[Think-tank] How to tweak all the AA's?

Games Other Halo
1

(This is my opinion, I’ll explain my reasoning in due time)

As it stands:

Broken AA’s - (Overpowered)

  1. Active Camo
  2. Promethean Vision
  3. Jetpack

Balanced AA’s -

  1. Regen Field
  2. Thruster Pack
  3. Hardlight Shield
  4. Hologram

Neutral AA’s - (Never really gets much use)

  1. Autosentry

Explanation:

I. Broken AA’s

  1. AC - All of the reasons for this being broken have been regurgitated over and over again on this board. No sense in beating a dead horse.

Solution - Active Camo radar effect shows red blips for the player using it, everyone else still sees the blue dots. This prevents a person using AA from camping around corners waiting to ambush someone while still allowing a team to utilize the radar while teammates use AC.

  1. Promethean Vision - Wall hack in an fps? Ok then… Just like AC I won’t reiterate too much on what’s wrong with this since its already been said before.

Solution - When a player uses PV, they lower their weapon for the duration of the AA toggle and cannot fire/throw grenades. This prevents players from gaining such a tactical advantage and being able to fully capitalize on it.

  1. Jetpack - “Are you serious?” Probably what popped into your head as you read this but there are many good reasons as to why this AA makes MM so bloody frustrating. In a nutshell, the Jetpack completely voids any map strategy that 343i built into these maps. Ducked behind cover just in time before 5SK? Not so fast says Captain Jetpack. This AA should be toned down a bit in order to make gaining higher ground more meaningful and rewarding.

Solution - Like PV Solution, make it so that weapons become unusable after holding down Jetpack for a specific period of time. That way, short hopping and small vertical climbs remain unaffected, but the huge vertical climbs are more costly. -Or- make it so that Jetpack has two functions 1) Quick vertical ascension by initially holding down the crouch then firing the AA and 2) Short hopping/slower, weaker vertical ascension.

II. Balanced AA’s

There’s are reason that these are balanced. They are skillful to use, don’t entirely ruin map control/positioning and don’t provide a ridiculous tactical advantage to a player using it.

Only one that might require some tweaking would be abusing regen field limits to recharge shield by stepping in and out of it over and over again.

III. Neutral AA’s

  1. Autosentry - Initially, I was really excited for this. I pictured an engi turret like in TF2 (or hell even one like in dominion that doesn’t do much damage but slows you down). Yet what we got was a funky little promethean pistol that stands in place, does negligible damage (unless being completely ignored) and takes forever to deploy for what it’s worth.

Solution - I don’t want to automatically say buff this AA, but it would be nice if it had some more tactical application rather than being a bullet dump for most enemy players. The dominion turret idea or simply having it move with you sound good on paper.

IV. Overall fix to AA’s

Here’s my idea that is a combination of some stuff already being worked on for MLG ordinance. Make certain AA’s usable from load-outs and others usable only as part of personal ordnance. “Yeah, I got plasma’s in my ordnance, Awesome!” said no one ever, so let’s substitute the nade slot with AA’s. Makes things more interesting and there’s less grenades floating around. Win-win situation.

Thanks for your time, discuss my ideas or submit your own to this Think-tank. Let’s get the ball rolling.

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This post has been edited by a moderator. Please do not bump.

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3

sorry to rain on ur parade but bs angel said they aren’t even planning on doing any rebalancing and this thread has been made since day 1.

the only thing they could do would be that you get AAs in ordinance =\

halo 4 is just screwed =\

4

I don’t have too much issues with any of them, the only thing with PV and AC is, and wish they would, should be to drop their ability duration a second or two faster, at least with AC. AC is gay -Yoink- hell in CTF and that’s all people are using on Harvest atm camping the flag with shotguns.

They wont rebalance anything. Reach Armor Abilities never got rebalanced or toned down (ie Armor Lock), so don’t hold your breath.

5

Best solution: get rid of them.
Along with sprint, loadouts, perks, instant respawn, OD, and anything else that 343 changed from the tried and true Halo formula.

6

PV is the only AA that just needs to be taken out of the game. Camo kids I’m fine with because I can still see them pretty easily. PV is highly overpowered since you can basically see where the team spawns, etc… I use thruster all the time because I find its the best AA, can do a lot with it if you know how to use it

7

I don’t understand what the problem is with Active Camo?

Look on your radar, you see blue dots floating around? A camo user is near by. Don’t act like a moron as usual and use caution for once. Use grenades, check your corners, always be ready.

It is that hard?

8

I’d say if they had stuck them in personal ordinance only it would of played out differently.

For example they could of kept power weapons only on the map but since people could get AA’s and damage boost, and overshield they could turn the tables around with AA’s and damage boost and they wouldn’t seem overpowered anymore cause you had to work for them and choose and decide on the fly whats more useful one of two AA’s or a damage boost or over shield boost.

9

You say there needs to be less grenades on the map? Are you kidding me? It’s two grenades and you’re done. In reach you at least found grenades off dead bodies. Now it’s like you have to save those two for specific situations and you always end up using them unwisely. 343 needs to place grenades on the map

10

> sorry to rain on ur parade but bs angel said they aren’t even planning on doing any rebalancing and this thread has been made since day 1.
>
> the only thing they could do would be that you get AAs in ordinance =
>
> halo 4 is just screwed =\

Gosh I would LOVE to see where she said that! Especially since 2 weeks ago she said in the Halo Bullitin that they are working on a traditional TU to fix and rebalance the sandbox. Huh, go figure, reading helps…

11

> I don’t understand what the problem is with Active Camo?
>
> Look on your radar, you see blue dots floating around? A camo user is near by. Don’t act like a moron as usual and use caution for once. Use grenades, check your corners, always be ready.
>
> It is that hard?

I never challenge someone using Active Camo, most people do. The moment I see blue dots floating about on my radar and I know its not a teammate, I head around and pick another lane to push.

Camo is broken in the sense that the active camo guy is totally invisible (way more than reach) and they still retain the ability to use their radar. That shouldn’t be the case, there needs to be a downside to the AA and currently the only negative is entirealy negligible in the grand scheme of things.

12
  1. Active camo is conceptually broken, not iteration of it will be balanced. Remove it.
  2. Not really an issue.
  3. Not really an issue.
13

> 1. Active camo is broken. Remove it.
> 2. Not really an issue.
> 3. Not really an issue.

PV just needs to go…its not even broken just highly overpowered lol. No perk should allow you to see through walls and what not

14

> > 1. Active camo is broken. Remove it.
> > 2. Not really an issue.
> > 3. Not really an issue.
>
> PV just needs to go…its not even broken just highly overpowered lol. No perk should allow you to see through walls and what not

Meh. It’s more of a passive ability than anything.

At most it can give you a general idea of where people are on the map. Most good players always spot the minimap/player tags, so it really doesn’t provide any benefit to them.

15

They’re all fine, every one of them has a means of countering. If people are too thick-headed to figure that out then that’s their problem. Don’t nerf every ability just because the dimwits can’t learn how to overcome a troublesome player.

Camo is fine, if you’re blind and can’t see the radar blips then you deserve to be boltshotted in the face. Every time I see that cluster of blips on my radar I look right in the thick of it and I see the glistening moron trying to be crafty.

Promethean vision is fine, it’s easy to see when someone is using it. You see a huge wave over your radar telling you right where they are and alerting you that they can see you through the walls. If you’re foolish enough to get yourself killed after that, it’s your fault. Also, try using Wetwork’s skill, it renders the Promethean vision useless.

Jetpack is fine, the -Yoink!- thing is already less than half as effective as it was in Reach. It’s pathetic in it’s current state. If you can’t see the guy flying above you or watch your radar and you get popped in the top of the head, that’s your fault for not being observant enough. When you fly up, you make yourself a huge target, jetpack is fine.

Also, how can jetpack break the maps that 343 designed when they designed them with jetpack in mind? It’s not like jetpack just showed up one day and surprised them by ruining their hard work suddenly.

People need to complain less and think more about how they play the game. If an ability or weapon is killing you, figure out how to deal with it, problem solving seems to be a thing of the past in the Halo community.

16

> > 1. Active camo is broken. Remove it.
> > 2. Not really an issue.
> > 3. Not really an issue.
>
> PV just needs to go…its not even broken just highly overpowered lol. No perk should allow you to see through walls and what not

Actually, PV is needed so that you can stop campers, thats why I use it. =/

17

> I don’t understand what the problem is with Active Camo?
>
> Look on your radar, you see blue dots floating around? A camo user is near by. Don’t act like a moron as usual and use caution for once. Use grenades, check your corners, always be ready.
>
> It is that hard?

The blue dots dissapear if you don’t move while in camo.

18

> > I don’t understand what the problem is with Active Camo?
> >
> > Look on your radar, you see blue dots floating around? A camo user is near by. Don’t act like a moron as usual and use caution for once. Use grenades, check your corners, always be ready.
> >
> > It is that hard?
>
> The blue dots dissapear if you don’t move while in camo.

Not to mention AC + Sniper/LightR/Binary

19

> 2) Promethean Vision

Stopped reading there. Anyone who thinks PV is overpowered either relies on it way too much or still camps for kills.
The only AA’s I think are inherently broken are jetpack, AC, and AL in Reach (objectively broken).

20

> Camo is fine, if you’re blind and can’t see the radar blips then you deserve to be boltshotted in the face. Every time I see that cluster of blips on my radar I look right in the thick of it and I see the glistening moron trying to be crafty.
>
> Promethean vision is fine, it’s easy to see when someone is using it. You see a huge wave over your radar telling you right where they are and alerting you that they can see you through the walls. If you’re foolish enough to get yourself killed after that, it’s your fault. Also, try using Wetwork’s skill, it renders the Promethean vision useless.

The thing with these abilities are that they are primarily mental area denial tools, not physical. A rocket launcher sitting in a good position with high visibility is physical area denial (same with a sniper). That’s ok, you have room to adjust and change tactics to counter. How is “go around/ignore” a form of countering especially when said PV/AC users are camping objectives? Wetwork perk is irrelevant. Countering these abilities through a load-out change is wrong, having to have an ability that others may not have access to is bad balance ideology.

> Also, how can jetpack break the maps that 343 designed when they designed them with jetpack in mind? It’s not like jetpack just showed up one day and surprised them by ruining their hard work suddenly.

In reach it was plain broken. Yes, the jetpack is nerfed a bit in Halo 4 but it brings about so many issues with map control. None of the maps were designed with Jetpack in mind (Frankly, I don’t know where you got that idea, if you provide a source I’ll believe it) yet every map seems to require Jetpack to navigate it well. Maps like Shatter showcase this immensely, where access to important areas on the map are trivialized whereas not having Jetpack would take considerably longer.

That’s bad design, movement and positioning in an fps should be paramount in it’s overall design.

Also, quit trying to bash everyone that suggests that something may be iffy with these abilities and then automatically assume that they must be bad at the game. Check my stats if you wish, but leave that out of here. Certain things could be adjusted for the betterment of the game and are completely independent of individual skill.