I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now but I wanted to rap my head around how all the weapons work now, how the multiple map’s vehicular layout is different and a few other little things. I must say, 343 you’ve done a pretty great job but there are still quite a few quarrels that I need to go on about.
I’ll start off by saying that this isn’t your average enraged Halo 4 player going off his head in the forums. So, let’s get into it.
I’ll start off with the negatives.
The new vehicle layouts: This is the one thing that annoys me the most which is why I’ve got it as number one. Why? Because all the big team infinity slayer maps have become about vehicle dominance and not team work anymore. Perfect maps like Longbow (my all time favorite Halo 4 map) has been spammed up by unnecessary vehicles. Shade Turrets (which are utterly useless) are planted up on the top of the center base where people can get easily shot down, Banshees at both of the base spawns and don’t even get me started on those Gauss Hogs (which are on almost every map now and yet you decide to take one out of Exile?). The other thing that gets on my nerves is the fact that Mantis’s are now all over the place, just because they’re a new vehicle to Halo 4 doesn’t mean you should clog up every map with their unfair mechanics. Vortex and Exile, two perfectly fine maps are now maps I despise to play on due to these metal monstrosities. Also the fact that vehicles respawn significantly quicker just puts me off. You destroy one vehicle and there’s another one back at the enemy team’s base ready to screw you over one more time.
Taking out an all time favorite Halo vehicle: You know what I’m talking about! The Scorpion. What happened to it? Oh yeah, replaced by a very inconveniently spotted Mantis. Now (if I’m correct) the Scorpion isn’t on any of the big team infinity slayer maps. And that’s not all, the wraith is also gone. I think every Halo 4 player had a little bit of fun running around in those blowing everything up although I definitely wouldn’t call them O.P. You could still easily get picked off by a clever Spartan with a Plasma Pistol and some Sticky Grenades.
Complex: In my opinion Complex has it’s own spot in the History of Halo 4 as being the most camp-able map ever… Of all time. Those spot on all the roofs, the many nooks and crannies of crates and other obstacles and very tight corners and now you put it in big team?! The map is hardly big enough to support 14 players let alone 16. People I play with have difficulty escaping from the Flood on that map and now a Ghost with 7 other players! Also the roof on top of the warehouse and near the far gate now has two barricades. And I thought squatters with their Lightrfiles sitting up there without those extra defense mechanisms were bad enough but now it seems that the guys who worked on updating the map are encouraging camping. Great. Isn’t that reassuring, while I’m trying to pick someone off a team mate I’m going to get stormed with orange beams of happiness!
Slayer pro: Why, oh why would you incorporate this into a big team <mark>INFINITY SLAYER</mark> playlist? People go to play infinity slayer for a reason and that is to play <mark>INFINITY SLAYER!</mark> We don’t want a mix and match of two very different gametypes just please give us a new playlist for it. The Halo community has been asking for a classic playlist for a while now and although we’ve got some new ones it’s still not solving this particular problem.
Now the positives.
The buffs and nerfs: I think it’s safe to say that the Crabine and BR are safe weapons to turn to now. The 4 burst to kill should’ve been implemented for the BR when the game came out as it feels so right. The Carbine is also a shredder for those close range maps and it makes me wonder how the Yoink people could use it before the weapons tuning. Congrats to whoever actually got kills with that gun pre-weapons tuning. I also found out that the AR, Storm Rifle and Suppressor got slightly shorter kill times too. Nothing particularly noticeable but still there.
As you can see though, still more negatives rather that positives but the weapons tuning has been a very long awaited thing. If the maps had remained the same with the weapons tuning I think I’d show a little more appreciation to what 343 have done.
But what I really want to know is what <mark>YOU</mark> think of the weapons tuning? After a week or two to get your hands on how things work for Halo 4 now, how do <mark>YOU</mark> feel about it? Do you think 343 have done a good job with it or does Halo 4 need another update?
Also have you changed your loadouts at all since the weapons tuning and which weapons do you think is on top now?
Remember, this was just my opinion. Please don’t assassinate me!
As a longtime carbine/needle rifle user I love it its nice to get rewarded for being…well better than my opponent instead of them just using the dmr and beating me.
Although there are some things I disagree with, I thanked your post for civil discussion and openness. It’s always good to present ideas and share thoughts in a civil manner and debate with fellow community members. I also liked your humor at the end.
The Slayer Pro variants are receiving an update next Monday; motion trackers will be added and Death Cams will be removed. This will make the game variant feel more classic and fun in my opinion. I think that the pro variants should stay because they’re the closest thing we’ve got to a classic playlist. Once 343i creates classic game variants and playlists, they can remove the pro variants.
I agree with you that the tanks shouldn’t be removed the playlist entirely, though. Which is why the community needs to make maps catered to tank use so 343i can add them to the playlist. Honestly, the changes they’ve done to the default maps really make BTB a lot more fun. That’s just my opinion, though.
As for the weapons, God bless 343i for buffing the Carbine and BR. To answer your question, yes I have changed my loadouts. At first, my BR was paired up with the Assault Rifle in the same loadout, meaning I had picked firepower as a tactical package. But after the weapon tuning, I wanted to make the BR loadout my primary, so I had mobility as my tactical package instead, since I will want to get to the initial ordnance as quickly as possible. I’ve also paired it up with my favorite armor ability: the thruster pack. I used to use it a lot, but not this much. The update made it so much more useful; It’s incredible! I’ve also played around with my other loadouts, such as the Carbine one. I’ve finalized my BR and Carbine loadouts, but I still need to finalize the other three. Since I got Halo 4, I wanted to have every loadout weapon available in my loadouts without repeating any. Unfortunately, I have to forget that decision and say goodbye to some weapons I don’t think I’ll use.
Overall, I find the update amazing. Thanks for making the thread so civil and open. It’s good to see that threads like these are still being made.
I have no issues with the weapon tuning but I can’t stand the over abundance of power weapons on the maps now, especially with the rapid fire respawn timers. I played a game of Slayer on Solace and the Snipers, Fuel Rods and Swords were constantly respawning which, combined with Personal Ordinance, made it feel like I was playing Action Sack. Infinity settings are bad enough without the new weapons and respawn timers making an even bigger mess of things. However I feel that Complex works just fine in BTB, it’s horrendous for ITS or FFA but I like it in BTB. The majority of the maps getting reworked with vehicles was unnecessary though, Vortex, Longbow and Meltdown were just fine, why does 343 constantly feel the need to screw up one awesome decision with 15 other bad ones??? Ah well I don’t play this game much anymore and with the way things are going for the Xbox One it looks like I’ll be switching back to my beloved Playstation anyway. Halo 5 certainly won’t be enough of a reason to stick with the Xbox judging by what they’ve done with Halo 4.
I’m not really one to complain about this but I feel the automatic weapons are way OP! The AR and the SAW mainly the SAW. I mean com on I was shot at medium rang and was dead before I got a shot on him with BR. (Full health) I really have no other complaints.
I think they did a pretty good job, this stuff should have been done at the release. You can actually use different weapons now, and the faster strafing is awesome.
Precision weapons are fine. My only concern is the Automatics although i don’t use them as much, it seems that it takes almost an entire clip to get a kill. Spread and RoF is fine on that, just the power of the weapon. I think it should get buffed, but not by much.
> > Where’s the “I hate it and wish they only nerfed the DMR” option?
>
> Buffing every weapon in the game except the DMR is pretty much the same as nerfing the DMR.
I think making the other weapons kill faster was better than making the DMR weaker
> Although there are some things I disagree with, I thanked your post for civil discussion and openness. It’s always good to present ideas and share thoughts in a civil manner and debate with fellow community members. I also liked your humor at the end.
>
> The Slayer Pro variants are receiving an update next Monday; motion trackers will be added and Death Cams will be removed. This will make the game variant feel more classic and fun in my opinion. I think that the pro variants should stay because they’re the closest thing we’ve got to a classic playlist. Once 343i creates classic game variants and playlists, they can remove the pro variants.
>
> I agree with you that the tanks shouldn’t be removed the playlist entirely, though. Which is why the community needs to make maps catered to tank use so 343i can add them to the playlist. Honestly, the changes they’ve done to the default maps really make BTB a lot more fun. That’s just my opinion, though.
>
> As for the weapons, God bless 343i for buffing the Carbine and BR. To answer your question, yes I have changed my loadouts. At first, my BR was paired up with the Assault Rifle in the same loadout, meaning I had picked firepower as a tactical package. But after the weapon tuning, I wanted to make the BR loadout my primary, so I had mobility as my tactical package instead, since I will want to get to the initial ordnance as quickly as possible. I’ve also paired it up with my favorite armor ability: the thruster pack. I used to use it a lot, but not this much. The update made it so much more useful; It’s incredible! I’ve also played around with my other loadouts, such as the Carbine one. I’ve finalized my BR and Carbine loadouts, but I still need to finalize the other three. Since I got Halo 4, I wanted to have every loadout weapon available in my loadouts without repeating any. Unfortunately, I have to forget that decision and say goodbye to some weapons I don’t think I’ll use.
>
> Overall, I find the update amazing. Thanks for making the thread so civil and open. It’s good to see that threads like these are still being made.
>
> I appreciate it.
Thank You very much for you kind comment. Also thank you everyone else for sharing their opinions on the weapons tuning.
I think I’ve got to do some loadout changing myself. I started off using the B.R but found that it wasn’t terribly good for maps like Ragnarok. I think that the Covey Carbine is probably going to become my new favorite loadout weapon for smaller player count playlists.
The update was a small step in the write direction for the most part, its very minor overall. The biggest mistake is blending slayer pro and infinity slayer, its horrid decisions like this that make me lose faith in future tuning updates.
Also make the saw have virtually no auto aim then it will work. Increased damage LOL, did one of the 343 employees stoned sons add that part of the update in.
The update is great and is a much-needed positive step in the right direction for H4 and 343i.
Their decision to make the BR/Car stronger rather than just nerf the DMR was best because their killtimes were too slow and needed a buff regardless. The BR now feels more like the classic H2/H3 BR we all know and love, and the carbine can now hold its own against the rest of the loadout weapons.
One thing they should’ve done is buff vehicle damage AND armor, because as it stands they are waaaaay too weak and do hardly anything to impact the outcome of the game. The Warthog is still a deathtrap, and the Ghost is nothing more than an annoyance you can take out with a few simple teamshots.
It feels like starting automatics are now utterly useless outside of rumble pit, and I would have preferred that DMR would have gotten a nerf instead of other weapons getting a buff. Also the shield recharge times should be shorter to compensate faster killtimes.
