One thing that bothered me in every Halo game is that Precision Weapons, anything scoped and/or single or burst shot would always have huge advantage over fully automatic weapons. Now, I know that fully automatic weapons need to be balanced, but why is it that at close range a BR/DMR user can still kill an AR user quicker? Even if the AR user makes sure to burst-fire to keep the bullets on target, most of the time a competent BR/DMR user will outgun them. I feel like we are presented with the illusion of choice. So many weapons in the sandbox, but you are punished for not using the “pro” weapons. This is also a problem for anyone wanting to get their weapon commendations up because they’ll be outgunned so easily.
EDIT: 10/31/2014
My agenda is to encourage players to use the whole sandbox of weapons by making them unique and valid choices for their niche instead of sticking with the BR and DMR because they have been too good at all ranges and situations in past games.
I’d like to thank GNC Green for bringing up the idea to put recoil on the AR. While I think everyone agrees not to put a grenade launcher on it, using recoil as a balancing mechanic could work. Halo 3’s SMGs had a recoil effect and that did balance those weapons fairly nicely. I’d like to point out that every Halo game has had “bloom,” i.e. decreasing accuracy the longer a gun is fired, it is just that Halo Reach and Halo 4 were the only games to animate the reticule so you could see it.
The teaser for the Halo 5 beta shows an Assault Rifle with a 60 round clip. It will probably function similarly to the CE AR. Adding recoil to the AR is not entirely necessary if they get the bloom right, but to use recoil with limited bloom might be a good way to create a fun AR successor.
Any and all rapid fire weapons should beat ranged weapons in roughly 80% of engagements closer than 7-10 meters, and 100% of engagements closer than 5 meters. That’s what they are made for. In past Halos ranged weapons have consistently been able to beat automatic weapons at most ranges, and automatics could only beat them at point blank range. It shouldn’t matter if you are accurate with your shots, if you engage a bullet hose at close range you should lose. Engage at a further range if you want to keep your ranged weapon, or swap for something better suited to the task at hand.
The ranged weapons might work with a little recoil effect as well, and we could do away with the DMR’s randomness-inducing bloom. Making fine adjustments with the thumbstick to compensate for recoil is a better indicator of skill than timing shots for bloom in my opinion. If I recall correctly Halo 3’s plasma weapons did more shield damage and the projectile weapons did more damage against unshielded foes. I think they tried this in Halo 4 but the effect is so small it’s unnoticeable( or I could be wrong and it’s not there at all). I think bringing this effect back in a more noticeable way would be great to encourage using the different weapons in the sandbox and not sticking with the starting weapons. I think plasma weapons should knock shields down much faster than any other weapon.
As for Promethean weapons, I think a great way to encourage their use is to let their bullets partially phase through shields to deal a portion of damage to the body as well as the shields. Give us a health indicator like Reach, but since it’s Gen2 Armor with auto-healing systems the health would fully regenerate after a few seconds of avoiding fire. You could kill someone without popping their shields but if their shields are upyou can only headshot kill them when their health is critically low.
- UNSC Weapons/Projectile Weapons: Lower damage vs shield, higher damage vs unsheilded- Covenant/Plasma Weapons: Higher Damage vs shield, lower damage vs unshielded- Promethean/Directed Energy Weapons: Equal Damage vs shielded/unshielded, small amount of damage penetrates shield. About 70/30 to 80/20 shield-to-body penetration rate.EDIT: 11/2/2014
A few other ideas occurred to me to make some more weapons more unique. Depending on if you like the idea for Directed Energy Weapons penetrating shields, then altering their projectile mechanics could work in place of, or in conjunction with it.
- Storm Rifle: Keep it close to Halo 4’s version, but tweak the bloom so that it’s not so grossly innaccurate. Just a tad more accurate than it was in Halo 4. It should fire small plasma bolts at a high rate of fire. Plasma weapons should have no recoil effect.- Plasma Rifle: The classic single handed Plasma Rifle should have a lower rate of fire than the SR, but fire larger plasma bolts for more suppressive effect for controlling corridors and stairways. The large bolts would travel slower than the Repeater’s small ones and are easier to dodge at range.- Covenant Carbine: The rate of fire and damage should remain as hit has been before, either Halo 3 or Halo 4 versions depending on what works best, but the glowing stream left in the air by the projectiles should cause very slight damage to anyone that walks into it. The stream should either stay in the air no longer than it has in previous games, or only fractions of a second longer.- Lightrifle: Instead of three successive rounds fired while not scoped, it would simultaneously fire three rounds in a vertical line from three barrels. This makes it more different from the BR and encourages a different aiming technique. Directed energy weapons should have no recoil, either bloom or require different aiming techniques.- Suppressor: Instead of a high bloom effect with a rapid successive stream of bullets it would fire rapidly from multiple barrels simultaneously to make a wall of bullets that each are very weak on their own but tears people up when the full stream of bullets hit. This encourages it for suppression use as using it at longer range would waste a lot of bullets on a distant target, and makes it more different from the AR and SR.Let me know what you guys think.