Why Reach Needs a Bloomless Playlist

Games Other Halo
1

Everyone knows that Halo has some of the most hardcore fans in gaming. When most hardcore fans play, they have fun, but above that, they play to win. Since we play to win, nothing is more frustrating than having the game basically come to a coin flip situation. This coin flip situation is caused by the wrong implementation of bloom.

In Reach the bloom maxes out quickly but when it is maxed the reticle is still fairly small. Since the bloom is still fairly small it doesn’t punish spammers nearly enough as it should. So when people try to play the game how it should be played by pacing your shots correctly and get killed in 5 shots by someone spamming wildly they get upset. This causes everyone to begin to spam and then DMR battles to basically come down to a coin flip rather than who has the better shot.

Aiming skill is basically not important at all in Reach when good players are playing. This causes Reach to be almost all about who has the better teamwork and communication. Teamwork and communication were always a part of Halo but they were never almost only teamwork and communication. In previous halo’s who had the better shot won the battle, it was fair because there was very little luck involved in shooting the BR or Pistol. If you hit you hit if you miss you miss, which is fair and people don’t get upset when they get out shot. But in Reach bloom causes so much bloom in 1 on 1 battles they no longer become fair. When people get out shot they don’t just say to themselves “well he out shot me that time”, they think “WTF IM SHOOTING AT HIS HEAD AND HES NOT DYING” or “WTF HE SPAMMED EVERYSHOT HE GOT SO LUCKY” etc. This gets very frustrating very quickly.

The luck caused by bloom, the random pairings of groups in Reach because it doesn’t have a ranking system really kill this game and are easily enough to stop the hardcore players from playing. And thats exactly what has happened in Reach. Look at the playlists, 90% of the population is in living dead, firefight and rumble pit/ other casual playlists. Almost no one plays Arena, MLG or other competitive playlists, they are almost dead. And guess what? Are the casual gamers the ones getting involved to spread the word about how good reach is? No because they are casual gamers they could care less about bloom as long as they can drive a mongoose into a man cannon and screw around in action sack etc. The hardcore are the ones that are vocal about Halo, and if you look around you can see that they are not happy giving Reach bad press.

Give us a bloom free playlist/ custom option I guarentee that almost all the hardcore players that have left/ sold reach will come back because all their friends will be telling them they have to play it because its so good. Then those players get there friends back into Reach and you have 200,000 players a night easily. Giving Reach way more positive press and selling a lot more copies of Halo Anniversary. Hell make the bloom free playlist only available to Anniversary players, we don’t care because we will buy reach for that one playlist/ custom option alone.

So 343 when you are making Halo games please do not forget that the hardcore gamers are what helps you sell the game, and we do not like randomness in our games.

Pluses and minuses of adding a bloom free playlist:

Plus: Make the fans happy.
Plus: People will stop complaining about Reach.
Plus: Bring back a lot of the fans.
Plus: Have more people like 343 as a company and support their games.
Plus: More positive press.
Plus: 343’s games will sell more especially Anniversary.

Negatives: None. The casuals can still play living dead and action sack and will not be affected at all.

2

But that’ assumes that the two individuals are basically 5m or less away from each other. Have you tried firing at someone halfway across Hemorrhage (as an example)? Bloom certainly “Works” as it were. You have to pace your shots if you want your bullets to land. “Bloom” is just a methodology to account for increasing the erraticity of shots in weapons. If you point a gun at a person, chances are you are going to hit them (rules of physics and all). But where you hit them will vary with aim and pressure, grip, distance, etc. As far as I can tell, if you point the DMR at someone in close, the bullets hit them just like they should. But they hit at different points, i.e. one hits the chest, a second hits the leg, a third hits the head, etc. So how is bloom “broken?” It just means you have to learn to pace your shots at ALL distances. That takes skill too and just because someone is better at hitting you at close range with a DMR doesn’t mean the system itself is broken.

I’m not saying this to personally attack you. I’m trying to analyze your argument and break it down into its constituent components so: 1) I can understand, 2) see if I agree. I don’t agree. If you have any reason why bloom is actually “broken” please let me know.

3

I’ll just say: because so many have asked for it. The entire sandbox isn’t too balanced with bloom removed, so a limited yet bloomless sandbox might cater to those who ask for it. :wink:

4

> But that’ assumes that the two individuals are basically 5m or less away from each other. Have you tried firing at someone halfway across Hemorrhage (as an example)? Bloom certainly “Works” as it were. You have to pace your shots if you want your bullets to land. “Bloom” is just a methodology to account for increasing the erraticity of shots in weapons. If you point a gun at a person, chances are you are going to hit them (rules of physics and all). But where you hit them will vary with aim and pressure, grip, distance, etc. As far as I can tell, if you point the DMR at someone in close, the bullets hit them just like they should. But they hit at different points, i.e. one hits the chest, a second hits the leg, a third hits the head, etc. So how is bloom “broken?” It just means you have to learn to pace your shots at ALL distances. That takes skill too and just because someone is better at hitting you at close range with a DMR doesn’t mean the system itself is broken.
>
> I’m not saying this to personally attack you. I’m trying to analyze your argument and break it down into its constituent components so: 1) I can understand, 2) see if I agree. I don’t agree. If you have any reason why bloom is actually “broken” please let me know.

What hardcore playlists would have hemorrhage or maps even close to that size? I’m talking about Arena, Team Slayer and MLG here. All of the maps are small to medium size at most. There is some long range firing done but 70-80% is the length that makes the DMR a coin flip weapon. And pacing your shots as ALL distances is a ridiculous proposition. Go into MLG and pace your shots from close range and even mid range and tell me how many times you win. 0% close range, 50% medium range.

The bloom is completely broken, it doesn’t add anything good to the game for hardcore players it only takes away from the game by adding randomness to it.

5

> But that’ assumes that the two individuals are basically 5m or less away from each other. Have you tried firing at someone halfway across Hemorrhage (as an example)? Bloom certainly “Works” as it were. You have to pace your shots if you want your bullets to land. “Bloom” is just a methodology to account for increasing the erraticity of shots in weapons. If you point a gun at a person, chances are you are going to hit them (rules of physics and all). But where you hit them will vary with aim and pressure, grip, distance, etc. As far as I can tell, if you point the DMR at someone in close, the bullets hit them just like they should. But they hit at different points, i.e. one hits the chest, a second hits the leg, a third hits the head, etc. So how is bloom “broken?” It just means you have to learn to pace your shots at ALL distances. That takes skill too and just because someone is better at hitting you at close range with a DMR doesn’t mean the system itself is broken.
>
> I’m not saying this to personally attack you. I’m trying to analyze your argument and break it down into its constituent components so: 1) I can understand, 2) see if I agree. I don’t agree. If you have any reason why bloom is actually “broken” please let me know.

OP needs to understand this. Bloom can work optimally, it just needs to be modified to work with precision and timing. A perfect DMR Bloom will only allow players to get kills if they pace their shots perfectly. DMR medium to long range. Pistol close to medium range. Not falling out of their specific niches.

6

> > But that’ assumes that the two individuals are basically 5m or less away from each other. Have you tried firing at someone halfway across Hemorrhage (as an example)? Bloom certainly “Works” as it were. You have to pace your shots if you want your bullets to land. “Bloom” is just a methodology to account for increasing the erraticity of shots in weapons. If you point a gun at a person, chances are you are going to hit them (rules of physics and all). But where you hit them will vary with aim and pressure, grip, distance, etc. As far as I can tell, if you point the DMR at someone in close, the bullets hit them just like they should. But they hit at different points, i.e. one hits the chest, a second hits the leg, a third hits the head, etc. So how is bloom “broken?” It just means you have to learn to pace your shots at ALL distances. That takes skill too and just because someone is better at hitting you at close range with a DMR doesn’t mean the system itself is broken.
> >
> > I’m not saying this to personally attack you. I’m trying to analyze your argument and break it down into its constituent components so: 1) I can understand, 2) see if I agree. I don’t agree. If you have any reason why bloom is actually “broken” please let me know.
>
> OP needs to understand this. Bloom can work optimally, it just needs to be modified to work with precision and timing. A perfect DMR Bloom will only allow players to get kills if they pace their shots perfectly. DMR medium to long range. Pistol close to medium range. Not falling out of their specific niches.

I understand that bloom COULD work in Reach. But it just flat out fails with the way it is now. If I asked for 343 to tweak the bloom to make it so the spammer would lose 95% of the time that would be fine. But the fact is that takes a lot more work than just taking it out completely. And if they did tweak it and it still sucked it would never be fixed.

7

OP, you aren’t looking at the big picture here.

You say “bloomless” playlist, but which is the only gun that needs the bloom altered? Not only that, but altered for a specific range?

The DMR at close range.

The Needle Rifle, Pistol, Assault Rifle, Plasma Repeater, etc. all have perfect bloom. They all work at optimum efficiency.

But, I do agree that the DMR needs to have its bloom slightly altered at close range. Like it expands much quicker with each spammed shot, and by the third spammed shot it goes WAY off target. To balance that, the bloom resets much quicker. That way the spammers will lose the majority of the time (They already do, but not enough) and the gun still remains effective at all ranges.

8

You guys need to realize this is a video game and an unrealistic one at that and we want our F’ing bullets to travel straight, just like in the other two good Halos, H1 & H2.

Also, WHAT THE -Yoink- would be wrong with having it in one playlist only or as a custom option only? Seriously, name ONE reason why that would be bad?

9

> OP, you aren’t looking at the big picture here.
>
> You say “bloomless” playlist, but which is the only gun that needs the bloom altered? Not only that, but altered for a specific range?
>
> The DMR at close range.
>
> The Needle Rifle, Pistol, Assault Rifle, Plasma Repeater, etc. all have perfect bloom. They all work at optimum efficiency.
>
> But, I do agree that the DMR needs to have its bloom slightly altered at close range. Like it expands much quicker with each spammed shot, and by the third spammed shot it goes WAY off target. To balance that, the bloom resets much quicker. That way the spammers will lose the majority of the time (They already do, but not enough) and the gun still remains effective at all ranges.

Bloomless playlist means all guns don’t have any bloom. I don’t see why that would be a problem as the magnum and dmr are 5 shot weapons, the needle rifle would kind of be nerfed but who cares no one ever used the carbine in halo 3.

10

> You guys need to realize this is a video game and an unrealistic one at that and we want our F’ing bullets to travel straight, just like in the other two good Halos, H1 & H2.
>
> Also, WHAT THE Yoink! would be wrong with having it in one playlist only or as a custom option only? Seriously, name ONE reason why that would be bad?

Gameplay balance would be ruined.

The Pistol would become extremely overpowered and able to beat almost all guns at most ranges. Most notably, the Assault Rifle (Which already gets beat by the Pistol, but takes skill now). The Pistol would be able to beat the DMR at most, if not all ranges.

The DMR would also be overpowered, but not as much as the Pistol.

Power Weapons lose most, if not all of their effectiveness.

Camping because rampant as default weaponry beats everything else easily. No reason to leave your base if Shotgun/Sword users are taken out unless they’re literally right in your face.

Map movement slows to a crawl as heading out in the open means certain death. Since the Power Weapons aren’t useful, why even leave the spawn?

The weak vehicles, such as the Ghost and Banshee, get taken down even quicker then they already do.

Players camp out at their bases even more than they do now and pick off players from across the map with little problem, being able to put bullets on target very, very easily.

Crouching loses all usefulness, except to camp.

See the problem here? Changing something that integral to the core gameplay would throw everything out of whack and lead to incredible imbalances. Those are just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are more. It just wouldn’t work with how the game is designed.

11

> Bloomless playlist means all guns don’t have any bloom. I don’t see why that would be a problem as the magnum and dmr are 5 shot weapons, the needle rifle would kind of be nerfed but who cares no one ever used the carbine in halo 3.

The Magnum and the DMR have a huge difference in a big issue… Maximum rate of fire. The Pistol shoots much, much faster so it would destroy the DMR at any range.

The Needle Rifle would probably be the next most overpowered with it’s better accuracy and better rate of fire than the DMR as well.

It would throw everything into chaos. It’d be like making melee a one-hit kill. It would ruin the gameplay’s balance.

12

> > You guys need to realize this is a video game and an unrealistic one at that and we want our F’ing bullets to travel straight, just like in the other two good Halos, H1 & H2.
> >
> > Also, WHAT THE Yoink! would be wrong with having it in one playlist only or as a custom option only? Seriously, name ONE reason why that would be bad?
>
> Gameplay balance would be ruined.
>
> The Pistol would become extremely overpowered and able to beat almost all guns at most ranges. Most notably, the Assault Rifle (Which already gets beat by the Pistol, but takes skill now). The Pistol would be able to beat the DMR at most, if not all ranges.
>
> The DMR would also be overpowered, but not as much as the Pistol.
>
> Power Weapons lose most, if not all of their effectiveness.
>
> Camping because rampant as default weaponry beats everything else easily. No reason to leave your base if Shotgun/Sword users are taken out unless they’re literally right in your face.
>
> Map movement slows to a crawl as heading out in the open means certain death. Since the Power Weapons aren’t useful, why even leave the spawn?
>
> The weak vehicles, such as the Ghost and Banshee, get taken down even quicker then they already do.
>
> Players camp out at their bases even more than they do now and pick off players from across the map with little problem, being able to put bullets on target very, very easily.
>
> Crouching loses all usefulness, except to camp.
>
> See the problem here? Changing something that integral to the core gameplay would throw everything out of whack and lead to incredible imbalances. Those are just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are more. It just wouldn’t work with how the game is designed.

What are you talking about? We’re talking ONE playlist has no bloom. This playlist will be competitive and not have any vehicles. If one 5 shot gun shoots faster than another you solve the problem by either: Placing the better one as a power weapon around the map. Or just using that gun which no one who likes to play competitively would have a problem with as long as it shot straight.

13

> > But that’ assumes that the two individuals are basically 5m or less away from each other. Have you tried firing at someone halfway across Hemorrhage (as an example)? Bloom certainly “Works” as it were. You have to pace your shots if you want your bullets to land. “Bloom” is just a methodology to account for increasing the erraticity of shots in weapons. If you point a gun at a person, chances are you are going to hit them (rules of physics and all). But where you hit them will vary with aim and pressure, grip, distance, etc. As far as I can tell, if you point the DMR at someone in close, the bullets hit them just like they should. But they hit at different points, i.e. one hits the chest, a second hits the leg, a third hits the head, etc. So how is bloom “broken?” It just means you have to learn to pace your shots at ALL distances. That takes skill too and just because someone is better at hitting you at close range with a DMR doesn’t mean the system itself is broken.
> >
> > I’m not saying this to personally attack you. I’m trying to analyze your argument and break it down into its constituent components so: 1) I can understand, 2) see if I agree. I don’t agree. If you have any reason why bloom is actually “broken” please let me know.
>
> What hardcore playlists would have hemorrhage or maps even close to that size? I’m talking about Arena, Team Slayer and MLG here. All of the maps are small to medium size at most. There is some long range firing done but 70-80% is the length that makes the DMR a coin flip weapon. And pacing your shots as ALL distances is a ridiculous proposition. Go into MLG and pace your shots from close range and even mid range and tell me how many times you win. 0% close range, 50% medium range.
>
> The bloom is completely broken, it doesn’t add anything good to the game for hardcore players it only takes away from the game by adding randomness to it.

It sounds as if you’re thinking of pacing your shots EXACTLY the same every single time. What I’m saying is that you need to learn to pace your shots differently for each relative distance. I’ve used that formula fairly successfully in both large maps and small maps. When you’re on a large maps like Hemorrhage you have to space the shots far apart. On a maps like say Zealot, if you’re close (~5m) you should fire much more quickly. If you’re trying to hit someone all the way across the map in Zealot, then you have to select a cadence in between. The bloom is working. What you don’t like is that you have to pace your shots differently depending on the situation. Bloom is designed specifically for that purpose, so I still don’t see how you can bloom is “broken.” What I argue with is your characterization that bloom is broken. None of your argument supports the fact that it doesn’t work, just that you don’t like it.

14

> > You guys need to realize this is a video game and an unrealistic one at that and we want our F’ing bullets to travel straight, just like in the other two good Halos, H1 & H2.
> >
> > Also, WHAT THE Yoink! would be wrong with having it in one playlist only or as a custom option only? Seriously, name ONE reason why that would be bad?
>
> Gameplay balance would be ruined.
>
> The Pistol would become extremely overpowered and able to beat almost all guns at most ranges. Most notably, the Assault Rifle (Which already gets beat by the Pistol, but takes skill now). The Pistol would be able to beat the DMR at most, if not all ranges.
>
> The DMR would also be overpowered, but not as much as the Pistol.
>
> Power Weapons lose most, if not all of their effectiveness.
>
> Camping because rampant as default weaponry beats everything else easily. No reason to leave your base if Shotgun/Sword users are taken out unless they’re literally right in your face.
>
> Map movement slows to a crawl as heading out in the open means certain death. Since the Power Weapons aren’t useful, why even leave the spawn?
>
> The weak vehicles, such as the Ghost and Banshee, get taken down even quicker then they already do.
>
> Players camp out at their bases even more than they do now and pick off players from across the map with little problem, being able to put bullets on target very, very easily.
>
> Crouching loses all usefulness, except to camp.
>
> See the problem here? Changing something that integral to the core gameplay would throw everything out of whack and lead to incredible imbalances. Those are just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are more. It just wouldn’t work with how the game is designed.

Power weapons in Reach lose none of their effectiveness. Power weapons in Reach are absurdly overpowered because bloom makes a guy with a Power Weapon a god. No bloom means he had better use the Power Weapon like Rocks or SNiper smartly, but he’s still got a nice advantage. But he’s not god.

15

> > Bloomless playlist means all guns don’t have any bloom. I don’t see why that would be a problem as the magnum and dmr are 5 shot weapons, the needle rifle would kind of be nerfed but who cares no one ever used the carbine in halo 3.
>
> The Magnum and the DMR have a huge difference in a big issue… Maximum rate of fire. The Pistol shoots much, much faster so it would destroy the DMR at any range.
>
> The Needle Rifle would probably be the next most overpowered with it’s better accuracy and better rate of fire than the DMR as well.
>
> It would throw everything into chaos. It’d be like making melee a one-hit kill. It would ruin the gameplay’s balance.

There are no balancing issues if dont right. Pistol shoots faster than the DMR? Place it on the map as a power weapon OR just everyone starts with pistols. No problems.

16

> What are you talking about? We’re talking ONE playlist has no bloom. This playlist will be competitive and not have any vehicles. If one 5 shot gun shoots faster than another you solve the problem by either: Placing the better one as a power weapon around the map. Or just using that gun which no one who likes to play competitively would have a problem with as long as it shot straight.

I’m not sure what you’re talking about so… Regardless of any playlist this is featured in, the gameplay balance would be ruined.

17

> > > But that’ assumes that the two individuals are basically 5m or less away from each other. Have you tried firing at someone halfway across Hemorrhage (as an example)? Bloom certainly “Works” as it were. You have to pace your shots if you want your bullets to land. “Bloom” is just a methodology to account for increasing the erraticity of shots in weapons. If you point a gun at a person, chances are you are going to hit them (rules of physics and all). But where you hit them will vary with aim and pressure, grip, distance, etc. As far as I can tell, if you point the DMR at someone in close, the bullets hit them just like they should. But they hit at different points, i.e. one hits the chest, a second hits the leg, a third hits the head, etc. So how is bloom “broken?” It just means you have to learn to pace your shots at ALL distances. That takes skill too and just because someone is better at hitting you at close range with a DMR doesn’t mean the system itself is broken.
> > >
> > > I’m not saying this to personally attack you. I’m trying to analyze your argument and break it down into its constituent components so: 1) I can understand, 2) see if I agree. I don’t agree. If you have any reason why bloom is actually “broken” please let me know.
> >
> > What hardcore playlists would have hemorrhage or maps even close to that size? I’m talking about Arena, Team Slayer and MLG here. All of the maps are small to medium size at most. There is some long range firing done but 70-80% is the length that makes the DMR a coin flip weapon. And pacing your shots as ALL distances is a ridiculous proposition. Go into MLG and pace your shots from close range and even mid range and tell me how many times you win. 0% close range, 50% medium range.
> >
> > The bloom is completely broken, it doesn’t add anything good to the game for hardcore players it only takes away from the game by adding randomness to it.
>
> It sounds as if you’re thinking of pacing your shots EXACTLY the same every single time. What I’m saying is that you need to learn to pace your shots differently for each relative distance. I’ve used that formula fairly successfully in both large maps and small maps. When you’re on a large maps like Hemorrhage you have to space the shots far apart. On a maps like say Zealot, if you’re close (~5m) you should fire much more quickly. If you’re trying to hit someone all the way across the map in Zealot, then you have to select a cadence in between. The bloom is working. What you don’t like is that you have to pace your shots differently depending on the situation. Bloom is designed specifically for that purpose, so I still don’t see how you can bloom is “broken.” What I argue with is your characterization that bloom is broken. None of your argument supports the fact that it doesn’t work, just that you don’t like it.

This is not me trying to be mean, Im just saying this because I have played halo for years and was a 50 in Halo 3 mlg. I don’t need tips on how to shoot from you I looked up your bungie profile.

18

> Gameplay balance would be ruined.
>
> The Pistol would become extremely overpowered and able to beat almost all guns at most ranges. Most notably, the Assault Rifle (Which already gets beat by the Pistol, but takes skill now). The Pistol would be able to beat the DMR at most, if not all ranges.
>
> The DMR would also be overpowered, but not as much as the Pistol.
>
> Power Weapons lose most, if not all of their effectiveness.
>
> Camping because rampant as default weaponry beats everything else easily. No reason to leave your base if Shotgun/Sword users are taken out unless they’re literally right in your face.
>
> Map movement slows to a crawl as heading out in the open means certain death. Since the Power Weapons aren’t useful, why even leave the spawn?
>
> The weak vehicles, such as the Ghost and Banshee, get taken down even quicker then they already do.
>
> Players camp out at their bases even more than they do now and pick off players from across the map with little problem, being able to put bullets on target very, very easily.
>
> Crouching loses all usefulness, except to camp.
>
> See the problem here? Changing something that integral to the core gameplay would throw everything out of whack and lead to incredible imbalances. Those are just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are more. It just wouldn’t work with how the game is designed.

sigh

All of this is pure conjecture and is in no way based in reality or past experience. The only thing we can guarantee with the removal of bloom is that we will see decreased randomness from the DMR. Depending on how 343 caps the RoF we could very well see a DMR with the exact same average kill time as what we have now. That would not upset the balance one bit.

But if, God willing, they give us a DMR with a faster kill time that still wouldn’t lead to the doomsday scenario that you’re painting. Want an idea of what Reach would look like with faster kill times? Take a look at Halo 2. While H2 has its share of camping, just as every FPS does, it is nowhere near this fantasy stalemate you describe.

19

> > Gameplay balance would be ruined.
> >
> > The Pistol would become extremely overpowered and able to beat almost all guns at most ranges. Most notably, the Assault Rifle (Which already gets beat by the Pistol, but takes skill now). The Pistol would be able to beat the DMR at most, if not all ranges.
> >
> > The DMR would also be overpowered, but not as much as the Pistol.
> >
> > Power Weapons lose most, if not all of their effectiveness.
> >
> > Camping because rampant as default weaponry beats everything else easily. No reason to leave your base if Shotgun/Sword users are taken out unless they’re literally right in your face.
> >
> > Map movement slows to a crawl as heading out in the open means certain death. Since the Power Weapons aren’t useful, why even leave the spawn?
> >
> > The weak vehicles, such as the Ghost and Banshee, get taken down even quicker then they already do.
> >
> > Players camp out at their bases even more than they do now and pick off players from across the map with little problem, being able to put bullets on target very, very easily.
> >
> > Crouching loses all usefulness, except to camp.
> >
> > See the problem here? Changing something that integral to the core gameplay would throw everything out of whack and lead to incredible imbalances. Those are just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are more. It just wouldn’t work with how the game is designed.
>
> sigh
>
> All of this is pure conjecture and is in no way based in reality or past experience. The only thing we can guarantee with the removal of bloom is that we will see decreased randomness from the DMR. Depending on how 343 caps the RoF we could very well see a DMR with the exact same average kill time as what we have now. That would not upset the balance one bit.
>
> But if, God willing, they give us a DMR with a faster kill time that still wouldn’t lead to the doomsday scenario that you’re painting. Want an idea of what Reach would look like with faster kill times? Take a look at Halo 2. While H2 has its share of camping, just as every FPS does, it is nowhere near this fantasy stalemate you describe.

Exactly. Also go back and play Halo 3. I played it the other day for the first time in a long time and the kill times are so much faster in Halo 3. Makes it much more fast paced and fun.

20

> Everyone knows that Halo has some of the most hardcore fans in gaming. When most hardcore fans play, they have fun, but above that, they play to win. Since we play to win, nothing is more frustrating than having the game basically come to a coin flip situation. This coin flip situation is caused by the wrong implementation of bloom.
>
> In Reach the bloom maxes out quickly but when it is maxed the reticle is still fairly small. Since the bloom is still fairly small it doesn’t punish spammers nearly enough as it should. So when people try to play the game how it should be played by pacing your shots correctly and get killed in 5 shots by someone spamming wildly they get upset. This causes everyone to begin to spam and then DMR battles to basically come down to a coin flip rather than who has the better shot.
>
> Aiming skill is basically not important at all in Reach when good players are playing. This causes Reach to be almost all about who has the better teamwork and communication. Teamwork and communication were always a part of Halo but they were never almost only teamwork and communication. In previous halo’s who had the better shot won the battle, it was fair because there was very little luck involved in shooting the BR or Pistol. If you hit you hit if you miss you miss, which is fair and people don’t get upset when they get out shot. But in Reach bloom causes so much bloom in 1 on 1 battles they no longer become fair. When people get out shot they don’t just say to themselves “well he out shot me that time”, they think “Yoink! IM SHOOTING AT HIS HEAD AND HES NOT DYING” or “Yoink! HE SPAMMED EVERYSHOT HE GOT SO LUCKY” etc. This gets very frustrating very quickly.
>
> The luck caused by bloom, the random pairings of groups in Reach because it doesn’t have a ranking system really kill this game and are easily enough to stop the hardcore players from playing. And thats exactly what has happened in Reach. Look at the playlists, 90% of the population is in living dead, firefight and rumble pit/ other casual playlists. Almost no one plays Arena, MLG or other competitive playlists, they are almost dead. And guess what? Are the casual gamers the ones getting involved to spread the word about how good reach is? No because they are casual gamers they could care less about bloom as long as they can drive a mongoose into a man cannon and screw around in action sack etc. The hardcore are the ones that are vocal about Halo, and if you look around you can see that they are not happy giving Reach bad press.
>
> Give us a bloom free playlist/ custom option I guarentee that almost all the hardcore players that have left/ sold reach will come back because all their friends will be telling them they have to play it because its so good. Then those players get there friends back into Reach and you have 200,000 players a night easily. Giving Reach way more positive press and selling a lot more copies of Halo Anniversary. Hell make the bloom free playlist only available to Anniversary players, we don’t care because we will buy reach for that one playlist/ custom option alone.
>
> So 343 when you are making Halo games please do not forget that the hardcore gamers are what helps you sell the game, and we do not like randomness in our games.
>
> Pluses and minuses of adding a bloom free playlist:
>
> Plus: Make the fans happy.
> Plus: People will stop complaining about Reach.
> Plus: Bring back a lot of the fans.
> Plus: Have more people like 343 as a company and support their games.
> Plus: More positive press.
> Plus: 343’s games will sell more especially Anniversary.
>
> Negatives: None. The casuals can still play living dead and action sack and will not be affected at all.

well said, 100% agree, and epic win post. great job dude, and welcome to the forums :smiley:

hope to see you around.