Now hold on, I know what you’re thinking.
“Nemesis, you lovely person, this idea doesn’t seem very logical. Automatic weapons are already excessively powerful.”
Well, thank you for being polite.
I agree with that statement. Automatics are quite potent weapons, currently the most potent of any Halo game. There was a time I wouldn’t even look at the Assault Rifle in Halo CE, now I’ll take a SMG over an Energy Sword any day of the week.
The main argument against Automatic weapons is that they require no skill, that they are “n00b wepp0ns” because you can rapid-fire shots, thus forgiving most misses. This is true, however, this would be fixed with precision damage, with a base damage reduction to compensate.
To effectively use an automatic with precision damage, you would need to keep your reticule on their head, constantly pushing for the kill. No easy spam-them-'till-they-drop technique. This would also ensure they would be used in their effective ranges, as it would be much harder to head-shot an opponent from the ranges that an automatic rifle can kill with currently.
Weapons like the SMG would be less effective at range as their considerable bloom would severely reduce the chance of a head-shot at range, and would ensure maximum lethality only at ranges acceptable. No cross-map spamming.
The Assault Rifle would not change very much, but would now require skill to use at mid-range, and burst-firing to be useful at long-range. The precision damage would also make some use of the ridiculously long-range scopes on ARs in Warzone. (Double zoom on a AR? No thanks.) This would also put it on-par with the Magnum Pistol, not as an alternate for “n00bs” but as a more aggressive weapon for a more aggressive player. Essentially, a faster-firing Carbine with full-auto.
Now I know this idea might sound extreme to some, hell, probably a lot of you, but think on this.
There are those who say “Halo 5 doesn’t feel like Halo anymore.” Whether there is any truth to that or not depends on your definition of Halo. If your definition of Halo is Halo 2, then yes, Halo 5 isn’t Halo 2. But Halo 2 me (see what I did there?) means a balanced arena sci-fi shooter with a familiar core experience.
Halo 5 changed so much, some good, some bad, but at this point there’s no going back. So instead of trying to recreate Halo 2 or Halo 3, let’s just try to make the best game we can, and worry about whether its a good Halo game later.
So before you thrash my idea that I’ve spent so long typing, play a few games of Halo 5. Think about my proposal. Think about the game you’re playing. (Which I’m assuming is Halo 5, or this isn’t very effective) Think about how it fits in Halo 5, not in some other Halo a long time ago in a developer far away.
If you got any opinions or tweaks, I’d love to hear them. Just be nice, I’m quite sensitive.