For the longest time, vehicle combat has always been a key element throughout the series in every game on large maps. Get a couple of easy kills, demolish infantry, you get the point. Of course they’ve always been in their own playlists, especially in Warzone.
What I’ve noticed for the past two years is the suppression of vehicles in Big Team Battle. Ever notice how a majority of the maps will only include warthogs or ghosts with only the default variants? On the rare occasion a map has a one man vehicle, there’s usually just one, and only in the middle of said map. Things like Scorpions, Banshees, Wasps, Wraiths, and Mantises are EXTREMELY rare to see, and you typically have to fight with your team mates just to get one if you can beat them to it.
Another thing I discovered recently was what 343 has been doing to maps submitted to Arena. Guillotine originally had a Mantis and Banshee on it, and as far as I know, the Devs basically removed them and the map maker was complaining after they had done so. With that in mind, this isn’t the only case I’ve heard about where 343 has deleted one-man vehicles and replaced them with something silly, such as a scout mongoose or a standard warthog. Nowadays, the chances of you finding a map with one tank or aircraft per base is /almost/ non existent, and that’s saying something.
In the Master Chief Collection, it gets much worse. If you notice on all the classic maps, especially Blood Gulch, the Scorpions were deliberately removed. On Halo 3’s Avalanche, the wraith was taken off as well, and if you play that map on territories, all tanks are gone. It honestly amazes me that the Chopper, banshee, and ghost hasn’t been removed yet, keyword! Yet there’s no excuse for doing all this when the maps were clearly balanced.
A lot of people here may think: Why not play Warzone? Well, it’s hard to have fun when people from the E-Sports community spawn lasers, railguns, and plasma pistols out of spite, even if they die just once in game. It’s just not great when people throw a fit and spawn camo before boarding your Mantis with it.
Since the biggest argument for getting rid of vehicles seems to be for balance excuses in favor of the competitive community, the whole point of vehicles is to DESTROY infantry in the first place. Power weapons like the Spartan laser, rocket launchers, and railguns exist to counter them for lord’s sake, it’s not difficult just to put them on maps. There’s absolutely no reason to go around and ‘enforce’ MLG on other players, let people play the game how they want to instead of trying to dictate it by removing what they enjoy using. If you’re that frustrated with getting killed by a wasp, there’s competitive playlists without vehicles! Including Team Slayer!
I’ll be blunt here, you honestly shouldn’t have to go to custom games just to use vehicles in the first place, something that SHOULD be included on all Big Team maps to begin with. Is there any reason why 343 is doing this? Or does all this stem from the competitive community’s demands when they have obvious alternatives to BTB? A Forger could easily put a Phaeton on a map and have it be balanced. Why is it we no longer see maps with at least one tank and aircraft per base like in the classic games? Or bring back Heavies in Arena? A vehicle playlist wouldn’t be hard to do to cater to people like myself.
I feel like this is a consistent issue now with Halo and really needs to be debated in the community. If this isn’t enough to make the Developers consider arguments like mine, I don’t know what is, because things like this are seriously a problem. I just don’t see the fun in /only/ having warhogs and ghosts on maps, or being confined to only using a battle rifle.
