Weapon Balance

[zRexx]

DISCLAIMER: This post will feature blunt criticism of the entire Halo series. If you don't like hearing strong negativity about the games you play, you should really consider turning away.

 

Before we go into my criticsm, I want to stress that I really believe Halo has potential to be a really good competitive shooter and also stand out in its own flare at the same exact time. Just so I don't look like a hater, here's the unique things I like about the series, from a gameplay standpoint:

• Gunplay has heavy emphasis on tight precision, mainly due to the main weapons in each game (Pistol in CE, BR/Carbine in H2/H3, DMR in Reach, and BR/Carbine/DMR/LR in Halo 4)
• Slower-paced alternative to more traditional arena shooters, but still fast enough to be skillful and intense. (Newer games are straying away from the roots in this regard, which I find saddening because it makes it less unique).
• Regenerating shield encourages strategic retreats. You need smart positioning to cut off all enemy sight lines, you need to constantly be aware of enemy locations, you need area denial tactics (specifically with the grenades), and you need patience instead of rushing. Very skillful, although the skill of retreats were neutered in Reach and Halo 4 due to sprint. I like CE's system the best with the health bar.
• 2-weapon system adds a nice strategic aspect in that you have to carefully pick and choose your preferred armament.

Okay, so you guys know now that I'm not just some hater. Of course not, I really just want this game to improve. So what's standing in the way from this being an A-Grade competitive arena shooter? Well, Halo Reach and Halo 4 may have their own set of ridiculous problems that are much greater, but I'm here to talk about what's affecting the whole series (that includes the trilogy). As the title suggests, the issue we have here is the horrendous weapon b alance. My problem is that the weapon pick-ups around the map are essentially god, they're very easy to use and take little effort or skill, it's pretty much a free kill. You might as well just have a glowing orb that you touch and it kills whatever enemy player is closest to you as you pick it up. That may be a slight exaggeration, but you understand where I'm coming from. Using a Rocket Launcher doesn't really take much skill at all, as well as many other explosives. CQC weapons such as Shotguns and Swords can be pretty damn easy to use as well, depending on the specific game.

 

I often bring up this criticism and people respond by saying that the skill is in getting the weapons. I'm not denying that, I strongly believe that map control is very vital element of skill to a competititve FPS. But the thing is, that's really only half of it. What about actually using the weapons too? Then they'll say "Oh, if the weapons are difficult to use, no one will fight for them!" I'm going to bring up a couple other arena shooters, Quake III Arena, and Unreal Tournament. The weapons were VERY skillful in those games, yet players didn't seem to ignore them there, in fact it's quite the opposite, players ALWAYS controlled the map and battled for these weapons, even moreso than you see in Halo where a good portion of the playerbase sees on-map weapons as taboo. You want to know why the players still fought for these weapons? Because of two reasons. Firstly, many on-map weapons often provided certain advantages that made them more useful in specific situations, they were often more specialized than the starting weapon. Secondly, it's the damage potential. The Rocket Launcher in Quake III was fairly dodgable if the enemy player had twitch reflex, and it required players to really lead their shots (Leading with a Halo Rocket Launcher is rarely required, its only needed at long range). It also required a direct hit to initiate a one-hit kill (on an unarmored target, that is). The weapon had these other traits to compensate for the high damage, but nonetheless, the fact that you CAN kill a player one shot is more than enough to make it valuable. If a weapon has potential to kill in one hit, any smart player will go after it (why wouldn't they).

 

As shown with the above paragraph, you don't need to make a weapon insanely overpowered to make it valuable, that's simply going overboard. Again, the fact of the matter is, the Rocket Launcher in Halo takes very little (if any) skill. You guys tell me, what sounds like overall more skillful and competitive gameplay?

• Only needing the skill to get a certain weapon, while using it is actually very easy.
• Needing skill to get that certain weapon AND also needing skill to use it effectively.

That's really as black and white as you can get, two skillsets versus one. In addition, having terrible weapon balance like this, it really destroys a lot of emphasis on strategy. A large part of strategy in a shooter comes down to choosing the right weapon for the corresponding situation, you need to use your critical thinking skills to determine the right gun for the job and you have to do it fast within the heat of battle. In Halo, a lot of this simply isn't there. It's a very rare situation to where you'd ever use anything else over the Rocket Launcher. For the most part, the instance you would ever switch to another weapon is if you're at very long range. Where's the strategy in that? It's just "Use the Rocket Launcher! Always use the Rocket Launcher! Never not use the Rocket Launcher! The Rocket Launcher beats all!" It's very basic. People bring up metagaming, but no, this isn't metagaming, you don't have to be a genius to know that the Rocket Launcher dominates everything, it's a very obvious fact you would get by playing a single match. There's a difference between metagaming and obvious knowledge, this is obvious knowledge. Since when is there ever a Halo player who doesn't know that the Rocket Launcher is the best? Anyone knows it. There's not really any complex thinking involved here, it's absurdly basic.

 

Overall, if each weapon had their own distinctive skillsets as well as each weapon having a specific corresponding situation/niche/role, that would add so much more complexity and depth to the game. But with this system? It's VERY basic by comparison. There's not a lot too it, and i feel it's an aspect we should improve upon. It's the one major thing that gets in the way. I'm not saying Halo is a stupid, easy game, but at the same time, it can be so much more than what it currently is.

[Unease Peanut]

A well spoken argument without swearing?! What is this madness!?

jk

 

I get your point, but I disagree on power weapons being guaranteed kills. Sure they make it more easy to get a kill (for which they are intended) but they take skill to get and use, even the Rocket Launcher. I've had plenty of times that I wasted rockets or that I made players waste their rockets on me by dodging and using tactics and team coordination. The fact is that a Rocket Launcher is a very noticable weapon and rather slow. You can easily spot a player holding one and take precautions, unless the player holding the weapon is tactful enough to conceal it from you. The moment he does take a shot and you're well prepared you can easily jump (or thrust in Halo 5) out of the way making his shot a waste and make him at least use another of his limited amount of shots at you.

 

It all depends on who is holding the weapon and who is going up against him. Conclusion, any weapon can be "OP" in the right hands just as much as it can be outclassed by the right opponent.

[zRexx]

A well spoken argument without swearing?! What is this madness!?

jk

 

I get your point, but I disagree on power weapons being guaranteed kills. Sure they make it more easy to get a kill (for which they are intended) but they take skill to get and use, even the Rocket Launcher. I've had plenty of times that I wasted rockets or that I made players waste their rockets on me by dodging and using tactics and team coordination. The fact is that a Rocket Launcher is a very noticable weapon and rather slow. You can easily spot a player holding one and take precautions, unless the player holding the weapon is tactful enough to conceal it from you. The moment he does take a shot and you're well prepared you can easily jump (or thrust in Halo 5) out of the way making his shot a waste and make him at least use another of his limited amount of shots at you.

 

It all depends on who is holding the weapon and who is going up against him. Conclusion, any weapon can be "OP" in the right hands just as much as it can be outclassed by the right opponent.

Well, they take skill to get, I never denied that, but they certainly take very little skill when you get down to using

 

Perhaps you COULD dodge the Rocket Launcherr if this was a different type of game where you moved much, much faster (it might still be overpowered but at least there would be a fair chance of dodging it), but when you look at Halo's movement speed vs. the projectile speed, blast radius, and splash damage of the Rocket Launcher, it just isn't really a feasible option. Unless you're on Reach and everyone starts with evade, but that's not really how the main game plays. You can reliably dodge against the more typical weapons because they fire single bullets, and when it comes to grenades, you can dodge them due to the detonation timer, but with the Rocket Launcher, it explodes immediately upon impact and the area of effect is so massive, it's HUGE, and if you're at least a little bit inside of it, you're dead. You can't usually jump out of the way, that just isn't a reliable option, because of how tthe blast radius is the size of an elephant and you're automatically dead if caught even a little bit inside (it's not like you need a direct hit or a near-direct hit to get an instant kill). As for thrusting in H5, it may sound good in theory but when you get down to it, the thruster pack is going to have a cooldown of at least 4 seconds. So pretty much, you can easily dodge the first Rocket, but afterwards you're fragged (substitute for the f-bomb) because you can't thrust again in time to dodge the second blast coming your way. The Rocket Launcher has two rounds per clip, and it's not like it has an immensely, painfully slow rate of fire or anything. So yeah, you dodge one, then he fires another, good luck. If you could use two thrusts straight in a row, it could possibly work (although I'd have to see it in action), but that's not how H5 is going to play. You thrust once, you have to wait a 4 second cooldown, and the person is going to fire another rocket before that happens. I used to be OBSESSED with Halo Reach and Halo 4 as a teenager (even though I hate them now), I played those games every day after school. I NEVER had someone dodge a Rocket I fired, whenever I had a Rocket, I got at least two kills. And I wasn't even really the best at Halo for the most part. I was pretty good at Halo 4 for a while, but that's not saying much, because Halo 4's skill ceiling is pretty low.

 

It's a very rare occurence to where you can actually counter a Rocket user. The fact of the matter is, the Rocket user always has it easy on him. There may be some exceptions to where a Rocket user gets taken down, but those are the rarity. I mean, alright, during a reload, he has a chance of getting killed. I'm not the type to lie. But again, he gets two rockets per clip, so around 80 to 85% of the time, he's going to get at least two kills without even having to really use any effort (when it coes to actually using the weapon). A lot of the time, it's even more than two kills, it's very easy to get two people with one shot. Besides that, the fact of the matter is, a player is usually going to get some kills without trying. I don't think you're trying to suggest that players have to actually practice with the Rocket Launcher to get good at it, that's a little absurd, don't you think? Practice isn't usually needed unless you're going against some pros or semi-pros, and even in that case, it still wouldn't be all that much.

 

Here's what I use to determine balance:

1. Does the weapon take a significant amount of skill to use?
2. Are there reliable ways to counter the weapon?
3. Does it dominate other weapons in almost (if not) all situations? To put it simply, is there usually ever a situation where you would want to put the gun down?

Okay, so does the Rocket Launcher take a significant amount of skill to use? No, it's pretty easy. Are there reliable ways to counter the Rocket Launcher? Successfully countering the Rocket Launcher is a sparse rarity rather than a semi-common sight, so I wouldn't consider your methods "reliable" if they rarely ever work under usual circumstances. Does it dominate other weapons in almost all situations? Well, I can't ever see a time where I'd ever want to use an AR, BR, DMR, Carbine, Light Rifle, Storm Rifle, Suppressor, Shotgun, Scattershot, Sword, Hammer, Magnum, Plasma Pistol, or Boltshot over the Rocket Launcher. That's 14 weapons, that's an awful lot. And unless you're an A-Grade competitive player, I can't imagine you ever wanting to even use a Sniper over the Rockets either, it's usually too much of a hassle by comparison for the average player at least (in MLG tournaments, it's a different story, but that's the exception rather than the rule). So Halo's Rocket Launcher fails to meet any of these standards.

 

Because Quake 3 Arena has a skillful Rocket Launcher, I'll use that in comparison. Does the weapon take a significant amount of skill? Due to the very fast-paced nature of the game, and how you can only get a one-shot-kill on a direct hit, this means you really need SIGNIFICANT leading and predicting skills. This skill isn't just restricted to very long range like in Halo, no, you need it every where, from close range, to mid range, to long range, there's no easy way out here. Are there reliable ways to counter the weapon? Keep moving in a figure-8 pattern because it will constantly change up your movement direction which will make it more challenging for the enemy to predict and lead, the splash damage and blast radius isn't that OP to where it's nearly impossible, and you move fast enough to where you can actually rely on this tactic. Does it dominate other weapons in almost all situations? Aside from one gun (which SHOULD be better balanced, Quake isn't exempt from balance either), every weapon is an equally viable choice depending on the specific situation. The Rocket Launcher is the jack of all trades weapon, but everything else has a more specialized, niche role that it makes them ever so important under those specific circumstances. For example, if a player is in a hallway, the best weapon to use is the Plasmagun because it rapid-fires these large, spherical projectiles that are hard to dodge in a tight corridor (due to limited space to move around). If a player is on the center platform and you need to push him back to prevent him from reaching a powerup, you pull out the Lightning Gun because its continuous energy beam has devastating knockback. No weapon is really "the best".

 

The balancing method I explained leads to overall greater depth. You need strategy to determine which weapon is right for the corresponding situation, which is a complex task when every weapon is equally viable in their own ways. All players need gunplay skill no matter what weapon they happen to choose. All players can reliably counter each other. With Halo's balance, it's just grab the big gun and KABOOM, there's not really all that much to it by comparison.

[DocSpartanO07]

With skill you can counter any weapon in Halo, even the Rocket Launcher...

 

No power weapon is instant death for someone. If you instantly die because some one else got a power weapon, you need to improve your playing skills a little.

 

 

[zRexx]

With skill you can counter any weapon in Halo, even the Rocket Launcher...

 

No power weapon is instant death for someone. If you instantly die because some one else got a power weapon, you need to improve your playing skills a little.

 

Sure, it's possible to counter a Rocket Launcher, but those instances are extremely rare, very few and far between. That just doesn't happen in everyday matchmaking, I've never had a time where I got a Rocket Launcher and didn't earn a kill, no one could counter it. And I'm not even an A-Grade competitive player, in fact, that was the time before I got good at Halo (sadly I'm not good anymore because I stopped playing). Like, literally never. That never happened to me, there's not even one exception. I always got a kill with Rockets whenever I picked up the weapon, no one ever countered it. People say that "Well no, there are lots of ways to counter the Rocket Launcher". There's saying it and then there's seeing it in action. When put to the test, that's not usually how it plays out. Again, it's an extreme rarity where someone gets a Rocket Launcher and the opposing player counters it (and that's me implying that it happens at all, when I've never seen it in-game).. If countering was at least a semi-common practice, then how come when I used to play Halo Reach and Halo 4 almost every day after I got home from school, I never had such a situation occur? That doesn't add up. It was the same with my experience in Halo 3. I've played over 4,000 matches of Halo 4, I played over 3,000 custom games on Reach, and I think I played about 1,000 matchmaking games. Never once happened to me. It's clearly not because I suck, as literally every other person I've ever played with (whether it's a friend or some random on matchmaking) has never countered my Rocket Launcher, unless they themselves had a similarly powerful weapon. I'm not just talking about ME, it's literally everyone else I've ever played with. Everyone. And that's A LOT of people. 8,000 matches total on both Reach and Halo 4, probably another few thousand on Halo 3. So I think I have good enough statistics to go by.

 

But nonetheless, I was clearly talking about skill on part of the Rocket Launcher user, not the person on the other end. The Rocket Launcher user has it VERY easy. Little to no skill involved with the weapon at all, just mindlessly blast away the target. Aim, what's that?

 

Just because I say an aspect of something has no skill, that doesn't automatically mean I'm solely basing it off the fact that I keep dying. That's everyone's first fail argument "You say it takes no skill because you suck!" In reality, that's an empty assumption that has zero backing to it. Even if I did suck (which I actually do now), that doesn't automatically mean my personal skill level is the basis of my argument, especially when you take into account that I'm not just talking about myself, but also 8,000 matches worth of players. It clearly has nothing to do with my skill at that point. And the fact that I suck at the game, that makes it even more apparent that the Rocket Launcher is fundamentally broken by design, because I don't even have to TRY to get a kill with it. Just pick it up and BOOM. I don't even have to be skilled to use it. I suck at the game and I get kills that easy, all the time, just as long as I have the Rocket Launcher? Ridiculous. This is top-notch competitive gaming right here, a weapon that's essentially a free kill.

[Caboose The Ace]

Sure, it's possible to counter a Rocket Launcher, but those instances are extremely rare, very few and far between. That just doesn't happen in everyday matchmaking, I've never had a time where I got a Rocket Launcher and didn't earn a kill, no one could counter it. And I'm not even an A-Grade competitive player, in fact, that was the time before I got good at Halo (sadly I'm not good anymore because I stopped playing). Like, literally never. That never happened to me, there's not even one exception. I always got a kill with Rockets whenever I picked up the weapon, no one ever countered it. People say that "Well no, there are lots of ways to counter the Rocket Launcher". There's saying it and then there's seeing it in action. When put to the test, that's not usually how it plays out. Again, it's an extreme rarity where someone gets a Rocket Launcher and the opposing player counters it (and that's me implying that it happens at all, when I've never seen it in-game).. If countering was at least a semi-common practice, then how come when I used to play Halo Reach and Halo 4 almost every day after I got home from school, I never had such a situation occur? That doesn't add up. It was the same with my experience in Halo 3. I've played over 4,000 matches of Halo 4, I played over 3,000 custom games on Reach, and I think I played about 1,000 matchmaking games. Never once happened to me. It's clearly not because I suck, as literally every other person I've ever played with (whether it's a friend or some random on matchmaking) has never countered my Rocket Launcher, unless they themselves had a similarly powerful weapon. I'm not just talking about ME, it's literally everyone else I've ever played with. Everyone. And that's A LOT of people. 8,000 matches total on both Reach and Halo 4, probably another few thousand on Halo 3. So I think I have good enough statistics to go by.

 

But nonetheless, I was clearly talking about skill on part of the Rocket Launcher user, not the person on the other end. The Rocket Launcher user has it VERY easy. Little to no skill involved with the weapon at all, just mindlessly blast away the target. Aim, what's that?

 

Just because I say an aspect of something has no skill, that doesn't automatically mean I'm solely basing it off the fact that I keep dying. That's everyone's first fail argument "You say it takes no skill because you suck!" In reality, that's an empty assumption that has zero backing to it. Even if I did suck (which I actually do now), that doesn't automatically mean my personal skill level is the basis of my argument, especially when you take into account that I'm not just talking about myself, but also 8,000 matches worth of players. It clearly has nothing to do with my skill at that point. And the fact that I suck at the game, that makes it even more apparent that the Rocket Launcher is fundamentally broken by design, because I don't even have to TRY to get a kill with it. Just pick it up and BOOM. I don't even have to be skilled to use it. I suck at the game and I get kills that easy, all the time, just as long as I have the Rocket Launcher? Ridiculous. This is top-notch competitive gaming right here, a weapon that's essentially a free kill.

 

For once I can agree with you there.

 

A rocket launcher if you play it right is really easy to get kills. Someone shoots you? Blow them away. Only people really far away with snipers or something like that pose a threat. Otherwise its four really easy kills.

 

[zRexx]

For once I can agree with you there.

 

A rocket launcher if you play it right is really easy to get kills. Someone shoots you? Blow them away. Only people really far away with snipers or something like that pose a threat. Otherwise its four really easy kills.

 

People always try to make all these arguments saying that players counter the Rocket Launcher all the time, like it's semi-common practice or anything. Sounds good in theory, but does that ever actually happen? It's an extreme rarity, those instances are very few and far between. If I don't see it playing 8,000 matches worth of Halo, then something's fishy with that argument, it clearly isn't that common going by those statistics. Someone in the shoutbox said it was around a 5:1 ratio. So if you're in a hallway and you walk up to someone with a Rocket Launcher, all you have is a DMR, is the person trying to tell me that you have a 20% chance of winning? Uh, more like 5% percent, and actually, that's being too generous, it's more like 2%.

 

People always use these arguments but they're only scratching the surface, it's like they don't even pay attention to what happens in the game. It doesn't matter what sounds good in theory when the game itself actually shows otherwise when its put to practice. People say, "Duhuhh, if yuu gud enuff you ken beet da rockets." But again, 8,000 matches worth of players? You're going to say EVERY single one of them are noobs? That's a pretty bold claim to make if you ask me. I think if the game was really like that, I'm sure it would've happened at least once out of the 8,000 matches. It's not even a 1:8000 ratio. The guy's saying it's a 1:5 ratio? Not even close. And it's not like I was decent at the game for the most part. I mean, there was about a 1-year period where I was pretty good at Halo 4 when I stopped playing (but that's not saying much, it's Halo 4), but the rest of my 5-year Halo experience? I sucked at the game, I was the absolute lowest. I had around a .45 KD ratio at that point. Why am I able to get a kill so easily then? It shows something is fundamentally broken with the game's design if you're at the absolute lowest of the skill gap, but you can still get 4 consecutive kills no problem without any effort required.  That's not even counting my time playing Halo 3 when I first started playing FPS in 2008. I JUST started playing shooters at that point! I was about 11 years old! Why was I able to get kills so easily? There's no excuse.