encourages movement which might otherwise feel too risky. And as a camper with a dmr, I rely on players making miscalculations about their vulnerability and running out into the open.
And to take it much, much further: if you have a problem with sprint then it is really hard to find any arguments in favor of jet packs, camo and other AAs, all of which make a mockery of traditional map design and gameplay. I’m not saying that having them or not having them is either right or wrong, but it seems to me that if you’re offended by sprint, then you could find a lot more to hate in Halo 4.
I disagree with your approach. Having sprint dependent on the map can lead to some complications. For example, what if I decide that I really like the layout of a certain area of a large map, and decide to forge it for 4v4 play? Now we have sprint in 4v4.
We could instead make sprint dependent on the gametype, such as BTB, but then this leads to having a useless button on the controller for gametypes that don’t use sprint.
In addition, I personally think sprint is severely detrimental to map design and leads to more “flight” choices in a fight-or-flight encounter. I really don’t enjoy getting a the first shot on somebody (or worse, take their shields down) and then they run around a corner. The dreaded two-melee rush is also an unwelcome by-product of sprint’s inclusion in multiplayer.
Loadouts:
I agree with preset loadouts, except with the viewpoint that they should also be dependent on the map. I don’t think map-dependent traits/weapons are feasible.
Hit-markers:
These should have never been put into Halo, in my opinion. You can now “scout” around corners with grenades and look for a hit-marker instead of listening for a shield pop. The farther the toss, the less-likely you are to hear a shield pop (if you even take the shields out), so the hit-markers enable you to essentially detect other players through means that should not be possible. It removes a bit of strategy and risk involved with determining if your grenade actually hit, or if there is even an opponent lying in wait.
I’ve got rid of the point about Hit-Markers because when I thought about it, you really don’t need them for grenades because you can hear people’s shields pop when they’re hit.
> Sprint:
>
> I disagree with your approach. Having sprint dependent on the map can lead to some complications. For example, what if I decide that I really like the layout of a certain area of a large map, and decide to forge it for 4v4 play? Now we have sprint in 4v4.
>
> We could instead make sprint dependent on the gametype, such as BTB, but then this leads to having a useless button on the controller for gametypes that don’t use sprint.
>
> In addition, I personally think sprint is severely detrimental to map design and leads to more “flight” choices in a fight-or-flight encounter. I really don’t enjoy getting a the first shot on somebody (or worse, take their shields down) and then they run around a corner. The dreaded two-melee rush is also an unwelcome by-product of sprint’s inclusion in multiplayer.
>
> Loadouts:
>
> I agree with preset loadouts, except with the viewpoint that they should also be dependent on the map. I don’t think map-dependent traits/weapons are feasible.
>
> Hit-markers:
>
> These should have never been put into Halo, in my opinion. You can now “scout” around corners with grenades and look for a hit-marker instead of listening for a shield pop. The farther the toss, the less-likely you are to hear a shield pop (if you even take the shields out), so the hit-markers enable you to essentially detect other players through means that should not be possible. It removes a bit of strategy and risk involved with determining if your grenade actually hit, or if there is even an opponent lying in wait.
I wouldn’t mind having Sprint and No-Sprint maps as long as they’re done correctly, because I’m used to both mechanics in Halo. You pretty much made a good point about it being used to escape deaths and over-rush. I can’t count all the times that all them has happened to me. Whenever I get the first shots off, people tend to Sprint away. People just love to over-rush me, especially around the corners when they’re going for a double-melee kill. Them reasons alone are enough to make Sprint bad for Halo. How often has that happened to you in matchmaking, because it’s really annoying when it does happen.
> * I wouldn’t mind having Sprint and No-Sprint maps as long as they’re done correctly
Heck, I wouldn’t even mind having reskins of classic maps be the only maps for classic game types. Imagine ranked team slayer on some combination of Zanzibar, Turf, Hang Em High, Rat Race, Sanctuary, Colossus, Mid Ship, Guardian, Pit, Battle Creek, Wizard, Ascension, Gemini, Ivory Tower, lockout, epitaph, ghost town, high ground, snow bound, stand off, count down, powerhouse, tempest, and… I guess none from Halo 4 since the maps wouldn’t work.
That quickly became an exercise in recalling my favorite maps from each title. Its not like they don’t have a huge library of diverse maps to choose from at this point. How much in terms of development resources does it really take to visually update the artwork of an old map, especially if forge is as robust as I think it will be?
> * I wouldn’t mind having Sprint and No-Sprint maps as long as they’re done correctly, because I’m used to both mechanics in Halo. You pretty much made a good point about it being used to escape deaths and over-rush. I can’t count all the times that all them has happened to me. Whenever I get the first shots off, people tend to Sprint away. People just love to over-rush me, especially around the corners when they’re going for a double-melee kill. Them reasons alone are enough to make Sprint bad for Halo. <mark>How often has that happened to you in matchmaking</mark>, because it’s really annoying when it does happen.
It happens often enough that I can only tolerate matchmaking for about an hour or two. Not until Reach have I lost out on so many kills.
Re-shouldering the weapon after sprinting is bothersome as well.
