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I've been playing halo lately to prepare for halo 4, yeah i know but it makes me feel good and its still fun. anyways i was playing big team battle with my buddys just for some fun, but thats not what i got. I realized that in halo reach the weapons can distroy vehicles without any problems, but im not talking about power weapons im talking about, normal everyday dmrs, if two people teamed up and just used the dmr to shoot a warthog, not the driver the vehicle it self they would kill the driver/ the warthog with in 15 seconds. sure that doesnt sound bad but that is two people but on big team battle there are 8 on the enemy team, nuff said there, plus to add on to this the sniper rifle is the number one choice when it comes to wreaking vehicles, ITS A ANTI-INFANTIRY WEAPON not TANK, 6 shots to a tanks treads and it game over, which is very annoying trust me. so what im saying in general and why this is on the halo 4 forums is because i dont want this for halo 4, i remember the good old days where when someone had a ghost you had 4 opinions Jack, blow up, kill the driver, or trick them off a edge, halo reach you get about 3 more, snipe the ghost, shoot the ghost with the dmr a couple times, or armor lock, but seeing as how armor lock is out of the game, you just need to make vehicles the kings again, i have yet to played big team battle on halo 3 where the tank is left alone because they know, that they are going to die just cause the combined power of a sniper and a couple dmrs, so for halo 4 they need to make the 4 opinions i said before the ones that work not the other two, please answer the poll i will be putting up that way i can get my point to more people fast thanks for reading; Ertle26

THANK THE LORD FOR THIS NEWS! Without the BR and DMR in everyones pocket to start the games we can get BACK to the way halo is supposed to be! The people like myself who ruled the world in Halo Reach will return to the throne! I know almost nobody will agree with me because all of you have taken a liking to living by the BR. But Halo is about fighting for the weapons on the map! Making sure everyone has an AR is the beautiful BONUS!

Since everyone prefers the BR, I did a test, and I don't know if this is already a thing but both the BR and DMR took 5 shots to kill. What fo you think of this? Are the BR and DMR equal?

There should be no difference between these two guns yet 343i has done that yet again first the DMR was overpowered, and now the Battle Rifle is more of a noob weapon than it should be. The BR has a burst shot the simple fact you die from three shots with it verses the DMR's five makes no sense at all plus it's faster on the firing part as well.

I personally would like to see these two weapons added to swat. But I want your opinion, would it improve swat or make it worse? Tell me what you think below and don't forget to vote.

I loved Halo 4 when it came out. the multiplayer was amazing! I took a break for a couple months and I recently came back.....what the hell happened? seriously. The game is an absolute mess now. I have never seen weapon balance issues in a shooter like this before, and I have been playing online shooters for over 10 years. The Battle rifle and DMR are way way overpowered. This creates a lot of issues, basically the game is now set up for the hard core who play the game 5 hours a day, which I might ad is the minority. I am no noob, but I am also not a pro, I consider myself an average player and I like to play a couple matches a week. But the game as it stands is an unplayable mess. It was never like this with Bungie, 343 PLEASE do something about this. Whoever is "balancing" the game needs to be fired immediately, that's probably hyperbole but come on. This is Halo an important game, not some flavor of the month. Also who decided to put pro in regular rotations? Everyone hates pro except pro's and there aren't many online.

Vote for what you would most like to return in Halo 5! I won't try to persuade you of my own opinion; it's yours that matters! If you are new to Halo, the Shadow was a Covenant troop carrier in Halo 2. It was a slow hovercraft that had a powerful plasma turret used mainly for defensive purposes.

For all the true fan of Halo. People that agree with my thesis, rally behind me so we may once again claim Halo for our own! My gamertag is DrThaddeus, friend request me. Reply to this topic! Lets make a change! What is skill? What make a player skilled at what they do? What is the total number of hours played that creates a skilled player? Skilled enough even that they themselves may call themselves skilled? I do not have the answer to that but I do know what makes a good Halo player. A Halo player spends hours upon hours of their day playing the game. Not so much for the fun or the victory but in the hopes that they too will become skilled at the game. A good Halo player learns things about the game that go far beyond the realm of regular knowledge of Halo players: the spawn time, the weapons on a map, player spawns. A good Halo player knows their strengths but even more so their weaknesses. And tried their best to compensate for those weaknesses. Halo doesn't just stay a game to these players it becomes a way of life for the gamer. You literally breathe the game play in. You worship the developer and thank them for their hard work and they in turn provide you with what you wish. It is as if they are the Gods and we praise them and for our dutiful praise we are rewarded with what we most desire in the game. Halo 4 as destroyed the system of the skilled player. Halo 4 has destroyed the praise of the gamers. When Bungie was in control of Halo did you hear many people curse the name of Bungie for what they had put in the game? No. We the gamers may have not always agreed with it but we coped with it until Bungie in kindness and understander of their gamer follows changed the situation. The situations that caused some (very few) players to curse their (Bungie's) name. Skill is something that is created by the player. He learns techniques that help him in battle and this becomes their skill. Every player is not skilled in the same thing. 343 took away the need for skill when you let weapons such as the AR, Carbine, and Suppressor run free. The fact the people openly praise the use of weapons that require no skill is sad. Truely sad. You barely have to aim, keep count of bullets, strife, or pace yourself to receive a kill. This is sad in the fact that you have allowed your new players to be on the same level as players that have earned their place in the top ranks of Halo by using skill. All of the above mentioned qualities are part of skill. But not only do you go so far as to change the weapons, add ordinance drops, un-needed vehicles to maps, you won't listen to the players. You won't listen to the players that want a classic Halo: Reach like play listen. No ordinance drop, Promethian vision, and regular weapon spans on a map. You change things as how you want them but refuse to listen to your players and you are okay with that...I think it is sad. I have seen the best clans and squad crumble under the weight of playing Halo 4. You have reduced some clans as to only playing custom games because their members are tired of the unneccasary variables in Matchmaking. My thesis is the following: Let the reign of skilled players return. Give up our own Reach like playlists. Give us back the ablility to use skill and fight for an honorable victory and not a victory won in cheap tricks. Give up back Halo. The skilled players: players that priase the DMR, players that use stealth to get the upper hand, players that take the time to memorize span times. Give it back to the true Halo players for we are your future. If it is not given back you will have just created another Call of Duty and the players that once praise Halo will no more. Dr. Thaddeus Roth Ph. VD "Victory through Domination, Domination through Victory."

Just a problem that I saw while playing War Games. It's great that the BR and DMR are back, but the balancing is wrong, IMO. For the BR, you have to constantly aim at the head to achieve maximum damage and a quick kill. Not with the DMR. You can aim anywhere on the body for full damage and aiming at the head isn't really required. You can still 5 shot a person even if 4/5 of the shots are on his or her body. Not to mention the DMR fires faster to. Sometimes I'll even get the first shot on a DMR user, but they'll still kill me due to superior firing speed and the ability not to shoot at the head for full damage. You can say I just suck, but this has happened to me numerous times even when my aim is perfect. All I ask is that the DMR is tweaked a bit so that shooting the body does less damage than shooting them in the head. It gives the BR a chance in mid range against the DMR, which is the way it should be because the DMR should be a dominant long range weapon. (IMO)

Hello! Very simple thread here: Since the launch of Halo 4, the icon for the DMR (Loadout/Pickup) has been the one from Reach, and it's a little hard to stand. Can the icon be changed to Halo 4's icon? Would love that so much, and thank you for reading.

DISCLAIMER: I applaud 343i's balancing for being one of (if not) the best multiplayer balancing feats ever. Any and all critisism regarding flaws in my logic should be constructive. Thank you. In this post I will explain through various means why the Covenant Carbine in Halo 4 is a technically flawed primary weapon. This doesn't mean it's outright terrible, because there are plently of circumstances in which it is effective, but something's not correct. I will also provide various solutions to ammend the issues I've found with the weapon. First, let's recognize why the Carbine is on par with it's two other precision weapon brethern, the DMR and BR. This is a shot list below demonstrating such: CHARACTERISTIC: CC, DMR, BR FIre rate (RPM): ~257, ~155, ~155 (accounting for 1200 RPM burst and 0.5 second delay) Shots to down Shield: 7, 4, 12 (4 bursts of 3) Headshots: 1 for all Shots to kill an unshielded body: 5, 3, 7 (3 in a burst, one shot out of last 3 can kill) Now what we should really consider is that most players are experienced enough to aim for the head, at which point the last values are obsolete. Judging from these characteristics, we could say very liberally that they are all about the same lethality. And that is true, somewhat, when you're talking about just ONE enemy. In fact, due to the compiled nature of the shots, the hypothetical Time to Kill (TTK) of the CC is greater than both the DMR and the BR, respectively. But let's go back a second. What happens when you're trying to kill more than one enemy? Under the circumstance that every person is 100% accurate and lands nothing more than the necessary shots to kill with a headshot, the following replecates the ammo required to do such: KILLS: AMMO LEFT FOR WEAPONS (CC, DMR, BR) One: (18- = 10, (14-5) = 9, (36-15) = 21 Two: (10- = 2, (9-5) = 4, (21-15) = 6 (divide by three, explained below) Three: (2- = -6, (4-5) = -1, (6-15) = -9 (divide by three, explained below) What can we take from this? First, the values designated by the "Two:" row indicate how many "compensation shots" the user would have left to finish off the opponent(s) (remember, this was under the impression that everyone was 100% accurate, which no one actually is). In this, we find that the DMR has a full 4 compensation shots to use between the two enemies. That's an average of two compensation shots per enemy. This is very gracious for such a precise weapon. Either way, let's move onto the CC and BR, which have 2 and 6 respectively (when you divide by the 3 shots per burst that are fired it's still 2), so they're both the same... right? Consider this - every burst fired with the BR contains three bullets, only one of which actually needs to be lethal. So it's really not necessary, if at all in the first place, to take more than one compensation shot, or burst for that matter. The CC actually needs to land one of two lethal headshots per each enemy, otherwise the user won't be left with enough ammunition to finish the job. That's why, from that standpoint, the CC is already worse than the BR and DMR. Now take the second point, which is under the "Three:" section, containing all the negative numbers. This is what we could call the "clean-up" values, or how many extra headshots it'll take to kill the third enemy once you've killed the two above (again, not accounting for ANY lapses in accuracy, totally ignoring the first segment we've discussed above). Looking again at the DMR, you'd need only 1 more headshot from your pistol to finish off the opponent. Triple kills, all things aside, should be pretty easy. This time, the BR and CC are not even relatively close. The BR has a value of -9, translates to 3 shots from your pistol of choice. Quite a bit worse than the DMR, but not as bad as what you'll see next. So you'd like a Triple Kill with the CC? FORGET IT. You'd need a full 6 (TWICE as much as the BR and SIX TIMES as much than the DMR) headshots to clean up the job afterwards for that third guy, at which point, you'd be better off running away and reloading or something. Assuming you can actually do that, you're probably extremely talented at getting headshots with everything. Throw human error into the mix and you have yourself a weapon of which just doesn't compete in terms with the other two comparable primary loadout precision weapons. Sure, you could down the shields with other means, and say that the DMR has more sway etc, but I'm just talking on a pure technical basis here. There's a problem, and it needs to be addressed. Below are some solutions I'd like for someone to consider here. If you have your own or are in support of any of these, please reply: SOLUTION 1: Increase magazine size to 22 This would eliminate most issues with our little ammo conservation problem, keeping the lethal capacity at a cap of 2 kills like the other ones. If you chose 22, that leaves 4 compensation shots comparable to that of the DMR, and would make it take only 4 pistol headshots to finish off, one worse than the BR. You get one good and one bad, which is better than two crumby stats. 23 rounds would push each number up one, which could make the gun a little bit too good. SOLUTION 2: Decrease shield threshold from 7 to 6 shots Effectively changing the "Two kill" equation to (18-(2*7)) = 4 compensation shots and (4-7) = 3 pistol shots, which is more subtle than changing it to 23 rounds but at the same time is more effective than a 22 round improvement since it not only changes it from 4 to 3 pistol shots, but also lowers the TTK on each successive individual opponent. SOLUTION 3 (kinda extreme): Worsen the other two weapons The DMR could be worsened by cutting one or two bullets, and the BR by cutting the ammo count to 33 or one less burst. These are fair enough options that would force these guns to be more conservative with their ammo exhaustion. NOTE: This took me a considerable amount of time to create. If you don't mind, the feedback for this topic would be greatly appreciated. Again, I'm being logical about this, so please be constructive in your feedback as we try to solve these issues regarding this weapon. If you disagree with my statistics, I can show proof on demand. However, I should inform you that all of these statistics were privately tested and calculated using my game and HD PVR recordings broken down in Sony Vegas. Thank you again. Looking forward to those responses. .

Now, we will discuss which weapon is harder to use overall, the DMR? Or, the Battle Rifle. Pros and Cons of the BR: The BR is a 3 round burst weapon with bullet power vs. shields = to 1/3 of a DMR round. Thus, if all rounds from the Burst connect, it is = to the 1 bullet of the DMR. The BR appears to have perhaps, slightly more aim-assist than the DMR, and has a wider reticle. However, in a typical fight, both players move back and forth while firing to make it harder for your opponent to hit you, unless your Ninja or something, you will probably miss at least 1/3 of the burst with the BR. The logic is simple, when an opponent is moving like this,, he will dodge part of your burst unless your reticle is following him the whole time. Now, this is harder than it sounds, when following an opponent with your reticle, he has a step in front of you, meaning, he can initiate a change in direction before you change your reticle's direction, so he acts first, you then miss a bullet. As you should know, the BR is 13 bullets to kill, last being in the head. Thus, a 5 shot. You then see that the BR has some "forgiveness" to it. But, if you miss a bullet in each burst, do you still have your last forgiveness shot? Lets count, 1st shot, 15-1=14, 2nd shot, 14-1=13. You now see that you can only miss 2 bullets to have your last forgiveness shot in the head. Missing a bullet in a BR burst is very easy to do, and very hard not to do if he is attempting to "Juke" you. Pros and Cons of the DMR: Slightly less aim-assist. Single Fire, high rate of fire, accuracy, low bloom, 5-shot kill. Now, if you miss a shot with the DMR, then there is no forgiveness, you will go from a 5 shot, to a 6 shot. However, with the DMR you only must land 5 shots, not 15. Lets say your opponent is going left, you then aim left at his head then start firing. Bullet connect bullet connect bullet connect, you then land 3 bullets on your opponent, he changes direction you then pump a shot at his head, but your reticle is away from him after you hit him, you then quickly re-aim and finish the kill. If you were fighting with a BR, at the point where he changed direction, you would've missed part of a burst. All this being said, I would have to go with the BR being more difficult to use. If you disagree, then tell me why. Know something I missed about either weapons? Then tell me about it! And I will research and take it into consideration. Thanks for taking the time to read this thread, and happy 2013! I wish you all good games, and good times.

I couldn't find a topic that made this argument (but maybe I just suck). The designated marksman is just that, a marksman rifle. It should not be easily making shots at Sniper distance. The maps are big enough where the DMR can have it's medium to ALMOST long range but the Sniper should take the cake in all long range engagements. The DMR just kills too quickly. It's too easy to use. The bloom or recoil aren't nearly enough because the weapon destroys at any range. Halo is built on balance of basic weapons but the DMR is a preferred weapon, why? Because of its ease of use. And that's boring. I want to see Light Rifle and BR's but the DMR dominates both. The range can be left alone, but it's so easy to make follow up shots. Does anyone agree?

I recently made some weapon comparisons that look at both the automatic loadout weapons and the precision loadout weapons. Can you guys take a look and tell me what you think? I'm probably going to continue with this series, and do sidearms, shotguns, rockets, snipers, and maybe even vehicles as well. Automatic Weapons: Precision Weapons:

I have been a long time player of the halo games and I think I speak for a lot of people when I say we are a little bit hung out over the DMR. I'm not just complaining here, I'm going to make a valid statement. It is the most prominent weapon used in general. Just look at anyone on waypoint. It covers long range with 50/50 on snipers,beam rifle and can disrupted binary equally well if it lands first. It has no competition in mid range from pistol, carbine ,light rifle and about 50/50 with battle rifle when direct no cover face to face confrontation and has the advantage on close range over storm rifle and assault rifle variants if you don't make the first 5 bullets connected before hand which can be easily countered with a quick grenade head shot combo or melee. It also has the ability to jolt the character more then most other guns slowing them down and has boosted aim assist which is very obvious. I've shot people half off my scope and have gotten kills with it. Doesn't anyone else think the assault rifles should get a bit more of a boost in close quarters? Not much point if they loose every direct confrontation. They only one up in groups or whilst the target is distracted so you can land your first couple of hits. Its at least 50/50 in long range, 70/30 short and 80/20 medium if not more so. That is far more average coverage to other weapons. You cant knock someones scopes out at long range with an assault rifle and such, it is strictly short range so why should it share that territory with DMR so much. It's used too much because of the clear advantage and I would like to be able to have an equal chance while using all the parts of the game. Shouldn't there at the least be a lobby like classic where you don't get to start with dmr, battle rifle or plasma grenades. I think it would do the community well to appeal to people in some way that have delt with the dmr all through halo reach and now halo 4. I miss halo 3 starting with assault rifle, one grande and a pistol and everything else was on the battle field. I believe it would make the game play flow better, allow players to use more weapons, appeal to veteran gamers and also chop down on high grenade kills. What do you all think?

Hey guys I've been thinking a lot about what the best loadout is in Halo 4 and have come to the conclusion that there definitely isn't just one. For instance using the jetpack is kind of hard if you play bumper jumper and some people prefer grenadier and others like explosives. So I've posted a video below showing and explaining the full loadout I use, but I was wondering what you guys use and why? Do you use Jet pack, promethean vision, or hologram?

I created this forum to express my concern for the weapon balancing in game. I'm pretty sure you've heard this quite a bit, but I'm just going to come out and say it - the DMR is overpowered compared to any of the other guns in the starting weapon category, not to mention the underpower of my favorite weapon, the carbine. When the game was being created, I was very excited that I could throw Reach behind, because of the simple fact that the only weapon ever used in the game was the DMR. I'm not saying that this game is becoming Reach, and it's far from it, but I'm just a little worried about this unbalance. With all due respect, this needs to be fixed, because it's not very fun playing a match where everyone is using the same weapon, and I'm getting instantly killed with less than a second to react. I really hope that a solution is being formulated, and that this problem will be fixed in the very near future. I mean no disrespect to anyone or any member of the 343 team, and I just hope this will be observed. Shady

The DMR is the only balanced gun in the game in terms of an "Assault Rifle" category'd gun. The Light Rifle, DMR, and Battle Rifle are your 3 weapons of choice that should every be considered. The Light Rifle takes more shots when not scoped in, less when scoped in; get rid of it. The Battle Rifle is more overpowered than the DMR, and here is why: Although they take the same amount of shots, with and without scope, they are not the same. (I realize that the BR is supposed to be better at a short range, and the DMR is supposed to be better at a long range -- which weapon you use for THIS reason should vary on the map, the gametype, and your playstyle I suppose...) But...Here's why... Let's say there are 2 players going into a 1v1 BR/DMR fight. Player 1 is your average Halo player n00b, where as Player 2 is a professional Halo player that is not such a rookie. Both players are using the DMR with standard settings, everything is normal. Player 1 and Player 2 both hit eachother 4 times apiece. Each player is now 1 shot away (in the head) from dying. Player 2, being more skilled, hits the 5th shot in the head, whereas Player 1 hit Player 2 in the shoulder. ^^^In this situation, Player 2 is awarded the kill, as he should be, for having more "skill", and walks away a "weakened-1shot". In the other way around, Player 1 and Player 2 are both using a Battle Rifle. Both players have again hit eachother in the body 4 times, remaining a headshot away from being awarded a kill. On the 5th shot, Player 2 again hits Player 1 in the head; however, this time, Player 1 has (with his 3 bullets, since battle rifle's shoot 3 bullets in comparison to the DMR's 1) has hit Player 2 in the shoulder, the neck, and the shoulder. In this situation, both players are awarded a kill, and a trade occurs. ^^^In this situation, Player 2 and Player 1 are both awarded a kill, but it is not based off of "skill". I know there is not near as much "spray, spread, swiping", whatever you would like to call it, as there was in Halo 3, but nonetheless, there is still a "spread". I realize that none of these guns will be changed in anyway, and I realize also that it's all there for fun and will remain constant, so people's discussions and complaints are irrelevant, but I figured I would throw these facts out there for those who seem to be upset about these DMR/BR/LR discussions. All in all, don't use the Light Rifle, if you're playing a close range map with lots of hallways, use the BR, otherwise use the DMR. Over all, if you can scope in 24/7 [which you shouldn't be able to], use the LR; but the BR is still the best "Assault Rifle" type gun in the game, for the reasons stated above; unfortunately. <3 p.s. ...the Carbine doesn't count in this discussion. see other posts for details.

I want to first off say that 343's attempt at making halo has been a good one. I avidly played previous halos and it was honestly the best multiplayer experience on xbox. This new halo offers some unique changes and these changes haven't gone over completely well with the veteran fanbase. I have a few suggestions to help the veteran fanbase and gameplay in general. The main topic being map DLC. DMR - It seems that there are alot of topics about the DMR being overpowered. I agree with this. It's a shame when you're all the way across the map and getting picked off by a DMR before you even have time to react. It is so noticeably more powerful then the other starting rifles that it causes a problem. I suggest a slight nerf to its power or a decent nerf to its fire rate. The light rifle scoped shot is powerful but you cannot fire that fast, a similar concept added to the DMR would balance it. Ordinance Drops - This seems to as well be a very covered topic amongst these forums and I for one think that they are an interesting idea but poorly done. There is a considerable lack of map control and weapon control because of these ordinance drops and lack of weapon placement on the maps. It is always frustrating when you turn a corner and anyone on the other team could come around with an incineration cannon or other power weapon. There is no longer any work for the power weapons which was a key element that made halo 3's multiplayer so great. Buff Suggestions - I would like to suggest a slight buff to plasma grenades (unless you stick someone they are completely worthless), the carbine (frightfully underpowered compared to the other rifles) and to vehicle health (I remeber when you had to make a big effort to take down a banshee or tank or some other vehicle, now one person with a starting weapon can just shoot them a few times and they'll blow up. You are more just a big target instead of something to be feared.) Maps/DLC playlists - This part is for the veteran players as well as new halo players that would like to experience the former glory of halo 2 and 3. 343's attempt at map making has not been good. I, along with many people I play with, have to come to agree that the only really DECENT (not great) maps with the game are Ragnarock, Haven and Longbow. Essentially every other map shipped with the game is not very good at all. Previous halo games had beautiful, well thought out and playable maps. *THIS IS MY MAIN REQUEST/SUGGESTION FOR THIS ENTIRE TOPIC* In order to make the multiplayer experience better I want to suggest the following to 343. I know this would be ambitious but it would greatly increase the playability and replay ability of Halo 4. Despite the fact that the DLC has already been announced and what maps will be released, I wish to suggest to 343 that they remake or just touch up maps from halos 2 and 3 to make a rather sizeable DLC for Halo 4. Obvious fan favorites such as Blood Gulch, The Pit, and Guardian (to name a few) would return. I for one believe that every halo 3 map with the exception of Isolation should come back (that seems too ambitious and I highly doubt 343 would bring back that many maps). Although I would like all those maps back some of the most popular small and big team maps would suffice. In addition to the maps, the DLC would also include ranked playlists specifically focused on the DLC maps. These playlist would vary between gametypes like Doubles (should be in the game already ) Slayer, Objective, Squad Battle, and others. The key elements to these playlists however would be that they include NO ARMOR ABILITIES, loadouts would be fine but would be limited to suit more skillful gameplay. NO PERSONAL ORDINANCE DROPS, and power weapons along with normal weapons would be on the maps. I believe this would be ambitious but if 343 could do it they will have succeeded in making the best halo game to date.

Alright, so here are a few things that I have experienced in Halo 4 matchmaking that could use a few tweakings. To start off I love the Halo series. Been playing continuously since the end of Halo 2. The game that I really fell in love with was Halo 3. Admittly the game had its flaws but overall I think that this was the best out of the series in terms of overall gameplay. The reason why this game worked as opposed to other titles that were out (Cod, Gears, GTA, etc.) was that the game was BALANCED. Everybody started off with the same weapons and had the same rights to power weapons as everybody else. Secondly powerups were something that were on the map as opposed to everybody having one to begin with. Even though flares were completely useless I still enjoyed throwing them out in the middle of Guardian and laughing as I heard everybody wondering who the dumb*** was that just did that! While camo and overshield were still overpowered you could never be like "well its stupid that he had an overshield and I don't" because you simply didnt get there first. Enough about that. What I think needs to be changed for a loyal Halo follower like me to continue playing this game is not a drastic overhaul of the entire way the game is played. Just a few simple things need to be implemented or removed. First off, instant spawning needs to be REMOVED COMPLETELY! since everybody is able to start off with DMR's this allows you to essentially double team somebody by yourself if you get a half decent spawn. Instant spawning doesn't work in any game, IMO, even Cod. Simply put, the game wasn't designed well enough (spawning wise) to have this feature available. Secondly, the whole staying zoomed in while being shot at is not what Halo has done in the past and is going in a completely wrong direction. The reason that it required skill to BR/DMR at a distance is if you got pulled out of zoom you had to essentially try to no-scope somebody to stay alive. Numerous times have i been getting shot at, hit somebody then zoomed in, and killed them because they couldnt get zoomed back in to get that last shot off accuretly. Also, staying zoomed in makes sniping WAY to easy. Coupled with the fact that when you hit somebody with a sniper your aim goes like 100000 miles up in the air so you lose your shot completely. Lastly, not having a full team when you start a match. STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID STUPID. I would much rather wait 15-30 seconds while it finds me a few more teammates than go into a CTF game down 3 people. I cant count the number of times where ive started up a game with nobody on the other team. Why does this happen? EVER? Other than that and the fact that there is no ranking system (another topic for another day) + social matches kinda deal where you could either play just for fun or have the option to play highly competetively, this game runs fine. Even though IMO Reach sucked, i still played the hell out of it for the sole fact that it was Halo. Even though towards the end of it i just ended up HLGing and betraying my teammates on big team, still played it for a long time. I will continue to be sceptical about the success of Halo 4 until a few of these things are fixed/taken out. Hopefully I can enjoy this title as much as i have enjoyed the titles preceeding this 1.

I’ve seen weapons nerfed in Halo before, and it’s not pretty. The Focus Rifle in Reach and the Trip Mine in Halo 3 are prime examples of why we should fear the word “nerf” when it comes to Halo’s weapons and gadgets. But obviously weapons can’t go for the rest of the game’s lifespan unbalanced, so something has to be done about them (just not the nerfs that I’ve seen). So far, I’ve encountered 3 things that need balancing out a bit in Halo 4. Now, I’ve been gaming for years and have been playing Halo since Halo CE back in 2001, and I am confident that my solutions will not nerf these weapons up to the point of uselessness. 1. Boltshot. I’ve recently had the displeasure of facing someone that has used nothing but this weapon throughout the entire match. I don’t even think the Scattershot or Shotgun would have been able to kill me at the range that he killed me from. Now, the standard shots on the Boltshot are headshot capable, so that gave me an idea… Solution: 343i should lower the damage slightly on the Boltshot’s charged shots so it just takes down shields rather than instantly kills people. People would still be able to kill enemies with the Boltshot, because as I’ve said, the standard shots are headshot capable, so you’d just charge up your Boltshot, fire it at someone to take down their shields, then aim for the head. This not only maintains the Boltshot’s effectiveness (as well as requiring a bit more skill to use), but also gives players on the receiving end of its deadly fury a small reaction gap by perhaps a second or so. Now, you might be thinking a second isn’t a long time, but trust me when I say it goes a long way in Halo. 2. DMR. Yes, it is overpowered. But no where near what people have been claiming it to be. It’s only slightly overpowered, and that’s only because it’s dominating in ranges that it’s not supposed to be dominating in. It’s supposed to be a long range weapon, beaten in range by nothing else but the Sniper Rifle (and its counterparts). In shorter ranges, the Battle Rifle (and Covenant Carbine) is supposed to win against the DMR, but the DMR appears to be winning most of the time unless shots are missed. So how do we fix this? Solution: This one is rather simple, actually. The DMR is only dominating because of its firing rate. It can fire as fast as the user can pull the trigger, and that I think is where the problem lies. Lowering the rate of fire ever so slightly gives the Battle Rifle a fighting chance in shorter ranges, while the DMR still keeps its effectiveness in longer ranges. Once again, the lowering of firing rate on the DMR will only give BR users just under a second or so of extra time in combat, but as I’ve said before, that time goes a long way in Halo. 3. Active Camouflage. Ah, the camper’s true love, this one. Basically, the camo is more effective when you’re not moving around so much. This is where I think the problem lies. It promotes camping and overshadows a lot of other Armour Abilities because of this. So, how do we fix it? We need only look to the past… Solution: …Because we already have the ideal Active Camouflage in Halo 2! Remember the Arbiter levels? Remember the Active Camouflage you could use in them? That’s our balanced Active Camo right there. A short burst of semi-invisibility, lasted around 15 seconds or so and you could move around as fast as you wanted without revealing yourself. The cool-down period was about 20 seconds, although I think it varied depending on what difficulty you were playing on. But let’s say around 20 seconds, because that seems pretty balanced to me. Oh, and if you fired your weapon or performed a melee attack, the Active Camo would deactivate and you’d have to wait for the cool-down period to end before you could use it again. Ah, but you’ll probably think that you won’t have enough time to kill someone within 15 seconds. Well, it was more than enough time to use it effectively on Halo 2, even on Legendary. As I’ve said before, that ti- ah, screw it. You already know what I’m going to say. So those are my solutions. Again, I’m just using my experience as both a gamer and a long time Halo fan to come up with these ideas. I don’t really know what you guys and gals think of them, but hopefully you’ll find them reasonably effective at balancing out Halo 4. Thanks for reading!

I'm posting this thread to hear veteran halo players opinions. What do you think about zooming in and when your hit, you don't zoom out? This makes cross map BR'ing and DMR'ing easy for any tom, **** and harry, it's ridiculous. Cross map BR'ing was an art in halo 2 & 3, it was what separated the good and the bad. And now cross map shooting requires really no skill involved. Now with the sniper, you unload shots into that guy and he can just sit there and hardscope and he will more then likely get the kill. I must say halo 4 is more enjoying then reach but it still does not compare to bungies franchise. *Oh and one last comment. No 4 shots on the BR?... Seriously? & the DMR is OP.

As a Halo fan since the realease of Halo 1 I applaud 343 for its work on Halo 4. 343 has made a balanced, fun, and authentic Halo mutliplayer experience, but it feels too "balanced". And by balanced I mean it has COD-esque skill nerfing features. I will attribute the COD to microsoft's substantial investment in this game and their hope for a return on that investment in a market that features that other first person shooter being released right before the holiday season. There are 3 critical and easy changes to make for multiplayer. 1) Make games turn on kills not points. -Who wants to lose a game of regicide to a guy with less kills than you but who managed to kill the king a few times? This logic makes no sense, why reward the playerwho kills the guy with the giant indicator over his head rather than the player with the most overall kills? In general the point system should not determine the outcome of games, but rather be used into leveling up the meaningless ranks currently in place, much like the *cough* COD system *cough*. The points just make it impossible to determine on the fly what is needed to be done by players to win the game and detracts from the overall competiveness. By the way, what happened to Free-for-all? 2) Ordinace drops are an un-needed feature -Ordinace drops are just a thinly veiled "killstreak reward" system, laughably even ordinance drops are not based on kills but on points. Ordinance drops are just flat out not needed and stand in the way of players using some of the best designed, balanced and thought out weapons in the game. Not to mention making vehicles too dominant in gametypes which feature them. What should be brought back is good ole fashioned weapon spawns on the map, go ahead and put designators and timers on them if that is what it will take to get this feature back into match-making. Weapon spawns on the maps add a whole new level of strategy and teamwork which was erased by ordinance drops. This same concept applies for power ups like speed, power and overshield. So what if players will be able to "camp" weapon spawns, the abuses of the weapon on map system do not overcome its benefits to gameplay. 3) Give players real skill ranks 1-50 -This is probably the most needed feature of multiplayer. The 1-50 rank system, in the actual game, next to your name changes the entire dynamic of the Halo multiplayer experience. When your rank depends of the games you win rather than on the points you get, a remarkable thing happens...teamwork and co-ordination actually awaken from their COD induced slumber and impove gameplay for everyone. Rank XP that goes up when you win and goes down when you lose is such a critical component of the Halo online dynamic it makes me sad to see what the last 2 games have chosen to do with ranks. Once again so what if people will abuse this sytem? The same arguement applies for the American welfare system, just because some people will abuse the system does not mean it should be taken away. Plus grouping players based on ranks is an tried and true way to effectively ensure more balanced and competitive gameplay. As opposed to the prevailing lone wolf "preserve my kill death ratio" mindset that now regins supreme (because as it stands to determine how good someone is, you must look that the kill death ratio of that player rather than a 1-50 skill rank that has weight behind it). In conclusion -Halo has always been and should always be a different animal than COD. COD has perfected the formula of nerfing every player down to relative mediocrity with its features ensuring a very balanced game ideal for players who frankly are not that good at the game itself but can use its balancing features to get kills despite differences in playing skill. Halo on the other hand, originally anyway started players out on an equal playing field letting skill and luck decide the outcomes. There is no place for COD skill nerfing features to be present in a Halo game outside the goal of attempting to cater to a wider base of consumers which is exactly why Reach failed so miserably. The Halo franchise is a living example of "if you build it, they will come". If you give gamers a platform where everyone begins the game at a standardized baseline and let each player set himself apart by their gameplay then that very thing will happen. Not everyone was created equally when it comes to Halo and the franchise should not compensate for that, the weak will die off and move on to easier game will the strong will survive and dominate Halo, while the vast majoirty of people will enjoy a fiercely competive multiplayer experience unlike any other FPS on the market. In conclusion it is the competitve nature of Halo that sets it apart in the market place, players should be able to show their hard earned Halo rank and have that mean something as it did in Halo 2. Ranks and the competition for them were a driving factor behind the quantity and quality of gameplay, a challenging 1-50 ranking system is the ULTIMATE tool for gameplay longevity by presenting the vast majority of people with a never-ending quest for the rank number they want next to their gamertag. The competiveness of the Halo franchise should present players with the unique opportunity in the FPS market to set themselves apart from everyother player online through their own gameplay (wherever that may fall in a 1-50 system), and it should be incumbent on players NOT the game mechanics to adjust for in game balancing. The field of play is here, just change the rules so that players can once again create the Halo multiplayer experience that the franchise has been celebrated for.

THE BR RECOIL DOES NOT EQUAL DMR BLOOM. It is useless to make both rifles 5-shots and then try to compensate for it by making shooting variables that aren't equal or at least very similar. DMR's bloom still is not fixed. Even at max bloom the bullets can still hit the player's hitbox 80% of the time. Thus making the gun SPAMMABLE. Recoil is not that much but think logically here on where the advantage lies: Vertical upward rising shots (Forces you to reposition crosshairs twice one against the upward direction and one for the player's direction) VS. Shots within a radius (Forces you to wait but only reposition once for player position) DMR Bloom requires less coordination and actual work than BR, making it a handicapped, OP, weapon. Ways to fix: Increase BR damage (since you already get recoil anyways) or Increase DMR bloom radius or Decrease DMR shot interval length or Make BR as equally efficient at long rage