I once saw the the line of sanity… too straight and narrow for me. I like my insanity. It keeps me rooted in a world gone mad.
I actually don’t see a problem with armour lock. I don’t use it because I love Sprint and evade but I really don’t have any problems with it. Now people need to stop moaning about it because it isn’t in many playlists anymore.
Faster Shield recharging is a must and 343i better realize this!!! Just an extra second or two would completely fix it and you will be able to get back to battle without having to wait years for your shield to come back.
I do agree with you on armor lock, but instead of removing it entirely, how about making it last 2 seconds, which is enough to dodge something that would kill you, and would make it less obnoxious. The grenades can be fixed by making you start out with 1, as opposed to 2.
Everything else… I don’t really mind.
Thanks everyone for the responses so far!
> I actually don’t see a problem with armour lock. I don’t use it because I love Sprint and evade but I really don’t have any problems with it. Now people need to stop moaning about it because it isn’t in many playlists anymore.
I was critiquing the “core” Reach experience here, not any playlists that didn’t include it or had modified loadouts. This is what Bungie intended Reach to be played as, and so Armor Lock is included in that. I normally don’t play any playlists with Armor Lock in it (Outside of Invasion and BTB, where it doesn’t come in to play very much). Point is…I had to include Armor Lock because it’s what I played today, and was part of the intended “Core” experience.
> Nice post. I agree with everything except for the utility weapon not standing a chance against power weapons. The DMR does plenty enough damage in my opinion. In a 1v1 encounter, it is only logical that the player with the power weapon will win (unless he chokes). On the other hand, getting shot by 2-3 DMR’s will make any player drop as quick as lightning regardless of what weapon he has. Also, getting rid of spamming will only worsen the weapon damage dilemma you’ve explained.
Right, but if a player is good enough with the utility weapon, he/she should be able to stand a chance against someone with a power weapon. In my experience today, you had very little chance of killing anyone with a power weapon if you were using a Pistol or Assault Rifle, no matter what the circumstances were.
Care to explain how “getting rid of spamming would worsen the weapon damage dilemma”? It could be my fault for not being clear enough. Getting rid of bloom, putting capped rates of fire, and then BUFFING those weapons…That’s what I meant =).
> I agree with all of these. One thing you didn’t mention was the horrible no-bleed through melee system. It just encourages people to double melee all the time instead of using a gun.
Actually didn’t run into this that much. I encountered Sprint/Melee Power Weapon much more often.
> dude i hate to flame but this game is fun and all your changes are making it into halo 3. this is reach not halo 3. these events take before halo series so you have to think of that you really do. armor lock is not broken or anything it is barely included any more in any playlist i hope 343 industries doesnt change anything and i think they wont really. did you play halo 1 btw this game was in honor of that and is like that reminds me of halo 1
My counter to this is “Why fix what isn’t broken?”. Halo 3 didn’t have all the problems Reach has (It had its own), and a lot of Reach’s problems are a direct result of Bungie wanting to change things from Halo 3. Some people may find this kind of gameplay to be very fun, but a lot of long-time players feel like their Halo has changed too much with Reach.
There are ways of innovating gameplay without changing what makes a game feel like it’s supposed to. I think Reach would have been just fine without Bloom and Armor Lock, and they still would have been able to push the genre forward with the remaining, balanced AAs (IMO, of course. Many people disagree on this point.)
> > I saw many teams simply running the “Dual Lockers” strategy; Pairing up and just trading off locks to take down individual players. It was unbeatable in the right hands. If these people were derps, again, this would be easy as pie…But these were highly-skilled players using this AA as a tool to give the other team no fighting chance at all.
>
> It’s like they’re Headhuntes or something 
>
> As for everything, I understand you want a playlist that plays more exactly like Halo2 or 3 (cause you don’t want Halo:CE’s fall damage, slow recharging shields or low jump height), but to make all of Reach play just a certain way, I think your missing the point of your intended point.
Not really. I don’t want a single playlist. I don’t want to be restricted to just playing one style. I want to be able to enjoy all aspects of the game, and play all it has to offer without getting angry or frustrated. That’s probably WHY I don’t play a lot of Reach anymore. I was always a playlist hopper: I would play a game of Slayer, then Objective, then BTB, then Swat…Because I liked all of them in Halo 3.
Here’s how I feel about it: I don’t think that the majority of people currently playing Reach would rage out of their minds if my changes went into effect in all playlists, universally. You’d have some people come on the forums and express their distaste, sure…But I don’t think you’d see nearly as many people doing that as you would praising the changes and welcoming a more balanced version of Reach.
Of course, this would be assuming 343 did all the changes correctly, and re-balanced the weapons appropriately. If they removed Bloom, then proceeded to overpower the DMR like the BR was…You’d see that WHOLE “OMFG I HATE THE BR ITS THE ONLY GUN YOU CAN USE” debate all over again. If they nerfed grenades too much, you’d see a ton of complaining that “GRENADES ARE FAIL NOW THANKS A LOT 343 YOU SUCK!”.
You’ll see complainers no matter what…But it just depends on how MANY are complaining…And a LOT of people have expressed their dislike of Reach. Definitely moreso than Halo 3 and 2.
Sorry, I didn’t see the part about buffing the DMR. Disregard that last statement. I must be tired.
Just read through. I agree on several points. However I do disagree on others, or have different solutions.
Armor Lock
Rather than simply removing Armor Lock, changes could easily be made to counter the AA. All other Armor Abilities can be countered while they’re being used.
Sprint? They can’t shoot you. Take them out.
Evade? You can punch them while they’re rolling away from you…Even if they’re not next to you.
Jetpack? Jetpackers become huge targets and are unable to dodge your fire, making easy targets.
Hologram? You should be able to spot a hologram over a regular player if you pay attention (The IR scope on the Sniper, holograms flash)
Drop Shield? Run in. Plant 'nade. Move out. Drive vehicle through. Easy kills.
Solution for Armor Lock.
—Any and all Plasma Grenades that stick to the player merge to their armor. Meaning? That shield comes up, it goes over the grenade, creating a player-shaped explosion with nowhere to go. Think explosion in a Drop Shield, but far more compact. This includes Plasma Grenades and Plasma Grenade Launcher Grenades.
—EMPs should disable Armor Lock. Come on. They can disable vehicles. They can disable shields. While we’re at it, they should be able to disable a jetpack. Oh, man. That would be so cool!
—Vehicles shouldn’t explode from simply hitting an Armor Locker head on. (Seriously. I’ve exploded going 2MPH on a Mongoose, tapping a Locker.) Maybe going full speed. But nothing less.
Bloom
Totally believe Bloom should be removed, and a RoF cap should be enforced, throwing in a working recoil system to actually throw off your fire if you’re shooting at that cap. Don’t get me wrong, I can win all of my DMR fights against spammers unless it’s close combat.
Shielding
Shielding’s about Halo CE-ish recharge rate, if I remember right. However, it does feel slow. It can be argued that since it is technically prototype shielding (Pre-Mark VI) that it is a lower recharge rate…
Grenades
Such… Massive… Explosions… The kill radius is larger than it should be for shielded enemies. I agree, the damage should be scaled back. Forced carrying of a single grenade in multiplayer for all playlists also sounds great.
Bleed
Please come back. I miss you.
Betrayal System
The betrayal system needs a serious fix… I’ve sat there and watched someone betray me. Constantly. For my sniper. Over and over and over again. Do I get the boot? No. My teammates team-shoot him to no shield. I put a single shot into his head, killing him and getting the betrayal. Booted. Instantly. Doesn’t seem that I should be punished for a single bullet, while he shouldn’t be punished for 5 or so betrayals.
Woah. I totally went off on my own. Uh… …Yeah, I agree with you on some points, but think others should be changed in different ways.
nice post man nice post.
I agree with all the points. Reach just induces rage when i play it. Never in halo 3 did i hate playing competitive games. In Reach competitive games suck because the way the game plays sucks. Bloom is just ridiculous like was pointed out, armor lock is abused by scrubs who love second chances, the shield recharge rate i agree is too slow. Hopefully the TU is worth it.
Completely agree.
As someone who had 13,000 games played on Halo 3, and played for hours a day, let me just say that Reach as it is, is just horrible.
Armor Lock, Bloom, “Double Melee”…it’s just NOT FUN. I’ve got hardly 1,200 games of Reach played. I can’t bring myself to play more than a couple games a month because it’s not a fun game. I like Halo, but Reach pretty much turned me off of the entire franchise.
I’ve got faith in 343. Always have…they haven’t really disappointed me yet. If they mess up with this TU I’m finished with Reach.
For the love of god please remove AL from small team battle play lists.
> I agree with all of these. One thing you didn’t mention was the horrible no-bleed through melee system. It just encourages people to double melee all the time instead of using a gun.
What he said. I really hope that they do make this game closer to the “classic Halo feel” as 343i said in the TU article.
Don’t forget the Jetpack and camo. They both have the potential to be more effective at being frustrating than Armour Lock. Jetpacks completely break map flow and control whereas camo slows the pace of the game down greatly by encouraging the users to crouch around corners to get cheap melee kills, first shots and grenade sticks.
As spawning items all AAs aside from Sprint & Hologram become broken when used by good players. As such they really should be treated like Halo 3’s equipment - map specific items to pick up that help the user bridge the gap between normal weapons and power weapons.
Also, it would be very nice to see Overshield & Active Camo powerups return now that they’re functional.
Another point I just remembered I wanted to make is this: Despite Armour Abilities being well intentioned in an effort to refresh gameplay somewhat I believe they do more harm than good in that after the initial novelty of the different abilities wears off they begin to frustrate the majority of players. Either they’re unpredictable (except for jetpack) on the player model which essentially randomises gameplay or they allow people to play the game in more frustrating ways. Eating grenades & melees with Armour Lock, , using Drop Shields as tunnels for objective run and crouching around corners with camo are all things which are very frustrating for the team on the receiving end and don’t have any particuar counters.
Basically AAs seem to have served to have taken some of the fun from Halo by making it so that we’re not all equal when we respawn. and by only being fun for the user. I strongly believe that this feeling could be mitigated significantly by treating AAs as powerful equipment pickups. Whole teams would be unable to abuse AAs en masse but the variety they bring to the game could still be present in a more strategically valuable way.
> EMPs should disable Armor Lock. Come on. They can disable vehicles. They can disable shields. While we’re at it, they should be able to disable a jetpack. Oh, man. That would be so cool!
I like the idea of EMPs cancelling AAs. Hitting a Jetpacker rising and being finished by ‘gravity’.
I read your entire post and I agree with everything.
take bloom out. I don’t care how. I just want randomness, in all it’s forms, out of the game.
reaches slow movement + grenade damage/splash radius + long shield recharge time = way too many grenade kills.
I prefer reaches melee system to a bleed through system though because it takes out the guess work in knowing when to melee or not. the only thing that breaks melees in reach is the armor abilities like spring and evade which encourage double meleeing.
I just have ONE request for the TU that 343 industries will be releasing in some time.
It’s not about armor lock.
It’s not about any other AAs.
It’s not about melee bleedthrough.
BUT,
It IS about overhauling the most popular Halo: Reach matchmaking gametype that is Living Dead.
Now don’t get me wrong. Living Dead remains my favorite playlist, and the one I play most commonly. I just feel as if it could be bettered in tremendous ways. What ways, you ask?
1.) The addition of community made maps and gametypes to the playlist.
-This playlist would benefit in HUGE ways with the addition of these things. People are getting tired of playing Alpha Zombies and Zombies on the same 7 or so maps all of the time. The addition of new maps would liven up the playlist, and people would enjoy it so much more. Also, the addition of community gametypes would add some verity. Community gametypes always add a certain flair to matchmaking, and I’m sure mapmakers would love getting their name out there.
2.) The removal of sword block from any gametype (esp. living dead)
-In no other playlist is this ability so relevant. A spartan should not be able to block a sword of pure energy from an attacking zombie. Blocking zombie’s swords gives the game a faker feel. The removal of sword block is needed for this playlist, where it can be found often.
3.) More benefits for the last man standing.
-This is a lesser request for living dead overhauls, and an idea I just recently thought of. Currently, the last man gains a kill on the leaderboards, and a measly overshield. What if he got something like a sniper, or some fresh ammo. Wouldn’t it be awesome if drop-pods dropped when the last man became the… last man, and he could scramble and grab something that would offer more protection to an onslaught of zombies?
Anyways guys, that’s about it. If I get ONE thing from the TU, I just hope it’s an overhaul of Living Dead.
> Let me know what you guys think.
I don’t know about the Sniper, Zombies would have not chance… Kinda. Sword Block, new maps, and gametypes, is good idea.
Okay, I was lurking the forums, and once I saw this I had to sign in to back you up. THE ONE THING, that I want is an overhaul to Living Dead. I loved it in Halo 3 because of the maps. So if these things come to pass, I will once again, play the playlist none stop.
> Okay, I was lurking the forums, and once I saw this I had to sign in to back you up. THE ONE THING, that I want is an overhaul to Living Dead. I loved it in Halo 3 because of the maps. So if these things come to pass, I will once again, play the playlist none stop.
Thanks, and I know! We need this, it would make Living Dead SO much better.
the bulltrue/infected bug MUST be fixed.