Vehicle Balancing Proposal

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

I’m going to start this out by saying I’m a big fan of Halo 5 and this isn’t really a “343 plz” and more of just a simple discussion starter. I’m not a game developer. I don’t know what the specific philosophy behind Halo 5’s game design is. I know how hard balancing a game is and how seemingly minor changes can have much larger consequences down the road as the metagame develops.

That being said, after hearing and reading many complaints/ comments both online and off regarding the state of vehicle combat in Halo 5, I’ve been thinking as a sort of thought experiment how I would go about addressing what I’ve interpreted as reoccurring issues with vehicle combat. This is just my opinion after all, and I’m sure there are some flaws with this idea, but I’m going to put it out there and see what you guys think. Here goes:

For the sake of simplicity, I’m going to define terms I will use in advance:

"Heavy Weapons" refers to the following weapons:

  • Rocket Launcher/ SPNKr - Sniper - Railgun - Spartan Laser - Scorpion’s Main Gun - Gungoose’s Grenades - Gauss Turret - Rocket Turret - Mantis Rockets - Mantis Chaingun - Beam Rifle - Charged Plasma Caster Shot - Fuel Rod Gun (Banshee too) - Plasma Nade Stuck to Vehicle - Wraith Plasma Mortar - Binary Rifle - Incineration Cannon - Chaingun - Plasma Cannon (Ghost/ Banshee too) - Splinter Turret - Phaeton Hard Light Cannons - Phaeton Rockets - Anything with explosive bullets (Ex: The Answer)“Small Arms” refers to the following weapons

  • Magnum - AR - BR/ H2 BR - DMR - SMG - SAW - Shotgun - Hydra - Frag Grenade Explosion - Storm Rifle - Plasma Pistol (can still critically damage vehicle weak spots however) - Needler (Except Talon of the Lost) - Carbine - Energy Sword - Uncharged Plasma Caster Shot - Non-stuck Plasma Grenade Explosion - Boltshot - Supressor - Lightrifle - Scattershot - Splinter Grenade**“Tanks”** refers to the Scorpion and Wraith
    "Aircraft" refers to the Phaeton and Banshee
    "Standard Vehicles" are everything else (except the Mantis)

NOTE: The following figures are rough estimates, and would probably need to be tailored to each individual vehicle.

-All Tanks should have a flat increase to resistance from small arms regardless of health, in the neighborhood of 60%, except on weak spots.
They have no additional resistance to heavy weapons

-For the first 50% of Standard Vehicle’s health, their resistance to damage from small arms should be increased by at least 50%, except on weak spots. Once they take more than 50% damage, it takes standard damage until it explodes.
They have no additional resistance to heavy weapons.

-Aircraft should be slightly more susceptible to Heavy Weapon Damage

-The Spartan Laser’s damage should be buffed

-The Mantis should not be boardable from the front, its weapons should do more damage, and its shields strength should be vastly increased

-This is a bit more of a stretch, but Players should not be able to plant a Grenade on a vehicle without any in their inventory. They should be forced to melee it again to plant a nade too.

-If a weapon has a Kinetic Bolt attachment, it ignores Small Arms damage resistance and does standard damage to the vehicle.

That’s all I got, what do you think?

#2

Very thorough. I don’t know about over-buffing the mantis; frankly I’d be thrilled with just a single one of those improvements to it. Additionally, it could simply have its req cost lowered to 5 or 6.

But I definitely agree that the vehicles need some love. I never end up using any of my high-end vehicles because what’s the point – more often than not, a BR or highly-mobile boarder will kill it within moments anyway.

#3

I agree that the Splaser should be buffed and that the Mantis should have a shield buff beyond that I disagree. Small arms fire should be a reliable way to take out a vehicle. A well played vehicle can ruin an enemy team, there isn’t any need to buff them further.

#4

> 2535417776744823;1:
> -This is a bit more of a stretch, but Players should not be able to plant a Grenade on a vehicle without any in their inventory. They should be forced to melee it again to plant a nade too.

They can’t. You have to melee if you don’t have any grenades.Unless you’ve gotten a glitch, I’ve never been able to do this. In any Halo game, including 5.

As for the rest… ehhh. The mantis could use some buffs, but not all of those. One would be fine, or even lowering the REQ level.

#5

Dude that must have taken forever to type

#6

> 2533274845846487;4:
> > 2535417776744823;1:
> > -This is a bit more of a stretch, but Players should not be able to plant a Grenade on a vehicle without any in their inventory. They should be forced to melee it again to plant a nade too.
>
>
> They can’t. You have to melee if you don’t have any grenades.Unless you’ve gotten a glitch, I’ve never been able to do this. In any Halo game, including 5.
>
> As for the rest… ehhh. The mantis could use some buffs, but not all of those. One would be fine, or even lowering the REQ level.

Huh, I was under the impression that you could for some reason in Halo 5… idk what I was smoking.

Lowering the Mantis’ REQ cost would probably make more sense and be way simpler in terms of production. I just figured if you really want a bad–Yoink- mech in your game, make it bad–Yoink-. Even a marginal shield and damage boost would be okay for me.

#7

> 2533274880633045;3:
> I agree that the Splaser should be buffed and that the Mantis should have a shield buff beyond that I disagree. Small arms fire should be a reliable way to take out a vehicle. A well played vehicle can ruin an enemy team, there isn’t any need to buff them further.

Definitely true in regards to a well played vehicle. It just seemed (to me at least) that compared to other Halo’s that the vehicles in Halo 5 seemed the squishiest. I also probably should have mentioned that the drivers themselves would not be affected by the damage resistance. They would still be completely vulnerable to any sort of weapon assuming it struck them. While the vehicle would be a bit more sturdy, grenades would still have the potential to flip them, and any splash damage incurred could kill the driver/ occupants.

It just feels… wrong that you can turn a full-health Warthog into a smoldering heap with two and a half magazines from a DMR